Cobb

Political Rhetoric

Political Rhetoric

Backhanded Bigotry

Over at Vision Circle, I tear into a few.

Requiring that Bustamante disown MEChA as a litmus test for his acceptability doesn't help anyone. It begs the question of MEChA's own racist culpability and influence on California politics. It lowers the ethical level of the debate. It offers Bustamante an easy way out - MEChA can instantly become Bustamante's 'Sistah Souljah'. It is a false accusation masquerading as racial concern.

Any moment now, I suspect we will be hearing from Ann Coulter.

It's also useful to see disrespect heaped on those who know MEChA to be something other than the conspiracy theorists would have the public believe. Tacitus provides the flamewar.

Backhanded Bigotry

Over at Vision Circle, I tear into a few.

Requiring that Bustamante disown MEChA as a litmus test for his acceptability doesn't help anyone. It begs the question of MEChA's own racist culpability and influence on California politics. It lowers the ethical level of the debate. It offers Bustamante an easy way out - MEChA can instantly become Bustamante's 'Sistah Souljah'. It is a false accusation masquerading as racial concern.

Any moment now, I suspect we will be hearing from Ann Coulter.

It's also useful to see disrespect heaped on those who know MEChA to be something other than the conspiracy theorists would have the public believe. Tacitus provides the flamewar.

The World Trade Address

Gerard at the American Digest wrote the following. I quote it here in full. I'd probably make a few changes but it is nothing short of brilliant, if somewhat unoriginal.

Two years ago our enemies brought to us on this continent a new war, conceived in hatred and dedicated to the proposition that all Americans are to be slaughtered because they are Americans.

Now we are engaged in a great global war, testing whether this nation or any nation so attacked can long find the courage to endure the duties and sacrifices necessary for victory.

We are met on our first mass grave of that war. We have come to remember it as a final resting-place for those who here were murdered in our airplanes, at their desks, or trying to save others. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground.

Our fellow citizens, living and dead, who struggled here and in the war since that day have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract.

The old world and those among us still weak and dedicated to appeasement will little note nor long remember what we say here, but we can never allow ourselves to forget what happened here.

It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the as yet unfinished war which by their deaths these victims and heroes have required of us.

It is rather for us to become more deeply dedicated to finishing the great task remaining before us--that from the ashes of our honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that all nations under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that governments of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.

Total Recall

Total Recall

The Alien Big Tent

The Alien Big Tent

So I've Been Told (2)

If I were a Springer-Verlag Graduate Text in Mathematics, I would be Frank Warner's Foundations of Differentiable Manifolds and Lie Groups. I give a clear, detailed, and careful development of the basic facts on manifold theory and Lie Groups. I include differentiable manifolds, tensors and differentiable forms. Lie groups and homogenous spaces, integration on manifolds, and in addition provide a proof of the de Rham theorem via sheaf cohomology theory, and develop the local theory of elliptic operators culminating in a proof of the Hodge theorem. Those interested in any of the diverse areas of mathematics requiring the notion of a differentiable manifold will find me extremely useful. Which Springer GTM would you be? The Springer GTM Test

I'd once been told that I should find a support group for child prodigies. I don't think I was a child prodigy, but I was really upset that I couldn't have piano lessons at the poor public school I attended. Further, I hated the fact that during the teacher's strike of 1969 when we went on a field trip to Hancock Park, that they wouldn't let me touch the Van de Graff generator.

I realize that I have spent an inordinate amount of time in my life avoiding being considered a geek. And so I never developed a great deal of resentment for the fact I have no idea about differentiable manifolds. But there are days when I feel as if I have been cheated...

This isn't so very important is it? Nevermind.

So I've Been Told (2)

If I were a Springer-Verlag Graduate Text in Mathematics, I would be Frank Warner's Foundations of Differentiable Manifolds and Lie Groups. I give a clear, detailed, and careful development of the basic facts on manifold theory and Lie Groups. I include differentiable manifolds, tensors and differentiable forms. Lie groups and homogenous spaces, integration on manifolds, and in addition provide a proof of the de Rham theorem via sheaf cohomology theory, and develop the local theory of elliptic operators culminating in a proof of the Hodge theorem. Those interested in any of the diverse areas of mathematics requiring the notion of a differentiable manifold will find me extremely useful. Which Springer GTM would you be? The Springer GTM Test

I'd once been told that I should find a support group for child prodigies. I don't think I was a child prodigy, but I was really upset that I couldn't have piano lessons at the poor public school I attended. Further, I hated the fact that during the teacher's strike of 1969 when we went on a field trip to Hancock Park, that they wouldn't let me touch the Van de Graff generator.

