Month: September 2006

‘Daily Show’ viewers ace political quiz

CNN.com – ‘Daily Show’ viewers ace political quiz – Sep 29, 2004
Daily Show” viewers know more about election issues than people who regularly read newspapers or watch television news, according to the National Annenberg Election Survey.

Dannagal Goldthwaite Young, a senior research analyst at the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, said “Daily Show” viewers came out on top “even when education, party identification, following politics, watching cable news, receiving campaign information online, age and gender are taken into consideration.”

Thanks to Caroline Collier for pointing this out. Also”Why Jon Stewart isn’t Funny” has been one of our most read posts here.

Ensuring global security: no zero deductible

KnoxNews: Columnists
So long as nukes make great power war unthinkable, global stability is an existential reality that requires no regular blood premiums from America.

This mindset survived the Cold War’s end. In the 1990s, Western great powers got involved with great reluctance in situations where globalization’s disintegrating impact spun secessionist conflicts into genocidal fits of ethnic rage – such as the Balkans.

And, if the killings were located far enough away from our integrating global economy, as in the case of Central Africa, then we made no effort at all.

After 9/11, Americans grimly embraced the idea that defending our way of life would once again require regular sacrifices of both treasure and blood, and although many dispute President Bush’s decision to invade Iraq, there remains a strong consensus that freedom isn’t free.

So long as they delay strategic alliance between Beijing and Washington, America gets stuck playing globalization’s sole bodyguard while “rising China” free rides in our wake.

In the Long War, that’s one zero-deductible policy the United States cannot long endorse.

Intell agencies on Iraq

Thomas P.M. Barnett :: Weblog: Intell agencies on Iraq [updated]
ARTICLE: Spy Agencies Say Iraq War Hurting U.S. Terror Fight, By Karen DeYoung, September 24, 2006; Page A01

This analysis is typical intell stuff: obvious, useless, and playing into a do-nothing mind-set that here says, “Do nothing to piss off the terrorists!”

Duh! When we engage the security situation–any security situation–in the Middle East, we piss off (and create more) terrorists. We do it when we’re pro-active, like in Iraq. We do it when we’re passive, like our military support to Israel. And we do it when we’re behind the scenes, like our intell co-op with regimes throughout the region.

So it’s never been a question of whether or not we piss off terrorists (who live to be pissed off, and when there’s not enough going on, they’ll get jacked over a film (e.g., Van Gogh), a book (Rushdie), a speech (Benedict)–whatever).

We can either engage the region militarily to deal with its security deficits that hold off economic connectivity and keep this overwhelmingly young population from engaging the future (globalization) or we can sit back, try to firewall America (something the spooks are always up for) and wait for the next explosion–or 9/11.

We have this tendency to define all attacks that come our way as terrorism, but to define away all the rest (meaning not directed at us) as somerthing else (radicalism, fundamentalism, insurgency, rebels–whatever). Terrorism doesn’t start nor end with our involvement. What the intell community is ultimately guilty of in this kind of blame-the-messenger mindset (and yes, we are seen the world over as the harbinger of all things globalization) is confusing friction with force, assuming that you can somehow reduce force by avoiding friction, when guess what? We’re not in control of the force (globalization), we’re just walking behind that elephant, sweeping up its leavings.

Nuke the Tar Sands 2

Peak Oil Debunked: 126. NUKE THE TAR SANDS 2

The only other option is to generate heat by burning the oil itself, and that would be a carbon emission nightmare. One thing is clear, however: the oil sands will be produced. It’s just a question of whether we’re going to do it the dirty way (and waste vast amounts of the oil in the process); or do it the clean way with nuclear. Environmentalists need to get their head around that. The option where we don’t produce the oil sands is a utopian dream. It’s not on the table.

From the recent article about the natural gas shortage that Calrton Palmer informed us about:

Oil sands producers are clearly concerned about natural gas prices and are experimenting with a range of alternatives that would reduce or eliminate the need for gas.

At its Whitesands in situ project, Petrobank and its partners are working on a plan to burn residual bitumen underground in order to loosen and recover the commercially available crude. That process would leave the carbon dioxide created from the burn trapped underground.

Several companies are also planning to burn asphalt-like bitumen to produce electricity and steam above ground.

Experts believe the future will be like Sci-Fi movies

Experts believe the future will be like Sci-Fi movies
In the latest study conducted by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, over 700 technology experts were asked to evaluate an assortment of scenarios in an attempt to determine potential trends for the year 2020. With responses from representatives of the World Wide Web Consortium, ICANN, the Association of Internet Researchers, and major corporations like Google and IBM, the report reflects the perceptions of “Internet pioneers,” more than half of whom “were online before 1993.”

The highly speculative scenarios presented to respondents are all vaguely reminiscent of various themes commonly found in contemporary science fiction. From artificial intelligences dominating humanity to disgruntled Luddites engaging in violence, the poll looks more like an abandoned script by Michael Piller than a serious exploration of the future

Non-Retiring ‘Retirees’ Fastest-Growing Job Market Sector

Non-Retiring ‘Retirees’ Fastest-Growing Job Market Sector –
Seventy percent of Baby Boomers plan to stay in the workplace beyond the traditional retirement age of 65, according to research, as employers embrace older workers and job seekers more than ever.

In August, the number of workers over 55 reached its highest level ever recorded, 24.6 million. Approximately 25 percent of this group (5.2 million) was 65 and older, 45 percent more than 10 years prior.

Who is Louis Bayard?

Who is Louis Bayard? | Salon Books

Thanks to Bob Bopp for this look into the world of “Jeapordy”.

In a country where half of all households don’t buy books, why should this show continue to thrive? I think the secret lies in its original design. Like its sibling show, “Wheel of Fortune,” “Jeopardy” is crafted to make viewers at home feel smarter than the contestants on the tube. Start with the game’s rules, which require players to hold off on answering until Trebek has finished reading the question. (Ring in too early, you’re blocked out for a precious half-second.) Viewers at home are under no such obligation. If they know the answers, they can shout them out well before their counterparts on the screen, and because they’re not competing with anyone, they can cumulatively answer more questions than anyone on the show (except possibly Jennings). Watching “Jeopardy” confers, on a certain class of geek, a feeling of mastery. In our couch-potato hubris, we believe that, given a chance, we can sweep category after category, stunning our opponents into silence.

It’s an entirely American contradiction. A show that celebrates the intellect (“You don’t have to eat bugs here,” one of the contestant coordinators reassured us) really comes down to speed and muscular coordination. Brain to thumb to mouth.

Islamists as Imperialists

Article or Op-Ed
There had always been an Islamist component to the “resistance” against Israel, but it had traditionally played a supporting role, first to the Arab states, and then to the PLO. It was Ayatollah Khomeini, leader of the Islamist revolution in Iran, who pioneered an entirely different vision of the role Islamism should play opposite Israel.

Khomeini rejected the view that Israel had become a fait accompli and thereby entitled a place in the region. He believed that Islam had the power to call forth the sacrifice and discipline needed to deny legitimacy to Israel and ultimately defeat it.

To achieve that goal, Islamists could not rest content with a supporting role; they had to push their way to the front. By establishing Hizbullah as an armed vanguard in Lebanon, Khomeini sought to open a new Islamist front against Israel, independent of weak Arab states and the ineffective PLO.

Putting a Different Face on Islam in America

Putting a Different Face on Islam in America
This month, Professor Ingrid Mattson, a 43-year-old convert, was elected president of the Islamic Society of North America, the largest umbrella organization for Muslim groups in the United States and Canada. She is both the first woman and, as a Canadian, the first non-immigrant to hold the post.