Nothin' matters and what if it did?

03:42 pm - How to dramatically improve your Klout score

My Klout score went up 20 points because Bill Maher responded to one of my tweets.  Possibly, the fact that a few of his followers then also responded pushed it up too. So there you have it. Want a higher Klout score? Troll for responses from famous people.

09:02 pm

Many people in Washington have to obtain or maintain security clearances for their work. As a result, I'm often asked to be a reference for people applying for or refreshing one. One of the questions in the interview is whether the subject of the interview ever associates with any foreign nationals, to which I always reply, "well, s/he associates with me, for one".  I wonder if getting a Canadian to do your security clearance interview is only slightly less damaging than having your mistress or bookie act as a reference.

11:02 am - On the SOPA protests

There was something heartening and encouraging about the SOPA/PIPA protests yesterday. It's good to see that grass roots political action is possible, the extent to which the internet facilitates it and the fact that it might actually even have an effect. And I agree that both bills are troubling, an attempt to kill a gnat w/ a hammer and possibly missing the gnat. That said, it's also a bit troubling to see the outpouring of response when people are threatened with the possibility of harsh action on copyright infringement when we see people sit idly by as so many civil liberties are trampled on, or removed or ignored. Illegal wiretapping? shrug.  Execution of US citizens?  whatever.  Participate in wars w/o congressional approval? yawn Give companies ability to sue to shut down websites that infringe on copyright?  HOLD IT RIGHT THERE, MISTER!!! Frustratingly, this action may say less about our eagerness to participate in democracy and a lot more about our desire for short term gratification.

10:14 pm - Codeacademy

I'm working through codeacademy because my wife would like to work through it as a way to learn to code. I have to say, I think it's a really really awful set of lessons for first time coders.  The error messages are very unclear, and the setup is very brittle. If one gets stuck, there's really not a lot to do if the hint didn't suffice or there is no hint. And the program keeps returning you to that module after each subsequently completed module. I don't think it's been field tested very well at all. I think I'll suggest my wife just use an O'Reilly text for some simple scripting language instead.

Update: Oh, and one other thing that I find irksome is the examples or mini assignments are really poorly motivated, they have you do stupid things that you'd never do when actually writing code.

07:11 pm - On those Marines

Regarding, the four marines videotaped urinating on the bodies of Taliban fighters, I agree that there's something disproportionate about the response in this case. Surely this actually ranks very low on the list of transgressions that US troops have committed in the Iraq and Afghanistan campaign, including the killing of various civilians. But I don't think it means people are overreacting here, they're underreacting to the other violations. Furthermore, I agree with those noting that it's odd to strain at corpse desecration while swallowing the camel of torture, but let's not downplay the seriousness of what the soldiers did, but instead fight apathy regarding torture.

But Bill Maher and others are making a more disturbing attempt to downplay the seriousness of the offense. According to the likes of Maher and Loesch, it's not really such a terrible thing to urinate on the corpses of Taliban fighters because the Taliban are such odious people and/or have committed such odious offenses. This argument is one of the popular arguments that have been used for all sorts of egregious violations of civil liberties and international law since the "war on terror" has commenced. It's the argument that some people are so evil, so despicable that we can drop the ordinary rules and laws that distinguish civilized societies from beasts in the forest or Lord of the Flies. In fact, the argument is even more brutish as there's no further utilitarian appeal to justify the actions,  as is usually the case with torture, just plain vengeance and bloodlust. Just as free speech means little unless it protects the most objectionable speech, these laws and protections mean something only if they actually do protect those we're ordinarily most disinclined to protect.

x-posted to blogspot.

09:02 am

I seriously loved the reporting of this incredibly representative little exchange from a Romney rally:

    The Occupy Wall Street guy began heckling. “The U.S. has the highest income inequality in the entire developed world!”

    Romney tried to regain control. “Excuse me,” he said. “You’ve had your chance.”

    McCain walked toward the Occupy guy. “Be quiet,” he said, menacingly.

Really, this says more about GOP economic policy and concern for the middle class than one might hope to describe in a lengthy.

05:22 pm - Maybe it's because I'm a gun hating Canadian, but ....

