I enjoyed today's Sun story about Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. A few years ago, after the 9/11 attacks, I looked into this subject, specifically to see if there was any research on robotic passenger flights. I convened a one-man, counterterrorism think tank and came up with this:

Remote-controlled airliners.

In the event of an emergency, why not pilot jets from the ground? Even if a suicide hijacker succeeded in taking command of a passenger jet, even if he knew how to fly it, he could be denied his evil glory by an advanced remote-pilot system that would override his attempt to manually fly the plane from the cockpit. I admit: It sounded like man-on-the-moon stuff. ("We put a man on the moon, we can do anything in this country!") Even as I uttered the idea in the presence of polite and indulgent friends, it sounded weird and far-fetched. But then two things happened - an expert in remote-pilot technology told me it wasn't weird and far-fetched at all, and the concept showed up in President Bush's proposals for making air travel safer. The president said he would consider investing government money in the research and further development of the technology. So, though I'm not exactly bullish on the idea, I'm less self-conscious about speculating on it in public. "Actually, there's a joke about this that's been around since the '80s," says Chuck Hall, associate professor of aerospace engineering at North Carolina State University. "The cockpit of the future will have a pilot and a dog. The pilot will be there to monitor the controls and feed the dog. The dog will be there to bite the pilot if he tries to touch anything."

   Already, says Hall, modern passenger jets are equipped with autopilot systems for cruising and landing. Taking that technology another big-daddy step, linking it to a ground-based piloting system through a network of satellites, is not out of the question. He seemed to agree that such a system might not eliminate the need for a pilot in the cockpit - passengers are likely to want to see a human being at the console for a long time to come - but it might certainly serve as a second line of defense against the kind of hijackers who seized control of four jets Sept. 11. It could also be used to help crews incapacitated by onboard fires or other emergencies. In the future it might become the main navigational system for the world's airlines.

   Hall is a specialist in the field of remotely piloted vehicles (RPVs). He might be living the ultimate dream of a model-airplane hobbyist. Hall, his associates and graduate students have used remotely piloted scale models of fighter jets and Stealth-like flying wings to test new designs for the Navy. He's conducted some of his tests with large RPVs at Patuxent River Naval Air Station in Southern Maryland. Remote-controlled unmanned aircraft have applications well beyond scale-model testing. They've been used for surveillance for a number of years. The military has been using unmanned, ground-controlled reconnaissance aircraft on missions over Iraq and Kosovo. Some military experts believe RPVs are the future of tactical aircraft as well, and may one day make manned planes obsolete. Unmanned planes would be smaller, more maneuverable and harder to detect - and if they crash, there's no loss of life.

Hall pointed to a major achievement in the development of UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles): A successful trans-Pacific flight of the Global Hawk. That's a jet-powered aircraft equivalent in wing size to a Boeing 737. With no human beings aboard, it flew nonstop for 22 hours from Edwards Air Force Base, California, to Edinburgh Air Force Base, South Australia. Global Hawk is controlled by a programmed, onboard navigational system, but also has satellite communications links. Developed within the past decade by Northrop Grumman Ryan Aeronautical for the Air Force, the Hawk has a 14,000-nautical-mile range and can fly nonstop for up to 36 hours at altitudes of up to 65,000 feet.

   That's impressive stuff. Military applications of RPV and UAV technology make sense. But are you ready to buy a ticket and take a seat aboard a jet controlled from the ground or through an onboard computer? It's hard to imagine - like most of the future. For now, I think I'd be content with my original idea - someone on the ground who can fly a plane by remote control should the onboard pilot become incapacitated. Satellites would be involved. The industry would have to come up with advanced computer systems that could fly and land a distressed airliner from the ground. Or keep pilots on duty to take control of aircraft in trouble.

   And this all starts to sound like a terribly complex and expensive way to solve the problem that reared its evil head Sept. 11. But since so much of American commerce is tied up in our airways - billions of dollars and thousands of jobs - it would seem in our interest to make air travel as safe and as technologically advanced as possible. Why not build another line of defense against calamity?

