Why was "Victory" so very hard to define for the Bush administration to define in Iraq and Afghanistan

In his final State of the Union, Stephen Grover Cleveland spoke only about Cuba and this is one of the things he had to say about the insurgents fighting against Spain.

In a country where all that is indispensable to life in the way of food, clothing, and shelter is so easily obtainable, especially by those born and bred on the soil, it is obvious that there is hardly a limit to the time during which hostilities of this sort may be prolonged.


Here's a similar question. How could the Bush or Obama administrations have prevented the continuation of insurgent attacks in Iraq or Afghanistan, given any length of time?

I don't think there is any way to guarantee the end of the attacks. I don't think there is any way to stop the flow of funds to the insurgents.

So, how do you make sure it stops?

It took only one.

     It took only one. The man who sold us out.

     It was 41 in the new calendar and things were still bad, yet no one could remember when they were better.

     Just like in your time, science's laboratories were producing ever greater wonders, fixes and problems. And all that data that they produced; all those drugs that affect us, and how; and all the little fiddly bits of DNA and how it's basically the blueprint for life on Earth; they published it all, except for things like when the Tobacco companies hid that their products cause cancer.

     They were headed towards us, when we detected the aliens, about as far away as the sun. They set up their base in the center of the face of the moon.

     And they took all that scientific data, and one person to translate it, and they made something, something like a disease, which makes us docile, and their slaves.

Why I Think the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act Will Work

I worked at a boutique health care firm, that is, I did until we were taken over by a very large insurer a month ago.

We were bought because we seem to have a successful formula for keeping the most expensive patients out of the hospital. So far I am given to understand that we have been successful for the large insurer's members, too. The trial has been going on for over a year.

This huge company isn't providing free services to their members for fun, they are doing it because they know they have to cut costs, and all the insurers will have to do likewise or find themselves with relatively lower profits.

Costs will go down.

The Answer For Citizen's United

     There was a whole bunch of ignorant idiocy going on in the 1950s with regards to Church that was meant to distinguish ourselves from the Godless Communists.  "In God We Trust" went on the coinage, "Under God" was added to the Pledge of Allegiance, and, in exchange for keeping out of political life, Churches were given tax exempt status.

     I disagree with all of that, but I think there is a nearly 0% chance that I can convince Americans to start taxing Churches, even by saying that I think Church leaders, as community leaders, should have more say in government, so, I work within the status quo

Corporations exist because of series of decisions made in the 1840s through 1860s, mostly in the UK, which gave the owners "limited liability." Unlike economic history up until those days, owners were no longer legally responsible for the debts or crimes of their agents.

At the time, no tradeoff was demanded of corporations.  Until that time, all corporations were created only via act of Congress.  This went on until 1884 in Pennsylvania, for example.  Now we should demand something in return for limited liability.

"In exchange for continued limited liability, like the Churches, you stay out of politics."

How Was This Not Completely Obvious?

Religious school fires teacher over health claim.  Teacher was teaching some religious subjects.  Takes it to Supreme Court who gets it all wrong. Here.

I think it is completely fair that no Catholic Bishop who converts to Pastafarianism should be able to fire a religious discrimination lawsuit when they are fired.  But, here, in the Perich case, she wasn't fired because she deviated from Lutheranism, but for a totally cut and dried ADA-violating reason.

The exception is written for ministers, but it shouldn't be, it should be written for religion-related issues. If someone deviates from the faith then it would be absurd to force a religious community to keep them.  If they fire someone for any other protected reason, though, it's clearly discrimination.

A special "Fuck You" shout out to Antonin Scalia.

I wonder if the defense, led by the US Solicitor General, really cared, or secretly wanted to lose, or was just incompetent.

I should file some amicus briefs.

What is wrong with Wealth Inequality?

This was a question posed to me recently, this was my response.

It's a theme which runs on for some time in the Spirit of Laws, by Montesquieu.

It's totally inappropriate for a direct democracy, he says, and needs to be kept in check in an electoral democracy.

In what Manner the Laws should relate to the Principle of Government in an [Electoral Republic]. When Montesquieu mentions a "popular government" he is referring to a direct democracy.

The above link is Montesquieu is arguing that wealth inequality undermines virtue.

The next link is modern science proving it: the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science

Language and Peace in the News: The Tuareg Rebellion

Four nice maps here.

