Hillary's Resentment Complex

Over the weekend, Hillary Clinton said the following:

"I am going to level with you," she said. "The president has said [Iraq] is going to be left to his successor. I think it is the height of irresponsibility, and I really resent it."

In the article linked, John Podhoretz points out how curious and unpresidential it sounds for leaders to publicly express resentment over issues that began with their predecessor. Imagine Reagan expressing his resentment towards Carter during the 1980 campaign instead of offering a visionary (and to his detractors, phony) picture of a better, renewed America. Blame takes the place of policy here, and Podhoretz suggest that this way of thinking is the real Hillary, beyond the endless positioning.

It does lend some credibility to those who claim that Hillary wants the presidency not to serve the challenges of the day, whatever they may be. Instead it seems more plausible that she has a social agenda which she seeks to put forward - one which, in her mind, will make America a better place.

On the first day of a Hillary administration she would most certainly inherit Iraq, and an almost-nuclear Iran, and a Middle East that threatens to boil over and throw the world into chaos. She can resent whoever she likes, and attempt to gain political leverage by vilifying her perennially conspiratorial enemies. This will grow old very quickly with the American people - who elect a president to get the job done, even if the job is ugly.

In the absence of any coherent statements - since she never says anything that can be backed away from later - the Hillary Clinton model of foreign engagement should be assumed to be an approximation of the most left European policies. Avoid conflict, deny and appease, deflect blame for problems for as long as possible - even while the threat grows. But spun properly through the Clintonista PR machine this will, at first, be sold as "reaching out" to build new relationships, to leave behind the "failed policies" of the past.

Peace may suddenly break out all over. But for that to happen, radicals who still carry a grudge from the 12th century and leaders like Iranian president Ahmadinejad will need to be persuaded to forget their own "resentments". How likely is that?

Rudymentum 2008

Is Rudy Giuliani the right guy for the Republicans? VikingSpirit has been covering this angle lately, with links to this clip of George Will singing his praises, and links to this article (via Nixguy) in the City Journal about Rudy's conservative take on the right role for government and obvious track record putting it in practice. The time may have come to evaluate Rudy with fresh eyes, given the way the field of presidential candidates is beginning to shake down.

On the downside, Rudy is pro-choice and not anti-gay marriage. For some social conservatives this disqualifies him without further discussion. For others, Rudy's personal past (including a messy divorce) are cause enough to cringe - although it's hard to imagine Hillary "going there" in a national campaign. And still others insinuate darkly about the deeds that may have been done to rise to the top of NY politics - of which the Bernard Kerik debacle might have been a mere taste (but one which left some party insiders bitter).

But on the upside, Rudy has a strong track record for governance. He's articulate, poised, and combative where appropriate in the face of the media and Democrat constituents, without coming across like he care more about their approval than the people in his party. He supports tax, education, and welfare reform. And he's a virtually bullet-proof advocate of a strong War on Terror, without any qualification or posturing.

The season is short, and the Democrats are already hard at work, and motivated. The Republicans will need to differentiate themselves in 2008 to reconnect with voters and provide an antidote to Bush fatigue. Rudy Giuliani might have the markings of a candidate that can turn the page, and begin a new chapter for the GOP.

Tags: Rudy Giuliani, 2008, Election

Rap, Dancers, Vista!

The release of Microsoft's new operating system, Vista, has generated a worldwide epidemic of tepid enthusiasm. Users ("customers" in any other market) are notably underwhelmed at the way Vista does everything XP already does, but the menus and controls are rearranged in a bewildering and unnecessary new way. The other key feature relates to media content, such as the playback of movie and music files. This process has either been locked down or rendered useless at the behest of Hollywood as a means to prevent piracy.

Nevertheless, according to the AP (via Wired) the kids from Redmond want to amp up the product-launch fanfare:

Hours before the software went on sale in New York, dancers clad in Microsoft colors dangled from ropes high above street level and unfurled flags to form the red, green, blue and yellow Windows logo against a building wall. At a swank midtown eatery, speakers pumped out a hit from hip-hop hotshot Snoop Dogg before Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's chief executive officer, took to stage.

