Thursday, June 24, 2004
How Common is 'Common Sense'?You probably guessed it: not very.Although 43 percent of Americans who answered a recent poll say they have common sense, only seven percent of them actually proved they have it when given a quiz which measures common sense perception.
Full Story On the bright side, you can learn more about common sense (and possibly improve yours) here: What Is Common Sense, Anyway? Click through to the second page for a quiz (not the one referenced in the above story, but very interesting).
Looks like Bush administration officials could use a little common sense refresher course, since Iraq frightened them and getting majorly dissed by North Korea doesn't. I mean, seriously—we're one itchy trigger finger from WWIII here. Or am I just paranoind?Music In My HeadHey—want Gmail?
I've got three invites. If you'd like one, e-mail me, 'budster' at gmail dot com, and I'll hook you up.
Posted by Me at 22:36 link
Wednesday, June 23, 2004
Don't Just Stand There—Kill SomebodyWhen people dismiss politics as dry and boring, I wonder if they realize how much is at stake. Political decisions, especially presidential decisions, literally hold the power of life and death for hundreds, thousands, or potentially even millions of people.
Even if people lack sufficient empathy to care about people being killed unjustly in their names thousands of miles away, they should realize that, sooner or later, we'll reap at home what we sow abroad. After 9/11, saying it can't happen here is willful ignorance. Physics, remember? Physics knows no borders. And our overwhelming military superiority may not overwhelm as much as we assume.
I opposed the war in Afghanistan at first; it seemed to me that al Qaeda stood to gain a lot more than we did from the war. After all, they were a tiny group of fanatics, and the 9/11 attacks had been condemned by almost every government on earth—including the Taliban. If we bombed and invaded Afghanistan, we'd certainly kill innocent civilians, and our motives would be viewed skeptically throughout Muslim countries. Surely we'd create a thousand terrorists for each one we killed or captured.
I came around to a position of reluctant support for that war based on some generally accepted "facts": - Everyone knew and accepted that al Qaeda and specifically, Osama bin Laden, was to blame for the attacks
- The Taliban (a brutal, repressive regime anyway) had been given every opportunity to hand over bin Laden and his associates, and had failed even to respond to that reasonable request
- Failure to use military force would have been tantamount to surrender
Too, like almost everyone else, I was furious at the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks. Also, it seemed the whole world would support whatever response we chose to make. By the time we started bombing, I was actually pleased that Bush had restrained himself for almost a whole month.
But as my "sneer quotes" above imply, those weren't facts at all. Turns out, the Taliban did respond. Mullah Omar asked our government for evidence of bin Laden's involvement in the attacks (at that time, no evidence had been made public); he offered, if we'd provide evidence, to hand over bin Laden for trial by an Islamic court in a Muslim country. When Washington didn't respond, he soon offered to hand him over to any legitimate court with at least one Muslim judge, again contingent on our providing evidence of bin Laden's involvement in 9/11.
Consider US extradition procedures. Do you think our government hands over suspects of capital crimes to foreign governments just because they ask? No way! Requesting evidence wasn't defiance; it was standard operating procedure.
Bush completely ignored Mullah Omar's offer. According to Bob Woodward's Bush at War, Colin Powell said of Bush's attitude at the time, "Bush was tired of rhetoric. The president wanted to kill somebody." He sure did kill some folks, too. By the most conservative estimates, the Afghanistan war has killed at least 1,000 innocent civilians (and counting).
Bush would have begun the attacks sooner if he could have. When Condoleeza Rice told him on September 27 that the military wasn't yet ready to begin bombing, Bush shouted back, "That's unacceptable!"
Why on earth was Bush in such a hurry? This is the same president Bush who less than two months earlier had said:"I worry about a culture that devalues life, and believe as your President I have an important obligation to foster and encourage respect for life in America and throughout the world." (He was arguing against government funding for stem cell research at the time.)
By the end of September, Bush and his advisors had decided that ousting the Taliban, rather than capturing the elusive al Qaeda leadership, was to be the primary focus of the Afghanistan war. He wanted results, and he wanted them now. He told Woodward:"I just knew that at some point in time, the American people were going to say, 'Where is he? What are you doing? Where's your leadership? Where is the United States? You're all-powerful. Do something.'" This sounds like a bad CEO's mentality to me: the shareholders want results! Never mind what's good for the country in the long run—much less what's right— we must show some return on investment this quarter to keep our jobs.
