Sunday, October 23, 2005

Dexter Filkins, cover story in the Times mag: The Fall of the Warrior King, "a tale that seems like a parable of the dark passage that lay ahead for the Americans in Iraq." Key point: "For all the intensity of the war in Iraq, one of the most remarkable things is how little American generals prepared the Army to fight it...Despite the experience of the Vietnam War, the American Army has continued to devote most of its resources to preparing for a conventional conflict...At the Army's Command and General Staff College in Fort Leavenworth, Kan., attended by all American officers hoping to rise above the rank of major, students must pass a rigorous program consisting of roughly 700 hours of instruction. Of that, not a single required course focuses on how to fight guerrilla wars." A harrowing story about Col. Nate Sassaman, former star quarterback at West Point turned fearsome commander in the Sunni Triangle, and the way things went wrong in the messy war in which he and his troops found themselves. 9:47:37 PM   permalink   comment []

Nicholas Kristof, cover story in the NYT book section: "Based on a decade of meticulous interviews and archival research, this magnificent biography methodically demolishes every pillar of Mao's claim to sympathy or legitimacy." More: "Yet this is a magisterial work. True, much of Mao's brutality has already emerged over the years, but this biography supplies substantial new information and presents it all in a stylish way that will put it on bedside tables around the world. No wonder the Chinese government has banned not only this book but issues of magazines with reviews of it, for Mao emerges from these pages as another Hitler or Stalin." Mao: The Unknown Story 9:36:06 PM   permalink   comment []

Christian Exodus conference fails to sell out. Not even South Carolinians want to secede anymore, and the movement seems to be floundering. "Its initial goal is to move 2,500 members here by Sept. 30, 2006. So far, five families -- a total of about a dozen people -- have come." 2:08:54 PM   permalink   comment []

Tom Tancredo for President? Jim Capo reports that the the Colorado congressman was in South Carolina recently, exploring the possibility of a run for the White House. Of course, Jim also refers to George W. Bush as "our Furhrer," but he seems to have some first-hand knowledge. "Congressman Tancredo was in Greenville, SC (early primary state) last Saturday for not the first time." Dig the name of Tancredo's PAC: Team America. Do these people know how hilarious that name will be to many of their fellow citizens? Of course, Tancredo has a unique vision of his own. Run, Tommy, run. 2:05:37 PM   permalink   comment []

A reader emails in response to this morning's column (reprinted by permission): As a real estate agent, I am occasionally asked why so many builders are constructing houses in the $350,000 and up category. Who is buying these houses when companies like Burlington and Guilford are disappearing? On reflection, it has occurred to me that the are [some] trends at work. First is that a number of small companies in arcane fields have grown substantially without playing public, socio-political leadership roles. Among them would be Falk (programming), New Breed (warehouse management) and others. One (name forgotten) is a sizable company here that exists to study the bills that other companies pay in order to see where they have been over-charged and then try to collect the difference to refund back to their clients. I understand that this little-known company has its HQ and about 400 employees locally. Falk has already announced a 15-25 story office building in west Greensboro, final height to be determined later. Corollary (1) to these small companies is that they are not marketing to the general public, but have highly specific target markets nationwide; (2) Relatively high sales dollar per employee, particularly when contrasted with our traditional textile and furniture employers. (3) Management focused on the business, apparently not attempting what I call socio-political leadership on any large scale. As a prime example: who had ever heard of those re-insurance folks who funded the Am. Hebrew Academy before they plunked down a hundred million dollars? I can't think of their names even as I write this. [ed. note: Fortress Re, founded by Chico Sabbah] (4) Large companies, operating globally, have such increased stress to succeed that their top managements cannot afford to focus locally at peril of their jobs. VF, as you mentioned is one of these. The old textile paternalistic model is out the window. JP went that way with the onset of Stonecipher. Ciba went that way when it split into multiple companies, two spin-offs of which continue to operate here as major entities. Aetna is another large company with a major facility here, in health care management, but little known even though they've been here for years. Aetna has a huge office building in west Greensboro or north High Point right near other huge buildings housing Bank of America credit center, Sygenta (a Ciba spin-off, we sold a $300,000 house to a Syngenta chemist) and others. Some local contractors have made or are making flat fortunes: New South, Lomax, Samet (continuing fortune), Weaver (no longer connected to Mike), even Kern (to appearances anyway). Then there are companies in assisted living management, small banking, restaurant management, trucking, and who knows what else Practically none of the above are putting top echelon leaders into the community in the way that Cone Mills, JP, and others did. Thus, Melvin, Taylor, et al filled an unexpected vacuum. To me, it is significant that the old fortunes, through professionally managed trusts, are still providing leadership. Nobody else has the time, I guess. Is our city growing and prosperous. Many would say "no". I say it is. Else, how do we explain a growing population, increasing traffic, stretched out suburbs, etc. Greensboro and High Point, together, are approaching mid-300,000 in population...and it shows I think your article is very on-target, and, in many ways, we are dealing quite well with the future having already ignored JP far more than has been apparent with many more headquarters than is obvious. Thus, there is a continuing market for the over 350 thousand dollar house, maybe a couple hundred or more per year, sold to people who work for companies nobody has ever heard of. Interesting analysis. I've said before that the ghosts of Ceasar Cone II and Joe Bryan can't lead this town forever. But maybe new leaders will emerge from the largely anonymous companies describe above. File this in the Dan Gillmor my-readers-know-more-than-I-do category. File it also under the rubric of stories that the N&R and/or the BizJournal should report in depth. Working headline: Greensboro's hidden economy. 1:34:32 PM   permalink   comment []

