Results matching “obama” from Ye Olde Rad Blog III

The White House re-launched its website on Drupal. Can you believe that? Not sure why this blows my mind. In searching the web however, I see many others have also sat up and taken notice.

No doubt the White House has content to manage. Sure.

But I think the reason it's so unexpected is that Drupal is simply too cool & cutting edge for the White House .. which we normally associate with stodginess and somnolent formality.

Then there's the fact that Drupal is not an American product. It was born in Belgium, at the University of Ghent (.. as a message board for fellow-students enrolled there).

And you know how RADICAL college students can be. Downright revolutionary at times.

It could also be that we associate politicians with being less-than-honest about their true intentions .. while Drupal is open source, and therefore completely transparent. (Imagine how people might feel if Hitler were caught parading around town wearing a scarf knitted by Mother Teresa.)

Dare I mention how the government TAKES your money .. without even a thank-you note, and gives it to people who have much too much already. While Drupal, released under GPL, is better than free (as in 'free beer'), cuz it's also open source (free as in 'freedom').

The whole thing feels grossly incongruent .. as tho two vastly different worlds have collided. Matter and anti-matter. Good omen, tho .. for both the White House and Drupal.

Frontline launches its new season tonight .. with a feature titled » Obama's War. We're taken to Afghanistan, where we hear a commander begin the segment by saying, "We are experts in the application of violence." Catchy. Got my attention.

Was surprised to hear the f-word uttered so many times. Soldiers use the f-word a lot. Even more than sailors do. But then, sailors don't normally get shot at .. which can't be a very pleasant experience.

Glad to know they didn't edit-out the real-life dialogue. That's why I like Frontline .. feel like they give me the straight poop. (Much as possible.)

Great contrast showing the difference between the suit-n-tie crowd discussing policy in an air-conditioned banquet-room in Washington .. with soldiers dodging bullets in Afghanistan's withering heat (.. one of whom got shot thru the neck and died).

If nothing else, this program illustrates the gulf that exists between the Washington policy-makers and the bullet-dodging soldier.

I'm convinced that anybody who is involved in making war policy should be required spend a week (just a week) with the soldiers who are charged with executing policy.

Nothing like a little first-hand experience to inject a dose of reality into the plan. Cuz it's much easier to make policy, while sitting in an air-conditioned room (sipping a dry martini) .. than it is to execute policy .. with bullets whizzing by your head.

Strange coincidences. Ever had 'em? Things that seem highly improbable. Jung termed these attention-getting coincidences » "synchronicity," which he defined as » "two or more events which are causally unrelated, tho occurring together in a meaningful manner".

The easiest one to describe came when I was living in Hawaii (Honolulu, downtown Waikiki, on Ala Wai Blvd). It was a Saturday afternoon when the phone rang .. someone calling for the Dog.

(.. who was out looking for his car. It's easier to lose your car in Waikiki than you might think, cuz you can walk everywhere. I had a black Sportster there.)

The caller was hosting a card game that night and asked me to give the Dog his number. I found a pen and tore off a piece of grocery bag. I forget the number, but recall the last four digits were '0507'.

The radio was on. (We had a nice stereo system, with Bose speakers. Actually, that's pretty-much ALL we had in the place. You know how it is when you're 20 years old.) A commercial was playing as I took down the guy's number. It was playing loud, cuz I had turned up the previous song.

At the exact time I wrote the number, the radio announcer gave the address of the place he was pimping » 507 (Something street) .. for some tire store (in Honolulu).

'Interesting timing,' I thought. But then, I glanced over at the clock to note the time the guy called, and it was » 5:07. That *really* got my attention. My eyebrows popped up as I looked around to see if anybody was watching.

I told the Dog about the weird coincidence when he got home (after finding his car). He was the one who noted today was May 7th (»5:07). He held out his arm and said, "Look. Chills."

The Bug's school had a field trip today to Centennial Farms (at the Orange County Fair Grounds), ~ a mile from here. They have animals & farm stuff. We've been there dozens of times.

When I pulled up this morning however, a bunch of news trucks were parked outside the gate (Channel 4, 7 & 9, plus several others) with their tall, telescoping antennas. And there were folks stopping & checking everybody entering.

"What's going on?" I asked. "Why the news trucks?"

"The President's coming," said the lady who stopped my car.

"Obama?" I asked.

Been having ultra-realistic dreams about our new Prez (where I'm hanging out with him), and had one just last night .. so it felt kinda weird that he was coming to the same place I was going. (Haven't been there in a year.) Coincidental. Might share these dreams another time. So far tho, I've only told the Dog.

