Debt Swap

Dear Mr. President,

Your opponent relentlessly criticizes the public debt and blames it almost solely on you, which is ridiculous but persuades some people. As you've noted before, debt can be good or bad. Good debt can be used by folks to buy a house and invest in education, or for a government to help the economy avoid a great depression, as you demonstrated. As a corporate raider, Romney used debt to to take over companies that were then stripped of assets and jobs to pay huge profits to speculators and make himself a fortune, which he invested largely overseas. Most people would consider that bad debt.

Sincerely,

Your supporter.

Oh say, can you sing?

The success of American athletes at the London Olympics gave NBC plenty of opportunity to show medal ceremonies where the US national anthem was played. I always thought the lyrics of “The Star Spangled Banner” were corny. But after listening more closely, I think they are interesting. Try to think afresh about the lyric :

“Oh, say, can you see? by the dawn's early light, what so proudly we hailed, at the twilight's last gleaming?“

Was it just a dream? This is not a chest thumping paean to an inevitable, ever-triumphant victor. Instead it asks a neighbor (maybe the questioner doesn't want to look!) whether the symbol of a beautiful idea they were so proud about last night survived the “existential threat” (current parlance) through the night. The tone is hopeful, a little worried, and maybe even a little desperate.

“Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
Over the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?”

It was a bold and bright idea being battered...but we just watched.  The challenges, the attacks themselves test and prove the continued existence of the dream.

“And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there.”

The ending asks two questions:

“O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?”

The first is rhetorical in the context of the awards ceremony, where we see the flag, but the second we should ask ourselves all the time: are we free? Are we brave?

I see the future and it's really augmented

Check out this demo of the Google glasses. They are pretty cool even if only a dream, for now.  Easing the step to augmented reality. 

I am a little surprised how little concern there seems to be that all the visual data are being interpreted not in the device but in the “cloud” by Google & co.  They want to know everything about you, where you are and what you are doing, so that they can sell you stuff, to put it bluntly. But we can relax because Google does no evil.  Google good. 


Of course iGlasses will be even cooler, tres chic, stylish (Apple of my eye, D&G) and nobody will worry about Apple doing anything bad, nooooo.  Apple good.  What about others?  I want eye-IBM (pronounced aye-aye) with Jeopardy-winner Watson telling me the answers.  Yes, yes, in the form of questions.  Very Yoda-like, you think?  

Waiting to Go (Fight the Faux "News")

Have you ever been bothered by Fox "news" at your local gym or bar or elsewhere? At the gym, I object whenever more than 2 TVs are showing Fox.  

Fight the stupidity! Get involved and do you part to improve political literacy in the US. Whenever you are subjected to Fox, demand relief from those responsible. Below is the mail I sent to my local airport. Feel free to copy and edit to suit your situation and thoughts.

Dear Sir or Madam,

While waiting for an early morning flight from XXX, I was offended by the highly partisan Fox cable 'news' showing on 4 of the 7 TVs visible at the time. Who decided that we in the captive audience will be subjected to one-sided political propaganda? I think most fellow-travelers would prefer something certifiably unbiased, informative, or educational (e.g., CSPAN, the Weather Channel, PBS). Or even better, perhaps one of our fine local channels? 

Thank you for your consideration and reply.
All the best,
"Reuel" 

I also provided my email address and they promised a reply, which I will be waiting for. If they don't promise a change, I will write to my local newspaper. (BTW I did intend the slightly provocative "fellow-travelers" reference.)

Snarling SCOTUS Set to Deliver Good News to Obama

This promises to be a “I win or you lose” week for the President. If the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) rules his health care law constitutional, then he has a historical, signature accomplishment as President. Add the Bin Laden capture, our extraction from Iraq, reduction in Afghanistan, and avoidance of going over a economic cliff to depression (so far), most thinking people will judge that a successful first term (though paraphrasing Stevenson, “thinking people” do not constitute a majority, which is needed by Democrats if not Republicans to win).

