22 Jan 2009
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Don't worry, the White House says: Obama has still been president since noon on Inauguration Day.
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Sources close to the situation tell me that the Pens have been scouting Anderson since he was five. </p>
GM Ray Shero, pictured, finally decided to make a move and sign him due to increased pressure from other teams — namely the Flyers and Capitals.
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Political Punch: Torture, Gitmo, and the Treatment of Detainees: President Obama's Three Executive Orders for Thursday
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A new picture every minute.
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you will not soon see a German chancellor of Turkish descent. Nor will a child of North African immigrants soon take the reins of power in France. It will be a long time before a Pakistani or Indian last name appears on the mailbox at 10 Downing St. And yet these countries bubble over with haughty finger-waggers eager to lecture backward and provincial America about race and tolerance. Why not enjoy rubbing Barack Obama in their faces?
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22 Jan 2009
When I first picked up Confessions of an Economic Hit Man,I found myself having a hard time believing the story being told. It certainly read much more like a work of fiction. It is a story of the American Empire and the quest to protect U.S. interests at all costs – even in the face of dire consequences for much poorer nations.
A point the author tries to make – and I think many readers miss – is that there is not some sinister, back-room conspiracy at work in all of this. America is run by what the author calls the “corporatocracy” (a government dominated by corporate influence, banks, and governments). He writes:
corporations, banks, and governments (collectively the corporatocracy)
It is an eye opening read. While I do believe some of the author’s tales seem contrived and hard to believe, I have no reason to doubt the legitimacy of his overall claim. There have been many other books written about this subject and I think many people assume that the U.S. government does not always have the interests of the weak in mind. Very few doubt that any government should look out for its own interests, but it is not necessary to prey on the weak in order to make the strong stronger.
This book also reminded me that most of us operate following a misconception that human progress can be measured in strictly economic terms. We speak of poorer countries as being “underdeveloped” as if they are somehow inferior in every way because they do not produce as much as we. It seems to always be about production – for the sole purpose of more consumption. Perhaps we should look at the world through a different lens.
If you’d like an intriguing, fast-paced read that makes you question your old assumptions, you should pick up this book. If you need a “just the facts” approach, you may want to look for another.
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21 Jan 2009
Since FDR, it is common for Americans to judge a president’s effectiveness based on his productivity over the first one-hundred days of his presidency. It’s interesting to note that the “100 days” of FDR were actually not the first one-hundred days of his presidency but the first one-hundred day session of Congress. Congress was convened on March 9, 1933 – five days after the inauguration, and they adjourned on June 16, 1933 – 100 days later. This period of time was the most productive in American legislative history.
I think most Americans understand that it is unfair to judge a President based on what he can accomplish in less than 7% of his term – and at the beginning of it – yet we all still seem fascinated by this arbitrary measure of productivity. There are websites where one can see the progress other presidents made and others that will track President Obama’s progress (here and here) and still others with lots of advice for our new President.
Businessweek has advice on how to be productive in the first one-hundred days and the Washington Post warns that Obama should not make the same mistakes Clinton made.
As official Washington turns its attention from the transition to Obama’s plans for the first 100 days, Clinton’s difficult experience in his own first 100 days can again serve as a cautionary tale for Obama.
Clinton sought to move on a number of major policy fronts — an economic stimulus package, an overhaul of the health care system led by Hillary Clinton — that were eventually abandoned, and was buffeted by unforeseen controversies (gays in the military/”don’t ask, don’t tell”) and unpredictable events (the Branch Davidian stand-off in Waco, Texas).
“I think there was a great deal of exuberance by the president in terms of what he’d be able to accomplish immediately, and, no, he couldn’t match it all,” said Democratic pollster Peter Hart of Bill Clinton in the spring of 1993.
Obama’s First 100
So, what should Barack Obama do in his first one-hundred days?
Scientific American says
Energy security is the greatest challenge and the greatest opportunity of our time. But lack of action has put the U.S. at risk. America needs a bold plan that ignites our collective imagination, sparks innovation, and creates economic and national security. The starting point? A call to action from our new president in the first 100 days of his administration.
Obama’s First 100 Days
and it is clear that many others care about peace and the environment.