I realize that I have spent an inordinate amount of time in my life avoiding being considered a geek. And so I never developed a great deal of resentment for the fact I have no idea about differentiable manifolds. But there are days when I feel as if I have been cheated...

This isn't so very important is it? Nevermind.

George Schultz on the Internal Empire

A great quote from a very interesting website:

George P. Shultz: The President has done a good job and in community after community there have been strong expressions that this is not about Islam, this is not about Muslims, this is not about Arabs--they're not our enemy. Our enemy are people who somehow have been caught up in this pattern of terrorism and violence--they are our enemy. And so in the spirit of what has made the United States a great nation, we are a diverse nation and we honor that diversity, and we think and people here are loyal Americans. And that's--I'll never forget, on July 4, 1986, we had the hundredth anniversary of the Statue of Liberty being put in New York harbor. It had been refurbished, and President Reagan--the lights went on, the torch was writ--lit, and President Reagan spoke. One of the things that he said was, you can go to France, you can never become French, you can go to Japan, you'll never become Japanese, you can go to China, you'll never become Chinese, you can go to Italy, you'll never become Italian, but anyone can come to America from anywhere and become an American. It was a thrilling--and a deep statement about the nature of America, and of our attitude. We're a diverse country. And when you attack America, you attack the world, because the world is here. And furthermore, in the World Trade Center, I'm told that nationals of some eighty countries are among the lost or missing. The Chinese representative called on me the other day, told me--I think he said a hundred and thirty one Chinese national's among them--just to take an example. And practically any country you name. So, the United States is the world. And we're in favor of the world, and these people are the enemies of the world.

Intervention

Intervention

Visual Basic & .NET

Well, I'll say that my humiliation is just about complete. I'm going to take this job as soon as they offer it to me, but it is now abundantly clear that although I am hired as an architect, I will spend a significant percentage of my time babysitting an application built on Visual Basic, MS Access and Excel. That will be OK for a year, I suppose.

Visual Basic & .NET

Well, I'll say that my humiliation is just about complete. I'm going to take this job as soon as they offer it to me, but it is now abundantly clear that although I am hired as an architect, I will spend a significant percentage of my time babysitting an application built on Visual Basic, MS Access and Excel. That will be OK for a year, I suppose.

An Essay on My Blackness

I am pleased to have been informed that the University of Michigan has done the common sense thing which is re-rig their admissions process to something a bit less automated. They have decided to use essay questions instead of a point system to evaluate the various flavors of students to admit into their diversity stew.

Inevitably, people will count noses, but all should be satisfied that what is ineffable about ethnicity will not be so mechanistically assigned points. The school will hire a score of additional readers to parse through the thousands of undergraduate applications.

The students only get 250 words to say something worthwhile vis a vis 'diversity' which seems to me to be a bit more demeaning than 20 points automatically assigned. I can understand the University's desire to use points. I suppose this is as good a compromise as can be expected.

(NYT)

Though it still asks openly about race, the new application is longer, seeking more essays from students and more information from high schools. Mr. Courant speculated that "we'll know more about these students than any other class."

Without points, though, some amount of personal bias is inevitable, educators said.

"In essence, it becomes a more subjective review," said Mabel G. Freeman, assistant vice president for undergraduate admissions at Ohio State University, in Columbus. Her office also used points until this summer. Doing away with that system will take "more staff, more readers and more money," Ms. Freeman said, though she is not sure how much more.

Opponents will now have to single out essays that will be leaked to them in order to show that Affirmative Action oppresses. Who knows, we may find another Paul Kelly Tripplehorn.

UPDATE: Real Essays on My Blackness
The Existential Qualification - 1993
Stone Temple Pilots & The End of My Blackness - 1995
Interview With the Boohab - 1998
The Opening Salvo - 2002

An Essay on My Blackness

I am pleased to have been informed that the University of Michigan has done the common sense thing which is re-rig their admissions process to something a bit less automated. They have decided to use essay questions instead of a point system to evaluate the various flavors of students to admit into their diversity stew.

