“By drastically expanding the scope of freely available information, the Internet has fundamentally altered the concept of privacy as well as how people form opinions of anything and, perhaps more significantly, anyone. The proliferation of blogs, online forums, and social media has created a space for fruitful exchanges of information between people across the globe. While readers often take what they find seriously, such content should not always be considered at face value. When it comes to information about people, the Internet and search engines often call up information that is private, untrue, or out of context.”
This quotation is from an article by Deanna Glick on AOL entitled “Weiner Provides Valuable Lesson About Online Privacy”. It rings true to me,
As one of the “proliferation of blogs” types she mentions, the article caught my attention. Anyone who has read my blogs has seen me decry the loss of privacy in the cyberworld, especially in the form of the social networks. I am an old fogy who refuses to join the world of Facebook and Twitter because of these privacy concerns. I have family and friends who are in the social networks, and I understand it’s a good way to keep up or rekindle friendships, but it is not for me. I’ll find other ways, thank you, to keep up with friends or refind old ones.
The world of the computer and the internet have put us in a new and exciting Age of Information. In the future when history is written, or whatever the future form of communication will be, we will be part of this Age of Information, just as people in the nineteenth century were part of the Age of the Industrial Revolution. It has created miracles and wonders for our lives. But with every blessing comes the flipside, and ours is loss of privacy.
All kinds of weirdos are out there: horny, frustrated, venomous, lonely---you choose the adjective---and they want the world to know it. It is a cry of frustration or a plea for attention. Look at Representative Weiner, a man of intelligence and ability, who has just screwed up his life by exposing himself, literally and figuratively, by his email “mistake”. On the net, you can’t take back your mistakes, as he so grievously discovered.
George Orwell in “1984” described “Big Brother”, the super-tyrant who controls our lives. In the cyberworld Big Brother lurks, and we all hear his footsteps too close and too often. Privacy is our last refuge. Let’s keep the door locked when we hear those footsteps.
Friday, June 10, 2011
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
WAY TO GO, DELTA
Those wonderful folks who bring you Delta Airlines have struck another blow for clumsy inept public relations by the recent to-do about charging soldiers returning from Afghanistan $2800 in excess baggage charges. It isn't enough that these soldiers have undergone the trauma of service in that hellhole, but then they have to be soaked by "America's favorite airline". I read in the "Huffington Post" that Delta made 3.7 billion in ancillary revenue in 2010 for food, drink and baggage--a very nice profit center, I would say.
34 soldiers were charge the $2800.00. A Sgt. Robert O'Hair did a Youtube interview and told of his charge of $200.00 for the fourth bag---his weapons case.
Delta better smarten up and allow airport reservation personnel to have some freedom to exert common sense. Probably most of that personnel have a thick procedural guide book spelling out the operating procedure, and the personnel are probably scared shitless to violate its sacred principles. Common sense and decency should still dictate action on the spot.
How to make friends and influence business, the Delta way. Not the right way.
34 soldiers were charge the $2800.00. A Sgt. Robert O'Hair did a Youtube interview and told of his charge of $200.00 for the fourth bag---his weapons case.
Delta better smarten up and allow airport reservation personnel to have some freedom to exert common sense. Probably most of that personnel have a thick procedural guide book spelling out the operating procedure, and the personnel are probably scared shitless to violate its sacred principles. Common sense and decency should still dictate action on the spot.
How to make friends and influence business, the Delta way. Not the right way.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
THE WASHINGTON MERRY-GO-ROUND
Here we go again. I wrote a blog last October about Senator Richard Shelby (R-Alabama) holding up the nomination to the Federal Reserve Board of Peter Diamond, a Nobel Prize winner and authority on joblessness, expressing my frustration that a man of this intellectual quality and with specific gifts to analyze the problems of joblessness in this threatened economy should have his nomination blocked.
Well, people, Dick Shelby and a bunch of bloody-minded Republicans and, to be fair, a lacklustre feeble effort by the Obama administration in support of their nominee have caused Peter Diamond, after fourteen months of frustration, to withdraw his name. Shelby smugly stated that he hoped the administration would come up with someone with "more bipartisan appeal".