I think most people believe that the biggest challenge we face at this point is the economy. Commenters on the WP piece seem to agree that the economy is most pressing (followed by Isreal, and energy). Gerald F. Seib, Executive Washington Editor at the Wall Street Journal says that the top five items on the to-do list are economy, economy, economy, economy, and economy. This guy says the top issue is the economy (followed by Guantanamo, the Middle East, energy, and healthcare) and one of his commenters points out the following:
Barring any event of the magnitude of 9/11 or something approaching it, the bread and butter issue of American politics is, as it’s always been, the price of bread and butter.
link
and others agree
Though presidential historians say it’s an arbitrary – and in some ways unfair – measurement, they say Obama’s early actions will set the tone for his administration and establish his priorities and leadership style.
“It’s an unreasonable expectation that we put on all our presidents, just because it worked that way in 1933 for FDR. They shouldn’t be held to that” said Stephen Hess, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who worked for several presidents.
Obama’s advisers and outside observers say it is clear that fixing the economy and creating jobs will dominate his agenda in the early days, just as it did Roosevelt’s.
Shades of FDR
Alan Murray, Deputy Managing Editor at the Wall Street Journal, says that even though President Obama faces “a significant number of foreign policy problems” (Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the Middle East) of which any one could hijack the President’s agenda, the economy is the biggest issue “bar none” and that the stimulus plan he pushes through Congress will “probably be the defining product of his presidency.” In a video preview of the next one-hundred days, he says that Obama will be considered successful if he can recover the economy and tackle just one more of the important issues on his agenda. Another commentator in the same video reminds us, though, that every day spent on the “short term agenda” is a day not spent on healthcare, climate change, or taxes.
President Obama’s campaign website has a list of issues that also puts the economy at the top, though the list is actually in alphabetical order. 
The President himself had this to say:
“The first hundred days is going to be important, but it’s probably going to be more like the first thousand days that makes a difference” he told a Colorado radio station in an interview shortly before Election Day. “Most of the big challenges that we face, whether it’s making college more affordable, or fixing our health care system so it works for everybody, or making sure that we’ve got a serious energy strategy, or winding down the war in Iraq, all those things are probably going to take longer than three months to complete.”
Shades of FDR
Actually, I am not sure I’d agree that the economy should be the point of focus over the next one-hundred days. I must admit that I feel a certain sense of unease at the present state of our economy but I am in a different position than most – I have very little debt and 80% of my income comes from recession resistant sources. I’d like to think that my opinion would be the same even if that were not the case. Our economy has thrived for years on over-consumption and that has led us to this point. In order to solve our environmental problems and improve our stature in the world, we need to cut back on our consumption. I think a sluggish economy is a necessary evil and I am not sure we need to jump in and save it.
That being said, I believe that something must be done to help those who desperately need to survive during these hard economic times. My biggest concern, and the number one reason I voted for President Obama, is social injustice in the world. There are many in our own country who cannot afford to put food on the table and that ought not to be so in a place like this.
So, I guess in a sense it all comes back to economic concerns again.
What do you think?
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21 Jan 2009
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The 87-year-old civil rights leader practically stole the show. Good for him.
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"Dude, this is a big moment for me. Can you try that again?"
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This is worth watching today.
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The children, white children, have grown up around African-American teachers, neighbors, friends and, for that matter, relatives of mixed ancestry. And, really, how does one explain the way things were 50 to 60 years ago?
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Just like your new government, WhiteHouse.gov and the rest of the Administration's online programs will put citizens first.
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20 Jan 2009
As I mentioned yesterday, I’ve waited a long time for this day.
There is no need to focus on all the things I didn’t like about our previous president – others have done that well. It’s time to focus on the positive things that can happen now.
I have no illusions that all we be well in America now, nor do I believe President Obama will do things as well as he should. In fact, I fully expect him to make decisions with which I do not agree. Nonetheless, I expect the next four years to bring about significant changes to our way of life in this country.
There are many who wish him harm, pray that he fails, or look to the future with paranoia and fear; but I’d argue that even those who disagree with his policy should hope for the best. Like our President said yesterday and at other times, “there is no such thing as false hope.” We should all hope and pray for our great country and our new leader.
We should also not forget the significance of his election to power as an African American. We can not all be free until we are all free. The fact that these two men can stand on the platform together is a testament to how far we’ve come.
