June 1-11, 2002
| Current rumination Dates in History section
|
The true Bank of America. Banks are seen as depositories, where valuable assets are stored and protected. Those deposited assets are then loaned out to those in need, expecting repayment with interest. In a purely economic sense, banks make growth possible. Without investment capital people could not easily buy houses or cars and businesses couldn't get started, expand, or make capital improvements.
Well, there is another bank in America; a bank that I think is every bit as important, and maybe more important as any First National or Union Trust. It is the moral fortitude and good will of the people deposited in their government. People invest their trust, their belief, their efforts, and their good will in their community, state, and country and the governments that function within those distinctions. Those government entities bank that ephemeral capital and reinvest it in the people in the form of good government, fire and police services, national defense, and in the simple ways government interacts with and treats its citizens.
Many people see the relationship between government and the governed as primarily economic, an exchange of the citizen's money for government services, a situation where the pooled resources of the many create greater possibilities than any individual efforts could initiate. The sum being greater than the parts.
However, the economic exchange between a government and its citizens is best accomplished on a semi-voluntary basis, with adequate justification for the exchange. While not readily seen, it is the moral bank that is the necessary support mechanism to all of these economic banking efforts and the exchange of capital between the government and its people, whether on a local or national level. The people need a heart for their work.
When the moral bank has large withdrawals, as when politicians become corrupt or spending by the government is unjustified in the eyes of the citizens, or the economic exchange is seen as unfair or immoral, then the withdrawals from the moral bank, if not stemmed and corrected, causes the underpinnings of the economic banking system and the relationship between the government and its citizens to become unstable.
We can see some of this in the catastrophic events leading up to and causing the Great Depression, when a great distrust of government spread throughout the country. Cycles of boom and bust occur regularly in a capitalist economy so that recessions are part of the fabric of economic life, but a severe depression has at its root corruption and governmental mismanagement, which when coupled with a drastic withdrawals from the moral bank the economic problems are exacerbated the extreme.
Recently, as the divide has widened between those who work and invest their trust and efforts in their communities, and those who prey on those communities, either as criminals, whether drug dealers on the corner or morally bankrupt stock manipulators and economic con men in Wall Street or big business, or as a morally corrupt government bureaucracy, such as happened over the last administration, the trust of the populace erodes. Then people begin withdrawing from the moral bank and hoard their trust in the mattresses of family and friends, while the relationship between the government and its citizens becomes increasingly unstable.
It seems to me that the moral bank of this country is radically depleted. Some would disagree, but I think the general pulling together caused by September 11 has only been an artificially bolstering of the moral bank. It is as if people have put some of their trust in, but with their hands still on it, ready to yank it back at a moment's notice.
What happens then if the moral bank collapses? Will we die as free country? Will we go through a slow (or maybe fast) decline in which no one seems capable of pushing the rock of trust back up the mountain. Will a spiraling government despotism leach out that last bit of moral capital from an exhausted citizenry until the governed no longer support their government, even on simple level?
There is a Greek story about the philosopher Diogenes who looked throughout his life for an honest man, but supposedly never found him. If Diogenes went looking for honest government in this country, government that could build on the trust deposited in it, would he find it?
Lessons from history. My undergraduate degree in Ancient History leads me to consider historical lessons with more import than the average person, but I found this paragraph from the editorial review by Gregory McNamee to Strange Victory: Hitler's Conquest of France by Ernest R. May genuinely disturbing. (emphasis added)
May continues in this penetrating study, while in the wake of his French victory, Adolf Hitler "became so sure of his own genius that he ceased to test his judgments against those of others, and his generals virtually ceased to challenge him." The outcome is well known. Still, May suggests, Hitler's comeuppance does not diminish the lessons to be learned from the fall of France--notably, that bureaucratic arrogance, a reluctance to risk life, and a reliance on technology over tactics will quickly lose a battle. Students of realpolitik, no less than history buffs, will find much to engage them in May's book.
It sounds awfully familiar to some of approach to the War on Terrorism.
Lies and the culture of propaganda. If there is any place propaganda and lies should not hold sway it is on college campuses and if there is anyone who should be held to reasonable standards of discourse, it is college professors. They are, after all, de facto representatives of the culture of reason, upon which the modern university is supposedly built.
