Ringtones

To the manager of the Futureheads

You should put free ringtones on the Futureheads website. They should be the acapella parts from "He Knows" and "Hounds of Love" (basically, the "oh"s in both). Those would be totally unique and very cool ringtones.

To Russell Simmons

You should sell "old school" ringtones, like from Run-DMC's first album and early beatboxing. How would you react if you heard beatboxing as someone's ringtone? Wouldn't that be awesome? Also the opening strains of "It's Like That" by Run-DMC.

"Pickers Are Few, and Growers Blame Congress" NYT, Julia Preston

The obvious solution to this is that the RNC needs to team up with conservative churches around the country that have parishoners who want their children to know the meaning/value of hard work. They can send their kids to this program, which will house them in California while they pick food. It will teach them about hard work, make them more compassionate towards blue collar workers (and possibly immigrants) and make them more appreciative of what it takes to put food on their table. I think those are all things that Republicans and conservatives consider good values.

Someone could also consider signing up reform programs or rehab programs run by churches or Christian organizations. That's a year-round labor pool right there.

Unless we want to consider white-collar prisoners, which I also would think is a good idea. And if they get paid the same prison wages as all other prison workers (7 cents an hour or so), I think that would teach the tax evaders and inside traders a thing or two about abusing the system.

In fact, Patt Morrison of the LA Times wrote a column about this some time back. If someone had just implemented it this year, there would have been more than enough workers to help out with this harvest.

Questions for President Ahmedinejad

1. If Israel and the United States did not exist, what would the world be like? (What do you imagine it would be like?)

2. If Israel and the United States were destroyed, would you not next have to destroy China and Russia because they are the next two strongest powers and they are also infidel states?

3. Why does the U.S. have a higher priority with you than China, seeing as how both are states run by (and full of) non-believers?

4. Can Islam exist in modernity and if so, please explain and give examples.

Questions for President Ahmedinejad

1. If Israel and the United States did not exist, what would the world be like? (What do you imagine it would be like?)

2. If Israel and the United States were destroyed, would you not next have to destroy China and Russia because they are the next two strongest powers and they are also infidel states?

3. Why does the U.S. have a higher priority with you than China, seeing as how both are states run by non-believers?

4. Can Islam exist in modernity and if so, please explain and give examples.

"Calderon Shifts Attention to the Poor," LA Times

It would appear that Calderon took Jorge Castaneda's advice on Lopez Obrador and the poor. I was thinking about it this morning and decided that what he (Calderon) could do is loan a huge sum from the NAD Bank (as the gov't of Mexico) and open a branch/cabinet office/foundation/whatever dedicated to the problems of poverty and appoint Lopez Obrador to head it. Lopez Obrador might refuse, seeing as how it would leave him at the mercy of Calderon and his government but it would still be a measure of reaching out.

Darfur

Front page of Washington Post, 9/6/06

My idea for Darfur is to insert ourselves into the situation - literally. Charter a plane and start flying young Americans over to Sudan. Start from the coast or a major airport and create a human chain, slowly building a line of Americans into the Darfur region to act as civilian reinforcements for the humanitarian aid.

Sure, this is a cynical and imperialistic idea - cynical because it assumes no one really cares until there are Americans there and imperialistic because it involves dropping a large population of Americans on the country - but it's better than military involvement, isn't it? I am in fact counting on the cynical aspect; that more Americans will tune into the area if there are more American lives at stake there (especially non-combatant types).

How much would I budget for such a project? Well, not knowing the distances is the most difficult part: if it's 300 miles to the closest airport (which it looks like it is - if not more) then you have to space out the volunteers (did I mention that? they're volunteers); like one or two every ten miles. That's 30 people, so let's up it to 3 every ten miles, which gives you 90 people. Then let's put 100 people at two different camps, helping with distribution of aid, teaching classes, etc. With 290 people costing $1,000 a pop to fly over, that's $300k already so far. Once they're there, how much would it take to keep them fed and housed (in very sparse conditions; we're not creating a class gap with out volunteers)? If we say $300 a month, then we get $870k a month for their expenses. If we round up to one million, the other $230k a month can be used for supplies for the refugees in the camps and transport costs. (I wonder how much current relief efforts are spending a month for supplies and delivery.) So start with $5.5 million and go for five months. Give the kids volunteering some kind of college credit for their participation.