(There appears to have been no spontaneous angry leaping this time on the part of Mr. Ballmer, much to the chagrin of the Slashdot crowd.)

There's little I can offer, given the fact that as I speak literally millions of lines of "response" is being generated by pundits, bloggers, and media types. Vista is in the process of being hacked, cracked and (as the kids say) 0wned by the combined worldwide forces of information-age anarchy - and legitimate researchers alike (some of whom fear repriasals from Microsoft). And average folks, of course, are simply wondering why on earth they should upgrade to Vista. The fact that it looks pretty is real nice, except those features require expensive new hardware - and Apple's breakthrough OSX did most of those things years ago, and did them better.

Tags: Microsoft Vista, Steve Ballmer

Arby's Will Be Defiled No Longer

For some unfathomable reason this region has seen a slew of robberies lately that take place at Arby's, the roast beef sandwich capital of the western world. A gun is raised by a masked intruder, curly fries are dropped in terror, and the cash drawer is ransacked - but not before patron and service associate alike are marched into the refrigeration vault, where they are left to shiver amidst the Jamocha shake mix for a few hours before the police arrive.

Now there's hope.

It seems that during the latest robbery, an employee got wise to the fact that the weapon looked fake. In a sudden burst of bravery she grabbed the gun - which turned out to be plastic - and the would-be burglar stole away into the cold morning in shame. Police aren't certain if the bandit is the same fellow who committed the previous 14 vile deeds, but we can hope the tide has begun to turn on this unholy reign of fear.

SOTU: Postgame

The speech itself wasn't bad at all. In fact, it was the best SOTU I've seen delivered by the president during his two terms in office, and among his best piece of George, Junior oratory overall.

Although I did listen mostly on the radio while running errands last night. So the effect might have been different if I was actually watching the delivery, with Cheney and Pelosi hovering above like grim old gargoyles, and the floor full of craven polticos smirking and stroking their chins. Bush was smooth - no meatcleaver syntax or garbled diction. And whoever wrote it had a discerning ability to graft together the president's plain Crawford style (to put it generously) with a few graceful turns of phrase. That can't be easy. One example:

Every one of us wishes that this war were over and won. Yet it would not be like us to leave our promises unkept, our friends abandoned, and our own security at risk. Ladies and gentlemen: On this day, at this hour, it is still within our power to shape the outcome of this battle. So let us find our resolve, and turn events toward victory.

Not to indulge the Iraq sidebar, but all of this might have inspired much more confidence and resolve among the American people if these words (and a "new strategy") were put forward in, say, January 2005. Now he's making the best case that can be made, given a progressively hopeless reality. And he chose a let's-work-together approach to the issue, when one admittedly more cynical option would have been to say to Democrats: "Don't stand there criticizing every solution and advocating withdrawl without owning the potential consequences. If you think both Iraqi and American security will be improved by our departure, say so decisively on the record - otherwise you simply want things to go from bad to worse as a way to consolidate your own political power and discredit me, and I'm not the issue."

But he didn't say that. As for domestic policy:

Reducing gasoline consumption by 20% in 10 years? An audacious idea, but it will be forgotten or downplayed as quickly as possible by environmentalists and Democrats because one, it was suggested by an evil Republican (not them), and two, it’s “not enough” (the solution is always progressively more radical than is politically workable). Therefore nothing will be done – at least until a similar idea is put forward by someone with Lefty credentials – at which point it will be considered bold and forward-looking.

Spending reform, preventing earmarks, etc.: The collective groan you heard was from millions of fiscal conservatives who think this should have been the mantra long before the ass-whipping last November.

And resolve the status of illegal immigrants without animosity and without amnesty? Fire the staffer who hacked together that little chestnut. Either you send them back - and you’re called a bigot by the One Note Sallys on the Left or you let them stay and you lose the love of the enraged, Sean Hannity Right. There’s no way on earth we will see any legislation actually passed and signed into law on this issue – or social security, for that matter.

And I didn't watch Webb, but he was a smart choice as the face of the Democrat party instead of the usual cadavers like John Kerry. Overall it was an entertaining (if impractical) night of political theater.

Tags: SOTU, Bush, Webb

Crime, Punishment, and Foolishness

Get this.

