Tuesday, 30 September, 2008. 02:22:16 PM
Five years ago today Sector 7 became a part of IBM.
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Monday, 29 September, 2008. 11:45:37 AM
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Wednesday, 24 September, 2008. 11:25:39 AM
The language of the bailout bill:
Sec. 6. Maximum Amount of Authorized Purchases.
The Secretary's authority to purchase mortgage-related
assets under this Act shall be limited to $700,000,000,000
outstanding at any one time
The bailout bill is often quoted as a $700 billion dollar bailout. That's wrong. That's
$700 billion at any one time. With that language, they could get $700 billion,
spend a few billion, and then get some more. It's an unlimited revolving credit line.
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Tuesday, 23 September, 2008. 04:59:19 PM
http://www.projectcensored.org/top-stories/category/y-2009
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Tuesday, 09 September, 2008. 02:52:55 PM
From an email conversation:
> I probably am (completely missing the point). So I guess I'll start
> by asking, what do you mean by "narrative"?
At the bottom level are the priorities that people place on moral
values. Here's a table with a few moral values.
Moral Value Progressive priority Conservative priority
punishment low high
contribution high low
discipline low high
obedience low high
community high low
winning low high
self-reliance low high
independence high low
competence high low
protection high low
At the middle level are positions on the issues, driven by the moral
values.
Examples:
A progressive views community services such as fire, water, education,
health care, and so on as a government function because these are all
things that a community requires to live and function.
A conservative views the death penalty as a good thing because they put
a high priority on punishment.
A progressive looks for competence in people because competent people
can take care of themselves and can meaningfully contibute to the world
around them. Education is required for competence, so highly educated
people are respected by progressives. As Sarah Palin demonstrates,
that's not so important for conservatives.
A conservative values winning almost higher than anything else because
in a dangerous world you kill the lion, or the lion eats you. If you're
dead, nothing else matters. Thus, on military matters conservatives
would vote to spend all the money on tanks and battleships.
And so on. Every issue can be traced to basic values. I mentioned
before that the moral values are what determine a progressive or a
conservative, not the positions on issues. National defense is one of
those things. Conservatives approve of it for the reasons given in the
last paragraph. Progressives also approve of it because of the moral
value of protection, communities and individuals have to be protected
from bullies who would harm the community.
So, those are how issues are derived from the lower levels of morality.
Higher above that is the narrative. A narrative is the story that
people have about how a political group behaves as a whole. A narrative
is the thing that ties all of the separate positions on the issues
together into a coherent story that makes sense.
Example: conservative narrative regarding education, guns and taxes.
A good conservative is a man who can protect his family from an evil
world. He's a man, because masculine strength is what's needed to
kill enemies. Feminine strength is for women, and it's what drives
them to get up and do what it takes to raise strong children, day
after day. Anyway, a good man is a strong man, and a gun makes him
much stronger and therefore able to kill anyone who would harm his
family. He needs to defend his house. Interfering with the strength of
a man, for example, by stealing his food and money, or messing with his
kids with public education, or taking his guns is wrong. These things
diminish the ability of a man to defend and take care of his house, and
are therefore wrong.
Another example. progressive narrative regarding education, guns,
and taxes. A good progressive is a PERSON who nurtures his or her
family. The world is basically good, but can be made better through a
committment to family, community, nation, and world. People first must
take care of themselves, but cannot stop there. They were formed by
their families and their communities, and therefore owe a debt to that
community which can be repaid through contribution. Competent people
are more able to contribute, and education is a path to competence.
Taxes are the dues that people pay to live in a first class, first
world nation, and a competent government will use these resources to
increase opportunities, increase justice, and assist people who might
suffer from injustice and unfairness. Security is does not depend on a
strong person or weapons. Every person, no matter how weak or strong,
is more secure in a strong community. Every member of the community
should be allowed and encouraged to become the people that they want to
become.
(some parts elided)
That's why the narratives need to be in place before anybody will truly
understand. For example: "of course Obama has lower taxes. His plan is
much FAIRER because the poor won't bear more of a burden than the rich.
And of course Obama will have lower taxes, because his moral value of
COMMUNITY necessarily requires that he not spend every last penny on
cruise missiles. And of course Obama will have lower taxes, because
his moral value of COMMUNITY means that he has worked throughout the
world on increasing the sense of COMMUNITY in the world, which is the
cheapest way of PROTECTING us from the bullies of the world. He won't
have to waste money on military hardware which has no other purpose
than to either rust away or get blown up."
I've highlighted the words in the narrative above which directly
correspond to progressive moral values. You can see that there is an
alternative narrative now which nobody is using, and nobody is pushing.
Imagine the world if everyone had that knee-jerk reaction to Obama's
budget plans. The narrative allows the fact that Obama will have lower
taxes to actually be absorbed. Telling people that Obama will have
lower taxes without including the narrative will not work at all.
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Wednesday, 03 September, 2008. 07:56:52 PM
The recent news about McCain's pick of Alaska governor Palin is starting to wear me
out. I went to sleep last night at 3AM, and by the time I woke up at 9AM the
news of yet another scandal, this time involving Palin's involvemnt in a
state-owned dairy that should have been shut down. I'm really at the point
where I cannot understand what McCain was thinking when he appointed her. The
only people who are happy are the religious nuts. I think it was the ultimate
cynical political nomination. McCain's lost everyone else though.
If John McCain isn't competent enough to run a decent campaign, imagine what
a disaster a McCain presidency would be.
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Tuesday, 02 September, 2008. 03:49:35 PM
Lakoff writes about why radical conservatism is un-American and un-democratic, and why
Sarah Palin is vulnerable if liberals concentrate of values instead of the superficial
issues. Sarah Palin and John McCain hold values which are abhorrent to Americans, and
progressives need to point them out.
http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/contributors/1728
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