Empathize with the enemy

As you know, Robert McNamara has died (Robert S. McNamara, Former Defense Secretary, Dies at 93).

Below is an excerpt from Errol Morris’s stunning 2003 film The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara.

In this segment, McNamara discusses the moral paradoxes of war:

Rebel Girl's Poetry Corner: Special 4th of July edition

The Fourth of July in Modjeska Canyon means a parade down the main road followed by hot dogs and potato chips cooked up by the firefighters in the park.

The little guy dressed up in his thrift store finery and rode his bike in the children's contingent.


Leading the parade, as he does every year, is canyon resident Rusty Richards who used to sing with The Sons of Pioneers.


In lieu of the usual poetic offering, Rebel Girl offers this prose piece which arrived home at the end of the year in her son's homework packet. She doesn't know what assignment directed it nor what kind of grade the little guy received for his effort. It's untitled and clearly fiction. But it does get at some kind of truth. Enjoy. Happy Independence Day, all.

Abe Lincoln and George Washington went on a journey. They were going on the Titanic. When they were on it, in the night, they silently changed the flags. Then they got a lifeboat with food. Later they were out at sea. They managed to get onto a cruiser. Last the war was finally over. They survived.

Photos for a fourth

Photos from the family's 1974 backpacking trip in the California Sierra Nevada. On this particular trip, we were way in, where few people ever go.

When, after two weeks, we hiked out, we ran into a guy on the trail who'd just started his trip.

"What's new in the world?", we asked.

"Well, we've got a new President," he said.

We were amazed. And happy.

That's my little bro Ron, fishing. Nowadays, he takes his four kids up to those mountains.

One of my flower close-ups, taken with that old Pentax. Long time ago.

Dave Alvin - "Fourth of July" live

Hey, baby, it's the Fourth of July.

Flowers for a Friday

Been awfully busy.

I came across some photos I took when I was a teenager, when the family would go on two-week backpacking trips in the Sierra Nevada.

Used my dad's Pentax. It had a 50 mm lens. I added an extension tube for closeups.

I fooled around with reflected light and such. Pretty wacky, I guess.

This last one is a pic of my sister, c. 1974. By then, she had married a guy who later became a big cheese in the computer industry. About ten years ago, he crashed his experimental aircraft straight into the ground.

R.I.P., Davey-Do.

John Williams: "egregious” mismanagement

Looks like the Times is finally on the Williams story:

O.C. grand jury again criticizes public administrator/public guardian's office

The Orange County grand jury issued a scathing report Tuesday criticizing the public administrator/public guardian's office for "egregious" mismanagement, including questionable promotions that cost hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars.
…
"It was outrageous behavior," jury foreman Jim Perez said.

The public administrator settles the estates of the deceased; the public guardian takes care of people under legal conservatorship. The department handles estates valued at more than $38 million each year, according to the report.

In a move to reduce county costs, the office of the public guardian was split from the Health Care Agency in 2005 and combined with the public administrator. ¶ But instead of saving money, the first grand jury report said, costs went up because of additional management salaries. Staffing levels have risen from seven managers for 67 employees at a cost of $529,796 to 10 managers for the same number of employees at $1.04 million.

Jurors intended to issue only one report on the agency. But within two weeks of its release in May, they got a "significant" number of calls and letters informing them that not only had management not changed, but that the situation had worsened. Another person was promoted to a newly created management position. Meanwhile, staffing levels of caseworkers and their caseloads remained the same.

"The things we highlighted in the first report were still being done very flagrantly," juror Janet Buell said.
…
Department head John Williams will address the [Board of Supervisors] regarding the first report on July 14. He could not be reached for comment.
…
But Williams "needs to have the answers to the management practices and promotion practices," [Board Chairwoman Patricia] Bates said.

According to an employee quoted in the report, temporary promotions were used to "gain support and loyalty" within the agency.

A look at human resources records showed "many instances" of people promoted and then demoted, the report said.

"Someone else needs to make changes," Buell said, "because this management isn't."