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20 Jan 2009
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Yesterday, U2 performed in front of hundreds of thousands of people at “We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration†concert at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. ONE co-founder Bono took a few moments backstage to record this message to ONE members. Check it out!
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But because Obama’s image is in the public domain, you can print it as much as you want on T-shirts, mugs, or… as in this case… cookies and pay no royalty and keep all the profits.
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We may be lining up to eat at soup kitchens in 2009, but we'll have the fastest news cycle ever to keep us informed
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It's like a scene out of some bizarro, Wall Streetified Antique Road Show. The bankers come in with their old china and cabinets from the attic that they're sure are worth $20,000. Sadly, the appraiser informs them they're only worth about $850. Only of course they're not from the attic. They bought them only last year convinced $20,000 was a steal back at the height of the antique crap craze.
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A satellite called GeoEye-1 will be orbiting 423 miles above Washington D.C. looking down at the vast crowd minutes before the excitement begins…
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19 Jan 2009
Today we celebrate the life of one of my heroes – the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In his memory, the family and I listened to his most famous speech and I re-read his masterful writing in Letter from a Birmingham Jail. After reading this again, I’ve decided there is a lot I want to say about Dr. King. Perhaps I will write more on the anniversary of his death or next year on this holiday, but today I wanted to defend his reputation as an American and Christian. Bear with me – I am going to get there the long way today.
Like millions of Americans, I have looked forward to January 20, 2009 for quite some time – since the last inauguration in fact. My anticipation grew stronger as I came to believe in a new candidate. I plan to write more on Wednesday next week about why I decided to vote and campaign for Barack Obama, but I will admit now that his race was a factor. I would never have voted for him simply because he would become our first African American President, but there is no doubt that I was (and am) caught up in his proposal for change and the fact that he is different is exciting to me.
Though race was a factor for me, I did not fully comprehend how enormous an event this would be until election night. I’ll never forget that evening. The whole family was excited, we made O shaped food, put on our T-shirts and sat down to celebrate change. As we watched the coverage, it became clear to all of us that this was indeed an historic event. An African American man would become our next President and the face of our nation. I was still excited about the real policy changes that I believe Barack Obama might bring to our nation, but now I was excited about something more. We could no longer say that all of our presidents were rich, white men.
As the inauguration approached and I realized that it would fall on the day after a day we set aside to celebrate the life of one of my heroes, I grew even more excited. This would be a true celebration of progress in America. Obviously we have not arrived, but we have clearly made progress. And this brings me to what I really wanted to talk about …
The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. has long been one of my heroes. I remember reading about him and his work in elementary school. I attended an elementary school with a student population that was at least 50% African American in a the “white section” of a city with terrible public schools. At one point, four of the schools in our city were among the ten worst schools in New Jersey. Living among, attending school with, and playing with children of color was simply part of my life. It did not occur to me until later that the state of our school system might somehow be related to the race of many of the children in our city. My parents never spoke ill of anyone based on race. They, like many of that generation, had stereotypes to overcome but they never spread bigotry or fear – for that I am very grateful. I feel as though I grew up in an environment where I could learn to understand people’s differences and embrace them.
I can only remember one serious classroom discussion about race – in fourth grade (1976-77). While reading about Dr. King, we read that people of color used to be referred to as “colored,” negroes, or worse. In my time, it was becoming more common to call them “black” and we discussed this in the classroom. I’ll never forget my teacher calling on each of my black classmates so that they could tell us what they thought. It was clearly embarrassing to them. One girl said “I don’t care, you can call me purple if you want to!” It may have been my first glimpse into the bias of a white adult in my life. I couldn’t believe that less than 15 years before African Americans had been treated so poorly, and now it seemed my teacher did not have any sensitivity to it – or didn’t know how to show it. (In the interest of full disclosure, this was – by a long shot – the worst teacher I’d ever had. She was mean and vindictive to all students. I’m not saying that to explain away her actions in this situation – I would eventually meet other adults who were outright bigots.)
