Let it rain, let it rain, let your love rain down on me.
My editor is not going to like this [Editor's note: Not true] , in which case, you may never be granted the opportunity to read these words, but I think I can pull it off well enough to satisfy his libertarian urges.
Last month it rained in my county. And it rained some more. Then it rained some more. Then some more. And then finally Mother Nature got up on her hind legs and really whapped us with the super-soaker. One of the benefits to living in an area blessed with so many rivers and streams is the natural beauty of the area. Fishing, boating, just plain watching the rivers roll. On the downside, we have a lot of water to begin with. When nature decides to triple that amount, well, you get the idea. Flooding on a scale never before seen in this region. While it's nowhere near the devastation heaped on the south by Katrina, it was more than we could handle here.
Watching the neighborhood you grew up in underwater is a surreal feeling. So much needs to be done and as soon as possible. Yet there isn't really anything to do, other than to start collecting two of every species (I choose me and Jennifer Love Hewit!). There were mass evacuations, national guard was called out to ferry people over the water in helicopters. Governor of the state had his live press conference canceled while in progress because the rivers he was using for a dramatic background decided it didn't like being used for cheap political blather, and chased him out.
On a side note, but well related to this topic, I live in a small village in upstate New York. Maybe 15,000 - 20,000 residents. So we have village government, a town government, and a county government as well as state and federal. There's been a lot of talk over the years about dissolving some of the levels, merging with others, the common stuff. Just a week earlier a large group stormed the village meeting and demanded to have their concerns put on the record, as well as the Trustee's position on it. One of the main points they had was we have a full time, paid fire department which only made about 51 calls last year. Let me tell you, they made up for it that week. I can't imagine how much worse it would be if we didn't have them. They used the trucks to block off flooded roads, and they pumped out basements for weeks following as the water slowly receded.
The sanitation workers alone deserve congressional medals of honor. They trucked out thousands of tons of garbage and debris. It must have nearly broken their backs. The police department was everywhere they were needed, and even though I know several of them were flooded out themselves, they stayed on the job anyway.
The flooding closed a hospital on low-lying ground forcing the evacuation of 90 patients to other hospitals. I live near one of the other hospitals and heard the sirens and the medivac copters as they accomplished the feat at a clip of one patient every two minutes. The sirens and helicopters continued all day and all night for three days. These emergency service people performed an unbelievable job, they have all our gratitude.
The reason I mention all this is because I learned a lot of things that week and the following days. Government isn't just a nameless, faceless bureaucracy we all claim they are. At the local level, they are just regular citizens, like you and me. One town closer to the river (I wasn't affected, I live on high ground) was 90% underwater. The Town Supervisor lost her home, yet she worked nonstop for days on end, organizing emergency services, working with the county and the state to help her neighbors. Notice I didn't say constituents? Because when you complain about garbage not being picked up you are a constituent. When everything you own is gone, and you are desperate for help - or in a position to offer help - you are a neighbor.
The local paper began a new section in the paper called "Heroes of the flood" where the community could share stories about the good things that happened. And there was no shortage. I read one letter about a pastor at a church. A house on the other side of the river blew up, and rattled the church and it's school so badly they evacuated the school. Minutes after the explosion, he received a call from the gentleman who had just lost everything he ever owned. The gentleman called to say he was okay, and wanted to know if the children at the church needed help getting out. Now that's what I call hero.
Now here's the money line that either makes or breaks my editor's ban on pro-government blog entries: all the help, the aid, the evacuations, all the clean up, the donations, the evacuation centers, it really wasn't about government. It was about we the people helping each other in time of great need. Even if there was no government, even if Ray Nagin were my mayor instead of the mayor of New Orleans, we the people didn't need them. I have no doubt that if Eric wasn't on the police force (traffic division), I know he'd still have been out there helping those in need. If we had no fire department, I have no doubt the fireman would still have been out there doing their best. Instead of large pump trucks, they'd have gone door to door offering help with portable sump pumps. How do I know this? My brother called me as the water began to rise in his basement to see if I had a pump he could borrow, Home Depot was out. I didn't. By the time I got over to his house a few hours later, he had three that people had loaned him. And he managed to keep the water level to a few inches in his basement.
