Random Fate

A poll for my regular readers

After working on the first blog-novella instigated by Christina at Feisty Repartee, I have discovered that for me to truly learn how to write fiction, I need external limitations imposed so that I can work within those limitations.

Oddly, the limitations free me in a way to finish what I start.

Perhaps one day I can impose those limitations upon myself, but until then, I will impose upon you, those who actually READ what I post here, to leave comments to help me decide what to write.

So, here's the deal:

I will put up a series of polls on what genre, theme, and other details for a fiction story that I will post in serial form here at Random Fate. I will do my very best to write and post something close to half a chapter a week. Through this I hope to both get the practice and the discipline necessary to write fiction that can actually be sold for money.

The first poll: What genre would you like my serial fiction on Random Fate to be? I will limit it to the areas I feel I can write within that do not require so much research that it would take me months to get a start.

So, choose from these genres (with examples):

hard science fiction (Arthur C. Clarke: 2001: A Space Odyssey)

science fantasy (George Lucas, et al.: Star Wars)

generic science fiction (Gene Roddenberry, et al.: Star Trek)

legendary fantasy (J.R.R. Tokien: The Lord of the Rings)

generic fantasy (any of the Dungeons and Dragons based books, the Robert Adams Horseclans books, the Thieves World compilations, a personal favorite for the early books of that series)

police procedural/detective fiction (it it ain't obvious to you, you won't know the references...)

alternate history (Harry Tutledove: The Guns of the South)

modern literary fiction (John Updike: any of the Garp novels)

historical fiction (none come to mind, but fiction set in events in actual history with no change of events, perhaps Ben Hur is the best example)

I will NOT try to write a Harlequin romance or something similar. I don't want to hone my skills using a bodice-ripper...

Nor will I enter the genre of the fanboy erotic science fantasy of the Gor series, not in public without a pseudonym anyway. If you don't know about those books, don't ask... It will take you to realms best not explored if you haven't already heard of them.

Leave your vote in the comments or by email. I'll post the results and the follow-up poll in a week, where I will ask about the theme of the work.

An important question

Tonight I am having for dinner a meal including one of my favorite dishes, something I have only been able to make after my parents sent me supplies from the US, because the ingredients are not easily available here in France.

As I prepare to eat, an very important question arises which if answered poorly could detrimentally affect the entire meal. This is a question that needs an answer before I start, a vital question.

What wine goes best with macaroni and cheese?

Quizzes

Since Boudicca took it upon herself to insist I take a quiz on music influences, here it is:

Your Taste in Music:

Classic Rock: Highest Influence

Progressive Rock: Highest Influence

80's Pop: High Influence

90's Alternative: High Influence

90's Pop: High Influence

90's Rock: Medium Influence

80's Alternative: Low Influence

80's R&B: Low Influence

80's Rock: Low Influence

90's R&B: Low Influence

As you can see, I'm a bit of a fan of older music (progressive rock has it's roots in the late '60s and early '70s) along with what is called classic rock, which is really just music I grew up with.

Since I was there, I took some of the other quizzes that have been making the rounds. First, here's how I speak:

Your Linguistic Profile:

60% General American English

30% Dixie

5% Upper Midwestern

5% Yankee

0% Midwestern

You can take the boy out of the South, but you can't take the South out of the boy (or at least out of his speech)?

American Cities That Best Fit You:

75% Denver

70% Portland

65% Seattle

60% Honolulu

60% Las Vegas

I've lived in Portland, visited Seattle often during that time, and I found both places quite nice. Denver came out on top because I insisted upon easy access to skiing, Honolulu because I wanted a beach.

Las Vegas? Damned if I know...

The unbearable lightness of being

A deliberately obscure message directed towards a few. Those for whom it is intended will understand. For the rest, think upon it a while, and feel free to comment or ask questions by email.

---

Not so long ago, a movie was released that had the title The Unbearable Lightness of Being, a story about seemingly lost souls caught up in the so-called Prague-Spring of 1968 and the subsequent Soviet invasion.

What does this title, even without the historical context, mean to you?

Think for a moment.

lightness - ephemeral

unbearable - refusal to accept

Perhaps tragic realization that in the end, we are nothing, resulting in an unbearable lightness of being?

Like the wind crying endlessly through the universe, Time carries away the names and the deeds of conquerors and commoners alike. And all that we are, all that remains, is in the memories of those who cared we came this way for a brief moment.
   -Harlan Ellison

Many in blogworld, aka "our thing", aka "the blogosphere" rant and rave, make pronouncements profound or profane, deep or petty, hateful or loving, poingient or pointless.

In the end, whether we get 20,000 hits a day or 20, what really matters?

Those who agree with what we say, or those who really truly cared that we came this way for a brief moment?

Regardless of the cold, hard logic of numbers, perspective matters more.

The soul matters.

Honor matters.

In the end, what else is there?

Technorati Tags: commentary, opinion, weblogs

Doing the math...

I have noticed that the vast majority of weblogs have been taking ideological stances rather than actually "doing the math," as I like to phrase it, on several important issues.

No surprise there, given what I have learned of the ultimate frailty of human nature over the past four decades.

Unfortunately, since I have day job AND a life, I've been unable to devote the time necessary to do the math for those who prefer knee-jerk reactions to actual THOUGHT.

I plan to make the time tomorrow or this weekend for those poor souls. If you want specific topics addressed, please leave a comment or send me an email.

Technorati Tags: commentary, opinion

More rage...

I feel a rage growing within me. An anger I do not welcome.

As I have posted before, I was once fueled by the fury, but now I fully understand the price paid for that ephemeral energy.

So, although provided with a seeming increase in vitality, I recognize the false promise in it and find it unwelcome.

Yet I need to vent this rage somehow.

Although tempting, trying to quench it with alcohol is a cure that is worse than the affliction.

Unfortunately, since the rage arises from the seemingly deliberate actions of others to ignore the precepts of logic and the weight of evidence, a simple release is inadequate in the long-term.

But I cannot stop caring about my country, a nation based upon impossible ideals that have somehow remained current, viable, and incredibly alive despite over two centuries of assault by the inevitable frailties of humanity that destroy all that is not venal or selfish.

How do I exorcise this demon, rid myself of the inexorable conclusion that perhaps the country I love does not deserve to survive because of the blindness displayed by the heirs of brilliance unknown before those in the New World in the late 18th Century showed the world what adherence to ideals could accomplish?

How do I keep hope alive?

I do not know the answer, I can only believe in what Abraham Lincoln said in a time that to me seems equally dark, "Where there is life, there is hope."

I can only hope.

Bloody Hell...

...I staged a happy hour for folks I work with this evening after work, and the waiter at the bar decides that this is the night to bring me a free glass of single-malt Scotch.

I had already had four on an empty stomach, so number five did a serious number on me.

One more post from me tonight, and that's it. That post will NOT be a thoughtful, insightful post, either.

Sorry... I'm reasonably intelligent and capable, but I do have limits, and I recognize when I have reached mine. Five generous measures of a strong single-malt on an empty stomach is more than even I can comfortably handle.

...on the endings of beginnings

Sluggy Freelance is an online comic strip I have enjoyed reading for several years, although some of the experimentation that the author, Peter Abrams, has indulged in recently is not quite as entertaining. Not that I begrudge him his attempts at stretching his creativity, but much of the fun factor is missing.

Pete himself has recognized this, and he now has a co-artist/author who is publishing one strip a week set during the "bikini suicide frisbee days." An example of the spirit of those early days of Sluggy Freelance can be found in this particular strip:

Read the following strips to find the pleasant chaos that made it fun.

The early days of Bloom County have a similar, quasi-anarchic and amicably subversive feel that is so hard to capture and so easily lost.

Some call it "jumping the shark" enshrining an infamous episode of the television sitcom Happy Days when Fonzie performed a motorcycle stunt a-la Evel Kenivel by jumping his bike over a shark tank.

Somehow, the fun goes away.

The endings of beginnings and the loss of innocence and naivete occurs with almost everything, not just comic strips and television shows.

Sometimes the end of the beginning is noticed at the time it happens, sometimes it is not recognized until well after the change in spirit has taken hold.

As with any loss of innocence there is a wistful longing for the pure, artless, fresh fun that is no more.

Another beginning has sadly ended; the "bikini suicide frisbee days" of blogging are over.

I suspect those carefree times ended with the election of 2004, when it became more important to post politics than silly quizzes, and it became more important to bash the infamous MSM instead of continuing to build a true community of strangers who became friends who had never met.

Where does it go from here?

That is up to us to decide.

Perhaps we should try to recapture some of the fun, some of the unaffected guilelessness, some shadow of the spirit of our bikini suicide frisbee days not so long departed, but already dearly missed.

Technorati Tags: weblogs

Notice - ISOU is temporarily offline

I have been asked by David Anderson of In Search of Utopia to announce that he is having some host-related problems and his blog will be offline for around 24 hours.

