I praise loudly;
I blame softly.
Catherine the Second
Union Poster Boy of the Month: Mark Rosenthal
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| Courtesy of the NY Post |
How about right-to-work reform so hard-working blue collar workers aren't forced to pay for this nonsense through forced dues, out of their own pockets?
Now that Chris Christie is losing weight, might I suggest a different target for Letterman's offensive fat jokes?
Christie and Obama Redux
Even Michelle approves of the governor's weight loss surgery. What will Letterman do? Switch to doughnut hole jokes?
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| Courtesy of Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP |
Agnetha Still Has It...
The lead blond vocalist from ABBA still can work her magic with a well-crafted pop song. Ir'a hard to understand how any man lucky enough to win her love would be stupid enough to betray it... Just when I thought all new music is crap, Agnetha proves me wrong...
National ID Card? Thumbs DOWN!
This is an interesting topic for me intrinsically. While I was still a professor, I would get an open-ended survey on what I thought would be hot emerging topics in the MIS discipline, and one of the first items off the top of my head involved biometrics, e.g., identifying individuals through unique characteristics, e.g., fingerprints, DNA, retina/iris scans, vein recognition, facial scan, voice recognition, signature recognition, etc. Why was I interested? Primarily I was looking at more natural approaches to secure privileged data access, versus more technology-friendly/less usable approaches, i.e., arcane passwords. Things like social security numbers, passwords or swipecards can be stolen and used by unauthorized persons; it says explicitly on your social security card it's not sufficient for identification: the card has no biometric mechanism to link the person holding the card to its owner. I remember once working on a local phone number portability project in the late 90's, and the defense contractor business unit running the project had a biometric entry device (involving reading our hands) that was probably malfunctioning a quarter of the time I used it--which mean I had to contact someone to let me in. I have written a number of papers on usability, and this was a textbook case of poor usability.
Populists on both sides of the partisan divide want employers to essentially serve as surrogate INS agents, verifying resident status, etc., something I believe is unconstitutional. This national ID card would include some sort of embedded biometric data which could be used to compare the holder's data with the stored data on the card. (One obvious practical issue is how to ensure the card itself is genuine.) But what about the costs of technology to process the match? Obviously in the real world, how would this work? If I hired a nanny, someone to clean my gutter or the boy next door to shovel my driveway?
It's very clear anti-immigrants want to regulate employers to make it impossible for unauthorized workers to find work... As an employer, that's not my concern; I'm more interested in whether the worker is qualified to do the work and can we arrive at a mutually agreed upon price.
I think as a policy we should not demand citizens or legal residents to serve the interests of the State; rather, it is the State that serves at our discretion. If I decide to drive to Texas I shouldn't have to show any ID short of an accident, traffic law violation, etc. Probably less than 4% of the population is unauthorized; is it worth the hassle of intruding in the lives of lawful residents because of failed government immigration policy? We lose yet more freedom because the government demands it to overcome past government failure? What makes us sure government is any more competent this time?
Whether you have religious objections to the Apocalyptic Mark of the Beast or you worry about RFID or other tracking devices embedded into the national ID card to facilitate tracking of individuals versus the freedom to be left alone, all of this government intrusion into our private lives essentially is pushing on a string, and the burden should be on the State on a case-by-case basis through our court system, prerequisites for warrants, etc. The risk for misuse of this information is far greater than its benefits.
Let's Do a Poll on the Cutest Pollster...
HINT: It's NOT Scott Rasmussen... More seriously, as someone who has designed measures/surveys, I like their methodology which goes beyond biased/convoluted single-item scales. For example, it's interesting to see whether people who originally supported it have moderated their view now that Pelosi's surprise secret ingredients have become public--for example, Catholic institutions forced to offer services contradicting Church policies.
Condorcet's Paradox or How to Manipulate Votes
Political Cartoon
And he hasn't even gotten to the point of discussing those unregulated piggy banks.....
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| Courtesy of Gary Varvel and Townhall |
Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band, "One Step Up". As I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm blending the Boss' solo hits with those backed by the E-Street Band. I'll have a future theme on solo artists, but since the Boss' hits are mostly rock arrangements, I wanted to classify him under the group category. The hard-core Springsteen fan might nitpick: yes, I know The Big Man is not backing him with his legendary sax on this and a number of other hits.
