Politics | WhiteEyebrows

My Take on Climate Change

snap bracelets In the 1970’s and 80’s there was a phenomenon that swept America called ZPG or Zero Population Growth. It was an economic theory which actually originates back to 1693 (thanks, wikipedia), which gained some traction during the economically uncertain times of the 70’s and 80’s. Its premise is that the world should work to have zero population growth; only those that die should be replaced. It was a popular and sensible solution for a society who was highly concerned with an oil crisis, an unsteady economy, recessions, and uncertainty of the future.

For you LDS readers out there, think of “Saturday’s Warrior”…

The bottom line; it was just a fad. It came and went just like moon boots, snap bracelets, and those little plastic poof balls. It was popularized because people were looking for a solution to the increase in consumption and the perceived lack of supply. Well, here we are 20-30 years later, our world consumption has skyrocketed, new industries we never dreamed about exist, and world population continues to rise! (think China) What happened to Zero Population? What happened to the crisis of supply and natural resources that would demand such limits on world population?

The truth is: it was all bunk. There is plenty of room in the world for everyone.

My take on this current “climate crisis” is: let’s not forget zero population and snap bracelets. Don’t embrace hypotheses based on a fad. There is only one thing we absolutely know about climate change on our planet: that it’s happening and has happened throughout geologic history. We don’t know what causes it. We don’t know what the human element is. We don’t know how all our complex environmental interactions are all working together to keep our ecosystem in line. We have a lot of theories. We have a lot of hypotheses. I think we should be exploring all of them, but I don’t believe we should be making wholesale restrictions, decisions, and mandates based on hypothesis and cherry picked science.

Leading the charge in this is the political left, led by Al Gore. It’s sadly ironic that they are pushing this agenda for unilateral environmental action and new regulations based solely on their gut feeling, with poorly executed and slanted intelligence, all while ignoring the public, the world, and dissenting voices of science and reason. Hmm… the environmental left have become their worst enemy: George W. Bush.

gore and bush

As I have stated before on this blog, I believe it is in all of our interest to manage our consumption better. We should promote efficiency and conservation in our collective American mentality. If you conserve energy and resources, you should reap the benefits of lower costs (not be charged a “minimum” like with my summer natural gas bill).

We should not be making sweeping, wholesale, potentially damaging regulations without considering the fact that we don’t really fully understand the problem we are trying to solve and don’t even perceive the problems we will create while trying to solve it.

IATSE Strike Ends, everyone says “duh”

I heard on the radio this morning that the American League producers and the IATSE Local One stagehands finally reached a “tentative agreement” and that the union will order its workers back to work tonight. After 3 weeks dark, most of Broadway will reopen tonight.

In contrast to the whiny, gimme attitude of the IATSE union (and other entertainment unions for that matter), last night I was listening to a report about the resurgence of the manufacturing industry in Wisconsin. Representatives from the United Steel Workers said (i’m paraphrasing), “we’ve realized that we have to work with industry, not against them, if we want to keep our jobs.” Out of necessity, due to globalization, they have learned that they can make reasonable demands of their employers in exchange for high productivity. The industry was saying that they don’t mind paying the workers a base $22/hr because the productivity is high, and the job performance is excellent.

Let’s take a page out of the Steel Worker’s book, entertainment unions! We too face a globalization problem. Production companies around the country (theatre, film, TV, variety artists, etc) are in a constant struggle to simply pay the bills and stay afloat. Many films are now shot just over the border in Canada because of the terrible climate for labor in California. Many of our members are going overseas to work because there simply aren’t enough jobs here at home, and there are too many union restrictions on what jobs they can take.

Our unions should be doing everything in their power to protect the workers in the workplace, but more importantly, in today’s global market, they should be especially concerned with protecting the very existence of our jobs! The UAW, USW, and other workers have proved time and again that the only way to effectively protect jobs is to work with industry, not against them.

In a perfect world, we would even go past protecting our jobs, and go even further toward promoting industry. Our unions should be looking for ways to promote industry, rewarding succesful, cooperative producers and production companies, and promoting growth of the industry as a whole.

It’s not just the big, fat cats in top hats vs the noble, everyman worker anymore. We need to open our eyes and see the reality of the economic pressure that is on the entertainment industry today, and do our part as workers to not only produce our best work, but to use our unity to accomplish mutually beneficial solutions to both the worker and the industry.

