"This is about your freedom"

Who would have thought, eh, that the Liberal Democrats would ever become a part of the government ... and, then for this video--yes, on YouTube--from their leader, the deputy prime minister, saying that the government would restore the civil liberties... I mean, "restore", as Reason highlights: "acknowledges that the British government has taken a good amount of freedom in the first place, something governments are generally loathe to concede. "

Now, may we have such a government here in the US?  It is an ironical twist that the old colonizer is now being the champion for freedom, and the colony that threw out King George and said "give me liberty, or give me death" is now in the third term of the Bush presidency when it comes to various forms of infringements on liberty.

What "third term" you ask, furrowing your eyebrows ... how about a couple of examples, you say ... sure:
Here is one on Guantanamo:

Stymied by political opposition and focused on competing priorities, the Obama administration has sidelined efforts to close the Guantánamo prison, making it unlikely that President Obama will fulfill his promise to close it before his term ends in 2013.

When the White House acknowledged last year that it would miss Mr. Obama’s initial January 2010 deadline for shutting the prison, it also declared that the detainees would eventually be moved to one in Illinois. 

Another one, which is a neat comparison of quotes from the speeches by Obama and Bush; ok, that comparison is not exclusively about liberty.  So, how about this one?

LMAO--kings and Colbert :)

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Mysteries of the Ancient Unknown - King Tut's Penis
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Remembrance of things past--10

After a long time, I heard on the radio George Michael's "Freedom" ... The guy did make some wonderful music.  I tracked it down on YouTube, and was reminded of those days when MTV was actually about music, and then there was VH1 too ... Those two television channels did profoundly change the way youth understood music, fashion, and more ...

Watching this video--with the explosions--I was then reminded of Billy Joel's song and video from pretty much the same time period ... this video also had fire and explosions--about "we didn't start the fire"


Hey, a thanks to MTV and VH1
The following is how it all began ... :)

Joel Stein's Indianized New Jersey

I have read Joel Stein's columns when he wrote for the LA Times--some were really good, and many fell flat.  Now, Stein has become the news himself not because of a brilliant column, but otherwise.
At Time, where Stein has a regular gig , he has written a piece that is neither funny nor critical nor even informative.  In fact, it sounds very high-schoolish.  He does a very poor job of joking about things that, say, Russell Peters has already joked about and joked really, really, well.

The WSJ has a round up of some of the reactions to this column.  The title of that piece says it all: Indians Unamused by Time’s ‘Edison’
Back in India, Pranay Gupte has authored an opinion piece with a title that is meant to be more catchy than anything else: Will Indians face a backlash in the U.S.? 

What the heck is going on in Iraq?

Remember Iraq?
Elections were held there, get this, way back in March and a government is yet to be formed.
Meanwhile, there is a "timetable" for the US to start troop withdrawal beginning on August 31st.  Yes, in two months.   Apparently the Iraqi officials are concerned that the US is only interested in getting out, and nothing else.
Where do things stand as of now? 

Efforts to resolve Iraq's government conflict remained deadlocked this week nearly four months after the parliamentary elections that produced inconclusive results.
The lingering dispute over who should be the country's next prime minister has even deepened as rival factions blame and accuse each other of inviting foreign intervention into Iraq's political crisis.
None of Iraq's main political groups won a clear majority in the 7 March vote. The new 325-seat legislature has met only once and even failed to elect a speaker.

So?

Insurgents have sought to exploit the political vacuum since the election with bombings and assassinations, trying to reignite the sectarian violence that swept Iraq after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and which peaked in 2006/07.
The longer it takes to agree on a coalition government the longer it will take to pass economic reforms needed for investment in sectors outside the oil industry, and for the economic development needed to make taking up arms less attractive to disgruntled Iraqis.
Further delays also threaten to thwart U.S. plans to end combat operations in August ahead of a full U.S. military withdrawal in 2011, especially if violence spikes.

Quite a summer the US is going to have: Iraq, Afghanistan, the Gulf of Mexico, discouraging economic reports, .... and then the elections in November ...
Yet another day when I realize that the semi-informed state that I am in is way, way worse than ignorance and apathy :)
BTW, what is the difference between ignorance and apathy?  I don't know, and I don't care :)

Cartoon of the day: on political apologies :)

Congo's Independence Day

While still groggy from the vicodin that I am on now (yes, the doctor's orders!) I heard on NPR that it is 50 years since Congo became independent.
Despite the wonderful effects of the chemical, I remembered the stingingly satirical piece from The Onion:

Sticks and stones do break bones

The caption for this from the source:
A youth attempts to throw a teargas shell back at the police during protests against the alleged killing of a young boy

So, where did this happen?
The Palestinian territories?
Lebanon?
Iran?

