DoctorD's Observations

How are Steve Jobs & Barack Obama similar?

I've been thinking about politics, of course, and its dismal state; and the forthcoming iPad, and also watched on tv (CNBC, I think) part of a history of Apple Computer.  And it hit me.

Steve Jobs' goal is to make good stuff.  They don't do "market research" at Apple, they are not trying to please the customer.  Actually, Apple makes good stuff for which there may be no clear customer.  They don't try only to make the "best in the category," as with laptop computers for example, but they also invent whole new categories that didn't exist before, like the iPod, the iPod, and now the iPad.  Even the Newton basically invented the PDA, although Palm and others gained the profits.

Similarly, Barack Obama just tries to do the right thing, to do good things.  He isn't very "political," he doesn't pay a whole lot of attention to polls or focus groups.  Perhaps it could be said that he is "strategic," but he isn't very "tactical."  He isn't all that concerned with the November 2010 elections, really, as so many others are, and not in his own re-election in 2012, either.  He just wants to stay at the task of addressing the nation's problems in the best ways that he and his people can figure out.  Do a good job, as Apple does, and the "customers" (or voters) will follow.

The two do differ:  Jobs is to some considerable degree a one man show, while Obama is a great compromiser.  He listens to the thoughts and ideas of others; Jobs marches mainly to his own drummer.  Although really, that is what Obama does too, after all the thoughts and info have been gathered.

Of course, they are similar in being brilliant.  A lot smarter than you and me, and a lot smarter than nearly all of the people they have to deal with.

Anyhow, I know and knew that I admire both men, and I "appreciate their service."  But I had never considered comparing them because they are involved in such different aspects of society.  Now I have, and I do think they are rather alike.

What about Clint Eastwood, another man I admire?  I am thinking about him at the moment, too.  Hmmm.  That needs some further consideration.

I do admire the Dalai Lama, too.  Hmmm again.

Conservative "pride"

I'm gunning for you tee-shirt

iPad now!

There are some iPad applications showing up in Apple's iTunes store.  How about that?  And there are some demo videos on Apple's web page.

NYT on iPad

It also is the cover story in Newsweek this week.

I received a notice that mine (the first of two) has been shipped.  Should arrive by Saturday.  Can't wait!  This is something really, really big.  I am not really a very optimistic person lately, but technology is one of the "good" areas in our society.  And, in my opinion, Apple is far and away the best.

I bought some Apple stock long ago at $7/share.  Now it is $230 or so.  Sure wish I had bought more.  My broker tried to get me to sell it when it hit $80.

Question:

So how is that hopey-changey stuff working out for you now?

Repetition: A poem

Good poems are worth reading

more than once

Bad poems are worth reading

more than once too

Really bad, bad, bad poems

I suppose should never be

read at all

But you don't ever know

until you try them out

The good, the bad---who does know?

The best poems are your poems
The ones you write
And the special ones you like best

What does it matter if they are "good?"

What does it matter if they are "bad?"

The earth still turns

The sun still shines

And the geese still go south

for the winter

drb 3/25/10

Renewal

Today I renewed my membership in the American Political Science Association (APSA), the largest group of professional political scientists, most of whom (but not all) are academicians.  I first joined as a graduate student in 1965, so that is 45 years ago.  A long time ago, and a lot of back issues of scholarly journals are gathering dust in a big storage locker.

I almost didn't do it.  After all, I've been retired for seven years.  I spend essentially no time on professional activities, don't attend national conferences except rarely, may not even vote on the slates of officers.  Most of the colleagues I knew well are gone from the scene.

But here is what occurred to me.  When I started this Vox blog, my chief interest was in travel, and that shows in its design, I think.  And travel still is my main personal interest my chief desire.  At the same time, I do find myself posting more and more often about political and public policy issues, not in a truly scholarly or professional way, but just thoughts off the top of my head.  This is a direction I did not anticipate.

Back in 2003, I didn't really expect to live to see the end of the G. W. Bush administration.  That was the view of the medical personnel I consulted.  But what do you know, with good treatment, I did!  And then we got into a really dangerous but exciting period in the economy, and in the way our politics is conducted, with the bright spot of having a young new President of astonishingly good character, patience--wisdom really--a pragmatic and bi-partisan spirit, informed by history, and a simply brilliant mind.  Who would have thought that possible?  He is just 48 years old, with limited experience (although a great education).

