Jujitsui Generis

Jujitsui-Generis: Scaling Back

Jujitsui-Generis began in October 2004 with four writers. With time, and for a variety of reasons, the rest moved on and now I am the only one left.  Over the past year, I have written close to 500 posts.  Reading back through the archives I still find some entertaining, some cogent and well-argued, some overly-emotional or silly, and a few still relevant and well written.

I did not expect this site to catapult me to fame, to place me among the ranks of the super-bloggers, like Andrew Sullivan or Glenn Reynolds (though that would have been fine).  For me, J-G was and is merely an exercise and an outlet.  I say exercise because the very act of writing and thinking critically every day on a wide range of issues has forced me to flex analytical muscles that would otherwise atrophy.  One does not typically have such far-ranging conversations with friends and family.  But this site has also served as an outlet, a place for me to think aloud and to join the conversation going on all across the world.  Similarly, reading others has pushed me into reexamining deeply held beliefs.  Working on this site has forced me to alter some of those beliefs, thought it has strengthened and more fully articulated others.  But I cannot continue at this pace.

My fellow travelers well know the effort and time that go in to maintaining a fully-functioning web log, the constant reading, writing, and reflection.  There's limited time in a day and so such immersion invariably means that other activities are neglected, or given up entirely.  For some it's easier.  They have the time and/or resources to spend countless hours perched in front of the screen reading and writing.  I do not.  I have a full time job, a life, and interests outside the political.  It takes me longer to turn ideas over and sometimes even longer to get them on the page.  And so keeping up with the blogosphere is, for me, often exhausting.

This past year has been mostly good to me.  Writing and maintaining J-G has been more fulfilling than I ever imagined.  But I was also promoted in my real, full-time job and I have now joined the ranks of the corporate cheerleaders. I rarely leave the office before 6:30 or 7:00, and jumping straight from dinner to the happenings of the world leave time for little else.  I have neglected my physical health this past year.  Until just recently I had not been to the gym in six months.  I have always been an avid reader, but this year I have read only a handful of books.  Instead, I have read mostly articles and news publications (and other bloggers) as part of my ongoing race with the world, my attempt to keep up with events and to remain relevant.  That is going to change.

I have always tried to keep J-G regularly updated, posting every other day when possible and at least several times a week.  Effective immediately, however, Jujitsui-Generis will be scaled back.  I will attempt to post at least once a week, though sometimes more time than that may pass.  Because my postings will be less frequent, they will often be longer and more thoughtful.  And they may not always be topical; they will not always address the latest political scandal.  While my posts will still be on the social and political, they will be more reflective, more abstract, more social, and more concerned with the philosophical over the timely.  I love this effort far too much to surrender it completely.  It is my hope that the new format - one I know very well will probably cost readership - will allow me to continue this exercise and to participate in the conversation on my own terms

I will be taking the next few days off.  I need to spend the remaining weeks of the year enjoying the holidays and catching up with friends and family.  I will be back at the start of the new year.  Happy Holidays, and thanks for reading.

How To Debate Syrian Style

Syria is at it again, using car bombs to silence its loudest critics.

A Bell Once Rung...

Events in Iran are quickly escalating, and Israel has prepared a contingency plan for when the world fails to refer Iran to the security council.  And it will.  It's doubtful that either Russia or China would agree to sanctions even if Iran's blatant pursuit of nuclear power ever made it to the security council, and Israel is right to prepare a response to defend itself.

Iran's new President has made his wishes known in unambiguous terms: he wishes to wipe Israel from the map.  Deals with Russia for precision weapons, along with Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons, push his dream a little closer to reality.  Iran's fledgling space program - they recently launched their first satellite - will provide a distant early warning of any immanent attack on their reactors.

Given that the Bush administration has yet to devise a suitable way for dealing with Iran and that the UN is unlikely to have much of an effect, it is right and proper for Israel to take up the matter of its own security.  Let's hope they act soon enough.

Short Break

My apologies for my week long absence.  End of the year duties at my real job have kept me busy and the last few days have seen me slightly under the weather.  I look forward to returning within the next couple of days.

CNN & Free Speech

Finally!  CNN admits that it has been practicing its right to free political speech in Xing out Cheney's mug during a speech last week.

Okay, not really.  A passionately partisan staffer may have gotten a little excitable with a caller.  But it's still good to hear CNN inch closer to admitting that they are no more an 'objective' news agency than FOX news.

