A Mild Voice of Reason

Vote Hoekstra, Vote Early, Vote Often

Posted on 30 June 2010 | 1 response

As the political campaign season heats up, Michigan prepares for its primary election. The major race to watch, state-wide, is for the governorship, which is due this cycle. Democrat Jennifer Granholm is term-limited out, and Lt. Gov. John Cherry declined to run. Front-runners are emerging in both parties; Lansing mayor Virg Bernero and Speaker of the House Andy Dillon lead the Democratic ballot. On the Republican side, there are five credible candidates: Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard, Attorney General Mike Cox, state Sen. Tom George, U.S. Rep. Peter Hoekstra, and Gateway mogul Rick Snyder.

So far this race, on the GOP side, looks like a close fight between Cox and Hoekstra. Cox has been aiming for the gubernatorial nod since his run for A.G. — and some of his practices (e.g., adding me to his political email list when I signed up through the state for his official AG email alerts) seem shady in the typical office-seeking vein. Word on the street, among Lansing veterans, is that Cox is ambitious, foul-mouthed and thin-skinned. He suffered a recent high-profile setback when he tried to join the state lawsuits against Obamacare only to be publicly slapped down by Granholm (herself, a two-term state A.G.).

The other candidates have their sundry charms. George is a solid guy but he has relatively limited name recognition and access to funds. Bouchard peaked early; he tapped Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land to serve as his No. 2, although doing so raised the usual Detroit/Outstate argument that still rankles the typical Grand Rapids sense of importance, and the Land selection proved to be not quite as powerful as Bouchard may have hoped. And Snyder? He is effectively painting himself as the candidate of the small-business outsider, and he has money, but not a lot of political experience. That may work for him in this anti-incumbent year — but maybe not, with the GOP grassroots that turns out for the primaries and the Tea Party trying to form its own recognized party organization.

I think the best choice for Michigan this year is Pete Hoekstra. The congressman has held powerful leadership roles in Washington, including most notably as a former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, and he has been a reliably conservative voice that is rare for being sane and restrained as well as thoughtful. His emphasis on job creation, in particular, deserves careful consideration.

The proof of any candidate’s mettle is in the quality of his support staff. Hoekstra’s campaign is one of the few where I volunteered to help and actually got a real, non-form-generated response from someone who paid attention to what I wrote in my introductory email. Contrast that to the default response of Kent County Republicans, who won’t answer no matter what you do.

Elections matter. The current state of the political climate in Washington is proof of that. This August, Michigan Republicans have a choice — we can support a neophyte businessman, a too-eager attorney general, a sheriff, a little-known state senator, or … Pete Hoekstra.

Join me in supporting Michigan families and Michigan jobs by supporting Pete Hoekstra for governor!

… Another Day in Paradise

Posted on 24 June 2010 | No responses

It’s been a few weeks since the last general update.  Here’s what’s new and happenin’ in the life of your humble blogger.

• Went to my cousin’s wedding reception last Friday.  Callista and Patrick were married several weeks ago in a small civil ceremony and they celebrated last night with friends and family at St. Cecilia’s.  It was quite lovely.  I really like Patrick — he is a nice young man.  And I’m very proud of my eldest cousin; she has come far, and has found success and happiness.  I wish them both the best as they begin their life together as husband and wife, far off in the heights of Denver.
• I finally don’t look like an unemployed homeless man, thanks to a haircut last week.  I did, however, get poked by the scissors in the back of the head and bled for like 15 minutes.  The stylist did a nice job, though.  And he didn’t charge me.
• Life at the hospital has taken an interesting turn. A nice development has arisen for me, but I am not at liberty to share details until a formal announcement is released. Stay tuned.
• Been working more with Tony about his law practice. As with so many things in life, 90 percent of the struggle isn’t with the “what” but with the “why” — or with finding the motivation to engage in the drudge work necessary to bring success. I hope he continues to work hard for his.
• Haven’t been quite as social lately, although I did manage to lose a chess match to Abby last Saturday whilst tinkering away at Bitter End. I have been a fair amount of contract writing — recent clients include Walden University’s Think+Up graduate program and supplemental evergreen articles for use by the Houston Chronicle’s chron.com. Both are good exposure, and pay decently … as long as I can find the time and motivation to do the writing.
• I decided to get an “enhanced” Michigan driver’s license. This is different from an ordinary operator’s license in that it requires additional identity verification and is issued by Homeland Security. The enhanced license is a legal substitute for a passport for land and sea travel into the U.S. from Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean. So when Tony finally takes me to Windsor for a fun day of gaming, I won’t have to worry about having my passport handy!
• I think I have genuinely stabilized weight-wise after the horror that was Vitamin D Deficiency. I peaked in February and have been slowly coming down, at long last.
• Ryan and Jess and the kids are doing pretty good.  The two adults are taking classes and doing well, despite their distaste for anatomy. Their whole family is doing well; Jess’s brother and his new wife just welcomed a new son into their family yesterday, which is really cool. I wish them the best.
• The race for Michigan’s GOP gubernatorial nod is starting to heat up. I continue to strongly support U.S. Rep. Peter Hoekstra for the job, and look forward to attending a townhall meeting tomorrow with Hoekstra and U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint. Yay.
• I need a new cell phone; my Blackberry Curve has a cracked screen and seems close to death. Strongly considering moving to the HTC Evo. The charm of the Blackberry was the seamless integration with the Exchange server at the hospital, but early next month the hospital is pushing very strong security policies (including mandatory PIN numbers) that make me uncomfortable. So I may move to an Android phone and simply not be 24×7 available to co-workers.
• Alejandro, my dear young friend, recently left America to return to his native Columbia. I wish him well in his life’s journey

