My Political Compass

Economic Left/Right: -3.75
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.33

Check out http://www.politicalcompass.org/ to find your own.

Not sure how valid this is. The survey was short so the numbers are not overly comparable. I suspect if I took the survey again the number would move quite a bit.

That said, I am pleased to be in the same quadrant as the Dalai Lama. :-)

Alito could Promise no Nuclear Option

This:
Sisyphus Shrugged - You know, ...
is an excellent idea!

If Alito promised to withdraw if the Senate eliminates the Filibuster on Judicial Nominations, then we would all see that he does indeed respect precedence.

Might buy him some more Democratic votes.

Limited power of the Market

In response to a comment by Bill Stepp to this posting:
http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2005/09/the_public_choi.html
about relief efforts in New Orleans. Mr. Stepp points out that Wal-Mart was able to put together a convoy of trucks with supplies while, he claims, the government run efforts were floundering.

Why was Wal-Mart able to quickly put together a convoy of aid for Hurricane Katrina victims in New Orleans? Lets think about what Wal-Mart does: they sell stuff in stores over a broad geography. To sell stuff they have to have stuff. So Wal-Mart has built a very large logistics organization with thousands of trucks and many distribution centers. They move stuff every day. Lots of stuff. So it is not in the least surprising that Wal-Mart was able to put this aid together quickly.

But lets dig a little deeper.

Wal-Mart is in a very low margin part of the marketplace. So they must continuously monitor their expenses. This provides a test that the logistics group must meet: they must move the stuff where it needs to go with minimal cost. The market provides a powerful test of Wal-Mart's cost efficiency. The Wal-Mart leadership obviously understands that logistics is critical to making money. So the logistics group is under intense pressure to keep the costs low and still move the stuff. We can presume the logistics group is tracking their expenses and their performance and refining their processes.

Now, where else do we see such behavior?

The US military is world class at it's primary job: destroying other militaries. They train and train, practice war games, test themselves against every situation they can devise. The war colleges pour over history to find lessons to apply to the current military. Periodically they even get to use there skills. All this provides an excellent test of their ability to perform their job. (recall that the destruction of the Iraqi military in the current war in Iraq went better than expected)

Kind of like Wal-Mart's logistics team.

Another example: it is commonly said that the best place to get any particular surgery done is the hospital which does that procedure the most. Surgical teams at such hospitals get to practice and practice and have an excellent test to measure their performance. So they are the best at that procedure.

A common bromide among engineers: you can only control what you can measure.

So what do these examples suggest? Any organization can excel given a good test of their effectiveness and leadership which cares to ensure they are effective.

Further, anything can provide the test. The much lauded marketplace provides tests for many organizations. Others find other ways to test themselves.

There is nothing magical about the marketplace.

Creationism vs Evolutionism

Interesting interview with Michael Ruse in Salon:
http://www.salon.com/books/int/2005/08/06/ruse/index.html

Mr Ruse has a new book out and this interview discusses some of the major themes in the book.

Reading through the interview I found an explanation for something which has confused me for years. I could never figure out why the Creationists were always going on about how Evolution negated any moral basis for living. I figured it was because evolution undercut their literal interpretation of the Bible which thus attacked their own belief in an external moral force.

Michael Ruse's book suggests an alternative explanation: the Creationists are working against evolutionism and not against Evolution the theory. I can see how people with little understanding of sciences could easily confuse the Theory with some of the bizarre philosophies which some have devised. Their biases lead them to suppose that all who champion the theory also buy into, for example, Social Darwinism.

This makes it simple for the Religions Radicals to confuse the issues.


Thus, if the Mr Bush thinks it a good idea to teach intelligent Design in public schools, then I think it high time to push for a required course in philosophy and comparative religion.

Bush approved interfering in the Iraqi elections

Nice long article in our Sunday paper about Bush's administration deciding to interfere in the Iraqi elections. (subscription required) I suspect you can also find it at the New York Times.

Here is the first paragraph:

By Douglas Jehl and David E. Sanger

THE NEW YORK TIMES

Sunday, July 17, 2005

WASHINGTON -- In the months before January's Iraqi elections, President Bush approved a plan to provide covert support to certain candidates and political parties but rescinded the proposal because of congressional opposition, current and former government officials said Saturday.

Seems that once they went to tell Congress about the plan they got lots of negative feedback.

I'd understand if Bush asked for a study to explore the idea.

The fact that He could not reject it as a bad idea without help from Congress shows just what an empty hat he is.

Vatican and Evolution

The Corrente blog has a good one on Cardinal Schoenborn's letter (NYT registration required) about evolution.

Looks to me like the Evangelicals are looking for fellow travelers for intelligent Design.

The actual letter (see link above) is nothing new. It takes the good old God is revealed through the study of Nature line. What is new and interesting is its use by the Discovery Institute to push their intelligent Design foolishness.

So, why would the Vatican want to travel with Evangelicals? Hard to say. This might be an indication of some future change the new Pope wants to make to Catholic teachings.

Or not.

Time may tell.

---

Check out the story on evolution of Eyes on The Loom: part one and part two for an excellent discussion of how evolution of complex features really works.

Let me be frank: intelligent Design is just Creationism gussied up in prettier clothes. Creationism is a myth dreamed up by people who love a literal interpretation of the Christian Bible; religion pure and simple.

To teach either intelligent Design or Creationism in a Science class in a public school is simply establishing Christianity as the official religion.