This ends the community service announcement. There is no need to be alarmed.

How I remember to keep perspective

I've posted this quote before, but it bears repeating:

Like the wind crying endlessly through the universe, Time carries away the names and the deeds of conquerors and commoners alike. And all that we are, all that remains, is in the memories of those who cared we came this way for a brief moment.
   -Harlan Ellison

What memories will you leave behind?

...on the wound that will not heal

On my bookshelf here in France is a book I brought with me when I first moved here from the US that I planned (and still plan) to read, The Fifty Year Wound: The True Price of America's Cold War Victory by Derek Leebaert.

I have not made time to read the book yet, but the title is very evocative of something I have long felt about the Cold War.

I lived through the latter part of that indirect combat, with all the fears of the cold, inexorable logic of MAD, Mutual Assured Destruction, giving my teenage hormone-heated dreams a nightmarish tinge, a fear of dying in a nuclear furnace before I had the chance to truly live.

Although the United States seemingly emerged intact from that conflict with no direct collision of the powers involved, a struggle by proxy with strange periods of seeming amity between the contestants, there was a price that was paid; a price not solely paid in the lives lost during the era, nor in the murders arising from the subsequent terrorist actions seeded by actions taken with no thought to a future with a change in the equilibrium of mutual destruction.

The price exacted was not only in lives, and not only in treasure, but also of the soul.

Those who lived in the era know; for those who did not, please ask those who did.

The old wound will not heal, for it was deep.

The difference between a moral man and a man of honor is that the latter regrets a discreditable act, even when it has worked and he has not been caught.
   -H. L. Mencken

From old wounds honor dies.

Look at those who claim to be worthy of being our leaders now.

Look at how they assert they have a unique insight into what is "moral".

Look at their actions, and their explanations that "I did nothing illegal."

Nothing illegal...

Moral men they are indeed.

.
.
.

And yet, we need men of honor if we are to survive and thrive.

Even accounting for political posturing, the two are far from the same.

In our fifty year wound, honor seems to have bled out along with the blood and treasure sacrificed.

An age of irony is no substitute.

But we will be crushed upon the anvil of irony, because an honorable man can no longer survive to become a leader...

But a moral man will, if he proclaims his morality loudly enough.

All things, good and bad, come to an end.

To what end is up to us.

Choose wisely when a moral man comes calling, for the men of honor have already been sacrificed.

Technorati Tags: commentary, opinion

Are the inmates running the asylum?

A lot of bad bills are introduced with each session of Congress, but is the situation now getting out of control?

Read about the so-called "Academic Freedom Bill of Rights" at Point Progression and decide yourself.

Do our members of Congress even bother to think at all about the repercussions of the bills they propose if they became law?

Some opinions on the EU Constitution and EU membership for Turkey

GRENOBLE, France - I have started a new custom here, a Friday happy hour after work. When I first suggested it, I was asked, "What are you celebrating?" My response, "the end of the week, the start of the weekend, and the fact that we're alive!" Odd, I had thought that since what I have seen in Europe how socializing is a big part of life, the custom of a post-work-week happy hour wouldn't be that foreign.

It goes to show we often don't know what we don't know and assume things we shouldn't.

Because of various circumstances, only one colleague could attend the happy hour with me this last week, an expatriate from Germany, Marcus. Marcus is an expatriate from his home country, as am I, but he is under a "local contract" and does not have a limited stay in France.

After the customary discussion of work related topics his girlfriend, a Frenchwoman, arrived and although it was my first meeting of Katherine (pronounced Ka-ter-een here in France), she greeted me in the French fashion between friends with the two kisses, one on each cheek. After the introductions and a last drink at the bar, they kindly invited me to join them for dinner at a nearby restaurant.

We had a typical French meal, slow, many courses, good wine, and much talk. What was interesting was when the discussion came upon the topic of the European Union, the upcoming vote in France on the EU constitution, and the possibility of Turkey joining the EU. The attitudes and arguments expressed by Marcus and Katherine could almost be said to typify many of those heard in their respective home countries.

Both Marcus and Katherine believe it is important to approve the EU constitution, but for different reasons. At the risk of sounding like a cliché, Marcus made the argument that it would help increase unity within the EU. Katherine stressed the importance of bringing together the different cultures, especially those of the recently joined nations in Eastern Europe.

In general, it seems that the young in Europe are in favor of the EU, Marcus being 35 and Katherine just turning 30 this last year. I have heard similar sentiments from other young adults here.

When it came to discussion of the prospect of Turkey joining the EU, disagreement arose, again along what could be described as representative of their respective nationalities. Both Katherine and Marcus had visited Turkey at different times. Katherine felt strongly that Turkey should join the EU both to help strengthen the EU along with to help spread "European ideals" to Turkey.

Marcus replied to Katherine that she had only visited the far Western portion of Turkey, the wealthiest section that little resembled the poor regions to the East. His contention was that Turkey was not a Christian nation, where the foundations of European culture are Christian.

A brief aside is necessary here, for when a European discusses "Christian nations" and "Christian cultures" they are not referring to what is thought when partisans in the US use these same terms. Similar to the different meanings that the words "liberal" and "conservative" have between Europe and the US, the terms "Christian nation" and "Christian culture" refer not to the creation or maintenance of a "Christian" or religious oriented culture, but instead alludes to the foundations upon which a common culture that can be labeled "European" has been built.

In other words, Marcus believes that the Muslim foundation of Turkey is not compatible with the culture of Europe, which is based upon a Christian foundation, despite now being mainly a secular society.

The discussion passed back and forth, with brief interjections from me on topics ranging from how the citizens of the US referred to the United States in the plural before the Civil War and in the singular after that traumatic transformation, to how the US was founded by cultural rejects from England who then created a culture that while "Christian" in foundation has less in common with the current European culture than it may have with other, more religious oriented cultures such as those in the Middle East.

The discussion always remained civil, and in refreshing contrast to what I have seen in the US, agreement was not required nor expected. Perhaps there are still things we can learn from Old Europe.

Technorati Tags: commentary, EU, European Union, opinion

Addition to the blogroll, Point Progression

There is another addition to my blogroll, Point Progression, a weblog that has brought more than one topic to my attention that I will be writing upon in the next few days.

Check it out.

I lean left?

In response to some email from today, and in support of my contention that what is perceived to be the "center" has moved to the right because of the rhetoric and other excesses of the zealots, I quote from The New Republic Online:

Conservatism isn't over. But it has rarely been as confused. Today's conservatives support limited government. But they believe the federal government can intervene in a state court's decisions in a single family's struggle over life and death. They believe in restraining government spending. But they have increased such spending by a mind-boggling 33 percent in a mere four years. They believe in self-reliance. But they have just passed the most expensive new entitlement since the heyday of Great Society liberalism: the Medicare prescription-drug benefit. They believe that foreign policy is about the pursuit of national interest and that the military should be used only to fight and win wars. Yet they have embarked on an extraordinarily ambitious program of military-led nation-building in the Middle East. They believe in states' rights, but they want to amend the Constitution to forbid any state from allowing civil marriage or equivalent civil unions for gay couples. They believe in free trade. But they have imposed tariffs on a number of industries, most famously steel. They believe in balanced budgets. But they have abandoned fiscal discipline and added a cool trillion dollars to the national debt in one presidential term.

One reason for conservatism's endurance in the face of such contradiction, of course, is the extreme weakness--intellectual and organizational--of the opposition. Liberalism ceased being a vibrant force in the American public weal two decades ago. The left never recovered from the collapse of communism, the dismal failure of social democracy across Western Europe, and the demise of Japan's command economy in the 1980s. Domestically, a liberal claim on the presidency never recovered from Jimmy Carter and the first two years of Bill Clinton. Conservatism, broadly understood, has occupied the White House for 23 of the past 25 years. No unreconstructed liberal stands a chance of winning it in the near future--hence Hillary Clinton's moderate makeover.

After reading the first paragraph, can you truly say my cries of "hypocrisy" are unfounded?

Think about it.

Then read the prescription at the end of the article:

But that is not the prime reason for standing up for the conservatism of doubt in a time of religious certainty. Imagine if the Rove formula is actually a successful one. Imagine a dominant political party devoted to expanding government as a means of moral revival, using national security to achieve a tiny democratic majority. The long connection between Republicanism and the expansion of individual freedom could be severely compromised. The attractiveness of a conservatism of doubt rests ultimately not on its ability to corral majorities. It rests on its central insight: that politics is not religion; that the U.S. guarantee of freedom is for all, not merely the majority; that political freedom must mean economic freedom, and that freedom is imperiled by fiscal recklessness; that there are worse things than doing nothing, especially if that "something" is the imposition of a divisive moral agenda.

