Inventive Genes

Magazines like Wired or Time celebrate and hype the inventive individual: the brilliant scientist alone in their lab, the sole inventor tinkering in their garage, or intrepid solo explorer climbing out of their craft. They certainly make nice glossy pictures, looking thoughtful, posed against a backdrop of colored liquids or blinking screens. We want to admire our modern equivalents of Prometheus, da Vinci, or Archimedes.

But it is largely romantic bunk. Most progress is accretion: hundreds or thousands of small advances make bigger things possible. Darwin needed then-new geological information and theories of fecundity on which to base his observations and insights. Watson and Crick, of DNA fame, based their insight on solid information from structural and biochemical studies. Brilliant scientists, certainly, but the adulation heaped on the individuals inevitably reduces the appreciation for the process and the contributions of others.

Just as there is no designer for the honeycomb or architect for the ant hill, save the Original, exploration is in the human DNA. Creation is a community effort, brought forth by the midwife chosen by timing, coincidence, and luck. On a related note, the single individual credited with the idea or advance is often not the first to have made the observation. Instead, it's as though the community waits for the right representative, the right salesperson perhaps, before the idea is accepted.

W's Winning the (Wrong) War!

Reagan said of the war on poverty, "poverty won". More accurately, his administration withdrew from the field, unilaterally disarmed, and surrendered unconditionally. The Bush administration has returned to the battle -- on the other side.

The only war this administration is capable and really interested in winning is the undeclared class war. The super rich have easily won every battle -- inheritance and income taxes, bankruptcy laws, trade policies -- while the merely rich and everyone else have lost. Brilliantly, the administration has shifted the costs of this war to the middle class. They will pay for their losses for generations, through increased national debt, tax cuts for the super rich, jobs lost to people with fewer benefits and less labor protection, cuts in education (to pay for testing), and extraordinarily expensive no-bid contracts given to cronies' companies. The permanent war on terror ensures steady profits for these companies.

The bankruptcy act is this administration's neutron bomb -- hurting people but protecting property. In a surgical strike on the consumer, Senate leader Bill Frist showed his skill in destroying their protections while protecting their collateral. The Republicans understand and abhor this form of "collateral damage". Sure, the bankruptcy laws needed reform, but this was designed to hurt the most vulnerable almost gratuitously. One example: victims of Katrina who lost nearly everything but their debts will have to pay a consumer credit agency to counsel them on living within their means. Special legislation may protect these refugees but not the many more families suffering, individually, equally catastrophic disasters.

I argued previously that this administration was incompetent -- having lost the Iraq war through stupidity. This alternative explanation is more consistent and comprehensive -- and entirely compatible with stupidity. This is a war the super rich are waging on the rest of us. Wake up, America! You have nothing to lose but your Cheneys.

Heart of Dimness

Stupidity and arrogance are responsible for the American failures in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Iraq war can be attributed directly to the blood lust of the administration's cowardly war profiteers. However, the most damaging miscalculations were the unintentional and inevitable consequences of their scorched-earth approach to selling the war to an (initially) skeptical public. This administration consistently ignored, ridiculed, attacked, and fired (when possible) the experts -- Brent Scowcroft (Sr. Bush's National Security Advisor), Richard Clark (bipartisan counterterrorism expert),Eric Shinseki (US Army General who called for more troops), "empty" Hans Blix (UN WMD searcher), etc.. The administration's own disciples have been rewarded for following directions and quietly presiding over an evolving disaster. The administration cynically believes that awarding (and debasing) the Medal of Freedom to Brenner, Franks, and Tenet can obscure their roles in the miserable failures.

Similarly, the advertising campaign (better known as the election) vilified and ridiculed Bush's opponents. This was supposed to be the better business administration, directed by a chief executive who, though weak on detail and prone to malaprop, had a heart of gold and a vision born of 9/11. Instead, what we've got is the big business administration -- bloated budgets, deep deficits -- with a leader who embodies the worst of CEO detachment. Bush is seemingly content with incompetence and could not communicate a vision even if his teleprompter displayed text handed down on holy scrolls.