So nowI have at least in part come full circle, back to the professional interests that long preoccupied me, and moved a bit away from the focus on recreational travel that really is the passion of my later adult years.  I don't do anything with them "seriously," and really my health doesn't permit that kind of concentration any more than it does really extensive travel, but still, I comment often.

Maybe I ought to change the Vox's appearance to show its new character, with pictures of the flag and Thomas Jefferson perhaps?

One place where the two interests cross is in my little motto "See America before its gone."  We are indeed losing many aspects of our traditional American way of life, and also great swatches of our natural beauty.  And we are losing, too, the traditions and practices that made American democracy something that so many in the world wanted to emulate.  Remember the Statute of Liberty young Chinese protesters erected in Red Square?  We are also losing our economic leadership.  Did you see in the news that now the Chinese buy more automobiles than people in the USA do?  And they have faster trains.

It is all a shame, it is tragic.  I am a big Obama backer and fan, but really, I don't imagine that he will be able to reverse the many self-destructive forces that have been unleashed in this country, especially since around 1980.  We had our run, for a long time we were "at the top" after WWII, but then we lost the will, we ceased to make the effort.

When we were in Detroit recently, I was impressed to talk with people, blue-collar folks, who really knew a lot about every aspect of automobiles and how they are made.  And houses, too, they knew a lot about housing construction.  How many American boys or girls aspire now to knowing how to actually "do" anything anymore?  Everyone wants an easy buck in a field where they are vastly overpaid, like finance or "wealth management."  Or they are counting on the lottery coming through.

I do want to put in a plug of the microcomputer industry.  That is something that was made in America, which has had a transformative effect; it was something we (or at least some among us) did.  But what is going on now?  What preoccupies our efforts?  There is nothing we are making, and we don't have major "public" efforts like those that existed during the Great Depression, although Obama has attempted to generate some of that spirit.  But it is all small potatoes, and much objected to by our right (really, our wrong) political wing.

We are a nation of whiners, of debtors, self-centered and not-civic minded, some of us struggling to live as well as our parents did, and a few at the top enjoying the excesses of absurd and wholly undeserved wealth.

It is a shame.

Renewal is indeed what we need.  So I sent in my dues.

The difference between Republicans and Democrats

I just want to comment on what the difference between Democrats and Republicans used to be, back in the 1970s and 1980s, when I was directly involved with government and politics on a day-to-day basis.

On the most important issue of domestic policy, it was this:

Republicans thought that there should be "general revenue sharing" and "block grants" from the national (or federal) government to the states and local governments.  In deference to state primacy, they thought that these sub-national governments should receive the money by right, without even filling out an application, and without having to do any reporting on how they were spent after the fact.  Amounts were to be determined by a statistical formula related to population size and other factors.

Democrats, on the other hand, were less trustful of the states, local governments, and citizen groups.  They thought that there should be many many separate grant-in-aid programs (more than 500) each for specific purposes, and for those purposes only.  Recipient jurisdictions should apply for a grant; demonstrate their need and their wise intentions, and then report after the fact on exactly what they had done, which would be monitored and evaluated for successful outcomes.

That was it.  That was the difference between Republicans and Democrats, between liberals and conservatives.  Everyone agreed that the national government (with its income tax resources) should help support governments at the "lower" levels.  The big dispute was overly exactly how that should be done, and if it was being done efficiently or effectively--or not.

There were other important areas where the two parties actually agreed, like the desirability of deregulation (of things like airline rates) and the need to simplify and improve the federal income tax system.  Both parties really agreed that Medicaid ought to be administered on a uniform basis, by the national government, among all states--although that never did actually happen because they disagreed on other matters, like welfare reform.  Still, Democrats and Republicans, back then, really weren't "very" far apart.

I am reporting this because it is important to understand how far we have drifted from such concerns over the past 25 years or so.  The Democrats are still about where they were, wanting to solve problems with the intelligent use of federal fiscal and regulatory resources.  But the Republicans have drifted into an ideological never-never land or fantasy world that has nothing to do with "solving problems" or "using resources intelligently."  They talk about Socialism, and Armageddon, and federal takeovers, and the need to protect liberties, in the most unrealistic and belligerent ways.  And, indeed, if their supposed hero, Ronald Reagan, came back, he would be considered too much of a lefty, not pure enough.  The tea-baggers would be running Sarah Palin (or other) against him.

