Prometheus 6

Well, I found some of Roland Fryer's work on the web. I started reading one the papers, On the Measurement of Segregation (pdf).

We propose a new approach to measuring segregation based on two convictions: (1) a measure of segregation should disaggregate to the level of individuals, and (2) an individual is more segregated the more segregated are the agents with whom she interacts. Having a measure of segregation with the flexibility to disaggregate to the level of individuals opens up windows of opportunity for empirical work, and a better understanding of the mechanisms by which segregation affects economic outcomes. We also desire a measure that gives a larger level of segregation for individuals whose contacts are more segregated. Consider Figure 1, which depicts the distribution of blacks across metropolitan Detroit. There is a large oval in the center of the city containing almost exclusively black households. Any measure of segregation should report that the household in the epicenter is more segregated than a household equidistant from the center and the edge, even when each household has all black neighbors. These are two features that are absent in all existing measures of segregation.

Segregation is a collective phenomenon; the requirement that a measurement of it should be applicable to an individual makes no sense. It's like trying to measure the air pressure of a single molecule of oxygen.

I heard the magic phrase during The News Hour on PBS.

They are protecting Terri Schiavo's right to life.

Right To Life.

This is to establish a firm base for rhetoric.

Destroying stare decis is a beneficial side effect.

Which is why, were I the federal judge in Florida, I would rule that the Supreme Court already ruled and I have to respect their precedent.

Climate Models Reveal Inevitability of Global Warming

How to best curb greenhouse gas emissions is a hotly debated topic. But new research suggests that putting the brakes on greenhouse gas levels is not enough to slow down climate change because the ocean responds so slowly to perturbations. The study results, published today in the journal Science, indicate that even if greenhouse gas levels had stabilized five years ago, global temperatures would still increase by about half a degree by the end of the century and sea level would rise some 11 centimeters.

"Many people don't realize we are committed right now to a significant amount of global warming and sea level rise because of the greenhouse gases we have already put into the atmosphere," says study author Gerald Meehl of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo. "The longer we wait, the more climate change we are committed to in the future." Meehl and his NCAR colleagues ran two coupled climate models that link major components of our planet's climate and incorporate their interactions. The researchers then analyzed scenarios in which greenhouse gases continue to accumulate in the atmosphere at low, moderate and high rates. The highest rates of accumulation led to model results that included a 3.5 degrees Celsius increase in global temperatures and a 30 centimeter rise in global sea level.

Quote of note:

One of the things that makes black progress so hard is our insistence on seeing our difficulties as stemming either from outside forces or from our own bad choices. Is it so hard to figure out that it's both?

All the Nuance That's Fit to Print
By William Raspberry
Monday, March 21, 2005; Page A19

Those behind the ideology-driven rush to privatize everything from prisons to Social Security, I said in a recent column, ought to slow down a bit and admit the obvious: Private isn't necessarily better.

You'd be surprised (though I wasn't) by the number of e-mailers who thought I'd said public is always better.

You know, Tom DeLay has accused Michael Schiavo of trying to kill his wife to get a malpractice suit settlement. That sounds like slander to me.

All out noble Republicans seeking to build a culture of life keep saying "according to what I was told" to keep themselves personally clear of such problems but whoever told them slanders Mr. Schiavo. I do think most Congressmen have expressed themselves publicly such that they have deniability...Republicans pass out whole books of instructions on what to say and how to say it when they invent these issues.

It's one reason the whole "culture of life" thing is curious...that so regimented a group as Republicans would set forth a concept so soft it doesn't define anything (obviously this misuse of terminology to distort understanding is getting under my skin today). In strict terms I can have a culture of life in a thin scum on the bottom of a petri dish. And yeah no one links this but Terri is alive in the same sense that a 110 pound mass of plankton is alive...there's biological activity going on in there, but...

One response to my McCain-Feingold comment came in the form of a link to a blog. Of course.

This is Not Journalism
by Jarret McNeill

There seems to be some confusion about these things, and in truth there should be very little. This just ain t journalism. Blogging (fucking hell, that word again) is not journalism. It s not even an -ism.  Yet time again, both in the mainstream media and right here in this little living room, there seems to be comments that indicate people respond, at times, to blogs as though it were a reported piece instead of a faded Xerox copy of whatever happened to run through the writer s head at any given moment.

It seems a strange and unnecessary discussion to me. Blogging is no more journalism than poetry is fiction; than song lyrics are poetry. (Do you hear that Nobel panel? Song lyrics are not poetry. Bob Dylan s lyrics can be poetical and elevated, but by their nature, by the very fact that they were designed at the service of a tune, and not meant to stand outside the context of the strum and drum of music, they cannot be poetry. Sorry, I had to get that off my chest.)

