AndrewKrause

Magicians call it misdirection. You focus your audiences attention in one spot so they don’t notice the sleight of hand elsewhere. Magicians use misdirection to entertain. Politicians use misdirection to pull of the unconscionable in full view of the American people.

Judge Sonia Sotomeyer isn’t particularly notable in any sense. She’s not the first hispanic nominated for a position on the Supreme Court. She’s not even the first female to be nominated. Indeed, Reagan gets credit for putting the first woman on the Supreme Court. None of the judges can claim more than a partial hispanic heritage to date (and none have been bothered with the notion of promoting a mixed ancestry as any kind of qualification). The Obama administration and their surrogates in the media have done a splendid job, however, of promoting her selection as historic, ‘the first latina’ one headline proclaimed. It’s true in a technical sense, just not particularly noteworthy.

Sotomeyer is notable for the political baggage she carries. She is an activist judge who uses the bench to write new laws designed to shape society towards a idealogical goal. The Obama administration has little hope of seeing her succeed to the Supreme Court. And they know this. If it happens, then it’ll be a quick political score. However, the real reason for the selection of Sotomeyer is to serve as a sort of agent provocateur. The Obama adminstration knows full well that whoever they nominate will meet resistance from Republicans (a party in opposition with no real leadership does this as a matter of course). By making the target a female, a minority, they frame the debate as one of identity politics and not issues. Republicans will oppose her - they are right to do so - and they will expend all of their political ammunition in trying to prevent her from getting to the bench. They will muddy the waters, they will fail to respond substantively to questions of racial and gender equality believing that most people understand their concerns are solely the dangers of judicial activism in a society based on laws and they will end up being cast in the stereotype of old racist white men that they’ve always been portrayed as. They may win, succeeding in blocking Sotomyers appointment, but it will be a Pyrrhic victory. Then Obama will be free to nominate anyone he wants, and enjoy a smooth and quick appointment.

Make no mistake; Sotomeyer is not qualified for the Supreme Court. She has repeatedly and blatently ignored the letter of the law, issuing opinions which amount to confessions of seeking social justice at the expense of equal protection under the law. She is beyond a simple racist, having committed herself to philosophies of absolute bigotry when, in a 2001 address to the University of Berkeley law school titled “A Latina Judge’s Voice”, she stated:

“I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.”

We as a society have long passed the point where we look at race, gender or religion as a deciding factor in how we regard people on professional levels. There is still a quiet racism that exists in social circles, and while this is still unacceptable from the standpoint of ethics, its the best we can expect from society only 40 years removed from race riots that brought martial law down on American cities. The Dream Dr. King spoke about still exists at a time known as “one day”, but we continue to progress towards that day as a society. But in the realm of politics, race and gender is still a stick used to bludgeon people in arguments over political ideology. We the electorate are guilty; we still allow ourselves to be misdirected by superficial aspects of politicians instead of their true nature.

Leaving Sotomeyer, I’d like to comment on the vegetative state of the right wing of the American political spectrum. The Obama administration and the modern left have been successfully waging a war against the right for nearly 4 years now. (The war is actually 12 years old; the successful portion is over the previous four.) Their guidebook is Saul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals”, which in my opinion is roughly equivalent to Sun Tzu’s “Art of War” in it’s depth, clarity and applicability to any situation which is more or less a conflict between groups of people. Republicans, like their mascot, are slow and do not display any apparent political intelligence. They should be adopting both these texts and incorporating them into their playbooks. Right now, the right is being slaughtered. There is no leadership coming from anyone in the Party establishment. There is no backbone within the apparatus. As a party in opposition, the GOP is ineffective and unable to speak for itself. Even the media is unable to find qualified political candidates or activists from the right to speak on behalf of the GOP; centrists, moderates and even Democratic leaders have had to fill the gap. As a dispassionate and political observer of politics, it’s sad. As a party member and qualified conservative, it’s infuriating.

As a nerd, science buff and and futurist, I could give two shits about the GOP. Scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Labs have finally delivered Death-Star quality lasers! We’ve had some powerful lasers before, including prototypes flown on the ABL capable of destroying ICBM’s in flight. This laser, however does something no other laser has ever done - it can be used to jumpstart a nuclear fusion reaction with less energy than what the reaction produces. One problem with fusion power systems to date is that it takes more energy to start the reaction than we could recoup from the reactor in its lifetime. By using this laser as the ignition source, we can initiate nuclear fusion with a relatively small amount of input energy. This brings us one step closer to safe, powerful and efficient power generation that can propel our technological society forward like a shot from a cannon. And we can use it against Klingons.

Friedrich Nietzsche once said that ‘in individuals, insanity is rare. In groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.’ I think insanity was a bit of a strong word, but Nietzsche’s philosophies are marked by overreaching. (He is, after all, one of the intellectual forefathers of Nazism, probably more so than Hegel.) If we were to temper this, we could more reasonably say that rational action is inversely proportional to the size of the group. One person alone is the most likely to make the most rational decision based on a given amount of information. When you get to a group the size of, say 100, the decisions reflect a balance of irrational exuberance and unchecked self interest. When you reach a size of about 435, the likelyhood of an unsatisfactory decision becomes very high. Incidentally, there are 100 Senators and 435 Representative that comprise the US Congress. You’ll note that at 535 people, the quality of decision making becomes quite simply batshit crazy. (You might also note that, whereas con- is the opposite of pro-, Congress is the antithesis of progress. I don’t think that is any accident.

