Archive
May 24, 2009 - May 30, 2009
Saturday, May 30, 200930 May 2009 09:10 pm Playing With GoogleWeekend fun. The comments in that post read like found poetry. 30 May 2009 09:01 pm What Happens When Pot Isn't Pot Anymore?Saletan wonders: Drugs can be, and are being, re-engineered every day. Nicotine and caffeine appear in new forms. Cannabis is an herb, then a powder, then a capsule, and now a spray, with significant chemical adjustments along the way. (....The Marijuana Policy Project argues that the spray formulation has already been eclipsed by a better way to filter and deliver the drug's therapeutic benefits: vapor.) How do you fight an enemy that keeps changing? How do you recognize when it's no longer your enemy? Continue reading "What Happens When Pot Isn't Pot Anymore?" » 30 May 2009 07:27 pm Saddam's Throne
Richard Mosse has an incredible photo series on Saddam's palaces. From an interview with the artist: The most interesting thing about the whole endeavor for me was the very fact that the U.S. had chosen to occupy Saddam's palaces in the first place. If you're trying to convince a population that you have liberated them from a terrible dictator, why would you then sit in his throne? A savvier place to station the garrison would have been a place free from associations with Saddam, and the terror and injustices that the occupying forces were convinced they'd done away with. Instead, they made the mistake of repeating history. This is why I've titled this body of work Breach. "Breach" is a military maneuver in which the walls of a fortification (or palace) are broken through. But breach also carries the sense of replacement—as in, stepping into the breach. The U.S. stepped into the breach that it had created, replacing the very thing that it sought to destroy. More pictures here. (Hat tip: Kottke) 30 May 2009 06:47 pm Bibi And The SettlementsIt's a deadlock between Washington and Jerusalem. This is the gist so far:
The Obama administration is wary of allowing natural growth in
settlements because past Israeli governments used that as a pretext for
rampant building, said Martin Indyk, a former U.S. ambassador to
Israel. "Washington has a strong enough memory of what Netanyahu did
with natural growth last time he was prime minister, which is basically
drive a settlement truck through that loophole," he said... After his return from meeting with Mr. Obama in Washington last week, Mr. Netanyahu ordered a few structures built by teenage settlers on private Palestinian land in the West Bank razed. But none of them were among the 26 [illegal settlements], and settlers quickly started rebuilding some of them. Meanwhile lawmakers from Mr. Netanyahu's party responded coldly to his proposal. "The message from the party was clear: We were not chosen by voters to evacuate Jews from their property," a Likud lawmaker said after a party meeting Monday.
Continue reading "Bibi And The Settlements" » 30 May 2009 06:38 pm The Pandora Of Magazines?Farhad Manjoo wonders whether personalized magazines will ever take off. He reviews the new personalized magazine from Time Inc: Mine isn't an echo chamber that merely reflects my narrow views. Instead, reading it is a bit listening to Pandora, the online service that serves up songs based on my musical preferences. Like Pandora—and like the best magazine editors—Mine exposed me to stuff that I liked but probably wouldn't have sought out on my own. I don't have much of a patio, but I still found Mine's tips for organizing my outdoor furniture pretty handy. (The article first appeared in Real Simple.) Similarly, even though I'd never heard of Tony Mandarich, I couldn't put down the Sports Illustrated story chronicling the former NFL tackle's effort to atone for his steroids-laden past.
Sure, I could have found many of these articles online; in fact, reading Mine often feels like reading a great link blog. But Mine is more fun to read than whatever's on my computer screen—it's more portable, more aesthetically appealing, and easier to curl up with. So far, no digital technology can replicate the pleasure of a full-color glossy magazine. 30 May 2009 06:34 pm Porn PropagandaBuzzfeed rounded up the ten most ridiculous ads against Internet pornography. This one could have come out of Rove's workshop: 30 May 2009 05:15 pm Tough Dudes In DragFrom the filmmakers who brought you Amy the Taxidermist, check out this fascinating look inside the voguing culture of New York City. 30 May 2009 04:20 pm Mental Health Break"OMG the amusement park is soooo bad ass!"
miniature city 2 - featuring vividblaze - from mockmoon on Vimeo. 30 May 2009 03:46 pm Why Do We Stare?Wired investigates: Humans are highly social animals. Rather than remaining among our family or herd from birth to death, we venture out. We spend our days mixing with great numbers of unfamiliar members of our species. To do so safely, scientists believe we have evolved a rough screening process....To decide, your eyes sweep over the person’s face, retrieving only parts, mainly just his nose and eyes. Your brain will then try to assemble those pieces into a configuration that you know something about. When the pieces you supply match nothing in the gallery of known facial expressions, when you encounter a person whose nose, mouth or eyes are distorted in a way you have never encountered before, you instinctively lock on. Your gaze remains riveted, and your brain stays tuned for further information.
