Thu, 14 July 2005 10:15 pm Comments (0)

Colorful Woo, Washington farce

  • Woo Lost and Woo Found
    At first I wondered why the not-really-disappearance of Ronnie Woo Woo rated big attention from the local papers. Isn’t there enough pithy news going on? Since it didn’t supplant harder news (well, it did in Red Eye, but that’s pretty fluffy anyway) it occurred to me that these sorts of stories are actually decent fare: they add that little bit of local color that makes an area unique. Many towns have their local celebrities and quirky personalities…but as anyone who’s attended a few Cubs games over the last several years knows, there’s only one Woo.
  • Rove Isn’t the Real Outrage
    Washington loves farce the way Vienna loves the waltz. It once extravagantly inflated a sex act into the impeachment of a president, and it has now reduced the momentous debacle of the Iraq war into a question of what Rove or someone else said to a reporter on the phone.
    • I don’t know what’s sadder, that the people who perpetrate this insanity can restrict civil liberties and start wars, or that the American public spends a good deal of time taking them seriously.
Categories: Chicago, politics, USA, society, quotes, observations
Mon, 27 June 2005 11:38 pm Comments (0)

Educators’ sleight of hand, the rule of law, NASA power to the thinkers

  • False Data on Student Performance
    Given the chronic funding problems of many school districts, held hostage as they often are to the magnanimity of local property owners, is it really any wonder that the threat of further funding loss posed by No Child Left Behind act standards would lead to districts’ cooking their performance numbers? Minimal national standards for education are a good, noble thing, but the rather draconian methods of the current law are more likely to improve the performance of creative accountants than children. To hold the administrators (and teachers?) accountable, at the price of their jobs, for their students’ performance over x number of years would seem to be a more effective use of the punishment style of legislation. Moreover, I really don’t think that any sort of top-down mechanism, whether tax breaks for exceptional teachers or public executions of failing districts’ adminstrators, is going to make any significant difference in the quality of American education unless and until the onus is put on parents to get personally, actively, and continually involved in pushing their children to become effective, eager students.
  • Regaining Respect
    Restoring the faith of the world–and our own citizenry–that the USA stands for nobler principles than mere realpolitik would probably do as much, if not more, to ensuring the nation’s safety than any war effort. It’s sad, really, how straightforward the required policy changes would be if only the neocons and assorted partisan hacks in the current administration would only have the vision to see the larger benefits.
    There may be a need to detain for extended periods persons who pose a clear and present threat. But the authority to do so should come from Congress, not a president’s whim. Any such statute should set out clear criteria for detention and establish some independent periodic review to determine whether detention is still warranted.
    Seriously, I (and probably others too) would be much more willing to give the executive branch broader latitude to preemptively deal with people who could cause wide destruction if I could be assured that an independent review process were there to halt the excesses and correct the mistakes. No power of the government over the individual should ever be beyond review. Is that really too much to ask?
  • NASA Chief Sees Space As Inside Job
    I remember how astonished I was about a decade ago when on a trip to Goddard I learned that nearly all of the Space Shuttle program was run by a NASA contractor. Government agencies are often terrible at running big projects efficiently, but when it comes to science and engineering–projects whose benefits are often intangible and invisible except in hindsight–they are better than the private sector simply because, in lacking the pressure to show some ROI after X quarters, they can base their decisions on the merits of the project. Perfectly? Well, no, but even some freedom to choose metrics based in nobler goals than simple profit is a huge improvement IMHO.
  • Open CRS Network - CRS Reports for the People
    See the reports that members of Congress read (er, well, at least receive)
  • nonadmin - Home
    Wiki to help the Windoze masses migrate to more sensible user-privilege allocations
Categories: politics, science, USA, society, commentary, law, quotes, observations
Tue, 21 June 2005 9:36 pm Comments (0)

