Michael Kinsley says: W got into Yale based on a sort of affirmative action as well
If our President had the slightest sense of irony, he might have paused to ask himself, "Wait a minute. How did I get into Yale?" It wasn't because of any academic achievement: his high school record was ordinary. It wasn't because of his life experience - prosperous family, fancy prep school - which was all too familiar at Yale. It wasn't his SAT scores: 566 verbal and 640 math.George W. Bush, in fact, may be the most spectacular affirmative-action success story of all time. Until 1994, when he was 48 years old and got elected Governor of Texas, his life was almost empty of accomplishments. Yet bloodlines and connections had put him into Andover, Yale and Harvard Business School, and even finally provided him with a fortune after years of business disappointments. Intelligence, hard work and the other qualities associated with the concept of merit had almost nothing to do with Bush's life and success up to that point. And yet seven years later he was President of the U.S.
| George W. Bush | Affirmative Action | Legacies |
X-Ray Pix of Calculators. Via Dee X Boy.
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INS destroyed thousands of documents to "eliminate" backlogOf course, many of those in LA, from Arabic countries, who were out of status due to the INS backlog have been detained. Let's see, you play by the rules, the INS destroys all of your papers, and you get arrested, given no food, not allowed to take your medicine, hosed down with a fire hose, and made to sleep on a concrete floor with no blankets. Due Process anyone?Tens of thousands of pieces of mail come into the huge Immigration and Naturalization Service data processing center in Laguna Niguel, Calif., every day, and as at so many government agencies, it tends to pile up. One manager there had a system to get rid of the vexing backlog, federal officials say. This week the manager was charged with illegally shredding as many as 90,000 documents.
And what about everyone else who lost *all* of their documents and are now out of process ? How can you get back into the system once they've destroyed your birth certificate?
| Immigration |
Down below, an offhand comment from Colin led to a spirited debate about SUVs that led me to do a little research on the much debated "safety" of SUVs. Before I could publish my opus, those rat-bastards at the New York Times trumped me by coming out with a fairly good article on the subject this morning.
No one really debates the environmental issues with SUVs: They guzzle way too much gas, pollute like a son-of-gun, and are generally the worst thing to happen to roads since the Patrick Swayze film "Roadhouse". They are so bad on the environment, even the conservatives are starting to turn on them - check out Ariana Huffington's Detroit Project, which accuses Americans who drive SUVs of increasing our dependance on Middle East oil and (taking a page from the Drug Wars) indirectly supporting terrorists. Nice to see the right coming up with an answer to the fuel consumption problem that doesn't only involve Alaska.
But the rationale has always been that the increased pollution and decreased fuel efficiency is worth it because SUVs are so much "safer" than normal cars (or, god forbid, small cars) - and who wouldn't pay a few more cents at the pump to keep Billy from dying a horrible death in the backseat of a Mini-Cooper? True enough - kind of. You see, SUVs create a nice little prisoner's dilemma: the reason they are "safer" is because they cause more deaths to all smaller cars, making their fatality statistics go up, and making SUV fatality statistics look good in comparison. It would be kind of like if the New York City police dealt with a high murder rate by going over to Brooklyn and shooting a lot of people to raise the neighboring murder rate. Still, the fact is, on an individual level, you should buy an SUV, because they are safer - assuming you don't roll it over, or hit something equally large or larger. Well, really you should buy a huge pickup truck - those are even "safer" than SUVs (using the same comparative logic), but Soccer Mom won't stand for that - at least not until Porsche makes one. The problem is, on a collective level, if we all followed that logic, the 'safety' factor would evaporate, simply because we would run out of smaller cars to crush - once everyone is driving an SUV, the Hummers become the "safe" cars. Then, you can move on to the Godzilla SUV. Eventually, we can all drive Bradley tanks - which is probably a better idea than deploying them in the battlefield where good soldiers might be put at risk by these too-slow dogs.
In my mind, this is a perfect area for legislation: The market will have a hard time correcting this race for the "biggest, heaviest," because individually, driving an SUV is a smart choice, but collectively, it gets disasterous. Ban SUV's? Well, that's not going to happen, so let's get real: How about tougher fuel standards? Weight-based auto taxes? Tougher emission standards? One random SUV owner every year sacrificed on national televison in a 'reality television - lottery' hybrid? A death penalty for SUV drivers? I'm open to reasonable suggestions . . .
If you want to know more about SUV safety, you Salon fans have an article to read, and you public television fans can turn to Frontline's examination of the issue.
