I have an example
… [read full article]aptly points out, the police in the USA have to be a swiss army knife, attending to an unexpectedly large variety of law-enforcement related tasks. Like Swiss-army knife, NONE of the variety of tools are really that good at the task except for the one knife and maybe the toothpick. The rest are “barely adequate”. If you’re in a dire situation, you’re grateful for that multi-tool knife. It’s not perfect but it’s something and it can be a lifesaver in desperate times in wilderness situations. But… look at a community. Stable geography. Stable population. Stable traffic flow. Stable range of general human behaviors that are more or less regular and predictable. It’s not a desperate environment. You can put together a WORKSHOP with proper TOOLS. A REAL set of saws. A nice box of disposable toothpicks. An actual fileting knife for your fish. A corkscrew wine opener (on a Boy Scout knife? I won’t go into that) that doesn’t break off. IN short, public services adequate for the needs of the community, not nine months training, a badge and a gun, tasked with enforcing an impossible array of laws that bewilders court systems with split second accuracy and with a main tool, a pistol, training to kill if feelings are fear and that’s it. How does that apply to this case specifically? I’m not on that yet. But I did want to iterate and amplify the problem we who argue see about the police: They are tasked with far too many things and are not very good at many of those tasks.
aptly points out, the
… [read full article]Getting closer: 1983 Sears Wishbook Catalog had a “turn your Intellivision into a Computer and Music maker” system. I had the older Intellivision and thought this new style looked cheap. But I still wanted it which means I didn’t get my Tandy CoCo 2 yet. Has to be earlier though. I’d have been 10 here. 1983 Wishbook released in 1982. Must go earlier.
Getting closer: 1983 Sears
I thought War Games, but it had to be earlier because Whiz Kids came out at the same time as War Games and I felt MOCKED by Whiz Kids. I _hated_ being called a “Whiz Kid”. I liked being one, call me a kid, call me a whiz, but not a whiz kid. Hated the stereotype. I need to look a little deeper. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDdVbOcUlTo
I thought War Games,
… [read full article]The power of status-quo clamps down hard and from every direction. It’s why social change is so excruciatingly slow.
… [read full article]The power of status-quo
Change is made where the pain is felt. I can’t remember the expression exactly but it’s a good sentiment. In businesses, this notion is used when doing forensic analysis (what went right and wrong in a project after it’s done). You identity the sources of pain in the project, which are usually departments that were either under or overutilized in the process, or used incorrectly, and then work with that department to make appropriate changes for the future. If done properly, the organization as a whole becomes healthier and more functional for future projects.
Change is made where
… [read full article]When I think of governing, I think of the lawn mower part called a “Governor”. “To control engine speed, a mechanical governor uses gears and flyweights inside the crankcase to detect changes in the load and adjusts the throttle accordingly.” And basically, that is what governments do. They’re load and speed adjustors. https://www.briggsandstratton.com/…/governor-system.html
When I think of
… [read full article]Each nation does things a little differently. Some have the divine right of kings, other theocracies. Others are nations of laws, others are oligarchies. America is really an oligarchy at this point, but for most of its history was (theoretically) a nation of laws. Whatever the laws said, that is what the nation was constructed of. People did what they wanted to regardless of course. Consequently, much of what’s done in America is not so much “legal”, just “not caught yet”. I don’t know how this applies in other nations though.
Each nation does things
… [read full article]