   "It's a worthwhile idea," Chuck Hall says, then adds: "But I would have to worry about the security aspect of it ... with the satellite links."

Someone some day would probably figure out how to subvert this remote-control system, and then be able to control aircraft from the ground, from anywhere in the world, via satellite. Theoretically, sophisticated terrorists could hack through and shut down the system or, using it themselves, turn jumbo jets into guided missiles, without ever boarding an aircraft. It's a shame to dash a worthwhile idea with such a sobering scenario. But you have to think this way now. You have to think the unthinkable.

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 10:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
                    

This Just In:

Hi Dan.
Not that it really matters, but we at Backwards Bush (a.k.a. my girlfriend and I) really were the original creators of the Bush countdown clocks. For proof, you can read an article about us dating to January 2005 Village Voice, or you can check that our website was registered on November 4, 2004 while "Bush's Last Day" wasn't registered until January 31st of 2005. It's not so much that we were copied, just that the other guy is trying to take credit for it whenever and wherever he can. We just want to set the record straight. Either way, thanks for the mention, and happy holidays!
All the best,
Vince & Merry

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 6:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

I'm sure this is happening elsewhere, among newspaper columnists and radio talk show hosts -- it's kind of irresistible -- but why should that stop us? I like fun.

While you could enter a Man Law contest and win valuable prizes with your entries, I'm offering placement in this blog and a modest Sun prize for those who submit particularly clever ones here -- just for the fun of it. (If you decide to enter the national contest and go for the big prizes, I'll understand.)

Here's one of my own, which occured to me last Saturday morning in a bagel shop near Towson:

No fruit in bagels. When purchasing bagels for oneself and female others, fruity bagels should be bagged seperately from hearty (garlic, everything, jalapeno) bagels, and the latter should be bagged in a 'man bag.'

Man Law?

MAN LAW!!

Here's another from reader Jacob Goins:

"If you're 13 years or older, you cannot bring your baseball glove to the ballpark. A man can only catch foul balls with his bare hands."

Man Law!

(Please follow instructions for posting your entries to the blog.)

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 7:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
                    

Taneytown council declares English official language
Finksburg man detained after accidentally using word 'Gracias'

Angry mob storms Westminster Taco Bell

Carroll police arrest man for possession of burrito

Film at 11!

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 5:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

Charles Rangel is right on: "There's no question in my mind," he says, "that this president and this administration would never have invaded Iraq, especially on the flimsy evidence that was presented to the Congress, if indeed we had a draft and members of Congress and the administration thought that their kids from their communities would be placed in harm's way. He also said the all-volunteer military disproportionately puts the burden of war on minorities and lower-income families. I'll add that the lack of a draft hurts our country because it further divides us along class lines and, in war time, renders the idea of shared sacrifice a joke.

I wrote about restoring the draft in May, a column which sparked a high volume of reader mail and phone calls. I proposed mandatory public service -- civil, military and foreign humanitarian. Readers either love the idea and think it's long overdue or reject it as forced labor. The latter view -- extreme libertarian -- holds that it's unconstitutional to force Americans to do anything at any time, including pay taxes or wear desert camo, so there's not much room for argument.

But for those who support national public service -- or those intrigued enough to at least engage the idea -- I'll go back to the premise: The current lack of a draft has placed the burden for fighting America's wars on an all-volunteer military and allows most Americans to get by without offering hardly anything in the way of personal sacrifice for the greater good.

There's another consequence: diminished vigilance of a people who are neither personally invested in nor affected by the military decisions of our leaders. A draft would wake everyone up, permanently. It would also transform a citizenry that, in the post-baby boom period, has become increasingly myopic, wealth-obsessed, self-centered, cynical and clueless to essential concepts of loyalty and teamwork, community and commitment. We think our kids are getting this through community service hours in high school. But that's a limited lesson, easily overwhelmed by the me-first think that marks the adolescent society of 21st-century America.