The Entertainment World is Falling Apart!

Last week there were two major blows in the entertainment industry. On Monday, the Writer’s Guild went on strike and later in the week, IASTE Local One, the Broadway stagehands union, also went on strike.

Broadway has been dark for several days now, and programs which rely on fresh daily writing are in endless re-runs.

Unions have played a crucial role in our country’s history. They have been behind such things as the minimum wage, child labor prohibitions, and safety initiatives in the workplace. They have been making a safe and fair workplace for many years. They have given the worker a voice, a choice, and a powerful bargaining vehicle against unfair managers and business owners.

I am a member of Actors’ Equity, the union for stage actors and stage managers, and we have been instructed to stand in “solidarity” (whatever that means) with our sister unions. But for me personally, I see my union membership in the entertainment industry as a necessary evil rather than some great thing. Without it I can’t work in the theatres I want to work in, and because of it I can’t work in the theatres I can get a job in. My union has few benefits for me as a non NYC resident.

Union stage managers have a very strange obligation. We are directly responsible for the actors in the company, but are also a member of their union. Our job was to see to it that our union protections were not infringed by the producer, but yet we are also the go between for the producer and the company. As a result, stage mangers are constantly barraged with conflicts of interest. Do they do what the actors want, the union wants, or what the producer wants. Where should their primary loyalty lie?

To give you a taste, actors work 8 of 10, meaning they can work a total of 8 hours a day in a single 10 hour period (you have to have a 2 hour break sometime). They also get 5 minute breaks every 55 minutes or 10 minute breaks every 1:20. Actors are prohibited (by most contracts) from moving scenery, having photos or video taken of them (at any time), and from essentially doing anything but showing up, putting on their costume, and performing.

Many actors are excited to join the union because they open themselves up to the world of these union entitlements. It is very difficult for management and producers when actors play the “union” card, stating they couldn’t or wouldn’t do this or that or the other just to fit their personal convenience.

In stark contrast, a few weeks ago at my current job we had some major customer issues crop up that had to be fixed immediately. Our management called an immediate halt to all development (I’m a developer) and re-tasked every developer to be a tester to help reveal and diagnose the issues.

Had I been in some developer’s union, there would have been no end to the whining and complaining at such a re-tasking. Imagine informing the actors that they would have to put down their scripts and begin painting scenery. There would be mass upheaval. Instead, we all banded together, hunkered down as a team, accomplished our goals, fixed the customer issues, and returned to our development roles a week later. It was tiring, unpleasant work, but it had to be done.

Our entertainment unions have turned from being protectors to babysitters. They create mountains of job duplication and extra expense for producers, while also creating entitlement programs and workplace restrictions that often defy logic, just to pander to a few vocal members.

While these current strikes have some interesting and important negotiation sticking points, especially the “new media” precedent that will be set, I think unions should not have the power to hold entire industries hostage.

Green Week

I was watching NBC last night, and during one of the commercial breaks on “Heroes,” they had the cast of the show do a small commercial/feature on planting trees out in front of Rockefeller Center in NYC.

I thought, “how nice. they are jumping on this green bandwagon, trying to promote eco friendly ideas and tendencies.”

Then, every NBC show I watched had some major plot element that centered around being “green.”

Then on my local news, there was several feature stories about being eco-friendly, and NBC’s green week.

Then I checked the website to see the schedule, and the whole website is now in hues of green.

Apparently, it is Green Week on NBC.

Turns out, NBC’s parent company, General Electric, has made it “Green Week” for all of their subsidiaries.

When I went to bed, I turned on talk radio, and these guys were blathering on about NBC’s Green Week. I didn’t realize promoting “green” living was such a controversial subject, but apparently they have ruffled some feathers with their green talk. They were going on and on about how Global Warming is not a proven fact, and how the earth warms and cools every few thousands of years… blah blah blah.

As I was listening to these people blather (yes, that is the right word to describe talk radio), I thought to myself, “c’mon guys… what is “Green Week” actually hurting?”

I mean, I’m going to get sick of hearing about how to have a Green Wedding on Days of Our Lives, and leaving a small carbon footprint as you travel through time on Journeyman, or how to be an eco-friendly Hero. I don’t think all this “green” promotion will really enhance the entertainment value of NBC’s shows (which it actually desperately needs), but honestly, what is green week really going to hurt?

