nerdgirl

Concur ... concur strongly. The last part (highlighted) is of most interest/concern to me. Last week, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was quoted as saying w/r/t what the election of Sen Obama meant (whether the meaning was purely for her, for the nation, or for the world was not specified … perhaps that’s just as well, eh?) “Electing a black president says around the world that you can overcome old wounds. I’ve said in our case, we have a birth defect, but it can be overcome.” A rise in racially motivated violent incidents against non-whites (allegedly) perpetrated by white supremacy groups & individuals is being observed. Should that be addressed, ignored, or disregarded as expected behavior? Even if it is the latter (expected behavior), does that make it any less wrong? VR/Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

So I’m in a cab to the New Orleans airport earlier today. The driver has the Dave Ramsay show playing on the radio. It’s not a show to which I don't usually listen, but I’ve heard of it. The host makes a comment that the introduction of credit card swipers to some Salvation Army red kettles in Texas and Colorado was morally bad. I wish I could remember his exact words. How is that immoral? Seems capitalistic and smart, imo. What do you think? VR/Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

Thoughtfully provocative post ... in good ways.

Good example. One major difference in their theology though, as I understand it, is the need for absolution from a human being (read: Priest). Christ taught that only 'One' could judge and forgive of spiritual sins. In fact he quite often spoke against the Pharisees and the religious 'elite'. You very well may correct w/r/t that specific aspect. I honestly don't know. VR/Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

Perhaps if you re-consider your hypothesis a little you may see where/how compassion/altruism/cooperation is completely consonant with evolution and benefit the long term survival of the human species (think about reproduction and enabling your progeny to survive and reproduce in the future just to start, along with cooperative building). And that's not just speculation on my part. The disparate fields of sociobiology, philosophy, evolutionary psychology, & economic game theory deal directly with this. Just a few examples off the top of my head (when I first put responded to another thread

I think you're asking some genuinely interesting questions. The folks who I (owned as my own opinion) most closely come to living a life modelled on the teachings of Jesus Christ are the Catholic Workers. They live in the world (rather than separate) and truly serve the poor. They acknowledge their struggles because sometimes serving the poor (& destitute & mentally problematic & homeless & abused & substanced abusing/abused) can be damned tough. It takes more patience than I have. VR/Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

I don't consider consideration of geopolitical impact of resources and instability in southwest Asia (& other states) to be cynical (e.g., see the latest NIC Global Trends Report ... or the 2020 one ... or the 2015 one). So, no I don't think you're being cynical. The BBC articles to which you linked are from 2001 & 2002. During 2000 & early 2001, the US govt was one of a small number of governments in the world that acknowledge the Taliban as the official government of Afganistan. An action driven largely by realpolitik/realist foreign policy, btw. That was the context and included in the content of this parapgraph from my original post to the thread: I don't see anything to suggest that the current proposals/discussions/notions on negotiating w/the Taliban are directly tied to re-establishing/re-initiating pipeline efforts. Have you seen something to suggest otherwise recently (last 6 months)? VR/Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

Yes, suspect the ODNI/NIC site is just overwhelmed. VR/Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

"Latest" ? To whom are you referring? Ayman al-Zawahiri (the Egyptian pediatrician) is regarded as al Qa'eda's second in command and has been for over ten years. Do you have a link? VR/Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

Which one? Brazil is near the top of my all time favorite films ... altho' I'm not sure I'd want to live it. Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

Putting a bullet in a terrorist takes one man out of a fight. Winning the "hearts and minds" of a village takes a hundred potential terrorists out of the fight. We can kill as many as we want, they'll keep building new ones. We need to destroy the factory, and that factory is made of poverty, ignorance, hopelessness, and fear. Thanks Dan. Concisely put. VR/Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

Military enlisted rank in the USA: Staff Sergeant (SSG) Army Petty Officer First Class (PO1) Navy Technical Sergeant (TSgt) Air Force Staff Sergeant (SSgt) Marine Corps I had dinner with 2 O-6s and an 0-7 last night.