Inevitably, people will count noses, but all should be satisfied that what is ineffable about ethnicity will not be so mechanistically assigned points. The school will hire a score of additional readers to parse through the thousands of undergraduate applications.

The students only get 250 words to say something worthwhile vis a vis 'diversity' which seems to me to be a bit more demeaning than 20 points automatically assigned. I can understand the University's desire to use points. I suppose this is as good a compromise as can be expected.

(NYT)

Though it still asks openly about race, the new application is longer, seeking more essays from students and more information from high schools. Mr. Courant speculated that "we'll know more about these students than any other class."

Without points, though, some amount of personal bias is inevitable, educators said.

"In essence, it becomes a more subjective review," said Mabel G. Freeman, assistant vice president for undergraduate admissions at Ohio State University, in Columbus. Her office also used points until this summer. Doing away with that system will take "more staff, more readers and more money," Ms. Freeman said, though she is not sure how much more.

Opponents will now have to single out essays that will be leaked to them in order to show that Affirmative Action oppresses. Who knows, we may find another Paul Kelly Tripplehorn.

UPDATE: Real Essays on My Blackness
The Existential Qualification - 1993
Stone Temple Pilots & The End of My Blackness - 1995
Interview With the Boohab - 1998
The Opening Salvo - 2002

Grapes by the Ton

A couple months ago, three of us went up to one of the many wine growing areas of California. There was a big luau complete with a live band playing Jimmy Buffet style music at a winery my sister is a member of. I had a good time, but I still drifted into one of my vague states trying to find out how the money is made.

I kept trying to guess how many bottles of wine one could get out of a vine plant, and then I started multiplying across all the plants I could see in front of me how much an operation like this little place could make. I found a few answers here, and on Kitty Felde's show yesterday. Here's another set of interesting tidbits.

It turns out that I was off by an order of magnitude about how many grapes you can get out of an acre of plants, and I find it a bit miraculous to think that you can get 4 to 8 tons out of an acre depending upon what kind of grape. These days yeilds are down and there is a glut of Sirah and Cabernet. Merlot is selling OK, but only because it was such a bad year for Merlot productivity.

Cheers.

Grapes by the Ton

A couple months ago, three of us went up to one of the many wine growing areas of California. There was a big luau complete with a live band playing Jimmy Buffet style music at a winery my sister is a member of. I had a good time, but I still drifted into one of my vague states trying to find out how the money is made.

I kept trying to guess how many bottles of wine one could get out of a vine plant, and then I started multiplying across all the plants I could see in front of me how much an operation like this little place could make. I found a few answers here, and on Kitty Felde's show yesterday. Here's another set of interesting tidbits.

It turns out that I was off by an order of magnitude about how many grapes you can get out of an acre of plants, and I find it a bit miraculous to think that you can get 4 to 8 tons out of an acre depending upon what kind of grape. These days yeilds are down and there is a glut of Sirah and Cabernet. Merlot is selling OK, but only because it was such a bad year for Merlot productivity.

Cheers.

Folks You Should Know

It's interesting upon reflection to remember that we almost always think of black history in terms of people rather than of narrative. We know something of Denmark Vessey, but less actually of the context of his actions. Growing up in the days just before books about African Americans were prevalent in schools, many of us were lucky to hear names only.

This week, all you'll be hearing is about Martin Luther King, Jr., his one speech and the March on Washington. King himself called it the Poor People's March, so yet again context is missing in today's half reverence.

There are still people to know as well has historical events and movements in context. So I thought I'd bring to your attention, this site, with some standouts of the 20th Century.

Folks You Should Know

It's interesting upon reflection to remember that we almost always think of black history in terms of people rather than of narrative. We know something of Denmark Vessey, but less actually of the context of his actions. Growing up in the days just before books about African Americans were prevalent in schools, many of us were lucky to hear names only.

This week, all you'll be hearing is about Martin Luther King, Jr., his one speech and the March on Washington. King himself called it the Poor People's March, so yet again context is missing in today's half reverence.

There are still people to know as well has historical events and movements in context. So I thought I'd bring to your attention, this site, with some standouts of the 20th Century.

Minds on the Line

This afternoon I got a double-whammy on the radio. I listen with some regularity to NPR although I do tire of its partisanship. Nobody argues that NPR has a liberal bias, although it would be more correct to say that it has a white upper-middle class educated liberal bias. Since those are the people that educated me, for the most part, there will always be a soft spot in my brain for them.