Hell, blogging is not the same thing as an op-ed, though of any form of journalistic writing I would say this would come closest, but not even that should be taken too seriously.

In mathematics, we'd call "blog" and "blogging" undefined terms. Like parallel lines, its properties depend on the surface on which it takes place...it has no definitive meaning, not really.

Came up on a mailing list the other day. I've been thinking about it for a month now.

The problem comes from addressing "bloggers" rather than services rendered.  The word "blogger" doesn't denote any definitive thing other than the class of software you use to control your website.

An ad is an ad, whether it's on a blog or Fox News. A web site shouldn't be banned from raising funds any more than $1000-per plate dinners...well...no, the dinners should be left alone too. If you set up a web site to support your campaign it should be subject to the same disclosure requirements as your other media spending.

If the law specifically addresses "bloggers," the meaning of which is already changing  before our eyes, we will inevitably find we've included or excluded things we shouldn't have when the meaning changes again.

Seriously, the book review alone presents some food for thought...quite enough for a blogger that wants attention. Because all the blog linking and marketing discussions always say you've got to have good stuff for the sucking up to actually work. They just never tell you what good stuff is. Neither does the book review, but if you think about the quotes presented from the book you'll be on your way to finding out.

'The New New Journalism': Gonzos for the 21st Century

IN the three decades since Tom Wolfe anthologized a group of writers under the rubric ''New Journalism'' and identified them as rivals to the best novelists of their time, a next wave has been gathering. Robert S. Boynton calls this movement the New New Journalism, and he interviews 19 of its leading practitioners in his book of the same name.

I didn't know who da hell he was, to tell the truth. I just get this in my RSS reader:

Dissing Democracy in Asia

As long as we favor dictatorships like Pakistan over free countries like India, we are not putting liberty and democracy at the center of our foreign policy.

..and says to myself, "true, true..." So, editorial reading time.

From the late 1970's to the mid-1990's, as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, I repeatedly warned that Pakistan was selling nuclear materials to other nations. Administrations, both Democratic and Republican, turned a blind eye; they even got leaders of our intelligence community to say that I didn't know what I was talking about. Well, everything I said has been proved absolutely true - to an even more worrisome degree than I had described.

Our military-industrial complex, which I believe dominates our foreign policy, favors Pakistan not only because we can sell it arms, but also because the Pentagon would often rather deal with dictatorships than democracies. When a top Pentagon official goes to Pakistan, he can meet with one general and get everything settled. On the other hand, if he goes to India, he has to talk to the prime minister, the Parliament, the courts and, God forbid, the free press.

THAT is so human I can't help just taking it as an article of faith from now on.

Read this...but be aware that it nets to a suggestion that Democrats just stop fighting in return for Republicans acting like adults.

Minority Rules
By IAIN DUNCAN SMITH
London

AS Republicans in the United States decide whether to do away with filibusters by changing Senate rules - the so-called nuclear option - they would do well to cast their eyes at their Conservative cousins across the Atlantic. Britain's backbench members of Parliament, whom I led as head of the Conservative Party from 2001 to 2003, are virtually powerless before a determined government majority. Indeed, if it were not for the House of Lords, the second and appointed chamber, which has retained limited powers of delay, British government would be an elected dictatorship.

Quote of note:

Justice Scalia may believe that by repeating his radical views enough times, the nation will grow accustomed to them. But his approach would mean throwing out much of the nation's existing constitutional law, and depriving Americans of basic rights. Justice Scalia's campaign to be the next chief justice, if it is that, is a timely reminder of why he would be a disastrous choice for the job.

He has reason to believe his view will become acceptable by mere repetition. That's how The Big Lie works...and it does work. And given that throwing out much of constitutional law is exactly what the Bush regime is looking to do, he's right in line with the plan.

Anyway...

That Scalia Charm

US deadlock in right-to-die case

The US Congress has delayed debating a bill that would force doctors to keep a brain-damaged woman alive against her husband's wishes.

Democrats objected to an informal vote on the case of Terri Schiavo, whose feeding tube was removed on Friday.

The House had been convened in a rare Sunday session, but immediately recessed. It is expected to meet again early on Monday.

President George W Bush had cut short a holiday to sign the bill if passed.

'Political precedent'

On Saturday, Congressional leaders said that they had reached a deal that would allow a federal court to review the Schiavo case.

Lawmakers had been expected to try and push through their compromise bill over the next few hours, says the BBC's James Coomarasamy in Washington.

Here we present a gentleman that sees the same connection between economics and race matters that I do...only he's got formal training and rigor and all that stuff I pretend to have.