Politics is a great divider, pitting person against person, party against party, and state against state. But in the end, that divisiveness is not strong enough to pit neighbor against neighbor. Need and compassion is stronger, I know, I've seen it first hand. I'm going to remember that the next time a political debate heats up to the point where I think there is no common ground left. Because I know for a fact, there is!
Friday, July 28, 2006
Sunday, July 23, 2006
And so it began
Joshua 1:1-11
1 And it came about after the death of Moses the servant of Jehovah that Jehovah proceeded to say to Joshua the son of Nun, the minister of Moses:
2 “Moses my servant is dead; and now get up, cross this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the sons of Israel.
3 Every place upon which the sole of YOUR foot will tread, to YOU people I shall certainly give it, just as I promised to Moses.
4 From the wilderness and this Leb´a·non to the great river, the river Eu·phra´tes, that is, all the land of the Hit´tites, and to the Great Sea toward the setting of the sun YOUR territory will prove to be.
5 Nobody will take a firm stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I proved to be with Moses I shall prove to be with you. I shall neither desert you nor leave you entirely.
6 Be courageous and strong, for you are the one who will cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their forefathers to give to them.
7 “Only be courageous and very strong to take care to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn aside from it to the right or to the left, in order that you may act wisely everywhere you go.
8 This book of the law should not depart from your mouth, and you must in an undertone read in it day and night, in order that you may take care to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way successful and then you will act wisely.
9 Have I not commanded you? Be courageous and strong. Do not suffer shock or be terrified, for Jehovah your God is with you wherever you go.”
10 And Joshua proceeded to command the officers of the people, saying:
11 “Pass through the midst of the camp and command the people, saying, ‘Get provisions ready for yourselves, because three days from now YOU are crossing this Jordan to go in and take possession of the land that Jehovah YOUR God is giving YOU to take possession of it.’”
And so it began.
Violence has again broken out in the Middle East. Which we hear about with the same regularity as "do you want paper or plastic?" The important thing to remember is this is not a new issue. This has been going on, off and on, since Joshua led the Tribes of Israel into the Land of Milk and Honey thousands of years ago. Well, not when he lead his people into the Jordan River valley, but rather when they proceeded to clear the land of idol worshippers, namely, the ancestors of the Palestinian people, as well as many others I'm sure any one attending Church regularly could rattle off.
There's more than enough blame to go around for all parties involved. Suicide bombers, war planes, Kaatusha rockets, tanks, more suicide bombers, bulldozers, dead children, more dead children. It never seems to end. I find it kind of ironic that three of the world's five or six major religions refer to the region as the "Holy Land". In a part of the world better known for floating on a sea of oil, this one floats on a sea of blood. I wonder just how far you'd have to drill to get a scarlet stream gushing out of the ground? My guess is not too deep.
World wars, the Crusades, the rise of the Islamic empires, people have fought over this area for ages untold. I'm sure whoever was there before the people Joshua and company removed, did the same thing to whoever was there when they first showed up. It's human nature "that pretty" BONK! "pretty, mine!"
To me, what is probably the biggest issue is competing religions. Now, remember, what religion means to you and I, sitting in our technically advanced, modern-marvel-filled-world, was a much different issue for people thousands and thousands of years ago. It should be painfully obvious that it's quite different for people just part-way around the globe from us. I love attending Mass at my local Parish, and I would be royally pissed if someone blew it up. But some how I'd like to think it's not part of the American psyche to unleash a hatred that would endure for thousands upon thousands of years, causing nothing but pain, death and heartache for our descendents without end.
Americans are different breed. We're more the type to take care of the issue sooner, rather than later, no matter what it costs us. We're also the type to have enough military toys laying around so that others would take notice and think twice. And we're also not above using our military to grab some two bit thug dictator by the scruff of the neck and shaking him (have we toppled any female run dictatorships?) as an example to others in the region to say "You assholes sure you want a piece of this!?!?"
I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge the times America has used its military might for self gain. Cuba may have deserved liberation from Spain, but that doesn't necessarily mean they deserved to be sold to the Mafia. But in my opinion, so far, we still come out on the plus side of St. Peter's log book. You have to admit, the concept of modern democracy, a reasonably free Europe, Russia, Japan and South Korea, the Industrial Revolution, the Information revolution, and figuring out exactly how to remove a disease from the list of things that plague most humanity is pretty impressive.