Responding to a domestic violence call, police hit a woman who was lying in the street. (Who doesn't do this? Admit it.) Then they have trouble subduing the orginal suspect, so the cops call for backup. Then their backup (two officers in a van) is rammed by another guy speeding along at 1AM and suspected to be drunk. Both officers end up in the hospital along with Mrs. Street Napper, and Drunky McGee goes to jail along with Mr. She-Just-Doesn't-Listen.

Cincinnati, life on the street.

The Republican (Not)roots

Hugh Hewitt, one of the most trenchant observers of the intersection of politics and new media, recently wrote (in response to the WSJ) about how behind the Republicans are when it comes to utilizing the Internet as a means to activate the base. Romney and Giuliani are just beginning to show an interest, and McCain is so enraptured by his old media fan club that he may not feel the need to extend his base on the web.

And social conservatives, of course, don't currently have a candidate.

All of this comes on the heels of Hillary's web exclusive announcement of her candidacy. Last night on Hardball Mr. Chris Matthews had difficulty containing himself over the brilliant tactics behind this approach, but was worried that the Hillary election machine wouldn't pursue politics "the old way" in contact with real folks who ask unscripted questions. Her campaign manager assuaged his fears and said she'd be placed in "small retail" settings in the months ahead. Sleep easy, Mr. Matthews! Pre-selected plants from the crowd will be asking her softballs about "families that are hurting" in the very near future.

It does become apparent that the cold calculus of the 2008 cycle is already being crunched by folks in the Democrat Party. And while they're some wisdom in waiting through the early cycles (at least until the media romance with policy-free nonentities like Obama begins to fade) - I'm not seeing any excitement, organization, planning or dialogue among the grassroots folks who might hope to elect a Republican. What happened to that legendary "lock step" mojo among the minions of the Right?

There were some stirrings of this after November, and I was able to participate in some conversations with local conservatives - but either because I admitted up front that social issues aren't quite my bailiwick ("Get the gun, he must be a RINO.") or because there is a really is general lack of motivation - I haven't seen much activity. Maybe they're all at work raising money and developing tactics and discussing the current field of candidates, but I'm not hearing a blip, even after searching some local blogs with staunch Republican loyalties.

As noted by Instapundit, even Rush Limbaugh isn't excited about the current Republican field. Will the whole party stay behind the curve simply because no hard right candidate exists?

Update: At least they're still serving primary flapjacks - and, of course, breakfast pork products.

Tags: Republicans, 2008, Netroots, Hugh Hewitt

SOTU: Preview

Tonight's State of the Union promises to be one of the most gruesome bits of political theater in recent memory.

Presidents in their late, lame-duck years have a hard enough time selling their agenda, since their own party has usually shifted their focus to the next electoral event horizon. But in this case the problem is confounded by a congress completely controlled by the opposite party and an approval rating that has reached Nixonian lows, due in large part to the war in Iraq.

The camera, one hopes, will linger on the faces of those who aspire to the presidency when hot-button items are raised. During the generalized rhetoric about bringing democracy to the Middle East, will Hillary sit there with a vinegar facial expression? Will McCain lead the applause (in response to the 'boos') when W. suggests a troop surge? Will Obama continue to radiate mild charisma, without any true political gravitas?

Always remember, with SOTU, somebody behind the scenes is quite literally calling the shots. When the president checks off items on his policy or legislative agenda, various folks in both houses have served as champions or enemies along the way, and the folks manning the control booth and at the cameras choose which reactions to emphasize, which parties to implicitly bolster.

And it used to only be a game of politics by clapping - furious applause (and an occasional up-on-your-feet) for the stuff about which you agree, and stony silence as disagreement. But the carnival has escalated, a process which began when Reagan one-upped the Democrats in control of congress by introducing genuine American heroes in the balcony by Nancy. (Cheap maybe, but awesomely effective.) Now people feel more comfortable booing and hissing -- and tonight, frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if the Democrats start flinging rotten fruit at the podium.

Oh - and lest I forget: It may be interesting to see how the president explains his agenda - to see if there's anything different and more compelling than the tape-loop of catchphrases and aphorisms that has been deployed and overextended for the past few years, rhetoric which has lost currency with a great portion of America. The expectations are very, very low.