If you want more Anti-SUV info, try this link to a site with an agenda, but also some good information culled from the NHSTA, among others. If you are one of those dopes who thinks vandalism is a great way to serve the public, you can become an SUV "Tagger" and affix things like bumper stickers and fake parking tickets to SUVs. But if you get shot, I'm not going to feel real bad for you.
If you want to hear the other side? Well, not a lot out there - people don't feel a need to talk about them, they just buy 'em and drive 'em. But you could start with SUV One or suv.com to start your quest.
| SUVs |
For those who would like to do something affirmative to make a stand against the war we are all being told is inevitable, there is to be a dual rally on February 15 in New York and San Francisco. If you're ambivalent about the war, come. If you’re not sure you agree with all the groups likely to be there, come. The pro-war people are sure to conceal their disagreements to make war; those of us against it should try to put aside ours.
| Peace | Protests | Free Speech |
A Journal for Human Research Subjects. I'm unemployed, but hopefully it won't come to this.
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M_____ writes:
On the heels of MLK Day, an L.A. Times series examines the phenomenal rate of black-on-black murder in that city. Per 100K of the population, 177 blacks are murdered annually, compared to 40 Latinos, and 10 whites. In each of the last 5 years, 40% of victims are black, while blacks are just 11% of the city's population - and shrinking.
The series notes:
Authorities say most [virtually all] black homicide victims die at the hands of other blacks. Witnesses often are afraid to step forward. Few killers are caught. They live alongside law-abiding neighbors, bragging, bullying, daring justice. Or they have been killed themselves.And this as Latinos have surpassed blacks as the nation's largest "minority" - a decade-old milestone in California. The silence from black leaders is deafening. What's up?The homicide problem is baffling to many African Americans, a demoralizing coda to the black struggle against oppression. 'We are committing suicide,' said Carlton Mitchell, an Inglewood carpenter whose brother, Paul, was gunned down outside a South-Central hamburger stand. 'We don't have to worry about other races doing it to us. We are self-destructing.'
| Los Angeles | Race & Ethnicity | Guest: M_____ |
That's like putting Ted Kaczynski in charge of the US Postal Service!Heard on NPR, sometime this past weekend....
| Human Rights | United Nations |
Following our whole Trent Lott as Janeane Garofalo debate earlier, it's interesting to read an interview with her on CNN. I thought it was pretty great. Here's an exerpt:
Now, another thing I'd like to bring up, if I may, that is a glaring hypocrisy. George W. Bush is vehemently pro-life, seeks to overturn Roe v. Wade -- well, not -- seeks to ban scientific research as pertains to stem cell research, cloning, because of the sanctity of human life.After trying not to take her points seriously, CNN ends with this solemn lead in to the next story.Yet at the same time he is asking us to drop bombs on Iraqi civilians. According to the United Nations, up to 1 million people will be killed and/or wounded in this war.
So, apparently, if you are pre-sentient mass of cells, this country will protect you and your rights to the n-th degree. If you have made the mistake of becoming an Iraqi citizen, apparently we can just drop bombs on you with impunity.
When we come back, a controversial sex sting involving a former U.N. weapons inspector who now argues against war with Iraq. Are the media ignoring the story? That's next.
| Janeane Garofalo | Hypocrisy | Pro-Life |
But watch out for the telomeres.
A pdf of Watson and Crick's 1953 publication available here.
| Genetics | History |
Driving at night toward Pennsylvania, I heard an interview with the head of Language Removal Services, which provides a "completely non-invasive procedure" to remove one's language (don't worry, it's reversible) and create a "profound portrait of the person involved." You can listen to some of the celebrities who have had this procedure performed, including Marilyn Monroe and Thelonius Monk. The interview included a call-in contest to identify celebrities based on their language-less audio clips; I completely failed to recognize any of them. Call to get your language removed today!
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According to today's NYT article on Internet Dating:
"In all these campaigns, do not expect the online services to reveal any of their flaws, however. One major drawback, according to Marketdata Enterprises, is that about 30 percent of the people using the services are married. "
Maybe they liked it so much they just coming back for more !
| Marriage |
Kids in Cars, from the Washington Post. Hrm -- this wouldn't have anything to do with our obesity epidemic, eh ? Residential areas designed so that a car is essential, kids and parents both stop walking, watch more TV, and eat higher calorie food (OK -- the last one isn't a direct result of suburbia, but it is something I remember from my trips there). Does this have anything to do with zoning perhaps ? Nah.
| Suburbia | Health |
"A third of Australia's world-leading astronomy program was wiped out at the weekend when the Canberra bushfires gutted the Mount Stromlo Observatory. The flames destroyed five telescopes, the workshop, eight staff homes and the main dome, causing more than $20 million in damage."
