Kirchik and Stupidity, An Ode

Take That Anti-War Liberals! - Matt Yglesias

I do so love the line that Arabs and Muslims are incapable of achieving a truly democratic society. Not in the least because the EU is currently trying to work Turkey into their organization. No, what bothers me the most the idea that a simply military cue will bring about the 'flowering' of democracy. We've had two instances in the last sixty years where a military toppling of the government has ended with stable, lasting democracies. But in both instances, in Japan and Germany in 1945, we imposed a strongman to hold things together until the newly installed governments could get on their feet. We didn't just blow shit up and then blame them for the mess.

Luke's Binoculars

Binoculars that Tap the Brain - The Danger Room

And to add to the idea of plugging the brain into something comes DARPA with their brain-interfacing binoculars. Utilizing research into the way the eyes and the brain interact, these binoculars highlight sensory data that would otherwise have gone unnoticed by the conscious mind. For the purposes of war this kind of technology would alert soldiers to oncoming threats that previously they would not have seen or paid attention to. This is another example of using a tool to offload our sensory information and present it in a new way. I love it.

The Atomic Yogi

Quantum Tantra - Warren Ellis

"Modern physics is a fully erect science. Quantum tantra is physics on all fours."

This sounds a little too granola for me but hey, it's 'physics on all fours' which gets me going. In some ways it sounds like the kind of chaos magic Grant Morrison spins out, what with it's twisting of the world using organic means. The idea seems to be that we can tap our brains into some sort of cosmic server of other minds. Don't know if I necessarily believe that but the idea is interesting enough. My question then is, what happens when the 'cosmic server' becomes sentient?

The Statist Mindset of Terrorist Activities

Perle's Comments to Tenet: True or False? - The Danger Room

My concern is not with Perle's comment necessarily but the mindset behind them. The belief that the only way an attack like 9/11 could have occurred was with government support, whoever that government may be, is a holdover of the old belief that systematic genocide could only occur through state sanction and action. Now it is well know that the government of Afghanistan at the time did support Al Queda but their government was both rather small and ineffectual in affecting world politics. The most important thing the Taliban provided was the space and freedom to train and organize. A government like Saddam's Iraq could have provided such aid itself but Saddam didn't pull the trigger anymore than the Taliban did. Certainly the U.S. should move against those states that tacitly support terrorism through their inaction against terrorist groups but to say that the host nation bears the same responsibility is pushing the envelope some, to say the least. It's a little different to say the Taliban is the same as a nation such as Iran who has known financial and military ties to Palestinian terrorist groups. In one instance you have a nation who is actively funding and training a terrorist group using government means while in the other you have a nation who isn't doing anything to prevent it. In the world of foreign policies and foreign affairs you cannot treat other countries like an opposition party. It simply doesn't work. You can't just throw some pissant country against the wall and expect everyone to suddenly fall into line. You take down the biggest motherfucker on the block then people will respect you.

Webb's Web

Senator Webb on The Iraq War Bill - TPM

See, this is the thing, Sen. Webb can make the distinction between occupation and war yet few, if any, of the other pundits have caught up with the language. What we have in Iraq is an occupation and, despite all our wishing otherwise, acts like an occupation. The best way we can deal with the insurgency and the militias is to treat ourselves like occupiers and do the damn thing right. I wasn't in favor of this war and I haven't changed my mind yet but still, if you're going to do it then do it well. Wars are important things and performing poorly in a war reflects in world opinion and, more importantly, in the relations between nations. It doesn't matter what the press says or how the administration spins it. What matters is how other nations will treat us afterwards, particularly when we want something from them. We put ourselves in a weaker position due to poor performance. And the kicker is that it isn't the soldiers fault or even the generals per se. It has always been the fault of the civilian leadership.

Meta Meta

Metadata as a 'filing system' - Nick Santilli, Lifehacker

I find this kind of use of metatagging as an intriguing direction OS makers could move in. The intuitiveness of the design is appealing in the era of portable multimedia players, computers and devices. The ability to maneuver data in a way that makes sense to the human mind is something of a holy grail for UI designers. This is what the whole Web 2.0 concept is all about.