If circumstances permit (and if I can stand it) I'll be liveblogging ...

Tags: George W. Bush, State of the Union, SOTU

The Enquirer and One-sided Parenting

After a few months of testing, the Cincinnati Enquirer just launched a website geared towards parenting. According to the announcement:

Moms who want to connect with other moms in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky won't have to leave their homes anymore. They can share information, tips and stories with a few clicks of the computer. Starting Monday, log onto cincyMOMS.com and find local moms talking about raising teens, dealing with picky eaters, finding good pediatricians and more.

Let's start by being honest. Even in 2007, several decades after the workforce and gender roles have undergone some sweeping transformations, the weight of the work of parenting is done by moms, overall. Surveys and statistics abound which inform us that many women might be bringing home a paycheck just like men, but they still attempt to do all of the work of motherhood that was done in the days of June Cleaver.

And another reality behind the website's gender-specific demographic might be the fact that the female head of the household has greater sway in purchasing decisions. The announcement tacitly acknowledges this (italics mine):

The Kaboose Family Network, a family-oriented Web site, surveyed 3,500 mothers and found that 91 percent of them turn to friends and family first for advice, referrals and product information.

When the Enquirer ramped up the effort for CincyMoms (and when Gannett mothership reviewed the business plan) you can bet that little nugget was deployed front-and-center as a means courting adverstising income.

But is there another market here, one which may not be visible? Certainly Dads often communicate differently, and are realistically less likely to respond to the same type of "caring and sharing" social networking model, but they have a passionate and often overlooked interest in parenting. It might be "war stories" about a difficult second grader instead of "helpful tips", or it might be coaching advice, or lessons that are important to teach a teenage daughter about boys (or a teenage son about girls) - but nevertheless, fathers have much to offer and room to learn.

And most mothers and fathers recognize that a child, and a family (and by extension, society) thrives when both parents are involved, contributing equally to growth and development in their own gender specific way. And conversely, a deep social cost is incurred when Dad is absent from the process. As a Dad who checks homework, helps with athletics and after-school activities, and takes care of about half the meals (not to mention takes the kids to school) - I was disappointed by the Enquirer's implicit endorsement of ultra-traditionalist parenting roles, even if the craven economics are apparent.

They do own the web domain CincyDads.com - so there's a chance they may move to address this underserved but tremendously important market.

Tags: Cincinnati, Parenting, Fatherhood

The MLK Day Fight

How about this depressing news item:

A fight marred an athletic event Monday to commemorate the life and peaceful message of a civil rights icon. Six people have been arrested in connection with the fight, which broke out at the Martin Luther King Jr. Basketball Classic featuring teams from Cincinnati high schools.

According to one person in attendance:

"It was crazy," Withrow coach Walt McBride said. "Our players were talking about it. We heard there was somebody up there with a gun. We heard there were people with brass knuckles.

"What it comes down to is, they just need more security for an event like this. They need to pay whatever it takes to have more security."

The ever-ambiguous 'they' would presumably be Xavier University, who almost certainly didn't think it was necessary to hire a battalion of extra security guards for an event intended to honor a man who was the greatest force behind peaceful civil change in America.

With all due respect to the coach - the blame for this embarrassing episode only lies with the idiots who started a fight. Imagine the howls of righteous indignation that would have been heard if the players, students, and families arrived on Monday morning to a sports venue busy with cop cars, drug-sniffing dogs, and metal detectors.

Folks in our society can't have it both ways - we can't blame law enforcement when they do their job, but lament their absence when violence breaks out. On Monday the more civil expectation was, very reasonably, that the students would participate in the event without attempting to kill each other. This is admittedly setting the bar low - it's pretty basic - but it's a better expectation than treating them like criminals from the outset.

Meanwhile - send the idiots off to a judge. And maybe reduce their punishment if they can turn in a thoughtful essay about MLK's Letter from a Birmingham Jail. I'm a firm believer that true civil change requires creative solutions - and sentences.

Tags: Martin Luther King Jr.

24 Season Opener - Part II

Last night the terrorists nuked L.A. - awesome!

