31 December 2010

30 December 2010

Tron: Legacy

I just saw the movie, Tron: Legacy, today with my family. It was a very enjoyable film to watch - very entertaining - I recommend it. Excellent special affects and acting. The story did remind me of Star Wars meets The Matrix, though.

09 September 2010

25 August 2010

Tea Party Rambos?

My prediction: most Tea Party candidates elected to the US Congress this year will moderate after a few years. Why? Because to get things done in Congress, one must work with House members/Senators who hold different ideological beliefs. "Rambos" don't last long in Congress (with apologies to Sylvester Stallone). If these new members do not work with other members of Congress, then they will not get much done, and will be vulnerable in the next election.

However, I don't think these people will moderate their respective ideologies. Most will stay faithful to the principles they ran on the first time they are elected. Operationally, however, they will moderate in order to get bills passed that help their districts, respectively.

Then, they will understand men like Sen. McCain and Sen. Lugar. They are excellent Senators, but are willing to work with Senators who do not share their ideology.

It is easy to refuse to compromise when one is safe and has little power.

- Dr Rob

02 August 2010

Where a sitcom meets reality...

This is where a TV sitcom meets reality. The following article is from The Telegraph, a British newspaper. This attempt at austerity by the current British government was actually an episode in the BBC series, Yes, Minister, back in the 1980s ("The Economy Drive"):

Treasury civil servants 'to work at smaller desks' in latest austerity drive:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/7922782/Treasury-civil-servants-to-work-at-smaller-desks-in-latest-austerity-drive.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
Civil servants at the Treasury are to be forced to sit closer together while working at smaller desks in order to free up space to squeeze in extra Whitehall staff, it has been claimed.


Now the British government is doing it for real.

04 July 2010

Reagan on Illegal Immigration

"I believe in the idea of amnesty for those who have put down roots and lived here, even though sometime back they may have entered illegally." - President Ronald Reagan. See:http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128303672&f=1014&sc=tw

03 July 2010

Democracy vs Liberty

Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!
- Benjamin Franklin

02 July 2010

Is Michael Steele Right? Should We Withdraw from Afghanistan?

The New York Times blog entitled, The Caucus [July 2, 2010; see: http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/02/dust-up-over-steeles-view-of-afghan-war/?nl=us&emc=politicsemailema1], reports that Republican National Committee Chair, Michael Steele, “…drew fierce criticism on Friday after declaring at a party fund-raiser that the United States was on the wrong side of history with its conflict in Afghanistan, a military fight he called “a war of Obama’s choosing.””

Now, I don’t agree with everything Mr. Steele is reported to have said. For example, the Afghan war is not a war of President Obama’s choosing because he inherited it from President Bush. Likewise, President Bush was forced to involve the US in Afghanistan due to the 9-11-2001 attacks by Al Qaeda, which was based in Afghanistan and supported by the Taliban government. We may criticize both presidents about how the US has conducted the war, but the reasons for US involvement are clear to all rational, informed people.

Likewise, I have argued from the beginning of the Iraq war that President Bush rushed into this conflict. Yes, Saddam Hussein had to go, but there was time to work the diplomatic route and, if nothing else, better prepare for the post-conflict nation-building stage of the mission. We were not prepared for the insurgency that followed the successful invasion. Yes, we had reasons to be involved in Iraq, but President Bush did not send our troops into this conflict prepared for the subsequent collapse of the Iraqi government and the insurgency that followed. We need to make sure our military personnel are given every opportunity to win the war and come home alive. President Bush's lack of foresight resulted in unnecessary US casualties, not to mention the scores of Iraqi civilian casualties.

However, I do agree with Mr. Steele that history shows we should not be in a land war in Afghanistan. Wars are not won by military victories, alone. Rather, wars require a political solution in addition to a military victory. If this were not true, then the US would have won the Vietnam War. In that conflict, the US won the significant battles, including the Tet Offensive of 1968. That offensive was a significant military victory for the US and South Vietnam and our allies, but a political victory for the Viet Cong and North Vietnam and their allies. After this, the political debate back home in the US centered on how and when the US should leave Vietnam.