   What I advocate -- a two-year public service commitment for all Americans once they reach the age of 18, with deferment optional until the age of 21, when service becomes mandatory -- goes beyond military needs. A National Public Service Administration would stage a daily national
drawing to decide what path each citizen takes -- military, domestic or foreign humanitarian. Military duty would be as it is now, but all branches would be served in some way by the draft. A domestic assignment would take a draftee anywhere in the United States, from urban public schools to rural public works project. Foreign-service assignments would take draftees where they're needed and likely to feel appreciated.

   National Public Service would eventually create a new kind of American or, depending on your historic view, take us back to a time (the Depression, World War II) in which nearly every citizen had his or her hands on the ropes of the great ship. For a few years in the lives of each man or woman, the common good becomes their focus -- serving the nation's defense, improving society from within, spreading good will around the world -- and they would take lessons learned from this experience into the rest of their lives. Public service gives us an engaged, active and vigilant citizenry with an informed world view, and it broadens the definition of patriotism.

   I have been thinking about this for a long time, and more so in the last year. But it wasn't just the war in Iraq that forced the issue. It was the quality of the nation's response to Katrina.

   And it's the state of our culture.There is a real disconnect, more than ever, between the citizenry and the national government, and even our understanding of citizenship seems to have become murky. We're just not as vigilant as we should be. And we are cynical about politics -- a common malady that runs parallel with a lousy feeling that there are too many large, sinister forces working against the common good to make progressive action worthwhile.

   One reader said it was not the duty of young men and women to save the world. What young people need to do, this e-mailer wrote, was get educated and generate wealth. I say: There's time for all that. Do some public service for your nation first. Feel part of something bigger than yourself. See more of the country, more of the world.

   Of course, there's a practical side to all of this. We'd get some work done. We'd get some roads fixed, some classrooms staffed, some streams cleaned and protected. We could extend the reach of AmeriCorps and the Peace Corps. Young men and women who step out of high school or college with no direction -- or even a notion of one -- could find themselves in National Public Service. A kid who has known nothing but comfort in his life, coddled by affluent parents, would get a jolt of reality and learn the life lessons he missed while playing video games. We might no longer have a generation of 20-some-things in protracted adolescence.

   A kid from, say, a drug-infested neighborhood might like planting trees in the national forests, or serving in a support role for troops guarding the Mexican border, or helping to build a schoolhouse in an impoverished country. He might see a horizon he didn't even know was there, and return to his hometown better prepared to be a productive citizen. His at-risk years, primarily 18 to 21, would have been spent away from the influences that send many young men that age to prison or the morgue.

   In National Public Service, we might even imagine a new embrace of idealism, which is what the country sorely lacks. The limited supply we have on hand gets used in various high school and college commencement addresses, then disappears the next day. Here's a way of capturing it and getting it back in the American blood.

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 8:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
                    

My e-mail in-box runneth over!

Lots of reaction to Sunday's column on the PlayStation mush-head generation, but not one from the subjects of the column. That I have not heard from a single one of them affirms a suspicion -- they they do not read daily newspapers, not even on-line. As reader David Butler put it: "Unless one of their mothers places it next to the breakfast she makes for the lazy 25-year-old I doubt they'll see it."

But lots of people did, including Randy Brelsford in Berryville, Va.:

It's no wonder we have a generation of kids who are lazy, obese, and out of touch with reality. I can remember when I was a kid we would scour the neighborhood trying to find enough kids to play army, basketball, football and baseball. We actually had to run through the area because the closest thing we had to a cell phone was a telephone (party line at that}. My parents usually had to practically drag me in at night, because you always wanted one more something whether it was a jump shot, another at bat, or a chance to score one more touchdown. The kids today you have to drag and push just to get them out in the fresh air, thanks to PlayStation, cell phones, I-pods, and MTV. And yet they are bored. I was never bored when I was young. If I uttered I was bored, trust me, mom and dad could find something for me to do in an instant. I learned things from friends while playing that no video game will ever teach (trust, friendships, character building, and some things I probably shouldn’t’ have). Don't get me wrong, as I near the big 50 I do play the PlayStation with some of the people I grew up with. We remember how we were able to once rip and run and play games. We can still get out on occasion and play a little basketball as good as we used to. It just takes us a little longer to recover. I just wanted to add my 2 cents. I wish the PlayStation generation much luck.

