Thursday, October 14, 2004
BOOKS: What We've Lost by Graydon Carter
This is the one political book I've read even though I have a few more on my To Be Read shelf and here's why: facts. This book is not a screed. It's not a left-wing attack. It's facts. Mr. Carter has compiled a thorough listing of what President Bush has done during his time in office to make this country worse. Even for somebody like myself who already knew quite a bit about this particular topic, this book is an eye-opener. There are litterally almost no facets of this country that have not been made worse by Bush. But here's the thing, the way this book is constructed you can come away liking some of what Bush has done. That's the strength of using the facts. If you're a logger or a corporate honcho, you love Bush and here's why. The book doesn't say Bush is bad for doing a lot of the things he's done but if you have a heart in your chest and a brain in your head, you can't help but be angry. Or, rather, if you're not angry you're part of the problem.
And I'm not talking about the war. The war has clouded so much of the debate this election that people can't see past it to the real issues. One of the things that initially impressed me about What We've Lost is its treatment of the war. Carter doesn't let the war blind him the way a lot of left wing writers and speakers do. It's only 7 pages of the book. What he does is lay down the facts. He talks about the reasons given by the administration for going into Iraq and how it really worked out. He gives the winners of the war and the losers (which includes almost 10 pages listing the names of the dead from the coalition side since Bush declared victory). Carter puts Iraq in it's place in the list just as everyone else should be doing. It's important but should not shadow the other issues. By comparison, the section of the book on the administration's poor record on securing the US from further attack is 9 pages.
If you've already decided to vote for Bush this year, please go to the bookstore and at least look at this book. There's good information on almost every page and each chapter is devoted to an important topic like The Economy, The Environment, Health Care, etc. There's something for everyone. Go through the last chapter 'Bush By The Numbers' and take a look at these numbers. They tell a story and it's an important one. I understand if people don't like John Kerry. If you don't want to vote for Kerry, that's fine. But at least go look at this book and ask yourself if you can in good conscience vote for Bush. I'm not one of these people who think Republicans are evil or people who like Bush are stupid. I think a lot of good-hearted, right-minded people like Bush for the wrong reasons. The Republican idea machine is powerful and plenty of rational and reasonable people have been misguided by it. I really believe that if people knew the things Bush has done to harm this country and it's people, they wouldn't vote for him. This book will show you facts that you can't help but factor into your choice on election day. If you don't like Kerry, don't vote for him. But if you look at this book and don't like what Bush has done, don't vote for him either. It's not either or. Don't vote for either. Make a statement that you don't like either main candidate and vote Green or Libertarian. But at least do yourself and our democracy a favor and take a look at this book before you vote for Bush. It might not change your mind. If you like what's laid out for you in the book, vote for Bush. But at least look at it and make an informed decision.
Tuesday, October 12, 2004
THE FUTURE:
Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr at the Tissue Culture & Art Project are attempting to grow a semi-living jacket in an effort to create "victimless leather." Hoping to highlight the possibility of wearing leather without killing an animal, the duo is presently focused on growing living tissue into a leather-like material and having it mature in the form of a miniature, stitchless, coat-like shape.
Welcome to the 21st Century. This Wired article is about a couple of guys who are on the weirdo bleeding edge. They're growing a jacket out of living cells. If you think this is weird, you might as well go live on an island in the south pacific because this is only the tip of the iceberg. A lot of people have heard about the potential of growing new organs using stem cells or something else and that will definitely happen (of course if we don't get someone with a brain into the White House it'll be a ways off) but this weird stuff is where the real ground-level societal changes will be made.
