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Saturday, July 21, 2007
Monariza
21 Jul 2007 08:50 pm
More Japanese "crop-art" here.
Publishing Industry Out-takes
21 Jul 2007 07:43 pm
Why am I not surprised?
Unfortunately Placed Ads
21 Jul 2007 06:47 pm
Fifteen of 'em. Enjoy.
The Petraeus Record
21 Jul 2007 06:00 pm
Face of the Day
21 Jul 2007 04:59 pm
A Tibetan woman feeds her baby in her tent during the Horse Racing Festival on July 20, 2007 in Chengduo County of Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, northwest China. The Horse Racing Festival of Tibetan nomads in Yushu Prefecture falls in late July and early August on the Tibetan calendar. During the festival, various of equestrian skills will be performed along with singing, dancing and costume shows. (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images)
Checkers
21 Jul 2007 04:12 pm
The computers finally win. More here:
What do you call a game with 500,000,000,000,000,000,000 possible play positions? Checkers, of course. That's according to computer scientists who have succeeded in "solving" the well-known game for every possible smart move.
They found that in a perfectly played game, checkers is a draw.
The feat was accomplished by running checkers games on dozens of computers for 18 years, using cutting-edge artificial intelligence.
The View From Your [Blackhawk] Window
21 Jul 2007 03:15 pm
Baghdad, Iraq, 11.30 am.
For another military reader's Baghdad window view from the ground, click here.
Ten Lessons From Iraq
21 Jul 2007 02:35 pm
Hilzoy lists them. These two strike very close to home in my case:
(4) When the rest of the world thinks you're crazy, it's worth entertaining the possibility that they might be right. We should not defer to their judgment mindlessly, but we should have what Jefferson called "a decent respect to the opinions of mankind."
(5) Beware of movements built on contempt. Many of the people who pushed for war had spent decades expressing their contempt for what you might call standard foreign policy -- the kind in which diplomacy is taken to be a useful instrument, not a snare for the weak-minded, and force is a last resort, not an all-purpose tool. Their own views had never been seriously tested (and no, Reagan doesn't count), and many of their spokesmen lacked any serious experience conducting foreign policy. Sometimes, groups of people who spend years muttering about how different things would be if they were in charge are right. Often, however, they are not. Absent a real track record on which to evaluate them, they should be approached with caution.
Best Movie Line Ever
21 Jul 2007 01:29 pm
"Get away from her, you bitch." Aliens.
Ron Paul In Iowa
21 Jul 2007 12:48 pm
A reader writes:
I don't want Ron Paul to place second in Ames, per Ruffini's prediction. I want Paul to WIN Ames. I want him to take the whole thing. This would accomplish two worthy objectives. First, it would end the campaign of that despicable charlatan, Mitt Romney, who is stuck in single-digits everywhere except for Iowa and New Hampshire, the two states into which he has poured his entire warchest. Beating Romney in Ames would eviscerate the paper tiger that is Mitt Romney.
Secondly, a Ron Paul victory at Ames would give Paul instant credibility as the small-government conservative in the race, as well as the only Republican candidate for a sane foreign policy. Rudy's preaching small government on domestic issues, but is ready to double down on neoconservatism, complete with torture, a disregard for the Constitution, and nation building. Thompson is about to become the candidate of the Religious Right; a very credible source informs me that a Faustian bargain is about to be cut that will seal the deal. And of course, McCain is done. A Paul victory at Ames would make him a serious candidate, one who could win the votes of old-school conservatives and Republicans who remember the party that existed before Bush.
Chris Caldwell on Ron Paul
21 Jul 2007 12:18 pm
I take back all my fears about the piece. It's a fair, superb account of Ron Paul's history, ideology, character and significance, including completely relevant material about some of the kooks his campaign has indeed attracted. Here's the explanation for the congressman's strange political success:
The Victoria Advocate, an influential newspaper in the district, has generally opposed Paul for re-election, on the grounds that a “lone wolf” cannot get the highway and homeland-security financing the district needs. So how does he get re-elected? Tim Delaney, the paper’s editorial-page editor, says: “Ron Paul is a very charismatic person. He has charm. He does not alter his position ever. His ideals are high. If a little old man calls up from the farm and says, ‘I need a wheelchair,’ he’ll get the damn wheelchair for him.”
And here's Caldwell's shrewd analysis of Paul's salience:
Whatever the campaign purports to be about, the main thing it has done thus far is to serve as a clearinghouse for voters who feel unrepresented by mainstream Republicans and Democrats. The antigovernment activists of the right and the antiwar activists of the left have many differences, maybe irreconcilable ones. But they have a lot of common beliefs too, and their numbers — and anger — are of a considerable magnitude. Ron Paul will not be the next president of the United States. But his candidacy gives us a good hint about the country the next president is going to have to knit back together.