As we continued to learn about Dr. King, I was mesmerized by his willingness to break the law in support of freedom. Even at a young age, I was a lover of freedom and these stories were my favorites – stories of those who stood up to the establishment. I would not understand until high school what I admired about Dr. King, Ghandi, Rosa Parks. It was the willingness they showed to disobey unjust laws and to put up with the punishment for disobedience. As a teenager, I realized that there were examples of this in Scripture – Daniel, who prayed in public when he knew it was against the law; Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael, who refused to bow to Nebuchadnezzar’s idol; and others.
When I finished elementary school after sixth grade, my parents enrolled me in a private Christian school where I would attend until I graduated in 1985. To this day, I believe this school prepared me to be the thoughtful, truth-seeking individual I am. I am a better person for having attended, but there are things about that place that sadden me. One is that they teach students that the universe is less than 10,000 years old when it is a matter of virtual certainty that it is at least 12,000,000,000 years old, but that is a topic for another day. The other is that everything we learned about the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King was tainted by insinuations that he was a communist. This was the early 1980s, so we thought any communist was as evil as Satan himself. We were NOT taught Dr. King was a communist, but nothing was done to defend him from those rumors. It was defamation by omission and I am ashamed to have been a part of it.
I am grown now and I’ve read Dr. Kings works myself and listened to his speeches. I am certain he was not a perfect man. I am also certain that perhaps someone has evidence of some wrongdoing committed by Dr. King. None of that matters to me. So many of us live our lives and contribute nothing to our fellow man outside of criticism of someone else’s life and work. Dr. King dedicated his adult life to standing up for others and preaching Scripture.
His Letter from a Birmingham Jail is filled with quotes I will write about at a later date – quotes about extremism, unjust laws, etc. Today, I want to reflect on what he said about the church. It seems an appropriate ending to my thoughts today.
If today I lived in a Communist country where certain principles dear to the Christian faith are suppressed, I would openly advocate disobeying that country’s antireligious laws.
And I have watched many churches commit themselves to a completely other worldly religion which makes a strange, un-Biblical distinction between body and soul, between the sacred and the secular.
If today’s church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century.
I simply don’t understand how someone can honestly read his writings and listen to his speeches without a real reverence for his work and ministry while on this earth.
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19 Jan 2009
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Go Flacco!
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"I've been kind of revived, I guess," McNabb said. "They've thrown me out, they ran over me, they spit on me, but you know what? I just continue to prevail." </p>
Not today, pal!
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18 Jan 2009
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Chuck Colson is mad about words left out of the dictionary. What do you think?
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One hundred fifty million flights without a water landing!
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Seems that being in business for yourself might be safer than relying on your job.
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Go get a FREE donut!
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I found another way to waste time doing nothing
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12 Jan 2009
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An NP-hard problem. :)
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U.D. alum Joe Flacco becomes the first rookie quarterback in NFL history to win two playoff games!
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IT IS ALMOST incredible that in the 21st century the country is still wrestling with such basic issues as the right of poor criminal defendants to legal representation. But that is the subject of a case scheduled to be argued Tuesday at the Supreme Court.
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on the cusp of a historic inauguration, one Illinois politician has dared us to believe that we can see beyond our racial divisions, and two others have shown us precisely why those divisions have endured for so long.
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by the end of his term he will have protected more ocean than any person in history.
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That's all fine and dandy, but not every woman is lucky enough to be able to find Mr. Right in her early 20's, especially in today's world full of toads, liars, male tramps who can't keep it in their pants, overgrown babies who never grew up, narcissistic wimps, chauvinist pigs, and losers in general. Last time I checked, I think the ratio of worse-than-toads to decent, good men was around 15:1 and rising.
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Congressional leaders and Obama advisers are looking at including as much as $25 billion of energy tax credits in the economic stimulus package in an effort to bolster renewable energy projects, fuel-efficient cars and biodiesel production
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11 Jan 2009
I love the idea of time travel and am fascinated by the paradoxes it may or may not cause. Primer is a movie that addresses these paradoxes head-on. It’s a must see movie for anyone who likes time travel. Hang on, it’s a wild ride.
Since the ladies are away for a few days, Billy and I decided to have some good sci-fi stuff around to watch. He already had Primer on hand and four eps of
The X Files
( season two 
), but we wanted to maximize our time so we sent Primer back without watching it. This would get us another disc sooner and we could watch Primer via Netflix on Xbox Live.