30 May 2009 03:37 pm Empire WatchMcClatchy reports:
Walt furrows his brow:
Continue reading "Empire Watch" » 30 May 2009 02:46 pm Digital SocialismKevin Kelly praises it: Rather than viewing technological socialism as one side of a zero-sum trade-off between free-market individualism and centralized authority, it can be seen as a cultural OS that elevates both the individual and the group at once. The largely unarticulated but intuitively understood goal of communitarian technology is this: to maximize both individual autonomy and the power of people working together. Thus, digital socialism can be viewed as a third way that renders irrelevant the old debates. It has long occurred to me that the web is indeed a Marxist paradise. Pity we are not really full human beings with bodies when we are on it. But you sure can't make much money, can you? 30 May 2009 02:30 pm The College Bubble?The Chronicle of Higher Education worries: With tuitions, fees, and room and board at dozens of colleges now reaching $50,000 a year, the ability to sustain private higher education for all but the very well-heeled is questionable. According to the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, over the past 25 years, average college tuition and fees have risen by 440 percent — more than four times the rate of inflation and almost twice the rate of medical care. Patrick M. Callan, the center’s president, has warned that low-income students will find college unaffordable. Continue reading "The College Bubble?" » 30 May 2009 01:57 pm Means And Ends In CairoWilliam Galston previews Obama's Cairo speech: The early evidence suggests that President Obama has chosen--or feels compelled--to reduce the emphasis on democracy promotion and to put economic and security concerns first. Given the gravity and urgency of the problems in these areas, the administration's stance is understandable, perhaps even inevitable. But Secretary of State Clinton's blunt statements to that effect have evoked negative reactions in many quarters. Continue reading "Means And Ends In Cairo" » 30 May 2009 01:35 pm Face Of The Day
A participant attends the Wave Gothic Festival on May 30, 2009 in Leipzig, Germany. The music festival, which started out in 1992 with a small line up of only ten bands, has grown to span four days and dozens of musical acts playing inside and outside venues across Leipzig. By Katja Buchholz/Getty Images. 30 May 2009 12:56 pm Drug War HypocrisyRadley Balko considers the case of a family on the lam after a judge ruled that they have to give their 13-year-old with cancer chemo despite their religious objections, and compares it to Tim Pawlenty vetoing a bill that would have allowed patients to use pot to alleviate pain in their final days: [P]olicies governing how and when we give sick people access to the medication that could mitigate their pain, ameliorate the side effects of their treatment, or even save their lives, aren't based on compassion, individual rights, or even an honest assessment of science and risk. Instead, we have a patchwork of laws and enforcement policies driven by decades-old drug war hysteria, pharmaceutical paranoia, irrational aversion to risk, bureaucratic turf wars, and, of course, politics.
30 May 2009 12:25 pm Torture And The LawScott Horton debates Stu Taylor - two of the finest minds on both sides of this debate: 30 May 2009 11:34 am The Next Oil Price SpikeRyan Avent frets: ...a new McKinsey study warns of the inevitability of another oil shock. The fundamentals remain in place, they note, and the stronger the recovery from the current recession, the sooner the potential spike may take place (see charts here). Under the best growth scenario, a steady rise in prices could give way to a spike as early as next year, and even a deeper recession than is currently forecast would merely delay a spike until 2012 or 2013.