There may come a reckoning for this political moment--and it may soon peak or deflate or be undone by its own hubris. Or it may not. What has to endure is not merely a reformed liberalism that can one day take government away from its current masters, but rather a conservatism that does not assent to its own corruption at the hands of zealots. This doesn't mean hostility to religion. It means keeping religion in its safest place--away from the trappings of power. And it means keeping politics in its safest place--as the proper arrangement of our common obligations, and not as a means to save or transform our lives and souls. If we are fighting such a conservatism of faith abroad--and that is the core of the war on Islamist terrorism--then why should it be so hard to confront it in much milder forms at home? This was, once upon a time, the central conservative calling. Why not again?

The right has lost its way, even more so than the left. Unfortunately, they are in power now, and they have the potential to wreak incredible damage.

I will not remain silent, even if I am accused of being on the "left" when instead the rhetoric has made anyone not firmly on one side or the other an apparent "traitor" depending upon the side shouting the accusation.

Just because the rest of the world has lost their minds does not mean I will succumb to the madness.

Sadness

I was reminded of something I wrote nearly a year ago by two bloggers who were participating in the latest meme: Name two classic blog posts that deserve to be read and remembered.

Christina at Feisty Repartee linked to a post of mine, and WitNit repeated the link.

In part, what I wrote in my post:

My father was diagnosed with bladder cancer only scant days before I was scheduled to fly to France for a three year expatriate assignment. My father insisted I go to France and not stay in the United States for his surgery or the post-surgery chemotherapy. I will never forget the crack I heard in my father's voice when I called him from France shortly before he went into surgery and told him, "Thank you, everything I am is because of you, and I love you." I could tell he was happy, proud, and afraid. How could I ever forget hearing that in my father's voice?

Since that time, my father has endured chemotherapy similar to that undergone by Lance Armstrong. While my father has tried to hide from me the difficulties that this therapy has caused him, when I talk with him on the phone I can hear in his voice the pain and exhaustion, and my mother has told me of the many problems that he has chosen to not discuss with me because he does not want to "worry" me.

---

Lance Armstrong displays publicly same inner strength my father is showing now, privately. Lance Armstrong is exhibiting to the world that same inner strength that my father is quietly camouflaging by saying that things are "not so bad", an inner strength that I am not present to admire and support because my father did not want me to "miss an opportunity" or "derail my life" because of him.

What my father does not understand (and although I have told him, I will not try to teach him) is that he has given me all of my opportunities, he has laid the rails upon which I live my life. I want to be there with him, but he would feel guilty if I changed my life because of him, not realizing that it is indeed what I want, and so I must instead watch from afar in fear and hope.

So for me Lance Armstrong is a symbol of my hope, the hope that my selfish desire of being on the same planet as my father is fulfilled for many, many years.

Fortunately for me, my father seems to be recovered, but it has only been a year since his surgery that removed his bladder and prostate, and less than a year since the end of his chemotherapy.

With cancer, every year is a gift, not a given.

What was particularly poignant for me today though is that I may be seeing the back of someone as they walk out of my life.

Human connections are tenuous at best, a thin web that can tear even despite the best efforts at preservation.

How can they ever endure over an ocean, sustained only by the movement of electrons over wires?

Yet each rent is just as painful a loss whether those who depart are geographically near or far.

Whether the departure is from death or merely a parting of ways because of divergent paths, the loss is still there, and the emptiness left behind is still keenly felt.

Some voids can never be filled.

Rage

Long ago, I was filled with rage.

I was angry, and I used that fury to give me energy, to power my soul.

Every injustice I saw, every wrong, every idiocy, they all fueled me and drove me on.

Then I discovered that the vigor I thought I was getting from the anger was illusory, and instead the fires of rage were consuming me from the inside.

When I unmasked that chimera, I resolved to not allow myself to be ruled by the heart, to not fall prey to the false promises of emotion or logic, but to strive for a balance between the two.

I have spent the last eight years struggling and seeking that equilibrium. At times I feel I have found it, but then something comes along to upset the balance and I suppress an extreme emotional reaction and struggle to prevent an overly-logic-oriented response.

As is acknowledged in philosophy originating in the orient, balance is key, but it is difficult to achieve.

Unfortunately, the philosophy from the occidental side of the world does not recognize balance, but instead strains for the ephemeral ecstacy of complete, total victory of one side over the other.

But...

We need to endure the cold black night to appreciate the warm rose in the dawn of a new day.

We need the grey dearth of winter to cherish the verdant green life restored in the spring.

We need the horrid example of evil to comprehend the sacrifice made to gain the good.

We need our pain and loss, because it defines us as who we are and helps us recognize the joy.

The elimination of one diminishes the other.

Total victory is not a gain; it is a loss.

Stop a moment, and think...

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.
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What if both sides are needed?

What if emotion is needed to counterweigh the cold cruelty of logic?

What if logic is needed to counteract the hot reactions of emotion?

What if BOTH the philosophies of liberal AND conservative are needed to form a fair and strong nation?

Yet BOTH sides persist in their so-called strategies that are aimed at total annihilation of the other.

I see this, and my rage grows.

A rage I recognize as destructive, but cannot be suppressed or ignored any longer.

I cannot remain numb to this.

The old tinder that fed the fires inside alight again, and I cannot smother them.

The intemperate rage returns, with the same consequences and costs.

The best I can hope for is that the firebreaks I construct can keep me from being totally consumed.

They who are so ready to label those who don't agree with them 100% as "idiotarian" do not recognize that same flaw of self-destructive idiocy in themselves.

Those who don't get it don't get that they don't get it.

Boys, get out your Balzac, because this has been noted before: Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.

And Orwell laughs, for he may have been wrong in the timing, but not in the result.

For want of a nail...

...the war was lost?

I don't want to minimize the crime committed here, but the headline from Foxnews.com seems to reek of hyperbole:

Witness: Akbar Attack Compromised Iraq War
Monday, April 25, 2005

FORT BRAGG, N.C. - A sergeant's attack on his own colleagues in the 101st Airborne Division in Kuwait sidelined key personnel the unit needed for its assignment in the invasion of Iraq, a commander testified Monday.

"Everybody knew this would be a big fight," Col. Ben Hodges testified Monday at a sentencing hearing for Sgt. Hasan Akbar, convicted in a grenade and rifle attack that killed two soldiers and wounded 14. "I never dreamed my first casualties would occur inside Camp Pennsylvania and they would be caused by one of my own soldiers."

Let's back the truck up here a minute.

This one "key personnel unit" was required to prevent a "compromise of the Iraq War"?

Eggs, solitary basket, bad idea...

Connect the dots.

I cannot believe that this one unit was required to properly conduct the Iraq War.

If we can't respond to this type of event, how can we expect to respond to the actions of the enemy?

Hyperbole, or a weakness in how we wage war?

You pays your money and you takes your pick.

So tell me, which is it?

Geese and gander? Kill 'em ALL!

I've had mixed feelings regarding the effort among the Republican leadership in the Senate to remove the option of filibuster with respect to judicial nominations with the reasoning that the President should have the judges (and other nominees) he picks without contention.

Then I recalled that the Democratic Party has blocked 10 nominees out of over 200.

In other words, less than 5% of the total.

Then, I think back to when Bill Clinton was President.

Did the Republican Party allow President Clinton a free pass when he nominated judges, cabinet members, or other appointed officials?

No.

So, according to the Republican Party, what was good for the goose is not good for the gander.

In other words, the Republican Party does NOT believe in our system of government.

Is that an extreme opinion?

Show me how it is not, given the Republican Party is NOT willing to play by the same rules they used against the Democrats when the Democrats held the Oval Office.

In other words, now that the Republicans are in power, they don't give a damn about the system, they just want to have their way, and they are willing kill BOTH the goose and the gander to get it.

I hate hypocrites, and the Republican Party is showing that they are filled with hypocrisy.

Non-random quotes of the political moment

Some thoughts in these days of changing long-held rules to fit the agenda of the party in power and rewriting recent history to avoid bad poll results:

Rogues are preferable to imbeciles because they sometimes take a rest.
   -Alexandre Dumas

Any event, once it has occurred, can be made to appear inevitable by a competent historian.
   -Lee Simonson

Politics is perhaps the only profession for which no preparation is thought necessary.
   -Robert Louis Stevenson

In great affairs men show themselves as they wish to be seen; in small things they show themselves as they are.
   -Nicholas Chamfort

Meme du jour

I was tagged by Boudicca, who says she is always curious about what is in my head.

Here is the description:

Immediately following there is a list of 24 different occupations. You must select at least 5 of them (feel free to select more). You may add more if you like to your list before you pass it on (after you select 5 of the items as it was passed to you). Each one begins with "If I could be..." Of the 5 you selected, you are to finish each phrase with what you would do as a member of that profession.

For example, if the selected occupation was "pirate" you might take the phrase "If I could be a pirate..." and add to it "I would sail the 7 Seas, dating lasses from around the world."

