Anyone Can Be a Blog

On World Government

2007-01-31T19:54:00.000-07:00

Tony Blair gave his farewell speech to the World Economic Forum at Davos on Sunday. According to the Washington Post, he will probably step down as Britain’s Prime Minister this summer. In his speech, he outlined the need for global government based on “global values” in order to combat three of the world’s biggest challenges: world trade, climate change, and Africa.

Blair’s speech is compelling. He is an astute global leader and he defends the neo-conservative nation building agenda far more eloquently than most of his American counterparts.

But just what are the values on which he proposes to base the wielding of power by global alliances? Blair acknowledges what he calls “narratives” that are opposed to “tolerance, freedom, openness and justice for all.” Two of those are the “perversion of Islam” championed by al-Quaeda and other radical terrorists and the other is national selfishness.

Not every country in the world wants what Blair and Bush have to offer. It is naïve to think that if international institutions were fine-tuned, suddenly the United Nations would have the power to impose democratic self-government in countries gripped by generations of poverty and dictatorial leadership. If Iraq has taught us anything it is that you can’t force a nation to make good decisions.

Presidential Campaign Season

2007-01-20T15:25:00.000-07:00

It's about that time again. Senator Clinton has announced that she's forming an exploratory committee to prepare for a possible run for the presidency. So far it's a crowded field, and neither side looks like it has a clear nominee for president.

Karl Rove, President Bush's main political adviser and the mastermind behind the Republican Party for the last 8 years, believes that presidential elections are about the personality of the presidential candidates, that it all boils down to whether you trust the guy (or gal) asking for your vote more than the other option. I don't know if that's true, but here are some issues that are important to me this campaign season.

1. Iraq - More than a guarantee for victory, I want to make sense of what's going on there and I want to feel that our commander-in-chief is in touch with the situation on the ground. I'm really not looking for magic, just some straight talk and realism.

2. Corruption - This last week, Governor Huntsman gave his State of the State address and made some pretty significant changes to the way the Executive Branch is going to do things. There won't be any nepotism, gift receiving, and former employees will have to wait at least two years to lobby their former employers. I am waiting for someone in Federal government to accomplish something significant in ethics reform. The Democrats are promising to do it in the House, and I am waiting to see what happens. This is important to me.

You'll notice that Republicans or Democrats could accomplish my first two policy agenda items. I mean it. These are my highest priorities and I don't care if Hillary Clinton or Sam Brownback comes up with a good approach to these questions, I'm willing to hear them out on the rest of their policies.

3. Spending - The Budget deficit is bigger under a Republican President and a Republican Congress than ever before. What is wrong with this picture. I think PAYGO is a great idea and I look forward to see how well it works. Once again, DEMOCRATS passed PAYGO.

The Republican party is going to have to step up this election season. They are going to have to propose solutions to these and other problems and, maybe, even have to take responsibility for causing some of them.

How about you? What do you care about for this election cycle?

Misunderstanding Iraq

2007-01-10T19:16:00.000-07:00

I'm writing this post during President Bush's address on a new course for Iraq. I don't have T.V., so I can't watch it, but ABC reports that the new plan will require a "surge" of about 20,000 troops. Additionally, the President is announcing new tactics for the way combat troops will be used in Iraq. Baghdad will be divided into nine sections and the troops will be based in the same neighborhoods they patrol. This is a dramatic shift from the old tactics in which U.S. troops would frequently clear areas of the city and leave only to have the violence increase after they left.

Now I'm going to do the cliche thing and analogize some of the "lessons" from Vietnam.

As many, have pointed out, things aren't going so well in Iraq and it might be time to cut our losses. I'm not so sure about that because chaos in Iraq could have devastating consequences. Iraq could become a haven for al-Quaeda terrorists who could strike against Jordan, Saudi Arabia, or even outside the region. Iran could intervene and trigger a massive regional war. If Iraq did descend into a full-scale civil war, the humanitarian crisis could be even more disastrous than it is now.

Here are a few of what I understand to be the lessons of Vietnam that are relevant to Iraq.

1. You have to isolate insurgencies. During Vietnam, the Viet Cong got support from Laos and Cambodia and used those countries as safe havens to launch attacks against the South. Iraq is receiving help from Iran and foreign fighters are adding energy to the sectarian violence. It is nearly impossible to fight insurgents who have help from their nearby neighbors.

