An interesting Der Spiegel article on German rules of engagement in Afghanistan. Germany's KSK special forces have been charged with capturing the terrorist, in cooperation with the Afghan secret service organization NDS and the Afghan army. The German elite soldiers were able to uncover the Taliban commander's location. They spent weeks studying his behavior and habits: when he left his house and with whom, how many men he had around him and what weapons they carried, the color of his turban and what vehicles he drove.
At the end of March, they decided to act to seize the commander. Under the protection of darkness, the KSK, together with Afghan forces, advanced toward their target. Wearing black and equipped with night-vision goggles, the team came within just a few hundred meters of their target before they were discovered by Taliban forces.
The dangerous terrorist escaped. It would, however, have been possible for the Germans to kill him -- but the KSK were not authorized to do so.
...The case has caused disquiet at the headquarters of the ISAF peacekeeping force in Kabul. The current strategy for fighting the enemy is to buy as many Taliban sympathizers as possible, to at least win them over for a while -- and to "eliminate" the hardliners through targeted assassinations.
From a military point of view, the so-called targeting has been a success. Close to one-third of the Taliban leaders, about 150 commanders, have since been "neutralized," meaning they are either dead or captured. Most of the capture-or-kill missions, as the operations are called in military jargon, are undertaken by British or American special forces.
...[E]ven in a time of growing threats in Afghanistan, Berlin is sticking to its "principle of proportionality," stressed one high-ranking official in the Defense Ministry. A fugitive like the Baghlan bomber is not an aggressor and should not be shot unless necessary, the official explains.
Soldiers from Britain's British Special Air Service or the US's Delta Force are less bothered about such hair-splitting. For them, this is a war in which it comes down to "kill or be killed," say sources in military circles in Kabul. The "targets" are identified, tracked down and -- often with the help of laser-guided weapons systems -- "eliminated."
The Germans have considerable misgivings about such an approach. They have secretly given "clarification notes" to NATO with far-ranging instructions for their soldiers which expressly contradict the usual procedures: "The use of lethal force is prohibited unless an attack is taking place or is imminent." Sources in NATO circles regard the confidential document as a "national exception," a caveat which places restrictions on operational capability. The Germans, for their part, always avoid using the word caveat, out of diplomatic considerations vis-à-vis their allies.
The most remarkable thing about the secret document is its stated justification. The German government considers its allies' approach as "not being in conformity with international law." Little wonder that NATO's mission in Afghanistan is marked by tension and friction.
19 May 2008
Rules of Engagement. Or, the Exception within the Exception
16 May 2008
"You're not going to box me in here"
When power kills knowledge? For once, I have to give props to Chris Matthews. In this clip, Kevin James illustrates that a lesson from an analogy may supervene over... facts.
Thanks to a brilliant colleague for forwarding this.
UPDATE: Rodger Payne on Conservatives' misunderstandings of appeasment.
15 May 2008
A Red Letter Day for Liberal Cosmopolitanism
First, (via Nick, erstwhile Hoboken Group blogger):
The city council of Chicago has overturned a ban on foie gras, less than two years after it was imposed.Then, to put the icing on the cake:
The California Supreme Court ruled today that same-sex couples should be permitted to marry, rejecting state marriage laws as discriminatory.
04 May 2008
Slow on the uptake
Thomas Friedman got pied ten days ago and I didn't hear about it till now? What is wrong with me?
29 April 2008
I can't wait to start clinging to guns and religion...
So we all know that my adopted "province" (oh, so provincial), Ohio, has a massive and well-deserved inferiority complex, both in comparison with present Others and past Self. Now, my home province, Ontario is poised to join the ranks of the embittered.
27 April 2008
Pot, Meet Kettle
At the end of the latest Washington Post fear-piece on the global food crisis (who knew that it'd been happening since, oh, a few months ago, when we barely noticed it because we still cared about the Democratic nomination contest?) the regular neoliberal platitudes about oh-this-wouldn't-have-been-a-problem-had-the-market-mechanism-been-allowed-to-work are supplemented by an equally predictable jab at those socialist Europeans (and especially the French!):
Perhaps more than any other sector, nations have a visceral desire to protect their farmers, and thusly, their food supply...All this would feel far less disingenuous coming from, say, the mainstream media of a country that doesn't heavily subsidize its agribusinesses and absurdly promote the production of biofuels. Like, maybe, Iceland?
Consider, for instance, the French.
The European Union doles out about $41 billion a year in agriculture subsidies, with France getting the biggest share, about $8.2 billion. The 27-nation bloc also has set a target for biofuels to supply 10 percent of transportation fuel needs by 2020 to combat global warming.
The French, whose farmers over the years have become addicted to generous government handouts, argue that agriculture subsidies must be continued and even increased in order to encourage more food production, especially with looming shortages.
Pork politics
It's probably the naive liberal cosmopolitan internationalist in me saying this, but let them eat pork. (It's a beautiful thing).