Gitmo breeds more red herrings and damn lies

Wow, our own Sen. Dick Durbin sure whipped up a firestorm, starting with eyebrow-raising comments and culminating in his backtracking today:

Now Durbin was technically correct in what he said, and anyone who cared to actually pay attention to what he actually said (as opposed to what spinmeisters wanted people to believe he said) could see that he was careful to couch his Nazi/Gulag comment in a simile connected to the conditions and common expectations–not really accusing any American of anything evil. So, at first I wanted to support him…but I quickly realized that, just like Amnesty International a couple weeks back, his comments were just plain stupid and he should have known better. Contextual and syntactic accuracy are irrelevant because almost immediately the content was lost in the tizzy surrounding a few inflammatory words. Saying nothing at all might have been better.

But what really got me about some of the resultant debate were a couple canards thrown out by some of the right-wing attackers…

  • We are at war. Bullshit! I am so tired of hearing this. The flippant answer is to remind people that nothing has ever been declared. A more serious assessment is that to call our current situation the ‘War on Terror’ is, like those on Drugs or Poverty, a bastardization of the term. In all of these cases neither the Enemy nor the metrics for victory are clearly defined. We should not trivialize the term ‘war’ to describe a vague set of efforts intended to oppose a chronic situation in which some group of people does not live or act in ways that are easily compatible with our desired way of life–especially when invocation of war powers can be used to significantly affect the relationships between people and Authority. (It is hardly better to simultaneously push the nation into an ill-conceived military action so as to legitimize calls for sacrifice in support of the war effort.)
  • Harsh treatment is okay if it helps defeat the Bad Guys. Even if you grant that we are at war, this line of reasoning still fails miserably; torture is not a partisan issue or one of Us-vs-Them. If an interrogator plays a hunch, goes somewhat over the line in roughing someone up, and obtains specific information that helps thwart a specific, imminent event, then such action is perhaps forgiveable. However, that interrogator must also be relieved of duty, for the inability to do the job within the proper rules shows, at minimum, some measure of incompetence. But there’s been zero evidence that any such extractions have happened at Gitmo (and precious little evidence that such ‘good’ results are anything but rare events), so the existence of conditions that offend our sensibilities is simply indefensible. Even if they did work to our tactical advantage more frequently, wouldn’t condoning mistreatment mean that we’ve lost something of our soul along the way? Are we really at the point of seeking survival at all costs?
Categories: international, politics, USA, rants, observations
Wed, 15 June 2005 11:31 pm Comments (1)

Friendly health, supply-side silliness, mild tolerance, pathetic data

  • Friends ‘help people live longer’
    Amusing that the study describes that friends are more theraputic than family since a person can choose his or her friends. If further studies firm up, and perhaps quantify, the health benefits–and thus lower costs for care–of the proper set of friends, how long until HMOs start requiring people to only socialize with people who form part of a properly vetted Friendster network or else deal with lower out-of-network reimbursement rates?
  • Tale of Two Tax Cuts
    Ah, supply-siders…they tend towards the post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy even more strongly than the typical economist, which would merely be amusing if they didn’t try to foist their ideas on the public. So now a few are claiming that the recent rise in federal tax revenues following the 2001 tax cuts proves their theory since it follows the same pattern as the 1981 tax cuts. Hmm…aside from the insanely small sample size, didn’t it occur to them that in both cases the tax cuts kicked in near the low point of the business cycle, and thus we’d expect tax revenues to generally rise over the next few years along with the rest of the economy anyway? Oh, wait, there I go again, thinking that hypothesis testing requires consideration of other possible causes for an observation…
  • Religious Right, Left Meet in Middle
    For politicians to draw strength or inspiration from their faith can be a positive force, as can religious leaders’ pushing efforts in the public-policy arena…but when particular stains of religion align too closely with political forces, the results can be disastrous unless the participants look to find balance and compromise from the start. After all the recent, scary alignments in American politics, it’s heartening to read that at least some of the more staunchly religious seem willing to start pulling back from the brink and finding ways to improve things for more than just their own supporters.
  • Inquiry Finds a Weakness in Terror Watch List
    The obvious issue is that of airline safety. The bigger issue is the difficulties our government often encounters in doing something properly useful with the information given to it. When those with a sensible libertarian streak kvetch about government requests for more information and surveillance powers, law-and-order types want to dismiss them as cranks…but really, why should I hand over my personal information, sans pesky niceties like warrants or probable cause, when the government can’t prove that it will reliably improve my life or the public good?
Categories: politics, science, USA, society, commentary, observations
Mon, 6 June 2005 8:30 pm Comments (0)

