In recent history, no world even has highlighted the differnces between the U.S. and Europe, more than the conflict in Iraq.
There is a great essay, by Robert Kagan, on this topic that explains why. This is one of the most lucid rational explanations I have heard. It certainly goes way beyond the analysis presented in the non-print media, the web and to a large degree print media.
This essay begin with this nugget.
"It is time to stop pretending that Europeans and Americans share a common view of the world, or even that they occupy the same world. On the all-important question of power -- the efficacy of power, the morality of power, the desirability of power -- American and European perspectives are diverging. Europe is turning away from power, or to put it a little differently, it is moving beyond power into a self-contained world of laws and rules and transnational negotiation and cooperation. It is entering a post-historical paradise of peace and relative prosperity, the realization of Kant's "Perpetual Peace." The United States, meanwhile, remains mired in history, exercising power in the anarchic Hobbesian world where international laws and rules are unreliable and where true security and the defense and promotion of a liberal order still depend on the possession and use of military might. That is why on major strategic and international questions today, Americans are from Mars and Europeans are from Venus: They agree on little and understand one another less and less."
BTW, I belive the U.S. occupies a much more rational world view, IMHO. The Europeans are deluded by not having to defend their own continent.
The world system cannot be safegaurded by treaties and commercial obligations, not when large groups or people are more interested in forcibly imposing their religious views on others or righting historical wrongs.
March 2003 Archives
I finally registered with geourl, which is a service which creates geographic maps of blog/web users.
"GeoURL is a location-to-URL reverse directory. This will allow you to find URLs by their proximity to a given location. Find your neighbor's blog, perhaps, or the web page of the restaurants near you."
Check out web pages geographically near me.
Fascinating.
I really hope this catches on. It could be much more useful than it is.
Speaking of interesting. Here is a soldier's blog, who is now headed to Iraq.
O'Reilly ran a good article on MovableType. I would love to try it but can't come up with any good ideas. Anyone have any suggestions?
I tried the HelloWorld example and it works great!
I found the BBC has a great blog for it's field reporters reporting on Iraq. It's great to see this kind of feed, even if they are a little sporadic and light on details. It gives a great sense or impression of what is going on.
The topic of "is the media telling the whole story" comes up frequently at work. Many of my co-workers are not native born U.S. citizens so they have a very different perspective than many U.S. born citizens. Often felling that Indian, or arab media is telling a better story.
Here are my thoughts, in no special order, about the coverage of the war in Iraq.
You might also want to check out this blog, purporting to be Saddam Hussein's blog. My favorite quote from "Saddam." "I don't know how I am going to explain all this to my insurance company."
- Fox News is about as reliable as al-jazeera. Both seem to focus solely on one side of the issue.
- News organizations are about making money. This influences what they cover and how. I hope this is obvious to all.
- News has become info-tainment. The war coverage is no different.
- The "embedded" reporters have a lot of detail, but not enough analysis. They are too close to the ground and the troops to understand what they are part of.
- Truth is the first casualty of war.
- It's too bad that incidents in the U.S. since the U-2 overflights and capture of the U.2. pilot, Gary Powers have caused people to doubt the U.S. government.
- The media is covering the war like a simplified horse race. They have no ability to deal with the complexity of the situation on the ground.
- The U.S. needs to show some of their good intelligence. The photos of the cuban missiles galvanized the U.S.. We need that again.
- I can't wait to see what happens when the U.S. actually finds WMD. Hopefully, it's not in the context of any beligerent using them. I am curious to see how arab views will scramble to defend Saddam with WMD.
You might also want to check out this blog, purporting to be Saddam Hussein's blog. My favorite quote from "Saddam." "I don't know how I am going to explain all this to my insurance company."
I saw this on kuro5hin, I was a naive fool ... I thought it was an interesting look at the reality of the war with Iraq, from the view of someone who was protesting, very actively as a human shield.
