| Thursday,
October 30, 2008 I suppose it will be called another racist
attack, but I was struck with the appropriateness of McCain's remark that
Obama's big medial splash last night was paid by broken promises. Of course
I am no fan of campaign contribution "reform", but a system that lets one
candidate raise money while the other is capped is insane. Obama promised --
well a campaign promise -- that he would accept public financing. I hate the
whole notion of Federal financing of campaigns -- the Framer must be
spinning like tops -- but it does seem to me that once one accepts it, one
should not be allowed to change one's mind. Ah. Well.
Yesterday a shelf fell off one wall in my office. Actually, it fell
Tuesday while I was at PDC. Anyway, yesterday I had to go to the hardware
store for brackets, come back and put up the shelf, and reshelve the
books. In theory that shelf is reserved for what I am reading now, but for
the last year I haven't been myself and I sort of forgot what was on that
shelf. The result is that I found a bunch of books I had put up to be read,
and then promptly forgot about. One was a Terry Pratchett, Monstrous
Regiment, and I thought I'd start reading it, and as a result the main thing
I got done yesterday was getting that shelf back in place.
I had intended to write column draft on Hailstorm -- oops, Windows Azure
and Cloud Computing. Well, I did manage to read a new book on Cloud
Computing, getting me sort of caught up on the concept, I discovered there
wasn't much new to talk about: that is, I discussed it all in Hailstorm and
Network Computing days. I knew back then that the hardware wasn't up to the
concept, but I also knew that it certainly would be within 15 - 20 years.
And lo! That's where we are now. The hardware is mostly up to the job.
Anyway I'll try to do a column segment on Cloud Computing and Azure.
I didn't watch Obama's infomercial last night. The papers this morning
didn't seem to be much impressed with his accomplishment: did he get enough
return for what it cost (not just in money) to make it worth while? I would
say not, but not having seen it I can't be definitive.
What I have never seen from Obama is real specifics on what he intends to
do other than expand the power of the state. He will go line by line through
the budget and decide what is and is not working; given that this is
impossible -- have you seen the budget? -- what does he mean? On what
criteria will he decide if a program needs elimination or reform or is
working pretty well now? I have not heard anything that would tell me that;
does anyone know? (I am not fishing for diatribes. It's a bit late for those
anyway.)
One scenario is Pelosi with a majority, Reid with a filibuster-proof
majority, and Obama bringing in the former chief of Freddie Mac to be the
budget director. Obama doesn't actually say he is not a Socialist as far as
I can see: he does ridicule those who say he is. My guess is that he's a
clever Chicago politician and has no real principles other than spend and
spend, elect and elect. Can he build a Chicago style political machine in
the US? It will be interesting to find out. The country is broke, and taxes
are pretty high now; we're not restricted by deflation; we are not
crucifying mankind on a Cross of Gold; we already have farm subsidies.
We aren't likely to have Department of Agriculture inspectors coming to
family farms to determine how many little pigs of a litter must be killed to
keep prices up and what proportion of the milk had to be poured out on the
ground (yes, that happened; farmers with fewer kids to feed had to kill a
larger portion of the litter, too). We already have most of Roosevelt's
'reforms'.
This will be in the column: those interested in what Roosevelt tried in
his first administration and why it didn't work will find Amity Shlaes The
Forgotten Man. I've been reading it on the Kindle and it reads well. I say
it here because it took ten years and World War II to get us out of the
Great Depression. It may be that we won't bottom out as hard. But much of
what is proposed was tried without much success and may be argued as having
made things worse.
The Congress is probably lost, and the Republicans deserve defeat -
although the nation doesn't deserve huge Democratic majorities. Even with
veto-proof majorities, a mixed government with McCain as President would
probably do less harm. Neither McCain nor Obama may 'deserve' election, but
I do not think the US deserves an all powerful Obama.
Whatever happens we seem to be living in interesting times.
There is
considerable mail of importance.
=================
Another reputable scientist predicts global cooling, not
warming:
http://icecap.us/index.php/
go/joes-blog/
global_cooling_is_here_
evidence_for_predicting_global_cooling_for_the_next_
Complete with charts and arguments. I have not read it in
detail, but I would be astonished if it proves the case -- I don't think any
climate modeler can prove a case now -- but it is certainly as compelling as
most global warming predictions.
And if our fate must be either warmer or colder, I'll take
warmer every time. Colder brings famine.
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