CTA express lanes need some tweaking

With much fanfare the CTA unveiled their next big experiment: special lanes for the Chicago Card set. Yep, express lanes on certain bus routes and certain El stations.

Now, I’m sure this will help speed things up on buses, but I’m not sure I see the point at the El stops (especially the big ones like State/Lake that have 8-10 turnstiles). Sure, I’ve been stuck behind That Guy trying to board the bus while fumbling with coins or trying to figure out which direction the farecard goes…but is this really a problem for the trains? Since the Chicago Cards have been out I have never noticed that they register particularly faster than the farecards; moreover, even at two-turnstile stops like Southport I have yet to see a farecard-fumbler cause any significant backups.

Chicago Card-only fare machines, on the other hand, would speed things up, as I’ve yet to see the person who reloads their CC with small bills and coins…

Categories: Chicago, transit, observations
Sat, 28 May 2005 3:48 pm Comments (0)

CTA doomsday averted (for now) but at what cost?

Word out of Springfield this week is that Governor Gonad and the General Assembly leaders agreed to a state budget plan that shifts some monies out of school funding and even more out of pension funding to cover the CTA’s shortfall for the year. My prediction was thus partially successful, I’m actually quite astonished that the fix happened well before we got to the doomsday schedule.

Now, while at some level I’m happy that neither my fares are going up nor my schedule is impacted, I can’t say I’m comfortable with the ’solution’. For one thing, I’ll happily pay a little more to ride the train if that’s the only way to ensure both CTA service and proper funding for other big items like schools and state pensions. Besides, as an Illinois taxpayer I’m on the hook for the (already severly underfunded) pensions in particular no matter what, so isn’t it better to pay a little more now than a lot more later? Yet the worst part of this ’solution’ is that it doesn’t fix anything at the CTA, all it does is paper over the problem for a moment. Barring some major finding during the audit of the CTA’s books, we’ll probably be back in this situation again next year; the CTA in particular and RTA in general need to rethink their revenue, scheduling, and funding formulas, and that’s a fact.

Combined with some of the recent goings-on in Washington, it struck me this week what distiguishes a politician from a statesman. A politician will do what it takes to balance out competing interests and constraints right now, whereas a statesman considers how we got here and tries to include the interests and constraints of future consituencies. Too bad there are so few of the latter among elected officials in this country.

Categories: Chicago, politics, commentary, transit, observations
2:40 pm Comments (1)

Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith

We saw RotS last night, and I think this is the best one of the six movies, hands down. Like the other five the dialogue is still mostly crap—Lucas’s ability to make conversations between would-be lovers seem strained and wooden is almost impressive in a car-wreck sort of way–but I think the actors rose above it better than they did in Eps I and II, and they weren’t hamstrung by as many forehead-slappingly inane lines that plagued the first two. However, what really sets this one apart in my view is the tight storyline. Where Phantom Menace careened wildly from one thing to the next with just a weak connection between Big Scenes, RotS moved quickly but smoothly from one event to the next. Where Attack of the Clones struggled to set up storylines, each event in RotS seemed to evolve naturally from the last. Finally, what sets it above the previous high-water mark, Empire Strikes Back, is that the story has broader scope, more subplots, and a greater range between the triumphs and tragedies–especially for Anakin Skywalker.

