number six
(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. lost its position as the world's most competitive economy to Switzerland as budget and trade deficits prompted a slide to sixth in the World Economic Forum's annual rankings.From Bloomberg
Sadly, not surprising. This is the result six years of economic policy set by people who think that supply-side economics is capitalism and anything else is godless socialism.
Study of Iraq War and Terror Stirs Strong Political Response
Democratic lawmakers, responding to an intelligence report that found that the Iraq war has invigorated Islamic radicalism and worsened the global terrorist threat, said the assessment by American spy agencies demonstrated that the Bush administration needed to devise a new strategy for its handling of the war.And then there is the kicker:
In public comments on Sunday, Republican Congressional leaders did not dispute the accuracy of the reports about the intelligence estimate, although they continued to defend the American presence in Iraq.From Study of Iraq War and Terror Stirs Strong Political Response - New York Times
Now that its clear that the fight them there so we won't have to fight them here is actually fighting them in Iraq will make it more likely we will have to fight them here I have to wonder what the next justification will be. This is a really tragic. This is the time for new ideas and a major course correction. Not a retreat, but a rethinking of what our goals are and what we need to do to get there. And this is exactly what the GOP leadership seems unwilling to consider or open to debate.
UN Dispatch: Ted Turner: Telling It Like It Is
the U.N.'s not perfect. It structurally needs to be reformed. The Security Council, it just doesn't make sense to have only five countries and the victors of World War Two. I mean Germany and Japan, that was 60 years ago. They're both two of the most peaceful and best run countries in the world. They have a right to be there. India's not represented on the Security Council. No country from the Muslim world and no country from South America is represented. It's not representative.Ted Turrner on the UN. From UN Dispatch: Ted Turner: Telling It Like It Is
I've long held the belif that the only thing worse than having the UN would be not having the UN. Ideally, the UN would allow for a system of global governance without evolving (or devolving) into a global government.
Practically Groovy
Often, programmers turn to languages like Groovy for building quick utilities, rapidly writing test code, and even for creating components that make up larger Java applications because of Groovy's innate ability to remove much of the noise and complexity that accompanies typical Java-based systems. Groovy's concise, yet flexible syntax frees developers from normal Java constructs that are required for code compilation but don't necessarily help express what the program is really trying to accomplish. What's more, Groovy's relaxed typing removes perceived code complexity through the reduction of interfaces and super classes, which are required in normal Java applications to support common behavior among distinct concrete types.From Practically Groovy: Reduce code noise with Groovy
The bigest problem with Groovy is the name. Most Java programmers aren't going to get just how like Java it is from a name so far removed from the Java naming conventions. A reasonably skilled Java programmer can pick up Groovy in about an hour, and begin to reliably guess on what the right syntax would be after ten to twenty hours of use. The same can not be said about Ruby to Jython; both of which are really nice and easy to use languages. They just have a different feel than Java. The obvious name for Groovy would be JavaScript. Sadly that name has already been taken by a language that has nothing to do with Java. The next obvious name would be Dynamic Java. Sadly this is a lie in fact despite being honest in its intentions. Groovy is not that much more dynamic than regular Java. So we are stuck with Sun adding features (like closures) to Java, that already exist in Groovy. And the Java syntax for closures is likely to be as ugly as Java syntax for generics. What about Java3? That won't work as a name either as it assumes (and wrongly so) that Groovy is a replacement for Java. It isn't and can never be. Java's static typing compromises, while annoying; makes it much easier for applications to safely scale.
My solution: Rename Groovy JavaGroovy. Yes the name sucks. I'm not going to defend that name on suck value. I'm going to defend it on the grounds that it lets users know that it is based on Java technologies and it adds to the Java language.
use the shwartz
MGM TV has commissioned an animated series based on Mel Brooks' 1987 Spaceballs movie and sold exclusive rights in the U.S. to Comcast's G4 cable network, Variety reported.From SCI FI Wire
Something to add to TiVo.
Christianism Watch
Check out "Jesus Camp," a place where children are taught to venerate the Great Leader, George W. Bush, to speak in tongues, and adhere to the rigid politics of Christianism.From Andrew Sullivan | The Daily Dish: Christianism Watch
Jesus Camp. What really bothers me about this that it appears to have nothing to do with Christian Theology and everything to do with Christian Identity. I imagine that a Jesus Camp would be where the kids learn about doing good works and the joy of leading virtous lives; not a place that teaches kids to be Warriors for God. Jesus Camp looks more like this than that.
Why Johnny can't code
The "scripting" languages that serve as entry-level tools for today's aspiring programmers -- like Perl and Python -- don't make this experience accessible to students in the same way. BASIC was close enough to the algorithm that you could actually follow the reasoning of the machine as it made choices and followed logical pathways. Repeating this point for emphasis: You could even do it all yourself, following along on paper, for a few iterations, verifying that the dot on the screen was moving by the sheer power of mathematics, alone. Wow! (Indeed, I would love to sit with my son and write "Pong" from scratch. The rule set -- the math -- is so simple. And he would never see the world the same, no matter how many higher-level languages he then moves on to.)From Salon.com Technology
I have to disagree on their assessment of scripting languages. Both python and ruby have an interactive command line mode that is very similar to the old-school basic I grew up with. The real problem is that the really cool stuff is all web based, so tinkering in basic has been replaced with tinkering with HTML, JavaScript and PHP. Just look at the what people are doing to their livejournal and myspace pages. That's where the newbies are learning to code.
