Weekly Digest: June 9, 2013-June 15, 2013

  • Wanted: Better War Planning by Better War Planners

    Who reads passages like the following from this news report   on the American decision to arm rebels in Syria, and feels comforted? “Arming the Syrian rebels is unlikely to tip the balance in their favor,” said  Shadi Hamid , director of research at the  Brookings Institution ’s Doha Center. “It might have made a difference a year ago, but, today, the Assad regime -- particularly after re-taking Qusair -- has the advantage.” Even some U.S. officials are worried that Obama’s reluctant decision…

  • More on the First Round of the Iranian Presidential Election

    In this post , I pleaded with Iranian reformists not to boycott the Iranian presidential elections in response to regime efforts to curb moderate and reformist participation in the political process. As I mentioned, "[t] he regime would like nothing less than to see moderate and reformist voters disillusioned, dispirited, apathetic and un-engaged in the upcoming elections; after all, such a state of affairs makes it easier to elect hardliners without resorting to vote-rigging, and thus without…

  • Surprising--and Unsurprising--News from the First Round of Iran's Presidential Election

    First, the surprising news: The leading moderate candidate for the presidency has emerged as the strongest of all of the candidates after the first round of voting :  Early results from Iran's presidential election put the reformist-backed candidate, Hassan Rouhani, in the lead. With 2.9m ballots counted, the cleric had 1.46m votes, or 49.87%, well ahead of Tehran mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, with 488,000 votes, or 16.65%. If no candidate wins more than 50%, a run-off will be held next Friday. It…

  • Eventually, Andrew Sullivan Deserts His Idols

    And it looks as though he has done so again . To be fair, I don't blame him .

  • A War in Syria?

    There have been a number of developments regarding the civil war in Syria. For one thing, the Obama administration has come to the conclusion that the Syrian regime used chemical weapons against Syrian rebels, and now believes that it must arm the rebels against the regime .  It ought to go without saying that the use of chemical weapons is A Bad Thing, but everyone ought to understand that the arming of Syrian rebels may not represent the end of American involvement in Syria. Rather, it may only represent…

  • Here's the Thing about the “Least Truthful Answer”

    It's still not truthful .  Maybe James Clapper should have asked to go into executive session--though that would have tipped everyone off--instead of giving false testimony to Congress.

  • Excel Spreadsheets as Art

    Behold .  I am impressed.

  • Quote of the Day

    . . .  if “all successful applications of probability to describe nature can be traced to quantum origins,” as Albrecht and Phillips maintain, that means that even when we think we’re using classical probabilities, deep down, it’s really the quantum world calling the shots. We are opening the box on Schrödinger’s cat every time we flip a coin or check the weather, and countless other times during every day. -- Jennifer Ouelette . 

  • All Hail Kambiz Hosseini

    If you were an Iranian living in Iran, you would seek some sanity in the midst of all of the lunacy your own government keeps inundating you with. Thankfully, Kambiz Hosseini is dedicated to spreading sanity :  In the world of Iranian actor Kambiz Hosseini, almost everything about his country's presidential elections is side-splittingly funny. "Becoming the president of Iran is like making a James Bond movie," Hosseini said in a recent CBCRadio program. "The characters stay the same, but…

  • Behold, the Apocalypse Is Upon Us

    I actually agree with Jeffrey Toobin  on whether Edward Snowden is a hero . Therefore, we must be doomed. The asteroid will hit at any moment: Edward Snowden, a twenty-nine-year-old former C.I.A. employee and current government contractor, has leaked news of National Security Agency programs that collect vast amounts of information about the telephone calls made by millions of Americans, as well as e-mails and other files of foreign targets and their American connections. For this, some,  including my…

  • We Passed Health Care Reform . . .

    And now, we are finding out what is in it :  Democrats continue to try to dismiss the evidence that Obamacare will dramatically increase the cost of insurance for people who buy it on their own. But on Thursday, the Ohio Department of Insurance  announced    that, based on the rates submitted by insurers to date, the average individual-market health insurance premium in 2014 will come in around $420, “representing an increase of 88 percent” relative to 2013. “We have warned of these increases,”…

  • Political Freedom--Or the Lack Thereof--in Iran

    I really look forward to the day when I don't have to read stories like this one .  But I fear that day won't arrive for a very long time: A senior Iranian diplomat linked to Iran's reformists, who has been detained at Tehran's notorious Evin Prison for three months, has been denied access to his attorney for the entire time, sources familiar with the case told Reuters on Monday. Bagher Asadi, who was previously a senior diplomat at Iran's U.N. mission in New York and most recently a…

    • Weekly Digest: June 2, 2013-June 8, 2013

  • How to Read Proust

    Having done the deed, I can appreciate Morgan Meis's advice on the subject :  Early readers of the novel can be forgiven for not immediately liking  Swann’s Way . In a recent article for   The New York Times , Edward Rothstein quotes an evaluation of  Swann’s Way  from the publishers who first rejected the book. The evaluator complains, “I cannot understand how a man can take 30 pages to describe how he turns round in his bed before he finally falls asleep.” Many readers of Proust have…