All for now.

Remembrance of Memorial Days Past

Posted on 29 May 2010 | No responses

Curious, what milestones we set for ourselves. For some reason, Memorial Day seems to be an annual turning point for me:

• 2010:  TBD.  :)
• 2009:  Triplets had just been born the week prior; Ryan and Jess were moving to Grand Rapids from Bay City.
• 2008:  Met Andrew (inaugurating a six-month period of cultural and relationship turmoil); went for first trip to Las Vegas with Tony.
• 2007:  Participated in community parade on behalf of the dojo — which helped me make more connections there. Also, I caught up on all my old bills and finally achieved a solid financial position.
• 2006:  Increased the distance I ran on the sidewalks of Kentwood, a pattern that held for the entire summer.
• 2005:  First signifianct “make-over” as part of my major weight-loss program — new hair style, got contacts, changed my wardrobe — before heading to family party at my mom’s cottage.
• 2004:  Had to prepare an newspaper issue almost single-handed, because almost all of my editors were away.
• 2003:  Friday prior, I received my diploma for my B.A. from Western Michigan University.

It remains to be seen what new delight will greet me this Memorial Day.

Cry “Bully” & Let Loose the Dogs of Self-Esteem!

Posted on 23 May 2010 | 1 response

First, read this story on MLive.com about the Michigan legislature’s attempts to ban “bullying.”  Pay special attention to the part of the law, as passed by the Democrat-led state Senate, that “defines bullying or harassment as abuse of one student by another in any form … bullying includes but is not limited to conduct that is ‘reasonably perceived to be motivated by animus or by an actual or perceived characteristic.’”

Got that?  Bullying is “harassment” that is “reasonably perceived to be motivated” by a “perceived characteristic.” 

So if, as captain of the basketball team, I choose not to pick the kid who checks in below 5 ft. tall as my starting center, am I guilty of bullying?  Or if I don’t let you sit at the same table with me in the lunchroom because I have “animus” that you kissed my ex-girlfriend, am I a bully?

The law is being pushed by that most dangerous of citizen legislators: The aggrieved parent. You know the type — the one who suffered a legitimate tragedy and uses that situation as a hammer to force incoherent, liberty-eroding legislation in a vain attempt to assuage their sorrow.  The kind of constituent no politician can safely resist.

So we get utter nonsense dressed up as a child-protection initiative.  In the meantime, we deprive our children of the self-defense skills they will need to avoid predation as they get older in life, and we set them up for the false belief that conflict is intrinsically disordered and must therefore be addressed therapeutically, through the authorities.  We also send the message that basic human social behavior (the instinctive tribalism that is hard-wired into our social norms) is defective and requires legislative intervention to correct, because heaven knows that Lansing is more effective at imparting essential survival skills by fiat than hundreds of thousands of years of evolution did by flight-or-fight dialecticism.

I am sorry that the chief activist behind this bill suffered a personal loss when his son killed himself because of bullying. But honestly — grow a pair, dude. If you were a better, more attentive father, your son would not have become a statistic.  Juvenile suicides are completely preventable, if only parents would be parents instead of disengaged “adult friends” of their progeny. It is not the fault of school districts or teachers or the bullies themselves that the activist’s son took his own life.