Nice work, everybody. It symbolizes the state of inaction and impasse currently the standard oerating procedure in Washington. Just play politics, postphone important decisions until the election. The Republicans don't want to do anything that might give credit to the Obama administration. But Obama and his people aren't a helluva lot better right now in putting everything aside, including job stimulus, to deal with the deficit. I know the deficit is important---but job creation can help to get things going, spark the economy and improve the deficit situation. All we have is intransigence, scolding each other---and not getting anything done.
Let's get off this merry-go-round and let's go somewhere! In the meantime, a brainy man named Peter Diamond, who might have some good ideas, is walking away. It's a bloody shame.
Well, people, Dick Shelby and a bunch of bloody-minded Republicans and, to be fair, a lacklustre feeble effort by the Obama administration in support of their nominee have caused Peter Diamond, after fourteen months of frustration, to withdraw his name. Shelby smugly stated that he hoped the administration would come up with someone with "more bipartisan appeal".
Nice work, everybody. It symbolizes the state of inaction and impasse currently the standard oerating procedure in Washington. Just play politics, postphone important decisions until the election. The Republicans don't want to do anything that might give credit to the Obama administration. But Obama and his people aren't a helluva lot better right now in putting everything aside, including job stimulus, to deal with the deficit. I know the deficit is important---but job creation can help to get things going, spark the economy and improve the deficit situation. All we have is intransigence, scolding each other---and not getting anything done.
Let's get off this merry-go-round and let's go somewhere! In the meantime, a brainy man named Peter Diamond, who might have some good ideas, is walking away. It's a bloody shame.
Sunday, June 5, 2011
WHAT A TRIUMVIRATE IN A NEW WORLD
My favorite sport is tennis, and what a smorgasbord of talent and great matches was on display in the just completed French Open. To no surprise, Rafa Nadal, the number one player in the world (but just barely) maintained his number one ranking by beating Roger Federer in a suspensful match 7-5, 7-6 (3), 5-7, 6-1. Every point was fought as two gladiators fought to the death for the first three sets before fatigue and Nadal's unrelenting pressure broke open the last set.
It is a real treat to have two players of the stature of Nadal and Federer---and now made a triumvirate by the fantastic streak of Novak Djokovic who won 43 straight matches from December of last year until beaten by Roger Federer in the French semi-finals two days ago. If Federer had beaten Nadal in the finals, Djokovic would have attained the number one ranking.
I have been a tennis buff since my early teens when tennis replaced baseball as my favorite playing sport. We have had a galaxy of stars over the years, but I think the present period, with these three collosi bestriding the tennis world has the greatest depth of talent I've ever seen. Of course, the game has radically changed since I was a boy. From the days of wooden racquets with Jack Kramer and Pancho Gonzalez or the Aussies Sedgman, Laver and Newcombe,or John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors, Ivan Lendl, Boris Becker, to name a few, the game has morphed into a new dimension.It produced Sampras, Agassi and then the latest crew headed by the triumvirate.
Why and how? Several reasons: new equipment: major innovations in space-age materials to create new racquets with the velocity (it seems sometimes) of guns; new mixtures of nylon ang gut strings in new configurations; the incredible emphasis on top physical conditioning of today which has created a new breed of fit warriors;
the mechanics of the game where it has even changed the way the ball is struck. In the old days, flat line drives and "cuts" with emphasis on serve and charge the net to volley were the standard operating procedures. You hit the ball with a "shaking hands" eastern grip or a modified slight turn of the racquet to a Continental grip for serving or volleying or a more pronounced turn of the wrist for a backhand. Now they hit with Western grip where the racquet is turned over in the hand and the swing, instead of pointing to the net, ends up somewhere over your head, while the ball rockets into the opponent;s court and has a high kick when it lands. It is a totally different game. If I tried to play it, I'd get killed!
And then you reach 2011 with this dominant triumvirate, and,in the near background moving up fast, are a host of young giants ranging from 6'5' to 6'9" who are readying for a challenge. And they are all fast and fit!