This is just one of many tragedies in this terrible disaster, which was, arguably, caused in part by global warming. There's no shortage of suffering going on down there, of course, but, for some reason, the photos of the observatory are unexpectedly compelling. Something about the failure of human knowledge to protect itself. Anyway, here are a few links from our friends the Viridians:
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"Astronomy projects in ruins as observatory obliterated"
"Historic Australian observatory gutted"
Dome photo
Canberra Fires gallery
"What a small tactical nuke might look like"
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And, at the risk of descending into the totally absurd (not my original intent with this post), it appears that continued temperature increases will put us at risk of being taken over by giant squid. Now really, who wants that? Shut off that SUV, you.
| Environment |
Powell Says U.S. Ready for Solo War on Iraq
Powell: U.S. Has No Intention of Attacking N.Korea
| War | North Korea |
Gary Hart's excellent speech to the Council on Foreign Relations on foreign policy is printed in its entirety here, on Salon. A really, really thoughtful piece of writing on the foreign policy challenges facing us now. It's sad that his extramarital escapades have turned him into a joke. If you're a Republican, it's OK to be arrested 3 times (including 1 DUI) and have fake-ID-using daughters if you want to run for President, but if you're a Democrat, you can't have a troublesome marriage. Anyway, read the article. It's everything that's missing from not only the White House but the media in general.
| War | Peace |
So the line's busy when I call this number. But it seems like a good idea. If you get through, can you leave a message in the comments field?
The Bush White House has an "opinion" line for you to call. Please give your opinion about the potential war in Iraq. The line only accepts calls from 9-5 EST., Monday through Friday. Just call the White House at 202-456-1111.A machine will detain you for only a moment and then a pleasant live operator will thank you for saying "I oppose" or "I approve." It will only take minutes. Note that the weekends are closed for calls. The president has said that he wants to know what the American people are thinking. Let him know. Time is running out. Tell them what you think: 1 PHONE CALL EQUALS 10-20 PEOPLE WHO DIDN'T CALL, PLEASE PASS ON TO FRIENDS
| Activism | Iraq |
Unreal Tournament 2003 | True Christian Maps Now Available! Local Christian computer whiz kid and self-proclaimed, Jesus Geek,Timothy Huxton, spent the last four months tweaking his UPaint Software and UT2003 editor to create what he calls, the first True Christian(r) mod of its kind on the internet. "Timothy stayed up way past his curfew to get this done," remarked Pastor Deacon Fred. "And this is the first good thing that ever came out of a child who stayed up past midnight." Nevertheless, Timothy's mother will have to pay a $200.00 fine for accumulating curfew violations and because her son skipped Sunday School last week to FTP the final version of his 200 MEG Spattered in the Blood of Christ Map to the church LAN.
| Humor | Christian Evangelicals | Landover Baptist Church |
You will all be pleased to know that "The Cheeky Girls" have climbed to #2 on the British charts with their hit single "Touch My Bum." They have been on the charts for weeks - #1 is in sight!
Here are some sample lyrics: "I never ever ask where do you go. I never ever ask what do you do. I never ever ask what's in your mind. I never ever ask if you'll be mine. Come and smile, don't be shy. Touch my bum, this is life. Oooooh. We are the cheeky girls, we are the cheeky girls. You are the cheeky boys, you are the cheeky boys."
They are, of course, from Cluj, Transylvania. But aren't all the good music acts?
They studied at Romania's exclusive College for Choreography and Dramatic Art, but are hoping to go to law school soon. I sure wish they had gone to mine!
I encourage you all to embrace them, and their life philosophy: Touch my bum, this is life.
All you Ishbadiddle junkies will be happy to know that the 1,000th comment was posted sometime this week. Rock on!
*_*
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In December, the World Question Center sent out a query to a group which they call the "third culture" and which I, for simplicity's sake, will call "public intellectuals." The email asked them to think of themselves as the nation's next presidential science advisor, and to answer the following question from George W. Bush:
"What are the pressing scientific issues for the nation and the world, and what is your advice on how I can begin to deal with them?"
About 100 people responded. I liked this response from Marvin Minsky at MIT.
Mr. President:My idea is that the whole "Homeland Defense" thing is too cost-ineffective to be plausible. The lifetime cost of, for example, preventing each airplane-crash fatality will be the order of $100,000,000-and we could save a thousand times as many lives at the same cost by various simple public-health measures.