The connections and echoes of events in the later movies are also numerous, and they provide a richer context. Some are ironic: Anakin Skywalker wielding a blue light saber to battle a Sith who uses a red one. Some are prophetic: Palpatine turning in his seat near a huge window in a tower to watch his current apprentice, and intended future one, battle with light sabers. Yet most importantly the movie gives new perspective on Darth Vader, both in how tenuously he holds onto life after ceasing to ‘really’ be Anakin Skywalker (which helps explain why losing a hand in Return of the Jedi could be instrumental in his death) and in how he yet clings to some humanity; to see the big meanie who was so threatening when I was a child cry out in rage and pain over the death of someone was certainly novel.

A lot of people have been quick to savage the previous two episodes; I’ll concede that the bad acting of IV-VI is usually preferable to the stiff acting of I and II since it’s at least more earnest, but I think a lot of the disappointment simply resulted from viewing some movies from an adult perspective and comparing them with movies loved as a child–when we couldn’t as easily see the flaws. Yet I think that tendency to belittle might obscure what an amazing job Lucas (or at least his design team) did in smoothly evolving elements–from Naboo fashions to clone-trooper armor to Alderaanian spacecraft design–through episodes I-III into forms that match up with the more familiar ones in episodes IV-VI.

Since a little before its release there has been some hubbub about political overtones in the story, but like racial slurs in Phantom Menace and Zen on mountaintops I think it was a matter of people bringing their own views into the theater and projecting them onto the screen. Really, I was looking for political needling, and all I could find were two lines:

Padme: So this is how liberty dies? With thunderous applause?
…
Anakin: If you are not with me, you are my enemy.
Could these be commentary on the current administration? Perhaps, but they’re also applicable to various leaders throughout history. This isn’t the first time, and won’t be the last, that an author explores how quickly people will give themselves over to darkness and oppression.

Categories: movies, reviews, observations
Tue, 24 May 2005 11:23 pm Comments (0)

‘Consent’ may be second for a reason

Outlets across the poltical spectrum, both inside and outside the Beltway, have been quick to point out the following points regarding the bipartisan deal that averted the judicial-nomination filibuster showdown in the Senate:

  • The last big weapon of the minority in the most significant institution that still respects minority rights has been retained (at least for now).
  • The possibility that a President and a Senate majority can run roughshod over the judicial branch–upsetting the intended checks and balances–has been thwarted (at least for now).
  • Sen. Frist and John Dobson (and Dubya by proxy) were pushed back from a major political victory by contentious factions within the Republican Party itself.

An interesting provision of the agreement, however, hasn’t garnered much attention so far (even WaPo writers have it well down in their stories) but might prove to be more important for the long-term dynamics among the three branches of government. The gang of fourteen has proposed reviving in some manner an informal list of candidates that the President should consider when choosing judicial nominees. The Constitution says “…with the Advise and Consent of the Senate…” after all, so to move away from the historic practice of the President simply sending unsolicited nominations over to the Capitol shouldn’t be seen as a novel concept; I’ll grant that perhaps the Senate should be less involved with nominations for executive-branch positions (perhaps even defer to the President’s wishes in all but egregious cases), but taking a more active role in judicial appointments would help preserve that branch’s independence. The President need not be confined to selecting from a list dictated by the Senate, but he should at least consult with the more prominent members–of all parties–prior to submitting nominations; shutting out minority-party members, or completely ignoring their concerns, would in my view definitely rise to the level of ‘extraordinary circumstances’ that would allow a filibuster as per this weeks deal.

Given the recent health problems of Chief Justice Rehnquist, we should know within a couple of years how these play out. Maybe the desire to shore up a positive legacy in the face of second-term political setbacks will nudge Bush to be a statesman (but I’m not counting on it).