There are also other types of people in the world. People who have no care for anything other than raw brute power and strength (and Americans are well represented on that list too, I'm differentiating myself). There are people who think and plan and work in ways I couldn't even imagine. For example, some one who would engage a US Marine patrol in an ambush, and then hide behind their children to allow survivors to reap the publicity windfall they know will come from the mainstream media. How does a mind like that work? I can't even imagine. But, in a way, that's the modern day version of what Joshua met when he entered the Land of Milk and Honey. And by that I mean, two alien cultures, worlds apart on the basic building blocks of society, living next to each other. First it's throwing leaves over the fence when one rakes, because it's funny. Then it's water on the roof when it's freezing. The next thing you know, there's a museum in the Palestinian-controlled areas that glorify the idiot who strapped on a bomb belt and blew up some twenty kids at a pizza parlor.
The "Holy Land" has been a tinderbox for violence and destruction since the United Nations created it by committee (see what happens when you draw national boarders by committee?). On the one hand, the Muslims do have a dog in this fight "If you felt guilty because of the Holocaust then why don't you give them your country?" On the other hand Israel is here, and it's not going anywhere. And I don't think it should. Its a model of what civilization and humanity can create, even under the most adverse circumstances. It's also a stunning contrast to what humanity will refuse to do, under any circumstances. The Gaza Strip greenhouses being a stellar example.
How to reconcile the differences? One side says the land is theirs because God promised it to them (and I believe, technically, the current manifestation of Israel isn't even in the Jordan River valley). The other says they want to wipe their opponents off the human genome.
As anyone who's read my past writings knows (I think that list is limited to my editor and myself) this is a fight I've come to believe has long been coming. The West and Islam have never come to grips with each other. It wasn't much of an issue with America in the past, because the vast distances of the oceans. On September 11, we learned that doesn't matter any more. We're in a new, uncharted world. Might this be the time to finally settle this once and for all? Cease-fires, negotiations, and UN Sanctions don't have much of a track record. After all, how exactly does one hold cease-fire negotiants in good faith with people who throw parties to celebrate the death of their child who blew himself up in order to kill other children? Yes, a new, uncharted world.
1 And it came about after the death of Moses the servant of Jehovah that Jehovah proceeded to say to Joshua the son of Nun, the minister of Moses:
2 “Moses my servant is dead; and now get up, cross this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the sons of Israel.
3 Every place upon which the sole of YOUR foot will tread, to YOU people I shall certainly give it, just as I promised to Moses.
4 From the wilderness and this Leb´a·non to the great river, the river Eu·phra´tes, that is, all the land of the Hit´tites, and to the Great Sea toward the setting of the sun YOUR territory will prove to be.
5 Nobody will take a firm stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I proved to be with Moses I shall prove to be with you. I shall neither desert you nor leave you entirely.
6 Be courageous and strong, for you are the one who will cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their forefathers to give to them.
7 “Only be courageous and very strong to take care to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn aside from it to the right or to the left, in order that you may act wisely everywhere you go.
8 This book of the law should not depart from your mouth, and you must in an undertone read in it day and night, in order that you may take care to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way successful and then you will act wisely.
9 Have I not commanded you? Be courageous and strong. Do not suffer shock or be terrified, for Jehovah your God is with you wherever you go.”
10 And Joshua proceeded to command the officers of the people, saying:
11 “Pass through the midst of the camp and command the people, saying, ‘Get provisions ready for yourselves, because three days from now YOU are crossing this Jordan to go in and take possession of the land that Jehovah YOUR God is giving YOU to take possession of it.’”
And so it began.
Violence has again broken out in the Middle East. Which we hear about with the same regularity as "do you want paper or plastic?" The important thing to remember is this is not a new issue. This has been going on, off and on, since Joshua led the Tribes of Israel into the Land of Milk and Honey thousands of years ago. Well, not when he lead his people into the Jordan River valley, but rather when they proceeded to clear the land of idol worshippers, namely, the ancestors of the Palestinian people, as well as many others I'm sure any one attending Church regularly could rattle off.
