I’m reminded over and over again how maddeningly unproductive arguments become when the participants throw around unsubstantiated claims and figures. It seems like this is happening more and more in a fast-paced society where no one has the time to dig into the details of an issue. I’m as guilty as the next person of forcefully defending a position that feels right but which I can’t back up with any hard facts.

David McCandless took the time to do a broad study of Global Warming arguments/counter-arguments and did the background-work to back up the components of each side.  It’s shocking how deeply buried some of this information ended up being.

Perhaps now we can get down to the reality of the matter and move on from there into an argument worth having.

A token of that unity is the CNN image taken by the GeoEye satellite of between one and two million people on the national mall to observe this inauguration, despite hours of security checks and frigid cold weather.

CNN: Satellite image of crowds on the mall   

Now, maybe it’s just me, but how far into debt can we go before people start wondering whether we’re worth the investment.  Just for the sake of context, in 2006 back when the debt was around $8.5 trillion, the US paid $406 Billion in interest on the debt.  Compare that to the roughly $95 billion we spent on education or the $60 billion we spent on transportation in the same year.  What will it take to turn this around?  How long can the country go before we realize the danger we’re in.

Courtesy of http://www.federalbudget.com/

For so long, gas prices in the US have been exceptionally low, kept down by government subsidies and protection of oil interests.  Check out this table comparing prices around the world.  We’ve been lucky to get along with such cheap fuel costs but when things get easy, people get lazy.  If it’s cheap to drive an hour to work every day, people have no reason to live closer, or invest in a bus or train route to fit the bill.  If it’s glamorous and profitable to push huge vehicles to consumers, there’s no incentive to develop efficient and sensible alternatives.

When times are easy, individuals and companies have no reason to invent and innovate and lead the world in developing new technologies.  We slip behind other countries because we’ve collectively forgotten what it means to strive desperately for the best.

High gas prices have forced us economically to do what we should have been doing on our own.  We’re facing the short-term shock that comes with a forced change in perspective.  Soon, though, the country will shift into gear and do what we do best.  The country should embrace this opportunity step it up and rediscover its place as a center of innovation and discovery.  I just hope we don’t forget the lesson when prices drop again.  SUV sales should never recover.

Backup Magic automates and simplifies the process by allowing you to select certain folders to mirror on an external drive somewhere. I can set things up once and then periodically (or automatically on a cron job) run these backups. Just as easily, I can create another job to restore the backed up files/directories to their original location after a format (dead hard drive, sibling abuse, virus infestation, etc.).

Free to use. Pay if you really like it. Backup Magic

John McCain spoke yesterday afternoon on issues of foreign policy: Remarks Transcript

I side with the democratic viewpoint on most issues, advocating social programs, little religious involvement, protection of the environment, and unabashed use of taxes to pay for the programs we universally enjoy as an American public.  Though I disagree with McCain on a number of issues, I feel that when it really comes down to it, he has what it takes to pursue policy for selfless reasons based on experience and advice from different viewpoints.

 ”There is such a thing as international good citizenship. We need to be good stewards of our planet and join with other nations to help preserve our common home.”

“Our goal must be to win the “hearts and minds” of the vast majority of moderate Muslims who do not want their future controlled by a minority of violent extremists. In this struggle, scholarships will be far more important than smart bombs.”

I’ve found it very easy to harbor burning hatred for the neoconservative republican attitude of the current administration and party leadership, but statements such as the above make it impossible for me to classify McCain as anything but a responsible politician.

Blogged with Flock

The American Blog, seen by a relatively small percent of the American public, discusses the subtle politics involved with the Bush administration veto of defense policy legislation.  At the same time, a quick glance at cnn.com, touting “Breaking News” turns up no coverage whatsoever.  Now, I don’t expect people to pay attention to, or understand all of the subtleties involved in our government processes, but one would hope that people might consider the very real implications of the decisions being made.

The neoconservatives running the country can get away with a startling amount of manipulation when no one pays attention.  Government is accountable to its constituents, democrat and republican representatives alike.  Who’s to guarantee fair play, though, if the ref has his nose buried in the tabloids.

This headline is way too familiar. Try changing one letter and you’re back 4 years ago debating the exact same issue. Intelligence agencies released the following long-awaited report on the nuclear capacities of Iran, finding that they stopped weapons development in 2003.

National Intelligence Estimate: Iran: Nuclear Intentions and Capabilities

A few highlights from the report:We judge with moderate confidence that the earliest possible date Iran would be technically capable of producing enough HEU for a weapon is late 2009, but that this is very unlikely.