Thanks for the additional information. Appreciate it. Everything that you write makes sense regarding the response of E-6s. /Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

Given: the DCI GEN Hayden (now retired) acknowledged water boarding in Congressional testimony (until other evidence and testimony is presented, I give him credit for being honest); convictions (i.e., laws that were broken) for prisoner abuse and maltreatment in Iraq and abuse at Bagram in Afghanistan; the findings of the DoD’s (MG) Taguba report; the findings of the Army’s (MG) Fay report, which explicitly found that the abuse and maltreatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib was tantamount to torture (p. 98 & p. 145); what’s been publically revealed about findings of the Army’s (still classified) Ryder report; documented medical evidence; the FOIA-obtained FBI memo stating interrogators from an ‘other-government-agency’ (OGA) & OGA contractors impersonated FBI agents and used “torture techniques” against Guantanamo detainees; and the library of other FOIA-obtained documents mostly on policy, there is little real basis to claim there was no use of torture. ---- -- - -- ---- W/r/t the comments by two of Sen Obama's advisors, my speculation is that it’s more of move toward a “Truth & Reconciliation”-esque policy. That would be the policy option that I would recommend pursuing. Pursuit of what might be perceived as vindictive retribution does not serve the interests of the US. Likewise, ignoring it, wishing it would ‘just go away,’ or being in denial about actions executed by individuals acting on the behalf of the USG does not serve US interests. VR/Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

Don't know for sure ... but my reading is a lot closer to yours. Per SC docket (linked): Now, I’m not a lawyer and perhaps my reading is incorrect (?) but that seems to indicate that Justice Souter's Clerk has informed Mr. Berg that Mr. Berg's application for an injunction to stay the November 4th election has been denied. VR/Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

Apologies on the delay in responding. Sitting in airport terminals does afford time to respond. Thank you for asking. Yes, I read the linked BBC story to which you linked. Additionally, I read official Norwegian government statements (i.e., including those for which I provided urls previously) and the primary document: Section 6-11a of the Norwegian Public Limited Liability Companies Act of 1977. Section 6-11a of the Norwegian Public Limited Liability Companies Act of 1977 (as amended) requires that every two years, state-owned and privately-owned public limited liability companies, i.e., wholly state-owned and those with significant state ownership, with more than 200 employees must elect a corporate board. Corporate boards serve for 2 year terms. It does not apply to private limited liability companies. It is a piece of this law to which you are so objecting. The rules applying to wholly state owned companies became law on 1 January 2004, and the rules regarding privately owned public limited companies (plc’s) entered into force two years later. There are *no* similar requirements regarding board composition for privately owned companies. Existing companies had a 2-year transitional period (i.e., a corporate board election cycle) to come into compliance. Newly formed public limited liability companies were required to comply with the law from start. No one is getting fired. Here’s a link from StatOilHydro describing the process for “Corporate assembly and board of directors.” Setting aside the “her reasoning” claim for a moment, by what measure or criteria do you determine “most rampant”? One might hope that someday the scenario you suggest might be the “most rampant” example of sex discrimination in the world. I wish you were right. Honestly. More than you can imagine … 14-yo girl stoned to death for reporting being raped. Male student and journalist sentenced to 20 years in prison, reduced from the original death sentence, for blasphemy. His crime was circulating an article on basic autonomy and human rights for women that he had downloaded from the internet. There is a lot more rampant discrimination than less qualified men on the corporate boards of Norwegian plcs being put into positions over more qualified women. As far as his reasoning – the Minister at the time the law wa put in place was male – is also not quite what you describe, to put it diplomatically. As I noted before the main reason is to increase competitiveness (e.g., the result noted repeatedly by economists) and getting the most qualified people on boards. The discrimination is not “in the past.” More women than men earn professional degrees in Norway and have for some while. Women have not faced the same discrimination in other areas, e.g., government: Gro Harlem Brundtland, former Prime Minsiter; Anne-Grete Strøm-Erichsen, current defence minister. When 6-12% of plc boards are women (those were the percentages in 2003) and ~60% of the qualified people are women, one has to do some serious cognitive twisting to claim/’hand-wave’ away. The most qualified by objective measures are not getting the opportunity … now. And really that’s it. That’s the law. And the core of the Norway solution to more qualified women being excluded due to discriminations in one specific segment. It’s a targeted hiring plan. What question? There does not appear to have been a question. There was a problematical polemic on firing currently employed MIT physics professors to which I responded. Please go back to my first reply to you: “There are at least three fundamental problems in your scenario [on firing MIT physics profs] that make it perhaps more perpendicular than parallel.” (NB also please note the lack of ad hominems.) I take no issue with “thread drift” – it’s sometimes more interesting & fun. One might argue that Brazilian drowning statistics and the composition of MIT’s physic’s department represents more significant “thread drift” than additional information on programs from the Norwegian Ministry of Children and Equality and activities on gender & equality, both for women and men, eh? Yes, that is the benchmark to which execution of the law compared. One needs to know the composition of the boards currently. The policy is regarding filling (hiring) boards of directors, which occurs every two years: corporate governance. Existing companies. Not new companies, not hiring. Do you have a source (e.g., url) for that quote? Here’s the Aftenposten article from January 2005 quoting Mr. Brende. He does not say what is quoted above. He’s not quoted saying anything like that in Aftenposten in January or February 2005. Albeit, it’s not your fault if someone else is putting false information of the internet (it’s not my fault either). You are correct that Mr. Brende is not quoted in Aftenposten about new companies; he is quoted on the composition of boards of directors of state-owned companies. He also ’razzs’ on Iceland and Sweden … but that’s almost a Norwegian past-time … especially Sweden. Snakker du norsk? Jeg snakker litt norsk. Og jeg leser norsk på en mellomliggende evne. Det skrevet omgangsspråk er analog med engelske. (Apologies to any native language speakers for poor translation or mis-spelling/mis-conjugation ... haven’t had a good excuse to read or write Norwegian in a while.

