RLS Link

*****

Here’s a great example of

Spontaneous order

Perspective from a set of on-the-ground “eyeballs” from Mississippi. This is a fresh perspective that is lacking in most MSM coverage that has centered on New Orleans.

Also a source advised a lower FEMA official was interviewed on NPR this morning. Seems as though ops center recognized the potential for disaster several days in advance of Katrina’s landfall. Emails were sent up but orders never came.

While a good percentage of the blame should rest on local and state response in Louisana, FEMA could have reacted faster. This is an organizational informational flow defect that needs a feedback loop to carry this info to the top policy/decision makers without getting “stove piped” or blocked below.

Just found the NPR link:

NPR Link

*****

Subject: FW: Welcome to Mississippi

Mark Flemmings works for Modern

Communications in Cleveland, Ms and is

working down on the coast in the recovery.

This is the story from his

eyes. (a little long but well worth the

read)

Makes you appreciate what you have!

WELCOME TO MISSISSIPPI

O.K. I’ll make an attempt to tell what’s

going on down here right now.

It’s hard to do for several reasons. First,

because there is so

much, it’s hard to talk about. Let’s try to

focus on the positive.

HSPIG Link

Hey, NEWS cnet.com is muscling in on my thoughts re gov’t response re Katrina :–):

Net beats US govt in hurricane response

By Declan McCullagh, CNET News.com

Wednesday, September 07 2005 11:27 AM

[...]

Spontaneous order

All of these efforts have something in common: They were quick, voluntarily organized and reasonably effective. That is, sadly, almost exactly the opposite of the government efforts that were slow, disorganized and ineffective–or at least seemed to be until political pressure mounted and National Guard troops finally entered the waterlogged city in force on Friday.

[...]

The point is not to slam President Bush. (Others, including the New York Times’ editorial page will devote years to lambasting his administration.)

Rather, it’s to recognize the inefficiency of top-down systems such as the federal government compared with the rapid, efficient and effective organizing that individuals can accomplish on their own.

This is what the late Austrian economist F.A. Hayek called “spontaneous order,” referring to the marvel that happens every day when people work together and agree on transactions, voluntarily, without a central authority dictating what happens.

Read More

Cnet Link

I’ve been meaning to comment on MS and Yahoo caving to the demands of repressive tyrannical regimes.

Yes, these are multinational companies but they are HQ’d in the US. Yes, they do make a profit for their stockholders.

But ponder this for a moment. The United States backed up by its military, projects a level economic playing field in which these companies can operate and make a profit. Who do you suppose pays for this?

The American taxpayers! Perhaps we should start a campaign to inform the American taxpayers of these companies who aid and abet these tyrannical regimes.

With this in mind see this comment I posted earlier today regarding an excellent article in the LA Times of all places!

*****

LA TIMES – How to Win the War of the Minds [Ed Note: My caption]

Uncharacteristic of the LA Times, the front page Column One articles have been prescient recently. Recall last week that the LA Times ran an excellent story on how the Blogos played an important role in the Katrina rescue response when local governmental efforts broke down.

BLOGOS BRINGS ORDER TO NOLA RESCUE OPS

RLS Link

Today’s column is no different. I’ve written before on this meme.

Blessed be for the Internet and the Blogos!

Information can now flow freely, unimpaired, blocked, or filtered by editorial boardrooms and tyrannical repressive regimes. The War On Terror AKA Islamofascisim is really a war of competing ideologies. This is a war of ideas, cultures, and religions.

Islamofascism is no different than other failed ideologies of Communism, Nazism, Fascism and similar ones. They do not recognize the universal truth of the free will of men and women. This radicalism is a cult no different then David Koresh and the Branch Davidians (Waco – A disavowed sect of the SDAs) (Waco) and Jim Jones and his Cool-Aid bunch that we are all familiar.

The only difference is this ideology of hate and evil is now funded by petrol dollars worldwide by the House of Saud in a deal with the Wahhabi Sect of Islam of which they are a part. Certain pathological practices, e.g. the abhorrent treatment of women, have no place in the modern world, and predate the religion of Islam. These stem from the culture of Bedouin tribes that roamed the Arabian peninsula. These practices were later incorporated into their own brand of Islam.