Bush on Human Rights In Russia
21 Jul 2007 11:50 am
Glenn Greenwald discovers a beaut: the Bush administration's detailed criticism of Russia's treatment of prisoners and detainees. Here's part of what they oppose:
Government technical regulations that require Internet service providers and telecommunications companies to invest in equipment that enables the [Foreign Security Service] to monitor Internet traffic, telephone calls, and pagers without judicial approval caused serious concern... Lengthy pretrial detention remained a serious problem... According to Human Rights Watch's (HRW) report on torture in Russia released in November 1999, torture by police officers usually occurs within the first few hours or days of arrest and usually takes one of four forms: beatings with fists, batons, or other objects; asphyxiation using gas masks or bags (sometimes filled with mace); electric shocks; or suspension of body parts (e.g. suspending a victim from the wrists, which are tied together behind the back). Allegations of torture are difficult to substantiate because of lack of access by medical professionals and because the techniques used often leave few or no permanent physical traces.
If you examine the Decider's executive order issued yesterday, you will find considerable lee-way for the CIA to use beatings with fists, and suspension of body parts, i.e. stress positions. The administration refuses to call these things torture when the US does it, but has no problem with plain English in talking about the Russians. And, of course, the ability to wiretap Americans without a court warrant was a critical goal of the Cheney executive branch coup after 9/11.
So repeat after me: Putin doesn't torture anyone. And neither does Bush.
The CIA Executive Order
21 Jul 2007 11:42 am
Marty Lederman explains:
The only truly important section of the E.O. is section 3(b)(i)(C), which defines the category of violence that will be deemed to violate Common Article 3 for purposes of determining whether a CIA interrogation program comports with CA3. In addition to torture as defined by the federal criminal statute, and the forms of violence that remain prohibited under the new WCA, that subsection of the E.O. prohibits only "other acts of violence serious enough to be considered comparable to murder, torture, mutilation, and cruel or inhuman treatment, as defined in [the War Crimes Act]."
In other words, if a form of violence is not already prohibited by federal criminal law, and is not "comparable" to the forms of violence prohibited by the WCA, the CIA is not prohibited from using it.
Does this prohibit the CIA "enhanced" techniques? Who knows? Are they "comparable" to what the WCA prohibits? You tell me.
Whatever else these new rules are, they are anything but clear. You can read the full text here.
Move Over, iPhone
21 Jul 2007 11:24 am
Meet the iLimb:
The newly released iLimb is the first prosthetic hand to have fully functional motorized digits that move and bend independently, its makers say. Electrodes taped to the skin transmit signals to tiny motors that power the fingers.
Previous artificial hands had only a thumb and forefinger that worked in a clawlike grasping action. But the new device allows amputees to carry out more delicate movements such as peeling a banana, typing on a computer, or eating with a knife and fork.
The iLimb is also covered by a semitransparent "cosmesis" that is computer modeled to look like human skin.
Don't Save The Worms
21 Jul 2007 09:21 am
They have a larger carbon footprint than the average Hollywood poseur:
"Worms produce a significant amount of greenhouse gases. Recent research done by German scientists has found that worms produced a third of nitrous oxide gases when used for composting," an expert was quoted as saying.
In an interview with a leading renewable resources journal, Jim Frederickson, senior research fellow at Britain`s Open Universities faculty of technology, said the German research showed that worm composting has deleterious effects on the environment that should be considered more seriously.
Friday, July 20, 2007
Osama's Trap
20 Jul 2007 07:36 pm
Tim Ash explains:
Osama bin Laden's plan was to get the U.S. to overreact and overreach itself. With the invasion of Iraq, Bush fell slap-bang into that trap. The U.S. government's own latest National Intelligence Estimate, released this week, suggests that Al Qaeda in Iraq is now among the most significant threats to the security of the American homeland.
The U.S. has probably not yet fully woken up to the appalling fact that, after a long period in which the first motto of its military was "no more Vietnams," it faces another Vietnam. There are many important differences, but the basic result is similar: The mightiest military in the world fails to achieve its strategic goals and is, in the end, politically defeated by an economically and technologically inferior adversary.
Even if there are no scenes of helicopters evacuating Americans from the roof of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, there will surely be some totemic photographic image of national humiliation as the U.S. struggles to extract its troops.
Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo have done terrible damage to the U.S. reputation for being humane; this defeat will convince more people around the world that it is not even that powerful.
(Photo: Wissam al-Okaili/AFP/Getty.)
An Angry Catholic
20 Jul 2007 06:29 pm
Rod Dreher writes a painful post:
Reading this story today made me reflect on something that explains a lot about why I reacted, and do react, with such strong emotion to the Catholic sex abuse story -- and why, in the main, it cost me my Catholic faith. I don't think I've ever talked about this. Maybe I should.