The New 'Robber Baron'

Carping at Wal-Mart has become the latest fad among the well-to-do, 'social justice' set.  Here's Meathead, Rob Reiner, who incidentally can afford to not shop at Wal-Mart, taking a strong stand:

Communities across America are saying enough is enough and banning Wal-Mart from their city limits. Greenwald lays bare the notion, propagated by today’s robber barons, that American consumers will sell their soul for cheap t-shirts. Instead, we see the strength that comes when local government that truly reflects the values of its citizens: a respect for family-owned businesses, a recognition that a person’s labor should not be given without a living wage and benefits, and the repudiation of manufacturing that cares not for worker safety and environmental protection.

Reiner's assertion that 'American consumers will not sell their soul for cheap T-shirts' along with electronics, housewares, groceries, etc... is apparently wishful thinking.  Wal-Mart enjoyed better than expected results as the holiday shopping season has begun.  But Reiner is not alone in his hope.  Other Hollywood types, town councils and politicians, mostly in ill-advised attempts to tamper with the market, have been looking to clip Wal-Mart's wings for some time.  In an unprecedented move, the Maryland legislature is considering forcing Wal-Mart to boost their spending on employee health-care.  Maryland's Governor vetoed the legislation, but it's up for an override vote in January.  The legislation is ostensibly meant for all companies, but has been cleverly worded so that it would apply only to Wal-Mart.  Does singling out a single employer for burdensome restrictions strike anyone as an unfair use of coercive power?  Kip Esquire suggests the proper response, what he terms the 'nuclear reaction':

Dear Maryland Legislature,

If you override this veto, then we will close all our stores in your state 24 hours before the law takes effect. We will lock our doors and lay off all our employees. We will not return unless and until you revoke all legislation specifically and exclusively targeted at our company.

Love,
Wal-Mart

That's actually exactly the right response.  I would join Kip in urging Wal-Mart, in order to avoid a dangerous precedent, to layoff every single employee rather than submit to the malicious meddling of the state.  Another option Wal-Mart should consider is avoiding the mandate of the legislation on a technicality.  The bill requires an increased amount of healthcare spending on any employer of over 10,000 (surprise: Wal-Mart seems the only employer in the state to fit the bill) employees.  Wal-Mart should consider closing just enough stores in the state of Maryland so as to fall under the 10,000 employee threshold.

Of course, if Wal Mart closes stores in Maryland it will be the consumers, especially the low income consumers who most need Wal Mart's low prices, that will suffer the most:

The study by the economic research firm Global Insight concluded that the discounting along with other measures led to cumulative savings for consumers of 263 billion dollars between 1985 and 2004, or 895 dollars per person.

The researchers concluded that Wal-Mart had a positive impact on US employment, generating 210,000 jobs by 2004, or 0.15 percent more that would have existed without Wal-Mart.

The report also found that Wal-Mart's low pay for employees led to a 2.2 percent drop in overall wages across the economy but maintained that this was offset by falling consumer prices.

"Consumers earned less in nominal dollars, but their income bought them more in the economy with Wal-Mart because of real disposable income gains," the study concluded.

Here's John Stossel offering perspective:

"They have taken the values, the morals, the ethics, fairness that are the fabric of our society and put them aside and . . . put their profits before their people," said Blank.

That's foolish economics, and not very good morality. He is as wrong as the tycoon Michael Douglas played in the movie "Wall Street," who said: "It's a zero-sum game. Somebody wins. Somebody loses. Money itself isn't lost or made, it's simply transferred."

That's a myth. Businesses create wealth...

Their becoming rich doesn't mean there's less for the rest of us. Sam Walton's innovations created thousands of new jobs and allowed millions of Americans to save money...

Wal-Mart's critics act as if economic competition were a "zero-sum game" -- if one person gets richer, someone else must be getting poorer. If Wal-Mart's owners profit, we lose. But the reality is exactly what our ordinary language tells us: We make money. We produce wealth.

Wal-Mart created wealth. It started with just one discount store. Then, its owner, Sam Walton, invented new ways to streamline the supply chain, so he was able to sell things for less and still make a profit. By keeping prices low, Wal-Mart effectively gives everyone who shops there a raise, its own employees included.

Of course, as politicians, Hollywood, and the liberal elite join forces, most of that is forgotten in the feeding frenzy - a frenzy meant to destroy Wal Mart while protecting the small companies which the elites find so much more aesthetically pleasing.  They do so at the detriment of the everyday consumers.