  • Nothing Is Written

    I enjoyed reading this book review   of Paul Johnson's  Darwin: Portrait of a Genius ,  by the great and good Paul Johnson. The following passage was particularly arresting: . . .  Darwin was born into a highly literate and distinguished family, some members of which are the focus of biographical studies in their own right. He was the grandson of Erasmus Darwin on his father’s side, and of Josiah Wedgwood on his mother’s. It was a splendid inheritance. A successful medical doctor, Erasmus…

  • This Is Also My Brain in Heaven

    Want to live forever? Drink coffee :  For hundreds of years, coffee has been one of the two or three most popular beverages on earth. But it’s only recently that scientists are figuring out that the drink has notable health benefits. In  one large-scale epidemiological study  from last year, researchers primarily at the National Cancer Institute parsed health information from more than 400,000 volunteers, ages 50 to 71, who were free of major diseases at the study’s start in 1995. By 2008, more than…

  • Note to Self (Looking a Gift Horse in the Mouth Edition)

    Dear Self:   If you are ever offered free food because of your physical attractiveness, run the other way .  After all, you don't want to be made into a product , especially given that you won't get any share of the proceeds from the use of the product. Fondly,  Pejman

  • Lame Excuses for the IRS Scandal Get Lamer and Bite More Dust

    Recall that from the outset, after it was revealed that the IRS was targeting conservatives and conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status, IRS-apologists came out with the claim that the unwarranted scrutiny was the result of staffers in Ohio offices who went rogue.  As such, according to the apologists, we were not supposed to think that the agency as a whole was rotten to the core; just that there were a few isolated bad apples who in no way, shape, or form were representative of the IRS as a…

  • This Post Is Dedicated to Readers Who Are Politicians

    I don't ever want to hear or read about how you supposedly have it rough because of attacks on you from 24/7 cable TV shows, or because of criticism from the blogosphere. I can guarantee you that one particular politician  who arrived on the scene long before you did had it far rougher than you ever will in terms of having to deal with criticism and carping: B y nearly any measure —personal, political, even literary—Abraham Lincoln set a standard of success that few in history can match. But how…

  • Peter Piper, P.I.

    Brilliant . 

  • The Economy Is a Disaster Case

    So sayeth the UCLA Anderson Forecast .  It is hard to disagree with its findings, which are written in admirably candid fashion: The expected U.S. "Great Recovery" hasn't materialized and the economy has fallen short of even normal growth, according to a forecast released Wednesday. The second-quarter UCLA Anderson Forecast said the growth of real gross domestic product - meaning the inflation-adjusted value of goods and services produced - is too small to help the nation climb out of its…

  • Whoops

    Well, this   was something of a disaster, now wasn't it?     Former CIA Director Leon Panetta revealed the name of the Navy SEAL unit that carried out the Osama bin Laden raid and named the unit’s ground commander at a 2011 ceremony attended by “Zero Dark Thirty” filmmaker Mark Boal. Panetta also discussed classified information designated as “top secret” and “secret” during his presentation at the awards ceremony, according to a draft Pentagon inspector general’s report published…

  • Another Blow Against Government Transparency

    I can understand rather easily the problems that come with an overwhelmed e-mail account--you should take a look at what my Gmail inbox has become--but secret government e-mail accounts   for "top Obama administration appointees" is a bad idea. One cannot issue a comprehensive FOIA request if one does not know which e-mail accounts those FOIA requests are supposed to cover, after all, and while it may never have been the intention of the Obama administration to frustrate FOIA requests, that is…

  • What the Chinese People (Shockingly) Don't Know

    June 4th was the 24th anniversary of the Tienanmen Square massacre. NPR reports   that thanks to Chinese government censorship, a lot of people know very little about the history of the massacre: . . .  it's important to remember that a lot of people here have some familiarity with what happened 24 years ago, but a lot of people aren't that clear on it. For instance, I'll just give you an example. Back in 1997 when I first came to Beijing, I met a number of young women - they were in their…

  • The Sun Still Hasn't Set on the British Empire

    And here is the reason why. (Via Jacob Levy, via social media.)

  • Accountability Has Become Such an Antiquated Concept

    Gene Healy   on the president who is never there: "Hey, don't look at me -- I'm just the president!" That's the common thread in President Obama's response to his recent scandal eruptions, from IRS harassment of Tea Partiers to his Justice Department's spying on AP reporters. Like everybody else, Obama learns about these things via cable news, according to press secretary Jay Carney. Obama's flight from responsibility punctured the stratosphere in his recent speech on…

  • Bradley Manning Is No Hero

    So sayeth Josh Barro .  He is quite right: Whatever the merits of Manning's discontent with the U.S. Army, the actions he is accused of taking as a result -- leaking reams of secret diplomatic cables mostly unrelated to the Iraq War -- were not whistleblowing. They were detrimental to American security and to the cause of peace in the world. Diplomacy requires discretion, and when the ability of American diplomats to communicate discreetly is undermined, tensions rise. It's nice to see that someone…

  • Quote of the Day

    A man’s maturity: that is to have rediscovered the seriousness he possessed as a child at play. --Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil.