But there are many things NPR does on a regular basis to earn my respect, not the least of which goes under the headings of Ira Flatoe, Car Talk, Tavis Smiley (yeah, yeah), Juan Williams, Larry Mantle & Garrison Keillor. If rightwing radio could something to raise its IQ level above the commonsense straight-talk it does so well, it could have a lot more support from people like me. Then again, I don't really need to hear another mattress commercial and now you know the rest of the story.

But it did take me a bit by surprise to hear on today's edition of Marketplace, that meatball, Armstrong Williams opine against the cultural divisions of American Reparations. What indeed is the sound of one hand clapping? It is Williams unanswered in his editorials. I have just a few sentences for Mr. Williams. Debt unforgiven is debt owed. Nobody doubts the debt. Nobody wants to pay. Compromise is in order. OK that's the topline, the rest of that story is practically settled for now as far as I'm concerned. Nevertheless, one of these days the umptee ump billion dollar war on terrorism will be over and downtown Bagdad will look better than downtown Compton, CA. Americans will be pissed at our pissing away money - for who? People who kill our soldiers. We need to clean up our own internal third world, by jingo.

In a more subtle controversy, one of the city councilmen of Boston is promising boycotts, marches and sit-ins if black contractors don't get their fair share of the work building the physical stage for the Democratic Convention coming up. The irony of such a position is astoundingly thick.

The major black contractors in Boston are non-union, open shop affairs. But in order to get major work you've got to be union, as they apparently control the market. Aside from all the free market blather we have an oversupply of, I am hard put to explain why the city government lets this situation be other than what is effectively a racist crony system. I wonder if the set-aside market has sufficed for the few non-whites in Boston all these years and now they are getting too big for their britches. I wonder what is stopping the browns and the blacks from creating their own union. I wonder what makes this councilman think ordinary blackfolks who aren't carpenters have nothing better to do that walk around in circles with picket signs for jobs they're not going to get.

Bodies on the picket line are not going to win minds. And although I don't expect much more from Marketplace, I do hope I can find some answers to my wondering.

Minds on the Line

This afternoon I got a double-whammy on the radio. I listen with some regularity to NPR although I do tire of its partisanship. Nobody argues that NPR has a liberal bias, although it would be more correct to say that it has a white upper-middle class educated liberal bias. Since those are the people that educated me, for the most part, there will always be a soft spot in my brain for them.

But there are many things NPR does on a regular basis to earn my respect, not the least of which goes under the headings of Ira Flatoe, Car Talk, Tavis Smiley (yeah, yeah), Juan Williams, Larry Mantle & Garrison Keillor. If rightwing radio could something to raise its IQ level above the commonsense straight-talk it does so well, it could have a lot more support from people like me. Then again, I don't really need to hear another mattress commercial and now you know the rest of the story.

But it did take me a bit by surprise to hear on today's edition of Marketplace, that meatball, Armstrong Williams opine against the cultural divisions of American Reparations. What indeed is the sound of one hand clapping? It is Williams unanswered in his editorials. I have just a few sentences for Mr. Williams. Debt unforgiven is debt owed. Nobody doubts the debt. Nobody wants to pay. Compromise is in order. OK that's the topline, the rest of that story is practically settled for now as far as I'm concerned. Nevertheless, one of these days the umptee ump billion dollar war on terrorism will be over and downtown Bagdad will look better than downtown Compton, CA. Americans will be pissed at our pissing away money - for who? People who kill our soldiers. We need to clean up our own internal third world, by jingo.

In a more subtle controversy, one of the city councilmen of Boston is promising boycotts, marches and sit-ins if black contractors don't get their fair share of the work building the physical stage for the Democratic Convention coming up. The irony of such a position is astoundingly thick.

The major black contractors in Boston are non-union, open shop affairs. But in order to get major work you've got to be union, as they apparently control the market. Aside from all the free market blather we have an oversupply of, I am hard put to explain why the city government lets this situation be other than what is effectively a racist crony system. I wonder if the set-aside market has sufficed for the few non-whites in Boston all these years and now they are getting too big for their britches. I wonder what is stopping the browns and the blacks from creating their own union. I wonder what makes this councilman think ordinary blackfolks who aren't carpenters have nothing better to do that walk around in circles with picket signs for jobs they're not going to get.