"It's chutzpah": John Williams stuck in the spanking machine

Jennifer Muir of the OC Reg reports that SOCCCD trustee JOHN WILLIAMS is an even bigger idiot than we thought:

Public administrator accused of mismanagement. Again.

Orange County's Public Administrator and Public Guardian John Williams has continued to expand his already bloated management staff and engage in questionable personnel practices despite warnings from the grand jury earlier this year, a new report alleged Tuesday.

The grand jury took a rare second look at Williams and his agency and found that the problems still existed.

"We couldn't believe it," grand jury foreman James Perez said. "They basically went on to do the same thing in spite of our report. It's chutzpah."

But Williams says the grand jury's allegations are not accurate, the second probe is redundant and it was released prematurely – before the deadline for his office to formally respond to the first barrage of charges against him. Working with the grand jurors was frustrating, he said, because many struggled to understand the complex documents and cases they were investigating.
…
The Orange County public administrator/public guardian manages more than $38 million in assets while administering the estates of more than a thousand people each year.

The public administrator is an elected job charged with settling the estates of recently deceased residents who have no known heirs. The public guardian is responsible for overseeing the estate and physical well being of folks who are unable to care for themselves, such as the mentally ill and elderly.

Those roles were combined in 2005 after Williams and then-Treasurer Tax Collector John Moorlach promised county supervisors that merging the departments would save the county $300,000. Williams earns about $145,000 a year for his work overseeing both roles, he says.

Fueled by public complaints of "inappropriate activities" within the department, the grand jury published results of its first probe in May, accusing Williams of doubling salary costs at the agency, engaging in questionable personnel practices and failing to save taxpayer money.
...
After the report was published, Perez says the grand jury received more complaints about the department, which led them to take a second look.

They discovered that Williams had hired another manager, "even though there does not appear to be a suitable organizational reason for taking that action," expanding the cost of management to $1.15 million by June 2009.

Williams defends his management practices, saying the grand jury's report is riddled with inaccuracies. For example, their analysis of management salaries is misleading for several reasons: The 2005 figures don't account for the Health Care Agency staff that was helping manage operations before the public administrator and public guardian were consolidated. Also, the 2005 salary figures only reflect base pay, while the 2009 figures also include benefits.
...
Additionally, he says there are nine managers in his department, not 11 as the grand jury report says.

Moorlach said the grand jury's second report seems to be an offshoot of a memo circulated by the county's human resources director.

"I think the grand jury's facts have been corroborated by our human resources dept," Moorlach said. "I'm not having trouble with the grand jury's facts. I think it would be good that we have a good discussion to air it out."

Day 14 of the wait for "dollar details" (or: don't hold your breath)

TWO WEEKS AGO (i.e., June 15), OC Register “Watchdog” reporter Teri Sforza posted an account of complaints—charges of “inflated numbers” and cheating [aka "fraud"]—regarding Saddleback College “Emeritus” PE classes at Laguna Woods Village, aka “Leisure World” (Is college cheating state for seniors’ fitness classes?).

The matter was originally pursued by dogged LWV resident Doug Goforth, but he managed to get other residents riled, yielding a petition in May, which was presented to an LWV governing board. The petition had little impact, but the issue lingers.

In a follow-up article a few hours later, Sforza said she had asked Saddleback College for a response, and she did get a brief statement from spokeswoman Jennie McCue. But Sforza had also asked for “dollar details” for these PE courses.

As of Monday afternoon (again, June 15), said Sforza, she had not yet been provided with the latter (which was understandable).

On Friday (June 19), Sforza reported that “We're still waiting on dollar figures for the Emeritus physical education program….”

As near as I can tell, she’s still waiting. Anyway, there are no indications in today's edition of the Reg (as of a few minutes ago) that the information has been provided.

OK, so this is DAY 14 of the WAIT FOR "DOLLAR DETAILS."

Gosh, maybe they have no intention of providing those details! D'you suppose?

