For the first time, I'm running into something on EBay that has me concerned (beyond the obvious worries about fraud, I mean). I have, today, received two emails from transactions I've just completed where the sellers both responded that they wanted feedback from me before they would give me feedback.
Now, since they are sellers, this means that they have received full payment already. There is no debate about my side of the transaction. If they hadn't been happy with the money they received they wouldn't have sent the item.
But it seems like there is a new trend toward a "quid pro quo". To a certain extent that has existed for a while since positive feedback is almost always met with positive feedback.
But in one case, the camera I just purchased had extensive acid residue (exploding batteries) in the battery compartment. After a good half hour of cleaning I managed to get the camera to work. I was debating between a positive and a neutral until I got his response: that because of previous feedback issues he wouldn't leave feedback for me until he received my feedback. He justified this because he has received a couple of negative feedbacks before (though admittedly out of nearly a thousand transactions).
I think the system is breaking down.. if you cannot trust people to leave honest feedback, what is the point of the system.
Now I have to debate on whether to leave him any feedback at all (again, the best I can offer is a neutral) 'cause if I do, I risk getting neutral or negative feedback from him. Which, of course, is the point of his quid pro quo.
That just sucks.
I've been a fan of CSI (a Bruckenheimer production) for the last couple of years. This year, of course, they have expanded the offerings to a third TV show and I have just reached saturation.
I can only stand so many decomposing corpses, exotic wounds, and burn victims. It seems like the show has become little more than an excuse for an evening horror show (feeding on that well-known American love of the horror genre). I've got to ask, is this a particularly American thing? I don't really know if the rest of the world likes horror so much. Well, the English do... but the French, Germans, Italians, Japanese?
I see it as a rising trend I suppose. I have seen a couple of horrific Japanese horror films now that I think of it and a couple of German ones as well.
In any event, I'm just about at the point of swearing off watching the CSI shows. I used to enjoy the forensic science aspect (as unrealistic as it is) but the "let's follow the bullet as it enters the brain" photography has just reached gruesome levels.
The first time I ever saw this "technique" was in "The Three Kings" where Marky Mark (sorry, Mark Wahlberg) gets shot. Nifty then, tired now.
How about an original show.. I like "Wire in the Blood" but I think it's probably too lengthy (and perhaps too intellectual) for American TV.
I finally got to watch this match that I DVR'ed last weekend. Fantastic. Hugely entertaining match and I thought WBA played really well, belying their position in the League table. The quality of the passing by Boro was first rate and Bolo Zenden is showing why he was considered such a hot prospect when he joined Chelsea. Nice to see his career rejuventated. The quality of Boro's performance is quite amazing when you consider how many players they have injured.
Downing still looks to me as if it would be worth putting him in the England side for the next international Friendly. Unfortunately, he has been picked for the Under-21s and Sven just doesn't see him it seems.
In any event, Boro has become a team I'm very eager to watch and I'm pretty nervous about (and looking forward to) the match this weekend vs. Liverpool.
Watching Donald Rumsfeld give a press briefing the other day on the Fallujah assault I was reminded of the middle days of the Vietnam War ('67-'69) where the rhetoric was very, very similar. This attempt at "Iraqification" (as I think they are calling it) is yet another attempt of the US Army to fight the last war (in this case, Vietnam). The general strategy seems to be, as it was then, to try and bring the "enemy" out to fight a major, decisive battle.
It's a constant litany, and one which has been shown to be in error by historians recently, that the US "never lost a battle" in the Vietnam War. They did, however, lose the war. Why? In part because they believed that it was possible to fight an extended guerilla war using conventional tactics and arms. Because they believed that if they just killed "enough" of the enemy he would lose heart.
For a while there was "winning the hearts and minds" of the Vietnamese people, then the "hamlets" strategy, then the "fortified hamlets". We seem to be seeing damn little of winning the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people and a lot of trying to fight a conventional war in an urban environment.
The Germans learned to their sorrow at both Stalingrad and the battle of Moscow that when you reduce a modern city to rubble you just give the defenders a better position from which to defend.
Parenthetically, it's not as if there aren't some thinkers in the US Army who recognize this. It's just that they either aren't at a high enough level to make a difference or if they are they have not been listened to by our administration.
Very few times has an insurgency been defeated and I'm not sure one has ever been defeated with this much popular support. We need to listen to history.
I still say the best strategy is to pull back and form and independent Kurdistan, fortify the sh*t out of it, and make a deal with the Turks to move oil north to the Med through Turkey for a cut.
