Cobb

Is UCLA Too Big to Fail?

I wrote to the LA Times:

There is almost nothing, I repeat nothing, you can spend $100,000 on 18-22 year olds and get something of vital importance to society. UCLA will fail as will the business model of this sort of university. It will fail just as surely as the newspaper industry has failed, and the reason is simple. You can get the same or better information online from people who will share it for free.

Look at MIT OCW. That's free. And a well motivated student can learn what he or she needs to know without the imprimatur of this bankrupt public system.

I attended Cal State in the 80s and wondered what it was I was missing for not having attended UCLA as an undergrad. So I did the common sense thing, which was to go to the UCLA bookstore and buy the books that UCLA students were required to buy. What I learned was that physics was physics and astronomy was astronomy and what I was able to learn had everything to do with my desire and discipline and nothing to do with .. well the patience of smart-assed 22 year old teachers aides.

Everyone who is protesting is gambling on their ability to leverage a dysfunctional political system for funding something a truly smart person would be able to provide for themselves. This for the privilege of having a credential that speaks louder than one's own skills. It's marketing. It's failing. And so are the institutions that hire such dubious individuals, because obviously the endowment is not helping.

Surely the Left commenters here should stop romanticizing simply because UC is a public institution and rather recognize what a UCLA education has become... a bourgeois luxury. If you don't believe that, consider the quality of those opinions written here by students in the fray.

There is a culture of foolishness in America that could do well to fail in this failing economy. And at some point Americans will stop watching television shows like 'Entourage' and spending $2.50 for 8 ounces of energy drinks, or beer for that matter. But until that happens, one cannot take seriously these sorts of complaints.

This is basically when I put on my Dirty Jobs hat. Perhaps our problem as a society is that we have too many 'educated' opinions.

The Power of Humiliation

So I was in an elevator full of men who were wearing the team colors of the Cleveland Browns. They grumbled aloud and boldly that there wouldn't ever be any Baltimore Ravens fans anywhere near. I thought better of making a joke.

My reading of Ferguson is on a brief hiatus, but I was beginning to get the flavor of how the Germans got so aggravated in the years leading up to the election of Hitler. My short story does nothing good for history but humiliation is certainly part of the formula.

One of Cobb's Rules in the area of Boys and Girls has to do with what men love to hear and what they hate to hear. What men love to believe is that their particular skill is valuable. Just as I say that people don't have weaknesses so much as they overuse their strengths, the world of men is a world of hammers in a sea of nails whether or not those are actually nails. What men hate to hear is that they are deluded and useless. Destroying a man begins with demonstrating to him that he has lived a lie his entire life and all the work he has done has been a cruel joke - that he is a fool just like all the other fools. When a woman tells a man that all of his skills are meaningless, she is burning the last bridge to his heart. It is unforgivable for a man to be thought of like all the rest - to the extent a man accepts this, he competes with other men to get to the point of 'are we cool?'. And by the way, a 'bastard' is by definition the man who never says 'yes, we're cool'. The powerful bastard gives no quarter, ever, for any relenting in competition. The powerless bastard searches eternally for someone to dominate. These are men who suffer from the lack of having a father's pride and calming hand.

Speaking of which, I sensed something touching this past week in observation of a father and son up close and personal in their house with whom I shared a delicious meal. A father patiently but firmly pointing out the broccoli and the son with a big pile of food in his cheeks he doesn't want to swallow. My own son was a 'juice junkie' and would live on orange juice and string cheese if he had his way. Boys must be grown into social appetites, and like men, have their real appetites made meaningful and significant. 

So my mind is on Cleveland and it fascinates me to no end that this is a place where steel was made and Rockefeller hung out, but today they are owned in most every way by LeBron James. It's not that James is an improper leader, but that his contract is short and two years hence, he may go the way of Republic Steel - sold off to some bidder from a bigger town. The men of Cleveland have as an expression of themselves, the Cavaliers and the Browns. And ain't nobody better be talking smack about Baltimore.

As it turned out, Baltimore shut the Browns out sixteen to nothing. What's worse, it all happened in under 30 seconds. All of the hotel rooms emptied out and Cleveland returned to a somber pace, laced with some self-deprecating humor which is the only peaceful cure for humiliation, that hedge against ambition that allows a man to laugh when he is the butt of the joke. The other cure is revenge which is sometimes sweet but more often cruel.