Some people have been bold enough to ask me over the years if I had been molested as a child. I wasn't, but it's not an unreasonable question. But something did happen that could easily have gone that way, and only know, over 25 years later, is it becoming clear to me how much that one incident affected my thinking and feeling.
I was 14, and went with a school group on a weeklong summer trip to the beach...
The rest is here.
The Base and the Colonoscopy
20 Jul 2007 06:19 pm
They can dream, can't they?
The NYT vs Ron Paul
20 Jul 2007 05:59 pm
They're worried, aren't they? There's a confluence of interest here between neoconservatives desperately trying to portray limited government conservatism as inherently nutty and the NYT-lefties who simply cannot imagine why more government isn't the answer to everything. But, we'll see what the piece says. Chris Caldwell is a good reporter and the piece may not be as bad as it sounds. By the way, remember how the NYT covered the Howard Dean phenomenon? Exactly.
The Executive Order on Torture
20 Jul 2007 05:34 pm
Here, for the record, is the Decider's new Executive Order giving his interpretation of Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions. The bottom line:
On February 7, 2002, I determined for the United States that members of al Qaeda, the Taliban, and associated forces are unlawful enemy combatants who are not entitled to the protections that the Third Geneva Convention provides to prisoners of war. I hereby reaffirm that determination.
We still have no idea whether "waterboarding" or stress positions or beating are forbidden. That's still up to the Decider. The Order does ban torture as defined in section 2340 of title !8, US Code. That definition is:
(1) "torture" means an act committed by a person acting under
the color of law specifically intended to inflict severe physical
or mental pain or suffering (other than pain or suffering
incidental to lawful sanctions) upon another person within his
custody or physical control;
(2) "severe mental pain or suffering" means the prolonged
mental harm caused by or resulting from -
(A) the intentional infliction or threatened infliction of
severe physical pain or suffering;
(B) the administration or application, or threatened
administration or application, of mind-altering substances or
other procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or
the personality;
(C) the threat of imminent death; or
(D) the threat that another person will imminently be
subjected to death, severe physical pain or suffering, or the
administration or application of mind-altering substances or
other procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or
personality.
I can't see how this offers any ambiguity with respect to waterboarding, hypothermia, sleep deprivation, and "stress positions." And yet the administration will not confirm that these are illegal. Why not? They say they want to keep detainees in the dark. But if we're in compliance with Geneva and the US Code, there's no darkness. There's legal clarity. At some point, you have to believe what the president says. But to be blunt: I don't believe a word out of his mouth on this subject. But here's the actual text. See what you make of it:
INTERPRETATION OF THE GENEVA CONVENTIONS COMMON ARTICLE 3 AS APPLIED TO A PROGRAM OF DETENTION AND INTERROGATION OPERATED BY THE CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
By the authority vested in me as President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the Authorization for Use of Military Force (Public Law 107-40), the Military Commissions Act of 2006 (Public Law 109-366), and section 301 of title 3, United States Code, it is hereby ordered as follows:
Continue reading "The Executive Order on Torture" »
History of the Button
20 Jul 2007 05:17 pm
Someone has produced a blog on this one topic for an entire year. And they're just getting started.
Face of the Day
20 Jul 2007 05:14 pm
Ahmed Dhia, 20, from Gazaliah neighborhood of Bagdhad is seen at an Iraqi detention center July 19, 2007 in Baghdad, Iraq. He's been there for two months and is suffering from an eye infection that so far has gone untreated by his jailers. The Iraqi detention facility at Forward Operating Base Justice in west Baghdad holds nearly a thousand men in an area designed for 300, from insurgents who have killed dozens to some who were likely simply swept up in raids and were in the wrong place at the wrong time . (Photo by Chris Hondros/Getty Images)
The New Torture Regs
20 Jul 2007 05:09 pm
The bottom line is: we still don't know what is or is not permitted. The Decider has the power to pick and choose. He is not bound by the rule of law or any treaty or the Geneva Conventions. So we are left with this:
In a call with reporters, senior administration officials repeatedly refused to say what specific kinds of interrogation techniques would be barred, arguing that doing so could tip off al-Qaida members training to withstand hostile questioning. But sleep is not among the basic necessities outlined in the order, one official said, opening the possibility that sleep deprivation is among the approved interrogation methods.
We need simple adherence to the plain English of Article 3. We haven't gotten it. The vagueness of this announcement isn't very helpful, and renders actual analysis impossible.
Minorities and Conspiracies
20 Jul 2007 04:40 pm
How can we account for the link between race, income level and conspiracy theories? Theorists tend to show higher levels of anomie - a general disaffection or disempowerment from society. Perhaps this is the underlying factor that predisposes people more distant from centres of power - whether they be poorer people or those from ethnic minorities - to believe in conspiracies.
