Miscellany
* Official Announcement *
The government today announced that it is changing its emblem from an Eagle to a CONDOM because it more accurately reflects the government's political stance. A condom allows for inflation, halts production, destroys the next generation, protects a bunch of pricks, and gives you a sense of security while you're actually being screwed.
In unrelated news, I would just like to remind everyone what a piece of crap IE is.
Authority v. Responsibility
Very busy this week, trying to get all my ducks in a row before I leave for vacation, a canoe trip in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area on the border between Minnestoa and Canada—away from all things electronic. Halleluja!!
Peggy Noonan, of the Wall Street Journal, has penned a great article in the aftermath of Katrina and Rita. Below are a few highlights. The whole thing is worth a read. 
We live in the age of emergency, however, and in that age we hunger for someone to take responsibility. Not authority, but a sense of "I'll lead you out of this." On 9/11 the firemen took responsibility: I will go into the fire. So did the mayor: This is how we'll get through, this is how we'll triumph.
In New Orleans, by contrast, the mayor seemed panicked, the governor seemed medicated, and the airborne wasn't there until it was there and peace was restored. Until then no one took responsibility. There was a vacuum. But nature abhors a vacuum, so rumors and chaos came in to fill it. Which made things worse.
No one took charge. Thus the postgame commentary in which everyone blamed someone else: The mayor fumbled the ball, the governor didn't call the play, the president didn't have a ground game.
It is hard for governments to be responsible, and take responsibility. It takes real talent, and guts. But authority? That's easier. Pass the law and get the cuffs.
If government cannot distinguish between authority and responsibility, media have trouble distinguishing between the helpful reporting of facts and the whipping up of fear.
The latter not only does not help, it hurts. Here's one way: when you endlessly pound America with the idea that Armageddon is imminent, you're pushing Americans to conclude that only something big can save them, something huge, something omnipotent--like government.
Which is only too happy to take authority. And only too likely to dodge responsibility.
Much Ado About Nothing
It is a new century so I guess some felt it was about time for another Scopes Monkey Trial. Arguments are underway in Pennsylvania where a law suit has been filed against a school district which is requiring that Intelligent Design be mentioned in science class. It is unfortunate that any time religious belief touches on a topic it is always the loony extremists on either side jumping in and polarizing the issue to the point the constructive dialog becomes all but impossible. It inevitably becomes framed as a fight between believer and non-believer, saint and heathen. Indeed faith and science are often seen as not just mutually exclusive of each other, but actually openly hostile.
Some say that the rejection of religion is a primary step in intelligent thought. Contenders on both sides of the issue will sometimes find themselves retreating into caricature. They will say, for instance, that belief in God and belief in science are mutually exclusive, that the renunciation of one is required in order to subscribe to the other.
Once again, it is the radicals on either side framing the argument in this way, which tires those with more moderate points of view. I, personally, have never seen science and faith as adversarial, but more complimentary. The Bible says that God created the Heavens and the Earth. It neglects to mention how, or to explain the process process by which that occurred. Whether God created the world or it just happened to work out that life exists on our little sphere, it seems to me that atheists and believers could at least unite behind the desire to understand the process whereby our world came into existence.
For many believers, science, the yearning to understand the whys and wherefores, is a threat to belief. The quest for knowledge implies a lack of faith. In my opinion, that's because they have never understood faith in the first place. Additionally they believe in a jealous, petty God who resents his creations trying to obtain more knowledge than He gave them in the first place. Remember poor Prometheus?
Confusing the issue even more are religious nut jobs who really have no idea what they are talking about jumping in and making absurd statements that are specious at best. Utah's most visible nut job, Rep. Chris Buttars, sensationalized the argument to his own ends:
The campaign to eliminate God from the public forum has been going on for decades, having accelerated greatly since the Supreme Court’s ill-advised decision in 1963 to eliminate prayer from public schools. And I believe those fighting against the teaching of intelligent design in schools have an ulterior motive to eliminate references to God from the entire public forum.
We'll just skip Buttars more absurd declarations. If you're interested, Balloon Juice has a a good run down . It's not nutjobs like Buttars that bother me. Idiots will eventually stumble on their own foolishness. Indeed, Buttars has recently dropped the subject. It is the dishonesty of ID proponents that really bothers me.