Time for us to go
With Republicans controlling Congress and the White House, conservatives these days ought to be happy, but most aren’t. They see expanding government, runaway spending, Middle East entanglements, and government corruption, and they wonder why, exactly, the country should be grateful for Republican dominance. Some accuse Bush and the Republicans today of not being true conservatives. Others see a grab bag of stated policies and wonder how they cohere. Everyone thinks something’s got to change.From Washington Monthly
Maybe I am just too much of a cynic, but the old guard on the right are increasingly sounding like Trotskyites claiming that real communism has never been tried. The GOP controls both houses, the White House, the Supreme Court and Majorities in most of the District Court of Appeals. And for much of the past five years, the GOP controlled the agenda and the national debate. If that isn't enough to make Conservatism work, or at the very least, allow it to achieve some of the its stated goals, maybe Conservatism needs to be rethought.
John Steinbeck Quote
Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts... perhaps the fear of a loss of
power.
-John Steinbeck, novelist, Nobel laureate (1902-1968)
Experimental AI Powers Robot Army
This is well beyond the capability of any existing system, but the Air Force Research Laboratory, or AFRL, is putting its hopes on new software that lets robots learn, walk, see and interact far more intelligently than ever before.From Wired
Combine this AI with gambling and booze powered fuel cell and your just a sarcasm chip away from Bender.
Amnesty International Says Hezbollah Committed War Crimes
Matching an earlier condemnation of Israel, Amnesty International on Thursday accused Hezbollah forces of war crimes and “serious violations of international humanitarian law” during the Lebanon war, including indiscriminate rocket attacks and “deliberate attacks on civilians and civilian objects.”From Amnesty International Says Hezbollah Committed War Crimes - New York Times
I wonder if the people on the right that criticize Amnesty International's stand on Israel, Gitmo and Abu Garib will make note of this. I wonder if the will praise them for putting principals ahead of politics. But I doubt it. Amnesty International has been a right wing punching bag for too long for this to be noted.
Why is Washington exaggerating the pirate threat?
Despite their impressive exploits of late—seizing oil platforms off the coast of Nigeria and, memorably, firing rockets at a cruise ship off Somalia—modern maritime pirates have been robbed of the mystique that once made them stars of the criminal underworld. A steady increase over the last decade in the number of thefts, hijackings, and killings at sea, along with a disingenuous PR campaign led by the United States, have put pirates in company with al-Qaida. It's a bum rap.From Slate Magazine
GWOP. The Global War on Pirates. Argh. I guess Pirates are the new Mobsters much how Belly dancing is the new Yoga and smart phones are the new iPods.
The Best Little Whorehouse in Washington
if you expect me to pass up a scandal involving poker, hookers and the Watergate building with crooked defense contractors and the No. 3 guy at the CIA, named Dusty Foggo (Dusty Foggo?! Be still my heart), you expect too much. Any journalist who claims Hookergate is not a legitimate scandal is dead -- has been for some time and needs to be unplugged. In addition to sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, Hookergate is rife with public-interest questions, misfeasance, malfeasance and non-feasance, and many splendid moral points for the children. Recommended for Sunday school use, grades seven and above.From The Best Little Whorehouse in Washington
And I thought that Jeff Gannon would be the only sex scandal in this administration.
How bad is he?
Bush ran as a moderate, tacked right and governed ineffectually -- before 9/11. Since then he's become the most radical American president in history -- and arguably the worst.From Salon.com By Sidney Blumenthal
Wow. After reading this I'm not sure what I need more, a drink of a shower.
Mocking Bush is my patriotic duty
Anyone who opposes the indefinite occupation of Iraq shouldn't be labeled an al-Qaida supporter. That's like saying that if I tell my exterminator that there are more efficient ways to rid the house of vermin than hitting them with a hammer, I'm "for the rats."Bill Maher on Salon
They Were Making Things Up
FBI Agent Who Consulted On Path to 9/11 Quit Halfway Through Because ‘They Were Making Things Up’From thinkprogress
James Bamford, an author and journalist who has written about security issues, appeared on MSNBC to discuss “The Path to 9/11.” Bamford revealed that an FBI agent who worked as a consultant to the film quit halfway through production of the mini-series because he believed the writers and producers were “making things up.” Watch it:
I'm really torn about this. While I defend the right to make this movie, I really don't think that a ABC should run it without disclaimer. This isn't being presented as fiction, despite having fictional scenes. This is truthiness at its worst. Blending facts and fiction in an cynical attempt to re-write history. And if you're going to do this, why not go all out and add all the BS you need to promote all the GOPer talking points. As an example, they could add the following:
- Saddam and Osama watching the 9/11 attack on TV together and giving each other a high-five as the planes hit
- Bill and Hillary having a coke fueled three-some with a 9/11 hijacker
- W personally leading an assault that captures Osama just before Osama and Kerry launch a follow up attack by legalizing gay marriage.
Just a thought.
Colburn-Obama pork act (S 2590)
The Senate passed legislation Thursday night that would create a massive, Google-like searchable database to track federal spending.From TPMmuckraker
The cynic in me views this as election year bipartisanship. But this is a good bill. And one of the best reform since Sarbanes-Oxley.
I happen to be against a prohibition against earmarks as it violates the spirit of Separation of Powers by putting more control on how money is spent into the hands of the executive. I'd rather make who earmarked what part of the public record so the people can decide if their representative is actually looking out for their interests.