Conclusion: what we really need is a "Homeland Arithmetic" reorganization.
Yours truly,
Marvin Minsky
| Homeland Security | Marvin Minsky |
Remember how things were going to change once we bombed the crap out of Afghanistan? Well, now that we've swept Osama bin Laden under the rug--oh yeah, that guy--seems we can get on with the war against Saddam Hussein. I mean terrorism. So a bunch of civilians died and more mines were laid and a government was installed, but now nobody cares. So here are a few updates. From the IHT
In the city of Herat in western Afghanistan, the government of the warlord Ismail Khan recently applied new rules rolling back educational opportunities for women and girls. Men may no longer teach women or girls in private classes. Girls and boys are no longer allowed to be in school buildings at the same time. The effect of the ban will be to block many women and girls from attending private courses. There is a shortage of women teachers; almost all the teachers in private courses are men.The Kansas City Star writes
There have been no major military battles in Afghanistan since March, but rival warlords continue to fight, and al-Qaida and Taliban sympathizers remain in the areas bordering Pakistan in the southeast.And CSM reports on the long-term prospects for Karzai.
But while casting aside Badsha Khan was relatively easy - the US simply stopped paying him for joint operations - the same move will be difficult in other parts of the country where warlords and powerbrokers are more deeply entrenched and where the central government has little manpower to assert its will. The problem with Karzai's plan, Mr. Rashid notes, is that the president has little power of his own to assert. The new Afghan National Army now has only seven battalions, each composed of about 500 freshly trained but poorly paid men, scattered across the country. This makes him reliant on US forces, which have largely stayed out of domestic political squabbles unless they pertain directly to eliminating Taliban or Al Qaeda holdouts.In case you're wondering, Khan fought alongside the US. As the story also writes
Afghan officials privately fret that the one-time foe of Al Qaeda could switch sides and fight against both the Afghan government and US forces.Something to think about as we get more and more entangled. I actually don't have a problem with nation building. I do have a problem with starting something and not finishing it. We didn't get bin Laden and Afghanis aren't any better off. I'd ask if we shouldn't learn from this, but, of course, we didn't during the first Bush Gulf War. Sigh.
| 9/11 | Terrorism |
They Rule aims to make some of the relationships of the elite of the US ruling class visible. It allows users to browse through the interlocking directories of some of the most powerful American companies and easily run searches on them. If a user finds an interesting website about a company or director they can add it to a list of URLs relevant to that company or director. A user can save a map of connections complete with their annotations for others to view. Future users can then show approval for URLs and maps by submitting a vote. They Rule is a starting point for research about these powerful individuals and corporations.The people who made this site (Future Farmers), also made Co-mix Co-lab, which is interesting.
I know "oxymoron" means a phrase that contains apparently contradictory words, but is there a word for phrases that have come to mean the exact opposite of their literal meaning? If so, I'd like to suggest that "Reality Television" has made that leap, for we now understand that "Reality Television" no longer even tries to capture anything resembling reality.
Among my favorite "reality" shows is The Surreal Life, which answers the age-old question, what would have happened if M.C. Hammer, Corey Feldman, Emmanuel Lewis, and some other "less-prominent" stars (is that possible?) had lived together as roommates. And you have to be living under a rock to not know that the breakout reality hit this season is “Joe Millionaire”, a fine little show about a guy who makes $19,000 a year, claiming to be a multi-millionare (with a little help from Fox Network) to try to woo one of twenty eligible lasses (much to the chagrin of various well-intentioned though humorless groups).
But my new favorite phenomenon is tracking Stupid Reality Lawsuits. For example, Drew Cummings, a 50-year old college professor, is suing American Idol for age discrimination, claiming that he should have been given a chance to be the next Madonna. I'm sure he looks great in a g-string. Liza Minelli is suing because, apparently, her life is too boring to be considered "real," and she feels VH1's failure to make her the next Sharon Osborne is worth a cool $23 million. But my personal favorite? Bob Craft, a fellow who legally changed his name to "Jack Ass" in 1997, and is now suing the MTV show "Jackass" for $10 million for defaming his good name. You can defame a man named himself Jack Ass?
I'm thinking of suing American Idol too, for "talent discrimination." I know I could make it big, if only they would give me a chance!
| American Idol | Law | Celebrity |
Ah, the fine points of the law.
| Comics |
In honor of MLK's birthday (I know, I'm a day late), and because that ESPN subway ad campaign bothers me.
| Advertising | MLK |
We've taken to calling Ben's diaper checks "weapons inspections."
| Ben | Parenting |
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Rumsfeld is going all deconstructionist on us again. Here he is asserting that no evidence, is, in fact, evidence.