If the Supremes say “no”, it deflates the agitated right-wing clamoring for repeal, galvanizes the left and center to vote for he who bringeth (or promises) the much-needed health care reform, and underscores the importance of having a moderate President (i.e. Obama) appoint the next justice. He loses only an imperfect program about which even lefties are ambivalent. He is left (pun intended) with a clean slate for a better effort during his second term, with the support of a Democratic House that will be elected in a landslide.

Or am I hallucinating?  Maybe I need to have my medications adjusted. 

Facebook friends (FBF) are not BFF

Facebook, with a billion users (rounding off), was until recently widely thought to be on a course to dominate communication on the internet. Now the suspicion is dawning that it is, like MySpace before it, a fad. Fie on you fickle friends of Facebook!

Whatever it proves to be, FB has earned a “like” for nearly single-handedly ensuring against another tech 'bubble' by right-pricing their initial public offering (IPO) of stock, which promptly sank. FB's purchase of a photo-sharing start-up for a cool $1 billion in the weeks before trying to raise cash, probably raised some eyebrows and suspicions about the company's direction and understanding of value.

 FB could throw around many more billions so long as it remained the main site for hundreds of millions. However, its cool is cooling. The most chastening or dispiriting barometer of lost coolness is a Toyota ad mocking a young woman worried about her parents not having many “friends” on FB, while they are shown doing many things with real people (involving driving around, inevitably). Hilarious. It is the beginning of the end or the end of the beginning?

Zoom, Zoom... zoom

Memorial Day has 3 big car races: (1) the prestigious Monte Carlo Grand Prix, (2) the “greatest spectacle in racing”, the venerable Indianapolis 500 mile race, and (3) the NASCAR Coca-Cola 600, an outlier in terms of history, spectacle, and prestige. Indy reaches the Century-plus/minus mark this year depending on how you calculate it (years or races), Monaco has been going on for about half that time, and it is a relatively new Coke. The two American races mix a sort of commercial patriotism that has grown perfunctory in the years following 9/11 and the “up close and personal” stories that are supposed to interest us in one or another driver or team or cause. An east coaster can have breakfast watching Monaco, lunch watching the Indy 500, and dinner watching the Coke 600.

And how did they go?

Monaco was a morning parade, albeit a quick one, with practically no on-track passing and the only position changes occurring during pit stops. The tight street circuit has little room for the cars to go side-by-side. The best parts were watching fast cars snap around corners improbably quickly and dance impossibly close together, albeit nose-to-tail and never side-by-side, and seeing the 6^th winner in the first 6 races of this F1 season.

Indy started and ran safely, always welcome at a track where many have died, with some excitement and time for a couple naps in between. There was more passing on lap #1 than during the entire Monaco Grand Prix. The race has lost relevance since the days of A. J. Foyt and Mario Andretti but even then it was more grind than flash. A couple former F1 drivers competed and one, Japanese Sato, challenged for the lead on the last lap but lost to a now 3-time winner Scotsman Franchitti.  The traditions are the best part of the afternoon, including the command “Gentlemen, start your engines” (now with “Ladies and” appended), and the singing of “Back Home Again in Indiana”.

The Coke 600 is really just another weekend NASCAR race, lengthened to try to eclipse the fame of the “500”. The longest race of the day is at Charlotte Motor Speedway, a slightly-elongated skid pad, 400 laps that ensure monotony even for tolerant (or oblivious) fans. A few foreigners compete, including former F1 and Indy winner Montoya, but they never threatened the American dominance of this series.  Little "tradin' paint" tonight, unfortunately.  Almost all is preparation: you can usually tune in for the practically guaranteed restart with 3 laps to go, at 99.5% distance, and green-white-checker finish. But not tonight, when the last 50 or so laps were raced under the green flag.

Only a few weeks to the 24 hours of Le Mans.  

I chose to write this!

All choices must fall somewhere on the spectrum from the extreme of compulsion, being a wealth of reasons that amount to a “no-brainer”, to random, being a complete lack of reasons. Where do our free will's choices fall on this spectrum? Frankly, there is no attractive place for “free will” on this spectrum.  I choose to answer the conundrum with “nowhere”, because free will is an illusion.

Ok, I gotta go.  I mean I want to go.