J.D. LASICA looks at the top ten ways technology has transformed our culture in 2005. Meanwhile, Professor Bainbridge looks at the top ten wines of 2005.
Well, wine was a transformative technology, in its day!
UPDATE: Jeff Jarvis hates end-of-year lists.
ANOTHER UPDATE: I wonder how Jeff feels about the Top Ten sexiest geeks? Some of the choices were obvious, others, well, not so much.
ROBERT KAPLAN was on Hugh Hewitt’s show earlier tonight, talking about his new book, Imperial Grunts : The American Military on the Ground,
Yes, one of the things that I think really kind of unnerved the elite, is that while there are all these conferences and discussions in Washington and elsewhere about should we support Afghan warlords or not, should we create an Afghan national army or not, what should our foreign policy be in Yemen or Colombia or in Iraq. I discovered a world of basically working-class people, who were operationally far more sophisticated and knowledgeable about all these issues, who spoke languages, who had personalities that didn’t fit into any one neat division. They were evangelical, but they spoke two exotic languages. People like that who…so while all these discussions are taking place, foreign policy is being enacted on the ground by majors and sergeants and lieutenants, who are utterly oblivious to most of these discussions. And you know what? They’re doing these things very, very well.
Read the whole thing. Now if we could just get Hugh podcasting.
BILL ROGGIO has more on post-election developments in Iraq. So does Omar at Iraq the Model.
AN UNUSUAL REVIEW: People usually send me books, but the folks at Sumo Lounge emailed to ask if I’d review a beanbag chair. That’s not the kind of thing I usually do, but the Insta-Daughter had just been asking for one anyway, so I agreed. They sent me a review version of the Omni and I put it upstairs and let my daughter and her 14-year-old cousin who’s visiting for the holidays test it out.
I found the nylon covering a bit stiff (though happily, it should be easy to clean) but the girls pronounced it “fabulous” and seemed to really like it. (“Give them a great review” my daughter said.) If you’re looking for a beanbag chair, and don’t mind that it isn’t soft and fuzzy, you might give this one a try.
HERE’S MORE in the Ed Cone / John Tabin debate over Al Sharpton and “marginal” lenders.
As someone who generally favors free markets, I’d normally side with Tabin, and Sharpton, here. But many of the deals offered by a lot of these loan outfits are so bad that it’s hard to believe anyone agrees to them understanding what’s going on. The interest rates are so absurdly high that merely spelling out the deal would seem to be evidence that the borrower probably didn’t realize what was involved. I certainly agree that there’s a need for people with bad credit and low incomes to get banking services, and credit. But, really, I don’t think you can defend these kind of operations except on the most abstract grounds.
TURNABOUT IN MISSISSIPPI:
Using the 1965 Voting Rights Act, the government has alleged that Brown and local elections officials discriminated against whites. It is the first time the Justice Department has ever claimed that whites suffered discrimination in voting because of race. . . .
The Justice Department says Brown and local elections officials disenfranchised whites — challenging their voting status, rejecting their absentee ballots and telling voters to choose candidates according to race.
Brown says he has merely tried to keep white Republicans from voting in Democratic primaries. He says the lawuit is all political — an attempt to discredit him because the Democratic Party in eastern Mississippi has been doing so well at bringing new voters to the polls, which may mean someday soon that Mississippi, a red state, could turn blue.
“The Justice Department’s become an arm of the RNC,” Brown said.
The Justice Department would not comment, but county prosecutor Ricky Walker is a potential witness for the government. Walker was surprised when Brown recruited a black candidate who didn’t even live in the county to run against him. Walker, after all, is a Democrat.
Interesting development.
I’LL BE ON HUGH HEWITT’S SHOW in a few minutes, talking about various events including, I suspect, the Bill Roggio story. You can listen live online here if you’re so inclined.
POLITICIZING PTSD?
AUSTIN BAY declares the big story of 2005.
I GUESS KAUS WAS RIGHT:
Sixty-four percent (64%) of Americans believe the National Security Agency (NSA) should be allowed to intercept telephone conversations between terrorism suspects in other countries and people living in the United States. A Rasmussen Reports survey found that just 23% disagree.
Sixty-eight percent (68%) of Americans say they are following the NSA story somewhat or very closely.
Just 26% believe President Bush is the first to authorize a program like the one currently in the news.
(Via Ace).
GALILEO, GALILEO:
A European satellite shot into space Wednesday to launch the EU’s $4 billion US planned rival to the United States’ Global Positioning System. . . .
The European Union started the program out of concern that GPS, because of its military focus, could be cut off in some cases. Last year, U.S. President George W. Bush ordered plans for temporarily disabling GPS satellites during national crises to prevent terrorists from using the technology.
The European Space Agency says it will guarantee operation at all times, except in case of “the direst emergency.” It also says users would be notified of satellite problems within seconds.
