Centrist, I am*
Now you can take the quiz to see where you land on the grid of political philosophy.

*Centrists favor selective government intervention and emphasize practical solutions to current problems. They tend to keep an open mind on new issues. Many centrists feel that government serves as a check on excessive liberty.
- posted by Chris @ 3:04 PM

 
In between shopping ... Blogging from WiFi space
On a Saturday, even! On the weekend after Thanksgiving ... I've already been to the mall. I have some ideas for the holiday gift season now, but ohmigod, the people, the spending, the insanity. I saw one man holding a spot, standing, in front of a store, bags collecting around his feet. He had a glazed kind of smile on his face, like he wasn't quite sure where he was. Self-defense mechanism?
Next thought: what's with all those mongo baby strollers? I know I've taken my little sister's kids for a spin in one, but not in a KBToys, where the aisles aren't even that wide! And are some parents aiming for walkers' knees? Poor kids. Exposed to that at such a vulnerable age.
- posted by Chris @ 2:44 PM

 
Good stuff ... Part 2
"Mexifornia"??? I live in a border state, near the border. I see the faces of a different culture everywhere, everyday, and they're usually doing hard, sweaty, dirty grunt work. I'm grateful for their labor (while feeling guilty, usually), but I can't help but wish I knew they were here legally, choosing to become citizens, not existing below the radar as unrecognized guest workers.

Then I read a flyer from the rather conservative Hillsdale College. Sometimes I really like what I read there, like the November 2003 essay (linked at the beginning of this post) adapted from a lecture given by Victor Davis Hanson, a professor of classics at Cal State/Fresno.

There was a time, no so long ago, when we Americans understood that newcomers did not need to be taught in their own language in our schools. Even less did we believe that their children required special classes in ethnic pride or separate, race-based college graduation ceremonies. ...We believed in American civic education for immigrants, which, combined with intermarriage, integration and popular culture, led to rapid parity for those immigrants' children in terms of education, income and influence.

He goes on to discuss the impact of illegal immigration, including the unintendend conquences of the crisis (both economic and moral), and ends with:

Thus we need not do everything right, but simply return to what we used to do so well: insist that immigration be measured and legal, do more of our own unpleasant work, enforce all of our laws equally, emphasize assimilation and return to thinking and speaking of Americans as individuals rather than in terms of their racial or group identities.

Read the whole thing for the full effect.
- posted by Chris @ 11:12 AM

 
Good stuff all over the place ... Part 1
I recommend the December issue of Vanity Fair (no online version, sorry) for its article about the USAF Academy rape scandal. Winds of Change had a really good wrap-up of the situation, but the VF article puts faces on it.

I know men and women who went to the Academy; some of them are my very best friends. I went to school in Colorado Springs and dated cadets (was even married briefly to a grad). I never heard anything about rape going on, but then, why would I? It happens way below the radar, everywhere, and only exceptional courage from the victims brings it up into view.

These were young women of talent and strength, who put themselves into a hostile environment by applying to join the corps of cadets. (I know enough to know that academies are still hostile to women in general (? on principle), despite the best efforts of some really good men and women to change things.) They tried to get along with the system, and it stomped on them.

The lesson? When the system sucks, hit back, hard. There's no excuse for restricting women from serving their country, even in combat operations. Wars are fought for purposes and principles, and our leaders should use the best tools available. However, the tools shouldn't determine who gets to fight. Adapt the tools when necessary. Adapt the strategy to make use of available resources.

Adapt, adapt, adapt, dammit. Or clear the field.
- posted by Chris @ 10:56 AM

 
Constitutional and Contractual law
A Good Oman is discussing law in a fashion that's mostly above my head, but what I think is going on is macro vs micro law. Macro is what makes our society and its government work, micro is what makes us behave with each other.

With all the talk going on today about Massachusetts' gay marriage court decision, and the possibility of a Constitutional amendment formalizing one man-one woman marriage as the only government-sanctioned version of commitment, I've been pondering the role of government in our lives, and by extension, what kind of laws we should have to create the best possible forum for all of us to live, work, play, create, etc.

I have to ponder a little more ... more later
- posted by Chris @ 4:13 PM

 
PJ O'Rourke Says It Really Well
In this interview, political observer/humorist/satirist/commentator/etc. PJ says very well what I've been pondering all weekend. Can we really make the world any better? Or do we in America live in some kind of experiential bubble, an anomaly that could burst at any surprising moment?