One caveat:
The more fundamental problem, beyond anomie, is unscientific thinking, and the tendency of people to just want to win arguments. People get emotionally invested in a factual position, and for or against, they'll latch on to whatever they can so they don't have to let go.
Jews Against Circumcision
20 Jul 2007 04:23 pm
God and the Election
20 Jul 2007 04:10 pm
She has intervened.
The Giulianis and the Tudors
20 Jul 2007 04:08 pm
It makes sense when you think about it.
A Friday Poem
20 Jul 2007 04:08 pm
A poem by James Hoch. It begins:
Out the window, starlings
fidget in the wasted eavesof a bar burned down last summer.
They pilfer, figure,
engineercharred wire, booth cushion,
anything light enoughto haul by beak, wedge high
between blackened 2 X 4.A nest,
a bed for the dying
or just born—
The rest here.
Totten In Baghdad
20 Jul 2007 03:55 pm
A beautfully written first-hand account of what it feels like in Iraq right now:
You know how it feels when you get into a black car in the afternoon with the windows rolled up in July? It’s an inferno outside, but inside the car it’s even hotter? That’s how Iraq feels in the shade. Sunlight burns like a blowtorch. If you don’t wear a helmet or soft cap the sun will cook your brain. First you get headaches. Then you end up in the hospital...
After having spent several days Baghdad’s Green Zone and Red Zone, I still haven’t heard or seen any explosions. It’s a peculiar war. It is almost a not-war. Last July’s war in Northern Israel and Southern Lebanon was hundreds of times more violent and terrifying than this one. Explosions on both sides of the Lebanese-Israeli border were constant when I was there.
You’d think explosions and gunfire define Iraq if you look at this country from far away on the news. They do not. The media is a total distortion machine. Certain areas are still extremely violent, but the country as a whole is defined by heat, not war, at least in the summer. It is Iraq’s most singular characteristic. I dread going outside because it’s hot, not because I’m afraid I will get hurt.
What To Do About Waziristan?
20 Jul 2007 03:45 pm
Blake Hounsell says to chill:
Zawahiri, who watched his previous organization get destroyed in Egypt during the 1990s, likely understands that the escalating campaign of terrorist bombings in Pakistan will strengthen Musharraf's hand still further. But al Qaeda would enjoy a propaganda bonanza if the U.S. started seriously mucking around in the tribal areas. And then there's the small problem that even the United States likely doesn't **have** the ability to sneak into the tribal wilds of Pakistan with a compact strike force, kill the bad guys, and make a clean getaway without anyone noticing. This ain't the movies. Better to give the Pakistanis the time to do it themselves.
HRC Update
20 Jul 2007 03:34 pm
The Human Rights Campaign, the money-bags gay group, was recently touting the imminence of various pieces of pro-gay legislation. We were told that the strategy of de facto merging with the DNC would mean a whole bunch of progress on a federal level: a hate crimes bill and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act were now just around the corner. Well, as usual, when the rubber hits the road, HRC fails again. The latest hate crimes push has just failed, and HRC is promised a vote "this year". Nada on ENDA, or Don't Ask, Don't Tell," or the HIV immigration ban, or Uniting American Families Act. Chris Crain has the latest:
It all boils down to this: Democrats have controlled Congress for six months now, and no gay rights bill has made it to their priority list for passage. Now, according to HRC, all we've got is a "commitment" for a vote on hate crimes "this year." Even if that happens, that still leaves ENDA, "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," and a half-dozen other gay rights bills languishing in Congress.
And when "this year" is over, and maybe hate crimes at best will have gotten a vote, we already know what we'll be told because we've heard it so many times before: 2008 is an election year, and gay rights is too hot a potato to touch right now.
But keep sending them your money.
God, Human Rights and Plato
20 Jul 2007 02:59 pm
A reader writes:
Ponnuru believes that without God there could be no human rights. And many others - not all of them Christianists - seem to agree.
But there's a very serious problem for this view, one which philosophers have known about since Plato wrote his dialogue Euthyphro. Unfortunately, it never gets mentioned in popular discussions of theism and morality.
The problem is simple. Ponnuru claims that human rights - and moral values more generally - derive their authority from the fact that God has ordained them. (This is the position philosophers call "theological voluntarism" or "divine command theory.") But what if God had ordained murder and rape as the morally obligatory ways of treating others? If Ponnuru is correct and rights and values have moral authority merely because God ordains them, then murder and rape would be morally obligatory. Note well: you can't protest here and say that since God (who is perfectly morally good) would never ordain anything as immoral as murder and rape, murder and rape couldn't have been morally obligatory. If you say this, you'd be appealing to a moral standard independent of (not ordained by) God.
Continue reading "God, Human Rights and Plato" »
Quote for the Day
20 Jul 2007 02:41 pm
"There are no immigration benefits available to [gays] based on their relationship. With that said, there's certainly nothing that says a US citizen cannot move to another country," - Chris Bentley, spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security's Citizen and Immigration Services, January 2004.