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 9:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
                    

One just has to be comforted by the fact that George W. Bush is a student of history. Yessiree, Bob. Here's a man who knows history and takes lessons from it. The President made a little trip to Vietnam the other day. (Who plans this man's schedule? Do they think Bush needed to actually visit Vietnam just so we didn't miss the obvious comparison to Iraq?) "Asked what lessons the war in Vietnam offered for the war in Iraq," reported the Trib, "Bush's response suggested a need for patience and determination—a nod toward the U.S. decision to abandon Vietnam after a protracted and unsuccessful war there."

Here's an exact quote that might one day be etched in marble at the George W. Bush Presidential Liberry: "We'll succeed unless we quit."

Feel better? I know I do.

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 10:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

She can't wait for 2008!

She's just got to have it!

With a special cameo by Nancy Reagan

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 5:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

Keith went to town on Shrub in this memorable MSNBC broadcast.

Good night, and good luck!

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 5:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
                    

A friend showed me one of those Bush Countdown Clocks, this one on a key chain, displaying the exact number of days, hours, minutes, seconds and fractions until George Bush hands over the presidency to Mitt Romney . . .  I mean, the next president. We've seen the bumper stickers marking the day. There are countdown clocks, too, and apparently more of them, and a battle over which company came up with the idea first. The one I saw the other day is highlighted on this web site, while a company claiming to be the original (Backwards Bush) is linked here.   Great stocking-stuffer for the patriotic can't-believe-we-elected-this-guy-twice American in your house.

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 6:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

I see someone still thinks there's news in Martin O'Malley having been pulled over for drunken-driving in August 1987. The Sun did the obligatory reporting of this incident last month. The story "advances" today with a posting on the WBAL Radio web site that O'Malley refused a breathalyzer test during the stop. He was eventually found not guilty.

If I'm an editor, I have to decide if this advances the story from last month, and I don't think it does in any substantive way. However, at the same time, the public deserves a complete record of a governor-elect's behavior, even from nearly 20 years ago. Thus, we're justified in reporting the additional information.

But this is not Chappaquiddick. This is a not-guilty from the time Ronald Reagan was president. There's no evidence that drunken-driving has been a chronic program for O'Malley. And this is something that became known to voters at the 11th hour of the 2006 campaign, and apparently this week voters decided it was not a candidacy killer. They might have even seen it as last-minute character bashing. The people who have spent the last year or so knocking O'Malley need to have something to chew on this week, I guess.

I've spent the last 18 months writing about crime, drug offenders, ex-offenders and the tough time they have finding jobs. People with criminal records, even relatively minor drug offenses, face many obstacles in landing employment. What they seek are second chances, especially after a decent interval since their crimes were committed. The public gets this -- overwhelmingly. Marylanders see the risk in not opening opportunities for ex-offenders; they understand that, without second chances, ex-offenders remain stuck in a cycle of poverty, crime and incarceration. At some point, the society has to be satisfied that a person has paid his debt for a guilty verdict -- and even for a not-guilty verdict.

Let's move on.

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 9:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
                    

Thank you for featuring Tracy Miller in Thursday's column.
I know her personally and she is one of the finest human beings around. She took my daughter under her wing when my daughter transferred to Towson University 3 years ago, and said, "I will adopt you."  She has gone above and beyond as her advisor.
This was all before her son's death, which shows that she did not have an epiphany and change her stance toward life and humanity as a result of her loss but was always a fine, fine person.
Ingrid Castronovo

I was born and raised in Timonium, where my parents still reside, and spent a better part of my days running through Ruxton Crossing and BL with Nick and Pete.  Nick was truly one of the most inspiring, motivated friends that I have ever and probably will ever have.  His mother is a kind, caring and wonderful woman and I believe that she deserves every word that you wrote about her.  I can tell you without a doubt that Big Nick most certainly approves.  So, thank you once again for your kind words.  I hope that you and your family have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Brandon Carney, New York

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 7:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

Sun national correspondent Paul West puts California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in the winner's column, coming out of Tuesday's midterm elections, because of his success as a Republican incumbent who found a way to work with Democrats in a blue state. He won a second term by landslide.

