What's In a Name - Part III

Jason and I were discussing one of my favorite books last weekend, and this article in the Times reminded me of it:

“My wife thinks I’m nuts,” said Jason Captain, 32, of Fort Worth who left the Navy last November, walking away from $75,000-a-year lieutenant’s pay for flying military brass in and out of Guantánamo Bay.

If only he'd waited until his next promotion to retire from the service! I bet I'm the first person to ever make that joke.

The Omnivore's News

I'm in the middle of The Omnivore's Dilemma. I know I'm a little behind in my reading, but I'm trying to catch up, so here we are. One of the things I find particularly interesting is how the material I read in the book one night tends to show up in the news the next day. Here are two pieces from the Times that I came across in the last few days.

As Prices Rise, Farmers Spurn Conservation
Grains Gone Wild

Here's another good one: Bring on the Right Biofuels

Should we stay or should we go?

The New York Times quotes John McCain:

“We have incurred a moral responsibility in Iraq. It would be an unconscionable act of betrayal, a stain on our character as a great nation, if we were to walk away from the Iraqi people and consign them to the horrendous violence, ethnic cleansing and possibly genocide that would follow a reckless, irresponsible and premature withdrawal.”

I think this touches on how I feel about Iraq right now. I can't choose a side in the "stay or go" debate, but I'm quite sure that it's nowhere as clear-cut as either side makes it out to be. McCain's usual win-at-all-costs rhetoric bothers me, but so do people who say that our time is done, and the Iraqis must choose for themselves whether they want war or peace. I would argue that we relieved them of that responsibility when we invaded their nation and systematically dismantled their government. Like it or not, we caused their current situation, and to blame them for not pulling themselves out of it seems two-faced.

Of course, I also don't support keeping 140,000 US soldiers in Iraq for 10,000 years, either. That's the problem: there is no simple answer, and maybe not even a very good complicated answer.

Happy Anniversary

It has now been 5 years since the day that I sat in my sad cubicle at Vignette and read, on the front page of Boston.com, "This will be the front page story if and when we go to war with Iraq. This will be the front page story if and when we go to war with Iraq." To commemorate the occasion, the Times has published an excellent set of reflections on the war. Be sure to read this one.

Can Someone Please Close the Retard Window?

Papelobon speaks about his current contract status:

At the same time, I feel a certain obligation to not only to myself and my family to make the money that I deserve, but for the game of baseball.

Man, if he doesn't get that big contract...it could spell doom for the 'ol national pastime.

One in NINE?!

According to a Times article on a recent Pew report (PDF), more than 1% of US adults are incarcerated. That's disturbing, but 1 is a small number, so it's easy to shrug off. This, however, is harder:

Incarceration rates are even higher for some groups. One in 36 Hispanic adults is behind bars, based on Justice Department figures for 2006. One in 15 black adults is, too, as is one in nine black men between the ages of 20 and 34.

More than 10% of black male young adults in the US are in jail?! Good lord, what does that say about race in our society? It certainly seems to help explain all of those fatherless black children that Bill Cosby likes to talk about. I think we have larger problems than the war in Iraq or the mortgage crisis...

I'll Take the Incandescent, Thank You Very Much

There's been a lot of hoopla about Compact Fluorescent Light bulbs recently, first about how they're going to save the world, then a reaction about how their mercury content may be a problem, and then a reaction to the reaction, downplaying the risks of the mercury. Of course, most of the "don't worry about the mercury" arguments assume that we'll all be good eco-citizens and recycle our dead CFLs instead of throwing them in the trash. Good luck with that. Once again, we find that as much as the government and media want one, there's simply no magic solution to most of our problems.

Personally, I'm going to stick with the technology whose broken-bulb cleanup procedures have fewer than 5 steps. My favorite part is this one:

"As a precaution, consider discarding throw rugs or the area of carpet where the breakage occurred"