20 April 2008
17 April 2008
Bush to Pope: "Awesome Speech"
If ever there were an argument for a bit of real elevation - dare I say elitism - in the discourse of this nation's leadership...
14 April 2008
13 April 2008
The Bitter Bus
It looks like bitter is the new angry. In 2004, Howard Dean wasn't allowed to get hot under the collar. Now, Barack Obama isn't allowed to say that working-class Americans are bitter.
I know that there's more to this media echo-chamber non-story than that, but it's what struck me most immediately upon reading both Obama's comments (and for Pete's sake, Huffington Post - I'm all for citizen journalism, but would you ever see anyone from the right posting stories about John McCain saying poorly phrased things?) and the inevitable, holier-than-thou Clinton response, was that Pollyanna culture is live and well and living in Scranton. Does Hillary Clinton think that laid-off auto-workers are sanguine and satisfied with their lack of jobs, benefits, infrastructure, or prospects? That strikes me as considerably more insulting to the indomitable American spirit than any talk of guns and God.
And speaking of which: surely the key word in Obama's point on that score is "cling." It's clear that Obama doesn't hate people who like God and think God is on their side (didn't we go through that whole "crazed pastor" thing two weeks ago? Wasn't Jeremiah Wright the epitome of bitter? Are black people supposed/allowed/expected to be bitter, but white people under no circumstances can/should be?) It's all about the dangers of making a fetish of one problem or idea or belief at the expense of another - like race, or religion, or the right to leave your revolver around the house. It's about what it's now unfashionable to call a false consciousness.
Deluded? All of us. But never bitter!
GREAT-MINDS-THINK-ALIKE UPDATE: I'm on to something - Bill Kristol is fulminating about Marx in the NYT! Check out his equation of bourgeois America with small-town America - looks like there's no class conflict in the U.S. of A. unless a Republican says so, and gets to radically twist words like "bourgeoisie" out of all recognition!
Natural Habitat
From a Vanity Fair piece on Renzo Piano's Calfornia Academy of Sciences:
In particular, Piano wanted to focus on power efficiency. “As an architect,” he says, “you spend your life thinking about some little obsession you have. One for me has been the obsession to make a building without air-conditioning.”
Through a complex system of weather sensors that tell a central computer what motorized windows to open and close, the entire museum is cooled with untreated outside air. Even the skylights automatically pop open to vent hot air. The undulating roofline doesn’t just look dramatic; it also serves to draw cool air into the open courtyard at the center of the building, naturally ventilating the surrounding exhibit spaces.
An excellent strategy, I assume, for a complex in Northern California that will include "a habitat for penguins."
11 April 2008
09 April 2008
From the BBC: "Italian opposition leader Silvio Berlusconi has claimed that right-wing female politicians are better looking than their left-wing counterparts."
05 April 2008
Presidente siamo con te!
Yes, it's that time of the average year again... Italian election time.
Time to confront the serious issues facing the peninsula: demographic stagnation, economic contraction, democratic apathy, the Mozarella recall, and that nagging garbage crisis that just doesn't seem to end.
Or we could just listen to this year's battle of the candidate songs. From the country that brought you the non-ironic Parmigiano-Reggiano jingle, there's Forza Italia's "thank goodness for Silvio," and, to the tune of the Village People's YMCA, the Democratic Party's "I'M PD" (which was quickly pulled due to copyright infringement). Enjoy!
04 April 2008
difference
Population (2000 census) of Camden, NJ: 80,089
Homicides so far in 2008 in Camden, NJ: 19
Population (2001 census) of Toronto, ON: 2,481,495
Homicides so far in 2008 in Toronto, ON: 13
Food and Neoliberalism
Dani Rodrik makes an interesting comment on the global rise in food prices and the anticipated impact of future agricultural trade liberalization.
Harper'd!
Stephen Harper announces he will not attend the Beijing 2008 opening ceremonies.
It's not what you think; rather, he has tried to decouple his attendance from the Tibet issue, and it's not a protest move.
The best of both worlds. Anger China, given the current sentiments in favor of boycott in the West, possibly provoking retaliation in 2010, and refuse to make a symbolic gesture on behalf of human rights!
02 April 2008
Is that Imperial, or Metric?
It's been commented that my posts to Hoboken Group tend to be both overly long and overly serious. Hopefully this makes at least partial amends.
01 April 2008
31 March 2008
Bullshit watch: Richard Florida
Go here, scroll down to the bottom, and click on the fourth map, "Personality Maps". You won't regret it.
30 March 2008
Well prepared by Mr. Wilson
On the reading list for my undergrads this week:
Searle, John. "Minds, brains and programs". Behavioral and Brain Sciences (1980) 3, 417-457.
Dennett, Daniel C. "The practical requirements for making a conscious robot". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London A (1994) 349, 133-146.
29 March 2008
Your Saturday Analogy
Basra, March-April 2008 may mark the beginning of the Tet of Iraq by demonstrating the Iraqi military's inability to wage an effective, independent campaign against domestic militias, and so represents the continuing, compounding failure of Bush's (and McCain's) Iraq policy.