Enter Noam Chomsky. Last fall, when the U.S. started its military action in Afghanistan, Mr. Chomsky repeatedly referred to our actions as a "silent genocide" and said we would kill "between three and four million" Afghans. That not only proved to be wrong, it proved ludicrous. It was a calculated propaganda lie that stands in stark contrast to true reasonable discourse. It might not be so bad if Chomsky's accusations were not picked up and used as fodder for all sorts of anti-American propaganda. However, when his wild accusations have been proven to be bankrupt, I have yet to see his retraction or any apology for his egregious errors.
How can anyone with any sense of decency or intellectual honesty continue to listen to someone who is so ethically bankrupt? How can MIT continue to allow such a blatantly dishonest professor to hold a teaching position? Is it that our universities no longer even pretend to adhere to the minimum standards that brought them into being? Ý
World Cup mania and the Middle East. USA 1 - Korea 1. The United States advanced to the third game with an excellent chance to make it to the second round by tying Korea, following its earlier victory over Portugal. A win against Poland in the last game will assure them of advancing, but even a tie could do it.
I
got up at 2:30 am to watch the match. That is the extent of my
soccer mania. However, in Russia, there was a riot with one dead and
one policemen in critical condition, all because Japan scored a goal
on Russia. It was Japan's first World Cup goal and they went on to
win 1-0, which prompted even more reactions.
I guess I just don't understand the mentality of those who riot, burn, loot, and kill over a soccer goal. Yes, the original riot began right after the goal was scored, not when Russia finally lost the match. I also don't understand the mindset of those who rioted when Maryland won its semi-final NCAA basketball game this year.
People do things in crowds, they wouldn't do alone. It is called mob psychology. In groups some of us tend to subjugate our emotional and moral compass to the lowest common denominator of the throng. I am not sure if this a human thing, effecting all of us, or only something that governs a subset of us. I do know that I tend to resist the lure of groupthink when in a crowd, though I can feel the undercurrents.
It is this type of thinking and its effect on the decision making of
the community that makes it so hard to control volatile situations,
like the ones facing the Israeli and Palestinian communities. While
we can sit back in the privacy of our homes and contemplate what
WE would do, they are caught in the midst of group
reaction, of national fervor, and group dynamics. Whether it is the
World Cup or suicide bombers and the reaction to them, there is a
similar dynamic at work. If Russian fans can riot and kill over a
soccer goal, we should not be surprised at what is happening in
Middle East where so much more is at stake.
Keeping things in perspective. There is an old American aphorism that tells us to walk a mile in another man's shoes before delivering judgment, but it can also be interpreted that walking a mile in another man's shoes helps us maintain a sense of proportion and increases our sense of emotional balance. I take it even a step further and say doing something against the grain, especially something that diminishes your sense of self importance, is important to your overall emotional health and spiritual well being.
Periodically I work in my church's nursery/toddler room on Sunday morning. During the summer we usually have anywhere from 4-8 children and I have one or two helpers, usually teenagers who assist with the effort. This Sunday I missed my name on the list so I was unprepared for the job and rushed in at the last minute. I had to fight against the disappointment of not being able to join in the service, which I had been prepared to do. Fortunately it was not a large turnout and we only had six children, but some came an went leaving us usually with four at a time.
I only had to change one diaper, which is not something I enjoy at all. I also helped a junior Superman perform a successful potty, since of course, Superman always made sure he went to the potty at just the right time. Did I tell you that patience is not one of my natural virtues. I am ADD and when I am scheduled for the nursery/toddlers I usually take a Ritalin to help me keep my focus, but this morning the job was unexpected and I hadn't taken the medication. It was a true labor of love to make it through the morning.
You see, I am not naturally good with very young children. I prefer the older ones, the ones you can have conversations with. This periodic effort helps me ground myself in the simple things of life and focuses me back on the basics of family life. My daughter is going to be 25 this summer and we talk and the things I do for her are adult things like helping her with her car, or putting together a basketball hoop. With these kids, things are very basic and very imaginative. The play is mostly in the mind, but the biggest thing is that they need me to be very gentle. I have to respond in a slow and careful manner and everything I say and do has to be done with them, not me, in mind. This goes against the grain, but is ever so good for my soul.
