HerbEly

Iraqi Elections: Not a Matter for Scoring Debating Points

Posting will be light today. I have a workplace spirituality talk to give and some Kiwanis work to do. Still, with all the words that will be written about the Iraqi election, I think that this comment by Steven Taylor, is important for all to bear in mind: The bottom line is: not every event in the world is part of a game between Reps and Dems where one side scores and the other side falls behind. Too many people treat the world like one football game where their team can do no wrong, and the other team must lose.

Amen

More on JSCOPE

Yesterday’s visit to a conference of Joint Services Commission on Professional Ethics JSCOPE is sending me in some new directions. I had the opportunity to participate in the panel on intelligence ethics. I didn’t make this remark at the time: among the most basic ethical responsibilities of an analyst – or any writer – is to quote accurately and in context. Yet the CIA motto, carved in marble on the front door is a quote taken out of context.

I’ll write more on this whole topic as time goes by. I’ve already written about problems in the analytic culture and institutions in denial here and here.

Will and Jenkins on Larry Summers

Last week Larry Summers, the president of Harvard asked some sensible questions about the relatively small number of women in tenured scientific and engineering positions at Harvard. Among the many columns that resulted, here are two that I like.

JSCOPE

Today is a new adventure. I'm on my way to a meeting of the Joint Services Commission on Professional Ethics (JSCOPE). Not sure where all this will lead, but I'm honored by the invitation.

Cold "Comfort Station"

When I was growing up, the New Mexico state parks used to call them "comfort stations". I got this from Richard Wimer's graphics humor and inspiration letter. You can subscribe at this address: ghi-on@lists.tagnet.org

Bush’s 2nd Innaugural: Inspiring - But it Could Mean Trouble

On Saturday I wrote about some of my concerns over a single sentence in Bush’s second inaugural speech . This sentence: “America's vital interests and our deepest beliefs are now one.” concerns me. One the one hand, I’m inspired because Bush has associated himself with Jefferson’s and Lincoln’s call to extend God’s gift of freedom throughout the world. On the other hand, in national security parlance, declaring something a “vital interest’ means that we are willing to send troops into combat to defend it. This could mean trouble.

Bush's Second Inaugural: the Question of Vital Interest and Competent Authority

Religious commentators are busy writing about the religious code language in Bush’s address. Little attention has been paid to the national security code language. The phrase “vital interest” contains some national security code language. This language should be compared with moral doctrines on the decision to go to war. Unfortunately, religiously literate people are likely to miss the point of Bush’s national security language. Their comparisons will be off base and ill-informed.

National interests are categorized as follows:
• Survival interests which, during the cold war, we would defend by massive retaliation or, possibly by pre-emptive first strike
• Vital interests which we will defend by committing troops to combat
• Major interests, which we will defend by using other elements of national power (e.g. economic, diplomatic, public information),

Pray as our Sodiers Deliver Ballots in Iraq

A good friend, whose son is in the (name witheld) unit passed along this request. These young men in women are delivering voting machines and ballots for the upcoming elections in Iraq. They will be targets. Please pray for them.

Hunches, Why Some are Better than Others

This posting is written on a hunch. It concerns a book about hunches: Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell. For reviews of the book, go here and here . Based on the reviews (I haven’t read the book), Gladwell provides some fascinating accounts of snap judgments. Some of these were much better than expert opinion supported by extended analysis. Others were very wrong. He provides little explanation of why, or of what people might do to make better snap judgments

As a certified enneagram trainer, I have an opinion as to why this is so.

Grammarian's Revenge

Thanks to Richard Wimer