The Good Prince

Smells Like Team Spirit - Matt Yglesias

Yglesias does have a point here. A good conservative or a good liberal should tend to stick with other conservatives or liberals. That is to say, bucking the ideology doesn't seem to enhance the solidarity of the ideological group. However, if your purpose were to improve the ideology then bucking the trend is exactly what you should do. More to the point, an ideology cannot stay static, it must move with the times and the culture. Certainly there are aspects of any ideology that can apply to almost any period of time but one should worry about which aspects those are. If they last then they last, otherwise you are attempt to graft an ideology of a different time onto the modern world and that just doesn't work too well. Ideological purity does have its advantages but standing the test of time is not one of them. So the division is really between the good conservative or liberal and the person or ideas good for conservativism or liberalism.

The IRS and Federal Contractors

Pentagon Contractors Owe $7.7 Billion in Unpaid Taxes - Thomas Williams, Truthout (via The Danger Room)

I distinctly remember a post by Matt Yglesias over the issue of federal contractors and the worst of both worlds aspect of the federal contracting system. The basic idea is that private companies can do a government job better and with a lower cost since the laws of free market economics come into play. However, what we have here is another instance where federal contractors are significantly insulated from the free market by the contracting system. So you end up with companies that, due to insufficient oversight and a lack of economic pressures, are slow in paying taxes, providing the requested products and generally mismanaging the whole damn thing. I still believe in the free market, although I don't hold to the ideal of the 'invisible hand' anymore than I hold to the idea that communism can work. But this system as is has left us with huge and growing debts while providing substandard services and products, or not providing them at all. What we need is reform of course, but how we can achieve true reform is a question I'm not able to answer at this time. The difficulty lies in the nature of the lobbying system and how legislation is passed.

Dead Hookers, Live Boys

DC Madam - TPM

It's disappointing that the Hookergate scandal of last spring didn't take off the way it should have. But now we get Hookergate part two with DC Madam and the ex-head of the Foreign Aid department. Nothing better than a dead hooker or a live boy for politics.

Dead Horse College

A World of Diplomas - Ezra Klein

"This demonstrates how rigid the credentialing mentality has become in higher education, trumping three decades of undisputed good work. It wasn't always that way. When Ludwig Wittgenstein returned to Cambridge in 1929, they simply accepted his Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus as a doctoral thesis. The knew that forcing him to go through a formal course of study to earn a credential would be absurd. They were acting in their role as certifiers of learning, which is (see the post below) not necessarily the same thing as being a provider of learning."

Not to beat a dead horse, but I thought this quote of Kevin Carey via Ezra Klein deserves some notice, not least because of its mention of my favorite philosopher Wittgenstein. The point is that since Wittgenstein had already proven himself he didn't need classroom education. The purpose of college education is to further an already fruitful mind, not simply certify this person for a particular set of jobs. But the way college degrees are treated it has become the high school degree of thirty years ago. Now graduate school has become the arena for pushing the mind further while undergraduate work has become an extension of high school.

Elitism of Education

Creditialism - Matt Yglesias

Now I have two parents who don't hold college degrees and they have done fairly well for themselves. My grandfather made to the ninth grade and then went to work. College degrees are not the be-all, end-all of creditials. I have two bachelors and one master's degrees but that doesn't mean squat when it comes to jewelry work. And I have many friends who never went to college but are doing well for themselves. They don't see a need for it.
But the way most education systems are set up now, college is the ultimate goal. I think this is wrong. There are some kids who simply don't belong in college. Whether it's due to college not being their thing, college not being the place they can learn or, and sit down before you read this, they simply don't have the aptitude for it. And this, I think, is the key for why college has taken this glorified place in American minds. We are afraid of telling someone that they are not smart enough for college. The problem is, there are people not smart enough for college. Not to say they aren't smart but that their intelligence doesn't work on the college level. They can do a lot of other things very well but taking college exams, writing papers or conducting lab experiements is not one of them.
Now I'm hesistant to say that we should introduce a tracking system ala Japan and England. But we might at least consider it instead of continuing the lie that all minds are equal. The key here is ensuring that everyone has equal access to quality education, but education that will actually help them once out of school.