The problem with anti-bullying legislation is that instead of criminalizing legitimately aggressive acts (like battery), it criminalizes intent.  Newsflash: Getting shoved into a locker is a physical assault that should be addressed by teachers; the act itself and not the “animus” that provoked it is the salient point. Follow-up bulletin: Kids are still figuring out who they are and how to engage with others in a mature way. A one-strike-and-you’re-out approach that tells kids that a normal part of childhood (i.e., figuring out how to overcome the instinctive tribalism into which we are all born, but must escape as we grow from infants into full-fledged members of a pluralistic society) is now a one-shot chance. Instead of learning, perhaps through cruel experience, why discrimination is painful and thus should be avoided, we learn that it’s objectively inappropriate for others to make us feel bad and we can get the authorities involved to restore our wounded self-esteem.

It surprises me that folks who understand child development aren’t being a bit more aggressive about blocking this law. Bullying — whether as a giver, receiver, or observer — is an adolescent rite of passage that provides an additional set of experiences about how the world works. Painful at the time, sure. Yet formative in ways that provide greater sophistication about life as a grown-up.

But, no. Instead of drawing the line at overt violence, we must now outlaw “animus” or awareness of a person’s “actual or perceived characteristics.”

A victory for a dad who seeks to lay blame anywhere but his own soul. A victory for the grievance industry.

But a real failure for Michigan’s kids.

An Unexpected Passing

Posted on 19 May 2010 | 3 responses

The obituary in Sunday’s Grand Rapids Press was informed by a narrative I would not have predicted:

KUIPER – Thomas Albert Kuiper, age 55, passed away unexpectedly from his life on Sunday March 14, 2010 and entered into eternity to wait for the Lord’s return. Tom, the 4th child of George and Kathryn (Haan) Kuiper, was born on December 24, 1954 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He was an ordained Deacon and active member of the New Apostolic Church. Tom enjoyed preparing pig roasts for his brothers and sisters in faith, fishing in Canada, and golfing through out the States. He was a licensed auto mechanic, licensed builder, and past Business Agent for the I.A.T.S.E. Local 26. He was preceded into eternity by his mother, Kay. Tom will be lovingly remembered by his wife of 22 years, Karen (Scheerhoorn) Kuiper; father, George Kuiper Jr.; brothers, Steve and Sue Kuiper; Ray and Judy Kuiper, Ken and Debbie Kuiper, and Paul and Nancy Kuiper; sisters, Kathy Blake, Patty Kuiper, and Ann Kuiper; brother-in-law, Ray Scheerhorn; sister-in-law, Pat Scheerhoorn; several nephews, nieces and many beloved friends. A memorial service will be held on Saturday, May 22, 2010 at 5:00 p.m. at the New Apostolic Church, 4501 56th St SW, Wyoming, MI with District Elder Scott Heidema officiating. Those who wish may make memorial contributions to the charity of ones choice. We are only on this earth for a short time. Make an impression on someone else’s life, help someone in need, do a good deed without rewards, smile and laugh as much as you can. That’s how Tom lived!

Tom Kuiper was my biological father. The last time I saw him, I was perhaps six years old. I actually still remember the scene: My mother and her new husband, who was trying to adopt us, welcomed Tom into the house. It was shortly before Christmas, and Tom asked me what I wanted Santa to bring. I recall not wanting to tell him, but he persisted — so I whispered to him: “Just sign the papers.” 

The last time I saw my biological father, I asked him to give me up for adoption.

Over the years I have occasionally thought about him. Although Ed eventually did adopt us, and did good by us, part of me had a detached sort of curiosity about the paternal bloodline.  Irrespective of where one falls on the nature/nurture question, some things are unavoidable — disease, for one. Was I more open to heart conditions or Alzheimer’s or any other condition that has a genetic risk factor? Did I eventually have any half-brothers or half-sisters out there?

Family is a funny thing. The Kuipers, it seems, had absolutely no interest in their genetic kin. The Gillikins, by contrast, welcomed Brian and me into their huge family with open arms, with no red-headed-adopted-stepchild nonsense on display. Once we were Ed’s, then we were Gillikins. Enough said. And even though I have drifted apart from his larger family, I respect and appreciate the way they embraced us.