There's more than enough blame to go around for all parties involved. Suicide bombers, war planes, Kaatusha rockets, tanks, more suicide bombers, bulldozers, dead children, more dead children. It never seems to end. I find it kind of ironic that three of the world's five or six major religions refer to the region as the "Holy Land". In a part of the world better known for floating on a sea of oil, this one floats on a sea of blood. I wonder just how far you'd have to drill to get a scarlet stream gushing out of the ground? My guess is not too deep.
World wars, the Crusades, the rise of the Islamic empires, people have fought over this area for ages untold. I'm sure whoever was there before the people Joshua and company removed, did the same thing to whoever was there when they first showed up. It's human nature "that pretty" BONK! "pretty, mine!"
To me, what is probably the biggest issue is competing religions. Now, remember, what religion means to you and I, sitting in our technically advanced, modern-marvel-filled-world, was a much different issue for people thousands and thousands of years ago. It should be painfully obvious that it's quite different for people just part-way around the globe from us. I love attending Mass at my local Parish, and I would be royally pissed if someone blew it up. But some how I'd like to think it's not part of the American psyche to unleash a hatred that would endure for thousands upon thousands of years, causing nothing but pain, death and heartache for our descendents without end.
Americans are different breed. We're more the type to take care of the issue sooner, rather than later, no matter what it costs us. We're also the type to have enough military toys laying around so that others would take notice and think twice. And we're also not above using our military to grab some two bit thug dictator by the scruff of the neck and shaking him (have we toppled any female run dictatorships?) as an example to others in the region to say "You assholes sure you want a piece of this!?!?"
I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge the times America has used its military might for self gain. Cuba may have deserved liberation from Spain, but that doesn't necessarily mean they deserved to be sold to the Mafia. But in my opinion, so far, we still come out on the plus side of St. Peter's log book. You have to admit, the concept of modern democracy, a reasonably free Europe, Russia, Japan and South Korea, the Industrial Revolution, the Information revolution, and figuring out exactly how to remove a disease from the list of things that plague most humanity is pretty impressive.
There are also other types of people in the world. People who have no care for anything other than raw brute power and strength (and Americans are well represented on that list too, I'm differentiating myself). There are people who think and plan and work in ways I couldn't even imagine. For example, some one who would engage a US Marine patrol in an ambush, and then hide behind their children to allow survivors to reap the publicity windfall they know will come from the mainstream media. How does a mind like that work? I can't even imagine. But, in a way, that's the modern day version of what Joshua met when he entered the Land of Milk and Honey. And by that I mean, two alien cultures, worlds apart on the basic building blocks of society, living next to each other. First it's throwing leaves over the fence when one rakes, because it's funny. Then it's water on the roof when it's freezing. The next thing you know, there's a museum in the Palestinian-controlled areas that glorify the idiot who strapped on a bomb belt and blew up some twenty kids at a pizza parlor.
The "Holy Land" has been a tinderbox for violence and destruction since the United Nations created it by committee (see what happens when you draw national boarders by committee?). On the one hand, the Muslims do have a dog in this fight "If you felt guilty because of the Holocaust then why don't you give them your country?" On the other hand Israel is here, and it's not going anywhere. And I don't think it should. Its a model of what civilization and humanity can create, even under the most adverse circumstances. It's also a stunning contrast to what humanity will refuse to do, under any circumstances. The Gaza Strip greenhouses being a stellar example.
How to reconcile the differences? One side says the land is theirs because God promised it to them (and I believe, technically, the current manifestation of Israel isn't even in the Jordan River valley). The other says they want to wipe their opponents off the human genome.
As anyone who's read my past writings knows (I think that list is limited to my editor and myself) this is a fight I've come to believe has long been coming. The West and Islam have never come to grips with each other. It wasn't much of an issue with America in the past, because the vast distances of the oceans. On September 11, we learned that doesn't matter any more. We're in a new, uncharted world. Might this be the time to finally settle this once and for all? Cease-fires, negotiations, and UN Sanctions don't have much of a track record. After all, how exactly does one hold cease-fire negotiants in good faith with people who throw parties to celebrate the death of their child who blew himself up in order to kill other children? Yes, a new, uncharted world.