See how easy that is? Here's the list:

If I could be a scientist...
If I could be a farmer...
If I could be a musician...
If I could be a doctor...
If I could be a painter...
If I could be a gardener...
If I could be a missionary...
If I could be a chef...
If I could be an architect...
If I could be a linguist...
If I could be a psychologist...
If I could be a librarian...
If I could be an athlete...
If I could be a lawyer...
If I could be an innkeeper...
If I could be a professor...
If I could be a writer...
If I could be a llama-rider...
If I could be a bonnie pirate...
If I could be an astronaut...
If I were a dog...
If I were an inventor...
If I were a programmer...
If I were a genius...

Not so easy for me. I am a scientist and an inventor; it's what I'm paid for. I have been a writer (as in paid to write a book, it went out of print about 10 years ago, but it's still listed in the Library of Congress), and I still write papers that are published in technical journals. I'm now working on trying to write other stuff that I'll be paid for. I taught a class at a local university here in France, and the French use the word professeur for any kind of teacher. I probably shouldn't pick that one, either.

So...

I need five out of the list now that it has been shortened. No fair!

Well, to start, if I could be a linguist... I'd speak French a Hell of a lot better than I do now after living in France for a year. They have an expression here that French is "best learned on the pillow." Aside from any other considerations that prevent me from taking that route, relations between people are difficult enough even speaking the same language fluently!

If I were a programmer... I'd bathe a LOT more frequently than the intense programmers I've known, and I'd certainly make sure I developed social skills to go with the computer skills.

If I could be an architect... I'd take advantage of all the really interesting structures that modern construction techniques and materials allow, but I would make sure that I incorporated much of the beauty and aesthetics that were once routinely a part of any building. Too much pure functionality or cold reflection of modern life has been bad for our souls, along with making a lot of ugly buildings.

If I could be an astronaut... I'd stand up and make speeches about how we have lost our nerve, our willingness to take risks to explore. People die in breaking new ground, and we need to keep making that sacrifice else we will wither away while examining our navels. Then I'd make damn sure I was the first person to stand outside on Mars.

If I could be a musician... I'd try to write songs that express the beauty I see in people, and the sadness I feel when I see some people leave.

If I could be an innkeeper... I'd open up a bed and breakfast on the grounds of a winery where I'd make damn good wine. (This is the retirement plan, by the way...)

Some that weren't on the list:

If I could be a cartoonist... I'd try to draw and write a comic strip that captured the spirit of the early Bloom County mixed with Calvin and Hobbes. That would be good.

If I could be a sculptor... I would like to be able to sculpt what I see, especially in women. What I see isn't part of the physical world, but can be partially captured by a great artist. Ah, well, at least I am not too clumsy to type.

I may pass it on, but for now, I have too many things to do and not enough time.

I always wondered about that...

Perhaps this merits a caption contest?

My suggestion, from the first (i.e. 1977) Star Wars movie:

Aren't you a little short for an Imperial Stormtrooper?
   -Princess Lea

Scattershot random quotes of the moment

A learning experience is one of those things that says, "You know that thing you just did? Don't do that."
   -Douglas Adams

The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds; and the pessimist fears this is true.
   -James Branch Cabell

If anything can survive the probe of humour it is clearly of value, and conversely all groups who claim immunity from laughter are claiming special privileges which should not be granted.
   -Eric Idle

Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads.
   -Unknown

Knowledge is power.
Power corrupts.
Study hard. Be evil.
   -Unknown

We have done worse

From graffiti in Ecuador, where there is a political crisis involving their President:

SpongeBob for President!!

I think it's an idea whose time has come!

Anyone want to help make a logo?

A quote on morality

Immorality: the morality of those who are having a better time.
   -H. L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)

Another issue, even less time, in this instance on the pharmacists refusing to fill prescriptions

Something else that has been sapping my writing time, an ongoing comment stream at Pennywit.com discussing the rights of pharmacists to deny dispensing drugs versus the right of the patient to receive those drugs, namely birth control medication.

I've devoted far too many words to the weblog of another on this, so the least YOU can do is go read what I wrote there if you're interested in my views.

Finite time, infinite issues

Some days, especially after I write a post that required a lot of work, there are just too many things to write about.

So instead today I will post a list of links to things I would post about if I had infinite time and energy. You can draw what conclusions you will, but there is indeed a common thread to these.

Moussaoui: a window on terror trials
Suspect is scheduled to plead guilty Friday in a bizarre case raising questions about how justice system handles terrorism.

Soft vs. hard energy path: the political lines harden
House was set to pass a bill Thursday that supporters say will boost supplies, but critics worry about smog and ANWR.

The flat-tax revolution
Fine in theory, but it will never happen. Oh really?

Santorum reads nuke polls, applies the brakes
Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), a leading advocate of the "nuclear option" to end the Democrats' filibuster of judicial nominees, is privately arguing for a delay in the face of adverse internal party polls.

Taxing Experience
While the Moose is not an economist nor does he play one on the Internet, you don't need to be a Nobel Laureate to realize that there may be some hard times ahead

How Germans Fell for the 'Feel-Good' Fuehrer
Hitler not only fattened his adoring "Volk" with jobs and low taxes, he also fed his war machine through robbery and murder, says a German historian in a stunning new book. Far from considering Nazism oppressive, most Germans thought of it as warm-hearted, asserts Goetz Aly. The book is generating significant buzz in Germany and it may mark the beginning of a new level of Holocaust discourse.

War memories blur 60 years after
The 60th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe is being marked not just with commemorations - in Russia there are moves to rehabilitate Stalin and in Germany a debate has developed about how far Germans were victims as well as perpetrators.

Diebold Misled State Voting Officials
Formerly secret documents obtained by EPIC from Ohio reveal that Diebold misled state officials about the capability of its voting machines. Diebold claimed that its machines would last at least 20 years.

Smile. You're on candid cop camera.
In that most representative of public assemblies - the bustling House chamber of the New Hampshire State House - there's an old rebellious notion: In matters of personal responsibility, don't always err on the side of safety. After all, it's the only state not to require that adults wear seat belts.

Rove's Reading: Not So Liberal as Leery
Similarly, Rove attested that "most people I know on both sides of the aisle actually believe in the positions they take," and he proposed a rule: "Unless you have clear evidence to the contrary, commentators should answer arguments instead of impugning the motives of those with whom they disagree." But he did not square that with a White House that routinely challenges the motives of those who question Bush, calling them "partisan" and "petty.

Panel Delays Vote on Bolton Nomination to U.N.
"You have some Democrats who continue to raise unfounded allegations," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan. "Bolton testified for more than eight hours before the committee, responded to many follow-up questions in writing. . . . And we are happy to address any [other] questions the committee members might have. We look forward to him being confirmed and believe he will be."

I will leave it to the reader to find the common pattern in the white noise here.

Feel free to comment on what you see as the pattern.

An appropriate resolution using the court system

From CNet News.com:

Yahoo releases e-mail of deceased marine
Published: April 21, 2005, 12:39 PM PDT By Stefanie Olsen Staff Writer, CNET News.com

Complying with a court order, Yahoo agreed to give the family of a U.S. Marine killed in Iraq access to the soldier's e-mail.

On Wednesday, an Oakland County probate court in Michigan ordered Yahoo to give the contents of the e-mail account to the father of Justin Ellsworth, 20, who was killed in November by a roadside bomb in Falluja.

Yahoo complied with the mandate Thursday, despite the company's policy of not giving e-mail passwords to anyone other than the account holder.

"We are pleased the court resolved this matter," said Yahoo spokeswoman Mary Osako.

The case highlights uncertainty about the privacy of people's digital life in the event of their death, and about the responsibilities Internet service providers have toward family members.

Experts say there has yet to be a definitive court ruling on the status of e-mail as to whether it is an extension of the deceased's estate at the time of his or her passing. But, they say, it would stand to reason that e-mail account information and the data within the account would be treated equally to other possessions.

"If an ISP's terms of service run contrary to what would seem to be a reasonable holding by a probate court, then you would need to have a hearing to find which position would win out--whether the public interest is better served by releasing personal data or by upholding a privacy holding in an ISP's terms of service," said Ray Everett Church, principal for privacy consultancy PrivacyClue.

Still, privacy experts say ISPs are within their rights to ask the courts to make such a ruling. "If it turned out some shenanigans were going on, Yahoo would be in breach of its own privacy policy," Church said.

Some e-mail providers, such as America Online, allow next-of-kin to access e-mail accounts of the deceased by submitting documents proving the relationship and by faxing a copy of the death certificate. AOL does not require loved ones to go through the courts.

Yahoo's terms of service prohibit the company from disclosing private e-mail communications. Yahoo will turn over an account to family members only after they go through the courts to verify their identity and relationship to the deceased.

Despite its compliance in the case, Yahoo said it will not reverse its company policy, choosing instead to honor the privacy of account holders.

Yahoo delivered to Ellsworth's father, John Ellsworth, a CD of more than 10,000 pages, according to a spokeswoman. The company also plans to provide him with printouts of the communications early next week.