I don't feel that I can give a simple explanation for why this has happened.  But it is clear that the Republican party has been taken over by what previously would have been considered a minor, very radical political fringe.  Somehow, someone else has bought control.  The media certainly have a lot to do with it, but that doesn't seem to me a full answer either.

Probably another factor is that the "debt society" instituted by Ronald Reagan simply ran out of gas during the Bush years.  There had been an illusion of prosperity related to the idea that housing values would rise forever, but more broadly that there was some kind of fundamental fairness in American society, that we could all aspire to what were seen as "middle class lives."  That has ceased to be true, and the new reality is very painful, and certainly helps foster extremists, essentially paranoid, attitudes and behavior.

It is a dangerous mix, and things are going to get worse before they get better.

A little entertainment for Republican "gentlemen"

According to the latest news, when Republicans aren't trying to repeal the new health reform protections for ordinary citizens, or organizing their national meeting in Hawaii (which the birther wing will be disappointed to hear them describe as President Obama's birthplace) or declaring that Armageddon is at hand or encouraging violence against legislators and even the overthrow by force of the American government through a second civil war, they are entertaining themselves at a lesbian bondage strip club in West Hollywood.  [Caution:  the foregoing link plays noisy music!]

I would have thought that Republicans were getting enough sexual activity in their many affairs that have come to public notice, along of course with those of Tiger Woods and poor Sandra Bullock's very ill-chosen husband.  Couldn't she do better than that?  But no, apparently not.  The RNC has contributed its resources to support exotic entertainment.  (The prior link has some of the rather lurid details of exactly what it is that Republicans enjoy nowadays, and probably should be read only by consenting adults).

But, actually, I don't blame them too much.  While it isn't my personal style--if there is going to be a civil war, if the world is coming to an end, one might as well have a real good time in the few days that are left.

You betcha!

Republicans declare war on U.S. government

Well, I suppose that is not totally fair.  They are "Christians" apparently, according to themselves.  The Hutaree Militia doesn't specifically label themselves "Republicans," and I suppose it is conceivable that a few among their members voted for President Obama, but they sound a lot more like Sarah Palin's fans to me.

These are more Michigan folks, and that is where the fellows came from who blew up the Oklahoma City government building.  What is it over there?  We were just in Michigan, and it is such a nice state!  But, yes, the job loss has been terrible.  Police didn't cause that, though.  Why take out your revenge on police personnel?

Really, we have to face it that we have right-wing terrorists among us.  What could be once called the "fringe

 has become mainstream, and the mainstream is converting to violence and threats thereof.  They aren't yet as successful as the Muslim separatists who blew up the subways in Moscow, but, you know, with practice, they might get there yet.  It takes a while to learn how to make all of those bombs, and detonate them in a way that doesn't make them just fizzle in your underpants.

It is amusing that, although the Hutaree despise our government and all it stands for, they did ask for a court-appointed lawyer.  If it were up to me, I would send them straight to Satan.  But I tend to be a harsh and not terribly forgiving sort, especially lately.  I have wrongs that were done me in the early Reagan Administration.  That may be 30 years ago, but I still haven't forgotten.  But Obama isn't like that; the U.S. department of justice isn't like that (at least not now).  Cooler heads are prevailing.

Interestingly, ABC News covered the Hutaree arrests tonight, but CBS (Katie's show) did not.  Here is a link to the story on CNN.

I wonder what Fox News and the NRA have to say?  Probably that they are victims of justifiable anger that their views were not fully considered during the health care reform debate, and that they are rightly concerned that they might have their family doctor replaced by some federal bureaucrat.

Computerized again

My wi-fi is back, took a call to Comcast, but the fix was simple.  So now my wife and I can be on-line at the same time at home, using our portables.

My "main" computer is still down with symptoms that I can hardly bear to think about.  A man only has so much strength!  I like to "fix" things, but sometimes am overwhelmed.

I want the wireless to work, in part because I do have one of the new iPads on order.  Should arrive in a week or so.  Isn't that exciting??

Boy, it is hard now to do without computers.  Or television.  Both of which were created since I was born.  But now they are such a part of how we live!

I am torn between wanting to live "off the grid" and "totally wired."  If I could be off the grid in Montana, perhaps I would settle for that??