I am saddened to see the deaths of U.S. and British Soldiers over the weekend. I applaud them and their comrades in arms for their commitment to duty, honour, and country.
I fear this is only the beginning of fighting in Iraq and it will only get worse. Technologically, we have the edge but we will likely face have many stiff pockets of resistance.. some from the rear positions.
It was reported this weekend that some U.S. troops were ambushed by Iraqi's pretending to surrender. From a strategic point of view this seems like a poor strategy. I mean those same troops will be a lot more cautious next time and it may make them think twice about accepting surrendering troops. Haven't they heard the story of the boy who cried wolf? I don't think those troops will be fooled twice the same way. I suppose it is a bit like the "burning your ships story", making sure surrender is much, much more difficult for other troops.
Check out this story in the NYTimes.
"For most of the troops in the division today, however, war was a long, dusty drive across the desert. Unlike British and marine forces to the east, the Third Division, the main armored force now engaged in the war, moved through isolated terrain and thus avoided any cities and towns.
They encountered only scattered groups of civilians, including shepherds tending camels and sheep and a tractor trailer and an orange truck that dashed across the advancing columns."
Could it be ...
Today, as the Iraq war begins to get really heated it has een reported that CNN has been expelled. The Iraqi regime is complaining that they were reporting falsely about the progress the U.S. and Brits had made crossing the Iraqi border.
It's a real shame. I wa looking forward to seeing Baghdad throughtout the conflict.
I am hooked on watching the war. I am afraid that if I look away something interesting will happen.
I realize that is absurd, as the networks replay every scrap of video 100 times an hour, with full talking head analysis. Still I want to see it.
I still hope and pray this conflict ends quickly for the sake of the Iraqi people.
Did I mention how I don't like re-runs.
The war in Iraq began yesterday.
Bush spoke on television at 10:15 EST, and began with these words.
"My fellow citizens, at this hour American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people and to defend the world from grave danger."
It has begun with the launch of cruise missiles and bomb at a "target of oppourtunity" in or around Bahgdad.
On fact bothers me about this conflict.
The constitution of the United States indicates the following is a responsibility of Congress.
To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning
I wish the Congress had the fortitude to actually do this when we commit troops in such large quantities. Of course conflicts like the Gulf War I, Vietnam, Korea, Grenada, Kosovo, etc. didn't have declarations of war either. I don't understand the rationale that prevents Congress from fulfilling it's constitutional duties.
Here is a blurry photo I took of a helicopter hovering over my house. It was going back and forth over the same block, for at least a half an hour.
Boy, was this annoying at 1:30 A.M. I wondered if it was a training excercise, or a prison break from the Lino Lakes State Prison, or some sort of Homeland defense drill. I haven't been able to find anything from the local news.
People noted that you can't see much in the image above, so below is another version, where the brightness is bumped up and contrast is bumped down. It is not a UFO.
The President of the United Stated spoke about the war to come in Iraq. He gave Saddam and his sons 48 hours to leave Iraq. Now, he didn't spell out exactly what would happen if they left, I got the distinct impression that we would still proceed into Iraq as planned, but hopefully as invited guests.
Bush did an amirable job spelling out his reasons for war. While I don't think he was entirely truthful, the speech basically laid out th following premise. Iraq signed a peace treaty based on disarmament twelve years ago. They have not disarmed. The crises of the middle east may threaten the U.S. as evidenced by September 11. Therefore, we must go to war to stop the threat in Iraq now, pre-emptively.
On another note, is there anyone who thinks Bush look comfortable giving a speech. I always get the impression he borrowed the jacket and he is giving the speech because he want to get the grade, but would rather be back at the frat house. The speech last night was great for Bush, but still seems stilted and strained.
I have my concerns of course.
I still think that perhaps we are going to war for one of the following reasons.
- We have wanted to take out Saddam for some time and September 11th has given the government enough support to do it now.
