Picked that book up a few weeks ago, and read it last night when I couldn’t sleep. The first half was pretty good stuff, unfortunately it lost me a bit late when it got pretty weird. I’m reminded of Frank Herbert: he creates great stuff if he can keep himself from getting lost too badly in psychology.
So, my mission now is to find out which book is Philip K. Dick’s Dune.
Saddam Hussein has been found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging. Good for him.
Given that some of his legal advisors think it’s the US, not Iraq, that’s trying him, I doubt he’ll win his appeal.
A bit of a sloppy game, to be sure, was Kobe’s return to action. Not having played in the preseason, Kobe had 6 turnovers to go with 23 points, 4 rebounds, and 6 assists.
The defense was suspect, too. Look at these scores this year. It’s good that the shooting is there, but the defense has to come around. That’s what Phil’s for, though!
Phil’s summary for tonight though: “Winning covers a multitude of problems.”
I’m seeing right now on ESPN a ‘sport’ so silly, it puts ‘sport’ in its name: Sport Stacking. They’re stacking plastic cups. They’re STACKING PLASTIC CUPS on ESPN, and calling it a SPORT.
Real sports don’t have to call themselves sports. Weightlifters in the World’s Strongest Man don’t constantly repeat “Oh, this is a sport, these athletes work hard.” No, you only hear that in hobbies like Golf and Sport Stacking.
The first game it was Bynum and Odom. The second game, it was Turiaf and Odom. Ronny had 23 points and 9 rebounds to his name last night, along side Odom’s 22, 9, and 9 in the good win.
Well, the good second half anyway. The free throwing and turnovers were poor in the first half. But, a win’s a win.
An issue that comes up more and more in political circles today is that many Americans doubt the integrity of our electoral process. While mostly this phenomenon is centered on Democrats with elaborate conspiracy theories about a fascist takeover of the USA, it is true that some Republicans glibly accuse Democrats of systematic voter fraud.
For the most part, I ignore these complaints. However I can only ignore this so long, when the number of Republicans making such accusations only seems to increase. Therefore I have meditated on this problem, and have come to what must be the central element of any solution.
If we want to secure the faith of the people in our electoral process, we must end the secret ballot. Instead, we must have a secure ballot, that protects but does not guarantee the privacy of the voter.
Why do we even have the secret ballot? Wikipedia offers an explanation in its article on the Secret Ballot:
A Pennsylvania state legislator long active in election reform issues, Rep. Mark B. Cohen of Philadelphia, said “The secret ballot guarantees that it is one’s private opinion that counts. Open ballots are not truly free for those whose preferences defy the structures of power or friendship.” The Populists, a short-lived American political party during 1870s through 1890s, listed the Australian ballot as one of their party platforms in the Ocala Demands.
So as we can see, we are long past the time in which the secret ballot is even necessary. Cohen lived and worked in a time when politics were rough like nothing we see today. It got dirty, it got violent, and it got far more vicious than it does today. Because in the old days people were relatively ill-informed and educated, but now today most votes can read, write, and watch C-SPAN. Ignorant passions are, incredibly enough in our polarized climate today, tempered by knowledge.
And further, there are more safeguards on government than there ever have been. The same eyes and ears that help keep the people informed, also watch out for impropriety. Politicians and their cronies can be ruined overnight by false accusations, let alone true ones. Voters no longer have anything to fear if their “preferences defy the structures of power or friendship.”
Or even if there are fears, we can even compromise. Instead of having a completely secret ballot, we can have instead a sealed ballot. Let the choices of each voter remain private under ordinary circumstances, only breaking the seal when the government has a legitimate reason to do so.
What would these legitimate reasons be? Just the steps needed to be taken to heighten confidence in our elections. If someone who voted is found to have been already dead, or registered by perjury, or paid off to vote, then there will be nothing to stop us from subtracting those fraudulent votes from the official totals, reversing any results that change by enough. That alone should be reason enough to make this change.
Discovering the choices of the fraudulent voters can do more than bring justice to the outcomes of stolen elections. They can also help point us to the fraud masterminds who might otherwise remain hidden. It is, after all, one thing to find out that 2000 dead people voted in one city. It is another to find out that every single one of them voted the same way. One fact leads to another, and this crucial clue could help catch the ringleaders.
If you mistrust our elections, then join in the call to end the secret ballot. Doesn’t integrity count for more than privacy in our joint civic exercise?