What does it hurt to turn the lights off, turn the air conditioning up 2 degrees, drive around less, buy a more fuel efficient car, and recycle your recyclables? Who does it hurt if I use less energy? No one. Who does it hurt if a corporation uses less energy? No one. In fact, being green usually saves you money. Lots of money.

I’m just not understanding what part of that I can feel good about crusading against…

And while I’m on this subject, let me say…

Being “green” is not something you just wake up one morning and decide to do. Being “green” is a process and a way of life. We have been thinking “green” as a nation for several decades, which we don’t give ourselves enough credit for. We have made great strides in being Green:

Catalytic converters on cars
Recycling programs in major metro areas
Better recycling of e-waste: silicon, toner cartridges, batteries, etc.
Corporate use of email and document control systems to totally replace paper (most e-corporations are almost entirely paperless)

The truth is, we have grown GDP in our nation in the last 30 years while becoming greener and greener. Now is not the time for a radical shift. Let the “green” movement continue organically. We already are green and we keep getting greener and greener as it makes business sense to do so.

We stand at the brink of a new era of “green.” There is a big inflection point in American thinking now centered around looking for the next big breakthrough in energy. Everyone wants less dependence on foreign oil, dirty coal, and politically impossible nuclear energy. Something big will break, we hope. In the meantime, just use less.

It’s really as simple as that.

Fred Thompson – Ne’er a solid answer to be found…

Sunday morning on Meet the Press, Fred Thompson was grilled…

War in Iraq – he thinks we should be there, but get out, and we have some progress on the ground, and that the generals should decide things, but that we should not be there and that we were wrong for going there.
Abortion – he is personally pro-life, but against constitutional ammendments or laws to prohibit abortion. he thinks its ok for woment to get abortions and that state’s should have the right to make their own laws.
Gun Control – he is against having guns on campuses, but thinks students ought to be able to carry guns on campuses, and would leave it to the state to make their own laws, and for the campus to have their own rules.

This is just a small sampling of the backwashed beating around the bush answers he gave for 30 minutes. Apparently his strategy for winning is to not have a position on anything, and thus be for everything and everyone, and not give anyone an excuse to like him or hate him.

Really? Is that the best you can do? But what else can I expect from a man who took a full year to even have a well-articulated position on whether or not he was running!

Here’s a good example.. listen to his answer on the gun issue.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=SQOxVUCZBXY

Weekend Extra: Utah Votes on School Vouchers

Utah Map Foreword:Next week, Utah voters will cast their ballot on a referendum for a School Voucher Program. Basically, the law (in this incarnation) provides a graduated tax credit for low and middle income families who choose to send their children to private schools. The scale is based on combined parental income and number of children in the household.

———————-

I am against school vouchers, because it is defacto support for religious and special interest education.

Think “Warren Jeffs’ School for Future Wife Beaters and Child Molesters.” Think “Al-Queda in America Future Terrorists School.” …all supported with your tax dollars.What about Spanish speaking schools? The “No Se Habla Ingles Aqui” School. Immigrant youth will now NEVER learn English, and your tax dollars will fund it! How do you feel about it now?

Vouchers would divide and segregate our schools and communities along religious and cultural boundaries once more, and each child will receive a radically variable, dogmatic, pre-processed world view. Vouchers would turn back the clock on the pluralism and diversity that we have worked so hard to build in our schools ever since the Civil Right’s Movement and school integration.

I know, I know. This coming from a guy who went to one of the most conservative, religious, dogmatic private universities in the country?? Let me explain the difference. Primary and Secondary school is all about parent choice, while Higher Education is all about student choice. While a student is in primary and secondary school, they are young, impressionable, and not able to think much for themselves. They are prone to being indoctrinated. (Think “Blood Diamond”) By the time a student hits college, they are becoming their own independent and critical thinker. They can make informed choices about their education, and what type of institution will fit them best. Primary and Secondary schools benefit from being a “Sesame Street” view of the world, where we have all races, religions and types of people. Where all learn to play on a playground together and discover that they are more the same than they are different.

Our public school system needs a shake up, I’ll admit. We need to make teaching a competitive profession, where teachers are paid for performance. For you Social Darwinists out there, we also need to realize that not every child will be a “straight A” math and science student, and still find ways to reach out to every student and help them be (and feel) successful. (remember the days when we had metal shop and music classes?)

