Doug-at-large

Congressional Committee Debates Merits Of Proposed Inauguration Dance

I’m against war and don’t think it is acceptable for Hamas to launch missiles at civilian centers in Israel or for Israel to bomb areas where civilians are sure to be hit in Gaza. 

Hamas is a terrorist group and has no moral justification for targeting civilians. Israel isn’t targeting civilians, but its disproportionate response ends up killing even more civilian as “collateral damage”. 

I am in favor of blockades and embargoes. People say this is also “collective punishment”, but under a blockade I would also be in favor of allowing affected civilians to leave for protected areas – either in Israel or Egypt. And then starve Hamas out. 

Obviously letting Hamas continue to lob missiles into Israel is also an intolerable situation, so something must be done. A blockade seems the most peaceful thing to try. 
doug

“Prosecutors said Tuesday there is no evidence that Barack Obama was involved in the Blagojevich scandal. Or, as Fox News reported it, ‘Is Barack Obama involved in the Blagojevich scandal?’”

–Amy Poehler

Scientists forced to create new genus after finding fossil of flying reptile with body bigger than a car.

Reading more about this, I can see why the idea of being secretary of state appeals to Hillary Clinton and Obama.

While there is no guarantee Obama will appoint her, it seems he is trying to take a page from Lincoln’s book where he created a cabinet of his rivals to ensure greater unity in the long run. The book “Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln” by Doris Kearns Goodwin is a fascinating and good read by the way. It appears that Obama is a fan of the idea as well.

From Clinton’s perspective, she apparently feels stymied by the seniority system in the senate. Apparently at her age and relative position she has little chance, as junior senator from New York, of ever achieving control of a major committee or becoming majority leader. And she was also apparently rebuffed by Kennedy when she asked him to create a sub-committee to deal with new health care legislation that she could run. That is, after all, her trademark issue.

Also, as somebody else pointed out, while as Secretary of State you still have to attend boring meetings all the time, at least they are with heads of state in glamorous places like resorts in Dubai and Geneva instead of with transit officials at a Holiday Inn in Albany.

Even her critics don’t doubt that she would throw herself into it and do a good job if appointed. She is the type who likes to keep busy and actually accomplish things, so that’s probably why she would not be satisfied with a just senate sinecure.

doug

Hao-chan likes hanging around while I’m working on the computer.

doug

This from the McCain campaign is over the top:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=yZd_Y_D-RaA

Obviously Obama was taken out of context and was referring to issues and not Sarah Palin herself. But it was an unfortunate choice of phrase considering her famous “lipstick” joke, which got a lot of play.

But Obama really has to make it clearer what he means by change. In the context Obama was speaking, he was saying that McCain and Palin do not represent change. It is still not clear to me why Obama does represent change. He doesn’t exactly have a record for bucking his party or reaching across the aisle. As far as his record goes, he’s always been pretty much a by-the-book Democrat.

The level of discourse in the campaign needs to rise. And Obama needs to explain himself more clearly. Dumb stuff like this gets press and youtube play and nobody cares about the original context anymore.

doug

Best and Worst Case Scenarios

Best Case: The Large Hadron Colliders’ ALICE experiment successfully creates quark-gluon plasma, a substance theorized to have existed just milliseconds after the Big Bang. By generating temperatures more than 100,000 times hotter than the sun, scientists hope to watch as this particle goo cools and expands into the particles that we know. That could help scientists answer why protons and neutrons weigh 100 times more than the quarks they’re made of.

Worst Case: Scientists inadvertently make a micro black hole, and the earth is quickly erased from existence. Scientists at CERN and elsewhere have ruled out the possibility that the LHC will create any kind of doomsday scenario. The black holes that the LHC could theoretically create don’t even have enough energy to light up a light bulb. On the other hand, the U.K.’s Astronomer Royal put the odds of destroying the world at 1 in 50 million (which puts it in the realm of possibilities but still not as likely as hitting the lottery).

As you know, the Japanese Prime Minister resigned last week and the ruling LDP party will hold elections on the 22nd to choose a new leader, who will also become Prime Minister.

One of the 5 announced candidates is a woman, former Defense Minister Yuriko Koike. If she wins, she would be become the first female Japanese prime minister.

Anyway, she is certainly covering all bases with her platform. From today’s “Daily Yomiuri”:

Koike, a TV news anchorwoman-turned-lawmaker, said: “What I will aim for is to change this world, the system of Japanese society. On the other hand, I would like to preserve tradition, family ties and the solidarity of community, which should be preserved.”

Sounds like Koike, Obama and McCain are all using the same campaign literature software.

doug

This one is funny – from the Daily Show.

doug