- We actually have intellegence that indicates that Iraq is a legitimate threat. (I tend to discount this as there have been no revelations so far, someone would have leaked it by now.)
- We see the potential of instability in Saudi Arabia, and want to have a friendly regime in the area, should the Saudi's be subject to regime change. (This would be U.S. foreign policy taking a long view 20+ years, which would seem an abberation)
Some people particularily in the war protest movement see this war as solely about oil. In a sense they are right. If there were no oil in the middle east, it would have the same mindshare as Africa. Our dependence on oil make the stability of the region on vital national interest.(Of course, if you take this position, you must also concede that French intrasigence is likely due to their existing oil contracts with Iraq.) To say that we are going to war so Amoco or Haliburton can make more money seems to fail Occams Razor. It's just not the simplest answer. However, I would love to live in a world powered by cheap hydrogen. It would pull the financial rug out from a number of middle east thug run governments.
I hope the this war will be over soon. In fact the best scenario to my mind is a coup. If Saddam were deposed an individual or group could take over, invite the U.S. in to prop up their regime, and seriously profit both on dollars and power. It's a win-win situation unless you are Saddam or one of his sons.
Nightmares
I do have the occasional fear about Iraq. Here are some of the scenarios that keep me up at night.
Iraq launches weapons at Israel laced with chemical or dirty nuke payloads, provoking a decisive response from Israel. This type of response could cause us to loose support among Iraq's neighbors and in the worst case cause the conflict to widen.
Iraq uses weapons of mass desctruction against American troops. In the traditional war scenario we escalate our response. What would we do, nuke Tikrit and wipe it off the planet? That again could cause the war to widen. It would certainly shake up the world. Our allies would have a difficult time sticking with us.
Iraq attacks it's own citizens, pretending to be the U.S. and shows video on Al-Jazeera. This would inflame Arab sentiment against us. It could set off serious protests and further threaten security in the middle east.
A prolonged standoff around Baghdad results in enourmous loss of Iraqi civilian life and U.S. military. It becomes another Vietnam. (I doubt this as there is no evidence that Saddam's power is popular as seems to have been the case in Vietnam.)
Where are we going to stop. Once we defeat Iraq and install some sort of government we like, who's next. I think if we are successful we may be tempted to keep going to North Korea, or Iran. I am not convinced that this will make for a safer world. In fact, I think it will inflame the world.
Black Hawk Down all over again. If you read the book or saw the movie, imagine that nightmare repeated a few times in a month. All it takes is one mechanical failure to set in motion a disaster like that.
We'll see how it plays out over the next few weeks.
William Safire strikes again.
"The original name of the cloth-backed, waterproof adhesive product was duck tape, developed for the United States Army by the Permacel division of Johnson & Johnson to keep moisture out of ammunition cases. The earliest civilian use I can find is in an advertisement by Gimbels department store in June 1942 (antedating the O.E.D. entry by three decades -- nobody but nobody beats this column), which substitutes our product for the ''ladder tape'' that usually holds together Venetian blinds. For $2.99, Gimbels -- now defunct -- would provide blinds ''in cream with cream tape or in white with duck tape.''"
This is a fabulous exposition of the etymology of duct/duck tape. I am also pleased to see a reference to the beloved Gimbel's, now long gone.
I have been getting the scout report for many years. It is a fabulous resource as it is chock full of links to really substantive material, rather than brief commentary, like you are reading right now 8-)
Mel Masters has a web site.
Actually he has lots, here is another one.
baystargroup
bizcrafters.com
4securewireless
webtechmedical
bizcraftersfolio
momentumnetwork
and more I am sure ...
The technical contact seems to be Kevin Lancaster. It seems to be a Windows 2000 system running IIS 5.0 according to netcraft.
Anyone else know how many other sites there are at 216.219.242.81 or 216.219.242.91?
I am especially fascinated by this page which lists Mel's accomplishments.