Bodies on the picket line are not going to win minds. And although I don't expect much more from Marketplace, I do hope I can find some answers to my wondering.

He Thinks He's Cool But He's Snot

Have you ever been to Aspen? Paul has, and he's better than you.

He Thinks He's Cool But He's Snot

Have you ever been to Aspen? Paul has, and he's better than you.

Tattling Tags

The LATimes offers a clue to RIAA tactics against the defense of copying your own MP3s. ID3 tags.

Election Progress

Election Progress

SEAL Team Six

These days I am re-reading Dick Marcinko which is a hell of a lot of fun. The particular piece of airport fiction I am engrossed in is called 'Rogue Warrior: Red Cell'. As you can imagine, the frank verisimilitude of such narratives would be considered anathema these days, but I'm a spy fan going way back. So I am accustomed to hearing about how incompetent and superior we are all at once.

Now considering that it doesn't take a genius to realize that certain elite units work as cover for super secret units and individuals much of the dirty deeds we have been doing in Iraq to secure the top 52 are not surprising. What has me curious now are a couple of things.

1. How many of these special CT units have been reactivated and/or initiated since nine-eleven? (It was only last summer that BUDS training reality shows were airing on the Discovery Channel - there are no coincidences)

2. What kind of vulnerabilities are we really dealing with that we are certainly not being told?

Such matters are classified of course. So there isn't much we outsiders can know, either about the bone chilling vulnerabilities or the superhuman achievements. These are the elements in shaping the policies and language, and you can be sure for every soldier who is lost in Iraq a very detailed accounting of why is being made. Somebody is losing men, and somebody in the Pentagon will pay politically.

In the meantime, you may take comfort or worry your butt off in an episode of Marcinko's. I highly recommend it for an inside the head experience of the guys who are ready to die for our side, especially those who hate doing it for the wrong reason and the wrong people.

I'm sure Marcinko is muzzled on the politcal subjects of the day, but I'd sure like to hear what he'd have to say.

SEAL Team Six

These days I am re-reading Dick Marcinko which is a hell of a lot of fun. The particular piece of airport fiction I am engrossed in is called 'Rogue Warrior: Red Cell'. As you can imagine, the frank verisimilitude of such narratives would be considered anathema these days, but I'm a spy fan going way back. So I am accustomed to hearing about how incompetent and superior we are all at once.

Now considering that it doesn't take a genius to realize that certain elite units work as cover for super secret units and individuals much of the dirty deeds we have been doing in Iraq to secure the top 52 are not surprising. What has me curious now are a couple of things.

1. How many of these special CT units have been reactivated and/or initiated since nine-eleven? (It was only last summer that BUDS training reality shows were airing on the Discovery Channel - there are no coincidences)

2. What kind of vulnerabilities are we really dealing with that we are certainly not being told?

Such matters are classified of course. So there isn't much we outsiders can know, either about the bone chilling vulnerabilities or the superhuman achievements. These are the elements in shaping the policies and language, and you can be sure for every soldier who is lost in Iraq a very detailed accounting of why is being made. Somebody is losing men, and somebody in the Pentagon will pay politically.

In the meantime, you may take comfort or worry your butt off in an episode of Marcinko's. I highly recommend it for an inside the head experience of the guys who are ready to die for our side, especially those who hate doing it for the wrong reason and the wrong people.

I'm sure Marcinko is muzzled on the politcal subjects of the day, but I'd sure like to hear what he'd have to say.

Meat Music

I've got about 5500 MP3s on my disk. I'm about 1/3 way through ripping my entire CD collection. I've tried to write on this subject of digital properties and the more I think about it, the further I get from any sound conclusions. Which only means I have to break it up into small chunks of points. Let this be one.

The short lesson of this episode has to do with the price of tracks. As I said, I have spent many hours ripping MP3 tracks from CDs I own. The purpose is to sell the CDs not only to free up space in the living room but to engage in the meat market - that is buying, selling and trading of music in person rather than online. My original idea was to sell CDs online at eBay or Half.com. I expected to get about 2 bucks apiece. Doing so would prove that an average CD with 8 tracks puts the price at about 25 cents per track.

There are three values I take in deciding to sell a CD.

1) What is the likelihood that I am going to play the whole thing through in my car or at a picnic on the box?

2) Is this one of the artists whose stuff I collect?

3) Is this CD significantly rare enough to be valuable just having it?