Open Source Center

The CIA is looking for intelligence hiding in plain sight:

In a bow to the rise of Internet-era secrets hidden in plain view, the agency has started hosting Web logs with the latest information on topics including North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il's public visit to a military installation (his 38th this year) and the Burmese media's silence on a ministry reshuffling. It even has a blog on blogs, dedicated to cracking the code of what useful information can be gleaned from the rapidly expanding milieu of online journals and weird electronic memorabilia warehoused on the Net.

The blogs are posted on an unclassified, governmentwide Web site, part of a rechristened CIA office for monitoring, translating and analyzing publicly available information called the DNI Open Source Center. The center, which officially debuted this month under the aegis of the new director for national intelligence, marks the latest wave of reorganization to come out of the recommendations of several commissions that analyzed the failures of intelligence collection related to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Here's the site, but I can't get on.  It's restricted to government employees and some journalists.

Abortion: A Federalist Solution

Here's Radley Balko arguing for a federalist solution to the abortion debate:

While it's unlikely that the Founding Fathers anticipated the abortion debate, they did give us a framework around which to govern on issues just like it — highly emotional, high-stakes issues that go to the core of one's personal values and beliefs. They rightly recognized that the federal government is far too unwieldy and clumsy to deal with such delicate matters. These issues are best legislated by the states — or, better, by cities or counties. We can then choose to live under laws that most reflect our values. We vote with our feet...

The best solution is robust federalism. Forgo Roe, and let each state set its own policies on abortion. Those for whom abortion is an important fundamental right can live in areas where abortions are widely available. Those adamantly opposed to any and all abortions can live in jurisdictions that ban the procedure. People like me could live in communities where our tax dollars won't be funding abortions.

I think Balko is on to something.  If the last few decades have shown us anything, it's just how intractable the whole debate is, particularly since it is most passionately debated by the 'true believers' of both sides.  Here's Balko again:

Perhaps the most pertinent criticism of the federalist solution is that people with strong beliefs about an issue like abortion aren't content with applying those beliefs only to themselves and their immediate communities. Pro-lifers want it inscribed into federal law that life begins at conception, with no exceptions. Abortion-rights advocates want federal tax dollars to pay for abortions for the poor, despite the fact that some of those tax dollars come from citizens with moral objections to the procedure.

True believers, then, would never accept a federalist solution on a volatile issue like abortion. They'd rather impose their own values on everyone else. But after three decades of poisonous abortion politics, perhaps it's time the rest of us considered it.

Drugs For Everyone

Thanks to Alina to pointing to the Institute for One World Health.  The Institute is an alternative to the traditional pharmaceutical model.  They are working on pharmaceuticals of a different sort and developing low-profit medicines specifically for the developing world.

New Addition: Social Entrepreneurship

I've added a new blog to my blogroll.  The Wingbeat Project has added a social entrepreneurs blog to their website.  The new site is dedicated to posting news, commentary, and updates on social entrepreneurship.  Check it out. 

The Holidays Are Here

And 'Black Friday' - the Friday after Thanksgiving that signals the start of the shopping holiday season - got underway with patrons trampling the elderly in a rush to snatch up the limited supply of heavily discounted electronics.

Individuals bear the responsibility for their own actions, of course.  But merchandisers play their part in creating the 'feeding frenzy' by offering day-only deals, limited quantities, poor organization, and lax security.  That's why I'll continue to do most of my shopping online this year.

Happy Thanksgiving

I'll be taking today (and possible Friday) off to spend time with family, to gorge on my Southern favorites, and to reflect on the past year and all that I have to be thankful for.  Hope you're doing the same.

Putin Expands Control. Again.

President Putin is forcing a move that will effectively cripple all NGOs working within Russia.  By forcing even foreign NGOs to register as Russian entities, Putin is binding them to even stricter financial and legal obligations.  It's Russia's way of limiting (or squashing) dissent.

I've written before that Russia's democratic institutions will likely not resemble ours and that we should grant a little leeway as their democracy evolves.  But that was before Putin initiated move after move to kill dissent and consolidate his power.  Looks like I was wrong; it's hard to see how any of the moves he has made function to facilitate democracy.  In fact, it's difficult to see how Russia resembles a democracy at all.

Lunactic Ravings

A gifted writer gone quite mad.  Here's Kurt Vonnegut shilling for Islamic terrorism and offering his justification for suicide bombers (thanks to Betsy's Page for pointing to this story):

But in discussing his views with The Weekend Australian, Vonnegut said it was "sweet and honourable" to die for what you believe in, and rejected the idea that terrorists were motivated by twisted religious beliefs.

