A conversation outside my window

I'm listening to a man talk on his cell phone in spanish and the only words I caught were "Thanksgiving" and "dysfunctional family."

It's funny which English words get picked up in other languages.

On Confidence

I just finished Rosabeth Moss Kanter's book "Confidence, How Winning Streaks & Losing Streaks Begin and End." Like most books on an interesting subject written by an economist, it was disapointing. [Sometimes I wonder if economics education consists of learning how to wander around in circles picking up only the evidence that fits your theory.]

Her point is that winning and losing are spirals. I think that is a particularly American truism. On this election day, it is worth pondering if the Republicans would be anywhere if Americans weren't so attracted to winners. It is even possible for a political party to be successful by simply denying reality as long as they can protect the American people from that fatal sin of losing a war.

On learning to live with evil....

I was remarking to a friend the other day that I haven't felt mad about G.W. in like months. Coincidentally I haven't blogged in months. This is obviously a hate-fueled enterprise...

For anyone who hopes to emulate my apathy, I thought I'd offer a few quick pointers:

1. Fill up your time with your own personal concerns. Change jobs! Fall in love! Forget that the rest of the world exists.

2. Suspend judgment. Instead of thinking that somebody did something wrong when, for example, the middle east explodes into violence, observe from a distance as if there were no human beings involved.

3. Buy a video game system.

4. Don't be hard on yourself. If the American in cheif can ignore reality, you can too!

On Management

We are a political democracy, but in the United States, work life is made up of fiefdoms. Predictably the fact that the workplace is not a democracy is defended in the same way that the monarchies were. Through wealth, power, or education, some people are just more qualified to rule over the rest of us. Of course the peasants don't get a vote in who rules them--that would be mob rule and madness.....

I would be curious to know if there is such a thing as a democratic company--where management and owners regularly consult employees. Because that might be a very effective management strategy....

On Self-Censorship

So many of my blogs come from weird coincidences in my reading matter. Lately I've been reading a history of the 1970s, a lot of newspaper articles about the war in Iraq, and an interesting New York Times Sunday Magazine article on Google in China.

According to the (very sympathetic to Google) New York Times article, the Chinese government does set forth a list of banned websites, but rather asks companies to follow vague guidelines that are selectively enforced. This turns out to be a great way to enforce a censorship scheme because many companies will censor beyond what the government would require and the government doesn't have to weigh in and be the heavy.

The Bush White House does a pretty good imitation of the Chinese government in this respect. If you would like access to the President or an interview with Cheney, then you need to play ball. The White House doesn't have to say "Don't publish it" but can rather rely on journalists to realize it is not in their own best interests to publish criticism of the President.

The lead up to both Vietnam and Iraq provided further examples of self-censorship. In order to avoid being soft on communists, (or terrorists) journalists chose not to report the stories that would reflect badly on the war or the reasons for war.

Chron headline

The San Francisco Chronicle had a headline the other day... "San Franciscans say Earthquakes add spice to life."

Um.... yeah....

On Sick Cats and Sleeplessness

So, my other cat is sick now and at the vet hospital. So, I haven't slept well in a while and I've spent a really awful amount of money.... but I promise to start blogging again soon for all three of my readers.... :)

Of Federalists and Anti-Federalists

I never realized how fascinating the whole Federalist/ Anti-Federalist debate was until I read Gordon Wood's "The Radicalism of the American Revolution." I can't recommend this book enough.

Apparently, the Anti-Federalists were not just beany states-righters from the South, but also included a lot of the emerging non-gentry middle class.

The problem for the Anti-Federalists is largely that they didn't have a really good writer. (This is also a problem for the Book of Mormon, but I digress). So, in the high school history way that these things are taught, Madison always wins. It also probably doesn't help their cause that they are "Anti" something and that the States Rights movement can be traced back to them.

Of course the Bill of Rights is theirs too, so we're at least a little indebted....