How will Perry fare in debates?

PERRY, A POOR DEBATER: Rick Perry seems do be doing well, but can a bad debate change that?

A BACHMANN BOOK DEAL, CTD: Alex Pareene is thoroughly unimpressed, and argues that this marks Bachmann's transformation into a boring establishment candidate. "If the Michele Bachmann of 2006 were releasing a memoir, we'd have something to look forward to. Specifically, we'd have uncensored, unapologetic Dominionist fringe Christian right politics to look forward to, along with some obvious, glaring factual inaccuracies and probably some nice purple prose. If this is a John Fund book, though, it will have all the dishonesty with none of the charm. He's not the world's most thrilling author, and he was hired not to capture Bachmann's voice but to make it more professional." Read on.

The digital age of distraction

THE AGE OF DISTRACTION: It is generally agreed that, in the present age of digital advancement, it has become much harder to concentrate for extended periods of time. No great loss, argues Cathy Davidson. "For more than a hundred years, we've been training people to see in a particularly individual, deliberative way. No one ever told us that our way of seeing excluded everything else."

A carousel of liberal opinion

'CAROUSEL OF LIBERAL OPINION': Those words, from Alessandra Stanley in describing MSNBC, resulted in a collective gasp from the conservative side of the aisle. Of course, the afore-mentioned 'gasp' mostly related to the question of how such a comment could appear on the website of the New York Times, a newspaper believed by many to be liberally driven. Good to see, in my opinion. If we're going to criticize Fox News for its ultra-conservative propagandizing, we cannot dismiss MSNBC for lesser crimes of the same nature.  I think, perhaps, the primary distinction which ultimately should be drawn in this instance relates to the fact that MSNBC makes no secret of its liberalism (see the 'Lean Forward' slogan/tagline), whereas Fox News still likes to frequently purport that it is 'fair and balanced'. See?

The surprising sweetness of 'The Book of Mormon'

SURPRISING SWEETNESS: Of the South Park creators' new musical The Book of Mormon. Kristin Dombrek writes of the show's surprising levels of empathy towards religion in general:

The Book of Mormon teaches us what secularists don’t get about what makes religion so awesome: it’s like a musical you live in, and it can actually be more fun if it seems a little fake, if you have to work a little to believe. There tend to be so many gaps that the thrill of it is filling them in, making them fit. While to outsiders, religious people seem to believe despite the obvious manufacturedness of their religion, The Book of Mormon suggests that believers believe (at least in part) because of the pleasure of revoicing, adapting, and even inventing stories and then treating them as sacred.

As I walked out of the theater into the throngs on 49th Street, so brightly lit it felt like a set, I considered this surprising sweetness—surprising, to me, because of its unusual (for Parker and Stone) sentimentality, and surprising because it was being interpreted, in the popular press, as empathetic toward religion. But the show left me puzzling over the difference between empathy and condescension. Isn’t empathy to imagine, for a moment at least, that the other’s world, no matter how strange, is real and huge, not silly and cute? The Book of Mormon does stage a provocative empathy for believers, when it shows us the everyday, meaning-making work that they do, as they try to preserve their own faith surrounded by their churches’ overbearing authority and the often hostile cultural contexts in which they live.

Of course I haven't seen the show, but I've read and heard – mostly from theatrical friends – about it. Particularly given the reputation and body of work of its creators, the empathy is surprising – but not to be entirely unexpected; after all, they're very clever people.

Rhetoric over substance

RHETORIC OVER SUBSTANCE: Louis René Beres laments the loss of honest political discourse. "In our national politics of veneered truths, whenever a candidate’s spoken words seethe with vacant allusions and blatant equivocations, the crowd nods approvingly, and leaps with satisfaction. It is comforting enough for these audiences to bask in the warmth of someone 'famous.' In the absurd theatre of American politics, the key protagonists continue to play their stock parts with contrived zeal and ambition, but also without any true capacity. As for the chorus, we have rehearsed our lines just as well, but we now utter them viscerally, as if by rote. Understandably, our exuberant shouts of approbation lack credibility. After all, they have been reduced to ritual incantations. [...] Many of our national heroes were once created by commendable achievement. Today, the successful politician is fashioned by a system that is refractory to all wisdom, a system that is sustained by banality, empty chatter, and half knowledge. Now, at a time when leadership incapability could pave the way to bioterrorism, “dirty bombs,” or even outright nuclear attack, our relentless transformations of politics into amusement has become far more than a mere matter of foolishness or bad taste." So very true. Read the whole piece.

Trouble with Twitter; technical issues

TROUBLE WITH TWITTER: A reader pointed out that many of the items in our Twitter feed had been posted once with a link, and once without. An error, and a bad one at that. Attempting to get that sorted now; hopefully we'll be posting as normal to Twitter shortly.

Justice at Hershey's

JUSTICE AT HERSHEY'S: Worth watching the video, if you have some spare time.

More of the wealthy jump atop the 'tax me' bandwagon

CODDLING THE SUPER-RICH, CTD: More of the wealthy jump atop the 'tax me' bandwagon.

The death of American literature?

WHAT KILLED AMERICAN LIT: Joseph Epstein reviews The Cambridge History of the American Novel and observes that academic English departments have become places where old ideas go to die.

Along with American Studies programs, which are often their subsidiaries, English departments have tended to become intellectual nursing homes where old ideas go to die. If one is still looking for that living relic, the fully subscribed Marxist, one is today less likely to find him in an Economics or History Department than in an English Department, where he will still be taken seriously. He finds a home there because English departments are less concerned with the consideration of literature per se than with what novels, poems, plays and essays—after being properly X-rayed, frisked, padded down, like so many suspicious-looking air travelers—might yield on the subjects of race, class and gender. "How would [this volume] be organized," one of its contributors asks, "if race, gender, disability, and sexuality were not available?"

Take a look at the rest of his review. Worth a read, if you have a spare couple of minutes.

Christopher Hitchens on Rick Perry and religion

QUESTIONING CANDIDATES' FAITH, CTD: Christopher Hitchens, on Rick Perry and others: "And this is what one always wants to know about candidates who flourish the Good Book or who presume to talk about hell and damnation. Do they, themselves, in their heart of hearts, truly believe it? Is there any evidence, if it comes to that, that Perry has ever studied the theory of evolution for long enough to be able to state roughly what it says? And how much textual and hermeneutic work did he do before deciding on the "inerrancy" of Jewish and Christian scripture? It should, of course, be the sincere believers and devout faithful who ask him, and themselves, these questions. But somehow, it never is. The risks of hypocrisy seem forever invisible to the politicized Christians, for whom sufficient proof of faith consists of loud and unambiguous declarations. I am always surprised that more is not heard from sincere religious believers, who have the most to lose if faith becomes a matter of poll-time dogma and lung power." Read his full piece.

The Gingrich surge?

GINGRICH SURGE: Some are calling him the 'comeback kid'. Weigel is doubtful.

A Bachmann book deal

A BACHMANN BOOK DEAL: So it seems. Have to admit: resisting the urge to make obvious "wait, she's literate?" remark. Besides, we're post-Bush jokes now, aren't we?

Howard Kurtz on the hurricane of hype; how Irene fell short

HURRICANE OF HYPE: Howard Kurtz is convinced that Irene was overhyped. "...The tsunami of hype on this story was relentless, a Category 5 performance that was driven in large measure by ratings. Every producer knew that to abandon the coverage even briefly—say, to cover the continued fighting in Libya—was to risk driving viewers elsewhere. Websites, too, were running dramatic headlines even as it became apparent that the storm wasn’t as powerful as advertised. The fact that New York, home to the nation’s top news outlets, was directly in the storm’s path clearly fed this story-on-steroids. Does anyone seriously believe the hurricane would have drawn the same level of coverage if it had been bearing down on, say, Ft. Lauderdale?" Quiet agreement.

The anti-science party? Krugman thinks so...

THE ANTI-SCIENCE PARTY: Paul Krugman writes, of major GOP candidates:

Mr. Perry, the governor of Texas, recently made headlines by dismissing evolution as “just a theory,” one that has “got some gaps in it” — an observation that will come as news to the vast majority of biologists. But what really got peoples’ attention was what he said about climate change: “I think there are a substantial number of scientists who have manipulated data so that they will have dollars rolling into their projects. And I think we are seeing almost weekly, or even daily, scientists are coming forward and questioning the original idea that man-made global warming is what is causing the climate to change.” That’s a remarkable statement — or maybe the right adjective is “vile.”

And, perhaps more importantly, offers a much-needed correction.

The second part of Mr. Perry’s statement is, as it happens, just false: the scientific consensus about man-made global warming — which includes 97 percent to 98 percent of researchers in the field, according to the National Academy of Sciences — is getting stronger, not weaker, as the evidence for climate change just keeps mounting. In fact, if you follow climate science at all you know that the main development over the past few years has been growing concern that projections of future climate are underestimating the likely amount of warming. Warnings that we may face civilization-threatening temperature change by the end of the century, once considered outlandish, are now coming out of mainstream research groups.