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
First in War, First in Peace, First with his Foot Up Your Ass!
If you couldn't already tell by the flotsam floating out of Washington DC, we're in an election season. And what self-respecting, America-loving, hot dog-eating, baby-kissing, bribe-collecting, politician wouldn't take the opportunity of the slowing news cycle - brought on by the Fourth of July holiday - to jump on the bandwagon by voting for meaningless, yet easily converted into political ad, issues? You know what that means, don't you? It's time to bring up a flag burning amendment to the US Constitution!
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Beautiful, isn't it? So simple, so plain, so obvious. Its amazing what some authors can accomplish in mere sentences that others can not accomplish with volumes.
I've heard once, but never verified, that Thomas Jefferson opposed the Bill of Rights. Not because he was against freedom, but as he understood the constitution, all freedoms were permitted, and creating a list of guaranteed rights might cause harm because future generations might come to believe only those listed in the Bill of Rights are guaranteed. That is the best and only argument I've ever heard against them.
I seriously doubt the Founding Fathers ever conceived the concept that an American would actually consider burning the symbol for which they fought so hard and valiantly to establish. My money is the thought never entered their minds. If someone burned a flag in front of George Washington, I would assume they would have a lot more to worry about than a court date. They'd have to worry about Washington's foot up their ass. Literally.
But those were the old days, and today we have to deal with a never-ending assortment of kooks who see no boundaries between them and the self importance they feel society and life owes them. "I can do it, and you can't stop me, and I'm on TV because of it, see how special I am?" Special? About as special as French Special Forces, capable of deploying anywhere in the world and in position to surrender within 16 hours of notice.
On the one hand, no one* in Washington really pays attention to the Constitution any more. On the other hand, there are veterans who have really earned the right to not only proudly display their national symbol, but to cherish it's sanctity. If you doubt me, spend some time studying World War II. Trust me, they have a dog in this fight.
But on the third hand, freedom of speech (all kinds, not just spoken, but written, bought, or performance art) is a really great idea. I may not like what they say, and I have the right not to listen, but they do have a right to say it. So it seems to me, there are plenty of dogs in this fight.
Over all, I'd leave the Constitution alone, at least on this issue. I think to myself "what would the most moderate of moderates in American politics, Ben Franklin, say about this issue"? And I have to conclude that old Ben would have come up with a few pithy retorts, humiliating said flag burners. And then a little later, after the fuss was over, send a letter to some of his friends, the ones that really fought in the Revolutionary War, the ones that left blood, limbs, and friends on the killing fields, and say "Hey, do some of you guys want to come up here to my house for a few days? We'll tell some old stories, quaff a few (Sam Adams is in charge of brews!), and then I have this putrid little puke I'd like us all to meet."
Of course, by the time they got there, said putrid little puke would already be trying to figure out how to get George Washington's foot out of his ass.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Beautiful, isn't it? So simple, so plain, so obvious. Its amazing what some authors can accomplish in mere sentences that others can not accomplish with volumes.
I've heard once, but never verified, that Thomas Jefferson opposed the Bill of Rights. Not because he was against freedom, but as he understood the constitution, all freedoms were permitted, and creating a list of guaranteed rights might cause harm because future generations might come to believe only those listed in the Bill of Rights are guaranteed. That is the best and only argument I've ever heard against them.
I seriously doubt the Founding Fathers ever conceived the concept that an American would actually consider burning the symbol for which they fought so hard and valiantly to establish. My money is the thought never entered their minds. If someone burned a flag in front of George Washington, I would assume they would have a lot more to worry about than a court date. They'd have to worry about Washington's foot up their ass. Literally.
But those were the old days, and today we have to deal with a never-ending assortment of kooks who see no boundaries between them and the self importance they feel society and life owes them. "I can do it, and you can't stop me, and I'm on TV because of it, see how special I am?" Special? About as special as French Special Forces, capable of deploying anywhere in the world and in position to surrender within 16 hours of notice.
On the one hand, no one* in Washington really pays attention to the Constitution any more. On the other hand, there are veterans who have really earned the right to not only proudly display their national symbol, but to cherish it's sanctity. If you doubt me, spend some time studying World War II. Trust me, they have a dog in this fight.
