News Brief, Ordinary World Edition
Joshua Foust on May 02 2007 at 9:46 pm | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Environment, Foreign affairs, Law, Military Matters, Notes on the war, Technology, social science
Cross-posted on The Conjecturer.
The Pentagon
- The Post today slams Bush for his “rush to failure” in deploying missile defense to Europe—rightfully so, as the system is far from useable, and needlessly expensive and provocative. Here’s the best part, though: A Democrat, Ellen Tauscher, wants to give the Pentagon, not the White House, control of when and whether a defensive system is deployed. How radical!
- They hate us for our freedom! Noah Shachtman has been all over the Army’s new regulations that require authorization for and heavily restrict email & blogs, and even pizza. They also classify “media” in with other domestic threats, like al-Qaeda or foreign spies. The regulations, though marked FOUO and kept behind the Army’s firewall, are stated to apply not just to soldiers, but to their families, friends, civilians, and contractors. So, if these regulations apply to you, but you can’t legally access them to see how, is that legal, or fair? Going meta, is it possible for the Army to become any more of a joke about its itself? It’s like these regs are being written by a Sterling Hayden who is very with the purity of our essence.
- Speaking of which: the Pentagon has a nasty habit of giving police departments free military equipment, even if they’re in the midst of corruption charges stemming from the wanton murder of an old woman. The ever-angry Radley Balko explains why this is so dangerous.
Around the World
- The worst sweatshops on Earth are in, surprise of surprises, North Korea, where a worker is considered very well paid and privileged if they work in the Kaesong Economic “Free Zone” and make $2 per month. But hey, at least they can get their hands on fresh crystal meth (”Philopon” is such a better name that the embarrassingly faggy “Tina”)—hell, if I had to be a famished slave in North Korea, a meth binge wouldn’t be out of the question either.
- Luckily, though, we’re still giving the NoKos more time to shut down their rusted old Yongbyon reactor, even though KJI pinky-swore he’d do it eighteen days ago. But really, who’s counting days when diplomacy is at work?
- Victory Day in Russia will be marked by yet more violent riots by spoiled brat Russians in Estonia, angry the monuments to their imperialism and murder are being removed. Estonia also accused the Duma of meddling in its own matters. But Estonia is not the only country dealing with de-Sovietization. Lithuania has a harsh law on former communist officials, especially ex-KGB: they cannot work in a wide range of public and private sector jobs for 10 years. That being said, I think it’s overkill: only those who actually committed atrocities as agents should be held accountable in such a way 18 years after the USSR fell. Then again, I’ve never had to recover from such oppression, so I can’t even pretend to understand the underlying emotions and craving for justice.
- Bad times for democracy in Turkey: the Supreme Court has invalidated the election, clearing the way for yet another military coup. Turkey seems to have these every 25 years or so, so I suppose they’re overdue. Nevertheless, PM Erdogan has certainly been a surprisingly effective leader—elected by Islamists, yet stringently secular in outlook, and his aggressive courting of Europe must be considered when thinking of the impact of Islamist parties. This is a mistake, and it will have profound consequences throughout the Middle East.
- Oh look—I’ve aroused Robert Templer’s righteous anger yet again by expressing skepticism of a UN human rights mission to Central Asia. And no one picked up on the Hemmingway reference, which should have added irony to the discussion, but didn’t.
- Speaking of human rights, I’m deeply intrigued by this documentary about women’s rights in Kyrgyzstan, a land where it is not uncommon for a girl to be kidnapped and married to strange men (Borat wasn’t entirely inaccurate in his attempt to stuff Pamela Anderson into a marriage sack).
- It’s a precedent, to be sure: the ICC has issued its first arrest warrants for Sudanese officials who are implicated in the Darfur atrocity. But is the precedent good or bad? Who may legally execute the warrant? What of the other thousands of people who have participated in the wanton slaughter? What of national sovereignty, so inconvenient here but so zealously guarded by the West?
Back at Home
- Big Media hates you: a poorly designed anti-copying measure embedded into HD-DVDs doesn’t allow legally purchased HD-DVDs to be played on some players, so a frustrated user posted the hexadecimal code on Digg… which promptly went about deleting user accounts that referenced it. They did this because of a rightful fear of entertainment lawyers, who scored a victory seven years ago when frustrated Linux users did the same thing and published DeCSS, the anti-copying measure in regular DVDs, because thankfully-deceased Jack Valenti’s MPAA refused to license the algorithm to Linux players. That being said, it’s ridiculous that broken technology is protected by ruinous legal precedent… and as far as I’m concerned justifies my absolute contempt for the current state of Intellectual Property law in this country. If they sell us broken devices and legally bar us from fixing them, why should we bother to purchase them in the first place? This is a big motivating factor in file-sharing, and why all sectors of the entertainment industry are in decline. We just want to buy your products—legally—and have them work, without installing spyware, breaking standard operating system components, or requiring ludicrous usage restrictions that didn’t exist in 1997. It’s not hard.