Language and History: Discussion of Bugbears in the News

A discussion of secession and devolution.

The author does somewhat of a decent job, and even I learned something from the article.

He doesn't get into how the phrase "territorial integrity" was so important, even if most of you didn't notice it, during American pronouncements concerning Iraq and Afghanistan, and Saudi pronouncements, and the pronouncements of others.

Still, in the end, he gets it wrong, claiming that it was a religious divide that separates the North and the South of Sudan. He doesn't mention US evangelical involvement in the separation, but, in any event, it is a linguistic divide, and has been for centuries.

Links to my site on Sudan, also mentioned in the article, Somalia, Rwanda, and this graphic about how the scramble for Africa happened.

It's sh*t like this, Israel, America

Tzipi Livni, Israeli Prime Minister: "Israel takes more land [so] that the Palestinian state will be impossible"; that "the Israel policy is to take more and more land day after day and that at the end of the day we'll say that is impossible, we already have the land and we cannot create the state". She conceded that it had been "the policy of the government for a really long time".


At the end of 2007, though, "it is still the policy of some of the parties but not the government".

Erekat: "Short of your jet fighters in my sky and your army on my territory, can I choose where I secure external defence?"


Livni: "No, in order to create your state you have to agree in advance with Israel – you choose not to have the right of choice afterwards."

But the documents show US officials unmoved by such claims. Why were the Palestinians "always in a chapter of a Greek tragedy", secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, asked at a meeting with Erekat in Washington in the autumn of 2009.

Her predecessor, Rice, had been even more dismissive.

Very little on Earth makes me as miserable as the evil perpetrated by Israel against the Palestinians.  For decades Israel has been pretending to negotiate a two-state solution, but here we find out that they've been trying to prevent the two-state solution the whole time.  We learn that nothing short of Israeli jets in Palestinian airspace and the Israeli Army inside Palestinian land will be enough.  American contributors sounds like a couple ignorant fools.

Source

Wow, Google Labs NGrams

Republic vs Democracy, 1660-2010


Corruption, Corrupt, 1660-2010


Old Fashioned Words like Thereof

My Jon Stewart Rally Wrap-up

     My hair looked awful.

     I didn't run into anyone I knew, or maybe they saw my hair from a distance and turned in the other direction.

     If you look at this image of the crowd I was about 1 inch below and 1.5 inches to the right of the center of the giant grass cross.  I could see small people on the stage if they went most of the way stage left.

     I did not think much of the Roots/John Legend set.  The first song was mediocre.  John Legend was either having a bad day or can't sing well.  One of the songs contained a lot of ignorance with lines like "Everything is made in China now, are we all Chinese?"  America is still the #1 manufacturing nation in the world, and how would we become Chinese from buying their goods?  One of the other songs was about giving hope to ghetto boys, which obviously directly resonated with the urban and suburban, middle class, white audience.

     A pretty neat moment was during the MythBusters wave experiment.  It started at the front and people around me were happy and confused, like me, when 15 seconds later we still didn't see it coming over the horizon.

     I liked a sign that said "Death To Nobody."

     Father Guido Sarducci's benediction was nice.

     I really didn't know about the one, bad call by the umpire which prevented a Yankee ballplayer from pitching a perfect game and while I was impressed by his handling of the situation, I still don't think he should have asked for a bigger strike zone, next time. John Stewart gave him a deserved award.

     Apparently ABC, NBC, the New York Times, NPR and other organizations didn't allow their employees to attend the event because it was political.  Seems odd, to me.  Anyway, Stephen Colbert gave them an award, but since they weren't in attendance, gave it to someone with more courage... a seven year old girl.

     I liked, and will someday listen to again, Stewart's final monologue.

     I liked Tony Bennett's unaccompanied rendition of God Bless, America. It might even have been an extraordinary rendition.

     I talked to a half dozen or more people after who had attended about their experience and of the 6 none could see anything and only 2 (a forensic psychologist and Columbia student who had won the tickets from Oprah) could hear anything (about half or 70%).  It makes me wonder how many people left because they couldn't see or hear anything. It's only important for the crowd estimates.

Things Run Better on Merit

     Napoleon's Army, the Civil Service exams in China, and, previously, America; it seems things thrive when they are rewarded for effort.  What might it look like if we rewarded people for political effort?  I don't really know, but I'll throw out some ideas.

