mind? what mind?

Brute force, no matter how strongly applied, can never subdue the basic human desire for freedom and dignity. It is not enough, as communist systems have assumed, merely to provide people with food, shelter and clothing. Human nature needs to breathe the precious air of liberty.
- His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Here’s how I feel about Presidential Politics.  To paraphrase I-don’t-remember-who:

Any person that can be elected to be President, doesn’t deserve to be president.

And:

Any person that can get themselves elected as President should on no account be allowed to hold that office.

And as Lord Acton said:

The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern.  Every class is unfit to govern.

Hi,

I’m taking action with ONE to let you know that Congress is on track to cut poverty-fighting funding in the 2009 budget, putting the lives of millions of people who depend on our help at risk.

ONE members around the country are sending a petition to the Senate asking that they restore that funding and uphold our promise to the world’s poorest people.

You can sign the petition here: http://www.one.org/2009budget

Thanks for taking action with me.

Peace and Blessings,

- Thor Farrow

Joseph Lekuton, a member of Kenya’s parliament, tells the story of his own extraordinary education, and then a parable of how Africa itself can grow. His message of hope for Kenya in particular has never been more relevant. (From the TED.com web site)

[vodpod id=ExternalVideo.482190&w=425&h=350&fv=bgColor%3DFFFFFF%26file%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fstatic.videoegg.com%2Fted%2Fmovies%2FJOSEPHLEKUTON2-2007G_high.flv%26autoPlay%3Dfalse%26fullscreenURL%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fstatic.videoegg.com%2Fted%2Fflash%2Ffullscreen.html%26forcePlay%3Dfalse%26logo%3D%26allowFullscreen%3Dtrue] from www.ted.com posted with vodpod

There has been a satirical “letter” floating around the “websphere” since sometime around the 2000 election, purportedly written by comedian and Monty Python alumnus John Cleese (it was not).  This letter is just as pertinent now as it was then.  Here is one (20-point) version of it:

Dear Citizens of America,

In view of your failure to elect a competent President and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately.

Her Sovereign Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths and other territories (except Kansas, which she does not fancy), as from Monday next.

Your new prime minister, James Gordon Brown, will appoint a governor for America without the need for further elections. Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire may be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed.

To aid in the transition to a British Crown Dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:

1. You should look up “revocation” in the Oxford English Dictionary. Then look up “aluminium,” and check the pronunciation guide. You will be amazed at just how wrongly you have been pronouncing it.

2. The letter ‘U’ will be reinstated in words such as ‘colour’, ‘favour’ and ‘neighbour.’ Likewise, you will learn to spell ‘doughnut’ without skipping half the letters, and the suffix “ize” will be replaced by the suffix “ise.”

3. You will learn that the suffix ‘burgh’ is pronounced ‘burra’; you may elect to spell Pittsburgh as ‘Pittsberg’ if you find you simply can’t cope with correct pronunciation.

4. Generally, you will be expected to raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels (look up “vocabulary”). Using the same twenty-seven words interspersed with filler noises such as “like” and “you know” is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication.

5. There is no such thing as “US English.” We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take account of the reinstated letter ‘u’ and the elimination of “-ize.”

6. You will relearn your original national anthem, “God Save The Queen”,

but only after fully carrying out Task #1 (see above).

7. July 4th will no longer be celebrated as a holiday. November 2nd will

be a new national holiday, but to be celebrated only in England. It will be called “Come-Uppance Day.”

8. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you’re not adult enough to be independent. Guns should only be handled by adults. If you’re not adult enough to sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist then you’re not grown up enough to handle a gun.

9. Therefore, you will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous than a vegetable peeler. A permit will be required if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.

10. All American cars are hereby banned. They are crap and this is for your own good. When we show you German cars, you will understand what we mean.

11. All intersections will be replaced with roundabouts, and you will start driving on the left with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric immediately and without the benefit of conversion tables… Both roundabouts and metrification will help you understand the British sense of humour.

12. The Former USA will adopt UK prices on petrol (which you have been calling “gasoline”) - roughly $8/US per gallon. Get used to it.

13. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call french fries are not real chips, and those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called “crisps.” Real chips are thick cut, fried in animal fat, and dressed not with catsup but with malt vinegar.

14. Waiters and waitresses will be trained to be more aggressive with customers.

15. The cold tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually beer at all. Henceforth, only proper British Bitter will be referred to as “beer,” and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as “Lager.” American brands will be referred to as “Near-Frozen Gnat’s Urine,” so that all can be sold without risk of further confusion.

16. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as good guys. Hollywood will also be required to cast English actors as English characters. Watching Andie MacDowell attempt English dialogue in “Four Weddings and a Funeral” was an experience akin to having one’s ear removed with a cheese grater.

17. You will cease playing American “football.” There is only one kind of proper football; you call it “soccer”. Those of you brave enough, in time, will be allowed to play rugby (which has some similarities to American “football”, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like a bunch of Jessies - English slang for “Big Girls Blouse”).

18. Further, you will stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the “World Series” for a game which is not played outside of America. Since only 2.1% of you are aware that there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable and forgiven.

19. You must tell us who killed JFK. It’s been driving us mad.

20. An internal revenue agent (i.e. tax collector) from Her Majesty’s Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all monies due, backdated to 1776.

Thank you for your co-operation.

John Cleese

Following is a brief essay by Bruce Schneier that almost perfectly mirrors my own feelings on the matter of “Security vs. Privacy”.  The following is cribbed from Bruce Schneier’s CRYPTO-GRAM newsletter, February 15, 2008 edition:

If there’s a debate that sums up post-9/11 politics, it’s security versus privacy. Which is more important? How much privacy are you willing to give up for security? Can we even afford privacy in this age of insecurity? Security versus privacy: It’s the battle of the century, or at least its first decade.

In a Jan. 21 “New Yorker” article, Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell discusses a proposed plan to monitor all — that’s right, all — Internet communications for security purposes, an idea so extreme that the word “Orwellian” feels too mild.

The article contains this passage:  “In order for cyberspace to be policed, Internet activity will have to be closely monitored. Ed Giorgio, who is working with McConnell on the plan, said that would mean giving the government the authority to examine the content of any e-mail, file transfer or Web search. ‘Google has records that could help in a cyber-investigation,’ he said. Giorgio warned me, ‘We have a saying in this business: “Privacy and security are a zero-sum game.”’”

I’m sure they have that saying in their business. And it’s precisely why, when people in their business are in charge of government, it becomes a police state. If privacy and security really were a zero-sum game, we would have seen mass immigration into the former East Germany and modern-day China. While it’s true that police states like those have less street crime, no one argues that their citizens are fundamentally more secure.

We’ve been told we have to trade off security and privacy so often — in debates on security versus privacy, writing contests, polls, reasoned essays and political rhetoric — that most of us don’t even question the fundamental dichotomy.

But it’s a false one.

Security and privacy are not opposite ends of a seesaw; you don’t have to accept less of one to get more of the other. Think of a door lock, a burglar alarm and a tall fence. Think of guns, anti-counterfeiting measures on currency and that dumb liquid ban at airports. Security affects privacy only when it’s based on identity, and there are limitations to that sort of approach.

Since 9/11, approximately three things have potentially improved airline
security: reinforcing the cockpit doors, passengers realizing they have to fight back, and — possibly — sky marshals. Everything else — all the security measures that affect privacy — is just security theater and a waste of effort.

By the same token, many of the anti-privacy “security” measures we’re seeing — national ID cards, warrantless eavesdropping, massive data mining, and so on — do little to improve, and in some cases harm, security. And government claims of their success are either wrong, or against fake threats.

The debate isn’t security versus privacy. It’s liberty versus control.

You can see it in comments by government officials: “Privacy no longer can mean anonymity,” says Donald Kerr, principal deputy director of national intelligence. “Instead, it should mean that government and businesses properly safeguard people’s private communications and financial information.” Did you catch that? You’re expected to give up control of your privacy to others, who — presumably — get to decide how much of it you deserve. That’s what loss of liberty looks like.

It should be no surprise that people choose security over privacy: 51 to
29 percent in a recent poll. Even if you don’t subscribe to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, it’s obvious that security is more important.
Security is vital to survival, not just of people but of every living thing. Privacy is unique to humans, but it’s a social need. It’s vital to personal dignity, to family life, to society — to what makes us uniquely human — but not to survival.

If you set up the false dichotomy, of course people will choose security over privacy — especially if you scare them first. But it’s still a false dichotomy. There is no security without privacy. And liberty requires both security and privacy. The famous quote attributed to Benjamin Franklin reads: “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
It’s also true that those who would give up privacy for security are likely to end up with neither.