To further complicate the issue, Dubbya, as the leader of the Republican party, made the biggest gaffe in party history with No Child Left Behind, the largest federalization of a state program since FDR.

We already have school choice. They are called private, magnet, public and charter schools. You can take your pick! I do think school choice should be extended to being able to choose any school in your local school district (forfeiting certain privileges such as busing).

We all love capitalism, and I think schools could benefit from some market-based pressures to be competitive and produce. However, remember that above all, market economies are never FAIR. They put efficiency above all else, and that is a recipe for disaster for many aspects of education. (read: cutting of sports and arts programs)

All this referendum would do for Utah is give middle class and poor people a small stipend to send their children to private schools run by religious fanatics. And for a state who’s already defined nationally as a religious nut-house, that can’t be a good thing.

The War on Cookies Begins

cookies I typically don’t burden you, my reader, with silly matters of “nerd business.” By that, I mean stuff about coding and electronics and how stuff works. In posts regarding technology, I usually try to stick to matters you might actually care about.

Well, you will care about this, so listen up.

Some internet privacy action group is now asking the FCC to implement a national “Do Not Track” list, similar to the nation’s “Do Not Call” list. The theory behind it is that they want the internet to remain an anonymous place, and that sites shouldn’t use ‘cookies’ to track your internet browsing behaviors.

At first glance, everyone can get behind this. I mean, we live in a society which is open and free and where you can’t “spy” on each other legally. Americans, above all others, believe and value a right to privacy.

However, let me tell you a little about “cookies” which might change your mind.

Cookies are small files that your internet browser collects when it goes visiting websites. The websites puts information in these cookies so that next time the browser returns to that page, it can remember stuff about it.

Cookies are the little things that are make it possible for you to stay ‘logged in’ to a particular site (like your webmail service, your blog, or your family website) after you’ve closed your browser or navigated away from the page. Cookies also remember information you commonly enter into a website, like your username or email address.

Cookies typically DO NOT track personal information about a person. They usually don’t know your name, your email, your credit card number, etc. Furthermore, websites can ONLY set cookies it’s own name (I can’t set a cookie that will pretend to be from gmail), and sites can’t mine the other cookies for information.

Below is the content of a typical cookie. This one is from the Hotmail service and has the filename jss@hotmail.msn.txt (.txt is the standard filename extension for text files):

HMP1 1 hotmail.msn.com/ 0 1715191808
32107852 1236821008 29449527 *

The code will only make sense to Microsoft’s MSN Hotmail servers.

For more information on cookies, visit http://aboutcookies.org

Now that i’ve described now innocuous most cookies are, and how everyone needs to get their panties out of a wad about having a few on their computer, let me tell you why this is FCC stuff is really a bunch of nonsense.

1. The internet doesn’t need to be any more anonymous. And the anonymity of the internet is really a myth anyway. Everyone gets their internet service from some service provider, and service providers track their subscribers. Anyone with a valid subpoena can find out what you’ve been doing online. Sorry.

2. I LIKE targeted advertisements! I want my computer to know exactly who I am and anticipate what I want. I hate seeing ads I don’t want to see. Having ad companies (like google) know a little bit about my location, sites I visit, or recent items I’ve been looking for allows them to show me ads I really might actually click on.

Imagine… Happily married couples will stop hearing about singles websites. Healthy individuals will stop having to see drug commercials. Pop music lovers won’t have to listen to rap or hip hop music ads. And most importantly, niche markets and products actually get a chance of reaching each their target audience. Yes. In my mind, a targeted advertising world is a much happier world for me.

3. There are MILLIONS of web developers around the world (like me) developing websites who might utilize a cookie every now and again. Now these sites will have to ‘check in’ with some underpowered, underfunded national database registry (trust me, the gov’t won’t be running server farms like google) for EVERY visitor and find out if they are in the database. This will totally slow down the internet, ruin the user experience on your site, and drive up development costs. Many programmers don’t really even have the know-how to implement such checks.

Users already have a “do not track” mechanism… go into your browser options, disable cookies, and crank up your security. I had NO control over my published phone number, thus necessitating the Do Not Call list. Internet users, on the other hand, have INFINITE control over their PCs and Security settings.