My favorite quote is the following.
" Masters has spent an entire career building businesses for shareholders, providing meaningful employment to thousands and operating in a highly competitive environment where attention to detail creates the delta between success/survival and failure."
This statement may be at odds with public filings with the SEC. You be the judge.
Item 13. CERTAIN RELATIONSHIPS AND RELATED TRANSACTIONS.
The Company has the following arrangements with certain of its directors,
executive officers or five percent shareholders;
(1) The Company leases space it currently occupies in Shady View I & II, with
Grandchildren's Realty Alternative Management Partnership I (GRAMPI), a
Minnesota limited partnership. The general partner of GRAMPI is
TimeMasters, Inc., a Minnesota corporation which is owned by Melvin L.
Masters. One of the limited partners of GRAMPI is the Masters Trust I, of
which Ralph Rolen, a director of the Company, was Trustee at the time of
the negotiations. The Company retained the services of an outside law firm
as well as an independent commercial real estate brokerage firm in
negotiating the lease. The Company leases 172,792 square feet of space
under this agreement which has a term of fifteen years and a monthly base
rate as of August 31, 1997, of $89,694. The base rate escalates
periodically over the term of the lease. The Company is also required to
pay its pro-rata share of property taxes, utilities and essentially all
other operating expenses. There is no renewal option. Rent expense under
this lease was $1,525,000 in fiscal 1997 of which $178,388 had not been
paid as of June 30, 1997.
(2) Under a Use Indemnification Agreement and certain related Board of
Directors' actions, the Company has the right to sponsor business and
business-related occasions at facilities owned by Masters Trust I and/or
Melvin L. Masters and/or TimeMasters, Inc and/or GRAMPI and/or GRAMPI #2.
In addition, the Company occasionally uses an airplane that is owned by a
Company controlled by Mr. Masters, for business-related travel. The Company
indemnifies the owners against loss or damage, reimburses out-of-pocket
expenses and pays a usage charge based on market rates. In the fiscal year
ended June 30, 1997 charges totalled $88,240.
(3) The Company has installed a campus-wide TimeMasters, Inc. wireless voice
system in its Eden Prairie facility. There are no monthly call operating
charges for unlimited use of that system. The system hardware was acquired
in fiscal 1995 for $211,000 based on competitive proposals for two other
comparable systems. Upgrades to the system amounted to $49,075 in fiscal
1997. TimeMasters, Inc. is a Minnesota corporation wholly-owned by Melvin
L. Masters.
(4) During September and October 1995, ColorSpan Corporation's (CSC's) cash
needs exceeded available cash. To cover short-term cash needs, CSC borrowed
$1,765,000 under a demand note from TimeMasters, Inc. (TMI), a corporation
controlled by the Company's Chief Executive Officer. The note had stated
interest at prime rate plus 1.75% and was satisfied in full in December
1996 through an offset of a note receivable from TMI arising from the sale
of common stock by the Company (see item (5) below). In consideration for
providing financing to CSC and executing a subordination and forbearance
agreement with the Company's senior lender, TMI was issued a warrant for
the purchase of 277,953 shares of the Company's common stock at an exercise
price of $6.35 per share. This transaction was submitted to and approved by
the shareholders at the Company's annual meeting in May 1996.
(5) In September 1996, the Company issued 914,286 shares of restricted common
stock in a private placement to TimeMasters, Inc., GRAMPI and GRAMPI #2
(together as a group known as the TimeMasters group), which is controlled
by Melvin L. Masters, the Company's CEO. The shares were issued at the
market price of $4.375
29
per share for a total of $4 million. The TimeMasters group was also
issued a warrant for the purchase of an additional 914,286 shares at
$7.00 per share with an expiration date of September 16, 2004. The
TimeMasters group has the right to require the Company to effect up to
five demand registrations under the Securities Act within ten years of
the closing date of the transaction. The agreement also provides for
incidental registration rights during this same period. In addition,
shares acquired by TimeMasters upon the exercise of the warrant or
conversion right, obtained pursuant to the $1,765,000 demand note
discussed in item (4) above, have preferential incidental registration
rights expiring September 2006. The Company offset a portion of the
proceeds from this sale with CSC's indebtedness to TMI (see item (4)
above).