Blame Blame

How to Stop Future Massacres - Adam Kushner

A little late to the game on this sure, but considering the growing chorus of people insane enough to think that arming students and teachers will somehow prevent another massacre on a college campus, I thought I might say a few words. First, somehow the thought of arming a group of people who we have trouble letting drive doesn't seem like a winning idea. Sure, technically a college student is of legal age but considering how many car accidents happen to eighteen-year-olds I don't think throwing guns at them is a smashing idea. Second, arming teachers doesn't seem like a hot idea either since most teachers generally abhor violence and more than a few are far too absent-minded to be allow around firearms. Imagine your college philosophy professor or calculus teacher packing heat and then ask yourself if you feel any safer? Third, as my mother keenly pointed out, events like the Virgina Tech massacre are akin to tornadoes or hurricanes. They're acts of God and not something you really can prepare for. And even if you could, all you would succeed in doing is preventing a minuscule number of deaths when binge drinking and suicide are still the most likely ways a college student will die.
None of this is to mitigate the tragedy of the past week because it was a tragedy. But, as Andrew Sullivan pointed out, if this happened every other day then you would be living in Baghdad. They're both tragedies but life in America makes events like Virgina Tech rare and not something we should be overly concerned about. All it does tell us is that we should look out for each other a little more, but we didn't need the deaths of thirty people to tell us that.

To the West and Avalon

The World According to Richard Perle - The Danger Room

"The great tragedy of Perle is that like the Hollywood leftists who defended communism -- ignoring brutalities and crimes committed against the innocent -- Perle, too, glosses over the destruction wrought from a misguided theory that now equates "Islamo-fascism" with Soviet communism. Yes, Perle's nemeses, the Hollywood elite of the 1950s, were wrong about the Soviet Union, but that doesn't make Perle right about the Middle East."

This is what happens when you have someone still attached to the grand narrative of the West. Perle still believes in a sort of teleological history of the West that will see ever increasing progress and prosperity. The West becomes something of an end to itself in this narrative, from the Greeks to today's post-Cold War world. Everything was meant to happen in Perle's mind because we were meant to show the world how things were done. It's a little like the 'shining city on the hill' metaphor in that while it can inspire people to do great things it can also create the false assumption that we need not improve ourselves and any improvement that does happen is an act of God, not man. You can see it in the neo-conservative reaction to the failures in Iraq, the blaming of the Iraqis for being 'uncivilized' and 'incapable' of enjoying democracy. Of course, the West shares no blame for such failures because the West is ever-perfect, ever-perfecting.

Cup o' Greg

Damascus: Detente Talk of the Town; Washington: Same Ol' Crapola - Greg Djerejian

I love how deftly Djerejian is able to take down someone like Liz Cheney. While wrapping it in a call for more realpolitik, Djerejian notes the 'sentimentality' of Cheney's piece in the Washington Post. This is exactly the reason why such people should not have a hand in foreign policy. Sometime you have to make deals with the devil in foreign affairs and sometimes those deals will come back to bite you in the ass. The funding of Bin Laden during the 80s is a notable example but should not detract from the larger point. Dealing with Damascus will not yield the pony some in the administration are still looking for. But it might bring Israel and Syria to the table while slowly nullifying Hezbollah's power in Lebanon. Moreover, it might pull Syria further away from Iran, thus isolating Iran even more. Syria doesn't have quite the same track record that Iran does and the weak leadership in Damascus seems ripe for diplomatic picking. But we'll never know that unless we make some attempt at talking to Syria.

That Sliding Scale

Presidential Approval Rating - Pollster.com

Perhaps because there's nothing really interesting about a flatlined polling number but no one seems to want to talk about the president's tepid approval rating. Hovering around 34% for the last two months is not a sign of a president who is responding to the American public. After the last two months of the 'surge' in Iraq and the looming showdown over military spending one would expect to see at least a little bump in the polls. But, to be crass for a moment, I would think that the shootings at Virgina tech would give the president some poll relief.