• We judge with high confidence that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program.
• We assess with moderate confidence Tehran had not restarted its nuclear weapons program as of mid-2007, but we do not know whether it currently intends to develop nuclear weapons.
• We assess with high confidence that Iran has the scientific, technical and industrial capacity eventually to produce nuclear weapons if it decides to do so.

but…

• We judge with high confidence that Iran will not be technically capable of producing and reprocessing enough plutonium for a weapon before about 2015

Iran may eventually be a danger – and we’re not exactly taking action in the world to convince people we’re worth being friends with – but this is not an imminent threat to US security, and it worries me that Bush is slipping into the same rhetoric he displayed with respect to Iraq. This does not justify Bush saying things such as

Bush: But this — we got a leader in Iran who has announced that he wants to destroy Israel. So I’ve told people that if you’re interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them from have the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon… (Full transcript)

Check out these two articles in that order. It’s amazing what people can do to science.

Junk Science: Hey Al Gore, We Want a Refund!

vs.

An ‘error’ is not the same thing as an error

London Justice Burton heard a case regarding the problems with presenting Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth to classrooms across the UK. The justice acknowledged the value of the film as professionally produced and well-meaning but struck down 9 major errors in the presentation. These pertained to Hurricane Katrina’s path of destruction, melting snow on Mount Kilimanjaro and the loss of fish communities dependent on coral reefs, among other things.

In none of these cases does the justice find Al Gore’s assertions to be false. Rather, the claims he finds have to do with a lack of sufficient comprehensive evidence for global warming as a cause, and possible other factors potentially responsible for the discussed climate changes.

Frankly, Al Gore was awarded the Nobel Prize this past week not for incredible scientific discoveries on his part. He’s a smart guy but not by any means a leading expert in every one of these areas. The value of this film doesn’t depend on the simple mass of how many proofs it can come up with to advocate global warming. Global warming is almost universally recognized by the scientific community as a very real and important factor in how we interact with the environment around us. This film takes this absolute truth and portrays it in a way individuals can relate to. A film like this is important because it helps the public throw away the unsupported statements and censored reports coming out of the Bush administration.

Justice Burton didn’t call Gore’s statements untruths, simply not fully and completely proven so far, and even at that, the justice was only citing inconsistencies between the film and the current formally accepted body of scientific research. That’s a lot more than we can say for most of the arguments against global warming.

Justice Burton’s Judgement

As things stand prior to the TLC, Costa Rican quality of life is fairly good. Education, government, environmental consideration, social life, and family life are all fairly high above our general stereotypes of what it means to live in a Latin American country.  As reasonable as some of these changes are as the logical progression of a small country in the modern globally connected world, it’s somewhat sad to think about the effects it will have on the country as a whole. This sort of thing is happening all over, as the pursuit of money and physical wealth dominates political and social thought.

Of course the article reads “Victory for Costa Rica.” The culture of our country is so completely dominated by commercialism that we cannot logical consider it in any other way. The World Bank recommends this course of action. Of course it must be right. But the thing we’re missing here is a consideration of the effects on the culture of every society it touches.

I spent a month in Costa Rica last year and I was struck most by was the strange ability of the Ticos to be simply content and happy with their lot in life. There isn’t the same drive to succeed and accomplish and accumulate wealth that dictates every aspect of American life. Connections to family and friends far outweigh career accomplishments. Happiness and success are related but not the same.

This victory for Costa Rican commerce and economy takes a step in the direction of sacrificing that Costa Rican ease of living. There is so much more to life than succeeding. It saddens me when the American way of life finds ways to corrupt the peace of such thoroughly advanced and sophisticated communities.

Check out articles and editorials in the national newspaper, LA NACIÓN for more perspectives on the issue. 51.1% is not unanimous.

By 12:30 p.m., hundreds of monks, students, and other Rangoon residents approached the police, stood in the road and began to pray. Then the soldiers and police began pulling monks from the crowd, targeting the leaders, striking both monks and ordinary people with canes. Several smoke bombs exploded and the riot police charged. The monks and others fought back with sticks and rocks. Many others ran, perhaps four or five of them bleeding from minor head wounds. A car was set alight — by the soldiers, some protesters claimed — and then there was the unmistakable crack of live ammunition: the soldiers were shooting into the air.

TIME Exclusive

BBC Report

I am by no means an expert on the situation in Burma, but I am familiar with a sense of decency. Nonviolent protest and the idea of calm prayerful opposition don’t warrant a violent response. Praying monks do not deserve a club to the back or a rifle-butt to the head. The image of a Buddhist monk’s shaved head, red with blood simply does not compute. This is not justice.

These reports are important for the fact that the correspondents feeding the information are doing so secretly under penalty of prosecution themselves. No one can get in to tell the world about events within this region.

The details described in article sound pretty bad. Worse, though, is the fact that these few bits of information are the only thing out there. Any situation in which the governing body is driven to covering up and keeping secrets cannot be good. 1o,000 monks and civilians are silently speaking out. Will we hear? And will we listen?

