The Last Time I Checked, The World Was Still Round

Maybe I was just being Naïve. Coming to India this summer, I expected things to be different. All I had been hearing is how fast India was becoming the next China.

When I was here six years ago, I was amazed at the high level of poverty and corruption that existed throughout the country. Going from city to city, it was all the same. The basic necessities like food, water, and electricity were scarce. In many of the smaller towns, trash collection was non-existent. My most vivid memory of that trip was visiting the village where my grandfather grew up. He showed me the tree next to the lake he used to sit under to keep cool in the summer. Since then, the tree had been cut down and the lake had dried up and been turned into a landfill.

So you can understand why I would think things would be better, given the country’s impressive 8 % annual GDP growth rate.

President Designates New National Monument

June 15, 2006: Today President Bush designates the Western Hawaiian Islands, a marine area near the size of California, as a national monument. This is the president’s second use of the National Antiquities Act; the first being the designation of the African Burial Ground in Lower Manhattan. The area west of Hawaii now protected will be completely off-limits to any commercial activity. It is about 140,000 square-miles in area and contains over 7,000 species of marine wildlife. This is the largest use of the National Antiquities Act in United States history, since it was created nearly 100 years ago.

Modern McCarthyism: Democracy Under Siege

 

Many of us aren't old enough to remember the period in the early fifties when Senator Joseph McCarthy, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, and their cronies engaged in a series of witch-hunts, suspending the rights of countless Americans who they accused of communism. For those who can’t quite remember that section of our nation's history class from high school, I can only suggest you read up on it. Those of us who are familiar with McCarthyism, even minimally through films like Goodnight, and Goodluck, however, can't help but recognize similarities between the actions of our government's intelligence agencies then and those of their modern counterparts.

Doing the Right Thing

Jurors found former Enron executives Kenneth Lay and Jeffery Skilling guilty of fraud and criminal conspiracy yesterday, in what the New York Times hailed as “a verdict on an era.” In fact, the Times chose a comment made by Sean Berkowitz, director of the Justice Department’s Enron Task Force, as their quote of the day: "The jury has spoken and they have sent an unmistakable message to boardrooms across the country that you can't lie to shareholders, you can't put yourself in front of your employees' interests, and no matter how rich and powerful you are you have to play by the rules," said Berkowitz.

Yet, yesterday’s verdict comes just weeks after the GOP pushed a shamefully diluted lobbying ethics bill, which failed to ban lavish gifts like exotic free trips, increase lobbying transparency, require ethics training for congress members, or even provide any means of enforcement for old and new rules. Despite the repeated dishonesty and wanton corruption of officials like Jack Abramoff, Duke Cunningham, and Tom DeLay, most Americans seem apathetic to the fate of the previous bill, which would have put a significant damper on corruption.

Oh, the American hypocrisy! While our politicians parade around, demanding corporate transparency and responsibility, they feel little guilt when the accept bribes, lie to the constituents, and "stay the course" when every sign indicates a giant u-turn is necessary. One can only wonder what happened to doing the right thing; American Democracy has never been more of sham.

Meet the Press

At just over a week since yet another bureaucratic reshuffling placed former Fox News commentator Tony Snow in the hot seat as White House Press Secretary, things don't seem to be settling down for the media–liberal or conservative.  In fact, the New York Times ran a startling three articles today, detailing the sale of two major papers, U.S. military bribes of Iraqi reporters, and yet another fascist move by the Irani government to shut down a major media outlet.

It's little wonder, however, that the press has been out of sorts lately; just look at how governments, both abroad and at home, have been reacting to the media.   While nobody has complained too loudly about the move to censor what almost everyone agrees is a terrible film (those ratings are almost as bas as the President's!), the struggle for power continues elsewhere.

Between American and European corporate-giant media, the government-backed BBC and Chinese Press, and a handful of radical newspapers and media outlets, those of us looking for any sort of moderation are shit out of luck.

 

Strengthening Tomorrow’s Left

The New York Times detailed one of the lesser known results of Bush's new tax bill in an article today: a tripling of tax rates for students with college savings funds.  Despite his 1999 promise to veto any tax increase, Mr. Bush has apparently decided that taxing those who need the money most makes perfect sense.  In other news, analysts expect President Bush's approval rating to drop another 2% by the end of next week; the Democratic Party sent President Bush a bottle of scotch with a note saying simply, "Thanks."

Semantics: High-Tech Cheating?

Today, the New York Times published an article entitled "Colleges Chase as Cheats Shift to Higher Tech." The article opens by describing three sets of students who recently 'cheated' via high-tech means: a student at the University of California who used class notes on a PDA during an exam, Students at San Jose State University who used their computers for spell check during an exam, and students at the University of Nevada Las Vegas who used cameras on cell phones to trade answers during a test. In the course of the article, a dean at U.N.L.V. states, "If they'd spend as much time studying, they'd all be A students." While these cases may seem somewhat clear cut, it's worth taking a few minutes to reflect on two questions: Why, exactly, do students cheat? and What can we consider cheating?

Semantic Analysis: Incentives or Nuclear Appeasement?

The New York Times published an article today discussing European/U.S. attempts to negotiate with Iran. According to the new offer, Europe and the United States would aid Iran in building a light-water nuclear reactor in exchange for Iran's ending of "activities suspected of being a cover for a weapons program." Ostensibly, such a compromise seems ideal for both sides. But is it?

Book Review: American Prometheus

American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer is both a Pulitzer Prize-winning biography and an essential read for anyone interested in the politics of nuclear energy and warfare both historically and today. The book, written by Kai Bird and Tufts University’s own Martin J. Sherwin, details Oppenheimer's life from his birth in New York City in 1904 to his death of throat cancer in 1967. The story is beautifully told and provides great insight into Oppenheimer's art, work, and politics. Perhaps more importantly, American Prometheus illuminates the origins of many of the world's current conflicts. What has been called the only "truly comprehensive" biography of the father of the atomic bomb is well worth the read.

Semantic Traveller: Seabrook Nuclear Station

The debate for nuclear power in the United States has been an ever-inflamed issue since the Three Mile Island incident in 1979 at the plant's Unit 2 reactor. Since then, no new nuclear power generating stations have been built in the U.S. leaving us behind countries like France, who produce close to 90% of their power from nuclear energy. The American public has been pumped with anti-nuclear stigma for thirty years and is extremely reluctant in accepting nuclear technology of any type. The public idea of nuclear power associates a mushroom cloud to the technology. The idea can't be farther from the truth. The only "explosion" (if you even can call it that) that can occur is a steam flash event, or the effect of a steam-pipe leak within the reactor containment dome. The superheated steam rapidly expands once hitting ambient air temperatures within the reactor dome. The dome is specifically designed to contain this swift air expansion. The dome has near five-foot-thick, concrete walls reinforced with steel rods that form a woven steel grid. These steel woven "baskets" build on top of one another within the poured concrete. The result is a containment dome that can withstand never-before-seen tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes, nuclear blasts, and specifically, direct impacts of military aircraft or missiles.