Evidence handed to chirpy simpletons

"So we don't need teachers anymore. Is that it?"

Want to know the future of higher education? Well, higher ed is definitely going through some big changes, and one of them concerns the role and nature of “online instruction" (OI), a species of "distance ed."

Anyone with even an ounce of conservatism in their soul has to wonder about this shiny new mode of instruction. In some ways, it seems to offer distinct advantages as a way to ensure that students study and learn. In other ways, not so much. Cheating is a big worry.

(Several years ago, I added an "online" component to my traditional philosophy courses, and this has provided ways to increase interaction with students and compel students to study more. For instance, I find that Blackboard assignments have a huge advantage: they are utterly ruthless and unforgiving about due dates. They are the Borg.)

Naturally, a key question is: what does the evidence tell us? Scientifically, anecdotal evidence is nearly worthless. Academics, I find, are as clueless as the general population about this point. Amazing.

But good scientific studies are another matter. Better still are studies of studies, assuming the studies studied aren’t systematically flawed.

In this morning’s Inside Higher Ed (The Evidence), we learn that the U.S. Dept. of Education has just released a study regarding the efficacy of online instruction (OI). According to the study, says IHE, "students who took all or part of their instruction online performed better, on average, than those taking the same course through face-to-face instruction."

Hmmm. That factoid in itself doesn't mean much. After all, the set of online students is liable to be different than the set of trad students: maybe the former are more conscentious or observant (after all, they noticed the availability of online courses)?

But it sounds like the DOE got this right. First of all, it pursued a meta-analysis. IHE explains:

A meta-analysis is one that takes all of the existing studies and looks at them for patterns and conclusions that can be drawn from the accumulation of evidence.

And DOE was careful to discriminate between studies:

On the topic of online learning, there is a steady stream of studies, but many of them focus on limited issues or lack control groups. The Education Department report said that it had identified more than 1,000 empirical studies of online learning that were published from 1996 through July 2008. For its conclusions, however, the Education Department considered only a small number (51) of independent studies that met strict criteria. They had to contrast an online teaching experience to a face-to-face situation, measure student learning outcomes, use a "rigorous research design," and provide adequate information to calculate the differences. [My emphases.]

Sounds good.

Previous studies suggested that online instruction is the equal of “face-to-face” instruction in causing students to learn. But the meta-analysis actually gives OI the edge.

The study discriminated between OI modes and found that the “use of video or online quizzes – frequently encouraged for online education – “does not appear to enhance learning,"…. Good to know.

IS IT ALL ABOUT STUDY TIME?

Check this out:

...[T]he report attributes much of the success in learning online (blended or entirely) not to technology but to time. "Studies in which learners in the online condition spent more time on task than students in the face-to-face condition found a greater benefit for online learning," the report says.
...
"Despite what appears to be strong support for online learning applications, the studies in this meta-analysis do not demonstrate that online learning is superior as a medium," the report says. "In many of the studies showing an advantage for online learning, the online and classroom conditions differed in terms of time spent, curriculum and pedagogy. It was the combination of elements in the treatment conditions (which was likely to have included additional learning time and materials as well as additional opportunities for collaboration) that produced the observed learning advantages." [My emphases.]

Is this saying that, since these online courses happen (for some reason) to involve more study time (etc.) than the control trad courses, it might just be that difference, and not something intrinsic to OI, that is explaining the superiority of OI?

Not sure. Seems so.

Ed Secretary Arne Duncan is quoted as saying, “This new report reinforces that effective teachers need to incorporate digital content into everyday classes and consider open-source learning management systems, which have proven cost effective in school districts and colleges nationwide”…. Arne sounds like a politician--someone who deletes qualifiers from his/her verbiage. That's not good.

