catapult magazine

Want to put money down on when and where the next terrorist strike will be? Now you can. Sponsored by the US government:

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/29/politics/29TERR.html?hp

That was a scary link. I wonder why they had trouble convincing people it wasn’t a hoax? :)

Apparently now that people know about it, they’ve abandoned the plan.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=542&e=7&u=/ap/terror_market

Oh, man! What an interesting thing this is! It’s totally consistent with the Bush administration’s belief in the power of the free market. The administration puts more trust in individual self-interest than in government and government agencies.

By the way, has anyone bought a pack of Iraq’s “Most Wanted” Playing Cards yet?

Yeah, it’s off. Too bad. Maybe we can set up something similar on cino to finance the site…

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/29/politics/29WIRE-PENT.html?hp

You mean, like the future’s market idea? We can bet on who (of the *cino members) is most likely to come into a million dollars first. Start buying those lottery tickets, people! Don’t let your high-minded “principles” get in the way of *cino’s future. There’s a guy on TV right now promising to give people “one-hundred meeleeon dollars” for breaking him out of jail. Oh, wait, that was just the SWAT movie preview. Oh, but how I wish it was real. I think *cino could put together a decent attempt at something like that.

I still think this market was a ludicrous idea, but I ran across an article in which someone actually defends it, and thought I’d throw it out there.

http://slate.msn.com/id/2086427/

His defense acknowledges that it would have been effective, and he’s probably right. Apparently, according to an NPR report, the group behind this idea has had much success with these kinds of things. How entrepeneurial!

This administration believes that in a “free market”, people motivated by self-interest who are offered a really juicy carrot will have more incentive than the government to stop terrorist attacks. So, how do you catch Saddam Hussein faster? Offer a big big big reward. How do we pay for public education? Offer Mega-Millions Lotto games! (though not this administration’s idea) People become real eager to help the poor illiterate children when there’s something in it for them.
Thank you, Lord, for not making me like them. ; )

as sickening as ret. adm. poindexter’s terrorist futures market concept is, i am not certain that one should thank the Lord for not making you like ‘them’ (whoever ‘them’ are). now i realize that grant’s thankyou was with a wink and a smile, but the thankyou and the previous comments smack of smugness. the problem i have is that the Lord did make you the same way that he made ‘them’, it is only his grace that prevents you from going to the excesses of ‘them’. perhaps i am overreacting to something meant as a joke; grant are you refering to the pharisee’s prayer in the temple that jesus contrasts with the tax collector’s? however, this is not the first time that i just have to marvel sometimes at some of the things that cino members post in the remarkable confidence that their beliefs are undeniable truths; the most obvious example is the bush adminstration bashing. don’t get me wrong, i am not a fan of the present administration and its many antics but to broadly condemn an entire administration that consists of hundreds of people and a multitude of ideas, programs, and legislative acts that is more than a smig arrogant. what about the many very respectable attempts by the administration, for example legislation to bring millions of dollars of aid to fight a.i.d.s in africa? granted that was only after the activism of bono, but there are many other instances that give one reason to not broadly condemn this administration. perhaps a better approach is one of allowance for the breath and complexity of problems, crises, issues that is administration faces and for the common basterdness that all humans share.

I’m sorry if my joke wasn’t clear. I threw that in there to remind myself and others that all these schemes are products of sinful creatures, just like you and I. And to point out the Pharisaical way we talk about others, including (and especially) the Bush administration, as if we have found a way to avoid such sinful mistakes. So, I am very glad to hear your comments, because I completely agree with you.

Be careful though. If you defend the humanness of Bush and his administration, you may be blamed for being a card-carrying, un-thinking Republican like I was at the *cultureisnotoptional camp-out this year (in jest, of course, but it hurt deep-down just the same….nod, wink-wink).

crlynvn,
thanks for your comments.

i think it would be great if you (or someone) would get a few more threads started about the things the administration has done that are laudable (the more the better!). i’m all for that, and it has already happened to varying degrees (eg. dan’s optimism about bush’s conversion—re: middle east peace and foreign policy in liberia, etc.) of course, just because something is laudable doesn’t mean that it is beyond critique.

secondly, i think it’s important to acknowledge bush’s humanness (which is exactly why i feel it important to acknowledge his fallibility—without claiming i am not fallible). but just because i acknowledge that someone is human doesn’t mean i have to automatically excuse all the things they do that i think are wrong. (oh, sure, he just did that because he’s human. it’s okay). isn’t it okay to acknowledge the breadth and complexity of the problems without giving someone a pass for doing something that you think is a bad decision?

is it arrogant to draw attention to something that you think is wrong? should we all just let everything happen without commenting for fear that we’re being arrogant? (to draw a more extreme example, as i tend to do sometimes, was it arrogant for bush to paint a picture of saddam’s regime as evil when in reality there were people that saddam probably helped out? was he missing the nuanced nature of saddam’s humanity?)

again, in some way’s this parallels the discussion on art we were having. (i didn’t want to apply my criteria to a piece of art and then use broad labels like “this art is completely bad” or “this art is completely good” but am in favor of acknowledging both the bad aspects and the good aspects—in art and in this administration.)

thanks for clearing that one up and for the, uh, warning about defending the humanness of the bush administration. because, um, such accusations of being a, um, card carrying, un-thinking republican, hurt way deep, deep, deep down -to the core. sniffle, i think i am going to cry now. ; )

hem hem, anyway, friday there was an article in the chicago tribune about poindexter; did anyone else read that he, the head of DARPA- pentagon research agency, was a involved in iran-contra? (how ironic) that this is not the first time that he has proposed something this wacked. apparently last year he proposed developing a computer program that would mine databases for information on individuals, supposedly to track data on terrorists. how 1984.