30 May 2009 11:26 am Race And Justice In Sotomayor's Record
The NYT is touting this as the now-central line of criticism. Tom Goldstein has actually looked at the record. It seems as if the critics should try another tack: Other than Ricci, Judge Sotomayor has decided 96 race-related cases while on the court of appeals. Of the 96 cases, Judge Sotomayor and the panel rejected the claim of discrimination roughly 78 times and agreed with the claim of discrimination 10 times; the remaining 8 involved other kinds of claims or dispositions. Of the 10 cases favoring claims of discrimination, 9 were unanimous. (Many, by the way, were procedural victories rather than judgments that discrimination had occurred.) Of those 9, in 7, the unanimous panel included at least one Republican-appointed judge. In the one divided panel opinion, the dissent’s point dealt only with the technical question of whether the criminal defendant in that case had forfeited his challenge to the jury selection in his case. So Judge Sotomayor rejected discrimination-related claims by a margin of roughly 8 to 1. Continue reading "Race And Justice In Sotomayor's Record" » 30 May 2009 10:38 am The Politics Of Your Friends?I try to avoid the subject by and large in my private life, when dealing with friendship. But a Yahoo research project created a Facebook app, Friend Sense, to solve two empirical paradoxes: The first paradox is the widespread perception among Americans that the US is a politically polarized country, when in fact numerous surveys indicate that Americans are surprisingly difficult to classify into simple categories. Many people, for example, see the country as divided into “red” states and “blue” states, but research shows that most Americans are neither consistently “liberal” nor “conservative.” In fact, among self-declared Republicans, 85% take a non-conservative stance on abortion, affirmative action, or government support for health insurance. Similar counter-intuitive results can be found among self-declared Democrats. The second paradox is that people also tend to think that their friends’ beliefs are more similar to their own than they actually are—suggesting that people don’t know their friends as well as they think they do. (Hat tip: The Monkey Cage) 30 May 2009 10:24 am The View From Your Window
Bradford, England, 9 am 30 May 2009 10:06 am Do The Photos Show Rape?, CtdA reader writes:
Continue reading "Do The Photos Show Rape?, Ctd" » 30 May 2009 09:25 am Like Peanut Butter And ChocolateEcocomics, a new blog, combines comics and economics. A taste:
Tragically, most mutants use their powers to either save the world or terrorize it. At least this is the popular depiction in Marvel Comics. Imagine what Magneto could do if he worked in construction. For one thing, all of those New York City public works project would have their completion dates moved up from 2018 to roughly five minutes from now. But instead, he spends his time sinking Russian submarines and making asteroid bases to live in. For the love of God, the man has the power to build himself a high-tech home in space. He could repair the Hubbell telescope with no trouble whatsoever. (hat tip: Yglesias) 30 May 2009 08:46 am Rolling The DiceA.L. isn't so sure about the Boies/Olson lawsuit: They're taking a very big risk. Some have even suggested that this lawsuit is a cynical ploy to have this issue litigated at the federal level before the time is right. I don't think that's the case. I think Boies and Olson are sincere in their beliefs and want to win. I do think, however, that they are knowingly taking a big risk because they want to be the lawyers whose names are forever attached to the landmark opinion creating marriage equality. They want to be the Thurgood Marshalls of this particular civil rights issue, even though they are latecomers to the cause. In other words, they are grandstanding. Continue reading "Rolling The Dice" » 30 May 2009 08:20 am Michael Steele's Fruit, CtdA reader writes:
Friday, May 29, 200929 May 2009 10:00 pm The Daily WrapToday on the Dish we heard from Horton that the rape torture photos are legit, debated torture with Andy McCarthy, showed how Cheney lied about Abu Ghraib, and learned that at least one terrorist caved to cookies. Republican leaders started to cool their rhetoric over Sotomayor while Ta-Nehisi went after Newt and racial misconceptions. Netanyahu appeared rattled over pressure from Washington and Indyk voiced tough love over Israel. Chait spelled out the irrational stance of gay marriage opponents, while we learned that Wikipedia has banned Scientologists, Brit journos drink too much, and the Anti-Christ is gay. In the wonderful world of YouTube, we saw white Republican rappers, half-naked boarders, and a lesson in personal grooming. 29 May 2009 09:04 pm About Those PhotosDiA has questions about the Pentagon's fishy denial: Could it be a non-denial denial on the part of the Pentagon? "None of the photos in question depict the images that are described in that article," says Bryan Whitman, a deputy assistant secretary of defence. Are "the photos in question" different from the ones the press are referring to? If so, it seems a bit beside the point.
"Graham, speaking after Rumsfeld's Senate testimony, suggested that
material in at least one tape held by Defense Department investigators
could be by far the most-damaging yet to the U.S. military effort in
Iraq and its prestige around the world.