But on the third hand, freedom of speech (all kinds, not just spoken, but written, bought, or performance art) is a really great idea. I may not like what they say, and I have the right not to listen, but they do have a right to say it. So it seems to me, there are plenty of dogs in this fight.
Over all, I'd leave the Constitution alone, at least on this issue. I think to myself "what would the most moderate of moderates in American politics, Ben Franklin, say about this issue"? And I have to conclude that old Ben would have come up with a few pithy retorts, humiliating said flag burners. And then a little later, after the fuss was over, send a letter to some of his friends, the ones that really fought in the Revolutionary War, the ones that left blood, limbs, and friends on the killing fields, and say "Hey, do some of you guys want to come up here to my house for a few days? We'll tell some old stories, quaff a few (Sam Adams is in charge of brews!), and then I have this putrid little puke I'd like us all to meet."
Of course, by the time they got there, said putrid little puke would already be trying to figure out how to get George Washington's foot out of his ass.
Monday, June 12, 2006
Government as a bug
A couple of weeks ago, I spent a few days at the shore with my small family, just my wife, our teenage daughter (13, I know, it's coming) and myself. We stayed at a beachfront hotel in Wildwood Crest, New Jersey. Wildwood is known as the party town, but if you go a few miles south to the Crest, its peaceful, quiet, and beautiful. We did go to the boardwalk for a while, more just to say we did it, than any particular urge. But something about the beach just hits my spot. The rumble of the never-ending waves, the white, glittering sands. I even love the seagulls, constantly begging for scraps.
In between walks on the beach, lazy summer reading (John Stossel's new book - which I recommend), way too much good food, and plenty of alcohol, there's plenty of time to just let your mind roam, and think.
While just staring at the ocean (we saw plenty of porpoises and or dolphins, I don't know which) it leaves me with the impression that there is a God. After all, believing all this natural beauty is just a cosmic coincidence, doesn't quite hold up when it's displayed before you in such magnitude. Everything seems so perfect, someone must have been in charge, so grand a plan, such execution. And that's when my drifting mind suddenly realized the problem with government.
Stick with me, I'll get to the point, but first, a short detour.
I went to college in 1981 because I graduated high school and didn't really know how to do anything other than go to school. Don't worry, the professors very quickly pointed out how incapable I was of doing even that. I majored in electrical engineering technology because I did like messing around with gadgets like radios and TVs and stereos. What I discovered was that Western society was on the verge of the computer revolution and I was right in the middle of it.
Over the years as I've watched the computer revolution mature I've noticed something else, as being a lab tech on the inside of it, and a consumer on the outside of it. If you've never been part of a large organization trying to do something very large and expensive, involving teams from (at the time) all over the plant, to teams all over the world (can you say globalization?) it's quite a sight to behold. Hundreds, if not thousands of tiny ants, formed into departments, teams, divisions, disciplines. And for the most part this organization structure works pretty well. But it's not perfect.
Do you have a computer? Of course you do, or you wouldn't be reading my blog. Ever have problems with your computer? No matter how simple an action you are trying to do, something, sooner or later, will go wrong. Hard drive crashes, you lose your data, power supply fires. You think you're saving data when in fact you just deleted it, even though the menu clearly says "save". Frustrating as hell, ain't it? How could some one get that wrong, you think. But the cold fact is no one single person did get it wrong. Every one on every team associated with that particular feature got it wrong. And then the teams that integrate all those features together got it wrong. And all the people that grouped those features into an application got it wrong. And the same kinds of mistakes were made by other teams doing other features, applications and what not.
In the trade we refer to these as "bugs". That's a great story all by itself. Years ago, the very first digital computer ever built, was constructed in Philadelphia. It was a huge project that used vacuum tubes instead of transistors, and as a result, those free calculators you get when you open a new checking account has infinitely more computing power. (The computer you are using now has infinitely more processing power than all the computers that managed the first moon landing.) Well any way it was busted and a couple of service techs were trying to figure out why. Eventually they discovered a moth was attracted to the heat of the tubes, shorted out a circuit and shut down the whole thing. So they pulled it out, taped the moth into the service log book and wrote next to it "system has been debugged." That log book page is now at the Smithsonian.
