|
|
| |
|
 |
| |
Saturday, April 27, 2002
Bet it's a good binge
Damian Penny noiticed that the AussBlogger Blair hasn't posted anything since this past Monday, when he announced he was heading to LA. Since then I've noticed a severe drop-offs of postings from Ken Layne and Matt Welch. Damn. I don't know any of them. I live some 2,000 miles away. Still, someday, somehow, I want to party with these guys.
Back on Track
Okay, my wife has helped me fix up the site a bit and clean up my errors with the links set up.
Friday, April 26, 2002
Time Out
If there is anyone out there reading this, come back tomorrow or so. My lovely wife will be helping me tweak the site, so I imagine I will not have much time for blogging.
Mark Steyn is a god
Well not really. I guess. I haven't met the guy, but his latest column on the French election Euro politics in genteral is brilliant. My favorite:
M. Le Pen wants to restrict immigration; Chirac and Jospin think this subject is beneath discussion. Le Pen thinks the euro is a "currency of occupation"; Chospin and Jirac think this subject is beneath discussion. Le Pen wants to pull out of the EU; Chipin and Josrac think this subject is beneath discussion. Le Pen wants to get tough on crime; Chispac and Jorin think this, too, is beneath discussion, and that may have been their mistake. European Union and even immigration are lofty, philosophical issues. But crime is personal. The French are undergoing a terrible wave of criminality, in which thousands of cars are routinely torched for fun and more and more immigrant suburbs are no-go areas for the police. Chirac and Jospin's unwillingness even to address this issue only confirmed their image as the arrogant co-regents of a remote, insulated elite.
Europe's ruling class has effortlessly refined Voltaire: I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death my right not to have to listen to you say it. You might disapprove of what Le Pen says on immigration, but to declare that the subject cannot even be raised is profoundly unhealthy for a democracy. The problem with the old one-party states of Africa and Latin America was that they criminalized dissent: You could no longer criticize the President, you could only kill him. In the two-party one-party states of Europe, a similar process is under way: If the political culture forbids respectable politicians from raising certain topics, then the electorate will turn to unrespectable politicians -- as they're doing in France, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark and elsewhere. Le Pen is not an aberration but the logical consequence.
And Steyn is also among the few pundits out there correctly pointing out that LePen's anti-Arab (immigration) and anti-Jew makes him a complete anti-semite.
Simple Evil
This article (via Charles Johnson @ little green footballs) is thouroughly disturbing. Would that more stories like this, detailing what precisely happens to the victims of suicide bombers, would be published in the mainstream media of the US (I've given up on Europe), or even more graphically and detailed on CNN or Fox. I think too many people picture the suicide bombs as just being mere (mere?) explosives and death comes quickly (which is somehow better).
Reading the article turns the stomach, and just makes it clearer why I have a hard time seeing the Palestinians as little more than savages. I know, I know. They are humans, they have rights, but their actions aren't human or right. The dehumanization of the Palestinians and their apologists and supporters in the Arab world by the actions and words of the Palestinian leaders/terrorists (one in the same) is one of the worst things about this. Each bomb lowers them in the chain.
While Europe may still be supporting the Palestinians and spewing the oppressor Israel line, sooner or later (and it looks more like sooner) there will be a generalized terror incident in Europe. Not merely (there's that word again) an attack on Jews or jewish schools or synagouges, but a full incident where the "regular citizens" are attacked in "support" of the Palestinian cause. Then what? Will Europe blame the Jews and Israel (probably) or will the countries finally admit, that there is no rationalization for such actions?
Study shows lack of trust
A new study by the Gartner group shows most consumers don't like, want or trust online authentication services like Passport.
Gee you think?
Could it have something to do with things like this?
In no hurry to finish college
Disclosure. I did not graduate from college on time. I was not a model student. I planned many semester loads on avoiding Friday classes and anything starting before 10 am. I started out at University of Pittsburgh with thoughts of getting a double major in Economics and Political Science. By the time I started my Junior year, I really came to hate Pitt's Econ. program (another story for another day). So, I dropped my econ classes (I still had enough to qualify for a minor), and switched gears to the undergraduate business program (which led to garnering an additional minor in accounting). Long story short (too late), I graduated in December 1992 rather than April 1992, falling a class short of also qualifying for a minor in classical mythology. I was in no hurry, the economy at the time sucked, no clue what I wanted - other than another drink, and I was having a good time.
With that in mind, I read with amusement the Wall St. Journal article "Colleges Offer Students Incentives
To Finish Their Degree in 4 Years" (subscription req'd).
According to a recent sampling by ACT, Inc., 49% of college students take more than five years to graduate, if they do so at all -- the worst levels since the education outfit started keeping track in 1983. Between budget cuts, demographic swells and crowded classrooms, many universities say they just can't handle the growing number of hangers on.
I never felt bad about graduating a semester late, but now I feel pretty good to have only taken an extra semester and some summer classes. Technically I had enough credits, I could have graduated in spring '92
What amuses me about this article, is the sense of desperation the schools now seem to have to get these kids out. The plans range from the absurd (signing a contract your freshman year saying you will graduate in 4 years?) to reasonably silly (appeals to the parents who are paying to push the kid).
Schools are getting incentives to get the kids out now.