Or so Democrats everywhere should be arguing.
20 March 2008
Knowing Left from Wright, and Wright from Wrong
"When people like me, they tell me it is in spite of my colour. When they dislike me, they point out that it is not because of my colour."
-Franz Fanon
Who can approve of offense? Only a social order comfortable that the offense poses no risk of upsetting the established system: then it's just comedy. But it's probably fair to say that footage of the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. that has circulated on YouTube contains very little of humorous value. The United States government did not invent the HIV virus, and there's too much history between Nagasaki and 9/11 to draw any but the vaguest historical parallel. Apart from these two laughable errors, it's anger, bitterness, intemperance, and yes, something close to the truth, that have their day: it's not polite to damn your country, but sometimes your country does damnable things.
Barack Obama isn't Jeremiah Wright. But will his association with the Rev. Wright cost the junior Senator the Presidency? The cynical (and malicious) are already in agreement that it will: in the Globe and Mail ($), Clifford Orwin describes the Obama campaign as "amateur hour"; neoconservative and former Bush speechwriter Michael Gershon, in a spluttering column for the Washington Post, claims that Obama "is not a man who hates -- but chose to walk with a man who does"; and Pat Buchanan, who might not be the king of reasoned, rational discourse, chose to weigh in a way which deserves to be quoted at length:
“Wright has, for millions of Americans, filled in the blanks about Barack. Wright tells us the kind of company Barack keeps, the kind of men he holds close, the kind of attitudes and beliefs he finds acceptable, if not congenial. That Wright is a revered preacher in black America also tells us that, far from coming together, we Americans are further apart than we were in the 1950s, when Negroes could be described as Christian, conservative and patriotic.”
That Buchanan feels it appropriate to use the term "Negro" in a public forum while waxing nostalgic for those good ol' segregationist fifties is telling in itself.
The furor over the Rev. Wright is what might be called a "black panic." How else to explain whynews outlets, reporting Monday that Senator Obama would make a major speech on race, contended his candidacy was doomed without a magisterial performance? Never mind that the presumptive Republican nominee so beloved by independents and Democrats for his moderation has a spiritual adviser who seems to believe, and has said so in print, that the United States has an "historical conflict with Islam." Never mind that Republican presidents have long been advised and counseled by religious leaders whose sanctimonious screeds rarely generate the kind of mass media opprobrium faced by the Rev. Wright. Never mind, never mind.
The quote from psychologist and anti-colonial theorist Franz Fanon couldn't be more applicable. By the racial logic of the politically correct, and primarily white, chattering classes, Obama's public persona as a politician has been acceptable, not because of his race (though this was often the platitude) but in spite of it, appealing because he was not Jesse Jackson, not really black. The umbrage surrounding Bill Clinton's comparison of Obama with Jackson in January points this problem up: the political press understood the comment as an insult to Obama because they understood Jesse Jackson to be a sideshow candidate, a " a strong,powerful candidate, a black candidate, running for president” (oh, the gendered language!), but a candidate too dangerous, too "wild" to win.
But now, of a sudden, a reverse: Michael Gershon claims that the problem is that "[Rev.] Wright is not a symbol of the strengths and weaknesses of African Americans. He is a political extremist, holding views that are shocking...." Suddenly, race is not longer the issue: politics is separated neatly from society. Never mind that the story of Jeremiah Wright and the Trinity United Church of Christ doesn't seem to generally be one of hate, intolerance and exclusion.
Rev. Wright is a "political extremist" in a country where the sitting President reputedly believes in the immanence of the Second Coming.
So where does all this leave Senator Obama? He sprang the trap of blackness closing in on him with what was indeed a majestic speech, confounding every cliché of identity politics and the media echo chamber with far more composure than I can muster about the topic. Those that claim he failed to answer questions about his relationship with the Rev. Wright were, for whatever reason, not listening. The damage may be done: the most pertinent criticism of the Senator that I've heard involves his inconsistencies around just what he heard, and his enemies will continue to attempt to whip up the hysteria of "black panic" at any and every opportunity, feeding every one of Barack Obama's foibles - and as a human being, he inevitably has a few - back into the pedantic boring cry of "black, black, black!"
Mirabile Dictu
This is incredible. Start around 3:22, unless you enjoy the inane, sycophantic fatuousness and queasily peppy crypto-racism of Joe Scarborough. Maybe Mike Huckabee is just angling for the Vice-Presidential nomination. But incredible nonetheless.
14 March 2008
13 March 2008
11 March 2008
Geraldine Ferraro: Crazy Old Bigot or Straight Shooter?
First, it was:
If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept.Now, it's:
Any time anybody does anything that in any way pulls this campaign down and says let's address reality and the problems we're facing in this world, you're accused of being racist, so you have to shut up... Racism works in two different directions. I really think they're attacking me because I'm white. How's that?On a completely unrelated note, I'm quite distressed to find out that the F-117s are going to purgatory.