Meat Music

I've got about 5500 MP3s on my disk. I'm about 1/3 way through ripping my entire CD collection. I've tried to write on this subject of digital properties and the more I think about it, the further I get from any sound conclusions. Which only means I have to break it up into small chunks of points. Let this be one.

The short lesson of this episode has to do with the price of tracks. As I said, I have spent many hours ripping MP3 tracks from CDs I own. The purpose is to sell the CDs not only to free up space in the living room but to engage in the meat market - that is buying, selling and trading of music in person rather than online. My original idea was to sell CDs online at eBay or Half.com. I expected to get about 2 bucks apiece. Doing so would prove that an average CD with 8 tracks puts the price at about 25 cents per track.

There are three values I take in deciding to sell a CD.

1) What is the likelihood that I am going to play the whole thing through in my car or at a picnic on the box?

2) Is this one of the artists whose stuff I collect?

3) Is this CD significantly rare enough to be valuable just having it?

Or Just Hire from the Hood

Read in the local paper:

The Los Angeles Police Department needs to toughen hiring standards and revamp training to develop consistent policies for arrests and other procedures for an increasingly diverse population, according to a report to be released today by the RAND Corp.

The report on LAPD training procedures resulted in six primary recommendations. They included developing a program to share “lessons learned” in the field, standardizing requirements for training programs and instructor qualifications, and underscoring the importance of diversity awareness.

I used to assume that police were tougher and smarter than they are. I used to assume that they were generally fearless and honest. I also used to assume that in Los Angeles, they were mostly stupid whiteboys who were afraid of most blacks. According to my brother, a black cop in the LAPD, I've been only marginally correct. That is to say cops are not so tough, they are not so smart, they are not so fearless and they are not so honest. One of the white cops in my brother's class didn't even realize that black men with short hair actually used combs and brushes. They are strangers in a strange land.

Doc is partnered with a woman, and he has told me some anecdotal stuff that resonates with what I've heard. A woman with a badge and a gun who answers a domestic violence call can be hard as nails. A black man with a gun and a badge who pulls over a traffic violator who is also a black man is not so afraid. All told, cops are not so far off from ordinary people. Which brings us to the question of police training.

I am of the opinion that police training does not, and probably should not teach you how to respect people. It shouldn't tell you how to think about people. And it shouldn't be expected to modify the respect or disrespect you have for people. If community policing were done well, if recruiters could get trainees who lived in the areas they police before they become cops, we could spare ourselves a lot of psychobabble.

Or Just Hire from the Hood

Read in the local paper:

The Los Angeles Police Department needs to toughen hiring standards and revamp training to develop consistent policies for arrests and other procedures for an increasingly diverse population, according to a report to be released today by the RAND Corp.

The report on LAPD training procedures resulted in six primary recommendations. They included developing a program to share “lessons learned” in the field, standardizing requirements for training programs and instructor qualifications, and underscoring the importance of diversity awareness.

I used to assume that police were tougher and smarter than they are. I used to assume that they were generally fearless and honest. I also used to assume that in Los Angeles, they were mostly stupid whiteboys who were afraid of most blacks. According to my brother, a black cop in the LAPD, I've been only marginally correct. That is to say cops are not so tough, they are not so smart, they are not so fearless and they are not so honest. One of the white cops in my brother's class didn't even realize that black men with short hair actually used combs and brushes. They are strangers in a strange land.

Doc is partnered with a woman, and he has told me some anecdotal stuff that resonates with what I've heard. A woman with a badge and a gun who answers a domestic violence call can be hard as nails. A black man with a gun and a badge who pulls over a traffic violator who is also a black man is not so afraid. All told, cops are not so far off from ordinary people. Which brings us to the question of police training.

I am of the opinion that police training does not, and probably should not teach you how to respect people. It shouldn't tell you how to think about people. And it shouldn't be expected to modify the respect or disrespect you have for people. If community policing were done well, if recruiters could get trainees who lived in the areas they police before they become cops, we could spare ourselves a lot of psychobabble.

Evil Dreams (In Color)

I've been thinking about creating a new category here at Cobb to include more creative stuff. For the moment, I think the comic is plenty.