It is my observation that Cleveland is not full of bastards, nor is Ohio in general. And although they tend to pick on people to the north and south for their non-Midwestern accents, on the whole they wear their humility fairly well. Still.

On a dark night with rainy streets, there are crestfallen empty buildings on 9th Street that overlook a cemetery three blocks from the new stadiums. There's more money in the sports complex than in the financial district and bars with neon signs stand darkly awaiting a championship season. A Russian girl tends bar facing 10 big screens full of action and excitement from every town but this. Parking lot attendants stare over empty acres now that baseball season is over. The steakhouses are empty every night except when the wealthy fans from out of town fly in to see their team beat Cleveland.

There's no reason for this. It's not about Cleveland in particular because men everywhere have their standards and limits. Surely the Russian girl knows a town without such teams and men without such dreams. There is enough to be proud of without digging too deep. But pride lingers on the edge of disappointment and enough of that leads to bitterness. That was the edge in the huff and puff of the voices on the elevator last Monday night. A rivalry between Baltimore and Cleveland tinged with the readiness of ordinary men to do battle.

Hi I'm a PC Idiot

Peasants! You know, this is what happens to a post-industrial society that has learned to monetize the long tail. 

The Republican Evasion

Republicans are responsible, by and large for all of the tax abatements that are given by states. So states are going broke. There is a conservative principle behind this principle of 'no new taxes' and it is a fundamental and righteous principle. That principle is the defunding of the welfare state. The problem is that defunding of the welfare state requires diligence and legislative acumen, and the dirty secret is that Republicans don't often do that diligence.

Given a choice between raising taxes and not, the conservative instinct is to not. But let me restate that. The libertarian instinct is to not raise taxes. And of course the individual's instinct is to not want to pay taxes. But Republicans are nationalists, whereas libertarians are oxymoronic cosmopolitan individualists. Libertarians don't care about society, so long as it is diverse, comfortable and free - like a sidewalk in San Francisco's South Beach. When people are scrambling like ants you've just blown on, libertarians are happy. Republicans wants them in neat lines, but marching more or less in one direction. Liberals want them marching both ways and jostling elbows, but I digress. 

So when people ask legitimate but leading questions about Republicans trusting government they should be clear that Republicans trust government to do those things that governments are supposed to do, and they want them means tested. Republicans want government to efficient, effective and run like a well oiled machine, predictably, cheaply. But Republicans also believe that the kinds of people who are capable of getting those kinds of things done in any organization are not likely to waste their time doing it on the cheap. Which is to say, there are four kinds of organizations in this world. For Profit, for God, for Country, for Charity. For Country means civil service & military service. 

Anyway I'm rambling again. The Republican evasion is this. Given the chance, Republicans can only find a few things worth doing for Country as a civil servant, and whatever they are, they shouldn't EVER generate deficit spending. So whatever the government is doing that does generate deficit spending and debt needs to be cut, and tax abatement is the Republican answer, whether or not that tax cutting knife cuts muscle and bone out of the Welfare State or any other collateral damage. 

Beware of expedient Republicans.

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2

"Shepherd doesn't care about danger close."

If you play Call of Duty, Modern Warfare 2 on Normal, you will finish it in eight hours. If you play in on one of the more advanced levels, you'll probably have too much time to think about it. I did not want to think about it that long. It's an ugly story.

But there is plenty of good, and some bad in this installment. Is it worth it? Yes. Does it live up to the hype? Yes, but. 

First off, the 'yes but'. This happens to be personal. I've been an XBox gamer for about six years. I've seen all the drivers and shooters and I will have to say that Forza 3 and CODMW2 are the best of the best. I think there are about four more games that I will have to play in my life and then the whole thing will be over. These games are delivering all the realism, and a good bit of narrative. After this, there is nothing but more historically accurate games to play, and if I were rich, that's one of the businesses I would invest in. Hannibal at Cannae, Montgomery at El Alamain. Bradley at The Bulge. Nelson at Trafalgar. You get the picture.. So I'm at the point at which the context of the story is more interesting than the online action, and COD is built for online action, except that it generally has a superb campaign. This campaign? Not so superb, but still excellent.

