Occum's Disposable Razor

Even the most ardent supporters of unfettered capitalism will concede that it fails to provide for any kind of structured growth. Planning beyond the next fiscal event horizon is impossible - but all of the shareholders fawn over the hockey-stick profitability chart, a totem of the future.

What has started to alarm me, as someone who believes in the free market, is how it has become easier almost too easy to build things anew. Instead of renovating an old house, instead of buying up the vacant strip-mall it's more attractive (in terms of capitalization) to build entirely fresh structures down the road. Pity any sucker who buys a home in a spanking-new sub-development and then is forced to sell it immediately for job or family reasons. Why buy the barely-used property when a new house is sprouting up next door?

The simplest explanation might be the most credible: It doesn't take a Nobel laureate economist to figure out that we aren't living in an investment-based market when everything becomes disposable, when each major acquisition drops precipitously in value like a new automobile the second it's driven off the lot. And call me a clueless hippie, but aren’t there also aesthetic and even spiritual concerns? What does this mentality do to people? We’re all on a one-way trip. Don’t we hope to get better as we get older and see our investments (economic and emotional) grow in value over time?

Sensing, perhaps, that their new world seems a little flimsy, the local government in Mason, one of Cincinnati's booming outlying areas, is thinking about ways to mask the ill effects of hyper-growth. This article notes how mom-and-pop stores are nonexistent in this vast expanse of exurbia and "big box" stores dominate the landscape. So the officials are considering "limiting parking lots and doing away with large logos", as well as asking them to cover up the unsightly HVAC systems that stick up from the rooftops.

This is hardly an investment in the future - but a worried nod to a crass economic reality that is already posed to start again and again twenty miles up the road.

Core Incompetancies

Two immediate reasons, from today's headlines, why - as much as the general public is tired and distrustful of the current administration, which they see as incompetent - they are even more skeptical of the Left when it comes to national security.

First is an editorial by former director Louis Freeh in today's Wall Street Journal which chronicles the events after the Khobar towers bombing, the 10-year anniversary of which is Sunday. During this attack 19 servicemen were killed and 372 others were wounded, and despite public promises by the Clinton administration no one was ever brought to justice. The history of events leading to 9/11 runs deep and wide, through the flawed policies of many administrations - but this single spectacular failure to respond seems like a pivotal chapter in our history.

Freeh's article - which might be a self-serving attempt to rewrite history - suggests that he petitioned the White House repeatedly over the course of three years, seeking their help in gaining Saudi approval to interview the jailed suspects behind the bombings. By all accounts the suspects were Hezbollah, and extensively trained by Iran. Finally George Bush Senior made a simple request and the interviews took place. The Iranian connection was confirmed. But according to Freeh, the Clinton administration - notably Sandy Berger - reacted by doing nothing, covering their political asses, and hoping the public would forget - which of course it did - no thanks to the Republicans, who had the White House under siege with Monicagate during these years. And Berger - he of the stuffed socks - surely public office has never seen a man with such a gelatinous spine and a political instinct for conflict avoidance and panicky ass-covering.

Item number two is the NY Times article about an entirely legal program to monitor bank transfers overseas. Congressional approval, oversight, and controls are in place, and the article makes no allegations of wrongdoing. But now, in media from Kansas City to Khandhar, everybody and their sister knows the secrets behind one of the behind-the-scenes methods for catching terrorists. People on the Right side of the blogosphere are beside themselves with disgust over the publication of this news article. Freedom of the press, in this case, means freedom to act without conscience or judgment in such a way that puts American lives in danger. If this type of thing continues there is a serious possibility that once the United States is attacked again, which is inevitable, the forensics that occur afterwards will reveal that the a trail of evidence that would have otherwise led to arrests went cold after methods were revealed by a leak to the media. This already happened once with cell phone communications, which were previously a great way to track Al-Qaeda in the outback of Afghanistan.

I know many of you hate Bush. I know many of you would almost be pleased to see another domestic terrorist attack - to prove that we have been made unsafe by our policies in the past few years. Come to your senses. We can't trade the security of our nation and American lives to vindicate even our most deeply-felt political grievances.

Menchaca and Tucker

Don't attempt to equivocate between the handling of detainees at Guantanamo and the group of people that mutilated beyond recognition Army Privates Menchaca and Tucker.

Don't attempt to balance the scales and make right and wrong fuzzy and irrelevant with the actions of the soldiers at Abu Ghraib - actions which were universally condemned by both civilian and military leadership in America - and which resulted to court-martials and prison.