"The American public needs to understand, we're talking about rape and
murder here. We're not just talking about giving people a humiliating
experience. We're talking about rape and murder and some very serious
charges,'' Graham said to reporters. It's remarkable how soon they forget. Bush's refusal to accept Rumsfeld's resignation on the spot may have been one of the worst decisions of his presidency (although there's some competition). 29 May 2009 08:58 pm Faces Of The Day
A tourist admires fishes in an aquarium at a resort in Nassau on May 29, 2009. Despite a broken world economy and overall low revenue, tourism arrivals in the Bahamas for the first month of 2009 grew 8.6 percent when compared to the same time last year. By Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images. 29 May 2009 08:31 pm Rope-A-Conservative-Dope Watch"Let's hope that the key conferences aren't when [Sotomayor]'s menstruating or something, or just before she's going to menstruate. That would really be bad. Lord knows what we would get then," - G. Gordon Liddy. 29 May 2009 08:02 pm Bush v CheneyInteresting signs of a divide on how to respond to a new era, at least: A former White House official under Bush said some White House alumni wish Cheney would cool it.
“We all sort of feel the same way: It’s his right to do it,” the former official said. “We don’t necessarily think it’s a good idea."
The former official said the difference in approach reflects “a division that stretches back pretty far.”
29 May 2009 07:23 pm The AWOL MSMA reader writes: Thank you for the quote from Carl Levin about Cheney. What is frustrating is that what he is saying is not news; the Senate report has been out for months. In all these interviews Cheney is giving, why has no one - NO ONE - brought up this report in their questioning of him? Is this what our media has come to? If so, then good riddance to them, at least in the realm of national political reporting. I feel your pain. The fawning way in which interviewers have failed to challenge Cheney on his factual claims with respect to torture has been depressing. He still intimidates them - and picks the meekest ones for interviews. 29 May 2009 07:21 pm A Big Victory For Equality?, CtdJohn Culhane argues with a Dish reader:
But I see no real move to strip gay couples of such protections in California; and I see plenty of evidence that one result of this debate has been to establish domestic partnerships as the worst option. Without the marriage battle, that would never have happened. It's all good, even when it's bad. Patience ... and focus. 29 May 2009 06:43 pm Sotomayor Splits The GOP - By GenderNow this is interesting:
Margie Omero explains the back-story. 29 May 2009 06:30 pm Who Blew Colbert's Cover?Yep: she did. Who else? 29 May 2009 06:23 pm Jeff Rosen's "Gossip"?Nah: just background reporting from people with various axes to grind. I.e. standard Washington reporting. 29 May 2009 06:22 pm On TNRtvA lovely junior-high round-up of names:
Just/Dick: If All Closeted Republicans Came Out, Would it Change Anything?
Mann: What China Really Wants for North Korea Johnson: Why I Worry About the Fed's Ability To Keep Inflation Under Control 29 May 2009 06:21 pm And George Will WeptSome baseball players got into a dance-off at a recent USF-UCONN game: 29 May 2009 06:02 pm Why Marriage Equality Is Winning, CtdA reader writes:
I certainly think this is the crux of the matter, which is why all gay people have a moral duty to be out. But the arguments do count in a democratic society; they persuade those with no gut reaction, and they have also persuaded the gays. We forget how unpopular this was when we started this journey. My own view is that when all gays truly believe they have the right to marry, they'll get it. And getting them to believe required a certain amount of, er, debate. 29 May 2009 05:56 pm More Of The SameIn the wake of several big ambassadorships doled out by Obama on Wednesday, David Rothkopf asks why we need ambassadors in the first place:
Chris Beam takes a closer look at the long tradition of picking rich pals over career diplomats. 29 May 2009 05:46 pm Where The Government Grows
This is just one of a stunning series of photos by Taryn Simon of the "hidden and unfamiliar". It's the Research Marijuana Crop Grow Room in the National Center for Natural Products Research, Oxford, Mississippi. 29 May 2009 05:25 pm We Are Everywhere, Part XXXVIIA reader sends along a screenshot of that anti-gay op-ed from the Wasilla Frontiersman that features an inserted ad for a gay networking site in the body of the text. Which just goes to prove, after all, that the Anti-Christ is almost certainly on Manhunt:
29 May 2009 05:11 pm Dissent Of The DayA reader writes: You wrote: “The speech is imbued with the kind of boomer pomo smugness that reminds me why I'm not on the left.” Could you get any, er, smugger? 29 May 2009 04:52 pm On Impartiality And EmpathyJack Balkin defends Sotomayor from some of her more thoughtful critics: Gerson and Krauthammer can use Ricci's case to argue for impartiality in judging because they assume that the law clearly favors Frank Ricci. But it does not. An impartial judge reading the law impartially might find against him. But if that is so, what work is the distinction between empathy and impartiality doing in their argument? Impartiality may not be on Ricci's side; empathy may be. Or perhaps-- and this is the most likely scenario-- the law that applies to the case is not entirely clear. Continue reading "On Impartiality And Empathy" » 29 May 2009 04:41 pm Nothing To LoseTa-Nehisi on the Newt effect: [I]t's interesting to note the difference in tone between GOP figures with something at stake (people who have to win elections) and those who have nothing at stake. Newt has a megaphone, but he has no real responsibility. He can yell whatever he wants. He's got books to hustle, dog--not Senators to elect.