Perhaps not only the anti-science party, but – as casual observers of Michele Bachmann's antics can likely attest – the fallacious party. It seems that the number of factual errors (which often go unnoticed, uncorrected and underplayed) within the rhetoric of this year's GOP candidates comes close to what one could accurately describe as laughable. Time for a party-wide fact-check?

The sad truth about attractiveness

THE SAD TRUTH: Daniel Hamermesh explains. "In addition to whatever personal pleasure it gives you, being attractive also helps you earn more money, find a higher-earning spouse (and one who looks better, too!) and get better deals on mortgages. Each of these facts has been demonstrated over the past 20 years by many economists and other researchers. [...] Why this disparate treatment of looks in so many areas of life? It’s a matter of simple prejudice. Most of us, regardless of our professed attitudes, prefer as customers to buy from better-looking salespeople, as jurors to listen to better-looking attorneys, as voters to be led by better-looking politicians, as students to learn from better-looking professors. This is not a matter of evil employers’ refusing to hire the ugly: in our roles as workers, customers and potential lovers we are all responsible for these effects." Read on.

Taking things too far

TAKING THINGS TOO FAR: Like Jim Hoft, here. How, er...charming.

Space Station to be abandoned in November?

CHANGE IN SPACE: Space Station to be abandoned in November? "Despite a delivery of important logistics by the final space shuttle mission in July, safety concerns with landing Soyuz capsules in the middle of winter could force the space station to fly unmanned beginning in November, according to Michael Suffredini, NASA's space station program manager."

The perils of constant thought; God as a metaphor

PERILS OF CONSTANT THOUGHT: The Guardian has a wonderful piece up by James Wood, which examines the rise of new atheism, a movement hallmarked by public intellectuals like Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, and Sam Harris. Some of the more interesting content, in my view, deals with the nature of changing one's mind in the process of thought and rumination.

Part of the weakness of current theological warfare is that it is premised on stable, lifelong belief – each side congealed into its rival (but weirdly symmetrical) creeds. Likewise, in contemporary politics, the worst crime you can apparently commit is to change your mind. Yet people's beliefs are often not stable, and are fluctuating. We are all flip-floppers. Our "ideas" may be rather as Woolf imagined consciousness, a flicker of different and self-annulling impressions and convictions. What if you were a strong Christian believer, and you woke one night, terrified by the sudden awareness that God does not exist? Hours pass in this unillusioned crisis, and then blessed sleep finally returns. The next day, you wake up and the awful doubt – a thing of the night – has mysteriously disappeared. You continue to "believe in God". But what does such belief now mean? If it has not been annulled by the doubt of the night, does it now contain the memory of its inversion, as a room might trap a bad smell?

He makes some very good points on the issue. I've always found the Andrew Sullivan view intriguing: if your thinking doesn't change every day on a particular facet of society or its issues, you're probably not thinking (or something to that effect). I'm inclined to agree with him.

GOD AS A METAPHOR: Wood also addresses the commonplace substitution of metaphorical explanations where a literal interpretation isn't possible; that in itself, and the provisional view among many Christians, which all too often seems like this: "Those bits I can't explain in the Bible? Yeah, they're all metaphors." He writes, referring to Herman Melville's Moby Dick:

Can God be literally described, or are we condemned to hurl millions of metaphoric approximations at him, in an attempt to describe him? After all, in Melville's novel, the white whale is symbolic of both the devil and of God, and the writer tries very hard to describe the nature and mass and temperament of that indescribable whale: Melville uses scores of different metaphors to capture the essence of the beast, and fails. It cannot be captured in words. Only when the beast is killed will it be captured. Melville's novel is a kind of ironic counterpart to Aquinas's belief that God can only be described by what he is not. Melville, who fluctuated violently between belief and unbelief, seems to have been terrified by the idea that if God cannot be reached by metaphor, then God is only a metaphor.

Read his full piece.

Jeffrey Essmann remembers the state fair, the cornucopia of wonders

THE CORNUCOPIA OF WONDERS: That is the traditional state fair. Jeffrey Essmann reflects upon his experiences. "The air itself shifted dramatically as soon as we walked through the gate and became redolent of cotton candy, fried cheese, and somewhere far off, manure. The walkways were covered in sawdust and wood chips, which after nearly a week of thousands of plodding Midwesterners and several thunderstorms was now a soft carpet of pink-blond mulch." Ew.

Fixing the economy? Start with social security...

FIXING THE ECONOMY: Peter Diamond suggests that social security would be a good place to start. "With millions of Americans out of work, a mounting federal debt, and the national economy at risk of a renewed recession, no one seems to be thinking about the Social Security system at the moment. But they should be. Fixing Social Security—that is to say, restoring the program’s actuarial balance—would serve our economic needs in a number of ways. It would help with our long-term fiscal problems without damaging our short-run outcomes; moreover, it would be a lasting commitment, not a seeming fix that might be undone. Most importantly, it’s something that our existing political system might actually accomplish. [...] The program’s design is simple: it’s essentially money in and money out. Everybody who looks at it understands how it works. We also can estimate, with fairly good accuracy, what sort of behavioral changes—and cost savings—would be produced by changes in the program’s parameters." Read the rest.

Bachmann and Christianity

BACHMANN AND CHRISTIANITY: The ties grow stronger yet.

Lawrence Wright on Rick Perry

DELAYED LINKS: A little old, but still relevant. Lawrence Wright gives an introduction to Rick Perry.

David Hume, mortality, and fear of death

SELF, LIFE, AND DEATH: How the economist and philosopher David Hume came to accept his own mortality. Tony Pitson, of The Philosopher's Magazine, writes:

Did he accept his own mortality? And, if so, did he not then fear death? We have evidence on these matters both from Johnson’s biographer, James Boswell, and also Hume’s friend and fellow philosopher, Adam Smith. Boswell relates that he visited Hume shortly before his death and raised the question of whether he still rejected the idea of an after-life. Hume made it clear that he continued to think that it was quite unreasonable to believe that we should exist forever. Nor did the thought of his death cause him any uneasiness. Here Hume cited the reference by the poet Lucretius to what Epicurus said about the fear of death. According to Epicurus there is a symmetrical relation between our non-existence before we were born and our non-existence after death. We don’t consider our not having existed for an eternity before birth as a terrible thing. So why should our not existing for an eternity after death be considered an evil? This is reflected in Hume’s own attitude towards death. Hume told Boswell that he had no wish to live forever and that he did not find the idea of an after-life a pleasing one.

An interesting view, and one with which I'm inclined to agree. Read on.

Obama's public opinion dilemma

OBAMA'S PUBLIC OPINION DILEMMA: Jonathan Chait explains the dilemma Obama will have to face in the public opinion department. "You have a public extremely unhappy with everything, blaming Republicans more than Democrats, but with President Obama finding his popularity sucked down along with everybody else. He remains relatively quite popular, both compared to others and adjusted for circumstances, but absolutely pretty unpopular. In particular, the impression that has taken shape is of a reasonable, well-intentioned man with the country's best interests at heart but not necessarily able to enact change." I would count myself among those who hold the aforementioned opinion – however, I never counted myself among those who saw Obama as some form of messiah, as a president who, with a simple wave of his magic political wand, could make the country's issues vanish overnight. So, I suppose, in that sense I'm hardly disappointed. The president is, naturally, a likable character; it's easy to see how voters warm to him, and how I did too. In the end, it will be a matter of whom he's going up against. Michele Bachmann or Barack Obama, for example? I'd pick the latter any day.

Glenn Beck: Hurricane Irene is a 'blessing'

BECK CALLS IRENE A 'BLESSING': I didn't even know Glenn Beck was still on the scene. Turns out he is.

New York in shutdown as Irene approaches

NEW YORK SHUTS DOWN: Amid fear of flooding, reports the Times.  "Since Friday, the city had done more than issue warnings. The subway system, one of the city’s trademarks, had shut down in the middle of the day on Saturday, and firefighters and social service workers had spent much of Saturday trying to complete the evacuation of about 370,000 residents in low-lying areas where officials expected flooding to follow the storm. In New Jersey, Gov. Chris Christie said that more than a million people had been evacuated, mainly from four counties in the southern part of the state." David Magee writes that New York dodged a bullet. "At daybreak there are no signs of massive flooding in the city in low-lying areas officials were warned about, but some power is out and Irene is not done yet. High tide is at 8 a.m., and that is expected to be the moment lower Manhattan can cross the point of knowing whether it will face storm surge flooding or not. But just before 8, it isn't appearing likely that lower Manhattan will experience mass flooding."

IRENE APPROACHES: New Yorkers told to stay indoors.

HURRICANE CLOSES IN: Anticipation of the storm in pictures.

Quote of the Day II: William F. Buckley Jr.

