Leon Panetta
Today the New York Times is reporting that President-elect Obama has selected Leon Panetta as his nominee for Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. This reminded me that I had taken a course in college from Mr. Panetta on public policy. It was a fascinating class, the highlight of which was Mr. Panetta telling stories from when he managed the federal budget and served as White House Chief of Staff. I recall one class where he had to step out of the classroom briefly to be interviewed by CNN, which had parked a massive satellite truck on the street outside.
I dug through some old boxes and found my final paper from that class. The title was American Intelligence Community: (not an oxymoron) Combating terror. In the paper I describe in detail the organization of the US intelligence community as well as the role the then position of DCI entailed. If you are using that paper for reference Mr. Panetta, I do wish to make a correction which is that you now report to the Director of National Intelligence and not the President. Sorry about the demotion.
I go on in the paper to list changes in CIA policy since 9/11 and to raise concerns about those changes, such as an apparent repeal of the Presidential directive prohibiting assassination. Of course the interesting question is, what did Leon Panetta think about my paper?
Much like this post, it seems I tend to ramble a bit and could use better organization. B+.
Here he seems to be agreeing with my stance that having a President with a “hands off” approach to targeted assassination is disturbing. Though, his hand writing is cryptic and difficult to read, so he could just as easily be disagreeing with my position.
His only other mark on my paper is to underline my concluding sentence about order versus freedom. Certainly the kind of question he will be weighing if he gets the job.
After spending a few months listening to the man discuss public policy, the political process, and managing governments, I was left with the impression he was honorable and decent, with a studied and diligent approach to problem solving. Exactly the kind of person I would want for the job he has been nominated for.
posted on: January 05, 2009
Despots and child birth
Last week’s episode 57 of The Bugle was particularly funny. The highlight must be Andy describing, in often times graphic detail, his reluctant and unexpected midwifing of his new son on the floor of his bathroom. Many memorable lines, not the least of which is:So nature and gravity combined, and I caught my child falling out of my wife.
Enjoy this three and a half minute excerpt, though the entire first part of the episode is more of the same hilarity.
Listen to the file.
Finally, a shorter excerpt from the same episode that I wish I’d heard before Christmas, in which Andy lists some globally conscious gift ideas. Note that shockingly takeoutatyrant.com is still available for registration.
Listen to the file.
posted on: January 04, 2009
Step away from the Robot
To commemorate Denote shipping, I made this short video featuring my two favorite Christmas presents: Little Itch’s logo on a sweatshirt and “My First Skynet Buddy”. The voice capture makes it all the more creepy.
posted on: January 02, 2009
Opiate of the masses, once again
Thanks to The Bugle for reminding us once again, that Karl Marx was the greatest opiate referee of all.
From episode 16 of The Bugle
Listen to the file.
posted on: September 04, 2008
Beats and Pieces Volume 2
Beats and Pieces Volume 2- Digitalism – Idealistic
- Moby – Ooh Yeah last.fm
- Djuma Soundsystem – Les Djinns [Trentemoller Mix]
- New Order – Jetstream [Jacques Lu Cont Remix – 2nd Mix]
- Fluke – Philly [Jamorphous] last.fm
In this second volume, I’ve gone with a pure electronic music list. The theme might be: repetitive fun. All of these tracks I have listened to many times, and all live in my coding playlists. I own the Digitalism, Moby, and Fluke albums, all of which are hit or miss in terms of individual track enjoyment.
For the next installment, I will focus on albums which are great from start to finish.
Update: Added last.fm links where they have a longer sample.
posted on: September 02, 2008
Palette upgrades
The clog and the root site have new and improved look and feels. Please to be enjoying. Thanks be to Sara for most of the chromatic heavy lifting.
posted on: September 01, 2008
Irresponsible goldfish
John is truly a master of international relations and foreign policy. I’m referring to John Oliver of course. From episode 41 of The Bugle
Listen to the file.
posted on: August 16, 2008
My morning
When I saw what they had to do to clear the bathroom sink, I felt less bad about my inability. I had taken the drain apart and, using a bent coat hanger, had fished out what was clearly years of backed up hair and filth the likes of which I hope to never see again. But this was merely the tip of the revolting iceberg, as the two handymen had to cut the drain pipe in half with a hacksaw and extract even more disgustingness. The hair was clearly not ours. It was very, very long. Like haunt my nightmares long. So that threw off my whole morning.