I have suggested to the Pastor that everyone in
leadership be required to take a turn in the nursery/toddler room
twice a year. I guess what I am saying is that we all need to be
jolted outside of our normal framework and put in situations where
we have to serve others at a very simple and basic level, where
they, not we, are the center of what is happening. It helps keep us
on balance and keeps us from losing a valuable perspective on life.
It is something we can all benefit from. You included.
Why oh Wye? The historic Wye Oak, the largest white oak tree in the U.S., that stood in Wye Mills Maryland for 460 years, was toppled by a severe thunderstorm last night.
The
tree, the most visible example of the Maryland state tree (white
oak) had its own state park, Wye Oak State Park. The park was set
aside as a protective site for the great Wye Oak and is comprised of
four-acres that honors the champion of all white oaks (Quercus alba)
in the United States.
The tree was 79 feet high, with a crown that measured 102 feet across. Its trunk, measured at four feet above ground, had a circumference of over 31 feet. The tree was thought to be over 460 years old.
On October 6, 1953, a storm tore a large limb off the Wye Oak (from the right side in the picture above). Maryland’s Governor, Theodore McKeldin, had some of the wood from the limb made into gavels for the Judges of Maryland. Now that the whole tree is down it will interesting to see what is done with the historic wood.
Everything passes.
Canaries in the coal mine. In the days before electronic sensors, coal miners used to take caged canaries with them into the mine, since canaries succumbed to the effects of dangerous gases long before the miners would normally notice a problem. An Israeli woman, Chen Keinan, whose mother and one and half year old daughter were killed right in front of her in a suicide bombing had this to say in a CNN interview, in a portion that is missing from the CNN web site, but provided by the Israel National News.
CNN: How do you see the future? How do you see this unfold?
Chen: I'll tell you how I see the future: I think Israel is like the canary in the coal mine, and that's what the Europeans - and I am sorry, I know this goes to Europe, and I said different [more positive] things to America [on CNN-USA] - but we in Israel are dying *now.* We are slaughtered on a daily basis, but - you’re next! You're next, buddies. I understand that you have a lot of Muslim minorities. That’s OK, everybody should live where he wants - but you are appeasing terrorism! And you hope that if you tolerate it, and try to understand its motives, and you give it reasons, whatever they are… I ask the Europeans: Do not tolerate murder! I don’t want to use the word terrorism, because it’s banal. Do not tolerate murder, do not appease the terrorists! Not for oil, and not because you're scared - because the more fear you show, the faster it's going to be on your doorstep - and then, God help you, because you gave it legitimacy. And my baby’s blood is just as precious as any French blood -- God help these hypocritical people..."
There is a biblical saying, "They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind." (Hosea 8:7). If the Israelis are truly the canaries in this coal mine of Islamic radicalization, we do ourselves a serious disservice if we don't listen and instead sow the wind of appeasement in hopes of placating the flood of "martyrs" waiting to enter paradise. What we will receive instead, is the whirlwind of our own destruction. Ý
Creativity in the balance. A quote in Ann Coulter's article today got me thinking.
As Donald Rumsfeld said of al-Qaeda, their specialty is "destroying things they could never have built themselves using technologies they never could have developed themselves."
With that in mind I thought it might be useful to do a little creativity appraisal of Islam and by extension, that of our Arab neighbors (distant neighbors, but still neighbors).
Ann Coulter argues that Islam is not a creative religion, based on her reading of the book The Creators, by historian Daniel Boorstin. Boorstin says that: "For a believing Muslim, to create is a rash and dangerous act." Ann goes on to tell how Mohamed Atta hated skyscrapers, one of the most modern expressions of Western creativity.
Not surprisingly, Mohamed Atta loathed skyscrapers. Newsweek reported that he viewed the emergence of tall buildings in Egypt as an odious surrender to Western values.
