What's Gone Wrong with Democracy?

Cover story in last week's Economist.  They run a six page special section on it.  Lotta whining about failure of democracies to legislate things they approve of, such as balanced budgets and stable currency.  More whining about failure of democracy to "take" after the revolutions in Egypt, Libya, Ukraine, and other places.
   Seems to me, Economist is confusing two really separate subjects.  One subject is the planting of democracy in undemocratic states, the other subject is democratic decision making in traditional democracies.  The causes and cures for these two subjects are different.
   To plant democracy in an previously undemocratic state is a matter of a citizenry ready for democracy.  Needed is a citizenry willing to abide by the rule of law, which means you need fair courts, that are seen to be fair.  If the courts are seen as biased, unjust, and crooked, nobody is going to pay them much heed.  Once you have some decent courts, your citizenry has to be willing to accept the court's ruling even when that ruling goes to the other side.  And you need some decent people to staff the democratic government at all levels.  They must be able to place the national interest ahead of their personal, family, tribal, and local interests. 
   Growing these and other necessary attitudes among the citizenry takes time, generations. Where the citizenry lacks these attitudes, democracy won't work. The issue in these countries is the survival of the democratic government itself. 
   The other subject, the difficulties in well established democracies like the US, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, and others, to make good decisions in areas such as budgets, national debt, taxes, education, central banking, foreign policy.  The established democracies are teetering on a cusp between the makers and the takers.  The takers want more free stuff, the makers don't want to pay for more free stuff.  Both sides have about the same strength, neither side has the votes to push thru their pet programs.  The result is called "gridlock",  but its really democracy in action.  If you don't have the votes, you don't get your way.  Most of the people whining about gridlock, are actually whining that they cannot get their way when they don't have the votes. 

Computer bugs/hackers/whatever hit All Electronics

All Electronics has been around for 5 may 10 years, so it isn't a newbie on the web.  They sell electronic parts, like you used to be able to get at Radio Shack.  I ordered a bunch of stuff from them last summer.  the stuff came in, works right, and I'd sorta forgotten about it.  Til the other  night.  I get one of those "Your All Electronics order number such and such has shipped" emails.  Hmm I said to myself,  I don't remember ordering anything from them lately.  Looking at the parts on the order, I remembered ordering this stuff, and receiving it, last summer.  Very strange.
  Next morning, another email from All.  They explained they had been doing maintenance on their system and something went wrong, and a batch of old shipping notices got resent.  Not to worry, just a computer glitch, we didn't reship this stuff, and we haven't double billed anyone's credit card. 
    How much of this do I believe?  Were they hacked like Target?  I'll surely double check my Mastercard bill this month. 
    Just to be fair.  All Electronics is a perfectly reliable supplier, good stuff cheap and fast.  I'll order from them again. 

Talking with Cats

Cats have a number of things that they say to their humans.
1.  Meow                                  I want something.  Human is expected to fill in from context. 
                                                 such as Food, In, Out, Petting.
2. Purr                                       I am pleased with the world.
3. Tail lash                                  I am upset and unhappy.  Back off or you might get hurt.
4. Tail held high                           I am feeling cool and groovy today.
5. Tail held straight out and level  I am hunting and I don't want to spook the game
6. Tail between legs.                    I am scared.
7. Siren Howl.                             A war cry.
8. Merrup (part meow part purr)  I was stroked unexpectedly.
9. Hiss  (raised fur, fluffed up tail)  I am mad, you are about to get clawed

Going the other way, cats pretend not to understand anything  said to them.  Cats know that understanding leads to demands for obedience, which is far beneath the dignity of cats.  Obedience is for dogs.  

Damn tool makers

Who make tools with round handles.  So they roll off the bench, onto the floor and disappear every time I set them down.  Tools ought to have hexagonal handles, or at least a single flat side, so they stay put when you put 'em down.

Shed a tear for Radio Shack

They are hurting.  They just announced they will be closing 1000 stores.  And it may get worse.  I remember when they started up, a single store on Washington St in Boston.  That was before Tandy bought them.  In those days the store was filled with electronic parts, mostly surplus, TV antennas, hifi equipment, and ham radio stuff.  If you were building or fixing electronic stuff Radio Shack is where you went for parts.  They carried their own brand of hifi, Realistic, which never had the cache associated with Harman Kardon or Bogen or McIntosh, but the price was right and it sounded OK to my ear.  Once they even carried British Army surplus rifles for $19.95 each.  It used to be a fun place to shop, even if you didn't need any parts or rifles.
   That was a long time ago.  They are still around but the stock is less interesting, cell phones and point-n-shoot cameras, and toys.  They still have some parts and wire and connectors, but this is all little stuff, couple of dollars apiece, and you gotta sell an awful lot of it to keep the lights on.  I still buy parts for my home projects at the Shack, but that's about it.  Although Radio Shack pioneered home computers, remember the TRS-80, they seem to have faded out of that business.  They still have a few cables and connectors, but you don't see laptops or printers in the store. 
   Without a high value or a high volume product, they will continue to hurt.  When they go,  most of us will have to go Internet for electronic parts and stuff. 

Bob Beckel inserts foot into mouth

Beckel, the token liberal on Fox News's Five, said something really dumb last night.  He trashed Bush for not using enough troops against Iraq.  Really Bob.  The force we sent overran the country, seized the capital, and drove Saddam Hussein  into hiding, all with in a matter of weeks.  That's a crushing victory by anyone's standards.  Which means we sent enough soldiers to do the job. 
   I'll grant that we didn't handle victory as well as we should have, but that's not a matter of boots on the ground, that's a matter of heads up and locked. 

Godwin's Law strikes Hillary

Godwin's law comes from Internet discussion/argument groups.  The first person to invoke Hitler's name (usually by calling his opponent a Nazi)  lost the argument.  That rule used to be confined to high level Internet surfer nerds. 
   Well, Godwin's law is spreading.  Hillary Clinton compared Putin's  claim to be protecting Russians in Crimea to Hitler's claim to be protecting Sudetenland Germans in the 1930's.  Which actually is a pretty good fit.  Hitler took over Czechoslovakia claiming he was protecting ethnic Germans living in Czechoslovakia.  Putin took over the Crimea claiming that he was protecting ethnic Russians living in the Crimea.  What goes around comes around. 
   And, Hillary was forced to back off about comparing Putin to Hitler.  Apparently the liberal newsies just couldn't stomach calling a bastard a bastard.  Godwin's law moves off the 'net into the political world.