     Learning the language of your current country is pretty much required, as a first step?  To enter the infantry of your country's democracy you would need to be able to find out what is going on.  To read is, perhaps, the next step, because the serious ideas are all written down.  I could never be convinced that someone who received their news only from the American radio or television news services knew very much. Of course, some people could be told about the government, the different jobs of the different elected offices, without reading about it, and someone else could learn to read and only ever read movie star gossip.

     Fuller participation involves writing and public speaking, knowing more details about what the government does, about the different departments, and about the laws and elected officials currently in place.

     All these things seem like they could add up to form a "merit score" for a citizen in a democracy.  Perhaps certain offices would only be voted on by people with a suitably high score.  Similarly, particularly low merit might be a bar to seeking certain offices.

Gut Flora Bleg

     Almost sounds German.  Do any of you know much about gut flora?  I know it refers to the trillions of bacteria, along with fungi and protozoa, that live inside every person's gastro-intestinal tract.  I understand most of it is just 30-40 types in each person, but how many, of the hundreds or even thousand of different types might be one of the 30-40 types that are most numerous?  Is there a list of their secretions somewhere?  Do we know what types of things (things that might normally happen inside a gi-tract) can kill each type?  Do we know the effects if, say, your ABC bacteria group is actually sub-type 3a of ABC which often succumbs when the person has a high fever, and it all dies?

What laissez-faire really means... the sudden collapse of the entire economy

     To the amateur and professional laissez-faire economist government interference in the economy is a bad thing.

     Interestingly, and it will also turn out paradoxically, this same group, politically usually Republicans, libertarians, or economic conservatives, value concepts like Original Intent, have a tendency to call themselves Classical Liberals, and have their lawyers organize themselves in a group called the Federalist Society.

     What did early Americans think about government interference in the economy?  Then, as now, there were usually two political parties with two divergent opinions, but none of these opinions match the views of the modern laissez-faire aficionados.

     Later, things did change.  After the Civil War and the birth of the giant corporation in the 1870s, after the 1886 Santa Clara cases which effectively gave human rights to corporations, but before that there were basically three positions, represented in the ideals of the Federalists, who were the most mercantilist, the Democratic-Republicans, who championed the individual farmer, free markets, the end to monopolies, and who hated corporations and stock markets, and the Whigs, who thought a few corporations were alright, in the hands of the elites, and thought the government should interfere in the economy with tariffs to protect manufacturers, as had Alexander Hamilton.

     The classical laissez-faire position held by the Democratic-Republicans saw limited liability, the right of the owners (stock holders) of a corporation not to be legally responsible for the companies actions, as a distortion of the economy.  Does anyone think modern Republicans want all the corporations dismantled?  I think they want all government interference except corporate limited liability to be done away with, and that's why they aren't free marketeers, they are corporatists.  Some corporations provide goods and services for the public efficiently, but all the biggest ones use that same power to change the law in their favor.

     What follows are a couple quotes from T. J. Stiles Puliter Prize and National Book Award winning biography of Cornelius J. Vanderbilt who once had assets roughly equal to 1 in every 9 dollars in the entire United States.

[The Democratic-Republicans] criticized the patricians[Federalists] for using their political power to grant themselves special privileges. Corporate charters usually went to the well-connected. Many early banks extended credit only to a closed network of relatives and cronies. Government intervention in the economy largely consisted of special rewards to officeholders and favored men.


The aristocrats saw no conflict of interest in using public office to enrich themselves. As society's natural leaders, they reasoned, they should be entrusted with economic stewardship as well. This outlook, this merging of private and public roles of the elite, was the essence of mercantilism, in which the state empowered private parties to carry out activities thought to serve the public interest. [p. 41]