And by 'awesome' I'm only talking about the importance of keeping the '24' storyline moving along at a healthy, action-packed clip. Of course, there may be some red state residents who have grown very weary of the toxic cultural runoff from the West Coast, and they may daydream at times - but nobody really would like to see Los Angles nuked in real life, of course. The place may be filled with shallow, brainless Hollywierdos - but they're American boys and girls, dammit. And thank God fictional characters like Jack Bauer are willing to shoot their friends (in a dramatic standoff in the third act) in order to defend them and stick up for the Red White and Blue.

The Kumar guy from the 'White Castle' movie bought the proverbial farm last night, along with Curtis, several dozen terrorists, and the sympathetic NPR-listening father - who got nuked. The terrorist from Deep Space Nine and the weasely presidential advisor (a mandatory 24 archetype) from Ghostbusters 2 are both still alive and kicking. This show is a gift for people who like to play "where have I seen that guy" - note that it helps to have a laptop in the living room with a browser on IMDB. (Last season it was Hobbits.)

Regular blogging will now resume. Everyone on the Internet is talking about the show (HT Nixguy) - so it's a challenge to say anything original. And my apologies to readers who don't watch the show.

Tags: 24, Fox

24 Season Opener - Part I

Last night the wife and I watched part one of the season opener for ‘24’, Fox’s annoyingly addictive high-tech thriller.

Jack Bauer is back after some sort of cockamamie plot twist that sent him to a Chinese prison camp for two years, terrorists are once again killing innocent Americans, and everyone’s favorite sultry nerdess Chloe is back at the help desk in CTU repositioning the satellites and setting up firewalls. Rawr! (Presumably, on most days things are less exciting for Chloe. She spends her time re-setting user passwords and installing Windows security updates.)

Just once shouldn’t these characters look at each other and wonder why their lives are normal for 364 days, then suddenly they have one 24-hour stretch of time that begins at 6AM and then gets crazier and more outlandish every passing hour? Because in never takes them a few days to figure out that the terrorists, all along, had a ‘Plan B’ (and C, and D) - but it always takes them, on that magic day, only three hours. I picture the characters, both the terrorists and the federal agents alike, getting wise to this endlessly-repeating situation, and tapping on the fourth wall of the TV pane, asking to be released from the absurdity of this predicament – sort of The Purple Rose of Cairo meets Tom Clancy.

But regardless of the exponential silliness with which this story unfolds – there are some semi-quality dramatic moments. The season begins with the country experiencing suicide-bomber attacks that have killed hundreds of people. In one scene a gentleman with darker skin and an Arabic-sounding accent is pounding on the glass of a city bus as it pulls away. He needs a ride to work, the bus driver doesn’t want to let him on, and nobody on the bus is saying anything. But then, surprise: A moment or two later an Asian-looking gentleman in the back of the bus gets a very serious look on his face, clicks a button on his MP3 player, and the bus explodes.

So remember folks, either judge people who don’t look or speak like you with equal unfairness and ethnic stereotyping, or simply take a bicycle to work. Also, you might want to consider purchasing the extended warranty on your next MP3 player. Apparently some models have an even bigger problem than those faulty Dell battteries.

And tonight they’re supposed to bust out the nukes. Awesome! Tune in for Part 2.

Update: Link to part 2 of the season opener for 24 here.

Your Life In the Bush of Ghosts

Pitchfork, for better or worse, has been an indispensible feature of the music environment. In my early youth Spin was the magazine, and prior to that Rolling Stone. These days it's Pitchfork. When they give an album high ratings it can lead to overnight commercial success.

I've bought a few sight unseeen, and

http://pitchforkmedia.com/article/feature/40339/Column_Column_Get_That_Out_Of_Your_Mouth_31

Every Media That Rises Must Converge

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which I did not have the pleasure of attending this year (and yes, I am bitter) was all about the convergence of all media between personal computers and televisions.

It's a tricky nut to crack. On the input side folks can acquire media from cable, which typically goes to your TV, or the Internet, which goes to your computer. Now apparently we want to store this media and view it in all kinds of output formats - so that endlessly hilarious YouTube clip of the youngster falling off a trampoline and getting a spinal cord injury can be viewed not only on the family PC, but also on the TV in the living room and on your cell phone while weaving through traffic. Devices like the new Apple's iTV will allow you to store and stream Internet content in this manner, getting it from the PC to the living room - but only for stuff purchased through iTunes, of course.