Naaah ... this is from India.  Yes, India.  supposedly the land where every young person is busy taking customer calls from around the world!

All is not well in India, and this is one of those many areas where the Indian government has been dealing through brute police/army force, many times going over the line into abuse of power.

Anyway this itself is from Kashmir--a few miles away from the capital city of Srinagar.

Kashmir has been an issue, unfortunately, ever since the creation of India and Pakistan, and this was back in 1947!  Sopore itself has been bubbling ever since the nasty series of tragic events.  One of my graduate school colleagues--who was a Muslim--was from Srinagar.  I wonder if she ever returned to Kashmir even for brief visits; I would doubt that ...

What is the latest situation in Sopore?

With street battles spreading in the valley, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Tuesday sent a high level team to Baramulla district to help local administration take measures for restoring peace in the violence hit North Kashmir towns.

"Street battle"--that says it all.  Here is one angle on the internal issues, the use of armed forces, and the neighboring countries:

The blockade in Manipur has been in place for almost two months and people are suffering unimaginable hardship even as the governments. The Naxal issue has gained criticality in the aftermath of a proactive policy adopted by Home Minister P Chidambaram.
The Army is already playing an active role in both Kashmir and the North East and now it may be called upon to contain the Naxal menace also. In the midst of this turmoil the Army, which is the sole savior and sentinel of the nation''s integrity, is facing a grave challenge from a number of forces that are trying to weaken its intrinsic fabric.
Whether this is part of a grand design or the machination of different powers and lobbies who have their own axes to grind, cannot be ascertained, but what is very obvious is that the cumulative effect is quite alarming.
The increasing involvement of the Army in quelling social and political dissent in the country provides the first and most critical chink in its armour. Interestingly, the divisive ideologies of Islamic Jihad and Maoism that the country has to contend with are direct imports from its two neighbours, China and Pakistan.

I am the walrus, er, mashed potatoes :)

glittering prizes, dazzling reviews, and bravos from colleagues may never be enough to quell self-doubt. What you can hope for is to understand what you are good at and be able to admit your faults instead of scrambling to cover them up.

Yes!
Oh, that excerpt is from this piece in the Chronicle

What if Argentina wins it all?:)

A dream final will feature Brazil and Argentina.

But if Argentina wins, and if Maradona fulfils his promise, then we will all have to bear witness to him running naked in central Buenos Aires .... aaaaahhhh :)

Meanwhile, the NY Post sums up the US' loss to Ghana .... ah, the tabloid headlines .... (ht)

The late Sen. Byrd and the Iraq War

He was one of the few who stood up against the war chants; his speech in two parts ...

this administration has directed all of the anger, fear, and grief which emerged from the ashes of the Twin Towers and the twisted metal of the Pentagon towards a tangible villain, one we can see and hate and attack. And villain he is. But he is the wrong villain. And this is the wrong war .

Part 1


Part 2

Name of the day :)

More here :)

Worry about this quote on the economy :(

the United States and Europe are well on their way toward Japan-style deflationary traps.

That is Paul Krugman's line, from his NY Times column.  As I have noted many times over in this blog, this potential combination of deflation and high unemployment is a nightmare scenario that, for whatever reasons, most policymakers are not that much worried about--despite the loud cautionary notes from the likes of Krugman. Like this blog entry from two years ago quoting Roubini--though, that was in the context of oil prices!
So, who will get hurt the most?

The answer is, tens of millions of unemployed workers, many of whom will go jobless for years, and some of whom will never work again.

The marketing of Obama

When I reconnected with a high school friend more than 25 years since graduation, he said that he was into brand management consulting, or something along those lines.  A successful operation he runs.  I bet he will be interested in this piece about how the Obama brand is not seemingly working well:

In his November 2008 essay in the Harvard Business Review, “How Better Marketing Elected Barack Obama,” Quelch cited “Obama's personal charisma, his listening and public speaking skills, his consistently positive and unruffled demeanor and his compelling biography” as components of a brand that “attracted the attention and empathy of voters.” He added that “Obama chose an excellent marketing and campaign team, and managed them well. From start to finish, there was no public dissension.”
But nearly two years later, the marketing challenge for President Obama is far more complicated than for candidate Obama. ...
Quelch warns that “after you are elected, you are only as good as the product and performance you deliver, and the brand promise has to be lived up to. If the promise has been very substantial and the performance has been average, that’s going to put you in a bigger hole than if the promise was modest and the performance has been average. Individual citizens run, if you like, a gap analysis on promise versus performance.”