While Islamic Arab cultures have shied away from western traditional creativity and invention, historically they do not seem to have a problem creating weapons or breeding horses, both essentially creative activities. Damascus steel was the material used to make the Arab swords that fueled the early conquests of Islam. Careful hammering, shaping and treating of the sword metal by Damascus artisans produced a steel so perfect that you could bend the sword blade so that its point would touch its hilt without breaking or warping the weapon. In addition, swords of Damascus steel could be sharpened to a razor's edge. The weapons and well-bred horses of Islamic conquerors gave them distinct advantages over their European adversaries.
However, as the Renaissance swept Europe and science and invention surged forward in Western culture, the same creative outpouring did not happen in the Islamic world. Much has been made over the years of the Judeo/Christian underpinnings of Western science, and how it set the stage for the West's creative efforts. If you believe in a God who is fundamentally creative, as Judeo/Christian theology does, and you are made in His image, then you are creative by nature, and even encouraged to express your creativity and inventiveness.
Contrast this with "For a believing Muslim, to create is a rash and dangerous act" and you have the fundamental difference between Western culture and creative effort and Islamic culture and creative effort.
The more I investigate the nature of Islam and the societies and structures it produces, the more I see an irreconcilable gulf stretching between it and my Western Christian values and structures. In addition, if this assessment of Islam's rejection of fundamental human creativity and its expression in technology and invention is true, the gulf will only widen as technology continues to advance.
It seems interesting and obvious that Islamic societies (al Quada is at its root an Islamic society) don't mind turning the inventions and technology of the West against their enemies, real or perceived or pursuing the development of weapons for Islam. When I look at Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, and al Quada, do I see creative inventiveness in art and science flowering in their cultures, or do I see weapons: chemical, biological, and atomic, and missiles to deliver them, as well as the means and processes of terrorism, as the primary expression of their creativity?
Distorting the facts. It is taken as a given these days in the Garden State (New Jersey) that the New Jersey State Police are guilty of more than a decade of racial profiling when making traffic stops and issuing tickets. Instead, it appears that the evidence used to support the accusation stands on shaky ground and may be an example of the misuse of statistics. The assumption of racial profiling is based solely on the number of tickets issued to black drivers as compared to white drivers. However, in a study done by the Pacific Institute and reported in the Washington Times, it appears there is a logical reason; black drivers break the speed limit at a much higher percentage than white drivers. (emphasis added)
The Pacific Institute study, "Speed Violation Survey of the New Jersey Turnpike," used radar guns and high-speed photography at 14 locations along the 148-mile turnpike to help identify the race of drivers. It targeted only those drivers who exceeded the speed limit by more than 15 miles per hour.
More than 38,500 drivers were evaluated as they traveled along the turnpike in a 48-hour period last spring. Among drivers identified by race, the cameras more often caught black motorists speeding.
Let's see. If more black motorists are speeding, then the fact they get more tickets would not be racial profiling but simple math. The actual numbers give a clear picture. Note the highlighted portion (emphasis added).
The study, completed in December 2001 but held because of Justice Department concerns, said black motorists were nearly twice as likely to speed as whites or Hispanics when the speed limit was posted at 65 mph. It said that the disproportion of blacks among drivers recorded at more than 90 mph was even higher.
According to the study, blacks made up 16 percent of the drivers on the turnpike and 25 percent of the speeders in the 65-mph zones, where complaints of racial profiling have been most common.
It appears the Justice Department didn't like the results of its own survey. What is the reaction to the study by those with the most to lose? (emphasis added)
In Newark yesterday, the head of the state's National Association for the Advancement of Colored People chapter called the study an attempt to vindicate state troopers who practice racial profiling. The Rev. William Rutherford said he had not read the study but didn't believe its findings.
If that isn't sticking your head in the sand I don't know what is. You have the most non pejorative type of study possible, a camera recording the vehicles and their speed and then you identify the race of the drivers. Pretty simple, don't you think. But don't let the facts disturb the prejudice of the victims, since if they are really guilty, they can't really be victims can they?
Just another example of the distorted racial politics in this country and the unconscionable blinders being used to justify victimhood for political purposes.
USA wins. For U.S. soccer fans, the best of all possible starts to the World Cup occurred when Team USA beat Portugal 3-2 in a stunning upset. It will be the talk of the tourney for a day or two.