Every once in a while I have one of those dreams that are profound and scary and weird all at once. An associate told me that he kept a diary of his dreams and that it helped him in all sorts of ways. Not that I need help other than financial, it's still probably a fairly decent idea. All that is a roundabout way of saying, I only wish the things I actually know a lot about made for more interesting and professional reading, but I think that audience is already spoken for. In the meantime I'll ramble.

The subject is the dark side of color. Yesterday I was at Legoland again and as I was standing in line at the Project X rollercoaster and this horrible droning whine kept assaulting my ears. It sounded orange. So it occured to me that every color has an evil side to it. I daydreamed about a series of evil themes characterized by colors.

Evil Dreams (In Color)

I've been thinking about creating a new category here at Cobb to include more creative stuff. For the moment, I think the comic is plenty.

Every once in a while I have one of those dreams that are profound and scary and weird all at once. An associate told me that he kept a diary of his dreams and that it helped him in all sorts of ways. Not that I need help other than financial, it's still probably a fairly decent idea. All that is a roundabout way of saying, I only wish the things I actually know a lot about made for more interesting and professional reading, but I think that audience is already spoken for. In the meantime I'll ramble.

The subject is the dark side of color. Yesterday I was at Legoland again and as I was standing in line at the Project X rollercoaster and this horrible droning whine kept assaulting my ears. It sounded orange. So it occured to me that every color has an evil side to it. I daydreamed about a series of evil themes characterized by colors.

Fifty Four

Fifty Four

Told Ya So

You would think that in these post-Enron days, people would come to understand that just because something is incorporated doesn't make it good. Sloppy management can be incorporated. In fact, the only way to keep sloppy management around long enough to cause major screwups is for it to be supported by a good sized corporation.

Anyway, like I said, the blackout wasn't a technical problem.

Told Ya So

You would think that in these post-Enron days, people would come to understand that just because something is incorporated doesn't make it good. Sloppy management can be incorporated. In fact, the only way to keep sloppy management around long enough to cause major screwups is for it to be supported by a good sized corporation.

Anyway, like I said, the blackout wasn't a technical problem.

OCW

It's time to remember that MIT has Open Course Ware. Which means that if you really are interested in learning something online, you have every opportunity to do so. Ever since I got bored out of my mind at university, went broke and dropped out, I've been having nightmares about missed exams. Well, to be honest, the nightmares mutated right about the time my first child was born. Still, like all those who shoulda, coulda, woulda, I periodically lament my lack of degrees, especially when I have to explain things to the sort of people who barely achieved their own.

Nevertheless, I have determined that at this stage in my life, if I were suddenly to have enough money to stop working, I would go for an economics degree. That an network security are two things I only vaguely understand and feel guilty that I don't know more about. Well, those two and how to play Liszt on the piano; fat chance on the latter.

Meanwhile, I can structure up some of my free time ignoring my family and learning macroeconomics thanks to MIT. There's hope for the world after all.

Hooligans

Hooligans

My Peoples

I want to initiate a discussion about family, extended family, blackness and community following up on something J, just wrote in a comment on the Gnostic Gospels. Also these things are in my mind as I have just entered the 600th person into my family tree.

Firstly, I have a great deal of confidence in the prospects for African Americans. A lot of that stems from observations of my own extended family, demographic trends, and a fairly decent understanding of the directions of black nationalism. There has been no sector of life I have investigated with any seriousness and not found African Americans of notable achievement, and I think pessimism of any sort not directly the result of prejudice is a function of sloth. As the old saying goes, seek and ye shall find.

My Peoples

I want to initiate a discussion about family, extended family, blackness and community following up on something J, just wrote in a comment on the Gnostic Gospels. Also these things are in my mind as I have just entered the 600th person into my family tree.

Firstly, I have a great deal of confidence in the prospects for African Americans. A lot of that stems from observations of my own extended family, demographic trends, and a fairly decent understanding of the directions of black nationalism. There has been no sector of life I have investigated with any seriousness and not found African Americans of notable achievement, and I think pessimism of any sort not directly the result of prejudice is a function of sloth. As the old saying goes, seek and ye shall find.

Harumph!

Over at Vision Circle, where I attempt to be a bit more serious, I wrote a tentatively optimistic note on Project 21.

It is at this point that I speculate about several different things. The first is why the writers at Project 21 are not as good as I am. The second is how much traffic do they get vis a vis recognition as a website & as a real project. The third is how do people get hooked up into this racket and who approaches whom.

