Elected leaders need to govern from the center, not the ideological extremes.

The government must ensure that Defense officials are chosen on the basis of competence.

Do as I say ...

Zalmay Khalilzad offers a political blueprint

"When we heard about it, we said, 'Gee, that's not what we ought to be doing,'" Rumsfeld said Friday.

Propaganda Effort in Iraq a Mistake, Rumsfeld Says

Ray Bradbury has the solution to LA's traffic nightmare.

In recent months there has been talk of yet another subway, one that would run between downtown L.A. and Santa Monica. That would be a disaster.

A single transit line will not answer our problems; we must lay plans for a series of transportation systems that would allow us to move freely, once more, within our city.

The answer to all this is the monorail. Let me explain.

Ah, the monorail [mp3] :

Lyle Lanley: That's right! Monorail!
[crowd chants `Monorail' softly and rhythmically]
Miss Hoover: I hear those things are awfully loud...
Lyle Lanley: It glides as softly as a cloud.
Apu: Is there a chance the track could bend?
Lyle Lanley: Not on your life, my Hindu friend.
Barney: What about us brain-dead slobs?
Lyle Lanley: You'll all be given cushy jobs.
Abe: Were you sent here by the devil?
Lyle Lanley: No, good sir, I'm on the level.
Wiggum: The ring came off my pudding can.
Lyle Lanley: Take my pen knife, my good man.
                I swear it's Springfield's only choice...
                Throw up your hands and raise your voice!
All: [singing] Monorail!
Lyle Lanley: What's it called?
All: Monorail!
Lyle Lanley: Once again...
All: Monorail!
Marge: But Main Street's still all cracked and broken...
Bart: Sorry, Mom, the mob has spoken!
All: [singing] Monorail!
                Monorail!
                Monorail!
                [big finish]
                Monorail!
Homer: Mono... D'oh!

LA's future is up in the air

Geocaching is a hobby that combines hiking and treasure hunting with the latest advances in portable global positioning system devices. Cachers, as they like to be called, hide waterproof containers -- caches -- and mark their exact locations with GPS coordinates that are posted on the Internet. Other cachers get the coordinates, punch the numbers into hand-held GPS receivers and follow the digital directions to the hidden prizes.

Sounds like a hobby for nerds? No doubt, but geocaching can be stimulating and addictive.

Cache prizes

Walt Disney Co., Time Warner Inc. and three other movie studios sued Samsung Electronics Co., saying the company's DVD players allowed consumers to circumvent encryption features that prevent unauthorized duplication. The lawsuit demands a recall of all Samsung DVD players that allow copy-protection features to be disabled.

Fukuyama has a new book. It goes on sale in March.

As we approach the third anniversary of the onset of the Iraq war, it seems very unlikely that history will judge either the intervention itself or the ideas animating it kindly.

What is needed now are new ideas, neither neoconservative nor realist, for how America is to relate to the rest of the world — ideas that retain the neoconservative belief in the universality of human rights, but without its illusions about the efficacy of American power and hegemony to bring these ends about.

Got Ideas?

After Neoconservatism

Why compete when you can win?

This year, as in the previous two, The New York Times Magazine has tried to eschew this notion of competition by saluting the performances that moved, surprised and thrilled us, regardless of whether they were nominated for awards.

Once again, the photography team of Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin has beautifully composed and captured the variety of characters who resonated with us this year and distilled the essence of what makes great movie acting great.

This is an interesting shoot.

Great Performers

Talking about MemeStreams, the founder of Technorati explained, "what is so interesting to me is how exciting, informative and witty these blogs often are."

Awww, shucks.

...

Shills wanted:

Epic Records, a Sony BMG imprint, "is looking for skilled, motivated interns to promote artists on social networking sites like MySpace, Purevolume, Facebook and others."

Stay tuned; I'm thinking about creating a new MemeStreams account.

That Which We Call a Blog...

In place of prioritization of threats, the QDR presented a dizzying array of dangers, including traditional threats from "near-peer powers", "disruptive catastrophic threats", humanitarian crises, terrorist actions, proliferation of WMD's to hostile states, prolonged "irregular" conflicts following regime change, and failed states. In addressing these unranked challenges, the drafters of the QDR generated their wish list, with each item presented as equally essential as the others.

The high concept of the QDR that unites the pile-up of programs is that US military strategy must be "capabilities-driven" rather than "threat-driven." That is the only conclusion that can follow from the judgment that the threat environment is inherently uncertain and unpredictable; any imaginable threat must be prepared for if its probability of presenting itself is unknown.

Starting in 2003, I found myself frequently using the mock-slogan "Focus on Everything" to describe the propensity to refrain from the most basic prioritization tasks. I see this behavior as part of an overall strategy of conflict avoidance [in the inter-personal, not geopolitical, sense].

All too often these days, when faced with the prospect of an unpleasant argument as a barrier to progress, many people would rather agree to disagree. "Progress is overrated," they might admit in a rare moment of candor.

This is a significant problem with long-term strategic implications.

Perhaps it is an outgrowth of political correctness?

US Quadrennial Defense Review Reveals a Strategy Void

Decius wrote:

According to Slashdot the Washington Post published his hometown as the "location" caption for an odd image in the article. He lives in a very small town. Chances are he is going to prison.

I replied:

That's quite a slip-up. It will be interesting to see how the Ombudsman handles this one. (Email her at ombudsman@washpost.com.)

With an estimated male population of 1447 in 2004, and based on the US national age-sex pyramids provided by the Census Bureau, approximately 103 men in this town are between the ages of 20 and 24. If we assume a flat distribution across that range, there are roughly twenty 21-year-old men to consider.

If you look directly at the 2000 Census data for the town, there were 240 total (male and female) in the 15-19 group. Advance that group five to six years, adjust for population growth, account for the male-female ratio, and you come up with an estimate of 25 21-year-old men.

When you consider how many of those 25 dropped out of high school (74% of residents 25 and older graduated from high school), you're down to 5-7 suspects.

When you consider how many of those 5-7 still live with their parents, along with the percentage of 21-year-olds who haven't yet married, you're down to two or three guys. And how many of those families live in a brick rambler with a tan, weathered couch in the living room? And when you consider the obesity epidemic, along with the presumed low incidence of computer geekiness in rural middle America, it's hard to believe that more than one of those three guys is an unemployed geek with a new laptop and a "wiry frame."

RE: Invasion of the Computer Snatchers