Justus For All

I recieved my Kindle yesterday, the e-book reader from Amazon.

So far, I love it. It is great for just sitting and reading, the device ‘dissappears’ and after a few minutes it feels just like reading a book, except it is even less intrusive as the page turning is just a twitch of the thumb. The ability to purchase e-books from Amazon and get them instantly is also great, although I view that feature with some trepidation, as I fear how much money I will spend that way.

I haven’t really played around with the web interface very much, seems functional but only barely and I can get to my gmail account no problem. That isn’t really what I want the device for, but it is a nice little bonus feature.

The main thing for me is being able to read absolutely comfortably, both from a visual perspective and also different positions and stuff. I often read several hours a day, and if Kindle didn’t ‘work’ for that, I would be very unhappy. Thankfully though, it is supperior, rather then inferior to a book in that regard. It is easy to hold and turn pages in just one hand, and equally easy for left hand or right hand use. It is about as light as an average paperback book.

The second thing that I was looking for is portability and storage. Since I already have a full room in my house that is overflowing with my books, being able to start converting my library to an electronic format is a huge plus. Being able to take a couple thousand books with me in my pocket is also pretty cool.

The only thing that I regard as a downside in converting to Kindle is the ability to loan books to my friends. I think pretty much all of my friends have gotten involved in a series or two based upon my loaning them of a book to get started with. Beyond the simple joy of sharing something nice, this also leads to a lot of enjoyable discussions and speculation sessions. Doing that with the kindle is of course pretty much impossible, but we’ll see how much that matters over time. Perhaps I will resort to giving more books as gifts to keep that dynamic going.

As of right now anyway, I am very happy with the device.

New York Times

The Chaitén volcano in southern Chile blasted ash and what appeared to be lava a dozen miles into the air on Tuesday, leading the government to order the immediate and complete evacuation of everyone living within a 30-mile radius of it.

Until now considered to be inactive, Chile’s Chaitén volcano erupted Friday and led to the evacuation of everyone living within a 30-mile radius of it.

Preceded by dozens of tremors, the volcano — until now considered inactive — began erupting last Friday. It covered about 60 square miles with more than 15 inches of ash, rendering the air unbreathable, contaminating water sources, killing livestock and destroying all small- and medium-scale agriculture in this rural and mostly impoverished area 800 miles south of the capital, Santiago.

Having been ashed on by two volcanos myself, Mt. Saint Helens and Mt. Pinatubo, I have a fair amount of sympathy for the people facing this disaster.

Reuters

Russia’s deployment of extra troops in the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia has brought the prospect of war “very close”, a minister of ex-Soviet Georgia said on Tuesday.

Separately, in comments certain to fan rising tension between Moscow and Tbilisi, the “foreign minister” of the breakaway Black Sea region was quoted as saying it was ready to hand over military control to Russia.

“We literally have to avert war,” Temur Iakobashvili, a Georgian State Minister, told reporters in Brussels.

Asked how close to such a war the situation was, he replied: “Very close, because we know Russians very well.”

Of course one hopes that such a thing can be averted. Conflict between Georgia and Russia could have all sorts of negative consequences.

Today’s primaries prompted a few thoughts that I think are worth sharing.

If the Democratic Party has any one unifying theme, it is providing influence and power to those who are marginalized by society. The downside of this, is that the marginalized by society are quite likely to make bad decisions. In some cases this is a result of the marginalization (less educational opportunities, a worse home environment) and in other cases the marginalization is a result of poor decisions. Now of course luck exists, some people are bad off simply because of some bad breaks, but in general I think this holds true.

It is curious, to me at least, that the Democratic nomination process almost explicity acknowledges this fact, Super delegates are able to ’save the party’ from the poor decisions of its members.

I noted to some friends during the 2000 Florida election debate how interesting it was that the tactics of the two parties actually mirrored some of their core philosophies. The Democrats basically took that line that people needed help to vote correctly, and every effort should be undertaken to provide that help, while Republicans provided a narrative that people should be self reliant and if they can’t follow the rules, then their votes shouldn’t count. I don’t know if the arguments would have been different if the situations were reversed of course, but I do find it somewhat comforting that even in a fairly legalistic argument the core values of each party were reflected.

I think that the Democratic Primary process is another example of this. It both reflects the desire of the party to provide a voice for those who are weak, and a desire to protect those same people from their own decisions. Now, I have some disagreements with this philosophy, and I have even more disagreements with how it is often implimented, but it is nice for me to see the consistancy of this philosophy with the proceedures set up by the party, even in such an arcane area as nominee selection.