Arnold, who remained a fiscal conservative while moving to the political center, is said to have wanted "the whole enchilada" — compromise with Democratic leaders on major legislative issues -- because he knew that would fuel his comeback after a severe rebuke on initiatives in California's special election last year.

"This governor is so hungry for the whole enchilada that he is willing to let others help make the meal," writes former Sun reporter Joe Mathews in the LA Times.

Had Bob Ehrlich done the same in Maryland, from the start of his term, the outcome Tuesday might have been different. A Republican can't win with confrontation in a blue state. As it stands, Ehrlich, who had a contentious relationship with legislative leaders, is the only incumbent Republican governor to lose this week.

Today, Arnold noted the Democratic takeover of Congress and suggested that Washington follow his example in California. He worked with Democrats to achieve bipartisan agreements, placing on the November ballot $37.3 billion in bond measures aimed at easing the state's traffic jams, fixing aging schools and addressing affordable housing. According to The New Yorker, Arnold was the only major candidate in the country to make the reduction of greenhouse-gas emissions a priority during the campaign season.

Can we ammend the constitution now so this man can run for president?

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 3:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
                    

Lots of what I heard from pundits going into this election was just plain wrong -- black voters won't come out for the white-male-dominated statewide Democratic ticket; turnout in Baltimore City will be low, uninspired; black citizens of Baltimore actually resent O'Malley because of his approach to crime; Ehrlich had gained significant ground on O'Malley in Baltimore County (the last Sun poll); voters would see that O'Malley had been a failure as mayor; Cardin is too dull to get elected; Bill Murphy's race-laced radio commercials against O'Malley were effective; Maryland voters would see the benefit of having a Republican governor and a Democratic legislature; voters resent Mike Busch and Mike Miller; Steele was a dynamic candidate whose puppy commercials were ingenius.

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 7:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
                    

Too bad that didn't happen a month ago. The election results might not have been so grim for the GOP.

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 1:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

Make sure you read some of the sour and doomy-gloomy comments coming in to this post. (And they accused O'Malley of being a whiner!)

Maybe it would not have made any difference, given the Democratic turnout, but it's clear that Bob Ehrlich's effort to get Marylanders to use absentee ballots had no payoff -- and probably hurt his campaign. It took time and resources away from his main message, and probably cut into turnout at the polls. It was an unwise and unnecessary distraction for the GOP.

Look at the Sun's county-by-county breakdown of the vote. O'Malley made up for the KKT debacle, and then some, everywhere in the state, particularly Baltimore County. O'Malley stayed on message and his statewide organization got the vote out, particularly in Baltimore City. Another miscalculation by Ehrlich: Knocking the city while knocking O'Malley. That message backfired, too.

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 12:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)
                    

I have a list of the number of requested absentee ballots across Maryland. The total count on this list is about 170,000. That was as of Nov.3. In today's editions, we reported the most recent number as 193,000, so what I have is not absolutely up to date. (Others here at The Sun have the latest figures.) Still, it's interesting to look at the Nov. 3 requests, broken down by party affiliation, in key Maryland counties. According to Sun reporters, about 27,000 more Democratic voters requested ballots than registered Republicans, but those returned were split down the middle.