The Bank War [between Andrew Jackson and President of the 2nd Bank of the United States, Nicholas Biddle] spun American politics into a centrifuge, concentrating the two impulses of the day into distinct parties. On one side were Jackson's followers, the Democratic Party, or the Democracy, as they called it, -- the party of individual equality and limited government. Under the slogan "Jackson, Commerce, and Our Country," they celebrated a market economy of real persons and a republican simplicity. In opposition arose the Whigs, who were more trusting in the beneficial role of active government. At the time, the division between the two seemed as natural as a canyon. The Democrats had emerged out of the resistance to the eighteenth-century patricians and their culture of deference, out of battles against the limited franchise, aristocratic privileges, and mercantilist monopolies. Though their elected leader would often make use of the government's economic power, the most radical among them -- especially New York's "Locofoco" faction (nicknamed after the brand of matches they used when their rivals at a tumultuous party meeting doused the lights) -- championed laissez-faire as their definition of equal rights. The Whigs (such as Hone) inherited some of the ordering, top-down outlook of the old elite, and a deeply moral version of the role of the state. They believed that measures to assist the most enterprising, such as corporate charters or public works, would grace everyone; as historian Amy Bridges writes, they believed "the state should guide interdependent interests to a common good." As development-minded modernizers in a young and growing country, they saw competition as a destructive force that punished entrepreneurship.[pp. 98-99]

They Say Tax Increases Hurt Jobs

     Economists often deal with marginal costs, the cost of one more.  Tax rates, for example, are marginal tax rates, the tax on one more dollar.  Rational people, generally imagined by economists to be numerous, compare marginal costs and benefits.

     Let's say we let the top tax rate increase from 36% to 39%, as will happen automatically if nothing is done. This will mean the marginal value of earning 10,000 more dollars will drop from 6,400 to 6,100 dollars.

     What is the cost of labor?  The cost of labor will not change.  The company will pay about a 7% payroll tax on 10,000 dollars in wages.  So, for 10,000 an employer will get about 9,300 in work.

     When the tax rates go up, the advantage of hiring more workers increases.  In this case, from 9300-6400= $2900 to 9300-6100= $3200.

None Dare Call It Treason

     Glenn Beck talks about "Refounding" America.  The "Tea Party" refers to starting a rebellion against America.  CNBC has gotten in on the act with their "Reboot America" slogan.

Language And Conflict: Global News Alert

     The much hated Bush adminstration had advanced my goals, much like Napoleon, conquering Europe in the name of liberty all the while putting his friends on foreign thrones, actually ended up advancing the real cries for liberty and the end to thrones.  They did it with Kosovo.
     Like the Supreme Court ruling which put Bush in the White House, the recognition of secessionist Kosovo was supposed to be allowed, but never allowed to be a precedent.  The International Court of Justice has ruled that Kosovo's declaration of independence was legal.  The Associated Press has published an article saying this may lead to more breakaway movements.  I will highlight each region mentioned by the AP if it is or isn't a linguistic divide.

Regions around the world where separatists may be energized by Kosovo's secession include Spain's Basque country and Catalonia, Scotland, Italy's ethnic German-populated Alto Adige, and parts of Romania and Slovakia populated by restive Hungarian minorities.
South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which have declared independence from Georgia, will also be encouraged by the ruling that states that such unilateral declarations of independence are not illegal under international law. Nearby, Armenian separatists in Azerbaijan's Nagorno-Karabah region may seek to legitimize their secession dating back to the early 1990s.
In the Middle East, Kurdish politicians in Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region have also said they will carefully study the ICJ decision. Although the U.S. has insisted on keeping Iraq's territorial integrity since the 2003 invasion, the Kurds have repeatedly pointed out that they have been victims of Iraqi aggression under a variety of regimes since the 1930s.
The ruling could also have far-reaching effects on Indonesia, where at least two provinces, Aceh and West Papua, are seeking independence.

     Lastly, let me say that I recognize that during the Dark Ages there were many, many small countries, making unity of purpose difficulty, but also that there have been times of very few countries which have also been problematic.  This is all related to my website/theory Language & Peace.

Gold is going to tumble, or, Why We Are Never Going Back to the Gold Standard

     It is endlessly reported that gold is a hedge in uncertain times.  What is it a hedge against, exactly?  It is a hedge against the collapse of Western Civilization.

     Millions of people are taught every day by Glenn Beck, talk radio, Sarah Palin, and even some elected officials, that the Obama administration is destroying America. 

     The main reason the western world will never return to the gold standard (unless there is a complete return to barbarism) ...



... is that people in charge aren't about to put half the world's money supply into the hands of the people who buy jewelry.  This situation is only getting "worse" for the gold bugs.  The last graph showed where the total gold supply is, the next graph shows where each year's mined gold is going.



     So, what use is gold, really?  It has a poetic, historic role.  It never rusts, it is easily divisible, and it is fairly easy to detect fake gold, so, 3000 years ago, until the invention of the printing press, surely, it was the ideal solution to handle the issue of money.

