Posts by Landis McGauhey 6 publicly visible posts • joined 26 Apr 2007
I suppose it's far too late-- and thus would be far too expensive and far too disruptive to extant underground utilities-- to adopt the traditional-Russian "perekhodov": the underground pedestrian subways found, for example, at any major intersection in Moscow.
Also, there's the perekhodov's nasty habit of functioning as suicide-bomber magnets: the firmly-confined and crowded spaces multiply, probably exponentially-so, an explosive's efficiency and effectiveness.
As an alumnus of both the U.S. Army *and* the U.S. Air Force, I don't object to the comment of my brother from the 1st Infantry Division. Having said that, I will point out that neither this lapse nor the flying-across-the-country-with-nukes to Barksdale AFB lapse would have happened in the old Strategic Air Command.
Make mine the gloved lightning with the motto, "Peace is Our Profession".
Ever notice how extremists of all types most passionately love to hate those who mirror their own goals? This, for example: the same Westerners who love to demonize Islamists also (not-too-subtly) would love to have this same law, never mind how many constitutional safeguards it would trample.
Jealousy, I guess.
As much as my gut hates monopoly (and in particular loves to hate Micro$oft!), my brain knows there are no easy explanations or answers. Whilst monopoly generally is bad for consumers, standardization is good for many consumers, especially business. An optimum standard, however, isn't guaranteed by monopoly. For example, few open-minded consumers would deny, all other things being equal, the Mac is more functional than the PC. On the other hand, through standardization, few get stuck with eight-track, RCA video disc, or betamax. The issue then, is not standardization, but how to get there. Industry consensus (often by way of working group or committee) theoretically is preferable to monopoly, but also can be plodding (witness the current finger-drumming wait for the next-generation DVD standard). Industry consensus also can have at least as many anti-competitive concerens as monopoly and is no guarantee of the best alternative. The best we can hope for is Abraham Lincoln's "you can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time". Thus I look forward to a day when Mac, Solaris, Linux and operating systems as yet unknown equitably share the desktop with Windo$e.
Best regards.
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