Within (near the end, actually) there's this nugget:

When you look at a chaotic region like the Middle East, what you're really seeing is most of human history, and some parts of America and some parts of Europe and a few parts of Asia are glaring exceptions. The kind of peaceful, productive, incredibly wealthy life that we live in these few areas around the world—this has only been going on for a nanosecond as time goes. It's so exceptional I'm not even sure what it means. The whole world might degenerate back into the Middle East, because that's what it's always been. And you can't solve the problem of the Middle East, because it's not a problem, it's a condition. It's the normal condition of mankind.

Sigh. Can't find an argument with his point. Maybe that's why chocolate exists?
- posted by Chris @ 3:27 PM

 
Blow-viating Senatorium
LILEKS writes:

I think it had to do with listening to the Senate debate, if that word applies, and wondering: are they always this banal? This condescending? Are bloviating prevarications the rule rather than the exception? In short: is the world’s greatest deliberative body really filled with this many dim bulbs, card sharps and overstroked dolts who confuse a leaden pause with great rhetoric? If everyone in America had been tied to a chair and forced to watch the debate Clockwork-Orange style, we’d all realize that the Senate is just a holding tank for people whose self-regard and cretinous reasoning is matched only by their demonstrable contempt for the idiots they think will lap this crap up.

You go, JL!

39 hours?!? They spent 39 hours talking about 4 marginal judicial appointments out of almost 200?!? Just a few short years ago, weren't these same damn Republicans trying to short-circuit the confirmations of politically moderate candidates for judicial positions nominated by a Democratic president (and even then attempting to hold moral high ground)? Senators, while some seem to serve forever, actually come and go. Judges, for the most part, don't. Yep, it's pretty important to pay attention to who's being nominated. But not 39 hours worth of Senate time when there's business to take care of (appropriations bills, for one thing). And the whole show of an uninterrupted stream-of-consciousness sort-of-debate thing? All that hype for all that hot air. No wonder talented people avoid politics. It destroys talent. And then makes us watch.
- posted by Chris @ 10:17 AM

 
Spirit vs. Letter
It sure would be nice if more of us, especially those who seek to lead or judge, would be more interested in exemplifying the spirit of religion and less willing to force the letter of evolved traditions down our throats.
- posted by Chris @ 8:36 AM

 
"The Opt-Out Revolution"
"Why don't women run the world? Maybe it's because they don't want to."

Maybe we don't want to run the world as it is .... in systems and structures that don't mesh with the realities of a woman's biological roles and responsibilities. I definitely want to participate in making big decisions about how the world should work, but I don't want to have to make those decisions "as a man would."

The real problem isn't why so many talented and smart women are "opting out" of the "real" world. The problem is that the "real" world doesn't fully recognize and utilize the talents, strengths, intelligence and experiences of women.

Yes, men and women are different. This doesn't mean that one group has to let the other make all the decisions in one sphere of influence. It's all about balance, isn't it?

There is one more thing I have to say about this article: How many women do you think have the real option to "opt out"? Can we have a follow-up piece, please, on all those women who don't have the option, and are still trying to work within a system that, fundamentally, disparages them?
- posted by Chris @ 8:40 AM

 
This guy doesn't just draw ...
The Nov/Dec 2003 issue of CJR included an article (sorry, no link) adapted from the recent book by political cartoonist Doug Marlette wherein I spied this meaty nugget:

With the rise of the bottom-line culture and the corporatization of newsgathering, tolerance itself has become commodified and denuded of its original purpose. Consequently, the best part of the America character -- our generous spirit, our sense of fair play -- has been turned against us. Tolerance has become a tool of coercion, of institutional inhibition, of bureaucratic self-preservation. We all should take pride in how this country for the most part curbed the instinct to lash out at Arab-Americans in the wake of 9/11. One of the great strengths of this nation is our sensitivity to the tyranny of the majority, our sense of justice for all. But the First Amendment, the miracle of our system, is not just a passive shield of protection. In order to maintain our true, nationally defining diversity, it obligates journalists to be bold, writers to be full-throated and uninhibited, and those blunt instruments of the free press, cartoonists like me, not to self-censor. We must use it or lose it.

Amen!

To get the book, go here and look for What Would Marlette Drive? in their "Our Titles" section.
- posted by Chris @ 2:32 PM

 
"But we're Americans. We neither study history nor learn from it."
Orson Scott Card's recent essay on why we need to be in Iraq and Afghanistan right now is a good one! Except that his conclusion (quoted in the title of this entry) is too true.

