A forum for discussion of politics, society, and civic life http://home.earthlink.net/~count_belisarius/ Democrats are hoping to put off the moment of reckoning just as much as the White House is. In fact, the two sides are eyeing neighboring dates. The President dreams of January 20, 2009, while Democrats anticipate November 4, 2008. http://home.earthlink.net/~count_belisarius/sameasbush1.htm If you live near other people who have cars, you probably hear car alarms going off a lot. If you live in a city, they're so common you sleep through them or walk past them without noticing. So why don't we switch to immobilizing the vehicle? And what do our choices tell us about Ron Paul's take on 9/11? http://home.earthlink.net/~count_belisarius/autoalarms1.htm Thailand's new health minister has invoked the country's right, under the WTO agreement, to issue "compulsory licenses" for the manufacture of two AIDS drugs. Naturally the drug companies were not happy about this; but a working agreement was cobbled together. But when the minister added a heart drug, Plavix, to the list, that was going too far. http://home.earthlink.net/~count_belisarius/drugs3.htm It's spring, and the chickens are coming home to roost. With a vengeance. Gonzales about to implode, Rove threatened with subpoenas, Tenet's book coming out soon, and now this information from the French foreign intelligence service, Shrub and Big Time are bound to be feeling the heat. http://home.earthlink.net/~count_belisarius/roosting1.htm I've said it before, and current events provoke me to restate it: it will turn out to be a good thing that Bush cheated his way into office twice. http://home.earthlink.net/~count_belisarius/yeabush2.htm It appears the Pentagon is finally getting serious about planning for the war in Iraq. Or perhaps it's finally letting the plans happen. Either way, I'm afraid it might be too late to do much that's helpful to the Iraqis. Of course, that was never the goal, but it was the only possible justification. Still, seeing among the three high-profile leaders of the planning group the name H.R. McMaster, I allowed myself a smidgen of hope. http://home.earthlink.net/~count_belisarius/options1.htm Bertrand Russell wrote an essay, "Why I Am Not a Christian", in which he advanced what are at least rational reasons for not believing in the religion of his family and his country. The Republicans of twenty-first century America are not Christians, but they claim they are. Hypocrisy, however, is not a Christian value. Forgiveness, as the Amish are demonstrating, is. http://home.earthlink.net/~count_belisarius/amish1.htm Has there ever been an administration whose appeal was so directly aimed the lower reaches of humanity? Or, to put it bluntly, an administration that depended so completely on the support of the stupid? http://home.earthlink.net/~count_belisarius/antiintellectualism1.htm What does Hamdan vs. Rumsfeld mean for a White House that seems to model its behavior on the predatory business practices familiar from Microsoft trials? And what can we learn from the intersection of the Books of Bokonon with Blake's Imagination and Thoreau's disobedience? http://home.earthlink.net/~count_belisarius/gitmo1.htm A not-so-recent article in The New Yorker, entitled "Jesus in the Classroom", explores and provokes social ideas about the teaching of religion and its interaction with history and science. http://home.earthlink.net/~count_belisarius/cupertino1.htm This is a tale of two resignations, both calculated political moves, one of which was heroic; and of one great loss to the world, and to progressives and socialists in particular. http://home.earthlink.net/~count_belisarius/robincook1.htm In light of two wonderful editorials, one by Eric C. Thorp at Common Dreams and the other by Harold Evans of the BBC, I want to argue that it is easy to misunderestimate the quality of the character of the American people. As Evans beautifully puts it, "The country can go off the rails in an alarming manner, but then gradually it always gets back on track and more splendidly than before." http://home.earthlink.net/~count_belisarius/character1.htm Here's my feeble response. To the terrorists who bombed the London subway, if you have a legitimate cause, you detract from it by these actions. To the governments who bomb cities and steal national wealth, you contribute to the legitimacy of the terrorist causes. And we must all agree that a fair approach to the Palestinian problem is required. http://home.earthlink.net/~count_belisarius/london1.htm Profiteering is almost as basic to war as soldiering; at least, it's been around for about as long. So it's not surprising to find the Republican Congress moving funds from the Pentagon's requested operation and maintenance budget into pet projects of the leadership (apparently including $35 million for a waste water treatment plant in Desoto County, Mississippi). But in the context of the party's constant flag-waving it's particularly despicable. So how do we approach such opponents? http://home.earthlink.net/~count_belisarius/pork1.htm This post