I often wonder whether bloodline is the least important part of being family. The people who we keep close, no matter the source of their DNA, are family. Others, no matter how close the blood, simply never make the leap. Family is that group of people that you could call with a 3 a.m. emergency and know that they’d answer and do something to help you.

To some small degree, I regret that I never had any contact with the Kuipers over the years. I wonder what I might have learned about myself, had I the opportunity to go fly fishing with Tom.

I will probably attend the memorial service; I may sneak in the back and observe. See the dynamic in action. See the faces, hear the voices, then close the door permanently on a question that was resolved not by my inquiry but by impersonal circumstance.

News Roundup III

Posted on 9 May 2010 | No responses

Of interest –

• Bishop John C. Wester of Salt Lake City argues that making illegal immigrants pay a fine, catch up on back taxes and learn English in order to become lawful residents is not “amnesty” because the illegals aren’t getting something for nothing.  Ummm, OK.  He also says that the Catholic Church supports a country’s right to enforce its borders, although the U.S. bishops believe (apparently, anyway; straight answers are hard to come by) that current U.S. policy is unjust because … well, just because.  Inasmuch as there are signs of hope within the U.S. episcopacy regarding its recovery from its jackbooted leftism following Vatican II (remember how the bishops got involved with nuclear disarmament?), on some issues the Men in Purple haven’t quite figured out how to reconcile state sovereignty against the nostrums of left-wing human-rights activists.  Although I am sympathetic to the plight of many poor Mexicans who seek employment in the United States — I dealt with some of them, working for a Meijer store near a farming community, and came away from that experience with a positive impression of itinerant laborers — one would think the bishops would seek first to influence the socioeconomic situation in Mexico before reflexively criticizing the push by some conservatives to enforce existing border-security laws.  This is a supply-and-demand problem, but wouldn’t it be more consistent with authentic Gospel teachings to agitate for reform in Mexico’s redistributionist, crime-ridden culture than to berate Americans who oppose an open border and all the social and economic externalities it entails?
• I am giving serious consideration to dumping my Facebook profile. The growing privacy/security instability of that platform is really starting to worry me; I am not a fan of having my personally identifiable information made available to the masses, shared without my consent and sold like a commodity with no compensation pushed in my direction.  There is a call for an open-source set of APIs to replicate Facebook functions without needing to use Facebook.  I’m considering doing something similar with this blog — deleting the Facebook and using gillikin.org as my central social-networking repository, with Twitter as the outbound push and all of my data focused inward, under my complete control.

Happy Mother’s Day.

How to Succeed in Business Without Selling What’s Left of Your Soul

Posted on 8 May 2010 | No responses

Graduation season is upon us once again, and as myriad starry-eyed new grads eagerly leap into the bog that is today’s job market, this tired old man shall shower upon them a few choice words of advice on achieving lasting workplace success.

I assume, of course, that as you enter the workforce, you took sufficient advantage of your years of schooling to obtain a certain depth and breadth of experience in a number of economic pursuits that are a wee bit more substantial than “burger flipper,” right?  You did internships, you volunteered (yes, you can include that on a resume!), you worked jobs that provided experience in your industry while demonstrating that you are capable of discharging responsibilities effectively.  Right?  Please tell me you aren’t going to an interview for a $50,000-per-year job with “cashier” or “short-order cook” or “A&F model” as your main selling point.

And in terms of job search:  Do you have a well-done resume, prepared by someone who understands how to sell you to a prospective employer?  Do you have customized cover letters?  A suit for interviewing, and a stylist to cut off those dreads and pull out all those facial piercings?  Have you sat down with someone in your chosen industry to think through your answers to common interviewing questions?

Anyway, enough of the prep.  Here are some tips for surviving in the workplace after you complete your first day of orientation.