P.S. Geraldine Ferraro, if you're out there, you came this close - || - to making it onto the list of people who need to read Aquinas.
P.P.S. Please note that in the title of this post, I make my first in what is likely to be a long series of ageist remarks of the 2008 campaign.
The Moral of the Story
If you're a politician, screw around with interns. Not pages, interns.
If you're a politician's spouse, keep your maiden name. And don't quit your day job.
08 March 2008
Sweet Land of Bigotry...
Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa 5th) indulges in a great American pasttime:
Transcript (hat tip - Crooks and Liars): I don’t want to disparage anyone because of their, their race, their ethnicity, their name - whatever their religion their father, father might have been.
I’ll just say this that when you think about the optics of a Barack Obama potentially getting elected President of the United States — and I mean, what does this look like to the rest of the world? What does it look like to the world of Islam?
And I will tell you that, if he is elected president, then the, the radical Islamists, the, the al-Qaida, and the radical Islamists and their supporters, will be dancing in the streets in greater numbers than they did on September 11...
It does matter, his middle name does matter. It matters because they read a meaning into that in the rest of the world, it has a special meaning to them. They will be dancing in the streets because of his middle name. They will be dancing in the streets because of who his father was and because of his posture that says: Pull out of the Middle East and pull out of this conflict.
So there are implications that have to do with who he is and the position that he’s taken. If he were strong on national defense and said ‘I’m going to go over there and we’re going to fight and we’re going to win, we’ll come home with a victory,’ that’s different. But that’s not what he said. They will be dancing in the streets if he’s elected president. That has a chilling aspect on how difficult it will be to ever win this Global War on Terror.
Happy International Women's Day!
Celebrate with milestones in women's history, as recounted by porn stars.
07 March 2008
It's about time...
...to throw a shoutout to Stuff White People Like, an irreverent and over-the-top blog about--well, the rest of this sentence was going to be redundant. A recent entry: white people like Graduate School. As Jacob Levy points out (hat tip to him for this link) one is led to react with a healthy ambivalence towards the kind of "self-conscious, self-congratulatory way that members of a privileged group can enjoy humor at their own expense."
On a personal level, it's both revealing to note (given my ethnic background) the proportion of the 84 items (at the time of writing) which apply to me (I'd say 80-90%); moreover, I'd venture that the blog refers less to "white people" (or even white Americans) in general than a certain cross-section of the liberal-yuppie-indie nexus. And finally, while the insights are often devilishly funny, the writing style leaves much to be desired. All these things considered, it's still worth a quick glance-through.
06 March 2008
Sign of Weakness
Yes, this is silly, and Paul Wells is right to point it out. Parliamentary navel-gazing is never attractive when examined outside the hothouse atmosphere of the House of Commons.
03 March 2008
NAFTA springs a leak
This story, which has been percolating in the Canadian media for a couple of days, is likely a tempest in a teapot... but I'd love to have been a fly on the wall at the Canadian embassy when it (whatever it was) went down. Next time I see Michael Wilson, I'll quiz him maybe.
02 March 2008
War Threats Not Headline News?
When a head of state orders the deployment of troops through a public television and radio address, threatening the possibility of "the start of a war in South America," I wonder why this appears lower on the Globe's homepage than items on the latest death of a Canadian soldier in Afghanistan, the sham Russian election, a tiff between the Canadian finance minister and the premier of Ontario, and the situation in Gaza. I mean, I suppose we're used to this kind of banter from Hugo Chavez, but... well read it yourselves and see if it doesn't makes you slightly anxious, if it might not deserve a slightly higher billing.
Let me demonstrate this visually:
01 March 2008
Poetry v. Prose
Via the Times:
To deal with the geographic demands of two diverse states, Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama were relying on surrogates to carry their message. For Mrs. Clinton, it was Richard A. Gephardt, the former House Democratic leader from Missouri, who was a longtime opponent of trade deals like Nafta and was campaigning in the blue-collar Mahoning Valley.Metaphor for a nomination campaign? Stacking up the Dick Gephardt of the infamous Rose Garden moment against L'Arcade Fire, I know who I'd vote for.
For Mr. Obama, it was Arcade Fire, the popular indie-rock group who announced they would perform for Mr. Obama at Stuart’s Opera House in Nelsonville on Sunday. Nelsonville is not far from Ohio University and many of the younger voters that Mr. Obama seeks.
29 February 2008
Harper Family Values
Evangelist takes credit for film crackdown
Christian crusader says he pressured cabinet ministers and PMO officials to deny tax credits to productions deemed too offensive
28 February 2008
proper protocol
Like many online forms, the registration for Amtrak's Guest Rewards program, which gets you points for free travel, has a drop-down menu for "title" along with name, address, etc. One is then presented with the following options:
Admiral
Airman
Brother
Captain, USA
Captain, USN
Chief Master Sgt.
Chief Petty Officer
Chief Warrant Officer 4
Col.
Commander
Dr.
Father
Gen.
Hon.
Jurist Doctorate
Lady
Lieutenant Commander
Lt.
Lt. Col.