"The fact that the inspectors have not yet come up with new evidence of Iraq's WMD [weapons of mass destruction] program could be evidence, in and of itself, of Iraq's noncooperation," Rumsfeld said.
| Iraq | Lies | WMD |
Given Bush's opposition to affirmative action, perhaps it's not surprising that he renominated Pickering. But one of his other candidates, Jeffrey Sutton, is a complete wack job. Peep this article on Sutton.
Mr. Sutton has argued that the Constitution forbids Congress to authorize victims of discrimination to enforce their rights against states, whether in federal or state court. For example, in Board of Trustees v. Garrett, Mr. Sutton successfully argued before the U.S. Supreme Court that state employees with disabilities may not sue for employment discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Placing the rights of states over those of individuals, Mr. Sutton based his position on an unprecedented rejection of Congress' power to protect civil rights as well as a cavalier disregard of the extensive history Congress documented of the discrimination people with disabilities have suffered at the hands of the states, a history that five Supreme Court justices once described as "grotesque." Mr. Sutton made similar arguments that nullified individual enforcement against states in age- and religious discrimination cases.Before you kill yourself, however, read this hilarious article from the Onion: Bush on North Korea: 'We Must Invade Iraq'. (Thanks to atrios for rockin', as usual.)
The most telling polling result from the 2000 election was from a Time magazine survey that asked people if they are in the top 1 percent of earners. Nineteen percent of Americans say they are in the richest 1 percent and a further 20 percent expect to be someday. So right away you have 39 percent of Americans who thought that when Mr. Gore savaged a plan that favored the top 1 percent, he was taking a direct shot at them.
| Justice |
The Senate Republicans are hopping mad that Bush has cut them out of the decision making on Iraq, a history of which is here. Meanwhile the DoD is using spam as a psyops tool against Iraq; hopefully they'll be more successful than the awful leaflets we dropped on Afghanistan.
| War | George W. Bush | GOP | Military | Psyops | Propaganda |
| Gadgets |
I know you've all been eagerly awaiting my take on the dividend tax cut -- it's coming, as soon as I solve the North Korean situation and the city's fiscal crisis -- but right now I'm more interested in those $3,000 re-employment accounts. Many questions surround the proposal, but the main question I've got is: when do I get mine? That's right, friends, after 3 years my employment here at Project Renewal has come to an end. A somewhat abrupt end. I was informed on Friday that because of budget cuts (see, I knew I should have solved the city's fiscal crisis) the agency could no longer afford my services. It's a surprise but not a shock. The cuts are bad and will get worse, and I'm not running anything mission-critical here. I'm an easy way to reduce overhead. They're being rather nice about it -- a decent severance, use of my office, and (perhaps) some freelance grantwriting.
Most of you know that I haven't been happy here for a while. So it's a bit of a relief, in a way, to be free of a job that's made me unhappy. But the timing is a bit awkward. Since we won't know for several months whether we're staying in New York or not, based on Debbie's job situation, I can't actually look for a full-time permanent gig. (Plus, I'm planning to take June off, for the Arrival of the Deuce, so that also puts a crimp in my new employment plans.) Since this has all just happened I haven't figured out what's next in the short-term -- temping? freelance? consulting? ImprovEdge? Fortunately, we've got enough socked away to keep Ben in onesies for some time.
In the good news department, it looks like we're not going to be evicted from our apartment after all. I think all the time she's spending in Florida has mellowed our landlady, and it looks like we'll get an extension of our lease. So at least that's one thing that's not uncertain in the coming months.
Job offers may be left in the comments field.
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Check out the horrific California quarter designs and vote for one of 'em. "Not in this area?" How about "Not in my pocket?"
| Numismatics | California | Money |
...how we're going to pay for a war against Iraq and still cut taxes? That's easy! Let the Iraqis pay for it! And you're probably also wondering how Bush knows the economy is growing stronger every day? Simple! There are no more reports of mass layoffs! (Sure, it's because the feds don't compile the report any more....)
(Stories via cardhouse and randomWalks, respectively.)
| War | Tax Policy | Unemployment | George W. Bush |
This article--Fixed Opinions, or The Hinge of History--reminds me why Joan Didion's writings speak to me so much. I won't say any more, but would welcome a discussion of her points in the comments section.
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