2. You have to protect the people. Part of winning the hearts and minds of the people living in these insurgent areas is to show them that you can protect them. Bush's plan tries to do that by protecting the neighborhoods of Iraq. If the new plan is successful, it is possible that the U.S. troops might make some progress toward stability, but the tropps haven't yet shown that they can protect any of the territory that they "clear" of insurgents. The green zone, for example, is one of the more dangerous parts of the country.

3. You have to understand the people. The United States is not a terribly culturally sensitive place right now. Fighting an insurgency is a cross between military and police work. You are fighting people with big guns (military), but you have to find them from among a lot of peaceful people (police). Police work requires rapport with the local people and you can't get that rapport without language skills and cultural understanding. A year and a half ago, I worked at a law firm in Argentina. I speak decent Spanish, but I did not understand Argentine culture. I couldn't get assignments, my supervisors were constantly frustrated with me, and I ended up translating documents that had already been translated and reading Atlas Shrugged at my desk. There is a huge learning curve to understand a new culture and I don't know if we have the time to bridge the gaps.

If the President's strategy had been tried three years ago it might have had a chance. I'm worried that it is too late. I think that the first two problems (and there are many others) can be addressed pretty quickly if they become major priorities to the Administration. But, the third will take time. And in light of the November election, I don't know if Americans have the patience.

Lawyer's Ethics

2007-01-06T20:58:00.000-07:00

I just finished reading the assignment for one of my classes from a book called "The Law and Ethics of Lawyering." I know. It's an oxymoron. There are no ethics for lawyers.

I wonder if law school really has deadened me to the basic morality that we should take for granted. I wrestled with some of the problems in the reading. But then I talked about them with my wife and they didn't seem difficult at all to her.

For example, in one case, two people are in a car accident. Victim (V) sues the driver (D) for the damages he suffered. But V doesn't know that he has an aneurysm that might have been caused by the accident. When D's doctors examine him, they find the aneurysm and tell D's lawyers. Now, should D's lawyers tell V that he could die if he doesn't get an operation even if they might have to pay more at trial? Clearly they should. But what if D - the client - doesn't want to? What should D's lawyers do? They promised that they would do what D told them to do, and that they would keep confidential everything they found out about the case.

My wife didn't hesitate. "But someone's life at stake. Is God going to be mad at you for betraying your client to save someone's life?" She's right. It doesn't matter what the ethical rule is. You have to do what's right. I just wish that it had been clearer to me what the right thing was. That's what three years of law school will do to you.

You Are Going to Hell

2006-12-20T13:07:00.000-07:00

During my first year of Law School, Tom Griffith, now a federal judge, spoke to the first year students and told us, "You will probably make a lot of money when you graduate. If you spend it on yourself, you will definitely go to hell. Letting the young men and young women in your ward swim in your indoor pool once a year will not save you."

Not one to leave us depressed and miserable, he went on to give us the key to salvation. He said that you have to spend your time and your money "clothing the naked and feeding the hungry" if you want to save your soul.

I was a little bit dumbfounded by Griffith's speech. He couldn't really mean that a BMW 3-series was going to get me kicked out of heaven, could he?

I might be one of the few people who went to law school with the idea of making tons of money and, because of people like Tom Griffith, now plans on doing something else with his life.

But here's the problem: If I had $4 billion, I don't think I would be terribly optimistic about my ability to solve any of the world's problems. And believe me, the world has big problems. I don't want to get into all of them right now because it will give me a headache, and you will get so depressed that you will never read this blog again, but there are problems.

My wife doesn't spend much time thinking about big global problems. Her plan is to help the people around her as much as she can and let the rest of the world take care of itself. My wife is going to change the world for those people. Maybe I should be like her.

But, does anyone have any ideas?

I Am Time's Person of the Year

2006-12-17T13:16:00.000-07:00

Thank you, thank you. Thank you for naming me the Person of the Year. I appreciate this great honor and I would like to thank everyone who made this possible. No seriously. Time says that "You," as in you, and I and all the other bloggers, YouTubers, and MySpacers in the world, are the person of the year. What an honor.