Lt. Gen.
Maj. Gen.
Major
Master Chief
Master Sgt.
Miss
Mother
Mr.
Mrs.
Ms.
Pastor
Prince
Princess
Prof.
Rabbi
Rev. Father
Reverend
SIR
Senator
Senior Chief
Sgt.
Sgt. Maj.
Sister
27 February 2008
Afghanada
No, not the plucky and hard-hitting CBC radio drama...
...but the news that CIDA is
26 February 2008
23 February 2008
Amigos de Obama?
(Hat tip: Dani Rodrik) The Amigos' website.
"Sometimes, the boundless optimism of this country really gets to me."
17 February 2008
On the Lighter Side...
(AP)
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — A licence plate with nothing but the number “1” on it went for a record $14-million (U.S.) at a charity auction Saturday.
Saeed Khouri, a member of a wealthy Abu Dhabi family, wouldn't say how many automobiles he owned or which of them might carry the record-breaking single-digit plate.
“I bought it because it's the best number,” said Mr. Khouri, whose family made its fortune in real estate. “I bought it because I want to be the best in the world.”
"It's the best number"? Speaking of Abu Dhabi-related occurrences that read like Onion articles, NYU Abu Dhabi set to open in 2010...
Lost in Translation
It's not often that I feel adequately qualified to comment on items in the mainstream news media - although I don't usually let my better judgement stop me. But George Jonas' column in the National Post today is both sufficiently intimate to my sphere of life, and sufficiently offensive, to merit a little disquisition.
16 February 2008
14 February 2008
Oh, That's Why I Don't Care
I've been pondering why I'm basically indifferent to Clinton's billing as the first female president of the U.S. - why her being a woman, and were she elected how that might be "historically momentous" - doesn't factor at all into my thoughts on the campaign. Is it because I'm a bad feminist? (That's probably the case, but it's not why I don't care for this particular spin on her candidacy). Is it because affectively though not rationally I am excited about electing (or rather, watching the election of) the first black president? (I am, but that still doesn't explain my indifference to Clinton's historical potential). Is it because her history, image, and policies turn me off her campaign? (To a slight degree, I am turned off her campaign, but again this doesn't answer the question of why her historical potential is not a factor).
None of these is the case; rather, it seems to me that viewed outside the lens of American exceptionalism, patriotism, group-self-love, etc., a Clinton presidency would not be historically unprecedented by any means. America has been dreadfully slow at electing its first female head of state, and may have to wait decades to do so - this is unsurprising, as this country is otherwise so generally regressive/unprogressive. But America's peers - its social group, its "like-minded allies," its cultural brethren, whatever you want to call them - have already taken this historically "unprecedented" turn. The UK had Thatcher in 1979, Germany elected Merkel in 2005. Even prudish Canada gloried in the brief rule of Kim Campbell in 1993.*
In other words, "it's been done." Outside the parochial lens of U.S. domestic politics, electing female leaders is rare but certainly not unprecedented. But to my knowledge, no Western liberal democracy has been headed by a member of a visible minority ethnic or racial group, much less a historically oppressed one. Maybe that's why I have an irrational affective positive disposition towards Barack Obama. Please correct me if I'm wrong, because then maybe I can approach this election with cool calculation (or at least then we can debate about what counts as "Western," "liberal," and "democratic" as I try to cling to my irrational position...).
*On top of this, Among other Western liberal democracies, current and past female heads of government have led Bulgaria, Finland, France, Lithuania (as a transitional democracy), Macedonia, New Zealand, Norway, Poland (also arguably transitional), and Portugal. Heads of state excluding monarchs: Iceland (1980-1996), Ireland (1990-1997), Latvia (1999-2007), and latecomer-to-full-suffrage Switzerland (2003 onward).
08 February 2008
A New Arms Race?
Or rhetoric for domestic consumption (in Russia and abroad)?
The BBC reports that Putin, addressing his advisory state council, declared in response to NATO missile-defense deployments, that "It is already clear that a new phase in the arms race is unfolding in the world."
Time for a brief reality check / hastily-researched figures and back of the envelope calculations...
PPP-adjusted GDPs: United States, $13,860,000,000,000; Russia, $2,076,000,000,000 (CIA factbook).
Looking just at the U.S. and Russia, the former in 2005 spent 4.06% of its GDP on the military. Russia's numbers are not known, but making a brief calculation it would have to spend roughly $562.7 PPP-adjusted US dollars, or 27% of its GDP annually, to match U.S. defense spending. Since it has a fair degree of catchup to do in order to, as Putin implied, restart an arms race in hi-tech weaponry, it would probably have to spend considerably more. According to globalsecurity.org, Russia budgeted in 2006 $22.3 billion (non-PPP adjusted) for its military, already a 23% increase on the previous year. A new armaments program for the years 2007-2015 was also announced in the sum of $186 billion - but it's unclear whether how much of this sum would be on top of annual military spending. In brief, Russia doesn't seem to be the best-positioned candidate for an "arms race" with the United States - even before counting the other NATO countries.