Is it just me or this "Good Morning america" story just really weird: http://gma.yahoo.com/video/news-26797925/oklahoma-mother-18-kills-intruder-breaking-into-her-home-while-on-phone-with-911-27777235.html

It's a story about an 18 year old woman who shot an intruder dead as he entered her home. But what's weird, to me anyway, is the way it's presented, like some feel good story about motherhood and apple pie, complete with video of the woman cocking a gun just for the hell of it and smiles and happy comments and soothing tones from the broadcasters when it's finished.

12:44 pm - Iowa Caucus Entrance polling data

It's interesting to take a look at the Iowa entrance polls for a couple of reasons.

1) Consider the Tea Party section. Those claiming to be TP supporters strongly favoured Rick Santorum (29%) over any other candidate including Ron Paul (19%) and Bachmann (6%). In fact, Paul got as much Tea Party support as Romney did. I think this provides good evidence that the Tea Party is not about fundamentalism wrt the constitution or retaining individual liberty, if it were, then those supporters go to Paul, not Santorum, who believes, for example, that states should be able to outlaw contraception, that schools should be forced to teach evolution or problems with evolution,  that adultery and sodomy should be illegal and various other things antithetical to individual liberty and the like. It suggests to me that the Tea Party is not so much for basic principles of liberty and the like, but rather, more supportive of a reactionary sort of traditionalism.

2) The Race section is amusing, no data in any section except the white section. I think Robert Reich is right, "The Iowa caucus are an irrelevancy wrapped in insignificance surrounded by vast inconsequence."

07:21 am - Oh, say can you see ...

Their crappy musicians dominate the pop charts with their bland mindless music (link), its citizens cockily believe they live in the "greatest country in the world" (link), nationalistic logos (link, link, link, link) and a quest for world dominance pervade its sports culture, and, most telling of all, one has to cross the border in order to experience really winter weather. Clearly, Canada is the new USA.

(tried to cross-post to canpolitik but there's a moderation queue (wtf?) there now and x-posted to blogspot, with oh so clever title)
Update: the moderator(s) has looked upon my post with favour and this is now x-posted to canpolitik

05:17 am - How has Obama disappointed? let me count the ways ...

Motivated by a posting of George Clooney's quote that he's "disillusioned by the people who are disillusioned by Obama" and that "Democrats eat their own. Democrats find singular issues and go, ‘Well, I didn’t get everything I wanted.’ ", I've jotted down some of my main concerns and disappointment with the Obama presidency just to underscore that, for many of us, it's not a shortcoming on a "singular issue". (quick tangent, the Clooney quote reflects something deeply wrong with American politics, i.e., the assumption that we should value party loyalty above all else). I wasn't expecting a lot of the Obama presidency in the first place, although I was briefly hopeful and optimistic when things began. Since then, some of his major flaws and disappointments: 

• approved indefinite detention for all, including American citizens, despite the Constitutional overreach, and failed to provide an alternative to the Military Commissions Act as he'd promised.
• failed to close Guantanamo
• cynical failure to increase the debt ceiling last year, thereby giving the GOP the power to threaten government shutdown and push through more draconian cuts while toeing the line on tax increase
• a health care bill that implemented a conservative ideal, lacked a public option and came out for public consideration after first consulting big pharma and the health care insurance industry
• kills US citizens without due process.
• contrary to promises made during his campaign, has regularly invoked state secrets to evade justice and terminate lawsuits. (or here or here)
• terminated warantless wiretapping lawsuits. 
• failed to investigate Bush administration abuses and appeared to push the Justice department to not do so.
• violated obligation to consult with or inform Congress in participating militarily in the invasion in Libya
• has failed to make any sort of progress or adequate effort on dealing with the housing and foreclosure crisis. Further, he'd promised to implement cramdown provision, i.e., allow judges to reduce principal, but that hasn't happened.
• had promised to repeal Bush era tax cuts for the wealthy and restore phaseout of exemptions and personalized deductions for the wealthy, still not done.
• failed to make progress on cap and trade legislation and has been largely a huge disappointment in terms of environmental protection
• failed to pursue any sort of significant prosecution for the devastating and avoidable 2007-09 financial crisis.