A bit more background, here.
UPDATE: E.U. Referendum has much more:
This was Professor Heinz Wofis, former head of the European manned space programme, who cast doubt on the validity of the project, dismissing it as a “largely political” exercise, reflecting the nascent anti-Americanism of the EU, and arguing that costs had been underestimated. He suggested that the real cost could be as much as five times the headline figure.
Where, of course, the EU plans to make the system work financially is by using its regulatory power. It plans to make the system compulsory for its Single European Sky project, railway signalling systems and for road charging. Irrespective of the fact that an upgraded US system will be provided free of charge, the EU plans to levy users and thereby recover its costs though these means, effectively imposing a user tax on EU member states and their commercial enterprises.
Then there is also the payback in sales of military technology using GPS, which explains why, in particular, French aerospace contractors are so keen on the system, attracting the support of French defence minister Alliot Marie.
None of this, perforce, finds its way into today’s media coverage, which emphasises the “touchy feely” aspects, such as the mobile phones that “will enable people to determine their exact position, down to the very meter (sic), free of charge,” without also stating that such systems have their “big brother” aspect in that they will enable the authorities to keep track of everyone using such a system.
Read the whole thing.
MICHAEL TOTTEN is photoblogging Istanbul.
AN OLD MEDIA OUTFIT THAT GETS IT: That’s the analysis of Baen Books. Seems right to me.
BLOGS: “more popular than pizza, college football, guns, the National Football League, the mainstream media (no surprise), President Bush (ditto) and online poker combined.”
D’OH! A battery recall on the XM portables. Is it just me, or are we seeing more battery recalls lately?
PASSENGER-PHOTOBLOGGING the Alaska Air incident while it happened. Now that’s blogging. (Via Jarvis, who suggests a comparison with the big-media coverage.)
Meanwhile, I’m listening to the BBC on XM, interviewing a French blogger about continued car-burnings in Paris, and how they’re not getting much coverage from French media.
UPDATE: Uh oh.
ROSS DOUTHAT WRITES that movies have gotten small. I agree.
Last night, my sister-in-law and I watched The Stunt Man,
UPDATE: Hey, Max Boot is writing about Hollywood, too, though in a different vein. And yet, I think these criticisms are connected, somehow.
MELANA ZYLE VICKERS has more on colleges’ gender diversity problems:
At colleges across the country, 58 women will enroll as freshmen for every 42 men. And as the class of 2010 proceeds toward graduation, the male numbers will dwindle. Because more men than women drop out, the ratio after four years will be 60–40, according to projections by the Department of Education.
The problem isn’t new-women bachelor’s degree–earners first outstripped men in 1982. But the gap, which remained modest for some time, is widening. More and more girls are graduating from high school and following through on their college ambitions, while boys are failing to keep pace and, by some measures, losing ground. . . . The consequences go far beyond a lousy social life and the longer–term reality that many women won’t find educated male peers to marry. There are also academic consequences, and economic ones.
Read the whole thing.
CHICAGO TRIBUNE: Bush didn’t lie!
On Nov. 20, the Tribune began an inquest: We set out to assess the Bush administration’s arguments for war in Iraq. We have weighed each of those nine arguments against the findings of subsequent official investigations by the 9/11 Commission, the Senate Intelligence Committee and others. . . . After reassessing the administration’s nine arguments for war, we do not see the conspiracy to mislead that many critics allege.
Read the whole thing. (Via Steven Antler).
MORE ON RECRUITING, from StrategyPage:
The U.S. Congress is giving the U.S. Army a recruiting edge over the other services. Thus Congress is finally recognizing something that everyone else has known for over 60 year; the army has a harder time recruiting people than the other services. All through the period of the draft, the army took most of the draftees, with the other services often taking none. People would rather volunteer for the navy, air force, or even the marines, rather than go into the army. As a result, the other services (which are in the process of laying off people), are not making much of a stink over all this.
Good.
MICKEY KAUS: John Murtha saved Bush’s presidency!
MORE ON DEVELOPMENTS IN IRAQ, over at Iraq the Model.
JONATHAN FINER AND DOUG STRUCK of the Washington Post weren’t available, but Hugh Hewitt did interview Bill Roggio regarding the problems with the Post story on his blogging. The transcript is online here.
UPDATE: LaShawn Barber has related thoughts.
UNSCAM UPDATE: Oil-for-food figure Benon Sevan makes a surprise appearance. Claudia Rosett has the story. My favorite bit: “There stood Benon Sevan. As one of the investigators describes it, Mr. Sevan came to the door ‘In shorts, no shirt, and sandals, smoking a cigar.’ Apparently everyone was surprised to come thus face-to-face.”
SPACE:2005 — not as exciting as Space: 1999, but at least there are no hostile aliens and bad 1970s haircuts. My TCS Daily column for this week looks at some major happenings, including Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin project.
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