Desiring Machine

This pronouncement from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad disturbs me. The nuclear issue is not closed. Iran can not have Nuclear weapons, and by extension a Uranium enrichment program, end of story. If this means military intervention in Iran then I support that. However, I think all diplomatic channels should be pursued aggressively, but a military option is permissible in my opinion. I know this may run counter to many on the left. I am opposed to the folly in Iraq, but I am not inclined to see Iran persist in its Uranium enrichment program. More to the point I am not sure Iran is entitled to any Nuclear program whatsoever. Even if it is “completely peaceful and transparent”. If they wanted to satisfy their domestic energy needs then Ahmadinejad should be talking to us about the progress they are making on solar energy. Surely the have enough sunshine in the desert to power all their homes? If he started talking about that then I would be impressed. The UN needs to step up, and major action needs to be taken immediately.

Unfortunately, I don’t think Bush has any more capital to spend on this issue. It will be up to Hillary to put Ahmadinejad in his place in 2009.

Of course as a side note, as long as the USA, France, and other major powers depend on Nuclear energy, we cannot avoid becoming duplicitous on this issue. That is why the only viable long term solution is to mothball Nuclear power across the globe. America needs to lead by example. And France, could help out as well.

A few interesting facts about Solar energy from wikipedia.

The total solar energy available to the earth is approximately 3850 zettajoules (ZJ) per year. When they first started researching solar energy it cost about $1500 per watt to produce. But today with greater efficiency it is less than $3 per watt to produce with modern Solar technology. There are estimates that a well-managed nuclear unit can produce electricity profitably at a total cost of 2.0-2.5 cents per kilowatt-hour. However, I suspect this cost overlooks certain fixed costs and decommissioning costs that are inevitably borne by the tax payer. Not to mention the many, many, many years that it will take to safeguard nuclear waste. The economics of this issue needs more research on my part and I will return to the subject in a future blog post to address the economics. But this paper from the Rocky Mountain Institute entitled, Nuclear power: economics and climate-protection potential, is a good unbiased place to start. I welcome comments pro and con.

Interesting documentary about North Korea.

The apotheosis of a head of state is a difficult concept for us in the west to get our heads around. The whole spectacle of it is surreal. The American religious and political traditions are so fractured and splintered it is difficult to imagine a single political leader to ever achieve the same level of devotion. The closest examples may be Abraham Lincoln on the right and in the 20th century John F. Kennedy on the left. But even in the case of JFK, there is a latent cynicism widely recognized. I grew up with pictures of JFK in my grandfather’s basement, not unlike pictures of the “Dear Leader” you might find lining the apartment walls of an average Pyongyang citizen. But even as one looks up admirably at JFK, one does’t forget that he was human like the rest of us. He had his mistresses, his folly in Vietnam, and other limitations. This is universally recognized by admirers and detractors. Go back further and even the giants of American civilization don’t escape scrutiny. Even the schoalrship around someone like Thomas Jefferson doesn’t shy away from the unseemly facts of his incestous relationship with his slave/half sister. So it is in this tradition that we can hardly understand the apotheosis of a “Dear Leader”.

A couple salient points about the documentary that stick out to me. First the wall that South Koreans have built to keep the North Koreans out. A wall that is conspicuous to solidiers in the north, and mostly invisible from the vantage point of the south. A clear symbol that South Korea is not inclined or prepared to absorb the massive potential refugee crisis that is the failed state of North Korea. Also, while there is an understanding that reunification is nearly inevitable, it seems that the South Koreans are not eager to absorb economic realities that a full scale unification of the Korean pennisula would entail. I find it very telling that the political advisor is eager to avoid the German model of reunification through absorption. He is pretty bald face about it as well, stating that the Korean elite have seen how things have gone badly in Germany, and that they do not want that, and even more forcefully assert that it will not happen in a Korean context. At the end of the day this seems to be a symptom of greed on the part of the South Koreans. A major political shift in the North and concerted reunification effort with the South will invariably lead to a massive refugee crisis. The people who are so isolated in the North would understandably create intense demands of socio-economic justice once they learn of the immense prosperity of the South.

This economic schism seems insurmountable in the short term. It appears that neither the South Koreans nor us in the west have any inclination to speed the process along. This dynamic is not too disimilar to internal tension within China between the relatively prosperous urbanized populations and the dramatically destitute rural populations.

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

~Emma Lazarus, The New Colossus 1883

Or as Lou Reed once said

Give me your hungry, your tired your poor I’ll piss on em
Thats what the statue of bigotry says
Your poor huddled masses, lets club em to death
And get it over with and just dump em on the boulevard

~Dirty Boulevard

Anyone who thinks that boisterous claptrap begins and ends with Bill O’Reilly and Fox News just needs to take a look at this clip from the roaring 80’s.

Poor Ron Paul the voice of reason. But why is he shouting so much and why is the audience shouting even louder? I guess you have to grant that at least they are passionate about something, what that something is I am not quite sure because I can’t hear myself think.

The world seems awash in poker metaphors these days. These are interesting, often trite, but meaningful nonetheless. I don’t have much to add to the discussion but it is a topic that has consumed me for awhile. The sheer poetry of poker is a fundamental theme in American culture. The song that best captures it for me is “Loser” by the Grateful Dead.

All that I am asking for is ten gold dollars,
and I could pay you back with one good hand.
You can look around about the wide world over,
and you’ll never find another honest man.

This line sums it up for me. The promise of the next moment. The turn of the card. The eternal optimism of the loser. Whatever the consequences, this seems like the most correct way to live life and it is quintessential to the spirit of americana. Or maybe that is just a silly romantic notion I just can’t shirk. But when you have been down so long you only have upwards to look. And what can be better for the soul than a spirit of renewal and rebirth, an opportunity to start over, and fix things anew? That is how I feel about this upcoming political season. Frankly the Bush presidency doesn’t have me down anymore. I know that 2008 will bring a turn of the cards, and all it takes is one good hand and this country will be back on track.

Others have criticized Bush and compared his actions to a desperate gambler. Kos blog makes pretty compelling poker analogy about the Republicans and the war. But I don’t think this is giving enough credit to gamblers. These metaphors while seemingly apt, are a little too pretentious to me. Bush certainly is a degenerate gambler, but I don’t think he encapuslates the more positive aspects of the game. And it is a shame to draw the analogy. Bush and the behavior of his cronies strike me more as assuming the characteristics of card sharps, the deck is stacked and they behave with such arrogance because they truly know the next card in the deck. The people are being taken for a ride because they are operating under the assumption of a fair deal. There is another side to it. The election cycle represents a reshuffle of the cards and a reinvigorated determination on the part of the American public.

Don’t you push me baby
because I’m moaning low
I know a little something
you won’t ever know
Don’t you touch hard liquor just
a cup of cold coffee
Gonna get up
in the morning and go

And that is it isn’t it? “I know a little something you won’t ever know…” Only experience can reap positive benefits. There is a moment of truth in this experience. An appreciation of the randomness of life. A reassertion of positive determination. No liquor and distraction for me, just some cold coffee and I am going to refocus my efforts and get up and go.

This is americana and this is what makes this country great. It is not the cynicism, the cheats, and the desperation. It is the people who look at things with a clear head, redouble their efforts and work positively towards a new, brighter future. There is a little gamble in everything because the future is unknown. But there is something positively constructive about this American optimism.

I can tell the Queen of Diamonds by the way she shines
Come to Daddy on an inside straight
I got no chance of losing this time

Ok enough rambling on my part. I will leave you with an early performance of Loser by the Dead.