These regimes will fail. Once the truth breaks through, the power of “The Big Lie,,” loses it power to control. Once alternative sources of information are available that are a better predictor of the future, the lies of these tyrannical regimes become apparent for all to see. All their woes no longer can be blamed on the scapegoats of the “Big Satan”and the “Little Satan.”

In short this is a War of Information and we should not allow the enemy free run of CyberSpace.

Ron

*****

COLUMN ONE

Arabs Take Byte at Regimes

Activists of all hues are using the Internet to get around restrictions in a battle of wits against authorities bent on silencing cyber-critics.

By Megan K. Stack, Times Staff Writer

DAMASCUS, Syria In the world of Syrian bloggers, one computer key is essential.

Backspace.

[...]

Arab governments appear determined to censor cyber-critics and silence unwelcome online voices. They’ve jailed bloggers, blocked websites and asked Internet cafe owners to spy on their customers.

But it’s not working.

Online forums have been embraced by Islamists and the Arab world’s underground gay communities alike. The Internet has turned into a virtual debate hall crammed with lengthy screeds, cutting language and calls for rebellion. A colorful repository for the angst of the bulging Arab youth population, the Web is impolite, anonymous and raw ? in short, a revelation.

[...]

Read More

LA Times Link

What Jim Rockford said. Free beer to the man or woman who can show me a western company that has made returns on its Chinese investments anywhere close to the 20% or so hurdle rate that such risky investment would require.

Keep in mind, folks, that our current fascination with China is stoked by breathless reports from the same media nitwits and pseudo-pundits that bring you daily reminders of America’s demise, of the news that Bush is killing hurricane victims, etc.

So what is the factual basis for these breathless reports? Published economic growth data for China. How reliable are these data? About as reliable as your average Asian bank’s balance sheet– ie, not terribly. China may well be growing at 9% per annum, but we don’t know that. OTOH, we know for certain that: Chinese regions have nearly gone to war with each other recently; that China’s frequent experience of labor violence, coupled with its extraordinary corruption and mismanagement of mines and other industrial workplaces, suggests a powder keg that the regime may not be able to suppress indefinitely; and that shaky balance statements render China, like most other asian countries, vulnerable to spectacular to bank failures brought on by bad lending, such as that which caused the Asian Contagion of 1997-98.

As far as China’s real growth and the real strength of its economy are concerned, we’re guessing, and the notoriously opaque tradition of asian financial reporting, along with the massive and endemic corruption involved any activity related to the Chinese government– including, notably, economic statistics– should caution us from drinking the KoolAid.

Especially when the KoolAid is merely the latest libation offered by the anything to bash Bush crowd. It would be interesting to plot a graph showing the incidence over the last five years of gushingly pro-China coverage in the mainstream press here and in western Europe. I suspect that it began to rise sharply about a year after the Iraq War and then skyrocketed a few months after Bush’s election.

As with Hollywood TV writers for political soap operas like the West Wing, scripting the desired result– China as the last best hope of mankind in its struggle with the Chimp– is the Bush-hater’s revenge. Please keep in mind that any economic reporting that relies heavily on published official Chinese economic data is as likely to be as full of wishful thinking as anything dreamed up in a Hollywood studio.

Bottom line: yes, yes, this is indeed the Century of the Asian Powers. But China and India, like Russia and Brazil, are anarchic, hugely corrupt, desperately poor, politically screwed-up nations that are never as strong or as weak as people think. Leave off the Kool-Aid, folks. It’ll be a very long time before these growing but deeply screwed-up nations challenge us seriously in the world arena.

Public Forum: Focus on China,

University of Ottawa,

Co-hosted by the Hon. David Kilgour and China Insight

China ÔøΩ Deception, Delusions and Denial

How many do you think knew it was made in China and purchased it after the Yahoo story anyway because it was cheaper?

Now, tell me exactly WHO is supporting a totalitarian government?

“Liberalism” is mass insanity in a political form.

I can’t figure out the left. Not one whit of support for women, for democracy, in other parts of the world, but plenty for terrorists and totalitarian governments. Are they insane?