John Ellsworth could not be reached for comment Thursday. But in an interview with Detroit radio station WJR, he credited Yahoo for acting quickly and responsibly once the legal issues were settled, including helping him decrypt the information on the CD.

"I do appreciate Yahoo's take on this, and I'm glad we were able to come to an agreement," he said.

CNET News.com's Jim Hu contributed to this report.

Some issues must be adjudicated by the court system.

Far more often than not, the appropriate judgment is rendered.

Unfortunately, the extremists focus on the controversy, feeding on the sound and fury generated, advancing their radical and often nihilistic agenda that leads to fascism.

Perhaps we should tell them to STFU. If it works 99% of the time, it functions better than most things that the human race has made.

Hibernation inherent in all mammals?

There has been a development in biology I never expected. From MSNBC.com:

Scientists develop "hibernation on demand"
Technique could be used in hospitals to reduce fevers or buy time for organ transplants, researchers say

By Robert Roy Britt
Senior writer
Updated: 2:20 p.m. ET April 21, 2005

A new trick could one day put humans into hibernation without all the frigid antics of an Austin Powers movie or an Arthur C. Clarke story.

Using a natural chemical that humans and other animals produce in their bodies, scientists have for the first time induced hibernation in mammals, putting mice into a state similar to suspended animation for up to six hours and then bringing them back to normal life.

The breakthrough suggests that humans along with other mammals might harbor a mostly unused ability to hibernate on demand. Further research into the phenomenon could lead to medical advances, such as buying time for humans awaiting an organ transplant, scientists said.

"We are, in essence, temporarily converting mice from warm-blooded to cold-blooded creatures, which is exactly the same thing that happens naturally when mammals hibernate," said lead researcher Mark Roth of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.

During the induced hibernation, cells virtually stopped working, reducing the rodents' need for oxygen.

"We think this may be a latent ability that all mammals have - potentially even humans - and we're just harnessing it and turning it on and off, inducing a state of hibernation on demand," Roth said.

The results are detailed in Friday's issue of the journal Science.

I'll think about the implications of this for a while and post on it later.

I truly hope this isn't something that ends up being found to be impractical in the end.

If we can truly induce hibernation, this could be huge.

Holy cow!!!

More later.

Family values?

From Fox News:

16 Breast-Feed in Protest at Public Meeting
Thursday, April 21, 2005 Associated Press

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. - A city commission candidate was criticized for breast-feeding her daughter during a public meeting, so 16 other mothers turned up and nursed their children at another gathering as a show of support.

Gabrielle Redfern apologized for offending anyone, but says she won't stop breast-feeding her child when necessary. She had been criticized by some for breast-feeding her 1-year-old daughter, Elsie, during Mayor David Dermer's recent State of the City address.

"Elsie's been coming to public meetings since she was 2 weeks old," said Redfern, who is in her first bid for public office. "I shouldn't have to choose between being a publicly involved citizen and being a good mother."

On Wednesday, 16 women held a "nurse-in" in support of Redfern, breast-feeding their babies at a Miami Beach Commission meeting.

"How is she supposed to raise her child and have a career if she isn't allowed to breast-feed her child when she attends meetings?" said Ellen Sandoval, who came to show her support. "I quit working because I didn't know or have the courage to do what she is doing."

State law says a woman can breast-feed her child anywhere she is otherwise legally allowed to be.

But even in a city where topless sunbathing is common, others say there should be limits.

"I think it's a beautiful and natural thing, but there's a time and a place for it," said Joe Fontana, who regularly attends community meetings. "It's distracting. Why inside? Why not step outside to do it?"

Question: If you claim to believe in "family values" and say "it's a beautiful and natural thing" then why is it so tremendously distracting?

I'm a normal, healthy, fully heterosexual male, and I am not distracted by it (full disclosure, I like and enjoy seeing ALL parts of women, not just one particular part like "legs guys" or other categories I will leave to the reader to imagine).

Perhaps there is some other reason; one best dealt with by Freud?

At least try to be philosophically consistent, if you're going to say you promote "family values"...

Trapped in a Prisoner's Dilemma with fools playing a zero-sum game

The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly, is to fill the world with fools.
   -Herbert Spencer

Have you heard of the phrase "zero-sum game" before?

It is likely you have, but perhaps you do not know the origin of the terminology.

It arises out of game theory, which is the study of human interactions through the use of what the mathematicians like to call formalized incentive structures but what the rest of us would call games.

A zero-sum game is one where the gains from winning exactly offset the losses in losing. In other words, there is no net gain or loss, the sum is zero. The vast majority of sports are zero-sum games, where there is a winner and a loser. Generally, the team with the most wins advances towards the championship. Poker is another zero-sum game, where if played long enough, the winner walks away with all the cash, and the other players have completely lost the stake they brought to the game.

People in Western cultures generally think of life in terms of zero-sums: I win, you lose.

Given that prevalent mode of thought, it is unfortunate for us that the world does not operate according to the principles of a zero-sum game. More often than not, situations arise where there is a win-lose, lose-win, or win-win scenario possible.

With surprising frequency, real life follows the Prisoner's Dilemma. From the classic description of the Dilemma:

Two suspects are arrested by the police. The police have insufficient evidence for a conviction, and having separated both prisoners, visit each of them and offer the same deal: if one confesses and the other remains silent, the silent accomplice receives the full 10-year sentence and the confessor goes free. If both stay silent, the police can only give both prisoners 6 months for a minor charge. If both confess, they receive a 2 year sentence each.

In other words, if both cooperate, both suffer, but the sum total loss is less than if one cooperates and one defects, or if both defect.

Now, take a moment and think. For a society such as that in the United States, can anyone who is rational enough to comprehend that they themselves do not hold all the answers truly say that total destruction of those who think differently is a Good Thing?

Expend the brief time needed to fully comprehend the implications.

While you think, consider this example of a non-zero-sum situation, from the Wikipedia article on the Prisoner's Dilemma, a timely illustration given the recent announcement by 6-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong:

Another interesting example concerns a well-known concept in cycling races, for instance in the Tour de France. Consider two cyclists halfway in a race, with the peloton (larger group) at great distance. The two cyclists often work together (mutual cooperation) by sharing the tough load of the front position, where there is no shelter from the wind. If neither of the cyclists makes an effort to stay ahead, the peloton will soon catch up (mutual defection). An often-seen scenario is one cyclist doing the hard work alone (cooperating), keeping the two ahead of the peloton. In the end, this will likely lead to a victory for the second cyclist (defecting) who has an easy ride in the first rider's slipstream.

To further illustrate the true extent of the Dilemma, another example:

In political science, for instance, the PD (Prisoner's Dilemma) scenario is often used to illustrate the problem of two states engaged in an arms race. Both will reason that they have two options, either to increase military expenditure or to make an agreement to reduce weapons. Neither state can be certain that the other one will keep to such an agreement; therefore, they both incline towards military expansion. The irony is that both states seem to act rationally, but the result is completely irrational.

In the Prisoner's Dilemma, the small price paid by each individual for cooperation in the long run results in the lowest price paid by ALL.

Defecting, if the other party cooperates, gains the defector a clear victory with no price paid by the victor, but the cooperator loses much.

Mutual defection costs both parties more than the sum of the prices paid by each party if both cooperate.

Mutual cooperation results in the least total cost.

In a society, can one say that a large loss by any significant fraction of the society actually ADDS to the benefit of society as a WHOLE, if one wishes to adhere to a fundamental morality and avoid the "final solution" path that was shown to be so despicable?

Think about this for a moment.

Now, think about the recent history of the United States, as recent as the Reagan era or the first President Bush, or even the early Clinton era, where liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans, actually cooperated and negotiated compromises to fashion laws, recognizing there is a larger responsibility than having one wing or the other gain complete and total victory, destroying the other wing.

Next, think about the current events in the United States.

Think about the tactics used by President George W. Bush, where he says he wants to cooperate, but in the end settles for nothing less than his original positions.

Think about the tactics used by the majority Republican Party in the conference committees meant to resolve differences in bills passed in the two houses of Congress that exclude any ideas from the minority party, the Democratic Party.

Then, read and think upon this:

The old aphorism, "Is this any way to run a railroad?" seems to apply here.

BOTH parties, BOTH wings, have reverted to zero-sum tactics in a non-zero-sum game.

We are all trapped in a Prisoner's Dilemma with fools playing a zero-sum game.

As I have said repeatedly, we ALL have to live together, or balkanize and become as weak as the nation-states in that tragic region.

Which do you prefer, living together in an admittedly uneasy compromise, or the aptly acronymed MAD of Mutual Assured Destruction?

More importantly, which do you feel is the true heritage given to us by our Founders, who created the concept of a bicameral legislature in a compromise between the concerns of large states versus small states?

Who did YOU vote for in the last election?

Did they use the rhetoric of the zero-sum-game?