After watching it on Saturday, we found The 10-Step Method to Watch Primer and Really Understand It.
- Watch the movie: if you get really confused – great, that’s part of it.
I’ll say we were confused! That’s what sent us looking online for explanations. Now we knew what to do next.
- Watch the movie again: still confused? Good. You did step 2 so you can better understand step 3.
- Look at this timeline chart: http://neuwanstein.fw.hu/primer_timeline.html
Read over it twice.
The comments point out four other timelines and we reviewed three of those (fourth no longer available) too. Billy prefers a more narrative understanding of the movie and preferred this one. I like the dates and times so I preferred this one, which is low on speculation and very succinct. The third is an interesting take loaded with speculation – fine with me. :)
Can’t move on to step four until we get a DVD copy again. We checked a local store and didn’t find it so I’ve ordered my copy. Amazon’s DFC is just a few miles from here so it’s actually posssilbe I will get it tomorrow (even though it’s Sunday), but we can wait a few days if we must.
I’m sure I will have more to say about this one another time. :)
Go, watch it! There is a “ten step” program for you if you need it.
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03 Jan 2009
This is a fascinating book. I’ve been working on it for some time because I keep restarting it and marking it up.
Jared Diamond, author of Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
and Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
, tries to explainÂ
How the human species changed, within a short time, from just another species of big mammal to a world conqueror; and how we acquired the capacity to reverse all that progress overnight
The book is filled with a myriad of ethical issues raised by the similarity between humans and animals. Ethical questions which, to me, should be addressed even by those who do not consider themselves Darwinists, or even evolutionists. While I am sure I will have more to say about these ethical questions after I’ve finished the book, I also find several quotes from the book intriguing to both my interest in evolutionary biology and my belief in the spirit of man. There are so many and they are so thought provoking that I will probably post here many times about them. The prologue opens with this one:
It’s obvious that humans are unlike all animals. It’s also obvious that we’re a species of big mammal down to the minutest details of our anatomy and our molecules. That contradiction is the most fascinating feature of the human species.
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03 Jan 2009
All we have to do is listen.
August Rush is a modern fairy tale which I almost missed. I added it to my Netflix queue after hearing about it and quickly forgot about it. Later, I moved all the Blu-Ray movies to the top of my queue paying little attention paid to the movies. When this movie arrived I’d forgotten why I put in on my queue in the first place and the description didin’t do it justice – so I almost sent it back.Â
Wow, am I glad we decided to watch it as a family. What a wonderful story!Â
Music has always played an important role in my life and this film reminded me of that as well as the mystery of life’s connections. If you don’t understand how music has an impact on life, don’t see this movie. Everyone else – you should see this movie as soon as you can.
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03 Jan 2009
Into the Wild is an intriguing look into the mostly unknown life of Christopher McCandless and Alexander Supertramp, the adventurer he becomes.
I am normally very suspicious of “true story” movies and this was no exception. There seems to be some controversy over the details in the film (and the book) because of the lack of material to support the story being told. Most of the controversy revolves around the later events in the film.
Controversy and “truthiness” aside, this was a wonderful film. Sean Penn takes a book that doesn’t seem to be the right kind of material for a film and masterfully pulls it off. I think I’m a lot like Christopher and Penn found a way to make me question his choices, while still pulling for him as my hero. For those of you who don’t necessarily understand dreamers, I think you will pull for Christopher too.
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03 Jan 2009
and plunge the planet into a cross-species war.
Artemis Fowl is a story about an interesting world filled with fairies, leprechauns, and magic. It is a story about a criminal genius and his plan. I’m having a lot of fun reading this one.
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03 Jan 2009
I picked up The Vanished Man at a hospital reading room when I desperately needed a way to escape the reality of what was happening. It would have been difficult to have chosen a more fitting tale. Deaver’s mix of forensic crime solving and the world of magic, gave me just the kind of engrossing escape from reality I was hoping for.
I’d read one other Lincoln Rhyme novel before. While I enjoyed it, it left only a mild impression on me. This one was different. Lincoln supposes the villain he is looking for is an illusionist, so he recruits a young magician to help. As a result, the tale becomes a fascinating one, a typical forensic crime mystery filled with tales of magic – including “insider” information.
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