Absentee ballots requested in Baltimore City by Democrats: 12,249

Absentee ballots requested in Baltimore City by Republicans: 2,948

Absentee ballots requested in Montgomery County by Democrats: 21,334

Absentee ballots requested in Montgomery County by Republicans: 11,587

Absentee ballots requested in Anne Arundel County by Democrats: 7,376

Absentee ballots requested in Anne Arundel County by Republicans: 9,763

Absentee ballots requested in Baltimore County by Democrats: 15,105

Absentee ballots requested in Baltimore County by Republicans: 14, 376

Absentee ballots requested in PG County by Democrats: 10,370

Absentee ballots requested in PG County by Republicans: 3,609

Here's more from The Sun staff.

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 8:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

In today's column, Kweisi Mfume again makes the point that Maryland Democrats need to recruit and support more African-American candidates for statewide office in 2008 and 2010. If the Dems don't, the GOP will continue to do so, Mfume says. When state party leaders look at the election results from precincts around the state they will see the accumulation of a real debt, and they had better make plans to pay it back.

Recently, the Baltimore Afro American newspaper published Mfume's challenge and displayed it prominently on the front page:

"Mfume said the state Democratic leadership is failing to respond to the demographic realities of Maryland, whose population is 29 percent black, and an increasing number of voters who refuse to identify with either party. 'It says if you're smart as a party, you're going to understand your base and you're going to find a way to expand it and to hold on to it,' he said. 'But this party just took the opposite opinion. . . . And so the fact that Stu Simms, myself and Janet Owens, all representing race and gender diversity, are not able to succeed statewide speaks first to party, but I think it also speaks to the mindset of Democratic voters,' he added. 'And so we have this ticket of white men in blue suits -- who are all nice people, but who don't represent the ethnic and gender diversity of the state."

More from the Afro:

"My job is not to attempt to go around and deliver votes without some assurance that this is just not going to happen again," Mfume said. "And I have yet to hear anybody in the state Democratic leadership say, 'This is the last time this happens. Our party is better than this. We want everybody to participate.

"In the absence of that, I'm not going to be a snake oil salesman. And I'm not going to tell people that they ought to do anything other than to trust their hearts and their souls."

Mfume said the Maryland Democratic Party is "sounding its own death knell in the state" if it fails to realize "that statewide governance has to be shared, that statewide participation ought to be encouraged and that good men and women, who are out there all over the place, ought to be recruited by this party."

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 1:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
                    

In this state, if Democrats put up decent candidates they win. In 2002, they didn't. Bob Ehrlich was the better of the two candidates that year, and his opponent -- and her chosen running mate -- were a disaster.

In 2006, O'Malley was the front runner all along. He was an appealing Democrat and, by almost every measure, Baltimore is in better shape today than it was in 1999, the year he was elected mayor. The cranks who hate the guy won't concede that, but it's true.

Meanwhile, Democrats still outnumber Republicans 2-1, and what's clear from looking at voter registration trends is this: The state GOP did not fully capitalize on Ehrlich's 2002 election to build the party from the grass roots. Republicans have not seen the rise in registration that they hoped would come with Ehrlich's big victory four years ago and his strong and consistent likableness levels in polls. During the Ehrlich years in Annapolis, Marylanders have chosen Democratic or independent affiliation over Republican by a nearly 4-to-1 ratio.  For whatever reason -- George Bush's presidency and the war in Iraq, Ehrlich's almost singular focus on slot machines in his first years in office -- the governor and party leaders seem to have missed a chance to begin a political realignment in Maryland.

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 1:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
                    

This Just In: 'Micro-targeting' by MoveOn.org, the progressive political action group, a factor in Democratic voter turn out.

"MoveOn members called more than 130,000 voters in Maryland– helping Democrat Ben Cardin defeat Republican Michael Steele. MoveOn’s one-of-a-kind "Call for Change" technology allowed regular people to use their home computers and phones to call over 6.5 million targeted voters in 60 key races across the nation. Consumer data and other 'micro-targeting' methods helped identify people who supported Democratic candidates but were infrequent voters. By persuading these people to vote, MoveOn members significantly boosted Democratic turn-out in race after race across the nation.

"'MoveOn's Call for Change program empowered regular people like me to change the direction of our country by getting out the vote for Ben Cardin and other Democrats in close races,'" said Manuel de Lizarri