is simply an HTML rendering of a ten-year-old argument against NSA involvement in the design of the Clipper chip, a government-friendly encryption method. Most of it consists of a brief history of the NSA, a recounting that remains relevant while privacy and civil liberties are under attack. Posting it also provides a correct version to replace various partial and incorrect ones floating around the net. http://home.earthlink.net/~count_belisarius/nsaclipper1.htm Gibbon pointed out that the proper question is not, Why did the Roman Empire fall, but Why did it last so long? Taking that viewpoint on the American Empire, one is led to ask whether our empire will dissolve in the fashion of the Romans or in the fashion of the British and French. http://home.earthlink.net/~count_belisarius/politicalmarket1.htm The voice of the people is not strong enough to compete with that of the state in any particular situation. Continued pressure over time has had some demonstrable affects. True, it didn't prevent the war, but it modified war planning for years ahead of time. Fooling most of the people most of the time requires a huge infrastructure. http://home.earthlink.net/~count_belisarius/wewon1.htm Is it fear, or lust for power, that compels people who claim to believe in democracy to propose something like the terror bill about to hit Parliament? This bill allows the Home Secretary to make a decision, based on intelligence data, that you're planning to commit terrorist acts. Having made that judgement, the Secretary can order you to wear an electronic bracelet, controlling where you go, whether and where you can work, and who you communicate with, in person, by telephone, or over the internet. And the whole process is an administrative action, not a judicial process. The presumption of innocence, one of the pillars of English common law, out the window. http://home.earthlink.net/~count_belisarius/terrorbill1.htm Hunter Thompson was fond of quoting Joseph Conrad: "Art is long and life is short, and success is very far off." So was the Plaza Fountain, twenty-eight stories below the office in which Thompson typed the introduction to "The Great Shark Hunt". http://home.earthlink.net/~count_belisarius/thompson1.htm Suppose we draw an analogy between two pairs. As monikers, red and blue are so impersonal. But when you talk about Homer states and Lisa states, you put a face on the numbers and the ideas. http://home.earthlink.net/~count_belisarius/homerlisa1.htm Suppose that on the political scale you find yourself to the left of Joe-mentum and the DLC. Maybe you're a Democrat and proud of it, but troubled with the party's recent tendencies. Perhaps you're still a Democrat, but wondering why. No longer a Democrat? Never were a Democrat? Step outside and call me a Democrat? No matter. Brothers and sisters, I propose a truce among us. I'm not so naive as to think we can all just get along. But perhaps we can mutually realize that we each have a part to play. Or maybe we'll be forced to move to space colonies. http://home.earthlink.net/~count_belisarius/truce1.htm Arnold Toynbee apparently thought he'd discovered a sort of Kondratiev cycle in the life of civilizations: three challenges with successful responses; a fourth challenge with a failed response. Are we at stage four? http://home.earthlink.net/~count_belisarius/toynbeebush1.htm I'm in the middle of a move, so I'm kinda late posting a couple of very interesting comments on my "Full Employment, Fair Care" platform. But here they are, with my responses. http://home.earthlink.net/~count_belisarius/platformcmts1.htm Most Belisarius posts are political rants or whines, but this one's tech doc. It provides an introduction to the process of syndicating your website. If you've considered syndication but don't know how to do it, this post will help you get a bare-bones syndication up and running. http://home.earthlink.net/~count_belisarius/rssfeed1.htm What's a reasonable platform for a party of the left? The 2004 Democrats were hopeless, and the Green platform seemed to be Elect the Democrat. Here's my first cut at a platform I call Full Employment, Fair Care. http://home.earthlink.net/~count_belisarius/platform1.htm Although I would counsel resistance of it, I argue that a draft is preferable to a professional military for a number of reasons. http://home.earthlink.net/~count_belisarius/prodraft1.htm These days, we Americans are standing so tall and kicking such butt in all areas of life that we don't have time for shame. That kind of stuff's for you wimpy nations without the cojones to deploy a really kick-ass missile defensive system. Like ours. http://home.earthlink.net/~count_belisarius/starwars1.htm My theory is that we generally deal with the outside world through models. We make models in our heads of how things work. When we want to manipulate that part of reality, we use our mental model to predict what will happen, and adjust our actions accordingly. The tricky part comes when the model's predictions don't fit what actually happens. http://home.earthlink.net/~count_belisarius/iclutchmyideas1.htm