Maybe it will help to pass around this idea wherever possible? Let's really talk to each other, even if we're doing it between machines over ribbons of light and energy.
- posted by Chris @ 10:49 AM

 
President Bush Discusses Freedom in Iraq and Middle East
Yea! A presidential speech worth reading

I would like to commend the speechwriters who came up with this gem ... it is a succinct expression of some of the best ideas America is in a position to demonstrate.

Just a taste:

There are, however, essential principles common to every successful society, in every culture. Successful societies limit the power of the state and the power of the military -- so that governments respond to the will of the people, and not the will of an elite. Successful societies protect freedom with the consistent and impartial rule of law, instead of selecting applying -- selectively applying the law to punish political opponents. Successful societies allow room for healthy civic institutions -- for political parties and labor unions and independent newspapers and broadcast media. Successful societies guarantee religious liberty -- the right to serve and honor God without fear of persecution. Successful societies privatize their economies, and secure the rights of property. They prohibit and punish official corruption, and invest in the health and education of their people. They recognize the rights of women. And instead of directing hatred and resentment against others, successful societies appeal to the hopes of their own people.

Now ... let's make sure we continue to apply and respect these principles at home!
- posted by Chris @ 10:25 AM

 
A good essay on our purpose in Iraq
From Citizen Smash - The Indepundit

It starts like this:

WE ARE ENGAGED in a military occupation of a foreign land. Such occupations are always bloody and troublesome. This war may appear to some to be a hopeless quagmire, with no end in sight. It’s especially important, therefore, for us to remind ourselves what we are trying to accomplish – and to remember who we are.

and gets better (when I went to the site, I had to scroll down for a bit)...
- posted by Chris @ 4:49 PM

 
People, not things
This post @Across the Atlantic references another (du Toit's temporary link) that I read yesterday about the "feminization" of our culture.

Is this a question of a pendulum swinging? Has it swung too far, or not enough? Is there a way to bring the situation into balance? (Yes, of course there is, unless the human race self-destructs first.)

I like this point, at the Across the Atlantic link:

It's not the pussification of men. It's the androgenization of men and women. It isn't the Battle of the Sexes. It's a battle of ideologies. Not left vs. right or Dems vs. Pubs, but Socialism vs. Individual Responsibility. And there are women, and men, on both sides of the divide.

I think the du Toit rant also makes some good points ... buried in the venom he unleashes against what I see as a cultural correction in favor of treating women as persons.

Our culture is dominated the cumulative consequences of many, many individual decisions. When I trash all men for the behavior of a few, I'm participating in this culture decision, not in a good way. I'm on the lookout for this in my thinking, and I'm trying to get past it. When a man thinks it's okay to treat any woman as an object, he's participating in the disgrace of our culture, and yes, I'm going to hold him accountable. We have to see the pattern of our decisions. It requires a broader vision, a willingness to hold conflicting ideas in our minds as we investigate our participation and the consequences of our actions.

There are actions that it is reasonable to expect the government to take, as it has the scope and resources to accomplish large tasks. But the ultimate responsibility is individual. We have to take the initiative to understand the world and our place in it, as well as our ability and responsibility to shape it.


- posted by Chris @ 10:49 AM

 
Voting
I live in the city now, so I get to vote in today's municipal election! Problem? I have no idea how to vote. It seems like there are only "not so bad" choices, instead of a clear "good" choice. So many decisions seem like that these days. Is that what democracy evolves into, when much of the machinery has become automated yet cumbersome, and decisions don't seem to carry much weight? Yep, woke up on the cynical side of the bed this morning. But still grateful that I have the opportunity to vote, in an odd way.
- posted by Chris @ 4:50 PM

 
Too lazy to blog on the weekends!
Even though ideas come fast and furious during some segments of downtime, I'm just too damn lazy to blog them:
1. Closet organization. Sunday afternoon at Lowe's Home Improvement. Serious growth industry evidence here. And the hot dog cart in front, I shoulda stopped!
2. Halloween parties. Costume was very simple (a few makeup whiskers, a headband I could put ears on) because it was very depressing looking for ideas in the battered remnants of the costume aisle in Target. What is it about putting on a costume that makes conversation go in strange directions?
3. Finally, fall weather in the desert.
4. Movies: The Governess: full frontal (male) nudity. Hmm. Change of pace for the industry. Matrix II: too heavy on the prophecy aspect. Too heavy on the "savior" thing. Deliberately, I'm sure, because the denouement was worth the time invested. I'm actually looking forward to III .... guess that means the Wachowskis did their job rather well.
5. I'm sure there was more. How else did the weekend fly by so quickly?
- posted by Chris @ 4:49 PM