Essentially, you have to believe that if an American gunned down 200 civilians at an airport in Russia, that Russia would launch a shock and awe against Washington DC. And if you can believe that, then all of this makes sense. The impact of this story was somewhat lost on me primarily because I wanted to play this game so badly. I confess that I just rushed through it, but it's all starting to blur, BUT. This game makes for some truly standout action.

What's unique about MW2 is that there is every kind of mission here. You can tell that the developers wanted to give the player every way to shoot in this game. In the story there are firefights that you essentially cannot survive unless you hunker down and draw fire behind a riot shield while your teammate flanks. This is the best new and original tactic in any shooter, of a much greater quality than that of Rainbow Six. There are stealth snow missions with silenced rifles. There is a  free for all mission where bullets are flying everywhere. There are great sniper missions, one from a helicopter. There are missions with a Predator, and with a robotic halftrack gun. There are buildings to storm on a large scale and small breaching missions with hostage rescue, there is half-dead hand to hand combat, and there is the soon to be legendary terrorist mission. 

I'm trying to think of another battle in a shooter where things got so ugly that I lost my appetite to play. Nothing comes to mind. The situation is this. You are called upon to infiltrate an enemy cell. The commander of that cell, Makarov is one step ahead of you. Makarov attacks an airport terminal in Russia and his crew, including you, casually walk in with machine guns and start mowing down civilians. The control of the system is restricted. You cannot break from the group, you cannot run, all you can do is shoot. I'll be honest, I couldn't shoot the civvies. I killed a couple that were dragging their bodies away at the very end, but for the most part I shot at the ceiling and at the guards that were shooting back. I kept wondering if my reticence would break cover, but as I said, Makarov was onto me the entire time. I, the American, am killed and my body left at the scene of the massacre so that the USA takes the blame, thus begins WW3. Except that it's not WW3 it's just America vs all of its current enemies and foes. 

The battle comes to Washington DC and you fight in suburban Virginia and on the Mall. It's chilling for both its realism and similarity to Fallout 3 when it comes to trenches near the Washington Memorial. Thematically, our creatives are hunkering down for some remix of American failure - the film 2012 debuts this week as well. 

There are vehicle battles in this version which are very fast paced which makes up for their somewhat clumsy control. I get it, there should be frenzied action, but on the Normal level, some of the running kills are a bit too easy and the physics seem a bit contrived. And so let me speak to that. I think that by including all of these different styles of combat into one game, Infinity Ward has reached their limits. They are very high limits, but it's starting to show on a couple of the edges. When it comes to wide open battles, Ghost Recon still sets the technical standard. I still prefer the Ghost Recon tightness and control even though the missions are a lot less realistic in terms of chaos and fog of battle. And for the close in battles and tactical missions, I still like Rainbow Six although some of that is being challenged by the breach missions of MW2 which are very well done. Call of Duty rules in sniping, period. But ODST has really raised the bar for the combination of mission types and control. I felt myself slipping back into my Halo reflexes many times. That's somewhat annoying. 

Here's where Call of Duty rules. The Brazilian favela fighting is brilliant. The combination of weapons, civilians, tight areas, sniping opportunities, dogs, confusion and chaos is unprecedented. I've been waiting to actually hear some voice talent other than Russian and Spanish in all of these shooters and COD delivers with Portuguese and Arabic, finally. The tactical missions, which I have just begun are also very very good. It's an innovation that takes what began in Metal Gear Solid and Splinter Cell did for training to the next level. Giving a nod to the training missions of the great PsyOps Mindgate Conspiracy, COD rules. 

Oddly enough, for the online, I don't expect much. I'm curious to see if the advantages gained by access to tanks, aircraft, dogs and artillery don't make for greatly unbalanced gameplay as they have in previous games. I much prefer the Halo approach where more powerful weapons and battlefield positions are objects of direct competition rather than perks for kills. But if there are zombie levels, I'll be happy for that.

All in all this is a great game, and I suppose that I will enjoy it as much as anyone my age and sophistication will admit, which is, admittedly declining. Then again, some people watch football.

Pray Today

Let us pray for our brothers and sisters as they go forth with courage and determination to face the forces of violence, weapons of destruction and hearts filled with hate. 