McConnell article from “New Yorker”:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/01/21/080121fafactwright
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080117-us-intel-chief-wants-carte-blanche-to-peep-all-net-traffic.html
or http://tinyurl.com/2xkwvu
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/01/feds-must-exami.html

Trading off security and privacy:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ka-taipale/privacy-vs-security-seb71785.html
or http://tinyurl.com/2gdqbn
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marc-rotenberg/privacy-vs-security-prb71806.html
or http://tinyurl.com/2hozm8
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mim0GER/is2002Winter/ai97116472/pg1
or http://tinyurl.com/2yk23v
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/publiccontent/politics/currentevents/generalcurrentevents/51saysecuritymoreimportantthanprivacy
or http://tinyurl.com/ypcen8
http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/briefings/privacy.html
http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/1015/p11s02-coop.html

False dichotomy:
http://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram-0109a.html#8
http://www.wired.com/politics/law/commentary/circuitcourt/2006/05/70971

Donald Kerr’s comments:
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/11/redefiningpriv.html

Related essays:
http://www.schneier.com/essay-008.html
http://www.schneier.com/essay-096.html
http://www.schneier.com/essay-036.html
http://www.schneier.com/essay-160.html
http://www.schneier.com/essay-100.html
http://www.schneier.com/essay-108.html
http://www.schneier.com/essay-163.html
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080119-analysis-metcalfes-law-real-id-more-crime-less-safety.html
or http://tinyurl.com/23h88d
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/09/moreontheger1.html
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/06/portraitofthe1.html
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/05/thevalueofpr.html”

This essay originally appeared on Wired.com.
http://www.wired.com/politics/security/commentary/securitymatters/2008/01/securitymatters_0124
or http://tinyurl.com/yr98nf

Dear ONE Member,

Air Force One is taking off from Andrews Air Force base tonight en route to Benin, the first stop in President Bush’s six-day trip to Africa. On the trip he will also visit Rwanda, Ghana, Tanzania, and Liberia. For the next six days, he’ll see the lifesaving results of the smart, bipartisan solutions that ONE members like you have been lobbying for.

The progress across Africa is real, and so is our opportunity to make sure that the next president is right there with us in this struggle to end extreme poverty and disease in Africa.

Click below to add your name to the petition urging the next president—no matter who that is—to pledge to go to Africa in his or her first term.

http://onevote08.org/ontherecord/visitafrica/index.html

We’re hoping 50,000 ONE members will sign this petition urging the presidential candidates to prioritize the fight to end extreme poverty and global disease in Africa. The petition says:

As a voter in the 2008 Presidential election, I’m asking you to pledge to visit Africa during your first term in office. It is my hope that your trip will increase U.S.-African cooperation, save lives and help build a better, more secure future for millions of the world’s poorest people.

We’ll deliver copies of all the signed petitions to each of the presidential candidates, right at the same time that this presidential trip to Africa is in the news, for maximum impact. The petitions will remind the candidates that we expect the next president to visit Africa and keep the poverty-fighting promises we’ve heard on the campaign trail.

Since President Bush last visited Africa in 2003, you’ve worked hard to make sure that there would be real change by the next time he went back. ONE members have demanded more of our leaders and championed the cause of a better future for millions of Africans. It’s been five years of hard work and this presidential trip validates our efforts, reminding us that our work has not gone in vain.

What has changed in Africa since 2003?

In Rwanda, programs funded by American initiatives like the President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) have helped to increase the number of people on lifesaving antiretrovirals by eight-fold from only 4,000 in 2003 to 34,000 in 2006. PEPFAR funding is also making possible a revolutionary new program called TRACnet that uses mobile phones and the web to help patients stay on their drug treatment plans and even track regional drug shortages.

In Zanzibar, an island off the coast of Tanzania, an aggressive partnership between the government of Tanzania, the Global Fund, USAID and the Presidential Malaria Initiative lets families sleep at night without worrying about being bit by deadly, malaria-carrying mosquitoes. Today, 90% of the people living in Zanzibar go to bed under insecticide-treated, anti-malaria bed nets in insecticide-sprayed homes. And, since 2003, the number of malaria cases there has dropped by 86%.

The White House and the media will see successes like these and many others and spend a lot of time talking about President Bush’s legacy in Africa. That legacy is a strong one, marked by reaching across the aisle to pass legislation and save lives.

U.S. leadership to end suffering and create opportunity in Africa is much more then a presidential legacy, it’s an American legacy. When a child is able to attend school because debt relief has eliminated tuition fees, and then go home to parents who are healthy because of the anti-retroviral drugs paid for by PEPFAR, that’s a reflection of values that extend from Pennsylvania Avenue to Main Streets all across America.

Now, as America prepares to pick new leaders, we look to the future. This is our chance to ask the candidates to commit to continued support for African nations that are working to end cycles of poverty and disease.