Iraqis just don't want us there and the insurgency seems to be growing daily. More to the point, we're losing decent young American men and women every day and killing God knows how many innocents in the process.
Arafat is dead.
There is finally a chance for a resolution to the Palestinian question. I used to be pro-Israeli (probably because of my hatred of terrorists) but as I've grown older my view has probably gotten more balanced. The tactics that Israel uses today wouldn't have been out of place in a Nazi occupation regime.. they are becoming the thing they most hated. They need to reach an accord with the Palestinian people soon. For their own sake as much as that of the Palestinians.
It's sad to think how many have died because Arafat both initiated wide-scale terrorism and then refused numerous peace deals. Good riddance to him.
I was commenting to a friend the other day that the American "experiment" has failed. At least from the perspective of the structure of government and governance. With the current system which seems to be purely two-party true representative government (even ignoring the idiocy of the electoral college system which noone can justify) is just a myth.
Every four years close to 50% of the populace is disenfranchised. Their votes (and voice) largely ignored by the winner. Even this had been a parliamentary democracy the press would be speaking about how the loyal opposition (the Democrats) had a huge voice in Parliament and how they could not be ignored when it came to managing the government.
Sadly under the current system division is fostered, even nurtured. I can hardly imagine the founding fathers would have forseen this. Back then neither Democratic nor Republican parties existed and we had a real multi-party system. I also find it unfortunate that the choice is between becoming one between non-sectarian (Democrat) and theocratic (Republican).
I have many Republican friends (and could even see voting Republican myself if Bush wasn't the candidate) who undoubtedly don't agree that their party is being controlled by the religous right. But after seeing the exit polls and hearing the Bush speak does anyone doubt that the evangelical church now holds a huge sway over Republican policy iniatives?
I suppose we'll have to see what the next year brings in the way of legislation but I'm not too sanguine that it will be balanced enough to serve the American people as a whole.
I remain hopeful that some good will come out of this last election. Perhaps Bushco will be able to reform the tax code and institute a flat tax. That would almost make up for his foreign policy gaffes in my mind. It should be a lot easier than it is to start up and run a business in this country (There! My Republican half has come out of the closet!).
I was watching Meet the Press this morning and thought Tim gave Karl Rove a big pass on a lot of questions. Rove is one of the most polished speakers I've seen on Meet the Press but there is little doubt in my mind that Tim just didn't pursue him on certain questions ("Is there a right to privacy in the US constitution?") Asked but not in any way answered. Most of the questions were like that. With some spin put on the answer the less attentive might think that they were answered. I hadn't counted Tim Russert in that group so I think he just didn't want to step on Rove's toes. The man (Rove) is probably the most powerful man in America today.
Richelieu behind the throne.
I watched a couple of UEFA Cup games this evening. I'm getting back my interest in watching football (it waned after Euro 2004's disappointment). I watched both Newcastle and Middlesborough win and I've got to say that both teams look better than I ever remember them. Especially Middlesborough.. My word, the new kid Downing on the left wing should be starting for England soon. And their passing was crisp and imaginative and their pace very, very good.
I wouldn't be surprised if they go most of the way, if not all the way to the Final.
The Liverpool v. Middlesborough match on 10 November should be a fascinating one.
My reaction today is that America is going to get what she deserves.
It's sad. The radical right wing of the Republican Party will get to put their agenda over this next four years and we'll have to see whether America can stomach it. If this vote is any indication, they will most likely be happy with the result.
I begin to wonder how those living in post-putsch Germany felt in the early 1930s. Did they think that things would "turn around", that it couldn't possibly get worse, that the people would "come to their senses"? Are we looking at the beginning of a new American Empire?
I shudder to imagine Wolfowitz and his neocons in power for another four years.
Well, it's early days in the election results. I'm on tenterhooks because I will simply despair if Bushco is reelected. Hopeful signs are that Kerry has a strong early lead in Pennsylvannia and a slim margin in Ohio (two states he really needs to win). Florida doesn't look good but we just won't know for quite a while (talk about a crooked state!). I was reminded of that line from Key Largo about vote fraud in Florida.. :> Some things never change.
As a postscript, I've found myself using one application more than most others on my new Palm T3. It's Mobipocket. This book reader, combined with the screen rotation feature of the T3 and books from Baen and I'm a happy camper.
I've probably read four or five books on my Palm in the last couple of weeks..