So, if the US and our allies have good reason to be in Afghanistan, and we do have such a reason, then what is the problem? One problem is that the local Afghan populations want a divided nation, and the US wants a stronger central government in Kabul to be sure Al Qaeda does not return to threaten our national security. A divided Afghanistan is hard to govern, just ask the United Kingdom and Russia. Even the Persian Empire found Afghanistan hard to govern. The Taliban are playing this against the US and ISAF allies, and a political solution has not emerged.

Consequently, this war is bleeding the US materially, emotionally, and I also believe spiritually. I hold to a school of thought that the US will likely face a global challenger in the first part of this century. We need to be prepared for this global conflict militarily, economically, and have the will to engage the enemy. Wars like those in Iraq and Afghanistan, while having noble purposes, are bleeding the US to the point that we may not be ready for a global conflict in the near future.

The US needs a security situation favorable to our national security now AND in the future. This means we need either a solid political and military victory in Afghanistan ASAP, or consider how we can stop the bleeding. I must confess that while I can see the problem with the war in Afghanistan, I don’t have a solution. I know it involves Pakistan and its military intelligence. I also know it also means we have to have a significant reduction of military personnel in Afghanistan in the near future. The Taliban knows this, too.

So, Michael Steele may be right about fighting a land war in Afghanistan. It has been said that the US should never get in a land war in Asia, and while President Eisenhower chose to keep the US out of a land war in Vietnam, Presidents Kennedy and Johnson chose to commit the US to a land war there. Today, those who believe a military victory is possible if we simply put more troops into Afghanistan will criticize Steele. However, even if a military surge is necessary, without a political solution, we are looking at a situation worse than the outcome of Vietnam.

01 July 2010

The absent are never without fault. Nor the present without excuse.
- Benjamin Franklin

from: http://www.basicquotations.com/index.php?aid=18

13 June 2010

Is smiling a sign of submission?

I read somewhere recently that smiling is a sign of submission among primates. Now, I haven't verified this. However, it seems to me that smiling among some humans may have the same effect. My problem is that I like to smile, but I am not trying to be submissive.

Do our human leaders smile a lot? Most managers I know carry a serious look with them, but can and do smile. How about presidents? Well, Pres. Reagan smiled often, but he could also be serious (e.g. "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"). Pres. Obama can smile, but most of his campaign pictures portrait him with a serious expression.

Maybe it is a matter of maturity. That is, mature people understand that being friendly is not a sign of weakness. The less mature a person is, the more they see smiling as a sign of weakness?

Just a thought. As they say in the US Congress, I reserve the right to extend and revise my remarks on this matter.

08 June 2010

Environmental Question of the day....

The oil spill disaster in the Gulf brings up a question: how will the ripple effect of this oil spill affect humans? Political interests put their spin on this disaster for ideological purposes, and that is something I am not addressing by asking this question. This is not an anti- or pro-oil question.

Fossil fuels are a fact of life. Oil is global power (notice I did not say "Oil companies are global power"). Right now we are at Level 0 as far as civilizations go regarding energy consumption (see: http://mkaku.org/home/?page_id=246 ). That means we will rely on fossil fuels for a long time no matter who controls the oil companies.

However, the ecological system must be taking a huge hit from this spill. In turn, this will affect other ecological systems. In short, how will humans be affected in the short run and in the long run?

Political spin is no help.
From the left: oil companies are evil.
From the right: oil companies are victims.
Political spin does not answer my question (yes, I realize I am over simplifying things). So, I suppose my real question is this: how will humans be actually affected, removing the politically motivated spin from evaluations of this event?

In reality, I don't know that the public has access to this honest type of information. Still, we will feel the effects of this spill, whatever those effects turn out to be in the future.

06 June 2010

Plugging A Good Musical Group.

Welcome! For my first post, I want to plug a musical group I stumbled upon. The group is Kieran Kane, Kevin Welch, and Fats Kaplin. I've seen them classified as Country in the Americana or Alternative Country sub-genres. I downloaded their album, Lost John Dean, last week from iTunes and have been playing it everyday. There isn't a bad song on the album, but I especially like "Heaven Now." "Postcard from Mexico" is also good, and "Lost John Dean" is a good bluegrass song along with "Mellow Down Easy." This last song is good to play when, as the song says, "when you really want to blow your top."
Some of their music is more country, others more bluegrass. What really impresses me about their music is the instrumentation. These guys are artists at heart. It is great! Check it out.