Memories

This is a man [^] he's got a record, you know, of sometimes exaggerating to make a point.

..campaign officials challenged several debate statements ..., calling them fresh signs of 'embellishments and exaggerations'.

It's another in a disturbing pattern of ... simply making things up.

Read the article to find out which candidate was being discussed. I'd laugh if I was not crying.  10:42:40 AM    

The Case Against Editors

The boss of a blogger is the commuity the blog serves. As a blogger, you have to respond to the community. When it rises up, you had better look to why, Instead of saying that, while you mean everything you said you should have said it better. Otherwise the community will leave you.There are many ways to engage the community and make it think or re-examine its assumptions in ways that are not devisive. But you have to smart and nimble.  10:29:27 AM    

I hope John Robb is not totally correct

Too bad I was right when I wrote this assessment of the Bush doctrine before the war in Iraq started. [John Robb's Weblog]

Robb wrote this back in March and has been fairly accurate. I sincerely hope his later assessments are wrong but I do believe that this Adminstration has not made us safer in the long run, accomplishing the exact opposite instead. Ballooning debt, coupled with well entrenched enemies, coupled with a greater need for social services for an aging population will all serve to drag us down. It may take a generation to overcome what this Adminstration has accomplished in 3 years.  10:15:13 AM    

Many do not.

PBS | I, Cringely . Archived Column [Daypop Top 40]

More and more, MS demonstrates it just does not get it. Just as the music business does not. Just as the movie business does not. Just as the publishing business does not. Just as the Republican National Committee does not. Just as the pharmaceutical business does not. Just as the Democratic Leadership Council does not. Just as the WTO does not. Just as Jerry Falwell does not.

In a changing world, it is so very easy to identify those who will be unable to adapt. A world where transparency and openess holds tremendous power because they permit people to disperse information and create knowledge to a degree impossible for those that do not get it. It is their blindspot and will lead them on a downward spiral unless they adapt. That is why these are such interesting times.  10:08:40 AM    

There is a great article in the New Yorker this week about how Ken Lay will likely never be convicted for Enron (sorry, it isn't online).  Inside the article is an amazing statement from the judge who presided over the trial of Fastow, Enron's CFO.  It is an amazing indictment of American civilization that a judge with these malformed attitudes ascended to preside over the most important (and complex) case of corporate malfeasance in a century.

One of the few African-Americans appointed to the bench by President Reagan, Hoyt had a reputation for eccentricity.  In a 1997 case involving alleged environmental contamination in a largely minority neighborhood, the Judge asserted that physical differences between races were the product of their environment.  "Why do you think Chinese people are short?"  Hoyt told the lawyers in the case.  "Because there is so much damn wind over there they need to be short.  Why are they so tall in Africa?  Because they need to be tall.  It's environmental.  I mean, you don't just jump up and get a banana off a tree if you're only four feet.  If you are seven feet tall and standing in China, then you're going to get blown away when that Siberian wind comes through."   

[John Robb's Weblog]

A continuing series on how many absolute idiots we have on the Federal Judiciary. Looking forward to them being appointed to higher positions, since idiocy seems to be a prerequisite for advancement these days.  9:57:24 AM