His whole damn life story is in the NY Times. I think the story will convince most interested parties that he's at least worth attending to...it's surprisingly multidimensional but says little about his work...which I am genuinely interested in seeing.

I suggest you do as I have--read it to see if he seems to be the kind of guy whose opinion interests you then forget the whole story and see what comes of his work.

Toward a Unified Theory of Black America
By STEPHEN J. DUBNER

Hospitals can end life support
Decision hinges on patient's ability to pay, prognosis
By LEIGH HOPPER
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

A patient's inability to pay for medical care combined with a prognosis that renders further care futile are two reasons a hospital might suggest cutting off life support, the chief medical officer at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital said Monday.

Dr. David Pate's comments came as the family of Spiro Nikolouzos fights to keep St. Luke's from turning off the ventilator and artificial feedings keeping the 68-year-old grandfather alive.

St. Luke's notified Jannette Nikolouzos in a March 1 letter that it would withdraw life-sustaining care of her husband of 34 years in 10 days, which would be Friday. Mario Caba-llero, the attorney representing the family, said he is seeking a two-week extension, at minimum, to give the man more time to improve and to give his family more time to find an alternative facility.

I linked to an L.A Times editorial by Jervey Tervalon, and asked who it is that's actually scared.

Mr Tervalon gave me a very brief answer by email yesterday:

Just wanted to note that at the high school I taught at in Los Angeles, a girl was shot in the head by some fool who wanted to shoot someone else. In LA, like many inner cities people are scared of the police, gangs, all them fools with guns.

Fools with guns. Everyone agrees that's unacceptable. But what can you do about the fools or the guns?

Revenge of the Perturbed II: Readers Offer Tactics
By IAN URBINA

As it turns out, frustration - not necessity - may be the true mother of invention.

An article that appeared in The New York Times last week about the things people do to deal with life's many little annoyances spurred a flood of responses from readers offering their own tactics.

While providing a telling look at the banal things that bother people, these reactions also shed light on the lengths people go to extract retribution for mundane infractions. But most of all, they revealed the creativity in passive aggression.

Dena Roslan was sick of a co-worker who kept helping himself to her lunch cookies. So Ms. Roslan, 30, a clothing designer who works in Manhattan, bought a bag of dog biscuits that looked like biscotti. "My only remorse was not being able to see his face after he ate the bait," she said.

General Myers just said on Meet The Press that though recruitment has fallen short of goals, retention exceeds expectation. Rumsfeld made the same point earlier of This Week.

I'm sure those retention figures include those guys drafted through the back door. I really wonder what the retention rate looks like without them.

Rumsfeld on Iraq: If we'd gotten the 4th infantry into Iraq from the north, we'd have seen a smaller insurgency. He forgets that they allowed the soldiers to walk away, intentionally.

"We've only used like 40% of the Army Reserve."

Rumsfeld is taking the "I don't know" defense an awful lot.

McCain on Schaivo: The tort reform bill is precedent for moving a state concern to a Federal level! And he's hoping it doesn't turn political...when the very presence of the issue on the national stage is due to politics.

On steroids, he's suggesting a national standard drug testing program for all professional sports.

On the nucular option, he's against it but it's everyone's fault. Yeah, right.

On Social Security, nuthin' new. Same old "to say that we should do nothing" nonsense when no one has said that...

Quote of note:

When surveys ask students which is more important, to be honorable and get a low grade or to cheat and get a high grade, she said, more students choose the A. "The parents will say 'no, no, no,' but the message they're sending says the opposite."

The use of performance enhancing drugs reflects a society where stress and striving have become the national pastime. Ms. Pope calls it the "credentialism society," exemplified in her book through a high school student who describes life as a quest to get the best grades, so you can get into the best college, so you can get into the best graduate school, so you can get the highest-paying job, which brings you happiness.

The Difference Between Steroids and Ritalin Is . . .
By KATE ZERNIKE

Beyond the Bullets and Blades
By MARC LACEY
Published: March 20, 2005

...The younger Innocent, just 12, was from another village overrun by tribal fighters, albeit several years ago. He got out in time to avoid injury. But ever since, this Innocent has lived in a camp, huddled together with other displaced people. Still, his survival is in doubt. His arms are covered with mosquito bites and his blood is full of plasmodium parasites. Malaria kills if left untreated, which it often is in war zones like eastern Congo.

This Innocent will likely survive for now because he made it to a hospital. But he will get malaria again, and the wars that surround him will continue, and who knows if he will have access to a doctor then? And if it is not malaria that kills him, maybe it will be meningitis or measles or AIDS. Those scourges already kill far too many Africans, even in tranquil areas where a fragile social order holds together. Add war to that picture, and the death toll rises calamitously.

That is the second way of death in Africa's wars.