Werner Heisenberg would understand the current media confusion surrounding the progress of the war. About 80 years ago, the German physicist postulated a theory (known as the uncertainty principle) that in subatomic physics the observer becomes part of the observed system. Through the act of measurement the physicist himself becomes part of observed reality. Regarding subatomic particles, he argued, the act of measuring one magnitude of a particle -- mass, velocity or position -- causes the other magnitudes to blur. So that, in his words: "The more precisely the position is determined, the less precisely the momentum is known."
Now, at the dawn of the 21st century, I would propose the Blankley macroscopic corollary to the Heisenberg microscopic principle: The more precisely the media measures individual events in a war, the more blurry the warfare appears to the observer. (Before any physicists e-mail me, let me assure you that I understand (sort of) that the Heisenberg principle is only noticeable in observing things smaller than Max Plank's constant (h=1.05 x 10 to the -34th Joule-seconds, or .000000000000000000000000000000000105), and that Heisenberg was applying his principle to wave-particle dualities -- not Abrams Tanks.)
Tony Blankley
Tony Blankley, a conservative author and commentator who served as press secretary to Newt Gingrich during the 1990s, when Republicans took control of Congress, died Sunday January 8, 2012. He was 63.
Blankley, who had been suffering from stomach cancer, died Saturday night at Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, his wife, Lynda Davis, said Sunday.
In his long career as a political operative and pundit, his most visible role was as a spokesman for and adviser to Gingrich from 1990 to 1997. Gingrich became House Speaker when Republicans took control of the U.S. House of Representatives following the 1994 midterm elections.
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