Are they now acting exactly as their rhetoric promised?

Are you satisfied with that result?

Who is ultimately responsible?

In the United States, for now, YOU, the voter are responsible.

Recalling the words of the most intelligent of the Founders when asked after the Constitutional Convention whether the American people had a republic or a monarchy, the reply:

A republic if you can keep it.
   -Benjamin Franklin

Keeping it requires more than sending our soldiers off to die as strangers in a strange land.

Keeping it requires a moral courage to not react according to the gut, and the tenacity to wade through the bullshit to find the RIGHT people to represent us.

Are you willing to show that moral courage and tenacity?

Quasi-random quotes of the moment

Character, or the lack thereof, is revealed in how someone with power treats someone without power and without the capacity to retaliate.
   -Mark Shields

Be not ashamed of mistakes and thus make them crimes.
   -Confucius (551 BC - 479 BC)

There are two types of people--those who come into a room and say, 'Well, here I am!' and those who come in and say, 'Ah, there you are.'
   -Frederick L Collins

There is nothing worse than aggressive stupidity.
   -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832)

Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.
   -Voltaire

We live in a Newtonian world of Einsteinian physics ruled by Frankenstein logic.
   -David Russell

France and the EU - more notes from a stranger in the strange land

You can find my first post on the upcoming referendum in France on the EU constitution at The Moderate Voice.

GRENOBLE, France - Although I am a part of a three-company alliance in the semiconductor industry, the primary aim of that alliance is more on the development and manufacturing side rather than on the research side where I work. Hence, primarily people from the French component of the alliance surround me.

Today, I was able to spend some time discussing the referendum on the EU constitution that will be held here in France next month with a young man (he is 24) in the office who works as a contractor, writing software to model the results of the research. It was a conversation held in both French and English. We regularly talk to each other using the two languages, he helps me with my French and I help him with his English.

He is probably about as politically aware as the average French citizen, and he is remarkably humble and gentil (how the French say "kind," but more accurately if not the French-English dictionary definition, gentlemanly), especially for a 24-year-old.

He plans to vote "oui" on the EU constitution, but he fears that the referendum will result in a defeat for acceptance. He feels it is important that France is a part of the larger European community and culture.

Repeatedly shaking his head as he spoke, he described what he felt was a common sentiment, best vote "non!" out of fear of losing control over the social benefits provided by the French government for unemployment, health care, retirement, and all the other "social" programs as he described them.

As we talked, he revealed his annoyance that there are people in France who abuse the system of social benefits, never having to work yet receiving money from the government, sounding remarkably like what is described in the US as "right-wing", although I continually have to remember that in politics here the words liberal, left, conservative, and right ALL have different meanings than I am accustomed to.

When I asked him about the appearance of French President Jacques Chirac on television last week, he again shook his head and said that he felt Chirac did not make a good showing and had made several poor responses to the "young people" who questioned him and, remarkably in my friend's eyes, interrupted the President.

My friend discussed the larger implications of how if one of the "big two" in Europe, France and Germany, rejected the EU constitution, it could be a fatal blow to the continuance of the EU. What was interesting to me while we talked was the impression I received that he had arrived at this conclusion on his own; he was not parroting something he had read or heard.

He also said that despite his view that France needed to be a part of a larger Europe, many of his fellows felt that France had to pay too much in supporting less wealthy nations in the EU such as Spain, Portugal, and the recently joined nations of Eastern Europe. Describing a zero-sum game, he said that the wealthy nations had to be pulled down in order to raise up the poor nations. When I said it was better to pull the poor nations up to the level the wealthy now had, he agreed that was a better solution, but extremely difficult to achieve.

Then we began to talk about the differences between Europe and the US. I brought up the point that in Europe, within the individual nations, there was in general an agreement upon the role of government. For example, in France, there is no discussion about the propriety of government being involved in providing health care or retirement benefits to the population, the main debate is on how to raise the money to pay for these government provided services.

Despite the language barriers (he and I both speak the other's language equally well, or rather, equally poorly) needed to be overcome to describe complex issues and ideas, I explained to him how the debate in the US tends to be over the more fundamental question of how much government involvement should exist in these areas, he seemed taken aback. Once I explained the historical basis for the suspicion towards government in the Founding Fathers who wrote our Constitution, he said that their reaction at the time made sense, but he said that he still felt that acting as a larger society was better than the focus on the individual as promoted by certain groups in the US.

Even after discussing the history of the referendum in France for acceptance of the common European currency held over a decade ago, a vote that appeared to be against the government of the time and the common currency until the last votes were counted, he was still pessimistic regarding the possibility of an assenting outcome in France for the EU constitution.

I told him of a statement by a famous American wise fool, Yogi Berra, "It ain't over 'till it's over," and we were both able to return to our work with smiles, if not an excess of hope.

The forgotten man behind the iconic image

From The Guardian newspaper, Tuesday 19 April 1955:

We much regret to announce the death at Princeton, New Jersey, yesterday of Dr Albert Einstein. He was 76. Dr Einstein had entered hospital on Friday for treatment of arterio-sclerosis.

A Record of Goodness
David Mitrany

Even a layman can tell what made Albert Einstein famous as a scientist. But what was the secret of his truly amazing fame as a man - and fame is not the right word. For it was not anything like the gaping of the humble at some awe-inspiring oracle, or like the cheering of some mighty personage by an excited anonymous crowd. Rather it was something quite simple and human, a genuine personal affection by many thousands for someone they never knew or were likely to know personally. They may have heard that he was a great man, but somehow they seemed to know that he was a good man.

---

And of course he was utterly uncompromising when it was a matter of scientific truth - uncompromising above all with himself. I used to tease him with the suggestion that he had chosen me as a walking companion because I had no mathematics at all and so he was safe from prying questions, but in fact now and then he did used to tell me about what he was doing - and how clear and simple it all seemed when he spoke! On a such an occasion, in 1937 or 1938, he told me in some excitement that he thought he had found the key to unified field theory, but some six months later during a walk he said quietly that calculations had proved his hypothesis to be all wrong. "What are you going to do now?" "I am going to publish it." "But why if it is wrong?" "Why! To save perhaps another fool from wasting six months on the same idea?"

It so happened that I was spending the evening at his house some two years ago, after the death of Dr Weizmann, when a telegram arrived from the Israeli Ambassador in Washington asking to be received on the following day - we knew what it meant, as there had been a rumour that Mr Einstein would be offered the Presidency of Israel. Mr Einstein was obviously greatly moved, but after a brief conference he insisted on telephoning himself to the Ambassador at once, for his main and urgent thought was how to spare the Ambassador the embarrassment of his inevitable refusal.

He was in all circumstances endlessly considerate for the position and problems of others. And with all this it is still difficult to say what made him so beloved, so simply accepted on trust, by an endless number of people everywhere. One can only say that it is itself a tribute to the decency of the mass of the people everywhere who recognised and loved goodness in a man above all other things.

There was a man behind those deep set eyes, beneath that wild corona of uncombed hair.

We often forget the humanity underlying our icons.

Relevant song lyric of the moment

Well I'm standing by a river
But the water doesn't flow
It boils with every poison you can think of

And I'm underneath the streetlight
But the light of joy I know
Scared beyond belief way down in the shadows

And the perverted fear of violence
Chokes the smile on every face
And common sense is ringing out the bell

This ain't no technological breakdown
Oh no, this is the road to hell

   -Chris Rea, The Road to Hell (part II)

Raw material prices - it's not all about oil

From an editorial at Financial Sense Online published January 14, 2005:

Since our last update, some metals prices - gold and silver in particular - have been off, but some others keep pushing ahead. Last month we mentioned the stunning rise in the price of molybdenum. It was then trading for $32 per pound, up 1,262 percent in three years. But "Moly" traded last week at $35 per pound.

Another example of a metal that continues straight up is selenium. That's one of those toxic metals that can be so plentiful at times that it becomes hazardous waste. It is then a disposal problem for the mines that produce it as a by-product. Last week, however, selenium saw a high of $50.00 per pound. It averaged $2.76 in 1999. Also, and to a somewhat lesser extent, we are experiencing dramatic price rises for tellurium, and tungsten.

While these metals have demonstrated continuing, even frenzied price rises, most all metals have been very much higher in the last couple of years. Still, current prices do not reflect anything much other than the early days of an unfolding bull market with years of "legs" on it. Demand for many raw materials continues to rise, and suppliers are years from being able to catch up, if ever. That means rising prices will continue into the foreseeable future.

Oil is not the only consumable raw material where the price has risen steeply in the past several months.

Why is this important?

Multiple reasons, not the least of which are two of the origins of the price increases.

One is the decline in the value of the dollar. In the current world economy, the dollar has lost absolute hegemony, so when the dollar declines, prices for raw materials no longer stay constant in dollar terms. Instead the prices rise.

Yet, it appears that US economic policy regarding the value of the dollar is still based upon the dollar having economic hegemony. Is this wise?