Lawrence N. Gold, director of higher education at the American Federation of Teachers, is quoted as saying something, well, wise:

"This report correctly recognizes that online learning and blended learning are growing components of higher education and, employed properly, can play a significant role in promoting student learning. Further public investment in experimentation and technology is certainly warranted…. [W]e should not take the report as saying it is simply better to move to online learning. These results demonstrate why more research is needed – broadly based research that moves well beyond case studies conducted by distance education practitioners, research focused on student retention in online environments and especially research that looks behind the instructional medium to isolate the characteristics of instruction that produce positive results. Successful education has always been about engaging students whether it is in an online environment, face to face or in a blended setting. And fundamental to that is having faculty who are fully supported and engaged in that process as well." [My emphases.]

That seems exactly right.

It’s beginning to look like we’d do best to embrace this brave new world of OI. But cautiously.

It’s always best to blend innovation ("revolution") with caution ("conservatism"), I think. What I fear is that, in this case as in so many others, we will leave out the conservatism, rapidly moving into the better world, as though we knew exactly what and where that is. And only a fool would stop for directions.

Will we once again be chirpy simpletons with garish banners and snappy slogans?

Of course!

I hate when that happens.

IHE also has an article about the feds pursuing availability of free on-line training courses:

U.S. Push for Free Online Courses

Obama administration may propose "open" classes and create "National Skills College" to coordinate offerings at high schools and community colleges. Other help for 2-year institutions may include $10 billion facilities loan fund

Folly is manifest

manifest: clear or obvious to the eye or mind

I am embarrassed and troubled to admit that most people mystify me. For instance, I seem to be surrounded by people who view the having of religious “faith” as some sort of virtue.

But, on its face, faith looks like a vice.

My Merriam-Webster dictionary offers several definitions of faith, including this one: “firm belief in something for which there is no proof.” That’s the sense of the word that interests me. Many people seem to think that it is good and meritorious to have faith in God and God’s big project: to believe in this stuff despite the absence of proof or even strong evidence that any of this stuff is real.

Now, most of the time, we are inclined to ridicule people who believe in this way. A dozen years ago, those Heaven’s Gate people believed that the time had come to leave Earth, since it was about to be “recycled.” They left Earth by killing themselves, taking drugs and putting plastic bags over their heads. As near as I can tell, they are now just plain dead and the Earth is just plain unrecycled.

Why did the Heaven’s Gateians hold those beliefs? Not sure, but the zany convictions of HG leader Marshall Applewhite had something to do with his alleged near-death experience after a heart attack.

“That’s silly,” we say. “You’re bound to be a bit addled while recovering from a heart attack!”


But when more ordinary people explain their religious beliefs—e.g., belief in Christ as our Lord and savior—they don’t seem to have anything better to offer. They’ll refer to feeling transported while singing hymns at church or experiencing some kind of transcendent moment whilst looking into the night sky. (I can relate to that one.) Stuff like that.

“Well, why then (I ask the Christian) should you feel any more confident in your beliefs than that Applewhite guy? How are you different from him?”

“Shut up. Applewhite was a nut. HG was a cult.”

“Yeah, but that’s just about membership size, right? There are lots of people like you and there are few people like Apple Boy.”

These conversations never seem to get me anywhere.

Yesterday’s Schott’s Vocab (Weekend Competition) is soliciting definitions of the word “faith.”

But wait. Words mean what speakers mean by them—a meaning that survives (for as long as it survives) because it is useful to us. And if there weren’t general agreement about word meanings, language wouldn’t work.

So what’s this business about asking people for “their” definitions? That’s like asking a guy how he uses his chair or his comb. I don’t ask such questions.

It would make more sense to me to ask whether the meaning of a word is such that we ought to have some important belief that uses that word. Thus, for instance, given that “faith” is believing without evidence, we can ask: should one ever have beliefs based on faith?

Maybe some who answer the “what’s your definition?” question really mean to answer the latter question. Dunno.


Here are some entries to Schott’s solicitation:

The suspension of reason and rationality for a dream.

Faith is knowing something should be true, being certain it is, and having no insight into one’s collisions with reality.

Faith: Security in numbers.

Faith is the tenacity with which a belief or myth is adhered to, regardless of any proof for its veracity.