Going in the other direction, there's a constellation of devices to store cable TV content, and either play it back later on the television itself (Tivo, MythTV), or send it over the Internet or a home network to a computer somewhere (Slingbox) or parcel out the media to handheld devices like iPods, PSPs, and cell phones.

The right architecture, in a perfect world, would be agnostic to how the content arrived - via cable TV, satellite dish, or Internet. Nor would the playback method be restricted - any TV in the home, any computer you own, or any device with a screen and the right codec. And somewhere every family would have a server (in the basement next to the furnace), with big SATA hard drives, songs, home movies, free content, and media that has been acquired via legal purchase.

But the technology is not so seamlessly interchangeable, and a Roman legion of lawyers have been deployed to challenge any "bridge" of formats that might cause their corporate overlords to lose a sale. Already own that DVD of Spiderman 2? Well, the lawyers are here to make sure you are going to pay for it again if you want to watch it on your iPhone, and they are posed to sue anyone who attempts to help you transfer the media. And be prepared to pay a third time when you upgrade to Blu-Ray.

The promise of convergence is still not there yet. It's a big tangle of spaghetti, both in terms of the technology and the legality.

And, c'mon folks. Let's stop and think here about the real value of what we are being sold. How much of our life do we want to spend staring at screens? We already work all day in front of these damn computers. Now were going to be watching movies in the elevator? Let's try interrupting the relentless media consumption by looking at other live human beings - our families - or going for a walk in the park, or fishing off the end of a dock. Ask yourself, at a more fundamental level what do we really need?

(Yes, I know I'm conflicted.)

Tags: CES, Convergence

Apple's New iLust

One of the more aggravating things about Microsoft Windows, and there are many to choose from, is the mystery of when the computer is ready to use. After turning on the system (or rebooting, which must be done frequently), the Windows software loads with a pleasant chime and the desktop is presented. Then icons begin to accumulate in the "systems tray" on the lower right, and some of these mini-applications start doing things. Usually the quixotic pointer/hourglass icon appears, which is the systems way of saying "I'm half listening to you." Clicking on anything during these unsettling moments may yield nothing, or applications may spring into existence five minutes later.

I'm sure they'll fix all of that with Vista (cough).

Apple Computer, meanwhile, has made stupendous amounts of money by thinking carefully about the "user experience" - which sounds like a vapid MBA expression, but it only refers to the details of the interaction which takes place between people and technology. How many clicks to get to email? Are there ten choices for turning off the computer - including Sleep, Hibernate, Doze, and Catnap? Must the removal of software sometimes involve such arcane tasks as deleting thing from the "registry"?

Devices like the new iPhone, if they work half as well as advertised, have the capacity to transform the way we communicate and interact with information. Most of these features have been seen before, but seldom have they been integrated so thoughtfully. This is a device which knows when you are looking at it sideways and adjusts the screen accordingly, and it knows when you are holding it up to your ear. The screen looks crisp and bright, and the touchscreen interface seems to eliminate the foolishness that most other cell phones require when it comes to interacting with personal data.

Certainly the iPhone also has the capacity to transform your wallet, for the initial cash outlay in the $400 to $600 range comes along with a contract with Cingular Wireless, which (at $60 per month) is another ~$1500, minimum. Apple is in more difficult territory here - it's one thing to control the hardware and software, but in today's world the network is just as critical. Let's hope that one clear side-effect of this ultra-hyped "revolution" is that many of the related industries will strive to meet a new, tougher standard.

Update: Wham! Apple gets slapped with a lawsuit from Cisco.

Tags: Apple, iPhone
Vista

Chinese Baby Imports

China is a country with an astonishing number of unwanted children, mostly girls. And they have just changed the rules for international adoption to disqualify anyone over the age of 50, single parents, folks on anti-depressants, and obese people.

Sheesh, how many Americans can meet that standard? Given our national proclivities for Paxil, McDonald's, divorce, and daddy-free families, it's almost like the Chinese government singled us out. How interesting that a country which is ostensibly founded on the secular materialist dogmas of Marxism thinks that the best environment for small humans consists of Cleaver-like traditional structures.