Of course, both countries continue to possess the ability to destroy the world several times over, which leads to the question: what exactly would they be racing toward?
My half-baked attempt to rationally assess the likelihood of Putin's remarks being meant seriously, of course, falls easy victim to the observation that there doesn't need to be a rational basis or real material capability in order to construct an "arms race," as attested to by the late Cold War from, say, 1970 onward.
07 February 2008
Mitt's Gems
As you all know, Mitt Romney rode into the sunset today, withdrawing from the presidential race in his address to the Conservative Political Action Committee. (Incidentally, this makes it almost certain, bar an improbable Huckabee surge or a shock Bloomberg independent victory, that a Senator will become president for the first time since Richard Nixon). It was a helluva speech, says the BBC. And while I agree, it's probably for different reasons. I just want to point out a few highlights which, if representative of this country I'm currently exiled to, are... terrifying. (Full transcript here.)
Government and cultureThe threat to our culture comes from within. The 1960’s welfare programs created a culture of poverty. Some think we won that battle when we reformed welfare, but the liberals haven’t given up. At every turn, they try to substitute government largesse for individual responsibility. They fight to strip work requirements from welfare, to put more people on Medicaid, and to remove more and more people from having to pay any income tax whatsoever. Dependency is death to initiative, risk-taking and opportunity. Dependency is a culture-killing drug—we have got to fight it like the poison it is!
Won't somebody think of the children?The attack on faith and religion is no less relentless. And tolerance for pornography—even celebration of it—and sexual promiscuity, combined with the twisted incentives of government welfare programs have led to today’s grim realities: 68% of African American children are born out-of-wedlock, 45% of Hispanic children, and 25% of White children. How much harder it is for these children to succeed in school—and in life. A nation built on the principles of the founding fathers cannot long stand when its children are raised without fathers in the home.
The development of a child is enhanced by having a mother and father. Such a family is the ideal for the future of the child and for the strength of a nation. I wonder how it is that unelected judges, like some in my state of Massachusetts, are so unaware of this reality, so oblivious to the millennia of recorded history. It is time for the people of America to fortify marriage through constitutional amendment, so that liberal judges cannot continue to attack it!
Europe: going to hellEurope is facing a demographic disaster. That is the inevitable product of weakened faith in the Creator, failed families, disrespect for the sanctity of human life and eroded morality.
Romney on hegemonic transition, the threat from "Asia or China"China and Asia are emerging from centuries of poverty. Their people are plentiful, innovative, and ambitious. If we do not change course, Asia or China will pass us by as the economic superpower, just as we passed England and France during the last century.
A new axis of evil?America must never be held hostage by the likes of Putin, Chavez, and Ahmendinejad.
Standard jingoist fareAnd finally, let’s consider the greatest challenge facing America—and facing the entire civilized world: the threat of violent, radical Jihad. In one wing of the world of Islam, there is a conviction that all governments should be destroyed and replaced by a religious caliphate. These Jihadists will battle any form of democracy—to them, democracy is blasphemous for it says that citizens, not God shape the law. They find the idea of human equality to be offensive. They hate everything we believe about freedom just as we hate everything they believe about radical Jihad.
And the real reason for dropping out: he doesn't want to abet terroristsIf I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention, I would forestall the launch of a national campaign and make it more likely that Senator Clinton or Obama would win. And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign, be a part of aiding a surrender to terror.
06 February 2008
05 February 2008
Projections
- Far-right Republicans coalesce around Huckabee; Romney bows out. Huckabee and McCain go for a few rounds, keeping some media attention while the Democrats slug it out in the real fight.
- Clinton wins what the mainstream media have identified as the big contests of the night (Missouri, New Jersey, and California); this becomes the major news item even if Obama takes the lion's share of the remaining contested states.
[EDIT: Missouri's now swinging for Obama - he's a few thousand votes ahead with 97% reporting!]
Early Going
Just a couple observations:
- A couple races that were supposed to be close for Obama according to exit polls (MO, MA and NJ specifically) are looking pretty lopsided so far (Bradley effect, anyone?).
- Edwards, whose campaign is over but officially "suspended," is having an impact in places like Tennessee (he's currently polling 10%), Missouri (6%), and Oklahoma (12%). I know basically nothing about American politics and voting behavior, but this tells me that a good chunk of voters in these states are (a) too stupid, (b) too pig-headed, and/or (c) too racist and sexist to vote for a candidate that's still actually running.
[EDIT: Obviously, part of the Edwards factor must be advance balloting, but still at 11:00 PM, he's hanging at 10% in OK (99% reporting) and 5% in TN (80%) ...]
04 February 2008
Nukelar
From the Globe and Mail, portrait of a leader who is definitely pursuing nuclear weapons technology:
Kickstart!!!
Yes, Alex Herman et al.'s book is in press. Let the publishing dynasty begin!
Kickstart - How Successful Canadians Got Started
See their website, and blog. The book is available for pre-order online from major booksellers worldwide.