Pick your spouse or your country, guys. This is America.
Bald Eagles
20 Jul 2007 02:21 pm
The Economist's cartoonist, Kal, has some fun with political pates.
The View From Your Window
20 Jul 2007 01:52 pm
Decatur, Georgia, 8.54 pm.
For a newly updated, global gallery of Dish readers' window views, click here.
Malkin Award Nominee
20 Jul 2007 01:35 pm
"I have proposed the introduction of specific sedition laws that mention the Islamic religion by name, taking note of the uniquely pressing threat of the Jihad. Again, I think such legislation justified in part because throwing a man in prison for two years on a wrongful sedition conviction is indeed an injustice; but it is a pittance compared to what injustice might await that same man, and his family, when legislation is no longer an option, when anarchy and civil war are upon us. I say "in part" because there are other justifications as well: justifications not premised on speculation of civil war. One is that Jihad, quite aside from its threat to us, is a wicked doctrine and should not receive the protection of our laws. Another is that we can fight totalitarian Islam by prohibiting it, by letting its (sic) stand naked without the shelter of the civil liberties which it seeks to obliterate," - Paul Cella, RedState.
The "20 Percent" Solution
20 Jul 2007 01:04 pm
Charles Krauthammer, as usual, does a better job at framing and spinning the events in Iraq than the Bush administration. He's arguing that the surge essentially is working to the extent that it is training Sunni armed militias to battle al Qaeda. I hope he's right in the short term. It is a lonely piece of good news that Iraqi Sunni Arabs have decided that the foreign 5 percent of the insurgency needs to be taken on. Any place where Arab Muslims are actively fighting al Qaeda is a gain both in terms of tactics and strategic narrative. We should certainly wish Petraeus well in this small but encouraging task.
But Charles is realistic enough to see what this also leads to: a better armed and better trained sectarian force. If we have abandoned the central government - the "80 percent solution" - we have effectively decided to train and arm one side in a coming civil war. Money quote:
Maliki & Co. are afraid we are arming Sunnis for the civil war to come. On the other hand, we might be creating a rough balance of forces that would act as a deterrent to all-out civil war and encourage a relatively peaceful accommodation.
A reader is franker:
There is an easy way out in Iraq: support the Sunnis against the Shia. Arm them heavily and withdraw. This will restore some balance and the two parties will come to terms. If not at least it will tie up the Iranians for a long while. Combine it with a meaningful resolution of the Palestinian issue and most of our problems go away. Not a very moral position but it will work.
So the strategy is now arming and training one side to better fight the other? And at best, create a stand-off that will prevent genocide from happening too quickly? What's interesting to me about Charles' column is that it shows that one of the most inventive and cogent defenders of this administration has conceded that the original strategy behind the surge is now moot. That was quick. We are now doing what we can to prep the sides in a looming civil war, and impeding AQI at the same time. That's the most we can hope for. He may be right and I don't see much wrong with this gambit - as long as it is combined with a very serious attempt to protect the Kurdish regions and hold Turkey's hand very tightly.
If the administration wants to make this case in September, fine. But be honest about it. Drop the crap about AQI being the only problem in Iraq. Frame withdrawal in this context, but be clear about withdrawal. There is a potential realist compromise here in which our withdrawal is linked to creating a less centrifugal failed state than we now have, and protects the Kurds. It will require deftness and subtlety. It will also require the administration to be more candid and humble than they have been thus far. I don't have my hopes up. But when Dr K has thrown in the towel, maybe even Mr Cheney will listen.
Why I'm a Mac-Head
20 Jul 2007 12:58 pm
Because Vista does this to your hard drive. If Fallows cannot cope, what hope is there for the rest of us mere techno-mortals?
Clinton, Trust and the War
20 Jul 2007 12:25 pm
The latest poll on views of Senator Clinton are no big surprise. Her negatives are still sky-high and there's no reason to believe they will decline. But the most important aspect of the polling, I think, is the reason for her negatives. Easily the biggest reason people give for not liking her is trust. They don't trust her. The trust issue is on both right and left. Here's the right-wing distrust expressed:
"I've followed her history back to her college days, and I just don’t trust her. I think she's a socialist, and I think that's exactly where she wants to take us."
I'm not sure what she is, myself. If you peel back all the onion layers of opportunism, sound-bites on sound-bites, private promises, public compromises, spin, calculation, triangulation, reinvention and deceit, I think you get what can only be called numb. Deep beneath that numbness, somewhere in that Arctic, resentful interior of hers,I suspect she is just a congenital, well-meaning nanny. Here's the distrust many on the left nd in the center feel:
"There are certain things she has voted on since she has been in Congress that seem to me to lean more toward the Republican view of things, which doesn’t make me too happy," said Ms. Hughes, a retired newspaper columnist. "I want her to be strong and express strong feelings, not just fit her feelings to that audience at that moment," she said.
