The Interocitor

Blood Debt

So, everyone is willing to have a buffer force in Lebanon, but no one is willing to actually do it. According to the NY Times,

Support is building quickly for an international military force to be placed in southern Lebanon, but there remains a small problem: where will the troops come from?

The United States has ruled out its soldiers participating, NATO says it is overstretched, Britain feels its troops are overcommitted and Germany says it is willing to participate only if Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia which it would police, agrees to it, a highly unlikely development.

Now maybe I'm just an old-fashioned guy, but it seems to me that Germany would be leaping at the chance to repay their blood debt to the Jews. A matter of national honor, one would think. Had they any.

Artificial Intelligence

The New York Times has a feature today on the new push in AI; it seems that they are starting to get somewhere. Smart household control, smarter cars and nav systems, and expert systems that finally do more than ELIZA. But some of the ideas are just sappy.

At Stanford University, for instance, computer scientists are developing a robot that can use a hammer and a screwdriver to assemble an Ikea bookcase...

At Microsoft, researchers are working on the idea of “predestination.” They envision a software program that guesses where you are traveling based on previous trips, and then offers information that might be useful based on where the software thinks you are going.

AI, to be useful, needs to reduce the level of frustration that people have with the increasingly complicated and technical world. An Ikea-bookcase building machine isn't that (more complicated and intimidating than the actual bookcase). Nor is a nav system that figures out that you are driving to work and tells you how to get there, unasked. So, here are a few problems that really do need solving that only AI has a hope of providing:

• An ironing machine -- toss the (RFID-tagged) clothes into the bin and they come out ironed, if needed.


• Travel booking -- finds the best flights, hotels, etc, based on your past preferences


• Computer repair and maintenance.


• Home cleaning robot. Gardens, too. Takes out the trash.


• Alzheimer's patient monitoring

I'm sure there are others. I think the "ironing machine" would make a dandy prize challenge goal, but I'm quite sure I don't want my car telling me how to get to the store.

Driver's Licenses for Illegal Aliens?

I'm for i t. I see no reason not to have licenses for all drivers in California.

With one small condition: Add to driver's licenses a residency status, which can be one of the following: US Citizen; Permanent Legal Resident; Temporary Legal Resident (expires _______ ), Other.

With that small change, I think driver's licenses for illegals are a wonderful idea. Let's get everyone documented!

Deja vu, all over again

I'm losing count, and I'm not alone. This is what, the 5th claim of victory in Mexico?

The official tally opened a new phase in the bruising political battle between the men. Mr. López Obrador's refusal to concede defeat set the stage for a legal challenge that could take weeks to decide who would be the next president.

He called on his supporters to rally in the historic central square of the capital on Saturday in a show of strength that suggested he would use huge street demonstrations to put public pressure on the court to grant his request for a recount.

"We cannot accept these results," Mr. López Obrador, 52, declared. "We are going to ask for clarity. We are going to ask for a vote count, polling place by polling place."

And of course each ballot box has extra votes stuffed in, so they'll all be tallied wrong. The only real question is how many times one guy has to win before they call it. Maybe Al Gore should go down and supervise.

Mexico has no electoral college

Over the years, after every close US election, everyone seems to find the Electoral College an abomination. I mean, why shouldn't we just vote for President and be done with all that? Electors may have been fine for the horse-and-buggy age, but this is Modern America, blah blah blah.

I've posted before just why the Electoral College is a good thing and, if the early reports out of Mexico are accurate, their election crisis is going to prove out several of them:

In at least one state, the dominant party is going to stuff the ballot box. In the US, this wouldn't help as they'd already have all the electoral votes they were going to get. In Mexico, they go straight to the bottom line and the temptation to cheat is enormous. Both sides will do this.

If the election is really close, where do you do the recount? Well, everywhere of course, and some of those places will have recount boards that would make Mayor Daley die of envy. Rather than settling anything, they'll just add to the crisis. This happened in Florida, too, but at least it only happened in Florida.

In the US, we have a tradition of fairly clean elections. Some tire slashing, some vote buying, some crooked precincts, but no one gets shot at, no one is threatened, and no one sane thinks the polls are generally rigged. It's not like that in Mexico, as they are just coming out of a 70-year run by a truly crooked regime -- one so unpopular they're a distant third and probably won't exist as a party next time around. Mexicans have no trust going in, and they'll have far less coming out. Mexico needs leadership and change, and all they're going to get is more trouble. Damn shame.

UPDATE: Uh-huh. Recount demanded.

Here's the General Election ballot issue slate, courtesy of Dan Weintraub. Just judging by the ballot summaries, here's my likely vote:

• 1A SCA 7 Transportation Funding Protection. This is the so-called Prop. 42 fix that makes it much more difficult for lawmakers and the governor to divert the sales tax on gas from transportation to the general fund.
YES

• 1B SB 1266. Highway Safety, Traffic Reduction, Air Quality, and Port Security Bond Act of 2006. The $19.9 billion transportation bond.
YES

• 1C SB 1689. Housing and Emergency Shelter Trust Fund Act of 2006. The $2.85 billion housing bond.
NO

• 1D AB 127. Kindergarten-University Public Education Facilities Bond Act of 2006. The $10.4 billion education bond.
NO. Give us Choice first.

• 1E AB 140. Disaster Preparedness and Flood Prevention Bond Act of 2006. The $4 billion flood control bond.
MAYBE


• 83 Sex Offenders. Sexually Violent Predators. Punishment, Residence Restrictions and Monitoring. Known as Jessica's Law.
Probably not. There are limits. Have to read this one in detail.

• 84 Water Quality, Safety and Supply. Flood Control. Natural Resource Protection. Park Improvements. The $5.4 billion resources bond placed on the ballot by initiative.
NO. Didn't we do this the last 87 elections?

• 85 Waiting Period and Parental Notification Before Termination of Minor’s Pregnancy. A re-run of the parental notifications for abortions initiative that failed in the 2005 special election.
*sigh* I'll trade this one for a NO on 86.

• 86 Tax on Cigarettes. The $2.60 per pack tax increase on cigarettes to pay for an expansion of health care.
NO. Tax something else for a while. Like booze. I don't drink anymore. Second-hand drinking kills thousands.

• 87 Alternative Energy. Research, Production, Incentives. Tax on California Oil. A $4 billion-a-year tax on oil to pay for alternative energy research.
NO. If they gave it to a venture capital fund, I'd buy it, but government-funded research is like government funded art. Nearly all bad if you are looking for something practical. We should be drilling more, not taxing those that have.

• 88 Education Funding. Real Property Parcel Tax. A $50 tax on property parcels to raise money for class size reduction, textbooks, school safety, Academic Success facility grants, and a data system to evaluate educational program effectiveness.
NO. Give us Choice first.

• 89 Political Campaigns. Public Financing. Corporate Tax Increase. Contribution and Expenditure Limits. The "Clean Money" initiative that creates public financing and new, lower contribution limits.
NO. Probably unconstitutional and a bad incumbent-protection scheme if it isn't. End gerrymanders first. But then, still no.

• 90 Government Acquisition, Regulation of Private Property. The initiative that reforms -- or cripples, depending on your viewpoint -- eminent domain.
YES, please.