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Chapters/Indigo
Booktopia
Target
Amazon UK
Amazon USA
Also, Canadian Trade Remedy Law and Practice.
29 January 2008
That's It!
As of 8:01 EST, 29 January 2007, I am officially declaring that Rudy Giuliani has drawn ahead of Ron Paul in the state-by-state race for the Republic nomination for president!
That's right; though Paul had defeated Giuliani in Iowa, Michigan, and South Carolina, Giuliani had fired back (with aplomb one might add) in Wyoming, New Hampshire, and Nevada. But now Giuliani is one up, as I am projecting that Giuliani has decisively defeated Paul in Florida.
Giuliani. Third in Florida. First in his race against Ron Paul. 9/11.
A Coup for Canada?
So Harper and the Canadian Armed Forces are not exactly seeing eye to eye these days. Is it time for General Hillier to take matters into his own hands; to save Canadian democracy from the Conservative Party of Canada?
That would certainly make it onto the very very long list of things that social scientists cannot claim to have predicted. Unless, of course, I make the prediction here.
Therefore: I can say with 95% confidence that there is a 1/10,000 chance of a military coup of the Canadian government in the next 90 days.*
*Unfortunately, the model I have used to derive this prediction is classified.
22 January 2008
The Manley Report
I'll just go ahead and call it that. The high profile Liberal (well, in Canadian politics everything is relative, right?) and his team have delivered their report on the Canadian mission in Afghanistan to the government (the full text is available for download here).
My foreign policy calls are either nonexistent or about as poor as they come (I supported the invasion of Iraq, have absolutely nothing to say about what NATO should do about Kosovo besides accept the inevitable, and on the very pages of this blog have suggested that the U.S. should proliferate nuclear weapons to all Middle Eastern states). Nonetheless, my knee-jerk reactions:
As the Globe and Mail article points out, almost from the start the panel was faced with the government's resolve to maintain the mission through 2011. I also believe - whatever that's worth - that in Manley Harper found exactly whom he needed: a Liberal, out of politics, thirsty enough to do something for his country (or just after the limelight, if you're cynical), with an avowed liberal-internationalist outlook, and no particular disloyalty towards Dion (so that the appointment could hardly be smeared as unfair, political, or whatever). That the panel wouldn't recommend withdrawal in 2009 - or anytime before 2011, or at any specific date - was a foregone conclusion.
What is somewhat noteworthy - though also unsurprising - is that the report recommends that the government make contingent its continued commitment to Afghanistan on an escalation of support from NATO allies, in the form of an increased commitment of 1000 troops to Kandahar. This is in line with the Harper and Bush administration's efforts to secure a greater allied commitment to fighting in the civil war in Afghanistan. It's intended, in part, to put pressure on the allies to put up or risk Canada's withdrawal.
One major problem with this is the possibility that the NATO allies, who aren't good international boy scouts like John Manley, don't care enough to make the commitment. The report's recommendations leave two options: stay in with increased support, or get out (or at least, stop fighting the war). Now, option A is the best-case scenario for the Harper government (and the Americans). Option B is exactly what the NDP and Bloc want. Option A would be what the Liberals would want if they were in government; since they're not, they have to support something else. I've never been convinced that option B reflects the Liberal party's core values and policy preferences, especially since they initiated Canada's involvement in the first place. Maybe it's time for the Liberals to try to fill this policy vacuum?
The report is also a great safety valve for Harper. It presents an opportunity to defuse the electoral impact of the Afghanistan problem: adopt the recommendations, lobby for increased NATO support, and switch tack on the commitment if he doesn't get it. With the help of the Conservative Party's proficient spin doctors, it won't look like the PM is retreating with his tail between his legs: he'd just be following the sound advice of an independent panel headed by a Liberal. And he can claim an honest effort to mitigate the inevitable disappointment of the Bush administration, which is on its way out anyhow.
17 January 2008
Size Matters
The New York Times reports further on what's next for the Met after de Montebello's retirement. Interesting enough, but even more noteworthy is the image juxtaposing Damien Hirst's preserved shark and the Met's (relatively-recently-acquired) Duccio:
Is the Times conspiring with the Met to make their Duccio seem larger? Because, next to the Hirst piece, that sure looks like one giant Duccio!
This brings me to the Macbook Air and the visual effect of removing a laptop computer from a manilla envelope. Except, unless they've used an oversized envelope and hand, that's actually one thin computer.
15 January 2008
Seriously, Another Post about Polar Bears
Predictably, some biologists and animal rights activists are decrying the Nuremberg Zoo's decision to hand-raise its newest, youngest polar bear (dubbed "Snowflake" in anticipation of a democratic christening by her adoring public). The reasons for their outrage appear to include the following:
While I'm no impassioned proponent of it, I also don't lose much sleep over animal cruelty. I think it's somewhat bizarre that we raise wildlife for the sole purpose of public display, entertainment, and adulation. But I also think that our (characteristically human) inclination to judge what is "natural" for animals (and therefore good) and what is "artificially imposed" on them by humans (and therefore bad) is a contradiction in itself. By making such a decision we are already artificially imposing an anthropocentric vision of what is "right" for animals on them; this is exemplified by the ascription of pathologies to animals raised in captivity by humans. We can't see animals without imposing our perceptual framework on them.