The issue has become so troublesome some state governments and even the Feds are sticking their noses in. Last year, Pennsylvania doled out $6 million in "performance grants" to schools that graduated more than 40% of their Pennsylvania students on time. Sixty-five schools, from the University of Pennsylvania ($183,000) to Carnegie Mellon ($112,000), cashed in. Through the U.S. Department of Education, the Bush administration has proposed monitoring graduation rates more closely in its new long-range plan.
A logical approach to getting the students out would be to pass some of those financial incentives from the schools to the students. But no school would do that.
I don't suppose it occurs to the colleges that part of the problem is that students coming into college are more and more unprepared for most courses, and the increase at many schools of core requirements may have something to do with it. Of course not.
Indeed, many educators feel kids are to blame, claiming they're more spoiled than earlier generations, without the work ethic to get out on time and more interested in the latest-model cellphone than figuring out how many credit hours it actually takes to graduate. (There's even a movie out about a seven-year undergrad, "National Lampoon's Van Wilder.") Or, there are those so pressured by overachieving boomer parents, they drop classes at the first sign of a B.
More fine examples of the UN peacekeeping missions upholding of values in Bosnia. (Link via Prof. Reynolds)
Hmmm. I think the random conspiracy generator in my head is kicking in. The UN overseas several refugee camps in the West Bank including Jenin. These camps are rife with terrorist plottings and extreme Jew-hating, all under the UN watch. Maybe the Jew-hating arose from abuse at the hands of the UN pretending to be Jews. Yeah. That's it.
There's been a school shooting in Germany. Three people dead. Tragic. Near the end of the article was one line that caught my eye.
Though crime has been rising in Germany, school shootings remain unusual.
Where the hell are they usual?
UPDATE: It now seems that 18 people may be dead from this, according to a report on WSJ.com (subscription required):
A recently expelled student and a second gunman opened fire inside a school Friday, leaving 18 people dead and at least six others injured, police said.
A police spokesman in the eastern city of Erfurt, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, could not immediately provide more details. Earlier, police said two teachers and a police officer who rushed to the scene were killed in the rampage.
Police said the former student, who was kicked out of school several weeks ago, was among the dead. It was unclear whether the second gunman was also among the dead.
and then this at the end.
It was Germany's second school shooting in two months. In February, a 22-year-old German who recently lost his job shot and killed two former bosses and his old high school's principal in a rampage outside Munich.
Fallout from the Homeland Security Coding System. Seems it is causing some confusion with other color coded warning systems.
Looks like ole' cash and carry Fritz is trying something old. Now I'm not trying to be cynical or anything, but it seems Hollings is trying to disprove the notion he's in the back pocket of big entertainment, by pushing Internet data collection regs onto businesses. Anyone laying odds on what kind of companies will get key exemptions if they go beyond hearings?
Thursday, April 25, 2002
Coming soon (as soon as I figure it out) side links.
"With great power comes great responsibility."
Have you seen the TV trailers for the new Spider-Man movie? Not the theatrical trailers, but the ones on TV. The quote at the beginning is a central, guiding principle for Spider-Man throughout the comic's existence. I saw a TV trailer the other day, and when they were interspacing the quickly edited images they flashed key words. First it was "A GIFT" the next was "A DESTINY." Now I am not the geek I once was, but the changing of the terms from "power" and "responibility" to "gift" and "destiny" really bothered me. It's a softening of it. Maybe the power is a gift, but first and foremost, it is power. It can be used in any way. Good or Evil. This leads to the use of "destiny." I really hate that word in general. It implies a lack of choice in my mind. The path is already laid out for you and it will be followed.
Screw that! "Responisibility" was so much more appropriate. It gives the user the choice. It relies on the judgment of the person. Choosing to use the power for general good, rather than personal gain was what made Spider-Man such a great character. Early on, he realized and even fantasized of using his powers for personal gain and adulation, but always ended up doing mostly the right thing. Not out of destiny, fate, or because he had no choice. Spider-Man did the right thing, because it was the right thing. He did it because he wanted to be able to live with himself. Sure there were gray areas, but it came down to a choice.
Perhaps it is stretching the analogy (and opens me up to a Euro-wimp claim of oversimplification), but it seems this is what has happened in the Middle East. You can talk of all the gray areas there. In the governments and rulers, the people, the groups, and the actions taken. The whole two sides to everything line. So what. It comes down to deciding whether you can live with yourself for the actions you take, for the side you support. Looking at it that way, it seems like a no-brainer. Support for Israel over the PA and the Pan-Arab Dictators any day of the week.
I suppose I should introduce myself. My name is Chas Rich, I live in Eastlake, Ohio (about 15 miles NE of downtown Cleveland). I'm not a native Ohioan. I ended up in Cleveland for law school (yes another lawyer turned blogger). I spent two years in private practice in Youngstown, left when I realized I really didn't like it. I am now an editor and writer of legal books for a small legal publishing company that specializes in books for corporate counsel. I am much happier.
I just got married a couple weeks ago. My wife and I are expecting our first child in July (go ahead do the math).
Basically, like most blogs, this will be about things I find interesting. A good amount of current events, lots of pop culture references, comic book comments, random thoughts, the usual. I guess we'll see what happens.
Okay, I've already screwed up! My entire first post got erased when I tried to do too much. Let me try again after I get this P&P
|
|
 |
|
 | |