The Internet that delivers the World Wide Web to nearly 1.5 billion. That is one hell of a mob. Since the majority of those individuals do not have the wherewithal to contribute content, the Internet isn’t a result of their insanity. But as consumers of content, the Internet reflects the collective interests of those 1.5 bn people, and the result is that in the 16 years since the Internet became public domain, it has gone from a collection of learned individuals sharing information, to funny pictures of cats and videos of people getting hit in the nuts, or falling off skateboards and planting their faces on concrete. The latter of which has to be my favorite.

If you’re looking to be informed, consider the following two sites: Ted Talks and FORA TV. They both feature lectures by people who more or less know what they’re talking about. The topics are wide ranging. I might only look for science and engineering, but I sometimes come across such gems as Hans Rosling’s demo of Gapminder and how it can demonstrate the correlation among statistical variables. In this case, education and economic opportunity.

• TED Talks
• FORA TV

Ted TAlks

FORA
http://fora.tv/

It’s always when you need to concentrate the most that you concentrate the least, it seems. As I type this, I should have my face planted solidly on Chapter 15: Tests of Significance (statistics). Instead, I am distracted by the beeping of the iPod, moved to look at facebook and led inexorably to my friend Mike Pence’s blog.

This guy I met long ago in an online community far removed from anywhere I surf to these days. I couldn’t agree less with his politics, though I agree completely with his utter disdain for the establishment. We are on two disparate sides of the political spectrum, staring directly at each other and shaking our heads at what lies between. But then… there’s his blog post of late. I, for one, return to confidence intervals and t-tests. Enjoy.

In 1963, 33-year-old lawyer Arlen Specter saw that the Democrat party, largely held by Dixiecrats, would not be his ticket to political power. He changed his affiliation to the Republican party, who at the time was leading the charge on issues of civil rights and civil liberties. Flip.

For the next forty-six years, Specter lead the middle of the pack. An Original RINO (Republican In Name Only), he betrayed the foundational principles of the GOP at every politically expedient opportunity. So much so that by 2008, Specter was more popular with Democrats in his own State then Republicans. Seeing the writing on the wall, he unashamedly made the switch back to the Democrat party. Flop.

Pundits in recent months have talked about how Republicans can no longer win and need to reform their message and platform to be, well, more like Democrats if they want to win. Not unsurprisingly, these pundits are other RINO’s like John McCain, Mary Matalin or Michael Bloomberg. The media has even been bold enough to ask militant left wing Democrat apparatchiks like James Carville (Matalin’s husband) and former DNC Chairman, Vermont Governor and infamously unstable orator Howard “RREEAARRGH!” Dean what Republicans need to do to win. Naturally, their message is the same: abandon conservative principles, move to the left, support statist marxist initiatives and agree with anything fronted by the big D.

The pendulum swings. And as far left as the pendulum swung with the rise of the trotsky, radical Alinskiest Obama administration is as quickly as it has rocketed to the right. Just weeks ago, Conservatives assembled in cities throughout the US to protest tax and spend initiatives and big government policies. The voices being heard and reacted to the most are the Limbaughs, the Hannitys and the Levins. Every gaff, error and appearance of impropriety being committed by the Obama administration is cast in glaring light. The down side for Republicans is that there is still a leadership vacuum. Michael Steele made the mistake of trying to marginalize Rush Limbaugh, and is now effectively neutered. Other hopefuls such as Bobby Jindal and Jeb Bush have failed to rise to the occasion. The last architect of Republican Victory, Newt Gingrich, has become a compliant centrist during the last decade just to keep in the spotlight.

Specter’s announcement effectively changes nothing. His voting record in the past four decades does not reflect that of a principled statesman, but of a political survivor with good timing. The idealogical power vacuum will likely be filled in coming months not by long-time Republicans, but by third parties and conservative Democrats. It may be a few years before we see another Republican President, but it may be decades before we see a Republican political majority.

Back in the Clinton era, talk show host Rush Limbaugh had an intro which counted down the number of days in the Clinton term. The theme was “America Held Hostage”. This old standard hasn’t made a comeback with the current administration, least not on Rush’s show. On my blog… I’m going to make it so. Today, April 1st 2009, is day 71.

It’s also April Fool’s day, which is apropos for this article. My President is a fool. And it’s April. And for his April Fool’s Day foolishness, Barrack Hussein Obama decided to give Her Majesty the Queen of England the most resplendent gift of… an iPod? Let’s only hope that at least it was the mac-daddy 64GB iPod Touch.

This, incidentally, comes on the heels of that other most fantastic gift, presented to Prime Minister Gordon Brown, of a collection of 21 DVD’s of American films. As if the Brit’s had no access to American cinema. As if our cultural hegemony had somehow not reached across the pond to our former Colonial sponsors. And if your mind isn’t boggled by the stupidity of that, then consider this: DVD’s purchased in North America will not play in a DVD player manufactured for the UK market. DVD’s are “region coded”, and DVD players are made for specific regions. A DVD manufactured for the US will need to be played on a DVD player manufactured for the US. Did none of the brain-donors on Obama’s staff consider this?

For your amusement, Toby Harnden of the UK Telegraph has assembled the top 10 gaffes of Obama/Biden. This includes such moments of brilliance as Biden asking a quadriplegic man to stand up so a crowd could applaud him, and Obama thanking himself in a speech at the White House.

Obama…. Dope for America.