But proponents of intelligent design have a message for Buttars: Don't help us.
"We get very upset when supposed friends are claiming far more than what the scholars are saying," says John West, associate director of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture in Seattle.
For one thing, they oppose requiring the teaching of intelligent design. What they are pushing, West says, is a thorough discussion of Darwinian theories which would include criticism raised by legitimate scientists.
...they want nothing to do with Buttars' so-called "divine design."
"We wish [Buttars] would get the name right and not propose something he doesn't understand," West says.
If that's really all that you want, what is the big deal? Isn't that what science is? Wouldn't any honest scientist discuss problems with Evolutionary Theory? Have you ever heard it called anything other than a theory? Isn't it always under scrutiny and refinement as we learn more about our world? What really is the agenda of ID proponents, since, if their claims are honest, they are really agitating for science to be more, well, scientific.
The problem is, their claims are not honest. It is not sufficient to admit there are gaps in the Theory of Evolution. No one has ever claimed otherwise. ID proponents want it to be taught that when man's understanding falls short, it must be because a greater intelligence has outsmarted us. But what does that get us? Absolutely nothing. How far would we be today if we had just assumed that disease was the result of an Intelligent Designer and had not kept looking until we found microbes and viruses mucking about with our biology?
The belief in an "Intelligent Designer" is, in an of itself, mostly harmless, as long as one has enough integrity to continue to question, to continue to search. But that is not what religion, for the most part, is about. Telling is this question from the defense in the ID trial.
"Would you agree that Darwin's theory is not the absolute truth?"
One cannot dispute "absolute truth." Indeed, the radical elements of any tradition, are all about being Right, no ifs, ands or buts. Hence the sacrilege implied in the disinterest of science in truth it cannot validate. Science is about understanding our natural world. Science is about validating assumptions through experimentation and observation, and, frankly, God brings nothing to that table. If you ask me, He doesn't want to be involved. He wants us to learn and grow on our own, without His intervention. To my mind, man's greatest potential is to become smarter, wiser and kinder than he is today. Science belongs in the classroom. God belongs in church. It is up to the individual to find the common ground between them.
I remember the last time I was in Vegas watching the fountains in front of the Bellagio. You've got to admit it's an amazing show. I remember thinking God would be impressed. I turned to my friend who was there with me and said, "You know, sometimes I think God is looking down on things like these fountains and gets excited, saying to Himself, 'Oh, I can't wait to see what they do when they finally figure __________ out.'"
Confessions of a music junkie.
"Hello. My name is Sean and I'm a musiholic."
I listen to music all the time. I wear headphones at work, always have music on in the car, and most of the time when I am at home. I love my iPod. Music is in my blood somehow. There is just something about setting words to music that I gives it an extra punch. It's like a form of commuication that is understood instictively without the rational mind having to translate, dilute and/or impede.
As a result music plays a big role in the way I relate to and remember life. For example, in 1999 the Footloose album was re-released for the 15 year anniversary. I'd always enjoyed the music from that movie so I bought it. Listening to that album for the first time in many years was one of several defining moments in my decision to come out. Listening to Bonnie Tyler's "Holding Out For A Hero" inspired a vivid recollection of a young 17 year-old and his desires and hopes for love. I knew then if that song could make me feel at 32 exactly the way I felt at 17, after 8+ years of marriage and 5 years of therapy, there really was nothing that was going change.
Today a song came up on my play list I also haven't heard in a while. With over 2,500 tracks, it can be months before some songs manage to be shuffled to the top of the playlist. Probably because I'm rather tired today, this song also brought back some vivid feelings, this time from 1999 itself: the year my wife and I split, the year my life was in complete disarray, the year I spent rather angry with God.