QUOTE OF THE DAY II: "In the hands of a skillful indoctrinator, the average student not only thinks what the indoctrinator wants him to think . . . but is altogether positive that he has arrived at his position by independent intellectual exertion. This man is outraged by the suggestion that he is the flesh-and-blood tribute to the success of his indoctrinators." – William F. Buckley Jr., Up From Liberalism (1959)

Speculation on 'Palin 2012' continues

SPECULATION LIVES ON: Regarding the ever-so-slight possibility that Palin might enter the race at the last minute. It's amusing to see how doggedly the Fox hosts pursued Bristol for answers. Hope never dies for these sad souls.

The curse of immortality

THE CURSE OF IMMORTALITY: Stephen Cave explains. "Imagine nobody dies. All of a sudden, whether through divine intervention or an elixir slipped into the water supply, death is banished. Life goes on and on; all of us are freed from fear that our loved ones will be plucked from us, and each of us is rich in the most precious resource of all: time. Wouldn’t it be awful? [...] The problem is that our culture is based on our striving for immortality. It shapes what we do and what we believe; it has inspired us to found religions, write poems and build cities. If we were all immortal, the motor of civilization would sputter and stop." The notion of immortality has always been the defining factor in my fear of life after death, and one of the reasons I reject the whole concept entirely. Not only do I fail to comprehend it, I fail to understand how it can possibly be considered in favourable light. "Let us be grateful that the elixir continues to elude us — and toast instead our finitude." Indeed.

Quote of the Day: Ken Kesey

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "The answer is never the answer. What's really interesting is the mystery. If you seek the mystery instead of the answer, you'll always be seeking. I've never seen anybody really find the answer. They think they have, so they stop thinking. But the job is to seek mystery, evoke mystery, plant a garden in which strange plants grow and mysteries bloom. The need for mystery is greater than the need for an answer." — Ken Kesey

David Foster Wallace and the blogger lexicon

THE BLOGGER'S STYLE: Maud Newton writes of David Foster Wallace:

Geoff Dyer, an essayist as idiosyncratic and perceptive as Wallace but far more economical, confessed recently in Prospect magazine that he “break[s] out in a mental rash” when forced to read Wallace. “It’s not that I dislike the extravagance, the excess, the beanie-baroque, the phat loquacity,” Dyer wrote. “They just bug the crap out of me. ” Wallace’s nonfiction abounds with qualifiers like “sort of” and “pretty much” and sincerity-infusers like “really.” An icon of porn publishing described in the essay “Big Red Son,” for example, is “hard not to sort of almost actually like.” Within a brief excerpt from that piece in The New York Times Book Review, Wallace speaks of “the whole cynical postmodern deal” and “the whole mainstream celebrity culture,” and concludes that “the whole thing sucks.” Nor is this an unrepresentative sample; “whole” appears 20 times in the essay, so frequently that it begins to seem not just sloppy and imprecise but argumentatively, even aggressively, disingenuous. At their worst these verbal tics make it impossible to evaluate his analysis; I’m constantly wishing he would either choose a more straightforward way to limit his contentions or fully commit to one of them.

Visit some blogs — personal blogs, academic blogs, blogs associated with some of our most esteemed periodicals — to see these tendencies writ large. My own archives, dating back to 2002, are no exception. I suppose it made sense, when blogging was new, that there was some confusion about voice. Was a blog more like writing or more like speech? Soon it became a contrived and shambling hybrid of the two. The “sort ofs” and “reallys” and “ums” and “you knows” that we use in conversation were codified as the central connectors in the blogger lexicon.

On that note, I try to refrain from using such words in blogging, although they inevitably slip through on occasion. I don't know that David Foster Wallace's writing could really be compared, with any great degree of seriousness, to blogging, but it's an interesting article regardless. Read the whole thing.

Hurricane Irene: music suggestions and nuclear power plants

HURRICANE IRENE: Krugman has a music suggestion, and appropriate it is.

SPEAKING OF WHICH: Are there any nuclear power plants which lie in the storm's path? Xeni Jardin points to a list which reveals there are! Quite a few, in fact. (Sorry, in advance, for the slowness of the Associated Press' hosted news website. You'd think that an organisation of such standing would have better servers. Awful.)

The psychic benefits of ownership

PSYCHIC BENEFITS OF OWNERSHIP: Malcolm Gladwell, perhaps my favourite non-fiction author, explains them in terms of a sports team – in particular, in terms of Tom Yawkey's ownership of the Red Sox, a team in which racial integration was somewhat delayed. "Yawkey was not just a racist, in other words. He was a racist who put his hatred of black people ahead of his desire to make money. Economists have a special term they use to describe this kind of attitude. They would say that Yawkey owned the Red Sox not to maximize his financial benefits, but, rather, his psychic benefits. Psychic benefits describe the pleasure that someone gets from owning something — over and above economic returns — and clearly some part of the pleasure Yawkey got from the Red Sox came from not having to look at black people when he walked through the Fenway Park dugout. In discussions of pro sports, the role of psychic benefits doesn't get a lot of attention. But it should, because it is the key to understanding all kinds of behavior by sports owners."

Bill Keller on questioning candidates' faith

QUESTIONING CANDIDATES' FAITH: Times editor Bill Keller poses a question:

If a candidate for president said he believed that space aliens dwell among us, would that affect your willingness to vote for him? Personally, I might not disqualify him out of hand; one out of three Americans believe we have had Visitors and, hey, who knows? But I would certainly want to ask a few questions. Like, where does he get his information? Does he talk to the aliens? Do they have an economic plan? Yet when it comes to the religious beliefs of our would-be presidents, we are a little squeamish about probing too aggressively. Michele Bachmann was asked during the Iowa G.O.P. debate what she meant when she said the Bible obliged her to “be submissive” to her husband, and there was an audible wave of boos — for the question, not the answer. There is a sense, encouraged by the candidates, that what goes on between a candidate and his or her God is a sensitive, even privileged domain, except when it is useful for mobilizing the religious base and prying open their wallets.

Generally, although I'm of the view that people's rights to religious freedom ought to be protected, I feel that candidates ought to be looked at based on the 'whole package' (I suppose you could say). Keller makes some interesting points, regardless of what your view is on the whole issue.

Quote of the Day: Justice John Paul Stevens

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Anonymity is a shield from the tyranny of the majority. It thus exemplifies the purpose behind the Bill of Rights, and of the First Amendment in particular: to protect unpopular individuals from retaliation—and their ideas from suppression—at the hand of an intolerant society. The right to remain anonymous may be abused when it shields fraudulent conduct. But political speech by its nature will sometimes have unpalatable consequences, and, in general, our society accords greater weight to the value of free speech than to the dangers of its misuse." – Justice John Paul Stevens.

Ron Paul gaining momentum, polling past Michele Bachmann

GOOD NEWS: Ron Paul gaining momentum, polling past Michele Bachmann.

Tim Cook, new Apple CEO – gay icon?

TIM COOK'S SEXUALITY: Felix Salmon pleads the media not to ignore it. "But surely this is something we can and should be celebrating, if only in the name of diversity — that a company which by some measures the largest and most important in the world is now being run by a gay man. Certainly when it comes to gay role models, Cook is great: he’s the boring systems-and-processes guy, not the flashy design guru, and as such he cuts sharply against stereotype. He’s like Barney Frank in that sense: a super-smart, powerful and non-effeminate man who shows that being gay is no obstacle to any career you might want. [...] There’s no ethical dilemma when it comes to reporting on Cook’s sexuality: rather, the ethical dilemma comes in not reporting it, thereby perpetuating the idea that there’s some kind of stigma associated with being gay. Yes, the stigma does still exist in much of society. But it’s not the job of the press to perpetuate it. Quite the opposite."

The art of Japanese manhole covers

THE ART OF JAPANESE MANHOLE COVERS: It exists. "In the 1980s as communities outside of Japan’s major cities were slated to receive new sewer systems these public works projects were met with resistance, until one dedicated bureaucrat solved the problem by devising a way to make these mostly invisible systems aesthetically appreciated aboveground: customized manhole covers."

In the ruins of Gadhafi's lair, rebels find album filled with photos of his 'darling' Condoleezza Rice

GADHAFI'S CONDI RICE PICTURES: “Deeply bizarre and deeply creepy.” Y'think?

Obama, Libya, and political approval

OBAMA, LIBYA, AND APPROVAL: Argues E.J. Dionne in the Post, in terms of policy on Libya (or anything else, for that matter). He offers some advice. "What should Obama take from this? He needs to learn the difference between middle-ground policies, which flow from his natural instincts, and soggy, incoherent compromises with opponents who will say he’s wrong no matter what happens. [...] Obama should remember that steady moderation is very different from continually looking around to see if he can accommodate opponents who won’t be happy until he’s back teaching law school." Dionne makes a few good points. Doyle McManus speculates on whether or not the recent events in Libya will result in a bounce for Obama. "When he faces the voters next year, Obama can make a credible argument that in foreign policy, he's done most of what he promised. He said he would wind down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and U.S. troops are slowly disengaging from both countries. He promised to maintain the war against Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups; he's done that. And he promised to renew U.S. alliances so we could draw on more help from others; the NATO campaign in Libya, with much of the burden borne by Europeans, is proof that the doctrine can work. Obama's foreign policy has fallen short of its goals on other counts, most notably in Israel and Iran, but on balance, it's not a bad record."