Don't start blabbing about how the current administration killed these soldiers with their approach to Iraq, or throwing out non-sequitors about Iraqi babies, Darfur, or 30 years of interventionist US foreign policy.

You can still be against the war. You can still think the current president is terrible for America and the world. You can believe all of these things and still claim with certainty that an enemy in possession of an ideology that approves such atrocities as gouging out men's eyes while they are still alive - this ideology is unequivocally wrong, beyond disgust, and lower, by any measure, than the United States of America, both in principle and even in the reality of our actions.

Don't equivocate.

You can do it.

Trendspotting for Dummies

So the city Cincinnati is losing population at a tremendous rate, and our mainstream paper the Enquirer has finally noticed, and they want to do a story. Welcome to the 1990s, Enquirer! Believe it or not they are actively soliciting feedback on why this phenomenon is occurring - email Kimball Perry or Carl Weiser if you would like to contribute.

Let me put on my psychic wizards cap and venture a guess on the types of responses they might receive: People don't want to deal with crime, they think the city government is ineffective, the exurbs are perceived as cleaner and safer, and the housing opportunities out there are an attractive investment. (Racial issues are a factor in the minds of many, but don't expect this to be mentioned explicitly by migrating white people. The most obvious code word will be "crime".)

These reasons might be valid or invalid in varying degrees. Anyone who has lived in town has had the experience of hearing this litany from people who have bought a stake in the beige neighborhoods of exurbia. The point is - it's incredibly familiar. (Full disclosure: I live in the city neighborhood of Pleasant Ridge, I'm fully informed about the trade-offs, and I like my location.)

Nevertheless this trend and it's causes somehow qualify as news. Don't expect the article that is written by the Enquirer to take a provocative angle - for example, contrasting the facts on why some people stay, or digging into the psychology by looking at real numbers on risk versus perception. Expect something uninformative and predictable, with all of the interesting side-issues unexplored. And don't expect to be offended or disturbed in any way - construction and homebuilding companies buy a lot of ad space.

UPDATE: Okay, I may have hauled off with a sarcastic tone too quickly. Weiser emails that another article about people moving into the city will be published at some point. Admittedly this is less relevant in terms of raw statistics, but my unsarcastic suggestion is that this could make a better story - and that some of the reasons given for exurbian migration should be poked and prodded.

Dude, You Got Delled

You would think that any new computer ordered from a major manufacturer these days would come with all of the latest updates to the operating system. But instead the Dell laptop I purchased recently required a dizzying array of patches and security fixes - downloaded immediately from the Microsoft web site. Then, of course, I had to remove the reams of useless software that comes pre-installed. And now I need to figure out how to reclaim the rest of my hard drive - which is currently being used for the "System Restore" files that return my laptop to a pristine state in the event it gets obscenely violated by a virus that evades Microsoft's paltry defenses.

And, of course, there is the reminder of stark economic reality that comes with a call to Dell's technical support hot-line. My patriotic shorts aren't ruffled by the geographical location of the outsourced service center, but I am less keen on the semi-coherent conversation that ensues when you attempt to describe the nature of the problem to a person whose name almost certainly isn't "Fredrick" - no matter how he answered the phone. Say anything off-script and you are met with a baffled silence.

Apple would have been a better way to go, without question. Their commercials recently - with the PC guy and the Apple guy - you couldn't ask for a more clever and succinct summary of the differences between the systems - one which, by all accounts, won't go away and will probably be exacerbated by the release of the Windows Vista operating system early next year (or later). For me price was a major factor, and my professional needs require Windows. This Dell laptop isn't the worst computer I've ever owned, but it's hard to get excited about this consumer experience.

The large manual that came in the box there has a stern legalistic warning, in bold font, about rights, exclusions, and disputes.

If that doesn't say it all.

My Unexpected Hiatus

Several loyal readers have written to ask about Spacetropic. I've gone of-duty for a couple of days in the past, but not for such an extended period of time.

Rest assured that regular updates to the weblog will resume. Frankly, I had burned out for a short period of time, and I needed a break. Also several important events have been the focus of my attention - work, family, and a return to university, part-time. We took ownership of a rescue dog named Duke from a service, GRRAND, that handles golden retrievers. And most importantly, my lovely wife and I are four months into a very healthy and successful pregnancy. We each brought our daughters into this marriage - now we'll have one of our own, God willing.

So good news all around. And needless to say, there's plenty to be said about all of these fascinating experiences in the form of overblown, wordy blog posts! Not to mention the fact that we're ramping up to a November election with a mixed bag of national and international events and issues. Both readers that remain should stay tuned.