Archive for January, 2008
A doing less President
This is, despite the fact he didn’t get almost any questions nor the time to answer them, the best debate for Ron Paul. He used his time wisely staying focus on his message. And I was specifically happy with this answer.
I’m surely going to try helping keeping this message in the campaign - as a precinct leader and by small donation this Friday.
That sums it
I don’t like Pat Buchanan generally, but his take on McCain’s platform is as sharp as its get. Not that the other frontrunner in the GOP race is any better…
From here and from there - 11
Today’s links have no connecting theme aside from the fact that I found them worth reading, or watching.
The first link is to a debate about religious, atheism and moral. The debate was between Dinesh D’Souza, which I’m developing great dislike to, and Michael Shermer:
In this debate on what are arguably two of the most important questions in the culture wars today — Is Religion a Force for Good or Evil? and Can you be Good without God? — the conservative Christian author and cultural scholar Dinesh D’Souza and the libertarian skeptic writer and social scientist Michael Shermer, square off to resolve these and related issues, such as the relationship between science and religion and the nature and existence of God. This event was one of the liveliest ever hosted by the Skeptics Society at Caltech, mixing science, religion, politics, and culture.
The FCC, which its roll should had been - at most, a coordinator of technical use of airways, become the moral police. This government agency, in the name of protecting our “children”, not only fail to protect our human rights but rather become a major threat for at least one of them:
Despite recent setbacks in court, the Federal Communications Commission late Friday threw the indecency book at 51 ABC TV stations—citing them for a February 2003 episode of NYPD Blue that showed portions of a naked woman’s derrière.
"Our action today should serve as a reminder to all broadcasters that Congress and American families continue to be concerned about protecting children from harmful material and that the FCC will enforce the laws of the land vigilantly," FCC Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate told the press after the agency made the announcement.
The last link is the chilling 2001 Emmy award documentary - Welcome to North Korea:
This film, shot mostly covertly, shows the irony of a regime where 20 million people lived in poverty, some on the brink of starvation, while former dictator Kim II Sung built extravagant monuments to reflect his power. He fostered a grotesque personality cult, which his son and successor Kim Jong Il perpetuates. All around the capital, Pyongyang, an endless stream of propaganda glorifies the leaders. Monuments and museums pay homage to them, but they are strangely empty.
Cause and effect
During every election season, and the current one is no exception, many candidates promising to “fix” washington and bring new kind of politic - an bipartisan administration that deal with the problems and not with narrow political interests. They promising to heal the nation from the devision inflicted by past administrations and to calm the social conflicts. Yet, they all fail to achieve this promise, which seems so fundamental in their campaign agenda.
Are they laying? Are all of them simply cynical politician that identify the public yearn for an administration that is busy solving “issues” and are disgusted from the political game? not necessarily. Even a politician like Romney, that seems to have no core believes, probably thinks that he can bring his experience, as a very successful businessman and very competent manager, and make Washington “Work”. But both Romney and Obama will not change Washington.
A realistic observer has to admit that bipartisan politic is bad politic. I’m not talking about the compromises and the back-room deals, those are the oil that smooth the political system. I’m talking about the appearance of the political game. It is hard to generate support, or to bring people to vote for a politicians if it is hard to find the differences between them. Making those difference apparent, often superficially, is very important if one desire to be elected. Take for example the differences between Clinton and Obama, what are they? how really different are they? it is hard to tell, and the candidates will do their best to make it even harder.
But this is not the heart of the problem.
Over the years the political system got involved in issues that are a meter of individual choice, or social standards. Involving the coercion power of the government in order to force one set of standards instead of leaving those decisions to the local community, or better for the individual, is bound to involve increasing tension between different groups. The idea that decisions in one central place - can, or should, be good for everyone is at best wrong. When every aspect of life is being determined by regulations, and the ability to force them, the differences that otherwise aren’t that important for the social life become crucial.
Promising to “heal” the social fractions by government is, in a liberal democracy, a paradox. Interestingly enough there is only one candidate that point to this paradox - but he doesn’t offer a change, he offer a revolution 
Change?
Is it really?
It is not the same without him
I’ll miss Dennis and I think that the Presidential campaign is lacking without him. Although I disagree with big portion of his agenda I’ll always remember fondly his answer for why he voted against the Patriot Act: “Because I read it!”.
See what I found
Browsing through my feeds today I got to find out about this song, which I liked. Browsing around I discover that this wonderful young singer already has two records. I’m listening to the earlier one - Hymns for Exiled
As a side remark - this is another example how the “free” model working - I listen to a song on YouTube, followed by listening to few more songs on Last.fm and than bought the entire album. I don’t think I would have spent money buying album of an unknown singer any other way.
The fruits of spread democracy
We should really be proud about the results of our “Nation Building” and “Spreading Democracy” into Afghanistan. Thank to us the Afghans now enjoy freedom of speech - they have the freedom to say whatever they want and the government in return:
I’ve already reported on the plight of Sayed Perwiz Kambakhsh, the Afghan student accused of "mocking Islam and the Quran". Up until now, though, a death sentence for the journalism student for blasphemy was only a potential.
Now an Afghan court has actually sentenced Sayed Perwiz Kambakhsh to death.
For blasphemy.
The NeoCon logic of “Spreading Democracy” tied together with alliances with tyrannic regimes doesn’t strike me as brilliant, successful or moral. And yet it is consider radical, outright stupid and fringe to suggest otherwise.
Farewell Fred
Fred Thompson’s dropping from the Presidential race was expected and unfortunate. It is unfortunate that the kind of conservatism - the type that brought Reagan to the White House and the GOP to win the majority doesn’t have enough appeal in the GOP. It will be more unfortunate if Thompson’s dropping will help to solidified a frontrunner next week. I am looking, with a lot of hope, for a brokered convention and a frontrunner isn’t serving this hope.
I said it in the past, and although I have a good record of wrong predictions I still think that regardless of who the GOP will nominate the next President will be a Democrat. The GOP needs to start building itself, defining its core believes and re-pledge its allegiance to the ideals that attracted the American voters to join the Reagan coalition. A brokered convention, and the need to find a compromise candidate can help starting such process.
But my interest in such convention isn’t only ideological. Think how fascinating and wonderful display of politic a brokered convention is. Today, with the help of Tzvika, I was found the magnificent story of the 1920 GOP brokered convention - were Harding was nominated after ten rounds,after having support of only 6.7% of the delegates in the first round. Such convention will be much more interesting than the staged conventions we saw in previous elections.
Bad times
My office is located on Wall Street. I like coming to work early and leave early - so I have more quality time with my family, so I am usually in the office at 6:30 AM.I like walking from the train station early in the morning, watching the city wake up, the streets aren’t yet full of people running and rushing. But today the feeling was completely different. Wall Street was full of cameras and reporters getting ready for the stock exchange opening. It was kind of scary, the quietness before the, unavoidable, storm.
I working here for a while now - I was here when the high-tech bubble burst. I was here at 9-11 and the days after when the streets were covered with dust and smoke. Today scene reminded me the stories about the 1929 crush - the fear on the faces, the worry about the outcome and the knowing that we are facing bad times.
I’m not an economist, but It seems to me rather peculiar that the measures the Fed took today to stop the collapse are the same, or very similar, to the policy that create this crisis to begin with.