A second reason prompts even more troubling questions. Again quoting from the January 14, 2005 editorial at Financial Sense Online:

The overriding influences here are related to the stunning growth being experienced by China and India, though that is not obvious to many observers. They are replacing the United States as the largest consumers of natural resources, and, while this is happening, industrial commodities are in higher demand than can be supplied, with many types of materials reaching or exceeding "peak" production in planetary term. Therefore, we have to expect that there are not enough raw materials available to feed Asia's growth without also taking something away from the formerly dominate producing/consuming nations who can no longer compete as effectively for markets and resources.

The demand for oil in China was one of the factors that analysts attributed the recent instabilities and price rises in the petroleum markets.

One can argue that China and India replacing the United States as the largest consumer of natural resources merely reflects the shift in the US economy from manufacturing to services. However, that view may be too sanguine.

The major powers of Europe were blindsided by the rise of the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The new power wasn't taken seriously until World War I, and even then the "Great Powers" of Europe did not see their own decline in relative terms.

Are we being blind to the rise of new powers in the late 20th and early 21st centuries?

---

Thanks to Barb at Righty in a lefty state for providing the link to the Financial Sense Online editorial.

A fine line indeed

Correct me if I'm wrong, but hasn't the fine line between sanity and madness gotten finer?
   -George Price

Another downside to globalization

Prices for tungsten have significantly increased in the past several months.

Why is this important?

Tungsten is used in everything from semiconductor computer chips (I know personally about that) to hardening drill bits used to fabricate everything from cars to ships to tanks to anything else built out of steel.

It could reasonably be categorized as a "strategic material".

Why has the price risen?

From an article from The Economist magazine.

It hardens anything from saw blades to turbine blades. It goes into light bulbs and weaponry. America's government has a stockpile that could meet all that country's demand for the next three years. It is tungsten, and its price has gone crazy. Why? China controls 85% of world output, uses maybe 35-40% of it—and as demand has risen, has taken steps that cut supply.

Inside China, prices rose sharply last year, by some 70% for the concentrate that leaves the mine. But this year they have rocketed. As 2005 began, exporters were offering APT—ammonium paratungstate, a “downstream” compound about 80% made up of the metal—at around $9,000 a tonne; last week, $19,000; this week, nearly $22,000.

China's own demand, up by 20-30% last year, was one reason. Others, says Philippe Lavagna, at Specialty Metals in Brussels, were more unusual. China's government has been trying for years to close down the many small, illegal mines. Last year it got tough, blocking deliveries of mining explosives to them. Most of them shut. On top came electricity shortages, hitting large mines too. Meanwhile, China Minmetals, a giant state company, took over one of the biggest producers in Jiangxi province.

The resultant Jiangxi Tungsten has done much to “stabilise” the market, says one of its executives. Really? According to its own figures, in 2004 other Chinese miners raised output by 17% but Jiangxi only by a bit under 5%. Some small miners began to stockpile and, ignoring contracts, refused to supply Chinese processors except at higher prices. And the export quota set by the government was actually cut.

Russia apart, the world has few other potential sources: a large Canadian mine, closed in December 2003 because its customers went off to buy cheaper elsewhere; a smaller Tasmanian one, also idle; one in Portugal; and a few tiny mines here and there. A big opencast mine in Vietnam planned by another Canadian company is likely to come on stream only in late 2007.

Then ask yourself, what are the larger implications of China having control over such a large percentage of the world output of this metal?

If you can keep it

When asked at the close of the Constitutional Convention in 1787 when Ben Franklin was asked whether the American people had a republic or a monarchy, the reply:

A republic if you can keep it.
   -Benjamin Franklin

Are we keeping it?

In light of recent developments...

...this quote seems appropriate:

The trouble with born-again Christians is that they are an even bigger pain the second time around.
   -Herb Caen

Bill Frist Veers His Party Into New Dangerous Theocratic Waters

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is not only apparently planning to use the nuclear option to ban the use of the filibuster in opposing judicial nominations, but he is now getting ready to join forces with folks who will be contending that Democrats are "faithless" for daring to oppose President George Bush's judicial nominees. Is the U.S. on the edge of a new era of theocratic McCarthyism?

The Case For A Latin Pope?

For years it was assumed that the "next Pope" would be Italian. And then, in recent times, Pope John Paul II broke that mold.

And, now, some are hoping the mold will be broken again....only this time by picking a choice outside of Europe. The Christian Science Monitor reports:

The cardinals don't gather in the Sistine Chapel to select a successor to Pope John Paul II until Monday, but Ana Virginia Echeverria says she doesn't need to wait for a puff of white smoke to know what's in store.

"It's Latin America's time," says Ms. Echeverria, perched in the front pew of Iglesia Santa Lucia, an 18-century church here in Honduras. A member of the church band, she tunes her guitar, strumming an F-sharp chord, and adds, "I feel it in my knee."

And others feel it elsewhere: it COULD happen. Prominent Italian names are being tossed about, but there's increasing talk that the Powers That Be (on earth that is) are looking into other options as well. The CSM again:

For many Latin American Catholics, it is indeed their time. As many as 450 million of the world's 1.1 billion Catholics live in Latin America, leading many here to say that the next pope should - and will - be one of them. But their preference is about more than sheer numbers. While the top issues in the US and European Catholic communities are things like homosexuality, abortion, euthanasia, and the sex-abuse scandal, Latin Catholics are focused on poverty, corruption, gangs, and drugs - not to mention the competition for believers with successful evangelical churches. In Africa, disease, war, famine, and the spread of Islam can be added to that list of concerns.

There is a growing clamor for a different kind of pope, says the Rev. Jose Jesus Mora, spokesman for the diocese in the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa. The next pontiff, he says, should not only understand the issues that affect most Catholics today, but come from among them.

"Some of the European cardinals visit and empathize," says Father Mora. "But more often they fly in and out for a ceremony, if they come at all. They are not truly familiar with us and our villages of the faithful."

Indeed, as the church moves into the 21st Century it brings to the end the reign of a foward-looking Pope who symbolically and literally helped the church reach beyond its Italian headquarters. So why not reach out to Latin America (or elsewhere) now?

"The future of the Catholic Church is in the southern hemisphere," agrees David Carrasco, professor of Latin American studies at Harvard Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass. "And if the new pope does not come from that future, then the church will continue to lose ground to movements and churches that speak to the long, unrelenting agony of many types of colonialism."

Pope John Paul II's selection was a surprise nearly 30 years ago. More surprises could be in store this time.......

The Passion of The Commissar

I have friends in town (a rare occurrence when you live in a different continent than the vast majority of your friends), and I had asked a prominent blogger, Joe Gandelman of The Moderate Voice to guest-post while I focused on more important things.

However, despite the late hour in my time zone...

Someone who I respect immensely, although he is farther to the right on the political spectrum than I am, is under attack from those who prefer to say that their opinion is more important than his in the matter of "creation science" versus "evolution".

The Commissar of The Politburo Diktat, a right-leaning blogger (some would call him moderate-right to far-right-wing, I prefer the term right-leaning) has been pointing out the hypocrisy of Paul at Wizbang, not only on the subject of evolution, but also upon Paul's deletion of comments and trackbacks that do not align with his view of the world.

I haven't directly commented upon the distasteful tendencies of Paul at Wizbang for a number of reasons, including the fact that criticism from the center or the left would be completely ignored (more than solidly based upon the responses I have gotten to comments I have left at Wizbang), along with the desire to not wallow in the mud with the pigs in the sty.

Hence, my lack of links to the offending weblog or particular posts to the author in question.

However, I will express my support for The Commissar in his quest to point out not only the hypocrisy of Paul in the matter of evolution versus creationism, but also in the willingness of The Commissar to point out egregious offenses committed by someone on his side of the political spectrum, in terms of deleting comments and trackbacks.

If we want weblogs to be taken seriously, we cannot participate in these high school level shenanigans such as deleting opposing views in which Paul at Wizbang indulges, and Kevin, the supposed owner of Wizbang allows.

Otherwise, the accusations of the so-called MainStream Media will stick, and collectively we don't deserve to be taken more seriously than any ranting idiot on the street corner since we choose not to police our own.

Additional not-so-random quotes of the moment

When things go wrong, it is comforting to pin the blame on bad men. To do so implies that the world is a kind, gentle place and that if it weren't for a few nasty, selfish types we would all be happy.
   -unknown from The Economist magazine (articles unattributed)

Often justice comes only for people who are rich.
   -Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga

It's true, there are congressional checks on the judiciary, but we expect you to exercise them responsibly. The really effective congressional check, however, is the Senate's power to confirm.
   -Ann Althouse

Newspapers' Future And The Internet

Newspaper circulations in many parts of the country are either stagnant or falling. Is there something newspapers should be doing? Some think newspapers need to look at the Internet and not fear it. That's pretty forward-looking advice and it's coming from....Rupert Murdoch.