Rapunzel must have grown old in my apartment.
posted on: July 15, 2008
The Bugle
The last week I have been catching up on The Bugle, a rather enjoyable weekly “audio newspaper for a visual world”. You might recognize the voice of John Oliver from The Daily Show but who really cares about that. It’s hilarious. I’ve excerpted a short bit from Episode 34 that I was compelled to replay a few times my first listen. Also gives me a chance to try out the embedded Flash player I just wired up. Have no fear, those of you on the iPhone without Flash can still hear the clip.
Also, another geeky technical point, I stumbled upon a useful way of making clips from iTunes files. Right click and Get Info on the track, select Options, and set the Start Time and Stop Time. Then right click on the track and select Convert Selection to MP3. Done.
Listen to the file.
Update: Had to add one more excerpt as some people didn’t quite think the first one was funny enough. What’s not funny about a nuclear submarine and some bleeped swearing? Did they bleep shipmates, or did the XO say shitmates? Funny either way really.
Listen to the file.
posted on: July 15, 2008
Beats and Pieces Volume 1
Beats and Pieces Volume 1- Intercooler – All Coming Back to Me
- Steve Earle- Satellite Radio
- Jose Gonzalez – Down the Line
- Robert Plant and Alison Krauss – Gone Gone Gone
- The Cave Singers – Seeds Of Night
I tried last.fm a few weeks ago and quickly concluded that sharing my music listening habits with the public was a bad idea, despite openly sharing things like photographs. I have an irrational and vociferous response to people when they say to me: “You listen to that??”.
I’d still like to experiment with sharing music that I like, but God help the first person who questions my taste. I’ll hold off on the electronic music to start with in the hope of achieving wider interest. This batch of tracks were all things I liked from the KCRW Top Tune podcast.
These links all point at the Amazon MP3 page for the track, in an attempt to help encourage the uptake of DRM-free music. Amazon only samples 30 seconds, but I’m sure you can find the full tracks if you want to. Otherwise, you can give me $0.99 worth of trust. When people link to things via affiliate programs that always makes me a bit queasy, so none of these links make me money. Comments such as, “I heard that 6 months ago” or “That’s too mainstream/obscure” are really not useful and will be filed in my shoe after I extract it from your face.
Is 5 tracks too many or too few, or just right?
n.b. Yes, I stole the title from Ninja Tune.
posted on: July 13, 2008
Powerhouse
Remember that song they always played during construction in Warner Brothers cartoons? This be it:
Also, a nice animation featuring the track on YouTube.
I’ve only explored a bit of his discography but it he clearly seems to be a predecessor to the jazz influenced electronic music of today.
posted on: July 07, 2008
Little white dot
I think this might be the most amazing space photo I have ever seen. Not only did we put a probe onto another planet, we had a satellite in orbit to take a photograph as it parachuted in for a landing.
posted on: May 26, 2008
Democracies accept certain risks that tyrannies do not
from radaronline
“We are at the edge of a cliff and we’re about to fall off,” says constitutional lawyer and former Reagan administration official Bruce Fein. “To a national emergency planner, everybody looks like a danger to stability. There’s no doubt that Congress would have the authority to denounce all this-for example, to refuse to appropriate money for the preparation of a list of U.S. citizens to be detained in the event of martial law. But Congress is the invertebrate branch. They say, ‘We have to be cautious.’ The same old crap you associate with cowards. None of this will change under a Democratic administration, unless you have exceptional statesmanship and the courage to stand up and say, ‘You know, democracies accept certain risks that tyrannies do not.’”
posted on: May 21, 2008
Death, taxes and
Some highlights from searching for “Death, taxes and” :
Sport:- Major League Waivers
- Fifth Place
- Leaky Waders
- Comparing Golf Courses
- Mrs. Clinton
- McCain
- the fact George Bush is an asshole
- Sarbanes-Oxley
- Failing Chips
- Convergence of Peer-to-Peer and Grid Computing
- Relational Databases
- MMORPGs
- Death Taxes
- tax avoidance
- the IRS
- Wesley Snipes
- Chuck E. Cheese
- Leaf Blowing
- the evil which lies in back of them both
- left side throat burps
- Dandelions
posted on: May 14, 2008