Quote of the Day: Alan Bennett

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "That's a bit like asking a man crawling across the Sahara whether he would prefer Perrier or Malvern water." – English playwright and essayist Alan Bennett, when asked by Sir Ian McKellen – in 1997 – if he was homosexual.

Ron Paul and abortion

STRANGE FREEDOM: Althouse rounds up perspectives on Ron Paul's opposition to abortion.

The history of a Wikipedia page

THE WORKINGS OF WIKIPEDIA: A case study, using the page of Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita.

Apple without Steve: the pundits weigh in

APPLE WITHOUT STEVE: For years, much attention has been lavished on the question of how Apple will fare in the absence of its much-admired chief executive. With Steve Jobs' resignation, speculation is swirling. Gruber gives his take:

Apple’s products are replete with Apple-like features and details, embedded in Apple-like apps, running on Apple-like devices, which come packaged in Apple-like boxes, are promoted in Apple-like ads, and sold in Apple-like stores. The company is a fractal design. Simplicity, elegance, beauty, cleverness, humility. Directness. Truth. Zoom out enough and you can see that the same things that define Apple’s products apply to Apple as a whole. The company itself is Apple-like. The same thought, care, and painstaking attention to detail that Steve Jobs brought to questions like “How should a computer work?”, “How should a phone work?”, “How should we buy music and apps in the digital age?” he also brought to the most important question: “How should a company that creates such things function?” Jobs’s greatest creation isn’t any Apple product. It is Apple itself.

Well put. Read his whole post. Slate's Farhad Manjoo seems unconvinced of the idea that Apple is heading for a decline as a result of Jobs' resignation, although he harbors no doubt about his massive contribution.

Apple will surely change in small ways. The Stevenote—Jobs' fluid, engaging, product-unveiling keynote address—will turn into an on-stage committee, with execs taking turns unveiling products, none of them with the panache that Jobs brought to the task. We're also unlikely to see Tim Cook dash off e-mails to curious customers, and I don't think Cook will take the same keen interest in software design or typography. (There are others at Apple who certainly will, though.) But none of these things are central to Apple's success. On the big stuff, Jobs and Apple have achieved a total mindmeld. He'll be gone, but it'll be impossible for Jobs to be forgotten.

He's right, actually. Apple will be fine (in fact, it may even thrive without Jobs – more so than we can already see), but the change still seems drastic to us, even from the outside looking in. Of course, Stephen Fry should always have the final word (or tweet): "Terribly upset at the thought of Steve Jobs not feeling well enough to be CEO. Wishing him all the very very best…" Agreed. And that was that.

Hitchens on his new book: 'might be my very last'

HITCHENS' NEW BOOK MAY BE LAST: Public intellectual and author Christopher Hitchens, of whom I am very much a fan, has said that his new book, a collection of essays from numerous publications entitled Arguably, may well be his last. He writes in the book's introduction, "About a year ago, I was informed by a doctor that I might have as little as another year to live. In consequence, some of these articles were written with the full consciousness that they might be my very last...Sobering in one way and exhilarating in another, this practice can obviously never become perfected. But it has given me a more vivid idea of what makes life worth living, and defending, and I hope very much that some of this may infect those of you who have been generous enough to read me this far." I look forward to reading it.

Martin Amis on the poet Philip Larkin

MARTIN AMIS ON PHILIP LARKIN: In what could, perhaps, be included in our 'The Art of Poetry' thread, the author Martin Amis dissects the work and life of Philip Larkin more than 25 years after the poet's death. More poignantly, however, he provides some interesting perspective on the question of literary criticism and its merits. "Literary criticism, throughout its long history (starting with Aristotle), has restlessly searched for the Holy Grail of a value system – a way of separating the excellent from the less excellent. But it turns out that this is a fool’s errand. [...] The 'value' words here, both positive and negative, are in effect mere synonyms for individual preferences. Evaluative criticism is rhetorical criticism: it adds nothing to knowledge; it simply adds to the history of taste. After all, when we say 'Shakespeare is a genius' we are joining a vast concurrence; but we are not quite stating a fact. How good/great/important/major is Philip Larkin? Instinctively and not illogically we do bow, in these matters, to the verdict of Judge Time. Larkin died 25 years ago, and his reputation (after the wild fluctuation in the mid-1990s, to which we will return) looks increasingly secure." Read the whole thing.

Libertarian ocean colonies: 'Details' on Peter Thiel

LIBERTARIAN OCEAN COLONIES, CTD: Details has the story of the PayPal founder behind them.

When marketing met maths

WHEN MARKETING MET MATHS: I may be a laughably bad mathematician, but even I'm amused by this.

Apple expected to release cheaper iPhone within weeks

CHEAPER, BETTER: Apple expected to release cheaper iPhone within weeks. Damn.

A telemarketer's life

A TELEMARKETER'S LIFE: A member of the industry writes of his experiences selling newspaper subscriptions to uninterested people at dinnertime.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "If telemarketing happened over Skype and the potential customers could see the sad faces of the salespeople, I’m sure we’d see a huge increase in subscriptions. The general perception is that telemarketers have lousy or menial jobs; as I’ve said, people constantly mistreat them, or slam the phone in their faces. But as a telemarketer, you realize there’s something else that gnaws at you whenever you come into work: you’re expected to be a machine." – Daniel Portoraro.

The international Haiti response, a well-intentioned disaster

WHERE DID THE HAITI MONEY GO? Janet Reitman explores how the worldwide effort to help the earthquake-ravaged island turned into a well-intentioned disaster.

But despite all that has been promised, almost nothing has been built back in Haiti, better or otherwise. Within Port-au-Prince, some 3 million people languish in permanent misery, subject to myriad experiments at "fixing" a nation that, to those who are attempting it, stubbornly refuses to be fixed. Mountains of rubble remain in the streets, hundreds of thousands of people continue to live in weather-beaten tents, and cholera, a disease that hadn't been seen in Haiti for 60 years, has swept over the land, infecting more than a quarter million people. 

In the midst of such suffering, only a fraction of the money devoted to Haitian relief has actually been spent. This May, the U.S. Government Accountability Office reported that of the $1.14 billion allocated by Congress for Haiti last year, only $184 million has been "obligated." In a letter to the Obama administration this spring, 53 Democratic members of Congress blasted the "appalling" conditions in the refugee camps. "The unprecedented relief effort has given way to a sluggish, at best, reconstruction effort," said Rep. Barbara Lee, who is demanding an accounting of how the relief money is being spent. There is, she said, a "lack of urgency on the part of the international community."

Felix Salmon adds: "Development is a tricky game, easy to get wrong; as a rule, it only works when the people providing the aid are working at the margin, helping to strengthen existing projects, industries, and institutions, rather than trying to build them all from scratch. Let’s target it where it can be most effective, rather than where there happens to have been a newsworthy natural disaster. Of course Haiti needed help after the earthquake, but $11 billion was far too much for the fragile and damaged economy to bear. It’s a lesson worth remembering, the next time a natural disaster triggers another wave of appeals for financial aid." Agreed.

Peter Ackroyd: 'Rioting has been a london tradition for centuries'

RIOTING, A LONDON TRADITION: Peter Ackroyd puts London's chaos in context. "I can't get at all worked up about these most recent phenomena... I don't like those commentators who keep on saying that London will never be the same again. London is always the same again. I remember those comments were made very loudly after the [July 2005] terrorist attacks – 'London will never be the same again, London has lost its innocence' – it was all nonsense. London was exactly the same again the following day. Rioting has always been a London tradition. It has been since the early Middle Ages. There's hardly a spate of years that goes by without violent rioting of one kind or another."

France's super-rich bands together in petition for higher taxes

CODDLING THE SUPER-RICH, CTD: You probably remember the Buffett-Gates entente for the purposes of establishing higher taxes for the super-rich (them), and Buffett's op-ed in the Times on the issue, among other calls for tax increases. Now some of France's wealthy individuals are banding together in the form of a petition for the cause.

A group of 16 of the richest people in France has signed a petition asking the French government to increase their taxes. The group includes Liliane Bettencourt, the billionaire heiress of L’Oreal; Christophe de Margerie, the head of oil giant Total; Frederic Oudea of bank Société Générale; and Jean-Cyril Spinetta, president of Air France KLM SA. (Given SocGen’s share price, Mr. Oudea may not have as much wealth to tax). The group says the government should create a “special contribution” that would target the rich. “We are conscious of having benefited from a French system and a European environment that we are attached to and which we hope to help maintain,” the petition said.