Or maybe they're just tired of Africa and Hollywood sucking up all of the publicity when it comes to adoption. When will the A-list spare some time for them Chinese babies? Better move quickly - they're getting harder to get.

Turkish Star Wars

The notion of mashing up official, media-created content with homegrown production effects didn't begin with the digital age. In 1982, in Turkey, the hard work of George Lucas was spliced with laughable footage of dudes wearing tin suits - and all of it was held together with an incoherent (or at least poorly translated) plot.

Move over All Your Base, there's a new top dog in demented, cross-cultural, (low-fi) sci-fi: Turkish Star Wars.

Criminal Detection Technology

The People's Republic of Boston may be making an investment in new crime technology in an attempt to capture criminals and keep the population safe. In this case it's a network of microphones capable of detecting the sound of gunfire. According to The Boston Globe:

The sensor system could blanket a 5.6-square-mile swath of the city's most dangerous neighborhoods -- the source of 80 to 85 percent of calls citywide reporting shots fired -- and give officers a jump on arresting suspects, improve police response time to 911 calls, and possibly reduce firearm violence, proponents say.

As noted previously in these pages, these types of solutions are always embraced when they are proposed by Eminently Reasonable Democrats. Had it been suggested by Neanderthal Republicans, of course, the outcry (amplified by the media) would be all about Big Brother and Slippery Slopes. Goodness, what if they use the microphones to listen in on people?

Regardless of this curious standard, it's a good idea, and Cincinnati should join the ranks of London, Boston, and Chicago in putting in place technology-based methods of law enforcement - microphones and cameras. The claim will be made that somehow extending the ability of police to see and hear crime will invite abuse. But there is no grounds for this reasoning, and very little basis for claiming this occurs today with the current tools in place.

But all of the challenges of data collection are rendered obsolete if the public has access to this information. Imagine servers which stream sound and video from every street corner in a municipality, accessible by cop, citizen group, and ACLU attorney alike. There may need to be some controls in place (such as requiring users to register before having access to this data) - but the net social good will be transparency. Liberty does not provide for guaranteed anonymity in public spaces, and when the sights and sounds of crime are easily tracked we have an obligation to uphold the peace.

Update: Peter Quintas blogs about cameras and video surveillance at Public Eye, a useful resource on this related topic.

Jennifer Miller and True Conservatism

Jennifer Miller, the tightly-wound crusader from Mason, Ohio has rated a front page feature in the Cincinnati Enquirer. She is an education board member who attracted national attention a few months ago for going apoplectic over a couple of Muslim students at the high school who asked if they could spend their lunch hour in the media lab during the month of Ramadan.

Miller declared "We are a Christian nation, not a Muslim nation." The article also mentions her bona fides as a critic of school spending as an associate of COAST and CARE, two small but extremely aggressive activist groups that dispute tax levies.

Reading about this bewildering person helps remind me of my conservative values. Starting from the top, I suppose I'm an economic conservative first. Markets do not create universally fair outcomes, nor should they, but they provide opportunities for the bright and hardworking, and they create value in the form of jobs and prosperity. Second, I'm a foreign policy conservative. Despite errors by the "neos" I think liberalism is ill-equipped to tamp down many clear and present dangers. And furthermore, some societal systems really are better than others, and here I'm talking democracy, first amendment-type freedoms, open markets and pluralism - all of the things that folks like Islamic fascists, for example, resent and seek to destroy because they corrode their brutal autocracies.

But when it comes to the domestic culture war, as advanced by self-appointed conservative Christians like Jennifer Miller, I get off the proverbial bus. I'm firm in my belief that involved parents, coherent families, and strong communities are the antidote to many (if not all) social maladies. But this doesn't translate into using governments or education boards as a wedge to promote one group or exclude another. And as a Catholic my faith informs me we are much more than particles in the void, as my secular friends would like to insist. But I can't endorse the notion of making Genesis part of history class. This seems contrary to the aforementioned concept of pluralism, which has a rich and deeply rooted (if occasionally contentious) tradition in our republic.