Andrew Bynum and Lamar Odom powered the Kobe-less Lakers to a win last night over the Suns, coming back from a 19 point first quarter deficit to win solidly in their season opener. The Lakers have seen this before, but it had to feel good for Kobe to watch as his team ended their three game losing streak against Phoenix.
What do I mean by being there before? Take a look at these highlight performances from the Lakers’ three post-Shaq opening nights:
- October 31, 2006, Andrew Bynum: 18 points, 9 rebounds, 5 assists in 24 minutes
- November 2, 2005, Smush Parker: 20 points on 8-12 shooting (3-7 behind the arc), 6 assists, 4 rebounds
- November 2, 2004, Chris Mihm: 23 points, 12 rebounds, 2 blocks
Neither Parker nor Mihm lived up to the expectations set in the hearts of Lakers’ fans after those first LA starts. The hope is that Bynum will be different, though. At 19 years and four days of age for his first NBA start, the tenth pick of the 2005 draft is quietly expected to come next in the list of Lakers championship centers that began with Mikan, Chamberlain, Abdul-Jabbar, and O’Neal. Having Abdul-Jabbar as a special assistant coach for him only goes to heighten the senses of continuity and tradition, just as the old Celtics starters would train their successors in the winning way.
Those hopes have to have become more urgent among Lakers executives, too, as the market of potential free agents thins and thins. The Lakers have been due to have plenty of cap room to sign somebody to a maximum contract once Brian Grant’s old contract expires. However with players like LeBron James, Yao Ming, Amare Stoudemire, and Dwyane Wade extending with their current teams, it’s not looking like the Lakers will be able to find Kobe’s partner in championships on the open market.
So if Kobe Bryant and the rest of Dr. Jerry Buss’s Lakers are to return to holding championship parades anytime soon, it will be up to Lamar Odom and Andrew Bynum to get them there. So what about Odom? When the Clippers drafted him, the talk of LA was that he was to be the next Magic, combining size with ball-handling to be an unstoppable force in the league.
The combination of the Clippers’ having no will to win, the too-high expectations set on the young player, and some early drug problems killed that hype quickly, though. Then, out of the spotlight, he crept up on the league with the apparently easy to play with Dwyane Wade, taking his team to an improbable Eastern Conference Semifinal run in 2004.
With the Lakers, though, the results have been disappointing. Of course 2004-2005 was a terrible year for the team all around. Rudy Tomjanovich replaced Phil Jackson with a plan to be a fast-paced, dangerous underdog. His sudden retirement, though, and replacement by interim coach and triangle offense disciple Frank Hamblen left a team with no defensive mindset and a lot to learn in its new offensive scheme. That offensive shift hurt Lamar Odom the most, since he was expected to produce in a unique-in-the-NBA system sprung on him overnight.
Late in the 2005-2006 season Odom started to come around, though. His scoring average for the last two months of the season was four points per game higher than the November-February total, and he brought that up two points higher to 19 per game in the playoffs against Phoenix. Kobe’s scoring binges covered for Lamar as he learned the triangle, but now he needs to step up and into the system on his own.
Is there hope? After tonight, I would say yes. The team showed toughness last night in clawing back against the league MVP Steve Nash and his sidekicks Shawn Marion and Amare Stoudemire, doing it without the aid of the league’s scoring champion at their side. That’s a good start, and has to be worth something.
But this year I won’t get to moan all season long about how my Lakers are being underrated, it seems. When asked to put their names on their picks, SI’s writers all pick the Lakers to make the playoffs, as apparently the 8th, 7th, 7th, and 5th place teams in the West.
Even I won’t dare say they should be expected to get home court in the first round. I wouldn’t even if there were no doubts about Kobe’s health to start the season.
Well gee, now that I’m feeling healthy again, suddenly GnuGo is back to normal: beating me most of the time.
There’s a lesson to be learned here.
I started a daily walk routine this summer, in order to get my activity level up to something approximating what I had in school. And well, getting up at 5:45 every morning, one benefit has been that as the weeks have passed, I’ve gotten a nice sky full of stars and the moon to look at.
Not today, though. All I get to see is how ugly the park is, what with its grass ground into mud by illegal alien soccer players, and the mud all littered up from people who decide just to drink and leave their trash there.
DST is for chumps, and delusional bureaucrats who think they can change the movements of the Earth in the sky.