You may be aware that I'm categorically in opposition to a 'special contribution' tax of any kind (one must admire the fantastically euphemistic words used, by the way), but am instead an advocate for a flat tax rate, coupled with a policy of lower income tax and higher GST. Consumption tax – on that note – is, in my view, perhaps one of the fairer kinds of taxes in that there is an abject lack of loopholes, which I consider to be the true source of injustice in our current tax system. People who exploit opportunities to escape taxation do so at the detriment of others who must pay in their stead. Given that the poor rarely pay much in terms of taxes (because they have so little to give), the people who ultimately become victims of loopholes are those in the middle class. As I have said before, the spreaders of injustice are not the rich, and the cause of poverty is not greed. Equally, government is not bad; individuals, though, are better.

Shocking images of devastation from the DC quake

DC EARTHQUAKE: A shocking image of devastation. Reddit's take.

Plato not a proponent of Platonic love

ON PLATO: Saw this whilst flicking though the Herald the other day. "Plato never believed in Platonic love, says an academic who has unlocked the secret codes of the ancient Greek philosopher's writings. Despite giving his name to the notion that spiritual love without sex is the highest form of romance, Plato in fact celebrated eroticism and advocated a middle path, avoiding both promiscuity and abstinence." In other words, he simply had naming rights; he didn't occupy the building. How about that?

The advantages of a one-term presidency

ADVANTAGES OF ONE-TERM PRESIDENCY: Jennifer Egan makes a perfect argument in this interactive feature from the Times, in which non-pundits share what they would do as president. "I’d decide (privately) from the outset that mine would be a one-term presidency. Freed from the stranglehold of ensuring my own political longevity, I would focus entirely on achieving what I think most Americans want: a stable and productive economy; an environmentally viable planet; a humane, efficient government capable of educating its young and protecting its vulnerable members. Americans are less selfish than some of our politicians believe (projection may be a factor here!) and will respond with reason and resilience to passionate clarity."

BIG THINGS: Mitt Romney's house, for example.

FLIP-FLOPPING: Michele Bachmann has been crowned the queen of it.

The nature of learning math

THE NATURE OF LEARNING MATH: Rishidev Chaudhuri writes: "Much of the learning in a math class happens not in the lectures but afterwards, in the time spent on problem sets (and, if you had a choice between attending the lectures and doing the problem sets, you should always pick the latter). Unfortunately, most people make it through a high school mathematical education without being taught this. This has unfortunate consequences and makes mathematical learning exceedingly vulnerable to expectation and self-belief, so that it is often seen as something you either can or can't do, and many people see the struggle as a sign of a lack of ability rather than as an intrinsic part of the learning. There are certainly children who, for whatever accident of genetics, upbringing or attentional prowess start out by being quicker at math. But this seems swamped by differences in temperament and confidence, or by the effect that initial quickness has on confidence. How you engage with the setbacks of learning seems more important than how quick you are."

Is there room for another GOP candidate?

THE FINAL 2012 SET: Nate Silver is convinced there's still room for another candidate.

One seismic factor affecting Republicans’ decision is that Barack Obama is now exceptionally vulnerable for an incumbent president. If you’re a Republican and you think you can become president, that’s doubly important for you; not only does it mean that those aspirations are more likely to be fulfilled this time around, it also means that they’re less likely to be realized in 2016 or 2020 because there’s now more chance that some other Republican will already occupy the Oval Office by then. So real estate in the Republican primary field has become more valuable. And, despite Mr. Perry’s entry, there’s still some available for the taking. Not much of it is prime real estate, but like the nooks and crannies of Manhattan, it may still be in demand.

He's right, but in many ways there will always be room for another candidate. Another frontrunner, though? That's another question entirely.

I'm back - Alistair

I'M BACK: After a few days in Sydney, I'm back in New Plymouth, feeling ready to blog (and attend school again, I suppose – although it's something of an afterthought). Incase you're wondering, it was a rather pleasant jaunt across the Tasman with all unpleasantness in circumstances fully considered. Never being one to waste an opportunity for a show, we attended a performance of Mary Poppins at the Capitol Theatre. It was excellent. I thought the over-auditorium flying to be particularly thrilling (as did, no doubt, the rest of the audience). Other than that, it was simply pleasant to see members of my family, with whom I rarely have the opportunity to converse. Back now, anyway.

Vodafone signs multi-million dollar deal with Pacific Fibre

VODAFONE SIGNS MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR DEAL: Vodafone New Zealand has agreed to supply international bandwidth to Pacific Fibre's cable system in a multi-million dollar agreement. This 10 year deal will bring competitors into a currently monopolised market and invoke some much needed advances to New Zealand's current system. Pacific Fibre's undersea cable will be connecting New Zealand to Australia then to the USA, hopefully launching in early 2014. CEO of Vodafone Russell Stanners says:

By partnering with an innovative, entrepreneurial business such as Pacific Fibre, we're helping to break down the digital divide between New Zealand and the rest of the world.....This deal will allow us to scale our customer offers over the next 10 years delivering the quality and quantity of capacity that our customers need now and into the future.....This will help us to support New Zealanders' online ambitions by making sure they can confidently connect to the world and the world can confidently connect to New Zealand.

Finally, some much needed progress. I am quite excited to see, in actuality, what this will bring to New Zealand. - posted by Ciaran

Clouds over Kobe

CLOUDS OVER KOBE: How picturesque...... - posted by Ciaran

Quote of the day

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun." - Mao Tse-tung. - posted by Ciaran

How I love "Engrish"

HOW I LOVE "ENGRISH": Oh language; you are a wondrous tool in the right hands.....but in the wrong we get this. Since I now how much you love when English is used poorly, Alistair; this is for you. - posted by Ciaran

10 things you must never do in Japan

10 NO-NO'S IN JAPAN: These ten are quite amusing and also true. Of course, they might seem silly to someone from the outside staring in; but they are all subtle gestures which show dignity, self-restraint, respectability. From "don't bathe in the bathtub" to "don't fumble with chopsticks", follow these rules and we all might grow a little. I hope you enjoyed my pseudo-pretentious cultural lesson (This is also a bit of an inside joke). - posted to Ciaran

Telecom profits cut in half

TELECOM PROFITS CUT IN HALF : Due to it's ageing copper lines; Telecom New Zealand has wrote down it's worth by more the half. Net profit is estimated at $166 million, opposed to last year's $382 million. The company made the change as a result of attaining the governments $1.32 billion fund to give New Zealand better internet. As the plan is; I don't find it very beneficial in the long term. New Zealand will be receiving "ultra-fast" ADSL2 which (In theory) can deliver around 20+Mbps download and 1Mbps, however, countries like Japan and South Korea have had fibre optic for years; which can deliver a 100+Mbps internet connection, packaged with plans allowing unlimited data allowance. It's not going to take very long for ADSL2 to be just as out-dated as copper lines are now. - posted by Ciaran

Okay, another stock market plunge

STOCK MARKET PLUNGE: Yet another. S&P 500 down more than four percent. Not looking particularly good, I have to say.

Blog-Housekeeping: substitute blogger

SUBSTITUTE BLOGGER: Due to some home news, my family and I are heading over to Sydney for the next few days. Given that we like to keep up to date around here, Ciaran – who has been blogging here sporadically for a short while – will be adding content over the weekend. I'll be back on Wednesday at the latest, and intend to post content at some point throughout my visit. If not, though, I'll see you next week.

Tidbits - Krugman and Huffington

HOW KRUGMAN FOUND POLITICS: The New Yorker has highlighted a profile of the Nobel-winning economist on their website. Worth a read if you haven't already.

AOL'S DO-OVER: Apparently they're still waiting for that ambitious turnaround.

Quote of the Day: Stephen Fry

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Language is my whore, my mistress, my wife, my pen-friend, my check-out girl. Language is a complimentary moist lemon-scented cleansing square or handy freshen-up wipette. Language is the breath of God, the dew on a fresh apple, it's the soft rain of dust that falls into a shaft of morning sun when you pull from an old bookshelf a forgotten volume of erotic diaries; language is the faint scent of urine on a pair of boxer shorts, it's a half-remembered childhood birthday party, a creak on the stair, a spluttering match held to a frosted pane, the warm wet, trusting touch of a leaking nappy, the hulk of a charred Panzer, the underside of a granite boulder, the first downy growth on the upper lip of a Mediterranean girl, cobwebs long since overrun by an old Wellington boot." – Stephen Fry.