Poverty, generosity, and respect

Another gem from Subhashitani:

दाता लघुरपि सेव्यो भवति न कृपणो महानपि समृद्ध्या ।
कूपोऽतः स्वादुजलः प्रीत्यै लोकस्य न समुद्रः ॥

- पञ्चतंत्र, मित्रसंप्राप्ति

Even if a generous person is poor, he is to be treated with respect. A miser deserves no respect even if he is rich and prosperous. People like water from a small well but not from the mighty ocean.

- Panchatantra, Mitrasamprapti

Conflict minerals

We may be able to undercut some of the world’s most brutal militias simply by making it clear to electronics manufacturers that we don’t want our beloved gadgets to enrich sadistic gunmen. No phone or tablet computer can be considered “cool” if it may be helping perpetuate one of the most brutal wars on the planet.

More from Nicholas Kristof here ... and the YouTube video he refers to:

Chart of the day: worldwide debt

Leave it to the Economist for the appropriate pun in the caption for the graphic :)

But, yes, "oh dear" is the best way to describe one's reactions to this graph.

The only surprise for me was Germany--its debt levels are not that dissimilar from the US'.

It is interesting, eh, to compare the debt levels of the "old" successful economies that are now in horrible conditions with the debt levels of BRIC--Brazil, Russia, India, China.

So, why debt?

 Why do people, companies and countries borrow? One obvious answer is that it is the only way they can maintain their desired level of spending. Another reason is optimism; they believe the return on the borrowed money will be greater than the cost of servicing the debt. Crucially, creditors must believe that debtors’ incomes will rise; otherwise how would they be able to pay the interest and repay the capital?
But in parts of the rich world such optimism may now be misplaced. With ageing populations and shrinking workforces, their economies may grow more slowly than they have done in the past. They may have borrowed from the future, using debt to enjoy a standard of living that is unsustainable. Greece provides a stark example. Standard & Poor’s, a rating agency, estimates that its GDP will not regain its 2008 level until 2017.
Rising government debt is a Ponzi scheme that requires an ever-growing population to assume the burden—unless some deus ex machina, such as a technological breakthrough, can boost growth.

Quote of the day: on Hitchens

Christopher Hitchens is probably one of the most controversial contemporary intellectuals--he sure is bound to piss off a bunch of people with every essay or book.  Given his political Damascene Conversion after 9/11, it has been all the more merrier for intellectual junkies like me to follow the debates and discussions from afar; here is one such moment, from Ian Buruma's review of Hitchens' memoir, Hitch-22:

Like many people who count “Hitch” among their friends, I have watched with a certain degree of dismay how this lifelong champion of left-wing, anti-imperialist causes, this scourge of armed American hubris, this erstwhile booster of Vietcong and Sandinistas, this ex-Trot who delighted in calling his friends and allies “comrades,” ended up as a loud drummer boy for President George W. Bush’s war in Iraq, a tub-thumper for neoconservatism, and a strident American patriot.

Boy, all these writers can use words so well :)
Anyway, more on Hitchens' memoir--this time from across the pond:

What [Hitchens] most resembles, to an almost uncanny degree, is a particular kind of political romantic, as described by Carl Schmitt in his 1919 book Political Romanticism. Schmitt was ostensibly writing about German romanticism at the turn of the 19th century (the intellectual movement that flourished between Rousseau and Hegel) but his real targets were the revolutionary romantics of his own time, including two of Hitchens’s Trotskyite heroes, Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht. For Schmitt, political romantics are driven not by the quest for pseudo-religious certainty, but by the search for excitement, for the romance of what he calls ‘the occasion’. They want something, anything, to happen, so that they can feel themselves to be at the heart of things. As a result, political romantics often lead complicated double lives, moving between different versions of themselves, experimenting with alternative personae. ‘Reversing one’s position between several realities and playing them off against one another belongs to the nature of the romantic situation,’ Schmitt writes. Political romantics are ostensibly self-sufficient yet also have a desperate need for human comradeship. ‘In every romantic we can find examples of anarchistic self-confidence as well as an excessive need for sociability. He is just as easily moved by altruistic feelings, by pity and sympathy, as by presumptuous snobbery.’ Romantics loathe abuses of power, but invariably end up worshipping power itself, sometimes indiscriminately: ‘The caliph of Baghdad is no less romantic than the patriarch of Jerusalem. Here everything can be substituted for everything else.’ Above all, in place of God they substitute themselves. ‘As long as the romantic believed he was himself the transcendental ego, he did not have to be troubled by the question of the true cause: he was himself the creator of the world in which he lived.’All of this sounds a lot like Christopher Hitchens.