Now back to computers. Essentially a computer is made up of tiny switches. Trillions and trillions of them really. And every one of these switches has an input and an output. It's either turned on or it's turned off. Group those transistors and you get what's called a logic gate. And these gates behave in a manner that depending upon a group of inputs will trigger a known output. Group these together and so on and so forth and so on and you have a classic "Rube Goldberg" nightmare. Computer programs are nothing more than a collection of instructions that change the inputs on these logic gates, which change the outputs and so on and so forth. Trust me, if you think all that happens when you click the "send to printer" button is a paper comes out, you're nuts. As a matter of fact it's pretty impressive that all these parts, all these decisions, the millions upon millions of different little things that are required to get that printed paper out even work.
And that's because computers and programs are made by humans. Humans are imperfect, no matter what we'd rather believe. And the things we humans do are also imperfect, no matter how hard we try. I can guarantee the people that made a mistake that frustrates you poured over the decisions they made a hundred times, and tested it over and over and over, but still missed it. It just happens. We are not perfect, no matter how we try. Here's some free advice. In life don't try for perfect, try for better. The lack of stress will add years to your life.
Now I promised you the problems with democratic government. Well, actually, I just did. Government is a concept thought up and instituted by imperfect humans. Yet we humans demand perfection, especially from someone who takes half our paycheck in the form of taxes. We get frustrated by politicians who don't seem to be able to accomplish anything. And that's because government, is in fact, closer to a computer than what our politicians would have us believe. "Vote for me, I'll fix it" "Don't vote for my opponent, they'll only screw it up more." But politicians don't run the show, hell, it's so big and bloated that they probably don't even realize how little they really know about government. Government is like a computer. Only instead of trillions and trillions of tiny logic gates, its populated with humans. Engineers can lay out logic gates into circuits that work to accomplish specific tasks. (Some times they don't work at all, other times they have unintended consequences. I must have heard "never thought about that" a million time). Yet government is populated by humans, not logic gates, and rather imperfect humans at that. Making imperfect decisions. The only problem is, when they screw up you lose more than your email to Aunt Maud. People get hurt, people have their lives taken away from them, people die.
Our laws are nothing more than instructions from our government trying to fix an endless stream of "bugs" associated with society, but in far too many instances are nothing more than imperfect solutions that will require more fixes and so on and so forth. A perpetual motion machine of mistakes fueling itself over and over and over.
Government is not the be all to end all. It's millions of little workers, doing what they think is best, or quite possibly, not even caring what comes out of their efforts. And even some, I'm sure, who are gaming the system for their own benefit.
Government is imperfect. Always has been, always will be. No one is going to fix it or destroy it because it's too damn big to even understand. We're stuck with it. But don't waste too much time or energy worrying about that. Save your time for something better, like a trip to the beach!
In between walks on the beach, lazy summer reading (John Stossel's new book - which I recommend), way too much good food, and plenty of alcohol, there's plenty of time to just let your mind roam, and think.
While just staring at the ocean (we saw plenty of porpoises and or dolphins, I don't know which) it leaves me with the impression that there is a God. After all, believing all this natural beauty is just a cosmic coincidence, doesn't quite hold up when it's displayed before you in such magnitude. Everything seems so perfect, someone must have been in charge, so grand a plan, such execution. And that's when my drifting mind suddenly realized the problem with government.
Stick with me, I'll get to the point, but first, a short detour.
I went to college in 1981 because I graduated high school and didn't really know how to do anything other than go to school. Don't worry, the professors very quickly pointed out how incapable I was of doing even that. I majored in electrical engineering technology because I did like messing around with gadgets like radios and TVs and stereos. What I discovered was that Western society was on the verge of the computer revolution and I was right in the middle of it.
Over the years as I've watched the computer revolution mature I've noticed something else, as being a lab tech on the inside of it, and a consumer on the outside of it. If you've never been part of a large organization trying to do something very large and expensive, involving teams from (at the time) all over the plant, to teams all over the world (can you say globalization?) it's quite a sight to behold. Hundreds, if not thousands of tiny ants, formed into departments, teams, divisions, disciplines. And for the most part this organization structure works pretty well. But it's not perfect.