Bush Corp. may have shown a profit in the last quarter of 2001, but the losses have been growing steadily since then. The monetary losses. The human losses. I blame the short-sightedness of the CEO and his Board.
And I blame the shareholders. Each one of us holds a share in this democracy. No more proxies. Pay attention. Cast your vote. It matters.
[Bush quotes via Peter Singer's book The President of Good & Evil.]
Posted by Me at 22:39 link
Tuesday, June 22, 2004
Reality Check132 days until the November elections.
8 days until the handover of power in Iraq.
Three days until Fahrenheit 9/11 opens across the US. I've pledged to see it this weekend. You can do the same.
Memo to President Bush and his advisors: this and this are connected, much more than Iraq and al Qaeda are connected. Strongly advise you apply the golden rule to all prisoners, detainees and others in your charge.
Uh, that would be the original golden rule (do unto others as you would have others do unto you), as opposed to the modern, cynical one (those who have the gold make all the rules).
Posted by Me at 22:24 link
Monday, June 21, 2004
Greetings from the World of PhysicsDo you think the world has changed since September 11, 2001?
You're wrong. You couldn't be more wrong, and I'm not going to break it to you gently.
Sometime in the next few months or years, someone, somewhere, is going to blow up a whole damned city. And the world will not have changed then, either. You may believe it will have changed, but that just shows how deluded you are.
Anything can happen—and it probably will
The laws of physics, and the will of human beings, govern our world. Mostly, each of us controls our own life. Probably 2/3 of the things that "happen to us" happen because of things we do, or things we don't do. Probably 2/3 of the rest happen because of things other people do or don't do. Nature and chance account for the rest.
Fortunately, we're mainly interested in making ourselves happy, and that usually involves doing things to make other people happy. The happiest among us are probably those who realize this the most.
But unfortunately, not everyone shares the same goals. Some people believe our society—our modern, Western secular way of life—is fundamentally evil, and that the only answer is destruction. There aren't many of these people, but some of them are smart and determined.
They win sympathy for their causes by committing acts of violence—which provoke a reaction not only against themselves, but also against others who previously opposed them. For example: a Palestinian suicide bomber kills himself and a couple of Israeli soldiers; in retaliation, the Israeli government launches missiles, killing several Palestinian civilians; previously neutral Palestinians vow to rise up against Israeli oppression. For another example, replace "Palestinian" with "Iraqi" and replace "Israeli" with "American."
Terrorism is nothing new, just another application of physics and human willpower to accomplish a goal. Never forget: the most immediate goal of terrorism is to provoke a knee-jerk reaction from the victim, preferably against people who had nothing to do with the attack. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq must surely be regarded as great victories by the masterminds of al Qaeda.
Could terrorists actually assemble a nuclear device? According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, it's probably just a matter of time. Assuming they did create such a device, would they have the dreadful will to use it? You and I both know the answer is "yes."
Can you imagine the reaction to such an attack?
I'm not trying to shock you, or to frighten you. I just want you to remember that, in our world of physics and willpower, the realm of possibility is large—both wonderful and horrible. Bad things happen every day—or, more accurately, people do bad things every day. People do Good Things every day, too, much more often than they do bad things.
The laws of physics are the same as they've always been, and always will be. People are the same, too. We can't always stop people from doing bad things, but we can do as much good as possible.
That, as far as I can tell, is our best answer, maybe our only answer.
Posted by Me at 22:52 link
Sunday, June 20, 2004
Happy SolsticeSincerely.
If only the rest of summer could be just like today, I'd feel more a sense of joy about the coming summer, more a feeling of wonder at nature's bounty and beauty. Instead, what I actually feel is hurry up and get this @#$%ing thing over with, already! This spring was one of the hottest and most humid on record here, with a bumper crop of mosquitoes to boot. And we've had rain just frequently enough to ensure that all the area's bike trails have stayed too muddy to ride for the past several weeks. Grrrrrr.
But today! Today was heavenly, with a high temperature of only 78° F, mostly sunny skies and a very comfortable dew point of 50°. Too bad it can't stay like this all summer. Sigh....Music In My HeadMaybe it's worse than I thought
Signboard by the Interstate in Winston-Salem today:
Washington
Lincoln
ReaganEek.
Posted by Me at 22:30 link
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