methinks

The China Price

Read this article before you buy anything else made in China.

http://biz.yahoo.com/bizwk/041126/b3911401_1.html

My New Car

My new 1998 Honda Civic LX.

Twenty Days Too Late

A November 22nd article from the New York Times states two-thirds of the public are ambivalent to President Bush's current agenda.

Read the article here.

Adversarial Ethics in Political Ads

One of the benefits of having smart friends is that one constantly learns new things. For example, this weekend from a lawyer friend I learned about the concept of adversarial ethics, a legal principle that says the attorneys for the plaintiff and defendant are ethically bound to do everything within the law to win the case for their side. Not only that, they are not personally accountable for their professional ethical actions. That is to say, telling half-truths, deliberately omitting facts, bashing the character of witnesses - all the things that give lawyers a bad reputation - are not only permitted but professionally required (should those things be of use in the trial) regardless of what the attorney's personal beliefs might be.

As shady as that might seem, the theory is that with both sides doing this, the independent third party -- a judge and/or jury - will better be able to see the truth. The ends justify the means, and the truth will come out in the wash.

Now map this mode of thought onto our recent deluge of slanted political ads. Each candidate plays both plaintiff and defendant, savagely attacking their opponent while nobly defending themselves. And we the voters are the independent third party who must decide between the two.

The problem is that we the voters do not live in a court room. We expect people in our daily lives to be more or less honest. We expect consumer TV ads to be factual. In fact there are laws to ensure they are. Is there any reason to expect political ads to be exempted from that standard? We know they are, but why?

Whether we've heard of "adversarial ethics" or not, we know politicians are perverting the facts. We know they want to win more than be fair. We assume they are toeing the line of legality. And for all those reasons we - at least on a conscious level - don't pay any attention to the ads. At least I hope no one pays attention to them. So why waste the money?

It's time for some accountability in political ads. Drug companies can't twist the truth by leaving out side effects. Why can politicians? Could it be because they write the laws? Or is it just because politicians - most being lawyers - have internalized the adversarial ethic so thoroughly they can't see opposition any other way.

Post Votum Syndrome

Today was my first time to vote at the polls. What a let down.

I didn't get to punch any holes or pull any levers. I only got to complete arrows with a "ballot pen." My "booth" was essentialy just a fold up counter. No doors or curtains. There were no lawyers at my poll, no one challenging my identity. All I had to do was say my name. There weren't even other voters except for one old lady.

Then there was the ballot itself. Half way through the ticket it became clear why people vote along party lines. Who do I want to be school superintendent? County coroner? City councilman-at-large? I have no idea. I've never even heard of these people before. I voted for one guy because he had a cool name. I voted for another because I recognized his name. I split my three choices for councilmen-at-large between the democrats, republicans and libertarians. Diversity is good, right? Should Judge So-and-so be retained? Sounds good to me. Should we pass a referendum to lower certain property taxes? Heck yeah, get rid of them taxes. Half my "votes" were really just fickle fancies of the moment. Am I bad citizen?

What's really scary is that I think I might've chosen a few high-level people (like governor) because of what the TV ads said. I looked at their names and the tag lines from attack ads popped into my head. I've been brainwashed.

Now that it's all over I want to go back down there and have another try. Now that I know what to expect, maybe I'll vote more responsibly.