- Big Telecom hates you too. The FCC is useless as well. This is because these large telecoms have purchased the laws they want at the expense of their customers, we who are saddled with an increasingly underperforming IT infrastructure compared to every other developed country on the planet. More here.
- Bush has only vetoed two things in his six short years as Lord and Master of This Domain: a bill requiring an exit from a war he never should have started, and a bill funding research he refuses to ban. He no longer strikes me as a principled man. He once did.
- I always figured I was slowly killing myself by living in the Virginia suburbs of the DC. Now I know for certain: at least according to public records, emissions here shot up nearly 19% between 2001 and 2005, well over double the national average. Is it the feverish attempt to bulldoze every last stand of tree to build strip malls filled with Paneras, Starbucks, and World Markets? The turgid demand for $900,000 houses squeezed onto quarter-acre pips of land, jumbled upon the hillsides on clogged, narrow roads never built to handle the hundreds of thousands of people who have flocked to the area and forced high school students into trailers because their schools are too small? The relentless parade of Range Rovers, exotic sports coupes, German luxury sedans, and heavy duty pickup trucks driven by the immigrant landscapers? I can’t really say. But even someone like me, who finds not just utility but moral value in economic growth, can see its limits, at least in terms of rate. Too much growth too fast can be just as bad, demoralizing, and dehumanizing as no growth at all, or even shrinkage. We here in the over-monied ‘burbs need to slow things down, just a teeny tiny bit.
- The Hitch on how the Left’s heroes are all religious, and the Right’s are almost all anti-religious. Of course, given the body of philosophical thought he draws on for inspiration, which has its roots in European religious schools, his assignation of all religion as “intellectually reprehensible” is idiotic. Similarly, his refusal to recognize that the greatest atrocities of the last few centuries were all done in the name of areligious or anti-religious ideologies (including his once-prized socialism), indicates how thoroughly dishonest his arguments for atheism are.
- On a personal note, I feel I must remark again on how ludicrously vicious blog arguments can turn. Lately, at Registan.net, I have expressed deep skepticism that the tour of Central Asia undertaken by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, will amount to anything. In response I’ve been called an ignorant, fact-free writer, who knows nothing of the UN, the office, or the political situation in those countries. I of course take dispute with all assertions, but I am okay with being called out when I get something wrong—if it is actually wrong. My ears may burn in mild embarrassment, but I accept the lesson and move on. The personal vitriol is what I don’t understand, especially when it is over what I would consider perfectly natural and quite healthy skepticism of the UN’s efficacy in resolving human rights abuses. The only illuminating insight I can think of is that such people, especially knowing their positions, would never behave so in real life; if they do, they are contemptible and unworthy of further attention, and if they don’t, then they are overreacting and frivolous. In either case, I think I shall devote no more energy to such disputes, as they are fruitless and needlessly degrading to all involved.
8 Responses to “News Brief, Ordinary World Edition”
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[…] News Brief, Ordinary World News Brief, Ordinary World Posted by Joshua Foust on May 02 2007 | Tagged as: Domestic Politics, Foreign affairs, Environment, Law, Technology, social science, Military Matters, Notes on the war Cross-posted on The Conjecturer. The Pentagon The Post today slams Bush for his rush to failure in deploying missile defense to Europe rightfully […]
I might have to comment anonymously someplace just to test your fortitude and forbearance;^)
I’m going say “boo” while putting on my lollerskates and going home. Why? Because I can!
Understanding personal invective is easy. It’s easier to attack your opponent than his ideas.
The role of the Pentagon (as with all of the executive agencies) is to advise the President, not make policy. If the President believes (however erroneously) that deploying the missile defense shield (or whatever the heck it’s called this week) to Europe is America’s best policy, then that is what the Pentagon does, not vice-versa. I have no arguments with the Pentagon’s experts, but giving the military control over policy decisions is not a road that any of us wants to go down (other than, apparently Ellen Tauscher).
Agreed. The continued militarization of the police is an unnecessary and dangerous step. Why not just go ahead and give the fuzz (excuse the antiquated term, perhaps 5-0 would be more contemporary?) M-79 grenade launcers, M-1 tanks, and AH-64 attack helicopters. I mean, heck, we can’t let them be outgunned by the criminals, right?