I thought that in moral philosophy we have gotten passed a fixation on seeking truth in "nature."
14 January 2008
Best Assigned Academic Book Title of the Quarter
Elbe, Stefan. 2003. Europe: A Nietzschean Perspective. London and New York: Routledge.
Haha it works on so many levels! I'm sure that John or Luke* can top that, but given the normal practice of publishing in Political Science, this is a pretty good contender.
*I don't list Nick here, since (a) he rarely even posts on this blog and (b) Cherubs: Angels of Love doesn't count as an academic book.
13 January 2008
12 January 2008
11 January 2008
10 January 2008
Even Robin Brooke-Smith was not this pastoral
Two faculty in my department own sheep. (That's two separate, not-married-to-each-other faculty, living in different houses, or rather, gentleman farms outside Princeton, each with their own flock of sheep).
08 January 2008
Game Day and Game Time
1. Yesterday the percentage of undergraduates donning Buckeyes paraphernalia was up significantly* on campus; this did not help an overmatched OSU team in New Orleans, however. For the record, neither my person nor my property were damaged. Perhaps accounts of football rioting have been exaggerated?
2. Today a tiny, mostly caucasian, Northeastern state helps decide the candidates for the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election. The Clintons are going strongly on the offensive, while the Obama campaign is relying on momentum and platitudes to make a strong showing. And it seems like everybody's "campaigning on change" these days, while I don't even know what that's supposed to mean. (EDIT: Der Spiegel has an interesting take on the meaning of all the "change" rhetoric.)
*How significantly? I'm uncertain... sorry, methods joke.
03 January 2008
Caucusthanol
As I occasionally refresh the NY Times website, watching Barack Obama's numbers slowly creep up, I reflect that it would be much better to inaugurate the presidential-nomination season with a state where corn is not quite king. Say, Alaska or Vermont.
02 January 2008
Columbus: The Return
Sidewalks: not cleared (lack of civic virtue)
Hand-drawn (marker) neon bristol board at supermarket entrance: "Flu Shots $10" (absence of socialized medicine)
Upcoming BCS National Championship Game: Ohio State a 5 point underdog (dearth of football talent)
Hello, Columbus.
27 December 2007
12 December 2007
Good news?
A week ago in Slate, Christopher Beam ("Have You Heard the Good News?") parodied three brief blurbs on the nonexistence of an Iranian nuclear threat (I'm willing to stick out my neck and call it that), the "ending" of the stem cell debate, and the slowing spread of the AIDS epidemic. Beam adds rosy predictions about: the end of socialism in Venezuela, the gross overstatement of genocide in Darfur, and so on.
Beyond the humor, the Iranian news is really the one bright spot in what is shaping up to be another, well, terrible month for, uhh, humanity.
From my morning headline browse:
- Of course, the new Balkan powderkeg. Explosion set for circa February 2008.
- The bombing in Algeria. "Al Qaeda" in Algeria is really nothing new, but this seems to represent at least a resurgence.
- The bombing in Beirut. They still don't have a proper government.
- The fiasco that is shaping up in Bali. I hope the governments at least understand that we basically have until 2015 to arrest greenhouse gas emissions increases.
07 December 2007
06 December 2007
05 December 2007
An important metaphysical detail, though unfortunate for the fish
G. W. Leibniz, from New System of Nature (1695):
I begin with the distinction that must be drawn between a substance and a collection, or an aggregate of several substances. When I say "me," I speak of a single substance; but an army, a herd of animals, a pond full of fish (even if it is frozen solid with all its fish) will always be a collection of several substances.
04 December 2007
For those of you who are not Aldous...
...but would still like a sense of what it's like to visit the culinary Mecca that's Spain's San Sebastián, Slate is running a series of articles (with slides) by wine columnist Mike Steinberger on the town that has the most Michelin stars per capita in the world.
Highlights so far: Juan Mari Arzak's spice chamber, and the fact that the exterior of Restaurante Arzak wouldn't look out of place in Brooklyn, as Steinberger suggests, or failing that, Etobicoke.
03 December 2007
One of the mysteries of life
Why are "Your Pictures", just advertised as a weekly collection of photos sent in by BBC News online readers, not specifically on the Scottish section, always from Scotland? Click through the photos from a given week, and go through previous weeks - the locations are always Caledonian.
01 December 2007
Breaking the "Democratic" Peace?
So, it's happened. Turkey has attacked the PKK in Iraq (possibly without actually crossing any borders), and the Turkish government has authorized the army to take cross-border action - not quite carte blanche but a significant move from the October parliamentary vote. Bruce Russett, Michael Doyle, et al. probably won't lose too much sleep over this one, though (Iraq being barely a state, much less a democracy).
