David Hilbert, a German mathematician, is famous for his “23 Questions”, where he presented in 1900 a list of the 23 math problems most deserving of work in the 20th century. His tombstone is inscribed with the answer to “Why should we bother to know this stuff?” Wir müssen wissen. Wir werden wissen. “We must know. We will know.” Good quote, that. I guess it’s the poindexter equivalent to Hillary’s “Because It Is There!”Before we move on to the politics and heavy-handedness, how rad is it that me, Trav and the BY are going to Las Vegas for CGE, a huge videogame show? 8 Aug - 11 Aug, it’s gonna be awesome.

I’m gonna go into full out election mode later this year as we approach the primaries, but here are some great ideas I’ve seen for the Democratic candidates to gain votes and do the right thing: Lower the drinking age to 18 and let felons vote. First, the drinking age should never have been set federally to being with - it’s one of the state’s jobs. But Libby Dole, wanted to cut down on drunken teen deaths, and conned the states into making their drinking ages 21 (she threatened to revoke federal highway funding to states who kept their age below 21). There’s no reason for this 21 age; in fact, having under 21’s drink in apartments instead of bars increases the potential dangers. The Felon Vote issue is more contentious, but still a solid bet for Democrats. In many states, felons lose the right to vote permanently, even after they’ve come out of jail. This isn’t fair. Any citizen of age should be allowed to vote, regardless of past history. Two trends make the Felon lockout more disturbing - felons are disproportionately black (racism was, in fact, the reason why these felon lockout laws came on the books) and the definition of felony continues to grow (software piracy is a felony, for instance - it’s not simply rapists and killers losing the vote). Since African-Americans represent a disproportionate number of felons and tend to vote heavily democratic, one would think some Democrat would be pressing this issue.

Here’s what else the Democrats should play up: Bush is being stupid with the national debt. Look, budget deficits are sometimes necessary (in fact, good economic sense says that you spend into deficit during recessions in order to stimulate growth and rebound the economy). However, *huge, long-term debts* are not good for the economy at all. With a deficit this year of almost a half a trillion dollars, the deficit this year will exceed all non-military discretionary federal spending. That is, even if the government cut every program it wasn’t obligated to fund (things like Social Security are not considered discretionary, for instance), we would still run a deficit. That’s no good.

Here are the three main problems with these types of debts. First, the crowding out effect - high debts cause loans to be more expensive (because the government essentially takes out loans to pay the deficit and make all loans more expensive), which causes businesses to invest less, ergo a weaker economy. Second, our generation is getting straight up screwed, since we have to pay the debt eventually. Third, running continual irresponsible debts functionally lowers the “bond rating” on US bonds (not exactly, but functionally). What this means is that the closer we get to having an unrepayable debt, the less foreigners will invest with us, which is very much not good (this is pretty much what killed Argentina in the last few years). The US has a long history of paying back bonds (I don’t think we’ve ever defaulted), but it’s still best to err on the side of caution. A famous economist once said that if you owe ten thousand dollars to the bank, you have a problem, but if you owe ten million, the bank has a problem. Banks don’t like getting near those types of problems.

The Republican’s main problem, though, is that much of the country associated them with nuts like Pat Robertson who, no joke, is praying for the poor health of the liberal Supreme Court justices. What would Jesus do, huh?

An interesting letter from a friend of Raed in Baghdad. Turns out that in addition to the famous “Whiskey, Sexy, Democracy” that the old Iraqi in Najaf wanted America to bring, Iraqis also desire “Water, Electricity and Security”. At least the impression among most Iraqis is that the security problems are the result of lingering Ba’athists and not American/UK troops. Sad news from Afghanistan, though: An regional Governor has forced a videogame store to close. I think the Afghanis prob’ly are better off without GTA 3, though.

Speaking about videogames and nation building, Slate reports that a videogame simultation similar to a MMORPG is being used to help nation building efforts in new democracies. So maybe let’s get those Kabul kids started on Sim City 4 now.

As an aside, scientists report that masturbation lowers rates of prostate cancer. Shit, my generation will be cancer-free, the lustful bastards.

Wanna write better? Read the Economist Style Guide. The Economist is the most readable, least pretentious magazine around. Maybe it’s because they don’t do bylines, so no one get the credit for using big, post-modern vocabulary when simplicity will suffice. Should I take my own advice? Probably.

Hey, just noticed that Oday and Qusay are believed dead, which would be good news. However, the First Rule of War Reports must remain in effect, as noted by Den Beste: All reports from a war zone must be taken with a grain of salt for a week, because news from warzones is inherently unreliable. Hell, if Qusay and Oday died every time it was reported that they’d been hit, they would been Jason and Freddy, not Saddam’s sons.

Update: Well, I guess they really are dead this time. Good stuff, that. I guess we shouldn’t be cheering death, but when you’ve personally tortured thousands and executed the entire citizenry of villages, you can’t expect people to be holding candles at your funeral. As a former Iraqi TV producer said, the only thing sad about these two guys dying is that we all wanted to torture them before they died.

Lastly, the New York Times Magazine reports that men get in less crashes as the speed limit increases. Women have more crashes. I won’t comment, for fear of being slapped. (Actually, the article notes that guys are more likely to be speeding already if the speed limit is low, which might explain why increased speed limits don’t change things much, except allowing everyone else to start cruising at a decent speed).

Prime Cuts

“Popular Thug” by Kelis ft/ Nas
This track is off the new Neptunes disc “Clones”. Nas is rockin’ the track hard as always, and of course the Neptunes production is hot. Even though R. Kelly is a downlow schemer, the new track “Snake” by R. Kelly ft/ Cam’Ron and Big Tigger is hotness.“Fa’ Show” by Lifesavas
Hip-hop straight out the PDX. Lifesavas new CD is getting hot reviews all around; I’ve caught them twice when they came to Eugene and they can rock it up. Having DJ Shadow and Chief XCel of Blackilicious help on the production helps too. Fa’Show has a female-diva type hook, which is the only area where Lifesavas are a little weak. Still, peep “Selector” by Lifesavas ft/ J-Live with an almost-junglist hook. Tight internal rhymes. “I’m sick with it like a hepatitis b-boy,” hehe. Also check out Lifesavas’ “Hellohihiney”, a hilarious rap about rap egos. Last, for some good summer electronica, the down-tempo “Janiero” by Solid Sessions is tight.