It's quite an achievement - to evoke distrust almost equally across the spectrum. And after all these years, I don't believe the American public is wrong.
This wouldn't be that big a deal if it weren't for the last seven years. We are at war; one of our deepest weaknesses is that we are divided as a country and as a civilization in a battle for our values and, perhaps, our existence. Another profound weakness is that we have lost trust - with very good reason - in the leaders of this war. Successfully prosecuting a long war requires a bond of trust between rulers and ruled. One reason why the current debate about what to do next in Iraq has become so bitter so quickly is precisely because none of us can trust what the government says or its motives.
Replacing Bush with Clinton would, it seems to me, compound this problem. It would send a message that we are more consumed with scoring points at home than confronting a deadly foe from abroad. It would split red America from blue America just as deeply as Rove has done. Even if you like and support her, a vote for Clinton is a vote objectively to divide the nation and distract us from the real enemy. We have a chance to break out of the pattern we're in. Clinton would prevent that for a very long time.
(Photo: Mannie Garcia/Getty.)
Politics as Massage Therapy
20 Jul 2007 11:46 am
Great post from Ambers today on sex and politics ("sex is inevitable and amoral") with this lovely metaphor:
"Primary politics remains largely an exercise in irritating the triggering points within the musculature of the political parties."
Resign, Senator
20 Jul 2007 11:34 am
Ross Douthat goes after David Vitter.
Email of the Day
20 Jul 2007 11:28 am
A reader writes:
So I was watching the morning news in a state of pre-coffee muziness, and the utter absurdity of our position in Iraq suddenly struck me. We are supporting Sunni insurgents who oppose the Iraqi government which we support, which is in turn supported by militias backed by Iran, who we oppose. The administration is calling this the path to victory. Screw the coffee, where did I hide the whiskey?
Muziness? (Update: A reader explains it's "muzziness". Look it up.)
How To Create An Angry American
20 Jul 2007 11:04 am
This video is worth a look - not necessarily for its conclusion or even for its occasional lapses into hyperbole. But because it puts together some lethal clips of the administration's WMD claims before and after the invasion. Rumsfeld's lies are particularly egregious. The evasion of responsibility, the callowness, the arrogance and, yes, the obvious deception at times: all this does not seem to me to diminish with time. The more we know, the angrier many have become. The anger is not a function of some derangement; it's a function of sanity.
Clinton Pulls Rank On Edelman
20 Jul 2007 10:54 am
She demands in a letter that Bob Gates back the Cheneyite up or publicly distance himself. It's on now.
Ron Paul on "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"
20 Jul 2007 10:39 am
More data for Jamie Kirchick. Here's Ron Paul at Google:
""Don't ask, don't tell' doesn't sound all that bad to me because as an employer, I've never asked them [employees] anything and I don't want them to tell me anything. ... So I would say that everyone should be treated equally, and they [gays] shouldn't be discriminated against because of that alone. Which means that even though those words aren't offensive to me, that 'Don't ask, don't tell' don't sound so bad to me, I think the way it's enforced is bad. Because, literally, if somebody is a very, very good individual working for our military - and I met one just the other day in my office, who was a translator - and he was kicked out for really no good reason at all. I would want to change that, I don't support that interpretation."
Ignorant? Yes. Bigoted? Nah.
"No Benchmarks", "Wait Till November"
20 Jul 2007 10:01 am
That's the message from the Bush team in Iraq. The new ambassador, Ryan Crocker, scoffed at the benchmarks once cited as the criteria by which the "surge" should be judged:
"The longer I am here, the more I am persuaded that progress in Iraq cannot be analyzed solely in terms of these discrete, precisely defined benchmarks," Crocker told the committee. He said this was because "in many cases, these benchmarks do not serve as reliable measures of everything that is important -- Iraqi attitudes toward each other and their willingness to work toward political reconciliation."
So once again, the rules are changed on us and the benchmarks are to be reinvented by Bush political appointees. It seems to me that the basis on which the surge was sold should remain the basis on which the surge is now judged. Anything else requires that we trust the Bush administration to be honest assessors of their own strategy. After the last four years, that is simply clinical. They will say anything to advance their narrow partisan purposes. Odierno is also pushing the deadline for judgment back to November:
Odierno added, "I expect them [al-Qaeda] to try to surge their own operations here between now and September and maybe even later, depending on what happens, because they will want to try to influence decisions."
He said he needs more time -- "at least till November" -- to do a "good assessment" of the current security efforts in Iraq. But he stressed that he was not seeking to extend the deadline for reporting back to Washington in September.
With an additional 45 days to examine trends, "I'll be able to make a bit more accurate assessment," Odierno said. "What I imagine we'll have to do is do assessments that follow that initial assessment in September..."