1. Never miss a deadline. Ever.  Even if you have to stay in the office until 11 p.m.  If you commit to delivering something, then deliver it when you say you will. On those occasions when an external factor affects your ability to achieve a deadline (e.g., a re-prioritization of tasks from your supervisor), make sure that you quickly communicate the delay, with reasons, to your affected customers, with a revised due date; don’t make them track you down after the fact.  Missed deadlines — especially when there’s no good reason for it — erode credibility more quickly than any other workplace bad behavior.
2. Be self-sufficient. The only person responsible for your success is you, so don’t harass the departmental secretary with mundane tasks or seek validation from a superior at every turn.  Take ownership of your contribution to the company, and carry your own weight on projects and in group efforts.
3. Don’t make excuses.  Failures are always your fault, even when they aren’t. If you messed up, admit it quickly and apologize. Don’t struggle to find reasons why the failure wasn’t really your fault.  Even if you could fairly parcel chunks of responsibility to others, don’t.  You will get more respect in the long run if you take your lumps and move on with your head held high, than if you scurry about like the last rat off the sinking ship.
4. Avoid office gossip and keep confidences. Gossip is the lubrication that keeps the social wheel turning. You can’t avoid it — but try not to get caught up in it. Walking the high road, keeping confidences and squelching rumors goes a long way to improving a person’s social standing in the office.
5. Learn how to confront others in a respectful way. Cubicle neighbor plays his music too loud? Have a team member who consistently fails to perform?  Take the time to learn how to have serious conversations with others that touch on tough subjects. Many people don’t like conflict, but avoidance is not a success strategy. There are several different approaches to having a “crucial conversation” with someone — time invested in learning this skill will pay handsome dividends.
6. Be humble.  No one likes a know-it-all. Even if you know the right answer to a problem, you will do better to engage and persuade than in laying out your own solution.  People like to feel consulted with, so swallow your pride and structure a conversation so that your ideas feel like everyone’s ideas. And when it comes time for credit — take your fair share of the blame, but don’t hog more than your fair share of the credit.  Recognize those who contributed to your success.
7. Don’t commit to what you can’t deliver.  It’s tempting to promise the world on the basis of a dream, but people-pleasers end up pleasing no one.  Be honest about what you can and cannot do, and if you can’t do something, volunteer to help find a solution by another means.
8. Exceed expectations. Always go one step farther than someone expects. For example, if you own the schedule for a conference room and someone asks if it’s free, instead of saying, “No, it’s booked,” take the time to research an alternative and then say, “I’m sorry, the room is booked, but I took the liberty of reserving this other room for you instead — is that OK?”  Delighting your customers by demonstrating superior service is always a career-enhancing strategy.
9. Keep your work and home lives separate.  Don’t argue with your significant other on the phone all day. Don’t bring confidential documents home. Avoid littering your work space with large amounts of personal memorabilia. It’s best to keep a wall of separation between office and living room.
10. Watch your Web browsing.  Office computers are great — but use them only for the office.  More and more companies are monitoring everything that employees do on company hardware, so it makes sense to completely avoid using company resources for personal or non-work activities. Want to read news sites during lunch?  Great — bring your own laptop.
11. Dress the part.  Each industry and office setting has its own unique culture, but in general, dress a half-step more formally than your peer group.  In a general office setting, this might mean wearing ties when everyone else is “business casual.”  In an art studio, it means making sure your jeans aren’t ripped and stained like everyone else’s. Better to be at the upper end of proper than the lower end.
12. Follow policies and procedures.  Even when others cut corners, always follow a documented process flow. If something goes wrong, your adherence to policy will be a saving grace. A policy doesn’t exist to irritate you, it exists to fill a need — if a policy seems problematic, then seek changes to it.  Don’t merely ignore it.
13. Ask questions properly. When in doubt, ask.  Seek assistance.  If something doesn’t make sense, obtain clarification.  That said, avoid using questions as a way of being Mr. Smartypants.  Don’t pass judgments when asking questions.
14. Be entrepreneurial.  Look for ways to improve processes. Pitch new project ideas. Pursue professional certifications in your off hours.   This sends the message that you care enough about your job to do more than just react to incoming work requests.
15. Stay organized. If you master nothing else, learn how to maintain an effective filing system and a seamless task-management environment. Your files should be clearly labeled and comprehensible. You should be able to convert notes and assignments into a workflow that reduces the odds you will forget something important.  If your boss wants to know what you are doing, you should be able to turn around a complete inventory of assignments within three minutes. Don’t be that guy who agrees to do something in a meeting, writes it on the top of the agenda, puts the agenda on a stack, and never looks at it again.
16. Don’t be the Lone Ranger.  Even if you work independently, consistently obtain the advice of people affected by your work product. Don’t give naysayers a reason to torpedo a major project simply because you failed to communicate with them. Involve as many stakeholders as is needed in your work so that (as much as is practicable) you are known for delivering consensus-driven work product, and not “mad genius” work product that people resent because they had no hand in shaping its development. Many a brilliant project was shelved because some of the affected customers felt like they weren’t engaged in the planning process.
17. Be accessible — within reason.  During working hours, people should be able to reach you. Return email and voice mail promptly, and avoid the temptation to wander to strange places to work “in peace.”  People will notice your absence, and generally not in a good way.  However, think carefully about just how accessible you are during non-work hours. 24×7 availability can set you apart, but it can also create unrealistic expectations and lead to early burn-out.
18. Keep a tidy desk.  Silly?  Maybe.  But how many CEOs have cluttered desks, compared to the mailroom clerks?  A clean desk is a public statement that you are on top of things and well prepared.  Perhaps this is more illusion than truth, but in the end, people can only interpret what they can see.
19. Generate polished work product.  Fact: People are more likely to believe the printed word than the spoken word, and people are more likely to trust a document that is aesthetically pleasing compared to one that isn’t. Always take the time to make sure your work product is visually pleasing with solid content.
20. Don’t game the system. If the office has flexibility about when you come and go, don’t abuse it by consistently coming in significantly later than everyone else, or leaving earlier. Match the standard set by the most-respected member of the department. And you really don’t want to be the person who ruins a good thing for everyone else by taking it to its absurd conclusion.