Ah, it's fun to be alive and see this treasure trove of talent. It's going to get even better---you watch.
It is a real treat to have two players of the stature of Nadal and Federer---and now made a triumvirate by the fantastic streak of Novak Djokovic who won 43 straight matches from December of last year until beaten by Roger Federer in the French semi-finals two days ago. If Federer had beaten Nadal in the finals, Djokovic would have attained the number one ranking.
I have been a tennis buff since my early teens when tennis replaced baseball as my favorite playing sport. We have had a galaxy of stars over the years, but I think the present period, with these three collosi bestriding the tennis world has the greatest depth of talent I've ever seen. Of course, the game has radically changed since I was a boy. From the days of wooden racquets with Jack Kramer and Pancho Gonzalez or the Aussies Sedgman, Laver and Newcombe,or John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors, Ivan Lendl, Boris Becker, to name a few, the game has morphed into a new dimension.It produced Sampras, Agassi and then the latest crew headed by the triumvirate.
Why and how? Several reasons: new equipment: major innovations in space-age materials to create new racquets with the velocity (it seems sometimes) of guns; new mixtures of nylon ang gut strings in new configurations; the incredible emphasis on top physical conditioning of today which has created a new breed of fit warriors;
the mechanics of the game where it has even changed the way the ball is struck. In the old days, flat line drives and "cuts" with emphasis on serve and charge the net to volley were the standard operating procedures. You hit the ball with a "shaking hands" eastern grip or a modified slight turn of the racquet to a Continental grip for serving or volleying or a more pronounced turn of the wrist for a backhand. Now they hit with Western grip where the racquet is turned over in the hand and the swing, instead of pointing to the net, ends up somewhere over your head, while the ball rockets into the opponent;s court and has a high kick when it lands. It is a totally different game. If I tried to play it, I'd get killed!
And then you reach 2011 with this dominant triumvirate, and,in the near background moving up fast, are a host of young giants ranging from 6'5' to 6'9" who are readying for a challenge. And they are all fast and fit!
Ah, it's fun to be alive and see this treasure trove of talent. It's going to get even better---you watch.
Friday, June 3, 2011
THE ULTIMATE GAME
I note that Sukanya Roy, a fourteen-year-old Indian-American girl, won the National Spelling Bee last night. The winning word was CYMOTRICIOUS, meaning "having wavy hair", as any idiot should know. I often describe myself as being cymotricious. O.K., I'll put out my funny cigarette and get serious.
I happened to watch some of this spelling bee at lunchtime on ESPN2, while I was hoping to see the French Open, but found it fascinating and. in its unique way, suspensful. Sukanya Roy was the fourth straight Indian-American winner of this event. By far the largest proportion of contestants were of Indian or Oriental descent.
Why do I note this? Am I a racist? Hell no, it simply goes to show that the work ethic and desire of students whose parents had to struggle to achieve the "American Dream" (which is currently a bit of a nightmare, I might observe) passed on these achieving genes to their progeny. For many years, it's been the same story: at most high school graduations, the valedictorian of the class is Indian- or Oriental-descended. It has been this way for thirty years or more. I remember when my kids graduated from high school in Ohio thirty-odd years ago, the valedictorian was either Korean, Chinese or Indian.
What do we have to do to light this kind of fire in other kids, Afro-American or Caucasian? I know there are many notable exceptions, but as a rule my theorem holds true. I also realize that in today's world where stay-at-home moms are a rarity and both parents are working and struggling to make ends meet it is not so simple. I know Arne Duncan, the excellent Secretary of Education, is fighting hard to lift academic standards, weed out deficient teachers and to challenge students and their parents to strive for excellence. If only we could make academic achievement as important as sports. And I love sports, but I try to remember they are games.
Achievement in life is the ultimate game. I hope more American kids from a wide range of backgrounds learn to play it well.
I happened to watch some of this spelling bee at lunchtime on ESPN2, while I was hoping to see the French Open, but found it fascinating and. in its unique way, suspensful. Sukanya Roy was the fourth straight Indian-American winner of this event. By far the largest proportion of contestants were of Indian or Oriental descent.