Bloat. When companies get too big, they become very inefficient and need serious pruning to become effective again. This is a well accepted and proven axiom in business. The problem is that governments have the same problem without the incentives that businesses have to correct themselves. Businesses who don't pare back eventually go bankrupt and die. Governments can just raise taxes. Indiana provides a good example. In an article by Jon Dougherty in WorldNetDaily, it is noted that
The government of the state of Indiana has approximately doubled in size in the last 10 years...
Two years ago Indiana had a $2 billion surplus. They spent that excess, now have a deficit and the governor is pushing for a large tax increase to make up the difference. It is a good thing for him that Indiana doesn't have an alternative government to turn to or the current one might be out of business. Why doesn't he consider cutting back some of that bloat from the government payrolls due that doubling in size?
Shouldn't we hold government to task and wean them from the lazy management of raising taxes to solve problems that aren't really tax related? Why doesn't government have to obey the same economic rules as any other organization? Ý
I can see clearly now. While going to the bank today I decided on the spur of the moment to get my eyes examined. I was in Wal-Mart already, since my bank has a branch in the store, so I went over to the Glasses department to see if they had an opening. They did. I figured it would be time effective so I took advantage of the opportunity and had the exam.
The poet who said that the eyes are the windows to the soul, didn't realize they show a lot more than that. Your eyes reveal a considerable amount about the condition of the rest of your body, especially the health of your circulatory system. Any problems with hypertension or clogging of your arteries show up first in your eyes. Thankfully my eyes, except for my nearsighted/farsighted need for bifocals, are in perfect shape. No evidence of any problems anywhere. In addition, I was able to get a prescription that give me clear vision to 20/15.
The only problem I had was the drops the
Ophthalmologist put in my eyes to dilate my pupils and paralyze my
eye muscles so he could examine the deep inner workings. It meant
for almost five hours I couldn't stand bright light or focus on
close items, such as this computer screen. That meant my afternoon
and early evening was spent doing other things.
Liberal voice of reason. The recent FBI flap brought to light the real reason Zacarias Moussaoui was investigated. He was racially profiled. His unusual behavior along with being a young Arab male set off alarms to his flight instructor.
Why is this important? Well why the FBI and government are being castigated for not responding adequately to what they did know (in a large part due to their political correct blinders--see below), those doing the castigating need to examine their racial profiling presumptions. One liberal, Nicholas D. Kristof, a columnist for the New York Times, has done so. He admits that racial profiling sometimes works.
The F.B.I. took new steps yesterday to expand its powers — allowing it to snoop on mosques, libraries and the Internet, for example — and they make sense. We must also relax a taboo, racial profiling, for one of the lessons of the Moussaoui case is that it sometimes works.
He started his Op-Ed piece with a strong demand.
So it's time for civil libertarians to examine themselves with the same rigor with which we are prone to examine others.
He then closes out his Op-Ed piece with a balanced reflection.
As risks change, we who care about civil liberties need to realign balances between security and freedom. It is a wrenching, odious task, but we liberals need to learn from 9/11 just as much as the F.B.I. does.
Mr. Kristof is correct in stating that keeping the
balance between civil liberties, privacy, and the needs of public
security is a difficult task. But we all need to remember that there
is considerable difference between executing a traffic stop on a
young Black man driving a BMW in a white neighborhood and using
ethnic profiling to ascertain terrorist risks. A sense of proportion
is needed in all things.
Weekends. I have decided to write one section for weekends and only do dailies during weekdays. There are things I need to do outside of the computer on weekends.
Resignation. This weekend I had dinner with a friend and went to see Sum of All Fears. The movie was suspenseful, but the audience was eerily quiet, as if the scenario of an atomic weapon being smuggled into the U.S. and set of in an attempt to kill the president, was all too real.
But it was more than that. While listening to the conversations around me as people left the theater, it was as if a kind of resignation has set in. People believe that something like this is going to happen, they just don't want it to happen to them. This is one lottery no one wants to win, but everyone is afraid they might.
The Drudge Report reported a Time/CNN poll conducted May 22-23, 2002. It says that 90% of Americans expect a terrorist strike in the next 12 months and 37% believe it will happen where they live. They did not specifically expect a nuclear event, but they did expect something serious.