There.  Twenty solid tips.  Enjoy!

Several Rejoinders

Posted on 5 May 2010 | No responses

A few news stories of late have caught my eye.  Herewith a few comments:

1. Former Democratic press secretary Terry Michael penned “Lies of the Ethics Industry,” published at reason.com on April 30. Michael’s money quote: “Four groups now work to convince us we have the worst government money can buy: (1) an ethics industry spawned in Washington by Watergate, which features nonprofits lobbying for regulation of speech they don’t like; (2) journalists who collude with ethics purveyors, writing cheap-and-easy stories fitting a corruption narrative they create; (3) politicians, especially Democratic Progressive Era throwbacks, who think evil-doing can be stopped with new and better rules and who pander to the ethics industry, the media, and (ironically) to citizens convinced that Democrats are just as sleazy as Republicans; and (4) citizens, frustrated by the budget-busting consequences of the free lunches we accept from politicians.” The bigger point Michael makes, and with which I happen to agree, is that the old journalistic adage to “follow the money” is as lazy as it is cynical. The confluence of money and policy is not, ipso facto, a negative event that threatens Joe Sixpack or undermines American freedom. Money is a tool, and fetishizing the role of money as a chiefly nefarious motive for action is less a statement of fact than an admission to an overweening cynicism that makes every politician a crook and renders every campaign dollar a cut to Democracy’s carotid.
2. Peter Luke, a columnist and analyst covering Michigan politics, recently penned a defense of Michigan’s new bans against texting-while-driving and smoking in a bar or restaurant.  Luke’s conclusion: “Just about everyone has a cell phone with a keyboard and those of a certain age think there’s nothing wrong with using it anywhere. Just like a smoker who would never light up in the office thinks nothing of doing so after work in the bar down the street. Distilled to their essence, the smoking and texting laws are a simple two-sentence response: You can’t. Not anymore.” Well, OK.  His argument is that both texting-while-driving and smoking in bars generate negative externalities that some other citizens may occasionally bear — the fender-bender from inattentive driving, or tobacco scent on a sweater. The problem, though, is that the proper role of governmental regulation is not to preserve citizens from potential negative consequences. If I happen to be fiddling with my radio while driving, and I cause an accident, then I’m liable for my inattentiveness. I’d rather see a penalty for careless driving, such that contributors to carelessness are recognized in a citation, than to categorically assert that a lawful action is unlawful in a specific context merely because some people are occasionally negligent. Likewise with smoking: If I prefer not to be subject to a smoke-filled bar, then I will find a bar that has no smoke. Why must people who enjoy a cigar or cigarette while drinking be punished because non-smokers believe themselves entitled to go anywhere, anytime, and not encounter smoke?
3. Victor Davis Hanson, writing in National Review, penned a nice essay on the use of euphemism and dysphemism by the Obama administration. In a nutshell: The lecturer-in-chief has a penchant for using positive locutions for things he favors (e.g., “undocumented workers” instead of “illegal immigrants”) and negative ones for things he disdains (e.g., referring to principled opposition as “phony smoke and mirrors”).  Words mean things. Amen, brother.

All for now.

“Remember November” — the RGA Gets It

Posted on 5 May 2010 | No responses

The new advertising campaign from the Republican Governors Assocation, called Remember November, astonishes me for one simple reason: At long, long, long last, it appears that some in the Republican Party finally get it.

