Monday, November 9, 2009

“A shift in philosophy - Columbia Daily Tribune” plus 4 more

“A shift in philosophy - Columbia Daily Tribune” plus 4 more

A shift in philosophy - Columbia Daily Tribune

Posted: 09 Nov 2009 11:51 AM PST

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When Police Chief Ken Burton took over at the Columbia Police Department in the spring, he brought with him years of experience working with an approach known as geographic policing.

photo

Photo by Gerik Parmele

Charlotte Bellis pins Sgt. Jason Jones' badge to his uniform during the promotion ceremony.

After helping with its implementation in Arlington, Texas, in the 1990s, he introduced it during his tenure as chief in Haltom City, Texas. Now he is instituting geographic policing in Columbia.

The new system aims to streamline coverage and add accountability within the police department. The term "geographic" refers to the splitting of the city into regions, with officers assigned to each.

Last month, Sgt. Ken Hammond was promoted to the rank of lieutenant and detectives Geoff Jones and Jason Jones and Officer Harlon Hatton were each promoted to sergeant. Those promotions complete changes allowing the geographic policing model to take shape, Deputy Chief Tom Dresner said.

So what is the difference between the new system and the police department's beat system that has been in place for years?

"It's really not very complicated," Burton said. "When you have a more logical assignment and a controlled response to calls, you can more efficiently use your resources."

Under the old system, Columbia is divided into 16 beat areas. But seldom have there been more than 10 or 11 officers available to patrol the city at any given time, leaving gaps in coverage.

"When something happened in areas with no patrol officers, we'd have to pull someone from across town, leaving a hole," department spokeswoman Officer Jessie Haden said. "You ended up with a lot of inefficiencies."

On one level, the solution was to simply redraw boundaries for police coverage. But a key difference with geographic policing is that patrol officers assigned to an area will stay within its boundaries during their shift.

"Officers will own a piece of real estate in the city," Burton said, contending that the arrangement will lead to faster response times.

The essence of geographic policing is in its underlying philosophy, which Burton said makes upper-level officers accountable for specific areas — something that hasn't been the case before.

The city is now divided into four quadrants. Two captains are assigned to two quadrants each. They each supervise two lieutenants, each of whom is responsible for one quadrant.

When the new system is finalized next year, a sergeant will be assigned to each of the smaller areas inside those quadrants — much like the beat pattern of the old system. The result will be that each area will have an assigned patrolling officer at any time.

Burton said the idea is that each level of law enforcement will have to answer to problems inside a designated area.

"I will be asking the captains every other month why something is occurring in their area and what they are doing to address those issues," Burton said. "Then I'll come back 60 days later to see what they've been able to do."

In the patrol division, officers need to be knowledgeable about their area, familiarizing themselves with its businesses and residents. They will also be expected to keep an eye out for neighborhoods that show deterioration, such as broken windows and graffiti. "When you pay attention to the small stuff, you end up preventing crimes before they occur," Burton said.

Source: Columbia Police Department

Patrol redeployment
Columbia police are overhauling their beat system in favor of a new "geographic policing" model. The new model divides the city into four sectors, each composed of several of the previous patrol beats.

Burton said geographic policing won't be in full force until early next year, but some people already have noticed changes.

Tom Whitesides, a resident of Andy Drive, has seen improvements in his neighborhood. Officers drive down his street several times a night, he said, sometimes getting out of the car and walking through yards. As a result, he said, several drug dealers and other troublemakers have left.

"My mom is almost 80 years old," Whitesides said. "For the last year, she was scared to go out after dark to let her dog out. Now she can take her dog out at 1 a.m., and she feels safe."

Nationally, reactions to the effectiveness of geographic policing are mixed. A 2008 study titled "The Geographic Policing Model" published in The Southwest Journal of Criminal Justice indicated less-than-favorable results for the model. The study surveyed 285 officers involved with geographic policing and compared their perceptions to official crime statistics from 1997 to 2006.

The study concluded that not only did the geographic policing model not result in lower crime or lower residents' fear of crime, but many officers did not believe the system had an effect on crime statistics. Nonetheless, the study concluded, "geographic policing can best be defended by emphasizing its ability to improve the relationship between the police and the community."