The argument is that if violence decreases, the surge is working; but if violence increases, the surge is also working. Get it? But notice how this argument doesn't seem to work in reverse. If the tiny sliver of the insurgency that is AQI is now viewed by Petraeus as in retreat, shouldn't that mean that we can leave? Isn't the fact of Sunni resistance to al Qaeda a reason to believe we can leave them to it? The answer will be no. In fact, there is no hint from the White House that it intends to do anything but grind the US military into the dust for the indefinite future.
It seems to me that we should stick to what we were told in the first place.
Continue reading ""No Benchmarks", "Wait Till November"" »
Neocon Joke Update
20 Jul 2007 09:52 am
A reader sends in the Walt-Mearsheimer version:
Q: How many neocons does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: Clearly, it is not in the U.S. national interest to invest exorbitant resources in new light bulbs, as light-emitting diodes are more energy efficient alternatives than either filament or fluorescent light sources. Indeed, our irrational support for light bulbs has brought down the wrath of environmentalists worldwide, who have cited excessive electricity use in the United States as their primary grievance against us. If not for the influence of a well-funded Light Bulb Lobby, the United States could pursue a more balanced policy in pursuit of energy efficiency.
Crisis = Opportunity?
20 Jul 2007 08:45 am
Is the screw-up in Iraq potentially a boon for Middle East peace? Thomas Barnett and Sarah Kass got there before Mark Helprin.
Americans and Inequality
20 Jul 2007 08:17 am
Bad news for liberals:
There is a fundamental reason to doubt the link between economic inequality and unhappiness. If the egalitarians are right, then average happiness levels should be falling. They aren't.
Best Movie Line Ever
20 Jul 2007 07:09 am
"That still only counts as one." Gimli, "Lord of the Rings."
Thursday, July 19, 2007
The Pentagon vs Clinton
19 Jul 2007 11:37 pm
The conflict is heating up. Clinton is now calling the Pentagon's dismissal of her request for plans for withdrawal "outrageous and offensive." Money quote:
"I deeply resent the administration's continuing effort to impugn the patriotism of those of us who are asking hard questions."
If the Bushies wanted to shore up her anti-war credentials with the base, they've given her a golden opportunity to grandstand. It was, in my view, a grotesque over-reach from a Cheney protege at the Pentagon. Here's the dumb-ass, offensive letter. Memo to the Pentagon: senators are not the enemy, and asking for accountability is not treason.
(Photo: Robert Sullivan/AFP/Getty.)
Call The Future
19 Jul 2007 09:01 pm
A website shows you how.
The Petraeus Perplex
19 Jul 2007 08:27 pm
A reader writes:
I see eye-to-eye on most issues regarding this administration, but I think you're making a mountain out of a molehill over Petraeus. So what if he's a Republican? So what if he's partisan towards the Administration? He's the best man for the job. He should have been in command there years ago. He's the closest thing to the classical warrior poet that we have in the modern context. His job is to kill the enemy, placate the population, and try to stabilize Bush's disaster. So long as he does that job, who cares about his partisanship? I have seen no evidence whatsoever that his partisanship is affecting his judgment or his performance.
My simple response: I don't think generals should be publicly Republican or Democrat. I'd rather Petraeus did his job in Iraq than played politics in America. Let him offer facts in September, based on the metrics cited last January. Spinning now on GOP propaganda outlets is counter-productive. What would the response be if he were offering administration talking points on Rush Limbaugh's show? And what, pray, is the difference between that and Hewitt? Is Hannity next? Levin? Savage?
(Photo: Chris Hondros/Getty.)
Back To Virtually Normal
19 Jul 2007 08:00 pm
More good news from the HIV treatment front: pozzers can get their immune systems back to normal functioning after a few years of HAART therapy. Not all of them, of course. But enough to make a real difference - and the study is a large one. They are also much less likely to infect others with undetectable viral loads. No doubt, Gabriel Rotello would prefer we not pass on this news. It's off-message. The truth often is.
"I told him, 'I will love you through your maggots.'"
19 Jul 2007 07:52 pm
About the creepiest weird illness story I've read in a long time.
Track Your Friends (Or Enemies) By Cell-Phone
19 Jul 2007 06:44 pm
GPS + cell-phones = no one is safe.
A Liberal Defense of Human Rights
19 Jul 2007 06:28 pm
Norm Geras differs from my conservatism and Ramesh Ponnuru's Christianism.
Fun With Squiggly Lines
19 Jul 2007 06:07 pm
A graphic art time-waster. Most cool. Even cooler: a flash animated kaleidsocope thingy.