How Google's acquisition of Motorola changes the Android strategy dramatically

GOOGLE AND MOTOROLA: How Google's acquisition of the company changes their Android strategy dramatically. "Today, the platform is "open" but chaotic—because phone-makers get the software for free and can do whatever they want with it, Android is available on some good phones as well as lots and lots of cheap, bad ones. In the aftermath of this deal, Google will seek to exert greater influence over hardware companies. Eventually, the deal will help reduce the number of new Android devices that are released every year, and the few that are released will be of generally higher quality—and sell for higher prices—than what we see in the Android device market today." Indeed. The Google guys explain their plans. "This acquisition will not change our commitment to run Android as an open platform. Motorola will remain a licensee of Android and Android will remain open. We will run Motorola as a separate business. Many hardware partners have contributed to Android’s success and we look forward to continuing to work with all of them to deliver outstanding user experiences." Hmmm.

George Bernard Shaw and the end of criticism

THE END OF CRITICISM: Maria Bustillos uses the work of George Bernard Shaw to illustrate the lack of valuable criticism in today's art and literary spheres. Money quote:

When was the last time you read a really scorching arts review in an ordinary newspaper? I don't mean just vitriolic, I mean one that was thoroughly exciting because it cast an entirely new light on something. You like this, you don't like that, who cares? Nobody really, not unless you say why. An unadorned "boo" is no better than an unadorned "yay." It's the why that creates the hotly beating heart of good criticism. Splashing the vitriol around is attractive to certain writers but the vitriol is like Angostura bitters, you can't drink it on its own; it requires the gin of explanation and conjecture, the ice cubes of levity, and then you have a Pink Gin, which is an excellent cocktail?—never mind all that, what I mean is that the bald declaration that something is "terrible" (or "towering") is the opposite of discerning, it's cheap as can be.

When you consider some of the profound inanity of today's newspapers, this is an even more astute observation than you may have originally thought.

Robert Emmel, the whistleblower who incurred Murdoch's wrath

ROBERT EMMEL: The whistleblower who incurred Murdoch's wrath.

Don't look down – the state of welfare

DON'T LOOK DOWN: Writers from The Economist explain why the poor enjoy taxing the rich a little less than you may think.

The nature of pride; what does it mean to be proud of one's country?

THE NATURE OF PRIDE: Norman Geras questions the implications of being proud of one's identity.

The question is this: how can one be proud or glad of one's identity without implying the judgement that 'your' people - Irish, Jews, Italians, whoever - are better than other people? Suppose you thought that the group you belonged to was worse than everyone else. How could you be glad to belong there? And if they were neither worse nor better but just different, what would be the source of your comparative feeling that belonging to this group was especially good? There's a possible parallel here with the feelings of an individual. Would I rather be someone else? (By this I don't mean: are there advantages someone else enjoys that I don't enjoy and would like to, while remaining myself? I mean: would I like to be that person?) For all those who would answer no, for they are happy, indeed prefer, to be who they are, must this entail that they disparage all other individuals as being less good people to be than they are themselves?

He makes a good point. The answer, as Geras goes on to say, is no. But that doesn't mean that the afore-mentioned implications are entirely invalid. I've always resented the quality of being overly-proud of one's country; a striking level of patriotism is something I come to dislike in a number of people. Sure, it's acceptable to be proud of the country, ideology, religion, or ethnic group to which you belong, but we don't need to hear about it all the time. (via TDD)

Obama, the realist

OBAMA, THE REALIST: The president has acknowledged that he may be a one-term president in an interview with CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer in Iowa. Seems like a non-story at first, until you get to the quotes. "The mess has been bigger than a lot of people anticipated at the time. We have made steady progress on these fronts, but we’re not making progress fast enough. What I continue to believe is that ultimately the buck stops with me. I’m going to be accountable." That's Politico's grand acknowledgment. A realist, and certainly not a socialist; he agreed with Romney's comments that free enterprise has been the biggest wealth creator we've ever seen. One of the more amusing quotes concerns Rick Perry's misguided comments on Ben Bernanke. "I think that everybody who runs for president, it probably takes them a little bit of time before they start realizing that this isn’t like running for governor, or running for senator, or running for Congress. And you’ve got to be a little more careful about what you say." The truly concerning element of all this is that Perry may not need his advice.

Abercrombie & Fitch willing to pay cast members of the dreadful 'Jersey Shore' to stop wearing their clothes

FASHION BRAND DAMAGE: This is rather amusing.

On Tuesday, clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch said it would offer "substantial payment" to MTV's The Jersey Shore's cast members to stop wearing the brand on air. "We are deeply concerned that Mr. Sorrentino's association with our brand could cause significant damage to our image. We understand that the show is for entertainment purposes, but believe this association is contrary to the aspirational nature of our brand, and may be distressing to many of our fans," an Abercrombie & Fitch spokesperson said in a statement. "We have also extended this offer to other members of the cast, and are urgently waiting a response."

I can understand their rationale. It's hard to argue anything, or anyone, would ever want to be associated with that dreadful piece of television. It is somewhat reminiscent of Louis Vuitton's constant battles to protect the famous monogram canvas design and pattern. Businesses – particularly those which rely so heavily on the 'aspirational' image described in the quoted passage – seem to spend so much of their time and attention on protecting the brand they wish to cultivate and maintain.

Libertarian ocean colonies, continued / Albert Camus

LIBERTARIAN OCEAN COLONIES, CTD: A reader suggests the whole concept may be like the 1969 film Hello Down There, only with more people. The thought made me chortle.

ALBERT CAMUS: The New Yorker's Richard Brody on car crashes and cinema.

The words of others: John Sutherland on quotations in culture

THE WORDS OF OTHERS: John Sutherland reflects on the state of quotations.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "I have wanted to kill myself a hundred times, but somehow I am still in love with life. This ridiculous weakness is perhaps one of our more stupid melancholy propensities, for is there anything more stupid than to be eager to go on carrying a burden which one would gladly throw away, to loathe one’s very being and yet to hold it fast, to fondle the snake that devours us until it has eaten our hearts away?" – Voltaire.

Rick Perry's vitriolic rhetoric

PERRY'S VITRIOLIC RHETORIC: Did Rick Perry's comments on Fed chairman Ben Bernanke hurt him – or help him? "Bernanke, after all, was an original Bush appointee. The question becomes: Do Perry’s remarks disqualify him among some in the GOP establishment? Or is this where the Republican primary voters are right now?" I shouldn't think so; but, then again, there's a tendency in politics for people to believe exactly what politicians tell them. Erza Klein wonders why Rick Perry, a self-described 'conservative to the core', would stage an attack on Milton Friedman's preferred fiscal policy.

If you ignore the implied threat of violence against the head of America's central bank, Perry's position is unremarkable in today's Republican Party. But that is perhaps what is so remarkable about it. The GOP's turn against monetary policy is one of the most consequential and underdiscussed trends in economic policy. It was the conservative icon Milton Friedman, after all, who pioneered the argument that the Great Depression was largely the fault of poor monetary policy. His analysis had the dual advantages of being both true and useful to skeptics of government spending. It implied that there were more ways to prevent and respond to recessions than to simply have Congress take out the credit card.

It just so transpires that Perry has some, er, interesting thoughts on border security, too.

Rick Perry's fundraising problem

CAMPAIGN FINANCE: Rick Perry's fundraising problem.

Books without Borders, continued

BOOKS WITHOUT BORDERS, CTD: Jonathan Gourlay eulogizes the bookstore. Although Gourlay appears to reflect with more fondness than the last article to which I linked, the conclusion is almost identical. "It’s sad to see the stores shuttering. But the Borders worth having disappeared a long time ago."

PayPal founder backs project to build libertarian ocean colonies

LIBERTARIAN OCEAN COLONIES: I kid you not, some people plan to build them. PayPal founder Peter Thiel has already pledged half-a-million dollars to the project, which is led by a team that includes the grandson of the late Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman, of whom I am very much a fan. Apparently the homes that will make up the 'colonies' are termed 'seasteads'. "In essence, the seastead would consist of a reinforced concrete tube with external ballasts at the bottom that could be filled with air or water to raise or lower the living platform on top. [...] The primary living space, about 300 square feet per person, would be inside the tube, but the duo envisions the top platform holding buildings, gardens, solar panels, wind turbines and (of course) satellites for internet access." Ann Althouse is skeptical. "But you're stuck there indefinitely. And you're not going to call up the United States to rescue you when things go awry, right? I just have one request: Cameras everywhere! We want to watch your reality show." Only in Silicon Valley.

Ron Paul, the press-neglected frontrunner

RON PAUL, MEDIA POISON: It seems like the increasingly-mainstream libertarian isn't getting the media attention one would assume he deserves, especially given his placing in last weekend's Iowa straw poll – just 200 votes fewer than winner Michele Bachmann. Politico highlights the media's reluctance to place him front and centre, with some reservations: "Let me say right here that unlike many of Paul’s supporters, I don’t believe there is a left-wing media conspiracy working against him. Ralph Nader, who is about as far as you can get from Paul politically, has the same problem whenever he runs for president." Agreed. My suspicion is that Paul remains the subject of media neglect because he's no longer the big-new-thing. Fresher faces seem to make more headline-grabbing news. The people have seen Ron Paul too often before, and now – when he's finally being taken seriously by his own constituents – the man who was considered 'unelectable' isn't receiving his due share of the press. Perhaps his 'unelectability' will be perpetuated only by the lack of limelight. Such a shame.

THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR: Jon Stewart puts it how it is.

Study of human genome disproves idea that humanity is descended from one couple

ADAM AND EVE, LITERALLY IMPOSSIBLE: Studies on the human genome have ruled out the possibility that humanity is descended from two people only. Someone tell Michele Bachmann, please.

Why we find moral leaders annoying

WHY MORAL LEADERS ARE ANNOYING: Josh Rothman writes of the problem:

Moral leadership is challenging for an obvious reason -- you have to know what's right and wrong. But it's also difficult because, on the whole, people are ambivalent about moral crusaders. Now there's a name for that strange mixture of admiration, guilt, and defensive dismissiveness you feel when you encounter someone better than you: it's called "anticipated reproach," and Benoît Monin, a psychologist at Stanford, has studied it in a number of fascinating experiments. His essential finding: The more we feel as though good people might be judging us, the lower they tend to fall in our regard. As he explains in a recent paper, coauthored with Julia Minson of Wharton, "overtly moral behavior can elicit annoyance and ridicule rather than admiration and respect" when we feel threatened by someone else's high ethical standards.

This seems to echo the truth more loudly than anything else I've seen thus far today. It's true that we feel threatened by someone else's (often impractical and unrealistically) high moral standards and ethical codes. Although I tend to subscribe to a far simpler philosophy on the whole matter: modern moral crusaders seem perennially trying to convince you of their cause, and this, in itself, is annoying. Sorry, but as scintillating as I'm lead to believe they are, I just don't care for your views on whaling, global warming, or the need for healthier eating – particularly when your outlet is a Facebook page. It's hard to know how anyone could take you all so seriously.

Where does the term 'copycat' originate?

'COPYCAT': Where does the term come from? Brahna Siegelberg explains. "Unlike monkeys and parrots, cats aren't actually known for imitative behavior, but the term is somewhat logical since "cat" has been an insult since the medieval period. Cats were associated with all sorts of evil and mischief. In an early-13th-century monastic guidebook for female monks called Ancrene Riwle, for instance, the anonymous author warns ascetics against becoming "cats of hell." (The term "hell-cat," by the way, began to crop up around 1603, according to the Oxford English Dictionary.) More famously, Shakespeare used "cat" in a similarly negative sense in All's Well That End's Well; Count Bertram tells his right-hand man that Captain Dumain seems increasingly sleazy: "A pox upon him for me, he's more and more a Cat." Judging from this etymological history, a "copycat" isn't someone who copies, like a cat, but a jerk prone to imitation." There you go.

Authors and critics give their feelings on overrated books

OVERRATED LITERATURE: Authors and critics weigh-in on the 'great books' that aren't so great. Reminds me of this, which I very much enjoyed.

The new schools of thought

CODDLING THE SUPER-RICH, CTD: Obama agrees with Buffett on this one.

HISTORICAL DEBATES: General understanding of history dictates that the nuclear bomb was the catalyst for Japan's surrender. But a new school of thought disputes this notion on a number of points, and it's gaining mainstream appeal.

The Bachmann transformation, continued: Mother Jones weighs in

THE BACHMANN TRANSFORMATION, CTD: Another article – this time in Mother Jones – has caught my eye on GOP frontrunner Michele Bachmann, although the article itself arguably plays second fiddle to one published just a few days earlier by the New Yorker. Regardless it's worth a read; particularly for its content on the Bachmann homosexuality front. Further evidence of simply how repulsive this woman's whole enterprise is. Money quote: "But in some respects she's already won. Whoever claims the GOP nomination will likely do so by adopting the government-shrinking, "constitutional conservative" approach that Bachmann's trumpeted for decades." I don't know about that. Something tells me the 'ideal future' has only been achieved when she's the achiever.

The art of poetry, the Paris Review interviews Stanley Kunitz

THE ART OF POETRY: The Paris Review interviews the poet Stanley Kunitz. The interviewer asks if there were any pressures that brought about his looser style, in poems like The Testing-Tree. He responds:

The language of my poetry's always been accessible, even when the syntax was complex. I've never used an esoteric vocabulary, though some of my information may have been special. I believe there is such an intrinsic relationship between form and content that the moment you start writing a poem in pentameters you tend to revert to an Elizabethan idiom. “Night Letter,” for example, is rhetorically an Elizabethan poem. What strikes me, as I read and reread the poetry and prose of the Elizabethans, is that they had a longer breath unit—their language was still bubbling and rich in qualifiers, in adjectives and adverbs. The nouns and verbs of Shakespeare couldn't, by themselves, fulfill the line and give it enough richness of texture for the Renaissance taste. I acquired a taste for that kind of opulence of language, but as the years went on I began to realize that my breath units didn't require so long a line. By my middle period I was mainly working with tetrameters, which eliminated at least one adjective from every line. In my current phase I've stripped that down still more. I want the energy to be concentrated in my nouns and verbs, and I write mostly in trimeters, since my natural span of breath seems to be three beats. It seems to me so natural now that I scarcely ever feel the need for a longer line. Sometimes I keep a little clock going when people talk to me and I notice they too are speaking in trimeters. Back in the Elizabethan Age I'd have heard pentameters.

Have a look at the whole article.

Coping with the cost of war, the role of taxes

COPING WITH THE COST OF WAR: Should we raise taxes? History would reveal, argues James Wright, that it has worked in the past.

GOOGLE BUYS MOTOROLA: Sure to ignite another sort of war, no doubt. Dealbook reports: "The acquisition would turn Google, which makes the Android mobile operating system, into a full-fledged cellphone manufacturer, in direct competition with Apple."

The Bachmann transformation

THE BACHMANN TRANSFORMATION: From small town isolationist to Republican front-runner. Ryan Lizza observes:

Bachmann was getting interested in politics just as her party was getting interested in people like her. In the late nineteen-nineties, she began travelling throughout Minnesota, delivering lectures in churches, and writing pamphlets, on the perils of a federal education law known as School to Work, which supported vocational training, and a Minnesota education law known as Profile of Learning, which set state education standards. In one pamphlet, she wrote that federal education law “embraces a socialist, globalist worldview; loyalty to all government and not America.” In another, she warned of a “new restructuring of American society,” beginning with “workforce boards” that would tell every student the specific career options he or she could pursue, turning children into “human resources for a centrally planned economy.”

Once in the State Senate, Bachmann rallied Republicans against Profile of Learning, and the statute was eventually repealed. She led fights to defend the public display of the Ten Commandments and to ban same-sex marriage. A gay member of the State Senate says that she once prayed over his desk. In 2006, she was elected to Congress, and, within a year, because of her frequent, and controversial, appearances on cable TV, she had become one of the most recognizable faces in the Republican caucus. Soon, evangelical activists were talking about her as a potential Presidential candidate. This year, Bachmann was selected by the Tea Party to give its response to Obama’s State of the Union address. 

An astute piece, and one worth reading in full. Sorry, by the way, about my obsession with this woman over the last few weeks. It's a sort of morbid fascination.

GOP candidates praise Pawlenty; Huntsman digs into Romney

GOP CANDIDATES PRAISE PAWLENTY: Following his exit from the race. Isn't it amazing how nice people can be when they're not competing? Bachmann, for example, said that she'd like to "to express my respect and admiration for him, and to wish him and his family well. Running for the presidency requires enormous self-sacrifice. Governor Pawlenty brought an important voice and ideas to the campaign, and he served the people of Minnesota and our country well. Our party and our country are better as a result of his service and commitment." How charming.

HUNTSMAN'S REAL WORLD: The candidate finally digs into Romney. "This is not a time for theoretical answers or theoretical discussions, you live in the real world, you have to deal with the economic realities."

This is truly awful

DISGUSTING: This is truly awful. What a sad, sad story.

Things that would be amusing: a Bachmann-Palin feud

THINGS THAT WOULD BE AMUSING: A Bachmann-Palin feud. Some say it's possible.

Winston Churchill, essential figure in the creation of the welfare state

THE FORGOTTEN CHURCHILL: The boisterous, witty man we know as the Prime Minister who stared down Hitler also helped create the modern welfare state. An often-forgotten fact.

First elected to Parliament in the fall of 1900, in the last weeks of Queen Victoria’s reign, he entered the cabinet at Liberal Prime Minister H. H. As­quith’s invitation in April 1908. In the same year, after being refused in marriage by Ethel Barrymore (among other ladies), he married Clementine Hozier. Then came two world wars that changed many lives, and especially his. 