"They are dying for their own self-respect," he said. "It's a terrible thing to deprive someone of their self-respect. It's like your culture is nothing, your race is nothing, you're nothing."

Asked if he thought of terrorists as soldiers, Vonnegut, a decorated World War II veteran, said: "I regard them as very brave people, yes."

He equated the actions of suicide bombers with US president Harry Truman's 1945 decision to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

On the Iraq war, he said: "What George Bush and his gang did not realise was that people fight back."

Vonnegut suggested suicide bombers must feel an "amazing high". He said: "You would know death is going to be painless, so the anticipation - it must be an amazing high."

As to whether or not they feel elation, I have no idea.  But yes, Kurt, 'Bush and his gang' did realize 'that people fight back'.  That's exactly why we're there battling Islamic extremists who have been launching brutal attacks on the West and the US for the last three decades.  In fact, given the West's overall record of minor 'police action' and appeasement in response to Islamic fundamentalism, I would say it is the extremists who have been surprised to find just how hard we are fighting back.

As I've argued before, those seeking to justify the insurgency in Iraq using the tired remnants of anti-imperialist language, like oppressor/oppressed, resistance movement, etc... actually undercut their own argument.  In arguing for the 'resistance fighers' they are arguing for the group most intent on subsuming the entire region under a brutal theocratic caliphate.  Or, as I written before:

But the assertion that events in Iraq have drawn the ire of the Islamic world - and its concomitant implication that they have therefore spawned a legitimate resistance movement - is justified only if one believes that subverting the will of the Iraqi people, that ruthlessly subjugating them to the strictures of a medieval fundamentalism, that forcing them to trade one devil for another is a legitimate purpose of the insurgency, that that is a justifiable and righteous cause of 'the resistance'.  But that is to undercut the motivation of those making the claim, which is to allegedly make life better for the Iraqis: for in admitting that it is the worst elements of Islamic society that are committed to Iraq's undoing - and that they would either like to see a return of the Baathists or the tyranny of Sharia - one only bolsters the case for seeing the project through to the end; one is actually making the case for resolve and tenacity in the face of barbarism.  That's kind of the point - unless, of course, one yearns for the oppressive days of Hussein's rule or finds common cause with those who would deny democracy and flourishing to those hopeful souls struggling so frantically in Iraq.  But that would be downright traitorous, if not appallingly inhuman.

Vonnegut is apparently reeling in exactly that sort of yearing. And here's James Lilek's closing the door on Vonnegut.

Closing The X File

Some of you wanted to believe so badly, but Douglas Kern (hat tip Alina) explains how the rise of the internet, the ability to rapidly transmit information, and other technological advances, like text messaging and cell/camera phones, shredded the tightly woven layers of the conspiracy:

The Internet showed this particular emperor to be lacking in clothes. If UFOs and alien visitations were genuine, tangible, objective realities, the Internet would be an unstoppable force for detecting them. How long could the vast government conspiracy last, when intrepid UFO investigators could post their prized pictures on the Internet seconds after taking them? How could the Men in Black shut down every website devoted to scans of secret government UFO documents? How could marauding alien kidnappers remain hidden in a nation with millions of webcams?

Just as our technology for finding and understanding UFOs improved dramatically, the manifestations of UFOs dwindled away. Despite forty-plus years of alleged alien abductions, not one scrap of physical evidence supports the claim that mysterious visitors are conducting unholy experiments on hapless victims. The technology for sophisticated photograph analysis can be found in every PC in America, and yet, oddly, recent UFO pictures are rare. Cell phones and instant messaging could summon throngs of people to witness a paranormal event, and yet such paranormal events don't seem to happen very often these days. For an allegedly real phenomenon, UFOs sure do a good job of acting like the imaginary friend of the true believers. How strange, that they should disappear just as we develop the ability to see them clearly. Or perhaps it isn't so strange.

Kern is right.  Here's a personal anecdote: I was listening to the TV the other night while working.  One of the many cable travel programs - this one on the 'world's most haunted places' - was playing in the background.  One of the stories caught my ear.  The segment detailed some European monastery where monks performed unspeakable acts of (cue music) evil on the local townsfolk in the fifteenth century.  The scenario sounded implausible, like something out of a Wes Craven movie.  Skeptical, I looked the place up online, used every serach engine I know of.  Know what I found?  The story wasn't true at all.  The place existed, but it was cursed with no such history - though it is world-renowned for its rice production.

So long Scully.  So long Mulder.  We'll remember the 90's fondly.