People in the US made fun of the Japanese putting screen savers on their cell phones. That's missing the point, I've always thought. The point isn't that their cell phones needed screen savers (your computer doesn't even need a screen saver any more), the point is that their technology is advanced enough that you can start thinking about ways to waste it. Once something is powerful enough to support frivolousness, it's ready to change the world. A phone that can have a pointless screen saver on it can do new and semi-important things like play games, send email, take pictures, etc. Getting to the point where we can grow designer clothing, as pointless an activity as I can think of, means more than saving the lives of cows. Once the technology of cell growth supports the pointless, we'll have a whole new way of looking at the world. What will vegetarians do when our meat is grown in a vat? Will people with missing or malformed limbs rush to replace them or will they go the route of some deaf people and declare that their disability is really a life choice? Will Olympic athletes replace their heart with a Lance Armstrong model? *Now One-Third Larger!* Will people want tails? Anyone who has ever seen the proto-body modification people with their split tongues, piercings and other essential useless racing stripes will know that as soon as we have pointless cell growth technology you'll see wings, tails, horns and more that I can't even think of.
Now this living jacket might not go anywhere, the science is pretty young. But the point remains. Pay attention to the people using something new to do the frivolous. It may not be as important or worthwhile as the people saving lives but in the end, the people whose lives are saved will be using the frivolous to change the world.
Tuesday, October 05, 2004
WAR: When did we decide we were at war with Iraq? Didn't we go to Iraq to get rid of Saddam Hussein? Isn't he gone now? What are we doing there now?
No matter what you think of the non-existant connection between Iraq and 9/11, the reason we went there was to get rid of Saddam Hussein. He's gone. Who let the military decide we were then going to go to war against the Iraqi people? They think they're fighting some force of soldiers. They're not, they're fighting people who are pissed off that the US is acting like an occupying force in their country. The problem is exaserbated by the fact that we seem to only be causing havoc over there. People are dying in attacks against our troops and in attacks by our troops. We need to stop thinking of Iraq like Vietnam. We need to stop thinking of Iraq even as a war. It's not a war. We say we're there to help them but then we say we need more troops and more money to fight. STOP FIGHTING THE IRAQIS. THEY ARE NOT OUR ENEMY.
The military is locked into the war mindset. They shoot at us, we get more troops and shoot back. How about this: Take half the troops out. That way there are logically less targets for them to shoot at and less of our presence in the region for them to be pissed at. Then, after half the troops are gone, take a billion or two dollars of the hundreds we're spending on the care and wellbeing of those troops and start helping the people. Resupply and restaff hospitals. There are hundreds of military trained doctors and nurses sitting around doing nothing in Iraq. Let those people do their jobs. Let them help people. Someone whose daughter or son's life was just saved by a US doctor is much less likely to shoot at us. Take another couple of billion and rebuild schools. Stop thinking like a military occupying force and start thinking like people out to help. Iraq is now a major humanitarian aid program. Let other countries help, they'll be glad to for the good publicity if nothing else.
Take away the reasons some Iraqis have for hating us and they'll stop. Instead of giving billions in contracts to US companies, make the contracts contingent on hiring and training Iraqis to do the job within some reasonable timeframe. Instead of importing US based Haliburton employees, make them turn the operation over to Iraqis within 5 years. Hell, keep the Iraqi company owned by Haliburton even. Just make sure the jobs are going to Iraqis and the money going into their economy.
Whatever you think of the reasons we went into Iraq, we're there. We blew up the country and we need to help them rebuild it. We can't just leave. The only way to turn Iraq into a breeding ground for US-hating militants faster than keeping our military there is to leave and abandon the country to chaos. We have the money to help if we get out of the War In Iraq mindset, all we need is the heart to make it happen.
Then once we've learned our lesson over there, maybe we can use that heart to make the same changes in our own country.
Saturday, October 02, 2004
COMPUTERS: The solution to my latest computer problems can be summed in three words: Die Maxtor Die. The last Maxtor hard drive I will ever buy is in the process of dying and of course, my paltry 1 year warranty ran out 1 month ago. Of course the Maxtor drive this one replaced died the week after its warranty ran out. No more. Seagate recently changed its warranty policy to 5 years. I see this both as confidence in their technology and a strong commitment to their customers. The best thing is that their drives don't cost any more than Maxtor's failure prone pieces of junk. The new one was a Compusa special for 160GB drive for $60 after a $50 mailin rebate. Even without the mailin the drive wouldn't have been any more for the extra warranty. Long live Seagate.