Good news from Terry Heaton. 12:27:48 PM   permalink   comment []

Dave Winer on open and closed conferences, and the cultures they reflect. "This is the struggle we are constantly dealing with in the tech business. For a while we send up a beacon, a shining star, and it's exciting! Then they forget their values, where they came from, what made it work for them, and we follow them down into bad years. You'd think we could learn, but apparently we can't." 12:26:14 PM   permalink   comment []

DarkTimes Rich: Karl and Scooter's Excellent Adventure Lede: "There were no weapons of mass destruction. There was no collaboration between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda on 9/11. There was scant Pentagon planning for securing the peace should bad stuff happen after America invaded. Why, exactly, did we go to war in Iraq?" More: "We don't yet know whether Lewis (Scooter) Libby or Karl Rove has committed a crime, but the more we learn about their desperate efforts to take down a bit player like Joseph Wilson, the more we learn about the real secret they wanted to protect: the 'why' of the war." The point: Rove needed to extend the flagging "war on terror" for political gain -- ongoing war being of benefit to the incumbents. "(T)he path was clear for a war in Iraq to serve as the political Viagra Mr. Rove needed for the election year." Libby was part of a group that has been thinking about post-Cold War US dominance since the Bush I era. Kicker: "But based on what we know about Mr. Libby's and Mr. Rove's hysterical over-response to Mr. Wilson's accusation, he scared them silly. He did so because they had something to hide. Should Mr. Libby and Mr. Rove have lied to investigators or a grand jury in their panic, Mr. Fitzgerald will bring charges. But that crime would seem a misdemeanor next to the fables that they and their bosses fed the nation and the world as the whys for invading Iraq." Kristof: Mr Bush, This is Pro-Life? Still in impoverished Niger, Kristof goes to a hospital where families have to pay for their own surgical supplies and rips Bush for blocking funds that could make a difference. "Mr. Bush and other conservatives have blocked funds for the U.N. Population Fund because they're concerned about its involvement in China. They're right to be appalled by forced sterilizations and abortions in China, and they have the best of intentions. But they're wrong to blame the Population Fund, which has been pushing China to ease the coercion - and in any case the solution isn't to let African women die." Brooks: Savior of the Right Having trashed Miers for a couple of weeks, Brooks feels the need to say something nice about the President. "Despite all the mistakes that have been made, it is nonetheless true that Bush has ennobled and saved American conservatism. As the G.O.P. moves forward, its leaders will break into two camps, post-Bush and pre-Bush. The post-Bush conservatives will build on the changes Bush introduced and refine his vision of using government positively to give people the tools to run their own lives. The pre-Bush conservatives will try to go back to the libertarianism and social conservatism of 1995. "The future belongs to post-Bush conservatives." DarkTimes is a daily roundup of the hidden matter in the NYT opinion universe. 9:22:52 AM   permalink   comment []

This city prides itself on its openness, but it needs to be more open, to new people and new ideas. We need to attract talent, and hang onto it, and make ourselves a Mecca for innovators and builders. We need an entrepreneurial culture, and we should set a serious goal of creating the best public schools in the nation. My newspaper column is about Greensboro after the sale of Jefferson-Pilot. A thumbnail history of our 110-year 20th Century and some vague prescriptions for the future. Read the whole thing. 8:19:05 AM   permalink   comment []