What is forgotten, above all, is his role as a social reformer and a founder of the British welfare state. In 1908, as president of the national Board of Trade, Churchill invited a young William Beveridge onto his team: Beveridge was a Scottish civil servant who would one day design the British National Health Service. Nowadays, however, those who gaze at the carved slab inside the door of Westminster Abbey that reads “Remember Winston Churchill” seldom remember that. Even in 1965, when the slab was unveiled by Queen Elizabeth II, a few months after his death, all that people remembered was the war hero who defied Hitler, with or without a cigar.

Read the whole thing; it's not as politically-motivated as it might seem from this little passage, covering not only Churchill's involvement in the establishment of the welfare system, but also his winning of the Nobel Prize for Literature and other notable achievements. Read on.

Coddling the super-rich, according to Warren Buffett

CODDLING THE SUPER-RICH: Warren Buffett, of the good ship Berkshire Hathaway, writes in his op-ed for the New York Times of one of his ongoing qualms with the US tax system: he isn't taxed highly enough.

While the poor and middle class fight for us in Afghanistan, and while most Americans struggle to make ends meet, we mega-rich continue to get our extraordinary tax breaks. Some of us are investment managers who earn billions from our daily labors but are allowed to classify our income as “carried interest,” thereby getting a bargain 15 percent tax rate. Others own stock index futures for 10 minutes and have 60 percent of their gain taxed at 15 percent, as if they’d been long-term investors. Last year my federal tax bill — the income tax I paid, as well as payroll taxes paid by me and on my behalf — was $6,938,744. That sounds like a lot of money. But what I paid was only 17.4 percent of my taxable income — and that’s actually a lower percentage than was paid by any of the other 20 people in our office. Their tax burdens ranged from 33 percent to 41 percent and averaged 36 percent.

Although I agree with Buffett on the deplorable matter of tax breaks (incidentally, it's the middle class which ultimately receives the bill for these; for as a result the rich pay little tax, and the poor have never paid much in tax anyway) I have serious reservations as to whether tax brackets constitute the ideal solution for our problems in this area. If I were to implement my own solution, it would be established thusly: a flat income tax of 25% for everyone, regardless of how large their income (never mind goods and services tax, where applicable, for the moment). I'd also abolish minimum wage, but that's an entirely separate issue. Bill Gates, with whom Buffett has partnered on numerous occasions philanthropically (you know, donating thirty billion dollars, and all) shares Buffett's view on the idea of higher taxation for the rich. Given all the work he does in terms of charity, an interesting question would be whether he would prefer paying money to a government, or paying money into his own foundation. Regardless, the solution to low taxation on the rich isn't to raise it; that is a tried-and-failed method – it's in closing the endless loopholes.

Quote of the Day: William Faulkner

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "I decline to accept the end of man... I refuse to accept this. I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among the creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance. The poet's, the writer's, duty is to write about these things. It is his privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of his past. The poet's voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail." – William Faulkner.

Bush and Perry: a meme is born

BUSH AND PERRY: And so, a meme is born.

Michele Bachmann on 'Meet the Press'

MICHELE BACHMANN: Appears on Meet the Press.

Krugman on Pawlenty

KRUGMAN ON PAWLENTY: In the unlikely event that you haven't heard yet, Tim Pawlenty has dropped out of the presidential race. Paul Krugman writes that he's going to miss him, calling him an 'econopundit's dream'. "I mean, there’s a constant torrent of nonsense flowing from the likes of Michelle Bachmann — but it’s so unvarying that there’s not much to say. What made Pawlenty fun was that he was supposed to be the smart, capable candidate, someone who actually knew stuff; and yet every time he opened his mouth on policy issues, he revealed that he didn’t know a blessed thing, that he just read supposed fact sheets from right-wing hacks with no notion that, say, claims about a vast expansion of government employment based on temporary Census hiring were something to discount." Suffice it to say that most of us could see this coming; in all honesty, the Pawlenty campaign never really took off.

Julian Assange on rioters: they've assisted 'Big Brother'

ASSANGE ON RIOTERS: A surprising perspective on the matter, perhaps, but one with which I agree nonetheless. It strikes me as a rather accurate statement: the looters on the streets of Britain over the past week have done 'Big Brother' a favour by giving the government more latitude to invade the privacy and destroy the rights of its citizens – that is, according to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has been accused of 'digital terrorism' on a number of occasions; I'm inclined to agree, despite the obvious ironies of Julian Assange making a comparison to Big Brother. Assange, of course, being a man whose organisation has done more in terms of privacy invasion than most. (His modus operandi has always struck me as something of a moral dilemma. Is the invasion of someone's privacy justified because they are a high-ranking government official? A perpetrator of corruption? Is that sort of behaviour ever justified? Not to mention the highest irony of all: how can an organisation so secretive create the impression of being one promoting the cause of transparency?)

Secularism and its discontents

SECULARISM AND ITS DISCONTENTS: James Wood writes in the New Yorker:

Many people, for instance, believe that morality is a deliverance of God, and that without God there is no morality—that in a secular world “everything is permitted.” You can hear this on Fox News; it is behind the drive to have the Ten Commandments displayed in courtrooms. But philosophers like Kitcher remember what Socrates tells Euthyphro, who supposed that the good could be defined by what the gods had willed: if what the gods will is based on some other criterion of goodness, divine will isn’t what makes something good; but if goodness is simply determined by divine will there’s no way for us to assess that judgment. In other words, if you believe that God ordains morality—constitutes it through his will—you still have to decide where God gets morality from. If you are inclined to reply, “Well, God is goodness; He invents it,” you threaten to turn morality into God’s plaything, and you deprive yourself of any capacity to judge that morality.

An excellent essay. You ought to read the whole thing.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe:, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves." – Carl Sagan, from his widely-quoted manifesto, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space. This particular quote is truly beautiful. Best viewed in context; see here.

Perry: a threat to America, not just other candidates

PERRY KICKS OFF: With new campaign video, for one. As much as I'd like to be apolitical on this matter, I would be lying if I neglected to inform you that I sincerely hope this man is utterly unsuccessful in his pursuits. As far as I'm concerned, regardless of my feelings on his fiscal policy (which, in many ways, I support), it would be abhorrent for him to establish the kind of social policy of which he is an ardent proponent; after all, we're talking about a man who deemed the Texas anti-sodomy law to be 'appropriate', who supports the teaching of creationism in schools, and advocates the death penalty. (Not to mention his involvement in endorsing the Texas secession movement.) This is a man who could pose a remarkable threat to some of the freedoms many Americans value. "Mr Perry’s friends believe he never intended to run for president but now feels he has to move beyond his beloved Texas because his country is in peril. The coming months will tell whether the boy from Paint Creek could be hailed by voters as a potential national saviour," the Telegraph reports. I certainly hope not.

London: before and after the riots

LONDON RIOTS: Photos, before and after.

GOOD NEWS, I SUPPOSE: More than 1000 arrested following riots.

Christopher Hitchens on fifty years of 'Private Eye'

THE ACCIDENTAL INSTITUTION: For fifty years now, Private Eye has operated as a satirical publication with few limits applied to the the scope of its victims: everything from the feminist movement to the absurdities of modern music and poetry. Christopher Hitchens celebrates this most unusual of institutions.

Burning Down the House: debate shifts to 'why' on UK riots

BURNING DOWN THE HOUSE: Michael Weiss on the riots in London. 'Social exclusion', he writes, is a problem, but it doesn't excuse the lawlessness and looting on the streets of London. Nor, for that matter, does it justify the actions of those who perpetrated the afore-mentioned looting. It might also be worth mentioning – as Weiss did in his column – the shooting of Tottenham resident Mark Duggan by the Metropolitan Police, which is being used flippantly as justification for violence demonstrated against innocent, disinterested business owners and commercial enterprises. I think Anne Applebaum put it rather well in her column for the same website just days earlier: "The rioters themselves do not wave signs. They do not chant chants. They weren't protesting any particular government policy, as were student demonstrators in London last winter. They have not sought publicity for their views, if they have any. They hid from cameras and dodged journalists. And thus did they become the inkblot in a kind of national Rorschach test: Everyone sees in them the political issue they care about most, whether it's welfare dependency, budget cuts, the decline of public education, or—my personal favorite—the rise of a vulgar and amoral public culture. And yet it is their lack of politics that most clearly defines them." Indeed. I'll reiterate my comments from a couple of days ago: we're dealing with thugs, not activists.

The Times weighs in on the why question. "Some commentators have blamed modern society at large. The Daily Telegraph struck a popular chord when it blamed a “culture of greed and impunity” that it said extended to corporate boardrooms and the government itself. Many politicians, meanwhile, have lashed out at technology — including the instant messaging that encouraged looting — for whipping up the crowds. But as more details of the crimes emerge, the picture has become infinitely more complicated, and confusing. In some of the more shocking cases, the crimes seemed to be rooted in nothing more than split-second decisions made by normally orderly people seduced by the disorder around them." Read on.