(6) In addition, Mel Masters, the Company's CEO, borrowed $585,000 from the
Company in November 1996. The amount borrowed was repaid in December
1996 together with interest at 10%.
The above from the sec
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Everyone once in a while, you run across a athlete who that makes you think maybe athletes can be role models. Kirby Puckett was one of those guys. He always flashed that big smile, never embarrassed us when he spoke, generally made people proud he way plaing on our team. The he retires and the truth comes out. Turns out the truth is different from the image we all believed in. Check out Sports Illustrated's take on Kirby.
Now the question comes to my mind, who is responsible? I mean Kirby is responsible for his own actions, but who turned him into the icon, who created the image? Was it the Twins, was it Kirby himself, or was it us, the public? I have a feeling we all conspired to create this larger than life good guy. It's too bad it's going to end badly for all parties in this case. The Twins no longer have the icon as lobbyist and ambassador of goodwill, Kirby will no doubt have a long legal ordeal to get through, followed by a tarnished retirement, and the fans will live with their dissapointment.
Perhaps we should embrace Randy Moss as a model for sports ation figures. It seems like his image and actions are consistent. We all expect he will say and do things we wish he wouldn't. Then when he says or does things we don't like it's not a disapointment. Randy can only surprise us with good behaviour.
Hear that faint sigh, it's the sports fan across the nation lowering their expectations.
The Tyranny of Email. I saw this article on slashdot. I couldn't agree more with the author. I have my most productive days when I turn off me email client, mutt and get busy typing. Additionally, I note that, as the author asserts, it is very difficult to hammer out technical decisions in email. This is unfortunate to me, as I work directly with colleagues in India. I would like to be able to have a face to face conversation, but I have to settle for con calls. I rarely have engaged in flamewars, although there were a few hot ones at lasermaster.
I did a write up of my Fall 2002 hike around Snowbank Lake in the BWCA.
Aras, did me the favor of converting what I wrote into beautiful HTML, complete with photo's and captions.
O.K. for some reason I forget how to do this.
cat -s file
sed '/^$/d' file
TIMTOWTDI
I found my jury duty service to be pretty interesting, so I thought I would write down my thoughts and recollection. It's all pretty random for the moment, I'll try and neaten it up later.
According to the material published by the Supreme Court of Minnesota, 90% of all jury trials take place in the U.S. THis is an interesting statistic. It makes me wonder if 90% of all trials take place in the U.S., thanks to our litigatious society or whether the right to a trial is just not available in the rest of the world. I have not yet been able to find a source to prove this one way or the other. (It looks like the state department web site has the material, but it's listed by country and I cannot seem to find a summary. I suppose I could write a little web scraper to help me summarize, but with millions of moneys typing away on the web someone must have done it by now.)
At least in the United States, assumming you are not branded an "unlawful combatant", you are gauranteed the right to a trial by jury in the consitution several times.
- Article III, Section 2, Clause 3 of the United States Constitution
- Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution
- Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution
- Seventh Amendment to the United States Constitution
It's also enshrined in documents like the Magna Carta, Federalist #83, the Declaration of Independance Section 19, and numerous other places.
The case I server on was a civil trial. Two plaintiffs were suing the manufacturer and dealer for and RV they had purchased. They experienced a problem and cuold not get the dealer to fix it, although they claimed they had tried to get it fixed eight times. They wanted to return the RV to someone.
The dealer never showed up to the proceedings at all.
The RV manufacturer put on a excellent defense.
In the end we found for the the plaintiffs. Why?