29 May 2009 04:20 pm Mental Health BreakOn the streets of Sofia, Bulgaria's capital city:
Sofia's People: Canon 5dmk2 25p from Philip Bloom on Vimeo. 29 May 2009 04:11 pm Defining La RazaPace Tancredo, La Raza's website describes their name as follows:
Continue reading "Defining La Raza" » 29 May 2009 03:44 pm "What The Hell Do They Want From Me?"Bibi is discombobulated by the sea-change in Washington. Another Laura Rozen must-read: According to many observers in Washington and Israel, the Israeli prime minister, looking for loopholes and hidden agreements that have often existed in the past with Washington, has been flummoxed by an unusually united line that has come not just from Obama White House and the secretary of state, but also from pro-Israel congressmen and women who have come through Israel for meetings with him over Memorial Day recess. To Netanyahu's dismay, Obama doesn't appear to have a hidden policy. It is what he said it was. To actually have an American government and even Congress demanding that Israel actually stop its settlements because they are undermining both Israel's and America's security interests is a real refresher. And Netanyahu is behaving as Indyk noted: "like the boy who killed his parents and then asked for mercy because he was an orphan." He should know who he's dealing with. As Indyk also said, I think that Bibi suffers from the fact that many people in the Obama administration know him too well: they were there during Clinton’s time. They have not forgotten. (Photo: Leon Neal/Getty.) 29 May 2009 03:32 pm Food Safety Liberalism?James Joyner takes Hilzoy to task for equating food safety to 9/11: We’re comparing apples and skyscrapers here. The 9/11 attacks happened in three locations — the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and a passenger jet over the skies of western Pennsylvania — within the one a single day. They were a deliberate act of murder that only government could have conceivably prevented. Meanwhile, there are 306-odd million Americans spread over a giant continent. Each of them eats 365 days a year, usually more than once. Further, the lion’s share of the cases of serious food poisoning could have been prevented by individuals with better sanitary procedures, proper food storage, or more thorough cooking.
29 May 2009 03:15 pm Government Ruins EverythingEven smiling. 29 May 2009 02:50 pm Torture And "Specific Intent"I'm not a lawyer so I will leave the legal parsings to others. But I do want to note something quite odd in Andy McCarthy's latest defense of torture as national policy for the US. He wants to argue that those who waterboarded terror suspects were not torturing per se because they were intending to procure intelligence, and not torturing purely for the hell of it. I don't believe there's much evidence that the intent of the torture program was sadism, although obviously once you condone torture and inhumane treatment of prisoners in any war, the sadism will emerge. And I see no evidence that those who waterboarded Zubaydah were doing it for the evil joy of it (although we don't know who the torturers were exactly in that case, or most others). But this is all irrelevant. The crime of torture is not about sadism. It is specifically about getting intelligence. The UN Convention's definition couldn't be clearer on this: Continue reading "Torture And "Specific Intent"" » 29 May 2009 02:34 pm Michael Steele's FruitOr maybe this wasn't quite what he had in mind (from the Young Cons site via TPM):
May 24, 2009 - May 30, 2009
|
Obama, TrimmerThe Morning AfterLeaving The RightBitter And AfraidHow's That Iraqi Surge Faring Now, General?
Andrew SullivanAndrew's Bio | E-Mail AndrewDish PrepPatrick AppelChris Bodenner The View From Your Window Book A Speaking Engagement Add this RSS Feed 
Site Meter 
Intimations Pursued: The Voice of Practice in the Conversation of Michael Oakeshott 
|
Copyright © Andrew Sullivan. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. TheAtlantic.com