I thought I saw a man brought to life
He was warm
He came around like he was diginified
He showed what it was to cry
Well, you couldn't be that man that I adored
You don't seem to know
Seem to care what your heart is for
But I don't know him anymore
There's nothing where he used to lie
Conversation has run dry
That's what's going onNothing's fine. I'm torn
I'm all out of faith
This is how I feel
I'm cold and I am shamed
Lying naked lying on the floor
Illusion never changed
Into something real
I'm wide awake
And I can see the perfect sky is torn
You're a little late
I'm already tornNatalie Imbruglia, "Torn"
Rita
I have a friend who lives in Dallas. He told me yesterday the traffic in Dallas was insane from all the people fleeing inland to escape Rita. He said all eight lanes of I-45 between Houston and Dallas are northbound. Hopefully I-10 over to San Antonio is the same story, since I doubt Dallas has room for the millions of people making a run for it. He also told me Houston is out of gas and that Galveston is expecting to be under 12 feet of water.
We can at least be grateful that Rita is slowing down a bit. Two days ago when I checked, she had winds at 175mph. Today they are "only" 140mph. With any luck she'll unwind a bit more before she actually hits land tomorrow morning.
Human beings what we are, we harbor this belief that we should be smart enough to do something about this. Surely man can figure out a way to slow down a hurricane. We tried. The project, Stormfury, was started in the early 60s and abandoned 20-some years and a few hundred million dollars later. The answer is no, in fact, we cannot.
Occasionally, somebody suggests detonating a nuclear weapon to shatter a storm.
Researchers say hurricanes would dwarf such measures. For example, Hurricane Rita measures about 400 miles across.
According to the center for atmospheric research, the heat energy released by a hurricane equals 50 to 200 trillion watts or about the same amount of energy released by exploding a 10-megaton nuclear bomb every 20 minutes.
Damn.
I'm waiting to see who the right wingnuts find to blame for Rita. Galveston doesn't have Southern Decadence. No Mardi Gras. How are they going to justify God taking out Bible thumping, conservative Texas? Didn't they recently introduce legislation to outlaw suggestive cheer-leading outfits? That should be ample evidence of their Christian sincerity. I'm going to say it's because Texas is too tolerant of and hasn't jailed all those homosexuals living in Houston, because, you know, God doesn't tolerate weakness or failure. That whole thing on the cross was just showing off.
Airline Econonmics
Delta and Northwest have joined the ranks of airlines in bankruptcy. There are two op eds in USA Today on the subject. One decries Chapter 11 as "business as usual." The other defends bankruptcy and cites deregulation as the real demon behind all the airline bankruptcies. I suppose I end up falling more on the side of the abuse of Chapter 11 than otherwise, mostly because the arguments made from the other viewpoint don't make much sense to me. The contention that airline deregulation is the boogeyman in this scenario strikes me as a bit odd. That was almost 20 years ago wasn't it?
Unsure of when exactly the airlines were deregulated (1978), I ended up at the Library of Economics and Liberty reading an article by Alfred E. Kahn. While he does seem to present a fairly balanced assessment of the effects of airline regulation I have to quibble with his tendency to wax rhapsodic about falling ticket prices and airline efficiency. Why have prices fallen? Is it because of airline efficiency? No. It's the result of cutting service. Had the level of comfort and service remained the same and ticket prices had gone down, we could extol the virtues of efficiency in a free market. He also contends that since consumers have flocked to discount airlines, reduced service must be okay with them.
Ummmm. No.
I hate flying Southwest. I would much rather fly Delta. Unfortunately economic considerations do not allow me that luxury. Rising gas prices have slowly been eating away my budget. (Not so slowly the last six months...and, no, I do not drive an SUV.) So have my daughter's braces, to give two examples. Unfortunately, thanks to the ragged economy, my income has not been going up to compensate. I don't fly often and when I do, I have to find the cheapest ticket I can; not because I enjoy being packed into flying sardine can or even that I'm even okay with it. My economic reality leaves me little choice. While I continue to see blurbs in the news about the economy turning around and growing stronger, it hasn't strengthened my paycheck yet. In fact, based on what I've seen on monster.com and dice.com, I'm doing good to be getting the salary I am.
And why was there no mention of 9/11 in these articles? Does the fact that the travel industry tanked after 9/11 and never really rebounded have no bearing? People—foolishly, in my opinion—were afraid to fly. Business travel, the life blood of the airline industry, was severely curtailed and companies learned to live with conference calls. Even after fears of flying abated, the economy was still in the toilet and it just made good business sense to do with less air travel.