Categories: politics, USA, observations
Sun, 22 May 2005 9:00 pm Comments (0)

Diamond-based internecine warfare

Thanks be to Mark Prior and Jason Dubois for carrying the Cubs to a 4-3 victory, forestalling a weekend sweep at home by the White Sox. Given that the Cubbies are struggling right now while the Sox are playing the best ball in the majors, that the South Siders took two of three shouldn’t really be surprising. Since these crosstown games are but six of 162 that count in the final standings, I should only be concerned with the wins and losses on their own merits.

However, I certainly found myself dreading a sweep less for its impact in the standings than for the cultural ammunition it would give Sox fans. They’re already pumped up, for good reason, about the way the White Sox are playing and are also piqued (again for good reason, unfortunately) about the relative lack of attention they receive when compared with the scuffling Cubs, so adding a sweep at Wrigley into the mix would have made a number of Sox fans insufferable; for whatever reason, a signficant portion of the White Sox fan base uses the team’s fortunes as a proxy for their own self-esteem in a way that few North Side fans do. Of course, if the Cubs go down to U.S. Cosmiskular ParkField in June and turn the tables, whaddya bet those same Sox fans will go back to griping about how Cubdom is filled with yuppie weenies who aren’t true, knowledgable baseball fans? And so it goes in the annual Red Line rivalry…

Back to this weekend’s games, it didn’t help my mood that the Friday and Sunday telecasts were done by the Sox broadcasters. Now, Hawk Harrelson is a wealth of baseball knowledge, a good interview and commentator, and is passionate about the game…but I have always found his play-by-play style quite irritating. Obviously some of it is pure partisanship stemming from my Cubs loyalties, but there’s always been something more. For a long time I figured it was just his rah-rah, go-home-team mannerisms, yet Ron Santo is just as passionate on the Cubs radio broadcasts and it seems just fine to me. Today I realized an important difference: Santo is the color analyst, so when he opines or rants about how so-and-so should approach a pitch or should have handled a play it’s expected, but since Harrelson is the play-by-play man such exhortations get in the way.

Categories: Chicago, Cubs, society, observations
Tue, 19 April 2005 9:50 pm Comments (0)

Zen and the art of poker–or baseball

In a George Will column on Greg Maddux comes this nugget from former World Series of Poker champ Amarillo Slim:

The results of one particular game doesn’t mean a damn thing, and that’s why one of my mantras has always been ‘decisions, not results.’ Do the right thing enough times and the results will take care of themselves in the long run.

That’s a nice Taoist take on the ends not justifying the means: no moralism is needed, just recognition that while doing things the proper, legitmate way isn’t always the most expedient method to obtain desirable results it is sure the most sustainable one. Hmm, why can’t politicians, intelligence analysts, economists, and business types heed this?

(Oh, right, because most people are too easily distracted by the shininess of the latest Big News to seriously consider its legitimacy or consequences…)

Categories: baseball, society, commentary, quotes, observations
Tue, 28 December 2004 11:00 pm Comments (0)

Christmas decorations

The garlands, wreaths, and strings of lights still visible nearly everywhere always strike me as somewhat sad by the 27th or 28th of December. In the first week of the month they always stir up memories of holidays past and evoke the excitement of the holiday to come, but as they linger towards New Year’s they seem to indicate that all that joy and excitement has come and gone once again. At least everything is still lit up; when the decorations are still up yet no longer lit (in preparation for being removed), then they’re merely depressing.

On the other hand, we finally found a place where a light-up plastic nativity scene doesn’t seem out of place: 1110 W Addison. You know the place, the building just a bit west of Wrigley that always has its yard filled with seasonal props that are so gaudy and over the top that it’s just fun. A light-up baby Jesus simply works better when surrounded by not only barnyard animals but also snowmen, Winnie the Pooh, and Snoopy.

Categories: USA, society, observations
Sun, 12 December 2004 2:37 pm Comments (0)

Zoo Lights 2004

It’s the holidays, so it must be time for Zoo Lights at Lincoln Park Zoo!