Faith is a socially acceptable insanity in the same way that alcohol is a socially acceptable drug.

Since Schott’s readers are ipso facto New York Times readers, you’ve gotta expect entries that are witty or that are show-offy or that are snidely opinionated (I skipped over some of the worst offenders in this regard).

So most of these definitions are just what we’d expect, I suppose.

The stuff about a “collision with reality” is funny, I guess. (To me, that phrase is always funny.) Most of the rest strike me as little more than variations on the dictionary definition, plus some 'tude.


For me, two of these stand out a little bit. “Faith,” says one wag, is “security in numbers.” I suppose the point is that most people manage to avoid being embarrassed by their failure to apply minimum standards of rationality to their religious beliefs because such beliefs are so “normal” and time-honored and thus they must be true--or at least it wouldn't be too embarrassing if they turned out to be false.

My own view is that human beings are capable of almost anything (i.e., any atrocity or idiocy), as long as it can be said that “we’ve always done things like this.” Even now, tradition and normalcy are much more powerful than reason. It's pretty disheartening.

The last definition is somewhat interesting: “Faith is a socially acceptable insanity in the same way that alcohol is a socially acceptable drug.” This definition strikes me as more earnest than clever.

I guess it’s pretty obvious what the definer means by calling faith “insanity.” Faith is some sort of extreme rational error or failing. I get it.

But it’s one that is somehow acceptable. Yes, I get that too.


Like drinking alcohol? Here, I get lost. I suppose the obvious points to make about alcohol are that (1) you shouldn’t drink too much of it too often and that (2) it is silly to prohibit other drugs but not alcohol.

But our definer seems to be thinking (am I wrong?) that drinking alcohol per se is some sort of madness, one that is tolerated.

–A teetotaler, I guess. I’ve known people who seem unwilling to recognize that one can enjoy alcohol without abusing it. Is that who we’re dealing with here? Wadda nut.

I’m sympathetic to this “definition,” but I suppose I’d prefer to use another example: “Faith is a socially acceptable insanity in the same way that the notion that we have a right to bear arms is socially acceptable [insanity].”

The problem here is that one is trying to make a somewhat controversial point by relying on another controversial point.

Probably, the core of the point is just that, if one steps back to take a clear and objective look at “us,” one cannot avoid noticing that this “faith” thing that we do, like a few other things that we do, is plain hogwash. It's indefensible.

Aha! Like many insights, this one turns out just to be a variation of the Emperor’s new clothes allegory.

If I were to write a book (don’t worry, I won’t) that captures Roy’s wisdom, it would include a handful of propositions, one of which would be: most folly is manifest.

(But how can that be, Master?!)

Yes, yes, exactly. Now run along and think about that, Grasshopper (and stay out of that damned closet!).

I'm old enough to remember the monstrous, aging Kathryn Kuhlman, faith healing lunatic.

AND FOR NO PARTICULAR REASON:

Let's move on, please

Michael Jackson, an enormously talented and influential pop star of mixed and increasingly dubious accomplishment, has died a premature and miserable death, as anybody with half a brain thought he likely would. And so now he’s gone.

No doubt this is a terrible time for his family and friends.

The rest of us: surely we can see that his death deserves little attention. It isn’t particularly meaningful or important, now is it?

Snap out of it!

We cannot say that we are being fooled. It is not entirely inaccurate to say that we are being "informed." … The efficient mass production of pseudo-events—in all kinds of packages, in black-and-white, in technicolor, in words, and in a thousand other forms—is the work of the whole machinery of our society. It is the daily product of men of good will. … The people must be informed!

—Daniel Boorstin, 1961

Around the World, Shock and Grief Over Jackson (New York Times)

Fans lighted candles at an spontaneous gathering in Hong Kong, while in the Philippines, a dance tribute was planned for a prison in Cebu, where Byron Garcia, a security consultant, had 1,500 inmates join in a synchronized dance to the “Thriller” video.

“My heart is heavy because my idol died,” he said.