Too much regulation! Soon they’ll be regulating the regulation.

iRan

On Friday, Condie Rice announced new sanctions against the Iranian military and Iranian financial institutions that are involved in Iran’s nuclear program and funneling arms and financial support into Middle Eastern terrorist networks. There is a great debate as to whether or not these new sanctions will have any real effect on Iran, and America begins to wonder if we are on a collision course with that country.

I, on the other hand, have come up with a totally new solution to the problem. What we need is a new, modern Iran, full of fresh new ideas and leadership.

First, I propose we rename “Iran” to “iRan.” We can create a NEW Iran just by lower casing the i on Iran and giving it a brand new industrial design. This will modernize, pluralize, and make iRan cool, hip, and “now”. Let’s face it, mp3 players and cell phones existed before the iPod and iPhone, but look what the new capitalization has done for them!!

map of iRan 1

Second, I propose we make Steve Jobs the new CEO of iRan. There, he can give long winded, disconnected Keynote presentations to his heart’s content. He will have a totally captive audience. Also, having Steve in iRan will open the way for a new “mecca” for Mac-Philes. The tourism industry of iRan will grown 800% in the first year, with people making their annual pilgrimage to the center of Apple-dom.

map of iRan

Third, (and most important of all) we have learned that the ‘hearts and minds’ campaign is the most difficult one to win, and to succeed in this, we will introduce a revolutionary new device called the iRan.

the iRan

This device will be based on the iPhone and iPod touch. Except it will come pre-loaded with all sorts of incredible content (cause as far as we know, the internet probably hasn’t been invented yet in Iran).

The iRan will include all the 60’s protest music we can find, the entire Beatles anthology (the rights to which will be taken from Michael Jackson as part of his current legal proceedings), videos of people getting smacked in the junk, and of course W’s last 6 “State of the Union” addresses.

We should also throw in lots of Hip Hop music, because I really feel like the suppression and objectification of women embodied therein will resonate in that culture. Also, it wouldn’t hurt them to learn the F word and repeat it at leisure every time they see an American, even if they don’t really understand how offensive it is.

We also need to put in every Tom Cruise film, for the pure capitalistic presentational melodramatic action packed nature of them. We should include the complete works of Meg Ryan as well, to show America’s cutesie, optimistic, love struck side.

I welcome your suggestions on other content you think might be appropriate for the iRan. It will be forwarded to the appropriate congressional subcommittee and is guaranteed to go absolutely nowhere.

This revolutionary device will change the way we fight wars and win hearts and minds the world over! A new era has begun.

State Department, are you listening???

On/Off Button.

Someone should do this poll…

Many organizations have polled the question, “Would you vote for a Mormon candidate?” Well, I propose they try a new poll question, particularly among Mormons… “Would you vote for a candidate solely because he was a Mormon?”

When I talk to other Mormons about Mitt Romney’s candidacy, they typically don’t know too much about him. That is understandable because it is still early in the presidential race, and up until now he has been living and working in Massachussetts (which might as well be Timbuktu to some Mormons…). When I ask them who they are leaning toward, they usually say something like, “Well… I’d vote for Mitt just to get a Mormon in the White House.”

It’s basically the same logic that kept Sanjaya in American Idol for so long. People vote for the least likely candidate just to see how far he will go. (Well, the analogy breaks down when you realize that Sanjaya had no business in AI, whereas Mitt has qualifications to be President)

However… this is a dangerous position. You should get to know Mitt politically. Decide if he is the leader you want leading the country. I would be very curious to see how many Mormons would vote for their religion even if the candidate were Hillary herself.

While I’m on the topic of Mormonism, did you see “House MD” last night? I thought it was absolutely hilarious. One of the “applicants” for the new positions on House’s team is a black Mormon which House identified by a class ring from Brigham Young. This was funny to me because:

BYU has no medical school… (and it is a well known fact that no doctors worth a hill of beans would get their undergrad at BYU… hehehe…)
Class rings are not popular at BYU. I personally don’t’ know anyone who has one.

The character asserts early that Mormons now have a “very progressive” view on african-americans, then agrees to get slammed on Vodka as the “control group” for House’s latest medical test, after putting up a good fight contrary. (C’mon… wwjd if having a few shots cured a woman) I am really curious to see if this character will get anywhere in the series, and if House will continue to bash on his religious views. Who knows, maybe Mormonism will be the cure for House’s atheism! Um.. Not.