After 5 years of relentless and rapacious self interest, enormous immorality, and financial incompetence, even the occasionally blundering Democratic pandering to special interests looks pretty attractive.

Neat (no ice)

New reports from environment scientists conclude that the melting of the artic ice cap is accelerating. In addition to moderating temperature by absorbing and releasing heat (thereby melting and freezing), the fact that the ice cap is white reduces solar energy absorbed by the earth because a lot of solar energy is reflected (80%). As warmer temperatures melt more snow and ice, more of the sun's heat is absorbed, which melts more snow, and so on until there is no snow left.

Some want to fix the symptoms instead of the disease. They want to capture carbon dioxide from the air and store it, thereby reducing the greenhouse effect. How long until one of these dim bulbs suggests spreading white plastic at the equator, where it would reflect much more solar energy (because there is so much more there)? Their spinners will argue how these shades will help the poor in third world countries, likely adding something shady about freedom and democracy. Here's a "solution" that even the petrochemical-plastics industry can welcome.

Heck of a job, Brownie! You're fired.

Former FEMA chief Brown spent all day defending himself against an aggressive, almost entirely Republican Congressional panel grilling him on the failed response to Katrina. It looked a lot like a desparate effort to find a scapegoat. Brown has been helpful, accepting the role when he resigned shortly after the problems became apparent. Now it appears that either he is not willing to accept all the blame, or perhaps he believes there are additional problems. Oh really? How about the cronyism that led to an unqualified person being appointed in the first place?

Bush is looking tired. He's not used to these 8 hour days, day after day. After all, he hasn't had a vacation in about 3 weeks. First, he praised Brown, then gratefully accepted his resignation. Now he's musing about making the Pentagon the leader in domestic disaster relief. Some "solution"! After sending the state-controlled National Guard overseas, he wants to move the Army into the states. The Department of Defense is already responsible for the developing disaster in Iraq. Let's let them concentrate on that. Meanwhile, let's bring the National Guard, which has historically had a role in disaster relief, back home.

Heck of an idea, Bushie! Now show some character and resign.

NASA, then and now

There was a time when NASA sent out robots that did more than expected. NASA landed men on the moon and brought them safely home again. When accidents occurred, they got out their slide rules and figured out how to get the astronauts home. Now, NASA crashes probes into local planets because they mix metric and English measurements. Now, they can't launch or land safely. The engineers say "no" but the administrators hear "go".

What's changed? Here's a suggestion. Have a look at the old pictures of Mission Control. You'll note all the men with buzz cuts. These are not people concerned with appearances. I doubt if any of them ever trained to spin press conferences. They solved problems instead of addressing concerns or dealing with issues. And there is usually a pall of smoke obscuring the scene - cigarettes for working and cigars for celebration. Not many were worrying about their health.

Maybe, in this arena that demands precise and brutal force, we need renewed, absolute dedication to the job.

Fatso and Fatwa

Rush and Pat – one needs to get off drugs and the other needs his medication adjusted. Pat Robertson, who does business as a Christian minister, issued a fatwa encouraging the killing of an elected leader of a democratic country. Fortunately, Pat finally apologized. I'm not a professional, preacher, but may I suggest ministering or praying instead of killing? Rush Limbagh is supposed to have characterized Katrina's destruction of New Orleans as God's vengeance for sin – Sodom and Gemorrah updated. [In the Bible story, God agreed to spare S&G if Abraham could find even a handful of decent people in the city (Abe bargains respectfully with God: initially 50, finally only 10 innocents would have saved the city. Genesis 18).] I exposed myself to the big lies on his site for as long as I could take (although I happen to also think attributing Katrina to global warming is stupid - but not because there isn't global warming). However, I cannot find anything explicit in the transcripts. Plenty of pompous, arrogant, dangerous stupidity, but no explicit gloating.

Insensitive is insufficient to describe these two. Self absorbed stupidity is more accurate. Maybe they don't have any real friends left in their entourages - just a bunch of hangers-on, all dependent on the status quo. Hangers-on can help a famous person deny any problem, even if the problem is obvious to most independent observers. These people need their real friends or religious leaders or someone to tell them to take a breath - without expelling it through their vocal cords.