Local Higher Ed News

UCI budget cut rises again--to 70 million (OC Reg)

UC Irvine said today that it may have to cut as much as $70 million to help the state balance its budget, a figure that might lead to fewer classes, deeper lay-offs and a consolidation of some programs. ¶ The news comes less than a month after UCI said that it would have to reduce spending by $40 million to help the state. That figure rose to $55 million, then to $70 million….

Cal State Fullerton’s “Mother Theresa” dies at age 84 (OC Reg)

“Diseases don’t recognize borders or look for citizenship papers,” medical anthropologist Corinne Shear Wood once told students at Cal State Fullerton. Neither did Wood, whose quest to help the disadvantaged took her around the world, on journeys where she did everything from fighting leprosy in Pakistan to exploring traditional Maori medicine in New Zealand….

Teens flock to Saddleback College jazz camp (OC Reg)

Teenage musicians from throughout the county traveled to Saddleback College this week for a chance to learn from professional jazz players. ¶ The pros, most of them adjunct faculty members, are teaching 41 students everything from basic music theory to advanced improvisation….

Teach-In

FREE IRAN MOVEMENT TO HOLD TEACH-IN AT UCI'S ALDRICH PARK (OC Weekly)

The Iranian government now says Neda Agha-Soltan—the 26-year-old martyr in the struggle for freedom in that tense country—may have been killed by a gunman who mistook her for the sister of an Iranian "terrorist," the Islamic Republic News Agency reports today.

Rather than blaming the marksman, Iran suggested "those groups who want to create division in the nation" are responsible for Neda's death, even hinting at something of a conspiracy by saying government foes planned the woman's killing "to accuse the Islamic republic of ruthlessly dealing with the opposition."

That's not likely to appease members of GreeNeda, a new "movement of unity" that has sprung up just about anywhere in the world where there are Persians living, including Orange County. Composed of participants in several local freedom rallies already, they will hold an all-day "teach-in" Saturday, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., in Aldrich Park at the center of the UC Irvine campus….

Colleges Tied the Yellow Ribbon (Inside Higher Ed)

About 700 colleges signed up for the new Post-9/11 GI Bill’s Yellow Ribbon Program, which allows colleges to enter into dollar-for-dollar matching agreements with the federal government to pay veterans' educational costs above those covered by the base GI Bill benefit (which varies by state and is tied to undergraduate, resident public university tuition rates). While the Department of Veterans Affairs has not yet released its final list of participating colleges, Keith Wilson, director of the VA’s education service, expects the 700 figure to stay pretty stable. “It’ll grow a little bit. I know we’ve still got some [cases] where we’re seeking clarification from the school, and a couple we need additional information from; the forms weren’t filled out completely. But it’s not going to change dramatically.”….

Meanwhile, at the network for Stupid People...

A few hours ago, Sam Stein, reporting for Huffington Post, noted that Fox News was covering the big Sanford meltdown story all right—only, in Fox's super-special version of reality, Governor Sanford is a Democrat:

Fox News Identifies Sanford As A Democrat

According to Stein,

The network known for its conservative leaning ran footage of Mark Sanford admitting to an extramarital affair on Wednesday with a Chyron [an electronically generated caption] identifying the South Carolina Republican – near tears – as a D, for Democrat.

(Fox eventually "corrected" their "mistake.")

And, no, this isn’t the first time that the network for Stupid People employed this clever gambit. You'll recall that, when Mark Foley admitted to alcohol problems (after some seriously inappropriate behavior with congressional pages), Fox did the same dang thing.

I guess the people at Fox understand their audience well, i.e., they understand that those silly rednecks and Bible thumpers are just incredibly f*cking stupid.

Saturn

(Click on photos)

Britain’s guardian.co.uk has a terrific science page. Recently, the site featured NASA photos of Saturn:

Visions of Saturn

The Royal Observatory, Greenwich, is staging an exhibition of some of the most spectacular images of Saturn and its moons captured by Nasa's Cassini-Huygens craft

Surface of Saturn's moon Enceladus