The US-Iraq Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) that has been negotiated between the US Government and the Iraqi government was approved by the Iraqi cabinet earlier this week. It still needs to be voted on by the Iraqi parliament; in the end, it is likely to be implemented, imo. President Bush has indicated support repeatedly. Negoitiations began (officially) in late May or early June. The SOFA must be in place by 31 December 2008. The SOFA sets a withdrawal date for US combat troops at 31 December 2011. Whether it’s just a contingent of Marines guarding the US Embassy or something more like the current numbers deployed at bases in Germany, Japan, and ROK (~56,000, ~33,000, & ~26,000, respectively), US troops will still be in Iraq; their role will be changed. Among the specifications of the negotiated SOFA, however, are provisions that US forces must withdraw from Iraqi cities and towns by 30 June 2009. Just over 7 months from now. In addition to the Awakening Councils/Sons of Iraq groups, the movement of US soldiers and Marines (away from FOB) into cities and towns was a critical/crucial aspect of application of counterinsurgency (COIN) theory. (One can also argue the affect of other independent and proximal factors.). (Unofficial translation from Arabic version of SOFA.) This means that much of Sen Obama’s campaign proposals w/r/t withdrawal from Iraq will be US policy before he takes the oath of office. He has had no direct input into the SOFA negotiation process. The terms of the SOFA are more restrictive than Sen Obama’s campaign plan, e.g., military advisors are restricted after June next year. In consideration of some of the commentary offered w/in the thread, “A real report about Iraq Report,” on MG McCaffrey’s info memo to USMA … what is an inversion of the suggested scenarios occur? Hypothetically, if there is resurgence in sectarian violence or insurgencies due to provisions of an agreement negotiated by the current administration to which Sen Obama had no input or control, with whom should the culpability for foreign policies consequences lay? NB: Not “who should be blamed” because the ultimate responsibility for sectarian violence & insurgency is with the individuals supporting such actions and those perpetuating and engaging in it, not *any* US administration, its policies, or the individuals deployed to execute and implement lawful US policies. VR/Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

Again, innacurate in that it does not demand anyone be fired. It’s a hiring policy ...or more specifically a proposed change to corporate governance policy for determining composition of corporate boards of directors. Again in a more accurate parallel, no one would be fired from the MIT physics dept within your hypothetical scenario; it would impact subsequent composition of boards of directors of certain companies. It started with state-owned companies (that put in new boards every year) and newly formed companies. E.g., if University of Massachusetts (public school) was to create a new department, the law would apply. Subsequently applied to public limited companies. The original Norwegian law, which has been in effect since 2003, does not demand anyone be fired. And there's nothing wrong with that. The problems are taking an analogy too far such that it doesn't hold up and not acknowledging starting assumptions. Curiously, one might wonder if you also object to the actions of the same Norwegian Minister this year to create a Men’s Panel?: “Bekkemellem told Norwegian news outlet Aftenposten (Norwegian newspaper, akin to NY Times), 'This is to put focus on men’s lack of rights. It is about time that men themselves enter the debate.' “Men are falling behind in the education system, rarely get custody over children after divorce, and face different health risks from women, the minister said.” Text of that policy from the Norwegian Storting (their version of Congress). VR/Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