Why do I note this? Am I a racist? Hell no, it simply goes to show that the work ethic and desire of students whose parents had to struggle to achieve the "American Dream" (which is currently a bit of a nightmare, I might observe) passed on these achieving genes to their progeny. For many years, it's been the same story: at most high school graduations, the valedictorian of the class is Indian- or Oriental-descended. It has been this way for thirty years or more. I remember when my kids graduated from high school in Ohio thirty-odd years ago, the valedictorian was either Korean, Chinese or Indian.
What do we have to do to light this kind of fire in other kids, Afro-American or Caucasian? I know there are many notable exceptions, but as a rule my theorem holds true. I also realize that in today's world where stay-at-home moms are a rarity and both parents are working and struggling to make ends meet it is not so simple. I know Arne Duncan, the excellent Secretary of Education, is fighting hard to lift academic standards, weed out deficient teachers and to challenge students and their parents to strive for excellence. If only we could make academic achievement as important as sports. And I love sports, but I try to remember they are games.
Achievement in life is the ultimate game. I hope more American kids from a wide range of backgrounds learn to play it well.
Monday, May 30, 2011
IT'S BIG BUSINESS---AND IT STINKS.
I just saw the news flash that Jim Tresell has resigned as football coach at Ohio State. All I can say is, it's about time, and he has done the right thing. I suspect he was "encouraged" by the O.S.U. administration as well as pressure from the N.C.A.A. Ohio State's reputation as a football factory with the win-at-any-cost philosophy should be an embarrassment to a host of Buckeye alumni and subway fans.
I hope---but wonder---if this scandal will change the ethics in Columbus. College football is big business everywhere, but none more so than at that mega-monster called the Buckeyes. I have always been a rooter for Ohio State from childhood when my father took me to games but have become increasingly dismayed as the Tresell and his players scandal erupted and further bespoiled the moral landscape. Tresell is symptomatic of the problem besetting college football, no longer a game but one helluva big business. Tresell has plenty of company in the ammoral and usually immoral world of college football where winning anyway possible is the basic tenet.
Alumni and rabid fans have to take their share of the blame. There are few more obnoxious sights in the world than a group of Buckeyes in a bar, screaming and being total asses. They give real meaning to the term chauvinists (not in the sexist sense). We have our share of them here on my Florida island. The pressure to win and the under-the-table "gifts" to players create the wrong moral climate. Maybe the Big Ten has the right idea to end this hypocrisy by allowing the players to accept some "expense money". It's happening anyway, a fact of life.
But I still get hung up on one fact: it's still a damn game, even before it was a business. The Jim Tressells of the world are always around, and, unfortunately, so are the college administrators who look the other way and are busy counting the mega bucks. I suppose, with the prohibitive cost of colleges today, they love to keep that money flowing in.
The word "amateur" derived from the Latin "amare"---to love. It is naive and obsolete to expect sports players and watchers to be pure lovers of the game, especially when many coaches and players do it for money. There's a name for that, too---prostitution.
Morality. I should have known, interferes with profit. Just another sign of my age.
I hope---but wonder---if this scandal will change the ethics in Columbus. College football is big business everywhere, but none more so than at that mega-monster called the Buckeyes. I have always been a rooter for Ohio State from childhood when my father took me to games but have become increasingly dismayed as the Tresell and his players scandal erupted and further bespoiled the moral landscape. Tresell is symptomatic of the problem besetting college football, no longer a game but one helluva big business. Tresell has plenty of company in the ammoral and usually immoral world of college football where winning anyway possible is the basic tenet.
Alumni and rabid fans have to take their share of the blame. There are few more obnoxious sights in the world than a group of Buckeyes in a bar, screaming and being total asses. They give real meaning to the term chauvinists (not in the sexist sense). We have our share of them here on my Florida island. The pressure to win and the under-the-table "gifts" to players create the wrong moral climate. Maybe the Big Ten has the right idea to end this hypocrisy by allowing the players to accept some "expense money". It's happening anyway, a fact of life.
