Too many issues came up in the last day or two that
individually drove me crazy and collectively could keep me there. I could easily rant for pages on each one,
citing chapter and verse of supporting evidence. But to save my sanity, I will limit myself to
describing the issue. If you want the evidence feel free to ask – just don’t expect
an immediate answer.
1. Trophy hunting in Zimbabwe.
I agree with the majority of people here – the trophy
hunting at the center of the Cecil the Lion story is unethical and should be
regulated much more strictly than it is.
But here is the rub. If the
dentist was not aware that the guides had lured a protected lion out of a
reserve, what he did was totally legal. It is not against Zimbabwe law or
international law. Law enforcement is
looking into what he knew and when he knew it.
But until then, I think there is something called “innocent until proven
guilty beyond a reasonable doubt” to consider.
Boycotts and protests are fine – that is free speech. But criminal
prosecution requires illegal behavior, not just unethical behavior.
This drives me crazy because it seems to be just one more in
a long line of stories where people want to put people in jail for unethical,
stupid, rude, or bigoted behavior that is not illegal. We have clearly lost our
understanding of what the rule of law is all about, why it is important, and
why our society will devolve into utter chaos unless we remember the
difference.
2. Deflategate.
Here is another story where we seem to have forgotten how
the legal system works. Again, the critical phrase is “innocent until proven
guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Personally, I think Brady knew that the footballs were being deflated.
Even being a diehard Patriots fan, I am pretty sure. But that is not the legal threshold
for evidence. If there is not enough definitive evidence, we can’t convict him
or the Patriots. Destroying a cell phone is circumstantial at best.
Imagine if you were convicted of crimes just because a
police officer was pretty sure you did something? For example, look at all the police shootings
we are up in arms about this year. In every case, the white police officer
involved was pretty sure that some crime was committed by the black person he
shot. If that was all it took . . . .
Then we have to look at the penalty. Let’s say that evidence
is found and that he is legitimately convicted. The current penalty is four
game suspension and loss of salary for Brady. The team loses $1 million and two
draft picks. Compare that to the child beating, spousal abuse, assault and
battery, and other cases in the past two years that have resulted in smaller
penalties. Forgive me if that doesn’t
make much sense. Let the punishment fit the crime, right?
3. Malaysia airplane wing found
Oh no, here we go again. A Boeing 777 wing is found and the
search is about to get restarted in earnest.
When the plane first went missing, hundreds of MILLIONS of dollars were
spent on the search. Now that the wing has appeared, we are going to do that
all over again. To what end? The idea of
giving “closure” to the families is a pretty weak argument. Their loved one
died. Knowing the latitude and longitude is not going to make that go away. The
absolute best we can get at this point is to learn more about how ocean
currents pull plane parts.
I can think of thousands of lives that can be saved with
this same expense. Can you say malaria nets? Improved sanitation?
4. Autonomous Robot Weapons
With all due respect to the brilliant people who signed on
to this (Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk, Noam Chomsky), they are missing an
important point. What makes weapons systems like this autonomous is the
software. Who wrote the software? Humans. So they are still governed by whatever rules
and limitations we give them. In fact, I would suspect that advanced software
systems would be easier to control than humans who get caught up in the heat of
the moment, succumb to peer pressure, are subject to cognitive biases,
etc. There is a reason why many computer
hacks are the result of human gullibility. People click on the virus in their
email or reveal their password over the phone to a complete stranger. Was automation at fault in Abu Ghraib?
They make a valid argument that even if the good guys
integrate strong ethical principles into the code, the bad guys won’t. But that will happen anyway. Do you think the
Chinese military team that hacked OPM will hold back because of a UN
resolution? Will the North Korean team that hacked Sony? The Russian team that
is selling your credit card numbers as we speak?
5. Boston 2024
I already posted about why I am glad that we (the Boston
taxpayer) refused the Olympics bid. While it would be great to have the
Olympics here, I am a strong believer that taxpayers should not pay for these
things.
No, my rant today is about the framing of the story today.
Everyone from the local, state and national media, politicians, and other
public figures have spent that last two days asking who is “to blame” for “losing”
the Olympics. Whose “fault” is it? We
are suffering here from a really bad case of messaging.
Why aren’t we looking for who to “credit” for “saving” us
from the potential $ billions of taxpayer debt?
6. Insomnia
I haven’t slept much in the past three days. I don’t know
why. It sucks. I’m just saying.