If you want to blame deregulation, I would think 15+ years would be plenty of time for a well managed company to adjust its business practices. American seems to be doing okay and seems to be the only "legacy" carrier to have avoided Chapter 11. Allowing such wide use of Chapter 11 does seem unfair to companies like American who have managed to stay solvent through smart business choices. I also find resonance in the observation that the government's new "get tough" bankruptcy laws are focused on individuals and continue to give corporations a free pass. Still, it seems to me that 9/11 is a much more likely cause of current airline woes.
I don't pretend to understand the economics of the airline industry in any way shape or form. I can't even begin to evaluate the business practices of these airlines. I tend to agree with the supposition that Chapter 11 is indeed a option of last resort and companies will try and avoid it whenever possible. Even for the unfortunate employees of United, a job with no pension seems better than no job and no pension. I also wonder what would happen if Delta folded. As tight as money seems to be in this industry does American or Southwest have the capital and resources to take up the slack? Would we want them to? Somehow, I don't think we would.
I don't really know what the answers are here. I suppose the market will eventually stabilize. Given current trends, however, I'm still waiting for them to rename coach to something more appropriate, say, Cattle Class.
I couldn’t resist.
I actually consider myself pretty much 50/50. There are 10 questions with either/or answers. In some cases, I couldn't really give an accurate answer because—you guessed it—I'm in the middle.
Drinking from a firehose.
There is so much unbelievable crap out there I hardly know where to begin, but I'll start here. I don't pretend to be a foreign policy expert, but does this whole North Korea thing sound completely bass ackwards to anyone else? Can someone explain to me the nuance here? I realize the analogy is imperfect, but parenting is the only frame of reference I have so bear with me.
Let's say there is a rule in the house: There shall be no drawing upon the walls in permanent black ink. If you discover your 9 year old child drawing on the wall in permanent black ink, it is likely you will tell that child to desist immediately. If your child counters your demands by saying s/he will desist if certain concessions concerning allowance and bed time are made, would you feel inclined to bargain?
Never mind feeling inclined. What kind of parenting is that? This isn't even a case of the child exploiting a loop hole in the rules and drawing on the wall in permanent red ink. What exactly are you teaching this child? That it's okay to break the rules so you can gain leverage in policy discussions? And if you actually bargain with the child, what are you teaching the child's siblings? The seven year old watches this whole exchange and immediately embarks on a quest to find a black marker, assuming the step has been taken to secure all black markers in the house.
It's not like North Korea abstained from signing the treaty like Israel, India and Pakistan. I'm sorry, but what is the point of a treaty if a signatory can decide later they don't want to play anymore? Why doesn't anyone have the gonads to say, "The rule is: No weapons grade radioactive materials. Either you allow us to confirm to our satisfaction that you are not producing any proscribed materials or we will bomb your reactors into oblivion to make sure you are in compliance." I suppose the fact that U.N. treaties are more like marketing bulletins should give me some clue.
Pet Peeve #17
How come people slow down to 60 mph when there is a cop hiding in the median? The speed limit is sixty-five. He is not going to pull you over for doing the speed limit! He's not even going to pull you over for the rebellious, hell-raising, your-mother-taught-you-better speed of 70 mph, so what's the deal?
Are cops really that scary? Do you have a pathological fear of cops? Men in uniform? Flashing blue and red lights?
Maybe you're from L.A. and suffering post traumatic stress disorder.
Maybe it's a guilty conscience. Are you on probation? Driving on a suspended license? Did you leave your stash in the trunk?
OR ARE YOU JUST STUPID?
R.I.P.
Susan Anne Catherine Torres, the worlds lastest miracle baby, died over the weekend, succumbing to complications related to her premature birth.
I'm sure you have all heard the story of how her mother, Susan Rollin Torres, succumbed to terminal brain cancer 15 weeks pregnant with her daughter. The family kept her body alive for several months hoping to save the baby.
What a terrible blow for the Torres family. For those of you who pray, say a prayer for them. For those who don't, send whatever postive vibes you can their way.