For our Commander-In-Chief,  and our political and military leaders that they may tirelessly seek peaceful settlements to international disputes; we pray to the Lord:

That the Lord may preserve the members of our Army, Navy, Marines, Coast Guard and Air Force from all harm; we pray to the Lord:

That even in war, we may keep clearly before us the defense of all human rights, especially the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; we pray to the Lord:

That the families, relatives and friends of our military members may be strengthened in this time of concern and anxiety; we pray to the Lord:

That the Lord may help families with men and women in the armed forces to cope with daily challenges in the absence of their loved ones; we pray to the Lord:

That our homeland will be preserved from violence and terrorism; we pray to the Lord:

That the nations of the world will seek to work together in harmony and peace; we pray to the Lord:

That the hearts of all men and women will be moved to pursue true peace and justice; we pray to the Lord:

That violence may be overcome by peace; that weapons of destruction be transformed into tools of justice, and hate give way to true charity; we pray to the Lord:

That grateful for and inspired by those veterans who have given their lives for our country we may bravely face the challenges ahead; we pray to the Lord:

Lord God, Almighty Father,
creator of mankind and author of peace,
as we are ever mindful of the cost paid for the liberty we possess,
we ask you to bless the members of our armed forces.
Give them courage, hope and strength.
May they ever experience your firm support, gentle love and compassionate healing.
Be their power and protector, leading them from darkness to light. 
To you be all glory, honor and praise, now and forever.

Amen.

Black Mental Liberation Notes: Akbar 93

I'm checking out Naim Akbar, who in my opinion, used to be the man back in 1983. As I'm listening to him now it occurs to me that without such folks, we would not talk about slavery. Now I cannot speak for many other people's families, but in mine the end of our racial education was about age 10. And of course for us it was about us - getting our heads together headed down the straight and narrow. I was one of the fortunate kids who got black mental liberation at home, so I think that I had a bit of an advantage in already having what men on the chitlin circuit were peddling during the early and mid 80s.

This diatribe, which singularly defines blackfolks in terms of their relationships with 'Boss' makes some subtle muddification between plantation owners and everyday whitefolks as its hook. But the fundamental question of whether or not people are free is relevant. Certainly the achievement of liberty is an underlying theme in my Peasant Theory. So I'm interested to see how he ultimately defines freedom - whether or not he sees the primacy of the individual or if he believes in modernity. The last thing such speakers want to say is "I don't know" or "We're all the same", which puts them in the unfortunate position of suggesting that they have out-thought the lessons of history. On the other hand, he may just be speaking to his own market of peasants who just want to hear him bang the drums. 

The thing about Akbar is that he's no fool and even though he has dumbed down his rhetoric and gone stentorian since I observed him in 83, he is an educated psychiatrist. He understands how people fool themselves and will have honed his art to handle real psychological dysfunction and weave it into the narrative of black oppression. As I listen to part two, he gets to his bottom line which is that enslavement is psychological. 

The problem with all of these preachers is that they lack any economic prescription. For them, everything is psychological, political and cultural. So they fail to describe economic matters with any accuracy - they often attribute economic action to conspiracy of race. 

This, is by the way, the acme of hiphop. Putting of these 'lyrics' to the jazz-styled beats was the best that it got and '93 was just about the right time for this sound and style. But I hear the anachronistic sample from Method Man from a year later...

Obama? Present!

Barack Obama is husbanding an electorate which is unable to muster a cogent and logical opposition to foreign policy. The very existence of the meme of 'Truthers' speaks volumes to the dubious nature of sustainable information provided through our media on the whys and wherefores of current affairs.

Obama has gathered unto himself a palpable majority of wishful thinkers who are unaccountable to the complexities of real affairs, and who are thus dependent on the whims of the news cycle and loud minority reports. And since Obama has demonstrated himself capable of articulating the 'vision thing', he knows that his version of events can win out in the end.

All he requires is an inept and compliant media, and so far they have been obliging.

But Obama is too smart to be caught in a lie, and so he offers the roundest of platitudes. But decisions? Ha! He is no decider, he is, as his legislative voting record shows, merely present. Or should I say that he is a presence. Listen to his speeches. Does he say what his interpretation of events demands with regard to action? Obama's presidency is not executive in that regard. It is not about what he should do, but what we should all become.

Obama has his mandate. He has become what he was destined to be, there is no more becoming for him to do. So now he just has to ride this thing out and the the story his way.

I just don't get upset about it. Obama stands in a long line. Garfield, Taft, Harrison, McKinley, Hayes, Cleveland, Taylor, Polk, Fillmore, Pierce, Buchanan... So what?