But I still get hung up on one fact: it's still a damn game, even before it was a business. The Jim Tressells of the world are always around, and, unfortunately, so are the college administrators who look the other way and are busy counting the mega bucks. I suppose, with the prohibitive cost of colleges today, they love to keep that money flowing in.
The word "amateur" derived from the Latin "amare"---to love. It is naive and obsolete to expect sports players and watchers to be pure lovers of the game, especially when many coaches and players do it for money. There's a name for that, too---prostitution.
Morality. I should have known, interferes with profit. Just another sign of my age.
Friday, May 20, 2011
THE MINE FIELD OF LIFE
I often feel when I describe my political philosophy as a moderate that, to many minds of the polar extremes of right and left, I must sound like a wimp. I had one extreme right-wing friend, in the heat of a debate, tell me I was gutless, afraid to take a position one way or the other. This is a frequent admonition of extreme thinkers who only see black and white and no shades of grey or can brook no deviation from their political positions.
I have always admitted we need these extremes of both political poles. What they frequently succeed in doing is opening up the field for discussion, for analysis and the opportunity to seek solutions, frequently in compromise, that dreaded word which conjures up images of surrender to the extremists. Yet, miracle of miracles, that is how most political change comes about, the result of people hashing out differences and finding a workable if imperfect solution to problems.
I have often, as well, used the phrase that I am a social liberal and a fiscal conservative. This phrase really drives the extremists to the edge of madness. How the hell can you be liberal and conservative at the same time? That’s a contradiction in terms. Not really. To me it is possible to believe, for example, that certain area of social responsibility should be directed by the federal government, such as educational standards, health care and social entitlements, which are of national interest, but that they should also be run efficiently and judiciously---not wastefully. In this connection, if local government can do certain programs better than a national agency, so be it. If this be a contradiction in terms, then I am a contradicter and contrarian in my life beliefs!
I earned my living in the field of business or commerce, if you will. I believe in the free market system and that entrepreneurial success should be rewarded. But I also believe that greed is a frequent companion to success and that many can never have that greed satiated. Enough is not a word in many business lexicons. If it were, would we have the economic problems of today and the worst recession since the big one in ’29? It’s that old question: how much is enough? There seems to be no limit sometimes.
This world is exploding in many ways: new nations, new search for democratic freedom, new demands for social betterment and justice---and some new menaces in religious and economic extremism. If you don’t keep your sense of balance and the ability to adopt to new ideas, you can take a hard and dangerous fall.
This old moderate will still seek to find the workable way through this puzzle we call life, treading carefully through a changing and dangerous world.
I have always admitted we need these extremes of both political poles. What they frequently succeed in doing is opening up the field for discussion, for analysis and the opportunity to seek solutions, frequently in compromise, that dreaded word which conjures up images of surrender to the extremists. Yet, miracle of miracles, that is how most political change comes about, the result of people hashing out differences and finding a workable if imperfect solution to problems.
I have often, as well, used the phrase that I am a social liberal and a fiscal conservative. This phrase really drives the extremists to the edge of madness. How the hell can you be liberal and conservative at the same time? That’s a contradiction in terms. Not really. To me it is possible to believe, for example, that certain area of social responsibility should be directed by the federal government, such as educational standards, health care and social entitlements, which are of national interest, but that they should also be run efficiently and judiciously---not wastefully. In this connection, if local government can do certain programs better than a national agency, so be it. If this be a contradiction in terms, then I am a contradicter and contrarian in my life beliefs!
I earned my living in the field of business or commerce, if you will. I believe in the free market system and that entrepreneurial success should be rewarded. But I also believe that greed is a frequent companion to success and that many can never have that greed satiated. Enough is not a word in many business lexicons. If it were, would we have the economic problems of today and the worst recession since the big one in ’29? It’s that old question: how much is enough? There seems to be no limit sometimes.
This world is exploding in many ways: new nations, new search for democratic freedom, new demands for social betterment and justice---and some new menaces in religious and economic extremism. If you don’t keep your sense of balance and the ability to adopt to new ideas, you can take a hard and dangerous fall.
This old moderate will still seek to find the workable way through this puzzle we call life, treading carefully through a changing and dangerous world.
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