Norman Borlaug, American Hero
19 Jul 2007 05:47 pm
Can I second Gregg Easterbrook, Glenn Reynolds and Glenn's reader, Richard Fagin? Pioneers of new technology and new medicine are rarely regarded as humanitarians by the media or the liberal intelligentsia. But they may do more to improve and save people's lives than any benevolent government or charity worker. I'm not saying charity-workers do not deserve our support and praise. I'm saying that the definition needs to be expanded. But that would include the drug companies, wouldn't it?
Snort!
19 Jul 2007 05:42 pm
A nasal spray to counter shyness:
The researchers say that the spray harnesses the powers of a feel-good hormone called oxytocin, a neurotransmitter in the brain that is involved in social recognition and bonding.
The mammalian hormone is produced naturally by the body when a person is in love, and it also induces labour in pregnant women. The spray contains a synthetic version of it, created in the laboratory.
University researcher Dr Markus Heinrichs says that the spray was found to "dramatically" change the behaviour of 70 adults during a study. He says that all study participants had stopped feeling anxious, and started to engage better with others in the group.
(Hat tip: Integral Options.)
Face of the Day
19 Jul 2007 05:14 pm
Harry Potter fans queue outside a bookshop in central London, 19 July 2007, as they await the release of the seventh and final book by JK Rowling entitled "Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows" which goes on sale in Britain and worldwide from midnight Friday. The fans have come from as far afield as the Netherlands, Belgium and Finland and a batch of devotees from the United States are expected soon. By Leon Neal/AFP/Getty.
Neocon Joke Update
19 Jul 2007 05:04 pm
A variation:
Q. How many paleocons does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A. It's not our job to go screwing in light bulbs. Let the light bulb change itself.
An Iraq Debate Post-Mortem
19 Jul 2007 04:49 pm
Spackerman offers a helpful guide to what the hell just didn't happen.
Iraq and the Right
19 Jul 2007 04:36 pm
More debate. Jeff Jacoby tows toes the line:
But for all the clamor to quit Iraq, there is little serious discussion of just what quitting will mean.
Not on this blog where I've been writing and thinking about that as honestly as I can. Rod Dreher counters:
The ugly truth is, the only way there's going to be a settled peace in Iraq is if the two (at least two) sides fight it out, and separate their populations. If we were to stay there with current troop strength for 30 years, this would still be the case. We are a superpower, but we are not omnipotent.
Alas, our president appears unaware of his lack of omnipotence. He decides and the world must obey, right? And when it doesn't, he just decides a little more loudly.
Romney Attacks Obama
19 Jul 2007 04:16 pm
For a position he once held himself.
Weimar Watch
19 Jul 2007 04:14 pm
Petraeus seems to have the Pentagon civilians behind him in turning the politically neutral military into a branch of the Cheney wing of the GOP:
In a stinging rebuke to a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Undersecretary of Defense Eric Edelman responded to questions Clinton raised in May in which she urged the Pentagon to start planning now for the withdrawal of American forces.
A copy of Edelman's response, dated July 16, was obtained Thursday by The Associated Press."Premature and public discussion of the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq reinforces enemy propaganda that the United States will abandon its allies in Iraq, much as we are perceived to have done in Vietnam, Lebanon and Somalia," Edelman wrote.
He added that "such talk understandably unnerves the very same Iraqi allies we are asking to assume enormous personal risks."
We need an honest, neutral assessment of the situation in Iraq from military professionals, divorced from any partisan agenda. But Bush and Cheney will see to it that we don't.
Obama and Sex Ed For Kindergarteners
19 Jul 2007 03:57 pm
It's crack for Dobsonites. But there's much less to the story than meets the eye. So expect an O'Reilly segment forthwith.
Novels and "Literature"
19 Jul 2007 03:43 pm
Who says fiction has to be unread to be any good? Elizabeth George writes:
Novels were designed to entertain, and those of us who wish to keep the art form alive need to keep this in mind. To aim for lofty literature instead of aiming for a good story with real characters who grow and develop and a setting that's brought to life is to go at the art form, like putting the varnish on the canvas first. I attempt to write a good novel. Whether it is literature or not is something that will be decided by the ages, not by me and not by a pack of critics around the globe.
That's the spirit.
The Ur-Neocon Joke
19 Jul 2007 03:30 pm
A reader nails it:
Q. How many neocons does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A. Go fuck yourself.
NBC and Fred
19 Jul 2007 03:27 pm
They're pulling "Law and Order" re-runs with him in them once he makes up his mind and runs.
Genesis: The Roll-Out
19 Jul 2007 03:12 pm
If a marketer had written the Bible. Money quote:
Now, the serpent was not a team player. He gave the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil!® to the woman and said, "Just look at it. I'm telling you, the fiber content alone is through the roof. Die? Please, don't make me laugh. God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened to real value. Here, taste the difference."
When the woman saw that the fruit had genuine apple flavoring and 4 milligrams of quercetin, an antioxidant compoun