It turns out that a virtual acquaintance of mine, who is absolutely the best ally to have in a flamewar with maurading white supremacists, had some choice words about the group.

In short, Project 21 seems to have crashed and burned before the subsequent founding by some of its members of Headway Magazine and PoliticallyBlack.com, which have subsequently foundered and failed. This is an exercise in archeology.

UPDATE: More archeology - CD Ellison disses from the inside.

Harumph!

Over at Vision Circle, where I attempt to be a bit more serious, I wrote a tentatively optimistic note on Project 21.

It is at this point that I speculate about several different things. The first is why the writers at Project 21 are not as good as I am. The second is how much traffic do they get vis a vis recognition as a website & as a real project. The third is how do people get hooked up into this racket and who approaches whom.

It turns out that a virtual acquaintance of mine, who is absolutely the best ally to have in a flamewar with maurading white supremacists, had some choice words about the group.

In short, Project 21 seems to have crashed and burned before the subsequent founding by some of its members of Headway Magazine and PoliticallyBlack.com, which have subsequently foundered and failed. This is an exercise in archeology.

UPDATE: More archeology - CD Ellison disses from the inside.

Black Pearls

eric Sardinas has a new album coming out. It's called Black Pearls. Just a couple days ago I went searching for guitar solos, and wound up once again digging on Sardinas. I should be picking up this CD, but I'm so broke it's pathetic. Meanwhile, here's my old review of Treat Me Right written April 2000:

So I was listening to KLON's sunday blues show several months ago, and the dj is slobbering all over himself talking about the new Eric Sardinas album.
I listen to the title track and I am hooked, but I forget the name of the artist! So I'm rambling around in a daze for weeks and nobody knows who this guy is. I finally hear it again, and bam, it's that sound, that technique!

Sardinas is one of those rare artists who makes you sit up and wonder 'how'd he do that with a guitar?'. After listening to him, everybody elses' improvisations seem commercial and cliche. He puts serious tricks onto old hillbilly rhythms that really flipped my top. It's like stuff you've never heard.

I'm not much of a highbrow blues guy. I bought the John Lee Hooker with Santana on it several years ago like everybody else. And I bought an old Muddy Waters just to bone up. I really love Blues Rock that you get every once in a while in your dive bars, but all that commodity House of Blues stuff left me cold. So basically all I had was SRV, but nothing where the rhythm throws you a curve with an extra bar like that old Hooker stuff.

Now yesterday, I put Sardinas in my changer and rolled down the windows and cranked it on Sunset Boulevard. I don't think those people in their black t-shirts and sunglasses knew what hit 'em, but they couldn't resist it.

Most every track on this album ROCKS! It's definitely intelligent musicality that you can bang your head to, and it's hella funny....What else can be said?

I can't wait to catch this guy live.

Black Pearls

eric Sardinas has a new album coming out. It's called Black Pearls. Just a couple days ago I went searching for guitar solos, and wound up once again digging on Sardinas. I should be picking up this CD, but I'm so broke it's pathetic. Meanwhile, here's my old review of Treat Me Right written April 2000:

So I was listening to KLON's sunday blues show several months ago, and the dj is slobbering all over himself talking about the new Eric Sardinas album.
I listen to the title track and I am hooked, but I forget the name of the artist! So I'm rambling around in a daze for weeks and nobody knows who this guy is. I finally hear it again, and bam, it's that sound, that technique!

Sardinas is one of those rare artists who makes you sit up and wonder 'how'd he do that with a guitar?'. After listening to him, everybody elses' improvisations seem commercial and cliche. He puts serious tricks onto old hillbilly rhythms that really flipped my top. It's like stuff you've never heard.

I'm not much of a highbrow blues guy. I bought the John Lee Hooker with Santana on it several years ago like everybody else. And I bought an old Muddy Waters just to bone up. I really love Blues Rock that you get every once in a while in your dive bars, but all that commodity House of Blues stuff left me cold. So basically all I had was SRV, but nothing where the rhythm throws you a curve with an extra bar like that old Hooker stuff.

Now yesterday, I put Sardinas in my changer and rolled down the windows and cranked it on Sunset Boulevard. I don't think those people in their black t-shirts and sunglasses knew what hit 'em, but they couldn't resist it.

Most every track on this album ROCKS! It's definitely intelligent musicality that you can bang your head to, and it's hella funny....What else can be said?

I can't wait to catch this guy live.