It's no more wrong than assuming the inverse, i.e., that it's all socially constructed. More correct is probably somewhere in the middle ... and recogizing the variation within the genders and overlap between them. We're much, much, much more alike at the genetic level than we are different (genotype). And while I might find some of those phenotypic differences (outward appearance) absolutely wonderful , using them as a basis for discrimination is not robust science. VR/Marg p.s. Just to be explicit: With that last line in mind, and justice, and a lot of other factors, I don't support sex-based affirmative action hiring or promotion. Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

The assumption is that it has a positive value for the society. Let's look at it in real life. Using an example, say... MITs physics professors. clicky I counted over 125. Names that resembled female names? 5. To implement the Norway policy, 50 of the 127 male professors would need to be replaced by women. To teach physics at MIT, I suspect there are few slackers on their faculty. Firing 50 of the best and brightest for no reason other than gender is sexism. Is this the new gender equality? Those 50 are punished for no crime other than their gender? Is this new form of discrimination a goal? It would make MIT physics dept equal to Norway in fashion, but destroy the actual value of a university - teaching. That is a harsh price to pay for being fashionable. There are at least three fundamental problems in your scenario that make it perhaps more perpendicular than parallel. (1) Your assumption that there was no underlying sexism or gender inequality to start – you did not address/selectively ignored the people who are “punished” (your word choice) now - how many of them might have been in the "best" and "brightest" if not for past explicit and tacit sexist policies? Otoh, multiple studies have shown that women have been assessed more negatively when they can be identified by feminine first names, etc. That is papers are reviewed more positively and success in funding goes up when a woman only uses initials. In response, some journals have gone to double-blind review (neither author nor review knows the others’ identity) and using initials in proposal submission. Another dramatic example is Prof Ben (nee Barbara) Barnes. Barnes is tenured full professor at Stanford. Barnes had female to male sex re-assignment surgery ~15 years ago. Among the many stories he tells is that he was told by other male scientists that his work was better than ‘his sister.’ (He doesn’t have a sister doing research.) (2) The motivation - see competiveness and the point above; and (3) The inaccurate implication that Norway’s policy forces folks to be fired based on sex. It’s a hiring policy. To create a more accurate parallel, no one would be fired from the MIT physics dept within your hypothetical scenario; it would impact future hiring. Given the declining number of American nationals pursuing postgraduate physical science and engineering, it might be a wiser strategy to co-opt strategies and tactics intended to increase minorities and women in S&T fields for getting young white males interested in the those fields, eh? It's been my observation that if one goes out looking for ‘jerks’ and assholes, one will usually find them. Of that minority of folks who are ‘jerks’ who inject themselves into my world, I observe that sexism usually isn’t their only ‘jerky-ness.’ One of the best cures for sexism seems to be having a daughter or granddaughter. Most successful people – male or female; black, white, or other – don’t wait around for someone to open doors for them (literally or metaphorically) … some folks just have to push a lil’ harder, bang on a few more doors, or dance backwards in high heels. The real world isn’t fair. I’m glad there are folks documenting the competitive advantages and successful strategies for reducing gender and racial inequality … & not just because it benefits US competiveness in the long run. VR/Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

*Bravo* Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

Thanks for posting that; I probably would not have seen it otherwise. It’s long been observed by economists that decreasing the gender gap/gender inequality has correlated to increases in GDP. And it’s not just applicable to the developing world, e.g., observed in early 20th C Germany. Hmmm … so in addition to making better lovers, feminism also benefits capitalism. It’s interesting to me to see which ideology trumps the other for some folks: competitiveness & capitalism versus maintaining traditional gender biases/assumptions/sexism. VR/Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

Excellent question. With the SOFA looking more & more likely to go into effect every day, how will that impact President's Bush strategy, what Sen McCain indicated would be his preferred strategy, and how does it reconcile with the strategy proposed by Sen Obama? Dictatorships are among the most stable governments in the world (until transition of power occurs). Do you think stability or democracy/freedom should be the goal? Again, concur w/r/t Gen McCaffrey's bona fides. What media are you referring? Maybe that's where I'm finding the disconnect ... From your OP: “a real report about Iraq that has not been filtered by a biased news media and given by someone who knows what he is talking about”. Other than the part I noted about retention issues with E-6s, I think I’ve seen/heard everything GEN McCaffrey noted mentioned in one form or another on NPR & PBS over the last few years. And thank you again. Always appreciate input closer to primary data. No, as poignantly demonstrated I read the full report. VR/Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

Thanks for the more detailed response. You provided a lot to which I could respond … and most in agreement.

I had dinner with 2 O-6s and an 0-7 last night.