This reminds me of old-school French imperialist policies in Vietnam. Back in the day, the French used to work the peasants to the bone, then offer them opium binges so that they could ignore the starvation pains and exhaustion. In fact, oddly enough, the French administrator who came up with this idea even has (or had in the 60’s-70’s) a bridge named after him in North Vietnam, Paul Doumer. Funny how the supposedly anti-imperialist communists like Kim are quick to adopt the tactics of the worst of the old school imperialists. If this situation weren’t so sad, the irony would be worth several good belly laughs.
In all seriousness, I hang my head in shame over this. O for the days of Mustafa Kemal. Come on guys, get your friggin’ act together.
Don’t tell Amnesty International. Their director’s formal statement on this amounts to, “Anytime human rights are abused, national sovereignty be damned. The UN must go in. Oh, except for Iraq cause, you know, a Republican was behind that. Oh and China. They’re cool. Um. Yeah.”
I agree, but as someone in the market for a next-gen player, which format should I opt for? You seem convinced that HD-DVD is trash, so what about Blu-Ray? Sony’s track record on introducing new formats is iffy at best (Beta-Max and Mini-Disc). I suspect that many consumers are in the same boat as me, confused about which format will win out and which really deserves to win out.
Not to mention in the area of the country you mention, the destruction of vital parts of national history and culture (America’s battlefields and National Parks). I know that these types of things don’t make much money, but hey can’t they build out in the middle of like Nebraska or something? Why do we need another Motel 6 on top of Brandy Station or the Wilderness?
Love the Hitch article, by the way. As much as I might agree with him on certain issues (and think that he’s one of the best spokesmen the right [despite his man of the left stance] has had in decades), he is clueless regarding religion. Good call on the ideas behind his philosophy.
Omar, when it comes to formats, my personal guess would be to go with HD-DVD, partially for the reasons you mention. Sony actually makes superior formats—both Beta and Minidisc are examples of this (I love my minidisc player)—but Sony is also retarded when it comes to getting other people to adopt their formats. They don’t license things out soon enough.
In addition, and I know how this sounds, but Sony refuses to allow porn companies to publish in Blu-Ray. Porn choosing VHS was a major reason for its victory in the last format wars.
But really, until movies start being regularly filmed in HD, there’s no need to rush into buying one. For at least the next several years, a good quality progressive scan DVD player will be fine. I’m unimpressed with the upsampling required for popping out HD images on non-HD movies.
And I’m just waiting for the bulldozers to roll over Manassas Battlefield Park. In the last decade, the area between Manassas and Haymarket has gone from being a vaguely backwater retreat area for isolated big houses into THE hot market for million-dollar gated communities and $600k townhouses. The Battlefield, while pretty and historical and soaked with the blood of our ancestors, is also really prime real estate. I would not be surprised to learn that developers are lobbying the local government to build a couple dozen houses and a Sam’s club right there, even though there are shopping centers and vast tracts of housing on either side.
I must say, Lance. It’s good to have Joshua Foust and his news round-ups included on ASHC. It’s a refreshing addition to compliment you and ASHC’s The Others.
Besides, what a cool name. Joshua Foust. Sounds like it should be a name given to the hero of a futuristic post-apocalyptic, quasi-biblical adventure movie….
He’s bad, He’s beautiful, He’s crazy…. He’s… JoshuaFoust.
And speaking of quasi-biblical,
The Poet Omar:
I’m like you, I like Hitchens. I of course don’t agree with all he says, but I like his brash, arrogant, sharp witted style in which he speaks his mind.
Kinda’ reminds me of someone, but I just can’t put my finger on it.
And you can be sure that Hitchens, unlike so many in the pundocracy, isn’t just repeating talking points.
But Omar, you must cut Hitchens some slack. You see, when it comes to religion, most of us atheists are clueless.
We just don’t get it.
The interview was interesting. And this struck me as funny,
Whoops. Boy, talk about getting that one bass ackwards. A “practicing Roman Catholic†simply saying that he is not a person of faith??? I could understand the mistake if he was a Methodist or something.
Or maybe Episcopalian. And especially UCC.
What is up these liberal churches, anyway? What gives?
Ah Hah!!!
Social justice issues…
Oh the horror.
“Devil, talk to the elbow ‘cause the hand aint listenin’.â€
Indeed.
Women, …
Cheers.
I am a capitalist Pogue. I appreciate unpaid/low wage labor, outsourcing and other exploitative tactics. You and your rabble rousing, management hostile, labor friendly self needs to stay away from him.