Do you have a computer? Of course you do, or you wouldn't be reading my blog. Ever have problems with your computer? No matter how simple an action you are trying to do, something, sooner or later, will go wrong. Hard drive crashes, you lose your data, power supply fires. You think you're saving data when in fact you just deleted it, even though the menu clearly says "save". Frustrating as hell, ain't it? How could some one get that wrong, you think. But the cold fact is no one single person did get it wrong. Every one on every team associated with that particular feature got it wrong. And then the teams that integrate all those features together got it wrong. And all the people that grouped those features into an application got it wrong. And the same kinds of mistakes were made by other teams doing other features, applications and what not.
In the trade we refer to these as "bugs". That's a great story all by itself. Years ago, the very first digital computer ever built, was constructed in Philadelphia. It was a huge project that used vacuum tubes instead of transistors, and as a result, those free calculators you get when you open a new checking account has infinitely more computing power. (The computer you are using now has infinitely more processing power than all the computers that managed the first moon landing.) Well any way it was busted and a couple of service techs were trying to figure out why. Eventually they discovered a moth was attracted to the heat of the tubes, shorted out a circuit and shut down the whole thing. So they pulled it out, taped the moth into the service log book and wrote next to it "system has been debugged." That log book page is now at the Smithsonian.
Now back to computers. Essentially a computer is made up of tiny switches. Trillions and trillions of them really. And every one of these switches has an input and an output. It's either turned on or it's turned off. Group those transistors and you get what's called a logic gate. And these gates behave in a manner that depending upon a group of inputs will trigger a known output. Group these together and so on and so forth and so on and you have a classic "Rube Goldberg" nightmare. Computer programs are nothing more than a collection of instructions that change the inputs on these logic gates, which change the outputs and so on and so forth. Trust me, if you think all that happens when you click the "send to printer" button is a paper comes out, you're nuts. As a matter of fact it's pretty impressive that all these parts, all these decisions, the millions upon millions of different little things that are required to get that printed paper out even work.
And that's because computers and programs are made by humans. Humans are imperfect, no matter what we'd rather believe. And the things we humans do are also imperfect, no matter how hard we try. I can guarantee the people that made a mistake that frustrates you poured over the decisions they made a hundred times, and tested it over and over and over, but still missed it. It just happens. We are not perfect, no matter how we try. Here's some free advice. In life don't try for perfect, try for better. The lack of stress will add years to your life.
Now I promised you the problems with democratic government. Well, actually, I just did. Government is a concept thought up and instituted by imperfect humans. Yet we humans demand perfection, especially from someone who takes half our paycheck in the form of taxes. We get frustrated by politicians who don't seem to be able to accomplish anything. And that's because government, is in fact, closer to a computer than what our politicians would have us believe. "Vote for me, I'll fix it" "Don't vote for my opponent, they'll only screw it up more." But politicians don't run the show, hell, it's so big and bloated that they probably don't even realize how little they really know about government. Government is like a computer. Only instead of trillions and trillions of tiny logic gates, its populated with humans. Engineers can lay out logic gates into circuits that work to accomplish specific tasks. (Some times they don't work at all, other times they have unintended consequences. I must have heard "never thought about that" a million time). Yet government is populated by humans, not logic gates, and rather imperfect humans at that. Making imperfect decisions. The only problem is, when they screw up you lose more than your email to Aunt Maud. People get hurt, people have their lives taken away from them, people die.
Our laws are nothing more than instructions from our government trying to fix an endless stream of "bugs" associated with society, but in far too many instances are nothing more than imperfect solutions that will require more fixes and so on and so forth. A perpetual motion machine of mistakes fueling itself over and over and over.
Government is not the be all to end all. It's millions of little workers, doing what they think is best, or quite possibly, not even caring what comes out of their efforts. And even some, I'm sure, who are gaming the system for their own benefit.
Government is imperfect. Always has been, always will be. No one is going to fix it or destroy it because it's too damn big to even understand. We're stuck with it. But don't waste too much time or energy worrying about that. Save your time for something better, like a trip to the beach!
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