January 2011
74 posts
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Israel allows Egypt troops in Sinai for first time... →
Israeli officials say they have agreed to allow Egypt to move several hundred troops into the Sinai Peninsula for the first time since the countries signed a peace treaty three decades ago.
Under the 1979 peace treaty, Israel returned the captured Sinai to Egypt. In return, Egypt agreed to leave the area demilitarized.
With street protests threatening the Egyptian regime, the unnamed...
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“I do find it interesting that people complain about $3 a gallon gas with a $4...”
– So says Politicalprof, the fourth political science professor on Tumblr (and the only one with whom I’m not personally acquainted).
The quote comes at the end of a lengthy reply — mostly about how prices are set and what it actually takes to make a gallon of gasoline — to a...
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Watching the Story as it Unfolds
In a stunning turn of events in Alexandria, one pitched battle ended with protesters and police shaking hands and sharing water bottles on the same street corner where minutes before they were exchanging hails of stones and tear-gas canisters were arcing through the sky. Thousands stood on the six-lane coastal road then sank to their knees and prayed.
Hopefully stunning turns like this one...
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What happened to Stephen Kinzer? →
Jason Stearns asks a very compelling question this morning over at Congo Siasa.
The last time I wrote about Rwanda I was discussing Stephen Kinzer’s December 31 piece in The Guardian where he blasted human rights NGOs and, in particular, made the case for all the good things that Rwandans enjoy thanks to their authoritarian government:
By my standards, this authoritarian regime is the...
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“What more do we want from him?” Archbishop emeritus Desmond Tutu asked reporters...”
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Why South Africans’ reverence for Nelson Mandela runs so deep
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Your Tax Dollars At Work, Budget Crisis Edition
The Nebraska Department of Correctional Services recently bought such a large quantity of a drug used to kill death-row inmates by lethal injection that it now has enough to carry out 166 executions — even though it has just 12 men on death row.
My assumption is that, over the next year or so, Nebraska officialls plan to kill each of these 12 men 13 times … since they have no plans...
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Thinking About Habermas →
If you’ve ever felt that you ought to know something about the work of Jürgen Habermas but found yourself afraid of actually working through his daunting writing, then you’ll want to read Peter E. Gordon’s review of Mathew Specter’s new intellectual biography of the German philosopher.
Gordon does an excellent job of explaining some of the central components of...
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Do Social Media Make Protests Possible? →
Over at Foreign Affairs, Clay Shirky and Malcolm Gladwell are debating the virtues of social media when it comes to protest movements — again:
Do the tools of social media make it possible for protesters to challenge their governments? Malcolm Gladwell argues that there is no evidence that they do; Clay Shirky disagrees.
The question, to my mind, is whether we’re going to see the...
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Georgia Lawyers Challenge Drug for Tuesday... →
The death penalty: Sinking you to new lows at every opportunity.
Georgia plans to execute a convicted murderer Tuesday night despite claims from his lawyers that the drugs that will be used were bought from an unlicensed British company that operates from the back of a London driving school, and may be past their expiration date.
So … this is what we’re doing in this country now?
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Anonymous asked: As a child who had to raise her her 3 siblings, because a 16 year old killed my parents in a hold up ( they owned a gas station) what do you think a reasonable punishment? the child got life without parole. my youngest brother was 4 when they were killed. i was 17.
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HuffPo Convincts Jordan Brown Back in '09
My old friend Robert Gorell has identified a bit of a problem with the way that the Huffington Post does journalism, namely that — in this case, at least — they printed a headline that tossed due process right out the window.
In defense of the HuffPo editors, it’s sure a lot catchier this way:
Jordan Brown Killed Father’s Pregnant Girlfriend, Charged As Adult
than this...
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Further Thoughts On Treating Children Like Adults
Earlier today, I posted a photo of Jordan Brown and quoted an Amnesty International USA blog post about his case. It’s gotten a fair amount of attention on Tumblr and everyone who has commented has fallen into one of two camps:
The U.S. shouldn’t try children as adults, since children and adults are different and since international law effectively prohibits it;
This child is clearly...
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The 50 Most Loathsome Americans of 2010 →
Happily, I didn’t make the list of the 50 Most Loathsome Americans of 2010 over at The Beast.