The two major Web ads released so far have been breathtakingly good; they feel like a movie trailer, and I actually had an emotional response to them. The juxtaposition of imagery, background music and iconic imagery is both powerful and well-done.  It’s not often I’m impressed by political marketing, but Remember November does make my head nod in respectful appreciation.

A few comments on the RN campaign:

• The mix of “V-for-Victory” and Guy Hawkes imagery is powerful, even for those whose knowledge of English history is a wee bit deficient. I suspect that the suggestiveness — the provocativeness — of the ads was a deliberate, first-rate example of call-and-response.  By giving the Left something to get upset about in eminently predictable fashion, the RGA is in a position to anticipate the blowback and thereby control the message.  This is smart.
• The effort by the RGA is an implicit repudiation, I think, of the debacle that is Michael Steele’s RNC.  Kudos to the RGA for having the balls to get in the game and avoid the RNC’s shameful dithering.
• The above point notwithstanding, it’s curious that the RGA is mounting a significant campaign that isn’t specifically geared toward gubernatorial races, and it’s simultaneously heartening that the campaign’s message is an unambiguous call-to-arms against big-gummint liberalism.
• RN represents the first stirrings that some on the Right are willing to embrace modes of communication that resonate outside the typical country-club market that so much Republican advertising seems to favor.  RN is a shot in the arm for countless YAF and College Republican groups, who finally can point to an official party message that can appeal to younger voters. In 2006 and 2008, the Dems had the “cool” factor in spades, which may be one reason that so many college students — who profess a liberalism whose implications so few can clearly articulate — gravitated to Obama. Like it or not, a trendy countercultural message resonates with students much more strongly than a litany of policy points will.
• The campaign seems to get that the most salient sociopolitical issue in the U.S. in 2010 isn’t health care or the environment or Afghanistan, but rather the proper relationship between government and the people.  The litany of talking points against the Democrats in Washington has been so oft recounted that another exposition merely belabors the point.  America is a center-right country, and the antics of the Obama regime seems to have re-awakened a long-dormant disaffection with government overreach and incompetence at all levels.  How this disaffection plays out at the ballot box this fall will be a talking point for pundits for a generation.

So.  I’m going to Remember November.  Will you?

Tech Industry 2015

Posted on 2 May 2010 | No responses

Blogger Charlie Stross makes some interesting five-year predictions for the tech industry. The short version is that he senses a certain blood-in-the-water mentality among the major tech players because the future of computing rests not with hardware or software, per se, but rather in consumer devices that seamlessly connect to a cloud for distributed data and applications. The world of desktop computers with locally installed software that have occasional use of the Internet — a paradigm dominant since the early 1990s — is about to be radically upended.

He seems to suggest that HP’s recent Palm bid, and Microsoft’s dropping of the Courier tablet project, and Apple’s Fort-Knox security practices, and Google’s cloud focus, and the leapfrogging in wireless infrastructure in the U.S., all point in one direction: Hardware will become a secondary, generic, low-margin commodity even as applications that reside on a single hard drive lose market share and visibility. In Stross’s view, as I take it, the future lies with Apple’s business model of a walled-off garden of propriety software and strictly regulated third-party applications, which users access seamlessly through devices that sync with centralized servers that perform OS upgrades, store data and configuration settings, and push subscribed applications directly to the user.

To some degree, I agree that Stross’s hypothetical has potential. There is an unambiguous drive toward centralization and coordination of the user experience. Cloud computing has a real benefit to people who move from place to place, and having a trusted vendor coordinate access and security rights is useful.

That said, I question (in a constructive sense only) his overall conclusion, for a couple of reasons:

1. Many people have information that they refuse to push into the publicly accessible ecosphere. Ever wonder what people do with the billions of dollars each year they download in porn?  Hint: It’s not going on a discoverable cloud server, nor will trillions of pirated MP3s. As long as people desire privacy for critical files, including most importantly pirated media files, local storage will be essential, and as long as local storage is essential, the role of the cloud (although perhaps strong) will not “kill” hardware. The RIAA and the Apple App Store actually work against widespread public adoption of cloud storage: Why risk a lawsuit and the risk of peeking by the vendor or law enforcement, or a vendor making your decisions for you about which applications and data you are allowed to have, when local storage is faster/cheaper/more secure?
2. High-end computer gaming — just try it on an Atom processor.  Have *you* experienced Barrens chat on a netbook?  Likewise with apps that require large datasets, like some statistics packages. And don’t get me started on high-end video and image editing, or publication design.  Tablet or netbooks have their obvious benefits, but they just aren’t capable, in current form, of replacing a full-strength desktop/laptop system, and until they do, these new devices may serve a niche role in the lives of those who own them, but they will compliment, not displace, the current computing paradigm.
3. A backlash may be brewing on privacy. As Facebook and Twitter grow, so also does a sense that perhaps we are “too connected.” I suspect that there is an upper limit to how much personal information — including sensitive data — we are willing to push into the cloud, and as society matures about social-media concepts, my gut says we will err on less sharing than today, rather than more. The initial rejection of Google Buzz was significant, as is ongoing user (and Congressional!) scrutiny of Facebook’s shifting privacy standards. We may be willing to share information early on, before we are aware of the drawbacks, but eventually we will pull back from the brink.
4. Sometimes some files and applications are too important to trust that always-on network connectivity will be an option. Too many places still have too sporadic access to data services. Data access is also so slow that syncing and using a massive filesystem remotely using Wifi or 3G is prohibitive: If I want to browse for a song in my 30 GB music library, am I really going to wait for the library to stream, or to wait as the file cache reloads?  Or will I sync my Blackberry music library via USB every couple of months, and call it good?  I’m not sure that widespread, high-quality, high-speed wireless access will be ubiquitous enough to support a mobile-device/cloud-access model for at least a decade. We just aren’t where we need to be with open-access infrastructure.
5. Users like consistency. As long as I have a radically difference experience working on my laptop with local data versus using a Web app for cloud data versus using my Blackberry for yet other data, I’m going to be in a “roll your own” environment that speaks against a desire to look to a single vendor’s all-in-one solution as my default go-to strategy. I suspect savvy users will act similarly. I will never buy an iPhone or an iPad because I refuse to be locked into Apple’s proprietary model, nor do I put anything but the bare minimum into Google’s “free” services.  Instead, I have my laptop and a long-running contract with a professional hosting company. I have my own private browser-accessible cloud (I use Gladinet software to sync critical files real-time with a protected file tree on my hosted account), my own IMAP server that won’t be shut unless I shut it down, my own public FTP directory on my private server for world-sharing sharing files (and occasionally, hosting them for others), and my own WordPress blog that won’t be shut down because a user complains about content. Everything I need, I have on my own, at little cost and hassle, and customized to my exact preferences.  Although most users aren’t going to go to the same level as I do, enough will, I suspect, especially when the cost of the walled garden is a nickle here and a dime there, every day of the week.
6. Hubris is a powerful roadblock.  Yes, Apple’s recent strategic moves are suggestive. But what happens when Apple’s market share is eroded overnight by something new and disruptive? What if a kick-ass HTC unit running Windows Phone 7 Series, this autumn, gives the iPhone a run for its money? What if the FTC signals it’s interested in breaking up Google? What if Microsoft gets its act together and develops a truly comprehensive, seamless online suite that transparently extends Windows 7 with Office 2010 and its new smartphone OS?

My gut prediction for the tech industry in 2015:

• Apple’s market share remains constant, and people continue to give Apple the credit for having more influence than it really does.
• Consumer pushback against invasive data practices by Facebook and Google result in a rollback of data-sharing, prompted by the threat of legislation and FTC inquiries and as a strategic move against online-ad monopoly lawsuits against Google. As aggressive opt-in strategies proliferate, people choose to opt-in less frequently, thereby undercutting a data-commodity revenue model that undergirds a chunk of Google’s strategic plan.
• Open-source solutions (led, most iconically, by Canonical) grow in sophistication and polish but cannot significantly improve market share.
• Infrastructure improves but is still not capable of reliably supporting ubiquitous cloud computing on mobile devices.
• Hardware complexity continues to advance (more and more cores, more and more memory, increasingly powerful GPUs) but almost no consumer applications will tax the new standard of hardware resources. This will have serious implications in the enterprise market.
• Microsoft has an internal shake-up that starts to move from a “battlin’ business unit” model into a more top-down and centralized hierarchy; this has implications for core business decisions.
• Search is concentrated between Google and Bing, and the browser wars are largely as they are today.

Of course, the nice thing about predictions is that it’s mostly just a random guess.

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