The Non-story Story

New "Chemical Weapon" in Iraq? Nope - The Danger Room

This really is my new favorite blog for the moment. While generally centerist they do take pride in knocking down the hyperventilating of the more right-wing blogs like RedState. This article is another fine example of these guys looking at a news story that touts some big revelation and simply saying, "Yeah, so?" With the science and expertise behind them, they seem to know what's worth a story and what's not.

We Put the 'Jew' in 'Jewelry'

When I get in Trouble with Language, the Fate of the World is What's at Stake - Spencer Ackerman
Tommy Thompson - Matt Yglesias

Now I'm inclined to believe Yglesias's assessment that Gen. Thompson belongs in the moron category versus the I-hate-Jews category. No one can makes comments like that openly and honestly to a group of Jews and Israelis if they actually hate them. Haters are a little more guarded than that. Still, this was a man who achieved a high rank in our military and now is running for president. Something tells me that his candidacy won't last too much longer. This incident reminds me of, well, just about all of Blazing Saddles. While I imagine it will make a great YouTube segment I doubt it will help Republican self-image any.

The Buzz about Buzz

Mobile Phones Kill Bees - L'inq

I remember reading an article in the Washington Post about two months ago that was on the seeming collapse of bee colonies in the southwest. No one could really explain it except to say that bees were losing their way and not making it back to the hive. Apparently, and I didn't know this until I read the article, bees play an important role in pollinating various crops and there are companies that cart hives around to farmers as a service. So a large portion of our crops depend on bees to keep up the pollination.

The Green Machine

The Green Imperative - Andrew Sullivan

The idea of a carbon tax and a gas tax I think are the best ways of going about weening the American public off of petroleum. Matt Yglesias made a salient point that a carbon tax would, in a way, act as a subsidy for green energies as it would make green energy more enticing as a consumer energy source. A gas tax would go a long way to pushing the auto industry to produce higher mileage cars, trucks and SUVs. Something similar was done back in the 70s and the monies earned off the tax was used to help lower-income families purchase higher mileage cars as well as off-set the higher gas price through a income-tax credit. With the auto industry already moving in this direction, a gas tax would only spur more innovation from the market without imposing a government-laden solution. The linchpin of any such effort though is the oil industry itself. I've found myself saying more often lately that any oil giant worth its salt would do well to look into alternative fuels and I still think that is true. The problem is how do you turn an industry that generally looks at alternative fuels with disdain into a friend of green energy?
While I tend to look at green energy in primarily an environmental way I do think that the national security aspect is important and an excellent tactic to garner support from people who would normally attack such proposals. By denying Middle Eastern nations oil money the U.S. could leverage its position more effectively. The whole goal of such an effort is to push those nations like Iran who are generally antagonistic to U.S. interests into a position where the U.S. is a potential ally in maintaining their prestige and influence in the region. The idea is to move nations about without resorting to military solutions.

Dirty Pool

Why I Declined to Serve - John J. Sheehan, WaPo

This is a perfect example of the difficulty the Bush administration has had in getting traction on any issue it takes aim at. The problem isn't that the administration is oblivious to reality but that there are too many competing interests and agendas to coherently approach reality. It really is more of a personnel issue than anything else. Coherency in strategic approach is essential, particularly in the realm of foreign policy. But from what I have read and heard there are two groups going head to head consisting of people like Secretaries Rice, Paulson and Gates going against Vice President Cheney, Karl Rove and the president himself. While I have not been the biggest supporter of Sec. Rice (and if you read Greg Djerejian's blog you will see why) I do think that she is on the side of the angels in this with her attempts at shuttle diplomacy. Secs. Gates and Paulson seem to get it as well in their efforts to curtail Iran's financial dealings and reasserting the U.S.'s moral superiority. But for all of their efforts they still have the problem of the influence that the 'more rubble, less trouble' crowd has in the White House. To attempt to assign a new position to oversee both wars in Afghanistan and Iraq when you have such incoherency is troubling at best and a sign of folly at worst.