Unless you care to lump me in with their #1 Most Loathsome American:
1) You Charges: Your brain’s been cobbled together over millions of years of blind evolution and it shows. You’re clumsy, stupid, weak and motivated by the basest of urges. Your MO is both grotesquely selfish and unquestionably...
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Human Rights Watch's World Report 2011:...
Too many governments are accepting the rationalizations and subterfuges of repressive governments, replacing pressure to respect human rights with softer approaches such as private “dialogue” and “cooperation,” Human Rights Watch said today in releasing its World Report 2011. Instead of standing up firmly against abusive leaders, many governments, including European...
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If You Don't Want A Bad Result, Don't Do A Bad...
The New York Times reports this morning that:
An Israeli commission that examined the deadly raid on a flotilla off Gaza last May concluded on Sunday that Israel had acted in accordance with international law when its military enforced its naval blockade by intercepting the ships in international waters.
The commission alluded to what it called “the regrettable consequences of the loss of...
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Lethal Injection Drug Shortage May Delay... →
The Hospira saga continues:
The shortage of an anesthetic widely used in lethal injections is likely to worsen, delaying some executions and forcing states to adopt new drug combinations, after the sole American manufacturer said Friday that it would no longer produce the drug.
The manufacturer, Hospira Inc., of Lake Forest, Ill., had originally planned to resume production of the drug,...
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Human Rights Watch Launches iPad App →
“The iPad app gives Human Rights Watch a new platform to focus attention on human rights abuses so that we can generate pressure for positive change,” said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. “It’s an innovative way to give voice to the oppressed and hold oppressors accountable for their crimes.”
The Human Rights Watch for iPad app delivers...
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Bill Would Allow Nebraska Teachers to Carry Guns →
I submit that we ought to file this idea under “Things That Will Not Make Us Any Safer.” Here’s the crux of it:
Two weeks after a school gunman killed his vice principal and injured the principal, a state lawmaker is seeking to allow school administrators, teachers and security personnel to carry concealed handguns in school.
Under a bill introduced by Sen. Mark Christensen of...
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Israel, Palestine, and ... Regrettable Analogies →
In response to my most recent post about casual anti-Semitism and the problem of comparing Israel and Nazi Germany, Squashed writes:
Israel is a Jewish, democratic state. As I understand, that’s considered a non-negotiable. But remaining both Jewish and democratic is going to either require some systemic legal discrimination or an effort to keep the ratios in line to ensure that a non-Jewish...
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Casual Anti-Semitism
My post, earlier today, about Glenn Beck’s list of nefarious Jews drew a fair amount of interest here on Tumblr, including a post from someone who goes by Leftish.
In her response to my post, Leftish says:
Two things come to mind.
1) IMO the ONLY reason that Sarah Palin used the term “Blood Libel” was to call attention to the fact that GABBY GIFFORDS IS JEWISH! Until Palin came out...
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Glenn Beck's Jewish Problem →
It’s entirely possible that I am just overly sensitive to anti-Semitism and that others would view Glenn Beck’s seeming obssession with Nazism, George Soros, and Jews in general as less problematic than I do.
But, since I think it’s not just me and that more people should be wary of Beck’s rhetoric, I’ll share Jeffrey Goldberg’s thoughts from yesterday in The...
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Glenn Beck's Jewish Problem →
It’s entirely possible that I am just overly sensitive to anti-Semitism and that others would view Glenn Beck’s seeming obssession with Nazism, George Soros, and Jews in general as less problematic than I do.
But, since I think it’s not just me and that more people should be wary of Beck’s rhetoric, I’ll share Jeffrey Goldberg’s thoughts from yesterday in The...
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Franzen via Klosterman →
From “The Jonathan Franzen Award for Jaw-Dropping Literary Genius Goes to… Jonathan Franzen”:
We touch briefly on his literary influences, and he mentions Thomas Pynchon. But we’re not really talking about Pynchon’s books; we’re talking about how the reclusive Pynchon has a different kind of notoriety than Franzen, and that Pynchon’s smaller audience is closer to “the audience...
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Franzen via Klosterman →
From “The Jonathan Franzen Award for Jaw-Dropping Literary Genius Goes to… Jonathan Franzen”:
We touch briefly on his literary influences, and he mentions Thomas Pynchon. But we’re not really talking about Pynchon’s books; we’re talking about how the reclusive Pynchon has a different kind of notoriety than Franzen, and that Pynchon’s smaller audience is closer to “the audience...