In the Fort Worth suburb of Haltom City, Burton's former police department has abandoned geographic policing. Police Chief Keith Lane said crime rates remained the same from March 2004, when Burton implemented the system, until August, when Lane took over as chief.

"The way I'd measure effectiveness is, 'Does it reduce crime?' " Lane said. "There was no evidence that it was doing that here."

But in Columbia, East Campus Neighborhood Association President Bonnie Bourne said she already has seen stronger links between police and civilians in her part of town. Although not a focus of serious crimes, East Campus yields a lot of nuisance calls such as parties and noise violations. "Before, the response wasn't always as good as we'd like it to have been," Bourne said. "Now we have officers dedicated to our area."

Bourne said she has met with officers patrolling her neighborhood, and she has phone and e-mail access to those officers.

"It's a much stronger approach, and as a result, I think the incidents where people violate city ordinances in my area have decreased considerably," she said.

Reach Daniel Cailler at 573-815-1717 or e-mail djcailler@columbiatribune.com.

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Philosophy Prof. Richard to leave Tufts for Harvard - Tufts Daily

Posted: 09 Nov 2009 05:53 AM PST

Professor Mark Richard, a distinguished philosopher of language, accepted an offer last month to join Harvard University's faculty.

Richard, tenured in the philosophy department, will join Harvard effective next July, after having spent 25 years at Tufts.

Richard said his decision was motivated by a desire to work with doctoral students. While Tufts has a master's program in philosophy that is consistently ranked among the best in the country, the university has no doctoral program.

Present financial circumstances also mean that it is unlikely that a PhD program will be started in the near future.

"The administration is sympathetic with the fact that we should have PhD program here, but at the moment there isn't money out there," Richard said.

That, coupled with a consideration of his age, drove his decision to accept Harvard's offer.

"I'm an old guy. Iif I stay here and wait for a PhD program, even if we start one today … I would be in my mid 60s by the time we had it up and running and had grad students I could mentor and talk to," Richard said. "One thing that weighed heavily in my thinking was that I want to work with PhD students before I die."

Chair of the Department of Philosophy Nancy Bauer said that Richard's departure comes as a great loss to the department, ending what has been a mutually beneficial relationship.

"It's a really big loss for Tufts … He's been instrumental in shaping the department and establishing its reputation in the profession," Bauer said. "On the other hand, he began his career at Tufts, and the fact that he's so successful is a sign of the health of the department."

Bauer added that she understood why Richard made the decision to leave. "[He is] at the point in his professional life at which a change is often really invigorating intellectually," she said.

Richard indicated that it was not easy for him to make the decision to leave Tufts. "I'm dedicated to the university. It wasn't like this was an obvious decision for me," he said. "I'm sad to go."

Despite debates in the past about Tufts' ability to retain faculty, Richard emphasized that his decision was neither a comment on the quality of the university nor its attractiveness to professors.

"People do not appreciate how good [Tufts] is. I'm not the first person we've lost to Harvard, Princeton and universities like that, and it's going to happen. If it didn't happen, it would be a sign that something's wrong because we don't have people the Ivies want to steal," Richard said. "Occasionally, we will lose people to the best; this doesn't mean the university has a brain drain problem."

Bauer pointed out that Richard had previously been offered a job at Princeton University in 2006, which he declined largely because of significant efforts by Tufts administrators to keep him on the Hill.

Similar efforts this time around, however, were not as successful. Nonetheless, Richard maintained that there was nothing lacking in Tufts' efforts to retain him.

"In my case the university was very generous; they offered everything Harvard offered and more," he said.

He said it was Tufts' continued efforts to maintain premier faculty that will insure it against the loss of key members in the future.

"As long as the university is committed to maintaining itself as a first-rate university, we don't have to worry about losing people," he said.

Dean of Arts and Sciences Robert Sternberg echoed this sentiment. "Losing Mark is a profound loss for philosophy and for Tufts as a whole. He is among the most distinguished philosophers in the United States and the world," Sternberg told the Daily in an e-mail. "It is a tribute to the university that we have had him with us so long."