I expect that Clinton will win Indiana by about 7 or 8 points and that Obama will win North Carolina, but only by about two or three points. This result won’t change the dynamics in the race all that much, but it will certainly give Clinton plenty of reason to continue, especially considering that not to long ago Obama was up in North Carolina by 20 points.

If Clinton actually pulls off a victory in North Carolina, a long shot, but not impossible, I think it will be a very big deal, perhaps enough to convince the needed Super-Delegates to swing to her side. Of course if she loses both, her campaign is probably over.

It will be interesting to watch what happens.

Michael Yon writes:
The great victory of the past year and a half has been the decision of Sunni citizens to turn against Sunni outlaws. Now, neither we nor the Iraqi government can maintain our credibility with the Sunni if the Shia militias are allowed to remain outside the law.

The militias, unlike Al Qaeda, are not insane; we can negotiate with them. But we and the Iraqi government can only capitalize on the shifting sentiments of the Shia neighborhoods if we first demonstrate that we and the government - not the gangs - control the streets.

That means, for the next few months, expect more blood, casualties and grim images of war. This may lead to a shift in the political debate inside the United States and more calls for rapid withdrawal. But on the ground in Iraq, it’s a sign of progress.

Makes a fair bit of sense to me. One could of course argue that this is a purely internal Iraqi matter, and we shouldn’t be involved. I believe though that American interests will be best served by our helping build the Iraqi institutions that their society will have to rely on in the coming years, and we can only do that be being there. As an added benefit, doing this will be a tremendous opertunity to really learn how to build such institutions from the ground up, a task I fear we will be called on to perform more and more in the coming years, as failed states continue to represent greater and greater threats.

I also highly recommend Yon’s book, Moment of Truth in Iraq.

CNN.com
Almost 4,000 people have died and another 3,000 remain missing in Myanmar as a result of this weekend’s devastating cyclone, state media reported Monday amid fears that the death toll could continue to soar.
art.harbor.afp.gi.jpg

Diplomats summoned to a government briefing on Monday said the foreign minister acknowledged that as many as 10,000 could be dead as the reclusive southeast Asian country’s ruling military junta issued a rare appeal for international assistance in the face of an escalating humanitarian crisis.

A state of emergency was declared across much of the country following the 10-hour storm that left swathes of destruction in its wake.

The government of neighboring Thailand said Myanmar’s leaders had already requested food, medical supplies and construction equipment, AP reported. The first plane-load of supplies was due to arrive Tuesday, a Thai spokesman said.

I don’t have any love for the government of that nation, but my antipathy certainly doesn’t extend to the people and this is a great tragedy.

I took a week off and was barely aware of the news at all.  It was nice.  I’ll probably have another post up today if I can find anything worth commenting on.

Macleans

Palestinian Arabs present a challenge to Israel that is at once more straightforward and infinitely more difficult to solve. Within one or two decades, the number of Muslim and Christian Arabs living under Israeli control including in Gaza, the West Bank and Israel itself will surpass the number of Israeli Jews. When that happens, if there is still no Palestinian state and in the absence of large-scale ethnic cleansing, Israelis will be forced to choose between two futures. Their country will either be Jewish, but not democratic — in other words, a Jewish minority will control a land mostly inhabited by Palestinians — or Israel will be democratic, but not Jewish, because Arabs will form the majority in what will become a bi-national state.

Israel will be Jewish, or democratic. It cant be both. And if it cant be both, the Zionist dream on which Israel is founded will end. This is the gravest threat Israel faces on the eve of its 60th anniversary. It wont have another 60 years to address it.

This is why I am a supporter of the two state solution.  It is also though why I honestly think that Israel as a safe homeland for the Jews was the wrong path for that people.  Jewish safety and freedom can best be gained by a commitment to individual rights, regardless of ethnicity, nationality and religion, and an religious/ethnic based state is the antithesis of that.  The best place in the world for Jews is America, not Israel.

In all fairness though, that was not at all obvious in the 40s when American anti-semitism was far more common then it is now.

International Herald Tribune

China’s government agreed on Friday to a meeting with an envoy of exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama, a step that follows weeks of calls from world leaders for dialogue in the wake of anti-government protests in Tibet.

“In view of the requests repeatedly made by the Dalai side for resuming talks, the relevant department of the central government will have contact and consultation with Dalai’s private representative in the coming days,” the official Xinhua News Agency said, quoting an unidentified official.

Most likely very little will come of this, but it is still a good sign.  This concession by China, small though it is, will make others more possible in the future.