- We found the dealer and manufacturer had a dealer/agent relationship.
- The defense never sufficiently impeached the number of times the owners had attempted to get the RV fixed.
Was justice done? No I don't think so. It's too bad the owners never tried the manufacturer or another dealer. I am positive they could have been happily RV'ing around the country instead of suing people and staying in Minnesota.
I was surprised that some members of the jury didn't care much about the facts or the judges instructions but were obsessed with how they "would like to be treated", as if the trial were about the Golden Rule instead of the law.
The federal statute we were given, indicates that anyone who provides a warranty has a reasonable number of times to fix something or refund the money. This is handy to know. I would hate to have a dealer who fixes something every friday for three years until the warranty runs out.
Our judge was great, as he allowed us to ask questions. This was extremely helpful. I know I have read in the past that notepads aren't allowed in some jurisdictions. I don't know how people keep track of all the facts and timelines in a case.
If you are in a jury selection, saying your profession is "professional dancer" it's unlikely people will think you are a ballerina.
Here is the silliest patent ever.
Today I saw on slashdot a note that SCO was suing IBM over patent infringements. This story is covered in more detail at forbes.
#include < std_disclaimer > # I am not a lawyer
This is stunning to me. Not because I am shocked that someone has made IP claims on linux, but rather that SCO is taking on IBM first. As far as I know IBM has filed more patents that any other company on earth for quite some time. They are well known for using these defensively, or using these to cross-license needed technology. I can't imagine what would happen at SCO to make them belive that they could win against the proverbial 300 pound gorilla. I expect IBM to squash this and I hope they do rather decisively. I expect the IBM probably can make counter claims that would probably force SCO to drop the suit, be forced into bankruptcy or be bought.
Today we here closing arguements and deliberate. I am looking forward to the court feeding us lunch.
The whole experience has been very positive. I am glad I live in a country where I have the option of a jury trial.
Can't wait to see how it turns out in the end.
A few thoughts about jury duty, although I obviously can't talk about the case.
It's fabulous to live in a country where we have citizen juries. We trust ordinary individuals without training in law, to make difficult decisions on both civil and criminal trials. It's contining evidence that people on the US don't require kings or queens, popes, or lords. Ordinary people can think for themselves without the ruling class ursurping those roles.
Baliff is the ultimate job. You get to wear a gun and sleep on the job. I wish I could be a baliff. I suppose it's more exciting in a criminal trial.
Today begins Day 1 of jury duty for me. I am to report to the county for Orientation and selection today.
It's funny, I have always wanted to be on jury duty, ever since I was aware of the concept. Now that it's upon me I don't want to, mainly as I have a lot of work to do and don't want the interruption. I suppose I should think of it more like voting. I vote not matter how busy I am.
I was also in the paper. What a horrifying experience it was. I suppose everything has turned out ok, but I realize I value my privacy a lot more that I thought. The reporter Martha Allen was a good sport and quoted me accurately. http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/3726699.html
Update: 7:20 P.M.
I was selected to hear a civil case, I can't reveal any other details as this time. Suffice it to say that the jury selection process seems slow and rather random. Can't wait to see what happens.
While probably no one else cares, I'll note this for myself so I'll have somewhere to look later.
Using gentoo, with the most recent muttprint and tetex. I was unable to use muttprint from another program, notably mutt. After debugging a but I realized, what was actually happening was that dvips was dying with an error like "dvips: ! couldn't open output pipe".
After a quick google search I learned dvips had a security problem with executing malicious code. So I was able to fix up muttprint to do the right thing.
A few days ago, I finally got around to setting up spamassassin. So far, I have had -0- false positives(mail I wanted, id'ed as junk), and only half a dozen spams get through. This is really remarkable, as I have been getting 100+ per day. It's such a pleasure to read through my inbox and not have to wade through spam. Thanks to all the folks who create such good software. I am tightening up the filters which should reduce the number of email that get through.