Despite this, Bauer remains certain that the philosophy department will continue to thrive. "Even though his loss is certainly important for the department, I have every confidence that the department will continue to do scholarly work and teach at the high level that has come to be expected," she said.

Tufts is currently acting under a modified hiring freeze as a result of the economic downturn. This means that a replacement at Richard's level is unlikely to be hired soon, although the department has received permission to search for an assistant professor, according to Bauer.

"We had been authorized two years ago to search for a senior colleague at the tenured level and that search has not been cancelled but is on hold," Bauer said.

Professor Sean Kelly, chair of Harvard's philosophy department, explained that Richard's hire was the culmination of a two year-long search for a new faculty member. Richard emerged as the choice candidate as Harvard looked to cement its philosophy of language program.

"We think he's a first-rate philosopher of language," Kelly told the Daily. "We really needed a top, senior philosopher of language to coalesce the whole program and attract students, and that's what we hope Mark will do."

This hire is notable in the current economic climate, especially as Harvard is limited in its hiring practices even more than Tufts, according to Bauer. Kelly expressed his gratitude that Harvard allowed this search to continue.

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Philipp Lahm: Bayern Munich Have No Football 'Philosophy' - goal.com

Posted: 09 Nov 2009 06:43 AM PST

German international Philipp Lahm has expressed his opinion that Bayern Munich are lagging behind the European football giants because they don't have a football "philosophy".

The full-back feels the Bundesliga club must decide on a tactical scheme and then hire the players who fit this framework.

"If you want to measure yourself with Barcelona, Chelsea and Manchester United, you, as Bayern Munich, need a philosophy. That must be the aim of the club," Lahm told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung.

"Clubs like Manchester United or Barcelona have a system, and then you hire personnel who fit this system. We hired Arjen Robben because he is very good and an international player. But we didn't hire him because we said, 'We will play 4-3-3 from now on.' This doesn't happen here - the club says, 'We will [change our system] now,' and everything is built on that.

"On an continental level you need at least eight players who have learned to play their position, who are confident and competitive. I don't see these eight players here. That has nothing to do with the players, but with a lacking philosophy over the past [few] years," the highly-rated defender continued.

"The club must tell a new coach, 'This is the way we play.' No one in Barcelona would ever play 4-4-2. Barcelona play 4-3-3 - that is a fact.

"I was raised at the club and Munich are dear to me - that's why I am outspoken. I think I am in a position to make these statements. We want to be successful on an international stage and to win titles," Lahm concluded.

However, the Bayern board disagreed with Lahm's comments. The full-back was given a considerable fine for his outburst and was reprimanded by head coach Louis van Gaal and club president Karl-Heinz Rummenigge before training on Sunday.

Stefan Coerts, Goal.com

Sun, sand, bikinis! The Beach Soccer World Cup, the hottest tournament in the world, layers the lotion in the November issue of Goal.com Magazine.

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Being and time - Thehill.com

Posted: 09 Nov 2009 09:20 AM PST

I still remember my freshman-year philosophy teacher intoning, in mind-numbing fashion, "Being qua Being." He was talking about the German philosopher Martin Heidegger, and his seminal philosophical work Being and Time.

I never could figure out what my philosophy teacher was talking about, and since it was my second semester and springtime in Milwaukee, I did not particularly care, an attitude which landed me my second-worst grade in my college career.

But it turns out that Martin Heidegger's philosophy was pretty important to how we all live today. And, it turns out, he was a Nazi, a man who strongly supported Hitler, and who never really renounced him.

A New York Times review of a new book about Heidegger (Heidegger: The Introduction of Nazism into Philosophy) by Emmanuel Faye, caught my eye this morning. The book says simply that Heidegger was a Nazi, and his philosophy should be treated for what it was, hate speech.

