Archive for September, 2006
Reciprocatory
Reciprocatory: adj. requiting, mutually giving and taking (from Babylon English-English)
The WSJ reports today that Israel set to complete its withdrawal from South Lebanon by Sunday morning, which is by any account good news. I only wonder, and if someone has the numbers I really appreciate a link, how many weapons did UNIFIL or the Lebanese army collected from Hezbullah? wasn’t it important portion of UN resolution 1701 and UN resolution 1559 before it?
I guess Kofi Annan can declare mission accomplished and retire quietly to Ghana at the end of the year.
Technorati Tags: Israel - Lebanon - Hezbullah - unifil - un_resolution_1559 - un_resolution_1701 - the_un - Kofi_Annan - war_on_terror
Crossing the line
To facilitate bringing to justice terrorists and other
unlawful enemy combatants through full and
fair trials by military commissions, and for
other purposes.
When the administration argued that fighting Terrorism isn’t the same as fighting criminals I was on board. I accepted the argument that it isn’t like arresting a Mafia member but similar to fighting the Viet-Kong, or any other enemy combatant. I was even online with Alen Darshowitz’s arguments that we are facing new type of warfare and that the international law need revision to accommodate the new challenges exploited by terrorists.
However, when assuming that Terrorist are not criminals and applying war behavior to defeat them we cannot attempt to bring them to justice. Moreover, if we decide that Terrorism is after all a crime - we should adjust our methods and means to fight very sophisticated crime organization. But in no case should we agree that in order to bring someone to justice we can override the constitution . The habeas corpus is a basic right that allowing the government to ignore it is simply to dangerous.
I completely in agreement with the ACLU’s concerns as expressed here:
WASHINGTON - The American Civil Liberties Union expressed distress as the Senate adopted S.3930, the Military Commissions Act of 2006. That bill is identical to legislation adopted by the House yesterday, and removes important checks on the president by: failing to protect due process, eliminating habeas corpus for many detainees, undermining enforcement of the Geneva Conventions, and giving a “get out of jail free card” to senior officials who authorized or ordered illegal torture and abuse.
“This legislation gives the president new unchecked powers to detain, abuse, and try people at Guantanamo Bay and other government facilities around the world,” said Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. “Unfortunately for America, the Senate chose not to deliberate today. Instead, it joined the House and President Bush in jamming through a hastily written bill before running home to try to campaign.”
The pattern of increasing the power executed by the executive branch, destroying the checks and balances - is a real threat to liberty. I said that before and I will say it again - we need to make sure that when we win the fight against terrorist we didn’t destroy the same liberties we attempted to protect. The choice isn’t between Islamic tyranny to Christian tyranny and but between tyranny and liberty.
Technorati Tags: human_rights - habeas corpus - liberal_democracy - congressional_hearing - libertarianism - liberties
Different approach to Agile programming
The rest of us have all known that Agile Methodologies are stupid, by application of any of the following well-known laws of marketing:
- anything that calls itself a “Methodology” is stupid, on general principle.
- anything that requires “evangelists” and offers seminars, exists soley for the purpose of making money.
- anything that never mentions any competition or alternatives is dubiously self-serving.
- anything that does diagrams with hand-wavy math is stupid, on general principle.
And by “stupid”, I mean it’s “incredibly brilliant marketing targeted at stupid people.”
Agile programming , with its many different flavors, become more than just a buzz word. As many positive solutions Agile development has its advantages when applied in the right environment and when solving specific projects. However as many “silver bullets” it has its problems.
Steve Yegge’s witty and thought provoking post discussing some of these weaknesses. But it does more than just that, it suggesting an alternative: its current work environment at Google. It isn’t short post, and with the discussion that follows the post it is actually very long - but it is worth the time.
Technorati Tags: Agile software development - Project Management - Google
In my inbox
Working in he same company since it was a start-up, with mainly the same team of developer bound to produce e-mails like this:
Incoming:
Today I discovered a new Parkinson law:
The bigger company is, the more percentage of idiots it can afford.
Outgoing:
I’m going to publish it!
Incoming:
Be my guest. We can use it as a slogan on the company’s logo
Technorati Tags: management - Humor - corporate_culture
Encouraging voices in the Republican party
The Wall Street Journal had an interesting story about growing voices in the Republican party who wish for it to loose in the coming mid-term elections. The reasons surprisingly aren’t only, or even mainly, tactical but for ideological reasons:
Three factors are driving the conservative backlash against the Republican-led Congress. Fiscal hawks are furious about the growth of the federal government. Conservative lawyers such as Bruce Fein, who worked in the Nixon Justice Department and Reagan Federal Communications Commission, are upset that Congress allowed President Bush to claim expansive powers to eavesdrop on American citizens and detain suspected militants without trial. Others say the war in Iraq is a costly diversion from the war on terror.
In other words at least two of the three factors coming for the more libertarians parts of the GOP. It is encouraging that some at the GOP didn’t loose sight of what they were trying to achieve. The mid-term elections, and the next presidential primaries will set the republican party course for many years - we can only hope it will be back into smaller, less intrusive government.
Technorati Tags: compassionate_conservatism - libertarianism - liberties - social_conservatism - GOP - Mid_Term_Election
PEN sound alarm
More than 1,100 PEN’s , the famous literary and human rights organization, members and supporters signed a petition expressing concern about the current climate for freedom of the press in the US:
It is therefore deeply troubling to see members of our government fueling a campaign of intimidation against American newspapers and journalists, a campaign that led to Congressional calls for espionage and treason trials and popular exhortations to violence.