Perhaps it would be good enough to spread a bunch of people throughout the Darfur region, kind of like election monitors, only these would be violence monitors. Unarmed civilians there to keep the janjaweed or the government forces from attacking and terrorizing the people of Darfur. Have the kids rebuild the villages that have already been razed.

In the scope of today's world, $5.5 million is nothing. Of course, I don't have it so it's easy for me to say. But maybe we could ask the top five hedge fund managers for $1.1m each, since they made over the average of $324m each.

Or someone else, if you can find them. Have the government (U.S.) come up with half and have Hollywood raise the rest (George Clooney can lead the efforts). It can be done. Try to find 55 people who can donate $100k each. I think that shouldn't be a terrible problem. Run the program through an established organization like IRC or the Red Cross. (Try to avoid the U.N.; they don't have such a great reputation these days and people might not commit if they're named.)

I keep trying to tie this up, but there is no tie. I just lay out the idea and let it sit. That's what this site is for.

"Counseling Kids to Graduation and Beyond," LA Times, op-ed

In the article, the author discusses how kids in the California public school system aren't getting enough academic counseling and many are left unprepared for the college admissions process, both in terms of having the right classes and in knowing how much school will cost and what financial aid options are available to them.

An afterschool program called KidsFirst did the research that outed this problem and one of their solutions is to create a peer-counseling group within a school to help take some of the burden off the often sole counselor assigned to it.

Reading this, I thought of my father, a retired admissions director from a small liberal arts college: would he be interested in helping out (volunteering) with kids who don't have any or enough guidance? I sent him an email; we'll see what he says.

But in keeping with the KidsFirst program to create peer-counselors, another idea would be to create "peer" counselors from the freshman classes of nearby universities. Freshman who are looking to volunteer and be involved in the community could play a very vital part in helping continue the tradition of social mobility and a culture of education by making sure all the students who want to could attend college.

This is somewhat like mentoring and somewhat like tutoring, only a little less of each. For the slacker volunteer, like myself. And the program could expand to include upperclassmen as well. The test phase would be the freshman and only those that can handle their own workload would be eligible to participate.

Another group that could be tapped to help out in this area would be the Americorps volunteers. They are generally tutors and outside-the-box activity leaders in neglected schools; perhaps they could spend a little time (in high schools) helping students with their academic path, as well (if they don't already).

"Calderon Wins Mexico's Presidential Election," WSJ
"A Way to Peace in Mexico," NYT (op-ed, Jorge Castañeda)

So Lopez Obrador has lost the election. Of course, from the sounds of it, he isn't willing to concede and won't be letting it go. This could shut down the entire country; or worse, set off unrest. I'm sure AMLO isn't necessarily concerned with either of those points as the more he digs his heels in, the more it sounds like he's just after power.

Jorge Castañeda makes some good suggestions, including the idea of Calderon tackling poverty eradication and bringing in AMLO and his people to help with this program. Perhaps if Calderon were to appoint AMLO to some sort of position, like "poverty czar," that would help ameliorate his pain of losing the election and give him a platform from which to speak about issues he says are his focus while still keeping him within the government.

My own idea had been to have AMLO get himself a huge grant from the North American Development Bank and set out to eradicate poverty himself, separate from the government.

In April of this year, the Wall Street Journal published an editorial about the bank, revealing that ("The Nada Bank," April 3) the bank has lent out just $105 million over the 10 years it has been in business.

Ah, here is the problem. I'm thinking "grant" and the bank is a lender. So the only way AMLO could use the bank is if he had the support of the gov't as a guarantor. Perhaps that is the deal AMLO could make with Calderon.

Or: AMLO's foundation could do the set-up work, finding companies to match up with the Bank to create projects, no matter how small. Perhaps he could engender small business on the south side of the border (although Calderon's the business candidate, not him).

In any case: the NAD Bank was set up to help Mexico, AMLO says he's interested in helping the poor in Mexico; put the two together. Make something happen.