Wading into Heidegger's philosophy is still pretty mind-numbing. This is no Mein Kampf. It is not particularly readable for the uninitiated. But for those who set philosophical norms, Heidegger is particularly influential. According to Wikipedia:

Heidegger's work has strongly influenced philosophy, theology and the humanities. Within philosophy it played a crucial role in the development of existentialism, hermeneutics, deconstruction, postmodernism, and continental philosophy in general. Well-known philosophers such as Karl Jaspers, Leo Strauss, Ahmad Fardid, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Jean-Paul Sartre, Emmanuel Lévinas, Hannah Arendt, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Michel Foucault, Richard Rorty, and Jacques Derrida have all analyzed Heidegger's work.

Heidegger's particular insight was that for 2,000 years, Western (and Christian) philosophy had it pretty much wrong. Again, here is Wikipedia:

Heidegger claimed that Western philosophy has, since Plato, misunderstood what it means for something "to be," tending to approach this question in terms of a being, rather than asking about being itself. In other words, Heidegger believed all investigations of being have historically focused on particular entities and their properties, or have treated being itself as an entity, or substance, with properties. A more authentic analysis of being would, for Heidegger, investigate "that on the basis of which beings are already understood," or that which underlies all particular entities and allows them to show up as entities in the first place. But since philosophers and scientists have overlooked the more basic, pre-theoretical ways of being from which their theories derive, and since they have incorrectly applied those theories universally, they have confused our understanding of being and human existence. To avoid these deep-rooted misconceptions, Heidegger believed philosophical inquiry must be conducted in a new way, through a process of retracing the steps of the history of philosophy.

What that basically meant, in overly broad, Feehery-theory terms, is that pretty much everything we assumed to be true over last two millennia is, well, wrong. And we have to start from scratch, building up to a new reality.

Radical right-wingers may have embraced some of Heidegger's ideas, but it is the left that keeps Heidegger around in the classrooms. As the Times puts it today: "Although Faye talks about the close connection between Heidegger and current right-wing extremist politics, left-wing intellectuals have more frequently been inspired by his ideas. Existentialism and postmodernism as well as attendant attacks on colonialism, atomic weapons, ecological ruin and universal notions of morality are all based on his critique of the Western cultural tradition and reason."

We live in a philosophical muddle today. Everyone is striving to find their "authentic self." Community norms are torn down. Formerly respected institutions, like the church and the government, are despised. The individual is glorified and then destroyed. Basic morality is questioned and discarded.

While you can't blame Martin Heidegger for all of these problems, you can question how the left wing has used this Nazi sympathizer's ideas to put us in the weird world we currently live in.


Visit www.thefeeherytheory.com.

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Reason.tv: Dating in the Atlasphere—Joshua Zader Brings Love to Fans ... - Reason.com

Posted: 09 Nov 2009 12:12 PM PST

Reason.tv: Dating in the Atlasphere—Joshua Zader Brings Love to Fans of Ayn Rand

November 9, 2009

Joshua Zader's intellectual relationship with Ayn Rand began as it does for so many, during his college years. He then blazed a trail uniquely his own among Rand admirers by creating The Atlasphere—an online networking and dating site for the fans of Rand's novels with particular emphasis on The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. Zader found inspiration in Rand's portrayals of independence and integrity, saying: "Rand's ethical vision was really one where we want to create a win-win world for everybody, and that there shouldn't be conflicts of interest among rational people if you're using an ethical system where everybody is treated as an end in himself." Zader has seen the real life impact of Rand's ideas through his work on The Atlasphere, which currently boasts over 19,000 members.

Zader discusses the some finer points of Rand's thought and novels, her supporters, her detractors, and her continuing impact. As a student of Buddhism, Zader explores how her ideas relate to what may seem like a conflicting view of the world. Zader: "Sometimes I see Buddhism as a set of practices in search of a philosophy, in an analogous way that Objectivism could be seen as a philosophy in search of a set of practices." Joshua Zader blogs at Mudita Journal.

Approximately 10 minutes. Joshua Zader was interviewed by Ryan Seals, filmed by Alex Manning, and edited by Hawk Jensen.

It is part of the Reason.tv series Radicals For Capitalism: Celebrating the Ideas of Ayn Rand. Go here for more information, other videos, and related materials. Go here for downloadable versions of this video.

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