So W.C. Fields Was RIGHT

The late, great comedian W.C. Fields used to talk about how disgusting water was given what fishes did in it.

And now there are signs that he was right: drinking water may be hazardous to your health...or life (in a race). Science Blog reports:

Drinking water during a long-distance race may do serious harm rather than keep you safe from injury if you're drinking too much, according to a cardiologist at UT Southwestern Medical Center.

Runners or any long-distance athletes who drink too much water during a race could put themselves at jeopardy for developing hyponatremia, a condition marked by a loss in the body's sodium content that can result in physical symptoms such as lethargy, disorientation, seizures and even respiratory distress.

Wait a minute:"..lethargy, disorientation, seizures and even respiratory distress..." that sounds like a typical teenager being asked to do the dishes. And more:

In a perspectives article in the current issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Benjamin Levine, professor of internal medicine at UT Southwestern, said competitive runners are less likely to suffer from hyponatremia.

Dr. Benjamin Levine, professor of cardiology at UT Southwestern, writes in a perspective article for The New England Journal of Medicine that excessive water consumption said that excessive water consumption during exercise may be dangerous.

"Those who are running to finish the race very fast don't have time to drink a lot of water along the way," Dr. Levine said. "Those who are not running the race competitively tend to stop at every water station and take a drink. Over the course of a long race, they can dilute themselves."

That's called "self-dilution" -- but we digress:

In addition popular sports drinks don't always include enough sodium to offset the body's loss of the mineral during exercise. The drinks often carry more water with smaller concentrations of salts than are normally found in the human body; therefore, they do not replace salts adequately, said Dr. Levine, medical director of the Institute for Exercise and Environmental Medicine, a collaboration between UT Southwestern and Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas.

How about this solution? Try bourbon instead. More:

The NEJM perspectives article accompanies a study in the same journal by researchers at Children's Hospital in Boston and Harvard Medical School. The study evaluates the blood concentration of sodium in runners both before and after a long race and examines their risk factors for developing hyponatremia. It recommends individualized fluid-replacement consumption by all competing athletes.

"Researchers of the study found a surprisingly large number of runners had actually gained weight during the race and their sodium concentrations were very low - some were dangerously low," Dr. Levine said. "The recommendations listed in the study that fluid-replacement schedules be individualized for all athletes competing in long-distance events should be taken seriously by all competitors."

People lose water and salts from their bodies at different rates during exercise, he said. Heat and humidity also play a role in the rate of this loss. Calculating fluid loss is as simple as weighing yourself before and after exercise and comparing that number to the amount of fluid you consumed throughout.

"All serious distance athletes should find out what their rate of fluid loss is and individualize their fluid intake prior to a distance event," Dr. Levine said. "It's also good to accept some mild dehydration during a long race. There are plenty of Web sites available now that show how to customize your fluid intake."

And porn sites that help some people customize their fluid..(we won't go there..)

He also added that taking along salty snacks to eat during the race is a good way of combating hyponatremia. Generally, athletes of all types are instructed prior to activities that water consumption is necessary to prevent illness from heat and to maintain performance levels.

And now you know the rest of the story.....

Did You Ever Hear Of The Texas Political Two-Step?

Well, it's being done now and President George Bush and House Majority Leader Tom "Attacks - On - Me - Are - Attacks - On - The - Conservative - Movement - The-GOP - And - Life - As - We - Know - It" DeLay are the ones doing it.

I'm Baaaaaaaaack....

I guest blogged for Jack many many months ago, which proves how much of a hit I was.

In any event, Jack has been a hugely popular Guest Blogger on my site so for the next two days I'll shamelessly link to some of my posts and give you some original ones (that will be equally shameless). Stay tuned. And check back (and neck, and feet..)

Representative democracy, yes, but WHO is being represented?

Pennywit has some commentary on the current state of Congress, and how it is not likely to change.

In a world turned upside-down, it almost appears as if the Congressmen are working for the lobbyists.

Chilling reading, which is why it is recommended.

To hear DeLay talk about judges...

...you'd think these were not exaggerations:

There's software to do almost everything

I find this somehow oddly amusing:

Press Release Creator

Our brand new software will help you create a press release, It's a great tool whether you know how to write one or not. Enter the information prompted for and out comes a press release at the click of a mouse.

I'm not exactly sure why I find humor in it, other than now not only are reporters not writing their stories (instead repeating press releases), but HUMANS are no longer writing the stories.

I have an odd sense of humor sometimes...

Another not-so-random quote of the moment

A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.
   -William James

Guest poster

I have friends in town, a rare occurrence when you're an expat in another continent! Therefore, I am taking advantage of their presence and won't have much time to write.

Joe Gandelman from The Moderate Voice has kindly agreed to fill in. The Moderate Voice is high on my recommended reading list not only because I guest-post there, but because Joe always has a non-ideological take on things. I hope you enjoy reading his posts as much as I do.

What means the color of our skin?

David Anderson at In Search of Utopia has concerns about The Conservative Brotherhood, an association of minority weblog authors who hold views that are self-described as "conservative", or in my personal terminology, right-leaning.

David has often posted on race issues on his weblog, as is his right.

I have often considered responding to some of his posts, either in comments on his weblog, by email, or by posting here at Random Fate. I have hesitated because these issues and problems are among the most complex I have ever encountered, even including when I was learning statistical mechanics (the foundation from which we Physicists derived all the thermodynamics that engineers universally bemoan as their hardest class in college) and relativistic quantum mechanics (believe me, you do NOT want to discuss that area of Physics...).

This last post wasn't by any means "the straw that broke the camel's back", but the aggregate did compel me to leave a comment, which I include below:

David, it is often said, "A cynic is nothing but a broken-hearted idealist."

I have had my heart broken many times.

I am a white boy who grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, living there when MLK was murdered, living there when the race of a person was more important than the fact that the person is HUMAN.

Living there and breaking up a KKK rally when I was a teenager using my car as a weapon, running over the burning cross and chasing after the lost souls wearing pointy hoods covering their pointy heads...

More than half a lifetime ago.

Not understanding the hatred between white and black, I saw no difference, because white kids hated me for my intelligence, and black kids hated me for my skin color.

Both hatreds seemed idiotic to me then, and no more sensible to me now, even with the leavening of time and experience.

Yet, I am still an idealist, one whose heart has been broken far, far too many times.

I am human.

You are human.

What are we working towards?

I try my best to be color blind.

How do we *all* get there?

How do we achieve the society that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr had his dream about?

I don't know for certain.

All I know, what my heart tells me, is forget "brothers of skin color" because that perpetuates the divisions.

Search for brothers and sisters of the *heart*.

Forget those of the same skin color who are polar opposites in the heart (you know of whom I speak), they are not "brothers" or "sisters" lost, they are just people who think differently than you or I do.

Yet they are still people, and we should not forget this.

If we can all remember these things, then perhaps my broken heart can heal, and perhaps the Reverend's dream will become a reality.

I do hope that one day we can live in a truly color blind society.

Unfortunately, I do not see how we will arrive there if we continue down the path that we are now, a path jointly traveled by those of all skin colors.

I always am searching for my brothers and sisters of the heart. I don't give a damn what color their skin is or the shape of their eyes or noses or mouths are.

In this, as in most other things, it appears I have little if any company.

Navel-gazing

Between a forthright, honest, upstanding right-leaning blogger (one who has only gained my respect in recent weeks even though I disagree with some of his views) and a particular author at a prominent rabidly-right-wing "big blog" there is a particularly unpleasant conflict underway.

Does this mean that those on the left who write weblogs should be cheering because their ideological opponents have some who are "going off the reservation"?

No.

Instead, they should mourn.

Why?

Read on...

Navel-gazing:

na·vel-gaz·ing n. Slang

Excessive introspection, self-absorption, or concentration on a single issue: “The optimistic trend masks a looming problem, which has sent the travel industry into a renewed bout of navel-gazing” (Financial Times).

Joe Gandelman moderated a panel discussion at Stanford's Bay Area Law School Technology Conference Saturday, and he had this to say in at the end of his statement opening the panel discussion:

Yesterday Slate magazine looked at this case and asked if bloggers were “citizen journalists” or “partisan hacks.”

Not a good sign — if blogs want to go beyond preaching to the choir. Journalists issue complete, unconditional retractions and move on. They don’t issue part of a retraction — then raise new issues and go on a new attack.

I want to get to our other panel members, so let me sum up:

#1: Blogs in 2004 preached to the choir.
#2: Blogs are polarized.
#3: Blogs are often so partisan that unless you totally agree with them or don’t mind big doses of partisan analysis and demonization (which I actually enjoy reading) it would be hard to get a thoughtful argument that could persuade you and change your mind.

BUT:
--blogs do help partisans with their world view, organization, campaign information and morale.
--Blogs are a NEW form of journalism rapidly gaining some respectability — but unless they begin t