The Democrat Party, at least, has been blessed to have a persona like Jennifer Miller out there railing away under the banners of "Christian" and "conservative". Because I think the ratio of support the Enquirer observed following the initial Muslim controversy (two thirds against Miller) is an accurate barometer of where middle America stands.

Technology on the Estate

We’re a gadget-intensive household. Our shelves are filled with books and most of us read daily, but to give you an idea …

During the birth of our most recent daughter my wife passed the time between contractions playing Lumines on the PSP. One daughter noodles away on a Leapster while the other daughter amuses the family by re-working photographs of the dog on the “Digi Makeover” she received for Christmas. And yours truly, as a blogger, totes the obligatory laptop from place to place, scanning with geekish intensity for a wi-fi connection.

The smallest addition to the household, nary a month old, coos away in her bouncy seat amidst this maelstrom of LEDs and LCDs. She apparently did not come with a built-in 802.11g card which transmits useful statistics about hunger and dryness – although I hope babies are equipped this way in the future. (Take heed, you geniuses at Apple and Samsung.)

And the trend in technology, it’s interesting to note, is turning towards more and more devices, after a brief sway towards “convergence”. For years the industry has been pushing towards the “one device to rule them all” model – a phone meets mp3 player which reads email and talks to your digital toaster. According to the Korea Times this was more a factor of enthusiastic engineers than the way consumers actually use technology devices, which is highly context sensitive. You take your iPod jogging, and grab the cell phone for a trip to the store.

And of course none of the “converged” devices ever fully delivers on the promise of being a digital Swiss-army knife. There are some notable exceptions, like the Blackberry, but the cost of these devices is daunting to many consumers, and even if the price point is manageable it can be a real problem if the tiny item is misplaced. It all depends on your income level, but the principle holds true - a broken $200 digital camera is a loss. But when that $900 camera-phone-media player is left on the airplane, or blinks out because of bad firmware, or gets nuked in the microwave by the 7-year-old, then Daddy is probably going to need a counselor to recover completely.

And now, some shameless whoring: If any company wants to use the Spacetropic household as a test environment for their latest cool technology, please contact me here. Reviews will be posted accordingly to the blog – although additional cash payments may be necessary if your device is astonishingly crappy.

Tags: Technology, CES, Samsung, Sony, Apple

Oprah's African Academy

Oprah Winfrey has given $40 million dollars to create a girls academy in Africa. The school in Johannesburg will eventually help educate up to 450 young women each year, all from extremely poor backgrounds. Girls who would otherwise face AIDS, violence, and starvation now have computer labs, an auditorium, books, and uniforms.

Why doesn't this woman, net worth $1.5 billion, give a money to American schools? After all, the suggestion is always made that schools would be much improved if only they had more federal dollars. Oprah explained at least part of the reason herself in an incendiary quote to Newsweek:

"Say what you will about the American educational system—it does work," she says. "If you are a child in the United States, you can get an education." And she doesn't think that American students—who, unlike Africans, go to school free of charge—appreciate what they have.

"I became so frustrated with visiting inner-city schools that I just stopped going. The sense that you need to learn just isn't there," she says. "If you ask the kids what they want or need, they will say an iPod or some sneakers. In South Africa, they don't ask for money or toys. They ask for uniforms so they can go to school."

This is an extraordinary statement from a woman who knows what she's talking about. Oprah spent much of her early years in poverty - as a coal miner's daughter who experienced abuse and life as a runaway. Nevertheless (read her short biography) she had a father and mother who both cared for her. And she credits education as a powerful force that helped her transcend her very difficult circumstances.

Spend millions, spend billions. You can't dump enough money on the system and achieve any kind of results if people don't care.

Give two kids armful of battered textbooks and a semi-competent teacher. If the first child has a mother or father who spends time each night on homework and the second child has parents who are nonexistent (or sleeping, or at bar, or a nail salon) - the first kid will have an infinitely better shot. Families, parents who know the stakes and instill genuine values beyond materialism - these are things more valuable than all the diamonds in Africa.

We may not need her wealth in America - but we do need Oprah speaking some uncomfortable truths to a society that makes excuses, glorifies idiotic behavior, and chronically avoids accountability.

Tags: Oprah Winfrey