The dirty little secret about the whole Social Security debate

Those in favor of Private Social Security accounts will talk about
creating an Onwership Society and how these accounts will belong to the individual and can be passed on.

The dirty secret? These accounts are not really under your control! No one is proposing letting you buy any stocks you like, any mutual fund you like, any limited partnership you like.

You know why? Because individual, by and large, make really crappy decision about their investments.

I know several very bright people, with Masters degrees in difficult subjects, who completely understand compounding interest, who have had troubles with credit card debt.

I have friends who think nothing of asking advice about an expensive transaction from people who have a financial interest in the decision.

That is the reality. People do dumb things. They have terrible impulse control. They don't spend the time on the tasks that will really advance their interests because the task is boring. They think people who are nice to them will actually have their interests at heart.

So, remind me again why I would want to get rid of a perfectly good insurance program?

How I would fix Social Security

Our local paper (Austin American-Statesman, a Cox News affiliate) ran an article Sunday covering various ways one might reform Social Security.

If we lift the salary cap (currently $90,000) then we have covered the short-fall with a bit left over. Talk about your crisis. :-)

So, what would I do?

1. Float the salary cap so that it covers 90% of Bill Gates', Michael Dell's, and Warren Buffet's salary for 2003 and then index it for inflation.
   
2. Float the retirement age so it is never less than 25% of median life expectancy.
   
3. Means test. Social Security should be Insurance, not Vacations for those who did well. Now, if you live longer than you expected and your investments run low, you can expect SS payments to go up (but not as high as if you did not do well; don't want to reward those who burn through their retirement savings foolishly).
   
4. Slowly convert 50% of the Treasury Bonds held by Social Security into investments in a Stock Index Fund which only includes companies chartered in the US. If it is good enough for California Teachers, it is good enough for all of us.
   
5. Slowly convert another 20% of any Social Security surplus into a fund which buys stocks in US companies which meet specific criteria:
   
   
   
   1. Max salary for any employee is no more than 50 x median salary and no more than 100 x minimum salary (exclude trainees (no one can be a trainee for more than 6 months))
      
   2. No more than one EPA fine per any two years
      
   3. Must win OSHA Star awards at least once in each 5 years
      
   
   (it is our damn money, we might as well use the leverage to make our county better)
   

What do we want from Social Security?

Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. (Exodus 20:12)

When we were all farmers we would satisfy this obligation by having our elderly live with us. We are not farmers any more (most of us) so we stopped doing that. One effect of this change was that, by the 1960s and '70s, to be old was to be poor. That was very bad. So we changed the Social Security benefits calculations and pulled the majority of the old out of poverty. We returned to honoring our parents.

Social Security is our new way to honor our parents. It provides insurance that they will not slip into poverty.

We know that Social Security faces some problems. For example: there are fewer people paying in per retiree drawing benefits and retirees live much longer than when the program started. We also know there is no immediate crisis. We can take a bit of time to think clearly about the problems and possible solutions. While we do this, we must bear in mind what we want Social Security to do for us: protect our parents.

Healthcare is a drag on the Economy

Here is a link to a report on Yahoo from the LA Times:
Healthcare Costs Take Big Bite From Economy

Increased spending for healthcare is gobbling up about one-quarter of the growth in the economy,...

Something like a year ago I heard a report on NPR (sorry, no citation) about an Auto factory in Canada which was taking work from the nearby factory in the US. Why? The manager interviewed said the Canadian Health system gave them a competitive advantage.

Now, isn't it time to stop screwing around and get the same competitive advantage for the US?

Liberal vs Neocon

This quote is from Letters to Salon in response to Ann Marlowe's review of 'The Neocon Reader':

Human rights rhetoric does not make one a champion of human rights or democracy. Napoleon Bonaparte, like the neocons, talked of liberty and equality while acting to make himself emperor and destroying democracy and security with his secret police and continual wars. Liberals don't hate neocons because they have "stolen" the liberal agenda; liberals hate neocons because they perceive them as liars, hypocrites and would-be tyrants who are bent on destroying American democracy, impoverishing the American middle class, and establishing a one-party state.

-- Eleanor Egan

Take a look at Mark Morford's Notes & Errata column

Great writing. Even better if you are a Progressive as you might agree with him :-)

Mark writes for the San Francisco chronicle at: sfgate.com
You have to look him up on the columnists page to find the most current article.

Or use their RSS feed

Articles on Social Security

Big debate forming on Social Security. Lots of opinions on both sides.

Lots of idiocy too :-)

I am going to collect what I think are informative articles on the subject. I'll try to find them on both sides.

Let me start with what I think of the issue:
Bush's solution is empty -- anyone who wants to put $1000 aside is free to open an IRA. No change in law required; no need to borrow umpty trillion dollars to convert the system. So then, why the crisis? Simple -- Bush wants to undo the Great Society. He wants to create the Ownership Society. Well, there is a point there (and not on top of his head :-)) but why not be honest and campaign for that directly? I am not sure but I think it has much to do with Republicans thinking you lot are stupid.

16 Jan 2005: A Question of Numbers by Roger Lowenstein of the New York Times
(free subscription required) A long article. Good history of the act and the politics which gave birth to Social Security. Worth reading just for the background.
In summary: the numbers don't support any notion of crisis.

There is no crisis
an effort by various liberal bloggers to counter-act Bush's propoganda. For what its is worth. I think they take to literal a line. There is a problem but surely no crisis.

Scott Rosenberg's Blog at Salon: Antisocial Insecurity