Anyway, after we parked, as we were entering the park area, here came 6 Secret Services dudes (actually 5 guys and 1 girl), walking out, crossed right in front of us (touchable distance), walking 2-by-2. Very sharply dressed. The real Men-in-Black. Here in the laid-back OC, they stood out .. (waay out).

They didn't say anything to me, but greeted the Bug warmly. I heard SS carries Uzi's, so I was looking for the bulge, but couldn't detect anything. [ No, I didn't say, "Hey, can I see your Uzi's?" ]

None of them were very big. I kinda expect people protecting the president to be 6-4, 250 lbs. In fact, they all looked kinda scrawny, if ya ask me. I mean, they certainly didn't look scary. If I didn't know better, I might've thought I could take all 6 of 'em. =)

Today is Martin Luther King day. I find it interesting (and coincidental) that the very next day we swear-in our first black president. What are the odds these two (seemingly unrelated) days/events would occur consecutively?

I've always been good in math. I got the highest grade, for example, in my (first) Calculus class .. even after I opted to skip pre-Calculus, and hadn't had a math class in/for 10 years. (Pre-Calc is now a mandatory prerequisite, I hear.)

I also got the highest grade in my Statistics class (taken the same semester as Calculus). The professor who taught my 'Stats' class taught two classes that semester. He told me I got the highest grade in *both* classes.

Depending on how you categorize the variables, the odds of these two days/events occurring consecutively..

.. would be between 1-in-365 (the number of days in a year) and 1-in-133,225 (which = 365x365, since each event could theoretically fall on any given day).

I could spend today's entire entry discussing the nuances associated with probability & statistics, but my point is » the odds are miniscule .. no matter how you dice the math.

My brain, for some reason, seems predisposed to identify the statistical curios associated with seemingly unrelated events ('coincidences'). It's not something I try to do, mind you. Just seems to occur on its own.

We know that the inauguration date would've been the same whether Obama or McCain was elected. And (we know that) MLK could've been born on any day. Moreover, his birth (which we celebrate with today's holiday) obviously had nothing to do with our presidential inauguration.

So the proximity of these two events seem totally unrelated (from a design standpoint). Yet in reality, and certainly in influence, they are obviously very much related. So much so that many feel the accomplishments of one man could not exist without the efforts of the other. (See my point?)

I'm not drawing any conclusions .. merely identifying a curious coincidence. And it's obvious the work MLK did back in the 60's preceded Obama's rise to the presidency (chronologically). So even the ordering of the consecutive days aligns correctly with historical events.

Went to Tom's last night for a house-warming party. He recently sold his townhome and moved into an apartment.

I said, "Dude, turn on the elections." He hadn't yet set up his cable TV service, so he dug out an old set of rabbit ears from a storage box, and spent 20 minutes trying to get a signal.

We watched the election returns on his (new) plasma TV .. connected to a (old) set of rabbit ears.

The signal periodically faded, then returned. Interesting how we watched history being made via the old (rabbit ears) and new (plasma TV). Kinda symbolic.

Everybody was wiping tears. (Tho for different reasons.) Some felt history books a hundred years from now will point back to this night as a major milestone (.. for better or worse, which remains to be seen).

There's a scene in The Gladiator (Best Picture, 2000) where Marcus Aurelius (Roman Emperor, 160-180 A.D.) shares with Maximus (his General) that he's dying, and tells him he wants Maximus to replace him and lead Rome after his death.

"I want you to become protector of Rome after I die .. to give power back to the people, and end the corruption that has crippled it. [long pause] Would you accept this great honor I have offered you?"

Maximus responds: "With all my heart, no."

The ancient emperor grabs Maximus by the head and implores, "That is why it must be you!"

The implication here is that the very desire for this power (» ruler of the most powerful empire on the planet) disqualifies one for the job. (A political catch-22, if you will.)

Indeed, it has been my experience, working in large organizations, that people who crave power the most tend to suk the worst at exercising authority.

Maximus for President!

Realize I'm making coarse generalizations, but certainly, anyone who wants to be president (or even a senator) would've long since passed the threshold of any power-craving test we could concoct.

I see less of a problem however, with the people themselves than with the system that puts them there. Most agree our current system of government does not attract the best and brightest minds our nation has to offer.

Along these lines .. I must ask » what is it that drives a person to desire such lofty positions of authority? .. especiallly when approval ratings sit at all-time lows, and few trust a politician to do what he/she says. And does mere presence of this desire prognosticate anything (as Marcus implies) about the likelihood of their becoming a noble, effective leader?