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How Much Do College Students Learn, and Study? →
The New York Times, this morning, has a brief introduction to a new study about college education and, in particular, about whether students are actually learning anything when they attend.
The authors of “Academically Adrift” — Richard Arum, a professor of sociology and education at New York University, and Josipa Roksa, a professor of sociology at the University of Virginia — also question the...
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How Much Do College Students Learn, and Study? →
The New York Times, this morning, has a brief introduction to a new study about college education and, in particular, about whether students are actually learning anything when they attend.
The authors of “Academically Adrift” — Richard Arum, a professor of sociology and education at New York University, and Josipa Roksa, a professor of sociology at the University of Virginia — also question the...
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Human Rights Utopianism →
In a recent review of Samuel Moyn’s new book on the history of human rights, John Gray attempts to set out the problem with the way that the global North views the topic. In doing so, he pretty much sets all of the world’s problems squarely at the feet of John Rawls. Or at least his version of John Rawls, the 20th Century’s most nefarious super-villain/philosopher. I’ve...
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Civic Literacy Quiz
If you like taking online quizzes, then you’ll love the ISI Civic Literacy Quiz.
I missed two questions, both of which were about economics more than about civics. And, according to Mike Munger, one of those — #33 — I actually got right.
How’d you do?
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Tunisia and the New Arab Media Space →
Over at Foreign Policy’s Middle East Channel, Marc Lynch writes:
Calling Tunisia a “Twitter Revolution” is simplistic, but even skeptics have to recognize that the new media environment mattered. I would suggest that analysts not think about the effects of the new media as an either/or proposition (“Twitter vs. al-Jazeera”), but instead think about new media...
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Tunisia and the New Arab Media Space →
Over at Foreign Policy’s Middle East Channel, Marc Lynch writes:
Calling Tunisia a “Twitter Revolution” is simplistic, but even skeptics have to recognize that the new media environment mattered. I would suggest that analysts not think about the effects of the new media as an either/or proposition (“Twitter vs. al-Jazeera”), but instead think about new media...
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The Only Beat I'll Ever Love →
If you already like Allen Ginsberg, then you’ll undoubtedly like this little comedic piece by Tyler Stoddard Smith (who recalls spending a few days with him back in 1983). Here’s a little sample:
By traditional standards, or at least those of a nine-year-old boy, Ginsberg was ugly. But it was a serene homeliness, like a gentle troll, or Yoda, but with bigger ears. His hair was...
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The Only Beat I'll Ever Love →
If you already like Allen Ginsberg, then you’ll undoubtedly like this little comedic piece by Tyler Stoddard Smith (who recalls spending a few days with him back in 1983). Here’s a little sample:
By traditional standards, or at least those of a nine-year-old boy, Ginsberg was ugly. But it was a serene homeliness, like a gentle troll, or Yoda, but with bigger ears. His hair was...
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“Nothing is so perfect that it can’t be complained about.”
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from the description of Hypercritical a new podcast from 5by5 hosted by Dan Benjamin and John Siracusa
I can’t imagine anything being more in line with my views about the world.
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Fallout from Tuscon
What follows is a guest blog post, written by a former student of mine Daniel Son. Daniel graduated from James Madison University and now works on Capitol Hill.
The events of this past weekend in Tuscon, Arizona were a national tragedy. The shooting, injury, and death that occurred were truly sad. But in the wake of those horrific events, any response should be measured. There have been...
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WatchIn the most recent Bloggingheads diavlog, Michael Moynihan says a lot of what I think I’d say if I wrote something about the reaction to the shooting Tucson.
Though I tend to disagree with much of what Moynihan writes, I wholeheartedly agree that the instantaneous partisan bickering and political opportunism we saw was pretty staggering. In a matter of minutes, I read that it was the fault...
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WatchIn the most recent Bloggingheads diavlog, Michael Moynihan says a lot of what I think I’d say if I wrote something about the reaction to the shooting Tucson.
Though I tend to disagree with much of what Moynihan writes, I wholeheartedly agree that the instantaneous partisan bickering and political opportunism we saw was pretty staggering. In a matter of minutes, I read that it was the fault...