According to Time, this year has seen a revolution in the dissemination of information. "The 'Great Man' theory . . . took a beating this year" because homemade journalism made such an impact.

Already, bloggers are falling all over themselves declaring a victory for the popular distribution of media. There's a catch, though. As Dan Gilmore points out, the editors of Time chose to name "You" the person of the year rather than "We" including the writers, reporters, and editors of major media outlets.

ClickZ Stats Demographics reports that 50 million Americans visited blogs during the first quarter of 2005, and there are encouraging statistics that suggest that blogs could be used to market goods to wealthy households. However, during the week of December 4, the top five network programs (CSI, NBC Sunday Night Football, 60 Minutes, Deal or No Deal, and Survivor: Cook Island) had 91 million viewers.

Blogs and MySpace are starting to compete with the major media outlets, but they don't have the branding to reach large audiences yet. We've got our Time cover for now, but to get major audiences the revolution has a long way to go.

As if that's not enough, here's what happens when you don't tell your advertisers your plan in advance.

Computers and Credit in Africa

2006-12-16T20:12:00.000-07:00

I just came across the blog of a guy named Aaron Childs who is working with the Peace Corps in Togo. He is raising money to build a community computer center where people will be able to use computers for free (or very cheaply) and where classes will be provided for people to learn things like web design and programming. He is partnering with a local private school that has agreed to maintain the center once he gets it built and he is applying for a grant from the Peace Corps and using his blog to raise the money he needs to build the place initially. He says it will cost about $10,000 to build. I'm very impressed with the idea.

Aaron is not alone in his efforts to help the poor in Africa. Accion Internationl offers micro credit loans in The Republic of Benin, a country that borders Togo. According to its website, Accion currently has 36,758 clients in Benin and the average loan balance is of $1,007. Muhammad Yunus, one of the great pioneers of micro credit, is quoted as saying "The poor themselves can create a poverty-free world . . . all we have to do is free them from the chains that we have put around them." Micro credit could be one way to remove those chains.

The problems of the world's poor can leave us disheartened. NPR recently ran a discouraging series on Africa's developmental problems which reminded me how many times I've asked my friends the, admittedly, impossible question "What the heck are we going to do for Africa?"

I sure don't know what the answer is, but it is encouraging that people like Aaron Childs and Accion International are working for solutions.

Check your symptoms

2006-12-15T07:48:00.000-07:00

Last night, as I was going to bed, I noticed that my throat was hurting. At 3 a.m. I couldn't sleep it hurt so bad and my nasal passages were cemented shut.

My wife made me take these stupid Ricola cough drops (which couldn't possibly help my throat, right?) They must put crack cocaine in those things because I was popping them like an addict every two hours.

Anyway, I got some sleep, but I have to format the citations for all 190 footnotes in my stupid feminism paper this morning. I decided to ask WebMD what's wrong with me.

Apparently, my sore throat could be caused by any one of several varieties of viral infections like the common cold, mononucleosis (mono, the kissing disease - but I'm married), and more rarely mumps, herpangina, or influenza.

Disgustingly, they can also be caused by bacterial infections like strep or even certain STDs. Yuck.

WebMD has a cool "Check Your Symptoms" page where if you answer yes to any of their questions you have to go to the emergency room. I'm so sick of my paper that I kind of wish that I could answer yes, but it looks like I'm okay.

Well, I'd better pop some more of these curiously addictive cough drops and finish my paper. Chao.

Femi-what?

2006-12-14T16:28:00.000-07:00

Feminists have been called some pretty nasty things. Rush Limbaugh is quoted as saying, "Feminism was established to allow unattractive women easier access to the mainstream of society" and with popularizing the term "feminazi." Pat Robertson is quoted as saying at the Republican National Convention in 1992, "The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians."

I'm finishing a paper for my class at Brigham Young University on feminist legal theory and I don't see the witchcraft. I agree that there are some extremists who call themselves feminists, but I don't think all feminists should be tainted by the extremists any more than I would want all Christians to be stereotyped by Warren Jeffs.

Christina Sommers wrote, in 1994, Who Stole Feminism? Originally, and maybe more authentically, feminism meant the right of women to participate fully in society and has stood for such noble causes as women's right to vote, the abolition of slavery, and women's access to education. I'm in favor of those things.