     I suspect gold will fall as low as 600 an ounce, maybe down to about 550 intraday, before bouncing back to 800.  I also suspect that it will be this, and not anything Glenn Beck says, which will be his downfall, his viewers will resent his bad financial advice.

     Drone missile strikes against suspected militants continue in Pakistan along the Afghan border, in case you'd for some reason become optimistic.  Officially, this program does not exist, so don't tell anyone I mentioned it.

     Kyrgyz authorities are rounding up people as a result of last week's Kyrgyz-on-Uzbek ethnic violence.  They still blame former President Bakiyev's supporters, so it would seem likely that they are rounding up their own political enemies.

     North Korea is having its first leadership meeting since 1966.  Scuttlebutt is that Jong-Il's 27 or 28 year old son Jong-Un will be given a very senior job so that when his dad dies he can take over.

     Taiwan and China are signing a tariff reduction pact.  The AP finds a factory worker to state that this is just a plot for China to take over Taiwan.  It is the official policy of World News Today that we think both Taiwan and China are damn fools for asserting there is only one Chinese government and that they are it.



     Hong Kong's air has lots more pollutants than some places.  The AP found an office worker who said it stings when she goes outside.  No mention of why recent electoral reforms (increasing the size of the parliament and the candidate selection committee) should help.

     The drug cartel situation in Mexico remains grim, in case you'd become optimistic.  While the authorities have arrested one of the co-heads of the Sinaloa crime family involved in Colombian cocaine smuggling, only a year after they arrested its top leader, shootouts between the gangs and the authorities still occur regularly with a handful of people dying in each incident.

     The AP has found Chinese bloggers speaking intemperately about the presence of a US aircraft carrier participating in South Korean war games.

     The AP found some soldiers who are complaining about the Rules of Engagement in Afghanistan.  Apparently, if they see a man of fighting age leave a building from which they are taking fire they can't fire at him unless they see him with a weapon or drop a weapon.  Surely this is poppycock, because, with half a brain, you could force the Afghan to the ground and capture him, leaving until later the effort to sort out whether or not he had been firing.

     The government of China seems to have taken a calm approach to strikes in the last month among industrial workers asking for higher wages.  Not only were they not quickly stopped by force, but they even let the media cover some of the events.

     Guinea is having an election today.  World News Today endorses Conde.  The election follows the death of the dictator Conte in 1998 and the Camara coup that followed.  While Camara originally said he'd have pretty quick elections and not run for office, he reneged and one of his Presidential guard shot him in the head.  He survives in Burkina Faso, recovering, while his former Deputy, Konate, turns out to be the hero of the piece, setting up a civilian government and organizing the elections of today.

     Rwanda is preparing for another fake election by cracking down on critical newspapers and the opposition, included among them are a figure who denies the 1994 genocide occurred, a crime in Rwanda.

     Romania's highest court, for no reason stated by the AP, ruled some of the recent austerity measures unconstitutional.  This puts an indefinite hold on a major IMF loan Romania is seeking.  The loan is why they passed the bill which cut pensions and government salaries.

     Cuba has been busy privatizing 2.5 million acres of land, about half of the total it expects to give away to Cubans who want to try their hand at farming.  Prices for crops will be set by the government and farms which don't produce within 2 years will be taken back.

     Mohammed el-Baradei, formerly of the IAEA, led a protest of 1000s in Egypt against police brutality which was not, perhaps surprisingly, brutally put down by the police.

     Bolivia's main opposition leader has been ordered arrested by a court which says he is funding finance foreign mercenaries.

     The European Union says that member countries do not have to recognize same-sex marriages.
     There have been some protests, put down violently, in Indian Kashmir this week, ostensibly over the police having killed some Kashmiris.

Why Religion Is A Disease

     We want people to be ethical, right?  To teach people morals you need to speak with authority.  If you tell people patent nonsense you undermine your authority and you undermine the morality of our culture.  Primitive people could not prove that the story of Noah and the Earth flooding was a complete lie, we can.

     The greatest lesson that these primitive religions teach the children of society today is that hypocrisy is acceptable. You can lie through your teeth and be a teacher of morals. 

     The Christian bible, and all the others I know about, pretend to be absolute truth and yet they are filled with lies and what other conclusion can children draw except that lying is acceptable, and that all adults are hypocrites?

     This is a disease that society has. Religion is a social disease.