Happy kittyThree French hens

More pictures are available in the gallery.

Categories: Chicago, culture, society, imagery, observations
Sun, 5 December 2004 10:27 am Comments (0)

Holiday happenings

Wreaths, egg nog, a horse-drawn sleigh on Greenview, and extended rope lines at the Water Tower Place escalators…yep, it must be holiday time again.

  • The annual Southport Holiday Stroll was a fun time as usual. Like summer festivals, this event seems to me the city at its best: lots of fun stuff–ranging from the elegant to the quirky–all concentrated in a compact area surrounded by people enjoying themselves and the spirit of, well, being at such an event. Besides, how often does one get to walk down the sidewalk drinking a glass of wine without drawing a second look from the CPD? If beer, wine, and snacks were a regular part of the shopping experience, I think more people (read: menfolk) would enjoy it more. ;-)
  • The windows at Marshall Field’s on State St. were a bit disappoinging this year. For one thing they seemed a bit incoherent in places, as many of the attempts to throw quirky references into the Snow White story had no organization and just looked like items thrown in by a committee. For another, there didn’t seem to be enough detail in most windows to inspire lingering for more than a moment. Oh, for the purposes of crowd control it might not be a bad idea to put prominent arrows near the displays to indicate which direction people should walk.
  • Wow, the crowds at Crate & Barrel, Water Tower Place, and some other spots were amazingly heavy, more so than at this time in previous years. Was it due to the nicer weather relative to the previous week? I was surprised to find how much they annoyed me…hopefully this doesn’t mean I’m getting old and cranky, ready to move to the suburbs! Maybe there just need to be lanes and traffic cops on the sidewalks and mall concourses.
  • Why do people bother bringing big strollers, packed with children and their accoutrements, to busy shopping areas at Christmastime? It causes crowd flow problems, seems like it would be a burden to the parents, yet seems pointless since the children themselves are probably unlikely to be enjoying the experience too much. Packing the chilluns off with grandma or a baby sitter whilst mom & dad get their holiday shopping done seems like it would be less problematic for parents, kids, and co-shoppers alike.
Categories: Chicago, culture, society, observations
Fri, 26 November 2004 11:03 am Comments (0)

Thanksgiving thoughts

Besides Christmas, Thanksgiving is probably my favorite holiday. Hard to go wrong with a big turkey feast! But it’s more than just the food…excepting those who are in charge of preparing the dinner in toto (and those unfortunates who have to work the next day), it is a fairly relaxing holiday: few decorations, no presents, no fancy dress required, just pick up a couple goodies and spend some time relaxing with family, football, and food.

It saddens me, though, that Thanksgiving is becoming sort of an afterthought. Halloween has become a big business, and then things seem to shift into Christmas ramp-up mode come November 1. Thanksgiving has become less an entity in its own right and more a gateway to Christmas retailing. Ugh! I saw in the Tribune today that Target arranged to give people wake-up calls today, and I was astonished to see commercials yesterday advertising some stores opening at 5:30am. When I was a kid the early opening time was usually 8am, and has slowly crept earlier as stores try to get the jump on one another. How long until the stores open up at 12:01am and Thanksgiving becomes nothing more than a prelude to the opening of the holiday shopping season?

Categories: USA, society, commentary, observations
Thu, 18 November 2004 11:09 pm Comments (0)

The El as meditation

After a long, frustrating day fighting (mostly unsuccessfully) to stage some servers, I was annoyed to find the Brown Line car was shoulder-to-shoulder. It turned out to be a sort of blessing in disguise, for instead of sitting and reading I was forced to stand and do little more than stare out the window–thus allowing my agitated thoughts to rattle around and dissipate. Twenty-five minutes of this, and amazingly I felt much better as I exited onto Southport Ave. I suppose one can bring his Zen onto a rapid-transit line just as well as a mountaintop or cave.

Categories: Chicago, society, travel, observations