Click below to add your name to the petition and tell the presidential candidates that our work isn’t done. We need the next president to commit to visiting Africa in their first term, and continue the incredible successes of strengthened U.S.-African cooperation.

http://onevote08.org/ontherecord/visitafrica/index.html

We’re also going to have the best in-depth analysis of the issues highlighted on this presidential trip to Africa on the ONE Blog. There will be posts from experts, leaders on our issues and even people on the ground in Africa. Check it out, join the discussion and we hope it informs your work to end extreme poverty and global disease in Africa and around the world.

Thank you for your voice,

Josh Peck, ONE.org

P.S. In Monday’s email, I wrote that George W. Bush and Bill Clinton were the only two presidents to visit Africa while they were in office. ONE members James B. of Ulster, NY and Rev. Kortu B. of Monrovia, Liberia pointed out that Franklin Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower and Jimmy Carter all visited the continent while in office. Thanks for your vigilance.

The “Ask The Presidential Candidates To Visit Africa” campaign is brought to you by ONE Action. Only 501(c)(3) activities are funded by The ONE Campaign.

Christo Komarnitski, Sofia, Bulgaria

I received this email today from one of my local Congressional Representatives about a supposed “vendor screw-up”, regarding their email server management:

Dear Mr. Farrow,

On January 7, my office was informed about a major glitch in the software system used by federal Congressional offices for legislative correspondence to and from constituents. Many of the emails and letters that we had written and sent in response to questions about issues and legislation were, we were told, never sent. However, while our timely responses got stuck on the server, our desktop software program indicated that the emails were sent on the day that we wrote them. This federal vendor has apologized and taken full responsibility for this problem.

Please accept my sincere apology for any inconvenience or frustration this may have caused. Fortunately, this software problem did not affect any follow-up communication regarding pending constituent case work. However, for those who were awaiting clarification on legislative questions, all past responses were sent simultaneously on January 7 when the system automatically reset.

Many constituents received out-of-date messages, and some received several emails at once. This was not our intention and was also a product of the software error. I’m particularly disappointed that this vendor mistake delayed our responses to you about issues you clearly cared deeply enough about to contact my office.

Again, I’m sorry for the delay in responses. I remain committed to answering constituents’ questions in a timely way. Our vendor is auditing these processes to ensure email transmissions are sent and received properly. If you’d like to speak to me in person, please watch for announcements of our Congress at Your Corner events, coming to a grocery store in your area soon.

As always, it’s an honor to serve you.

Sincerely,

Melissa L. Bean

Member of Congress

P.S. To stay informed on this and other important topics, visit my website at www.house.gov/bean to subscribe to e-news updates.

Earlier today, I was reading through a conversation in a FaceBook politics discussion titled What role should the personal faith of a President play in his/her decision-making?, with the sub-subject “And Athiests have the answers?”. Here is my contribution to the discussion:

This has been an interesting and - dare I say it? - entertaining dialog. I have explored different spiritual or religious beliefs over the years, and once I can get past the surface of each “belief structure” I find that each of these are culturally-derived systems for the education of people regarding that culture’s system of morals and ethics, and that each bears at least some historical fact. Am I a Christian? No. A Muslim? No. A member of any organized religion? No, not really. If I need to be categorized for some reason, it would be as a “buddhist”, but I do not think of buddhism as a religion in the formal sense, but simply as a way of making my way in the world. Do I believe that Jesus the Christ lived 2,000 years ago? Yes. Was he an extraordinary man? Yes. Did Muhammad live? Yes. An extraordinary man? Yes. Did Siddhārtha Gautama the Buddha live 2,500 years ago? Certainly. Was he an extraordinary man? With out a doubt. Plato? Ditto. Aristotle? Yep. Einstein? Again, yes. Ghandi? Of course. All extraordinary people? Absolutely. Is there a common lesson to be learned from all of these extraordinary people? In my limited mind - yes. And that is? To paraphrase Tenzin Gyatso, the XIV Dalai Lama, “All major religious traditions carry basically the same message, that is love, compassion and forgiveness; the important thing is that they should be part of our daily lives.” “This is my simple religion: there is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.” And, (paraphrasing again) the Buddha himself said: “Do not believe what you have heard. Do not believe in tradition because it is handed down many generations. Do not believe in anything that has been spoken of many times. Do not believe because the written statements come from some old sage. Do not believe in conjecture. Do not believe in authority or teachers or elders. But after careful observation and analysis, when it agrees with reason and it will benefit one and all, then accept it and live by it.” So what is the one “truth” that I have become convinced of? It is that I know ABOUT many things, but I truly KNOW nothing. To say anything else would be hypocrisy.