The attacks follow reports on controversial surveillance and detention programs that, like many other antiterrorism initiatives, the Administration has developed and implemented with no oversight or scrutiny. When pressed for information, it has routinely invoked state secrets and national security to thwart both Congressional and Judicial review.
Fighting to preserve Liberty cannot be on the expense of one of the pillar of that same Liberty. In recent years we are observing increasing in the executive power, and in the use of this power to limit our freedom.
All quiet on the western front
If just few months ago Muslims riots about the Mohamed cartoons made the first page all over the world, today’s nixes of an Mozart’s opera in Germany passing quietly.
The Deutsche Oper said it had decided "with great regret" to cancel a planned production of Mozart’s "Idomeneo" after Berlin security officials warned of an "incalculable risk" because of scenes dealing with Islam, as well as other religions.
I wonder if it isn’t too late for Europe, or it has hope.
Defying Tyranny
Addressing the UN general assembly the Syrian foreign minister said:
Walid Moallem blamed Israel, Syria’s longtime rival, for all the problems in the Middle East.
One has to wonder how is it Israel fault that Arabs committing genocide for years in Darfur; or how is it Israel fault that Syria, among other Arab states, violating basic human rights.
It is good to see that NRG understood the importance of Ben-Dror Yemini op-ed and translated it to English:
The genocide that Israel is not committing, that is completely libelous, hides the real genocide, the silenced genocide that Arabs and Muslims are committing mainly against themselves. The libel has to stop so as to look at reality. It is in the interest of the Arabs and the Muslims. Israel pays in image. They pay in blood. If there is any morality left in the world, this should be in the interest of whoever has a remaining drop of it in him. And should it happen, it will be small news for Israel, and great news, far greater news, for Arabs and Muslims.
It is vital for the Arabs to start to look inside and to build, from it base, better society. When Arab leaders will stop looking for ways to distract the attentions from the internal problems in their countries, and start to face the real challenges they are facing will be a day that the world will become safer.
Bringing sanity back to the discussion
In a response to an earlier post Ingrid wrote:
I sympathize with your fears, but I fear the US’ intentions a whole lot more than Iran’s, inspite of all the rhetoric and propaganda that wants everyone to believe otherwise. As a parent, I truly feel very heavy at times wondering when all this madness is going to end. When people will get an inkling (speaking solely of the situation here in the US) that they are being manipulated and losing one liberty after another. Plus all the intolerance that is getting greater from the fundamentalists. I tell you, you’re ‘lucky’ in a way that they are all gung ho zionists, because otherwise they’d be just as intolerant of the Jewish faith! I have learned plenty of things in history (europe) to know that the fundamentalists are the most intolerant of any other faith, including other Christian faiths. Fundamentalism the world over (meaning different religions) are a danger, and they have so much in common too!
I wonder what is the reason many good intention people loose the perspective and the magnitude of human rights violations, oppression and tyranny. After all, and with all the problems the US is a strong liberal democracy - much more than Iran. The US policy, including its foreign policy, is being criticized publicly without the fear of ant secret police. And most importantly in US the regime changes periodically, through elections and not revolutions.
Fundamentalism and extremism are usually bad traits and have devastating effect on every society. In the US a president might be a fundamentalist, much like in Iran. In the US, however, its power is limited by many restraints such as constitution , political system and most importantly - length of term.
I can only hope that the left will hurry to adopt the Euston Manifesto. It is a demonstration to the left that they can be loyal to its ideals without committing suicide.Moreover, and although I don’t agree with big portions of the left’s social agenda, I can see much more sense in left’s logic when in the context of the Euston Manifesto.
I think that paragraphs two and six in the manifesto makes perfect sense discussing the US "danger":
2) No apology for tyranny.
We decline to make excuses for, to indulgently "understand", reactionary regimes and movements for which democracy is a hated enemy — regimes that oppress their own peoples and movements that aspire to do so. We draw a firm line between ourselves and those left-liberal voices today quick to offer an apologetic explanation for such political forces.6) Opposing anti-Americanism.
We reject without qualification the anti-Americanism now infecting so much left-liberal (and some conservative) thinking. This is not a case of seeing the US as a model society. We are aware of its problems and failings. But these are shared in some degree with all of the developed world. The United States of America is a great country and nation. It is the home of a strong democracy with a noble tradition behind it and lasting constitutional and social achievements to its name. Its peoples have produced a vibrant culture that is the pleasure, the source-book and the envy of millions. That US foreign policy has often opposed progressive movements and governments and supported regressive and authoritarian ones does not justify generalized prejudice against either the country or its people.
Closing ranks
Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, public support of the Pope’s view is very important. It might be a sign to many other in Europe to join. I wonder who will be the first, non-religious, leader to speak out.
Lord Carey said that Muslims must address “with great urgency” their religion’s association with violence. He made it clear that he believed the “clash of civilisations” endangering the world was not between Islamist extremists and the West, but with Islam as a whole.
“We are living in dangerous and potentially cataclysmic times,” he said. “There will be no significant material and economic progress [in Muslim communities] until the Muslim mind is allowed to challenge the status quo of Muslim conventions and even their most cherished shibboleths.”