BBC: Accounts From Inside Burma

This morning, the White House released the mandatory assessment of Iraqi progress on a number of benchmarks. All-in-all, there has only been one additional ‘satisfactory’ benchmark rating since the same assessment was made in July.

So, our ultimate purpose for military and political action in Iraq was to establish a stable diplomatic government capable of sustaining itself and maintaining order within the country. With that in mind, here we are – mission accomplished? I’d say, rather unfortunately, that going into this engagement, we naively thought these sort of goals easy and achievable with enough force. The military ‘coalition’ involved did nothing but tear down the current forces holding things in place.

We can’t force a people we don’t understand to live according to our beliefs about the world and society. Our leaders do not understand the values and general day-to-day life of a common Iraqi person. In such a volatile situation, with such a lack of experience, how can they expect to bring about such optimistically defined order?

I’m not advocating reworking legislation or constitutional precedents upon which our entire understanding of government is founded. This issue isn’t about the dirty politicking that inevitably dictates the action of any campaign hoping to accomplish anything.

The phrase “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness” represents the American dream and beliefs binding our nation’s populace. The words don’t, however, exactly model their original phrasing. Where our country has broadened matters to a pursuit of happiness, John Locke was originally speaking of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of property.”

Now there’s no surprise here that Locke’s capitalistically founded philosophy acknowledges propery and possessions as our mandate and ultimate object. The distinction is that America, champion of the free market economy and fair, democratic elections, is founded on the basis not of power, nor with the intent of securing wealth or objects in the name of its citizens. Our founding fathers spoke of a higher calling than these in the form of happiness.

Think for a moment of that playful child, gleaming smile spread across his face as he plays and experiences the world. This fact is universal and independent of all other things. Now look at government and the politics that dictate its movements. When did happiness fall by the wayside? When did we forget the meaning of freedom and the ideals we fight to maintain through diplomacy and military action around the world?

Perhaps the solution is not a challenge of our two-party system. Two opposing ends of the spectrum with their own extreme and moderate factions do have the potential to weigh benefits and costs of each decision and find some appropriate balance in the middle. The nature of our parties, not their existence, is the problem. I admit to party politics, broad generalizations of others I oppose, and a fascination with their downfall, whether by honest or dirty means. Still, I believe that with a change in tone we can make steps foreward rather than steps back.

Compassion. What would life be like with gleaming smiles dictating policy. I’m not suggesting throwing money at the poor or bailing people out to the point that they no longer feel the need to support themselves. What I am saying is that our existence as a respectable nation relies entirely on our respectful treatment of those within and without. People are entitled to different, even wrong opinions. They’re welcome to shout them from the rooftops and they’re welcome to argue them to no end with every individual they encounter. What we need is a dignity and recognition that dissent is okay and part of a decision-making process.

Our two parties exist to offset each other in a cooperative, not destructive manner. The system relies on the continued existence of these two parts. Can we not recognize the inevitability of this truth and take steps towards compassionate progress? Yes we can. But it better be soon because things are falling apart.

Well, I’ve moved to Washington DC now for the next month and a half to work for the organization Project Kaleidoscope doing web design. Taking advantage of the ideal location of my housing on GW campus, I went for a walk down the National Mall, taking some photos along the way (Photos here) and stumbled across a huge body of calmly marching individuals decorated in the colorful garb of what must have been traditional to their culture.

This is DC. Stuff like this happens all the time, yet something grabbed me and caused a pause in my thoughts and motion. They carried signs reading “The problem of humanity is Human Dignity” as these thousands of men and women of all walks of life marched past Smithsonian museums and sculpture gardens along the national mall, finally gathering together at the Washington Monument.

Now, given the magnitude of the event, I expected to find articles in the Washington Post or CNN but I had to search further within Google to find any mention of the event. This was a gathering of a group called Swadhyay Parivar of North America. I have never heard of this national organization and I’m guessing the same is true of most, and yet it exists as part of the constituency of our country. The signs they hold talk about human dignity and the ties the bind us all together under the label of “human”.

I don’t know much about the beliefs and history of this group beyond a few articles I’ve just glanced through this afternoon, but there’s something simply about this event that could benefit each of us to think about. Our nation is a cooperation of millions of individuals characterized by unique qualities and beliefs. A cooperation. Life in this city should not be dictated by disputes between republicans and remocrats, whites and African Americans, men and women, or “native” Americans and immigrants. It should be about finding ways to come together and address the “problem of humanity”: Human Dignity.

As the march wrapped up and I walked past, I noticed a small cluster of people on the sidewalk about 100 feet from the edge of the Swadhyay gathering. They bore their own signs, saying “Defend American Borders”, “Threats to america”, “Not another 9/11, No more aliens”. I think they knew, though, seeing thousands of peaceful, responsible individuals challenging their perspective of people different than them, that their cause was a bit foolish. I think they know deep down that the divisions between us are much less important than those signs show.