  • Heads: Iranian Hardliners Win. Tails: Iranian Reformists Lose.

    It's not enough for the Islamic regime in Iran to disqualify certain reformist candidates for the presidency; it must also punish people who attend campaign meetings for reformist candidates who are actually allowed to run for president. Stories like this one are why I have an objection to calling the regime a "theocracy." In fact, it is best to describe Iran's system of government as a theocratic mafiocracy. The regime is as corrupt as it is brutal, and its hardline faction has no…

  • In Praise of James Comey

    Benjamin Wittes discusses the reasons why we should be glad that James Comey was nominated to be the next FBI director--reasons I am fully in agreement with: Here’s the easy part: A qualified director of the FBI needs to have significant managerial experience in law enforcement. These days, you particularly want someone with a real intimacy with national security investigations and counterterrorism cases. You want someone who knows the bureau and can command the respect of its famously insular culture.…

  • Weekly Digest: May 26, 2013-June 1, 2013

    How the Creative Class Created Quite fascinating : Nikola Tesla typically worked from noon until midnight, breaking at 8:00 p.m. for dinner every night at the Waldorf-Astoria. Among the many peculiarities of this ritualized repast was his practice of not starting the meal until he had computed his dinner's cubic volume, "a compulsion he had developed in his childhood." Truman Capote, who wrote lying down in bed or on a couch, refused to let more than two cigarette butts pile up in an ashtray…

  • How the Creative Class Created

    Quite fascinating : Nikola Tesla typically worked from noon until midnight, breaking at 8:00 p.m. for dinner every night at the Waldorf-Astoria. Among the many peculiarities of this ritualized repast was his practice of not starting the meal until he had computed his dinner's cubic volume, "a compulsion he had developed in his childhood." Truman Capote, who wrote lying down in bed or on a couch, refused to let more than two cigarette butts pile up in an ashtray and "couldn't begin or…

    • Weekly Digest: May 26, 2013-June 1, 2013

  • How the Creative Class Created

    Quite fascinating : Nikola Tesla typically worked from noon until midnight, breaking at 8:00 p.m. for dinner every night at the Waldorf-Astoria. Among the many peculiarities of this ritualized repast was his practice of not starting the meal until he had computed his dinner's cubic volume, "a compulsion he had developed in his childhood." Truman Capote, who wrote lying down in bed or on a couch, refused to let more than two cigarette butts pile up in an ashtray and "couldn't begin or…

  • Scandal Watch (More IRS Follies)

    Sigh . . . The IRS has problems with you if you are a conservative group that wants to apply for tax-exempt 501(c)(4) status. By contrast, the IRS has no problems whatsoever with itself when it wants to spend money like it is going out of style . 88 IRS employees have documents related to the investigation of the IRS's targeting of conservative groups. Remember that this story is allegedly only a "so-called scandal,"  and remember as well--as the CNN story points out--that the initial…

  • The Ghosts of Lincoln and Douglas Weep

    It's bad enough that the presidential election process in Iran consists of having hardliners eliminate reformist candidates so that the former can hold on to power without having to actually bother to steal the election (though 2009 showed quite clearly that hardliners are entirely willing and eager to steal an election if that is what it takes to hold on to power). It's even worse that the interaction amongst the candidates who are allowed to run makes it extra special clear that the Iranian…

  • Scandal Watch (The Saga that Won't End)

    The latest: The IRS targeting of conservative groups is only a "so-called scandal"  in the eyes of some, who coincidentally, probably don't like conservatives all that much. Equally coincidental, I am sure, those calling the IRS scandal a "so-called scandal" are members of the media, which we are repeatedly assured is never ideologically biased and treats both sides of the partisan divide fairly and honorably. Rich Lowry  points out that the IRS scandal--which really is much more…

  • Scandal Watch (A Continuing Series)

    So, let's review the latest: Concerning the IRS scandal, we learn that Lois Lerner was "directly involved"  in the targeting of conservative groups. This included signing letters that contained " a list of detailed questions of the kind that a Treasury inspector general’s  audit   found to be inappropriate." Organizing for Action is a 501(c)(4), which means that it is supposed to act in a non-partisan capacity when engaging in advocacy. So naturally, the president of the United…

  • A Good Pope

    This is the kind of leader the Vatican so desperately needs and needed in order to win back hearts and minds and in order to overcome the scandals that have plagued the Catholic Church over the past few years: Pope Francis has revealed for the first time the reasons for his decision to shun the official papal apartments and instead live in a much more modest Vatican 'hotel'. He has told a friend that he likes being in daily contact with ordinary people, does not want to be isolated and enjoys…

  • Is This What Iranians Have to Look Forward to?

    The frontrunner in the race to succeed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president of Iran is Saeed Jalili. Don't know who Saeed Jalili is? Behold : At his first presidential campaign rally, Saeed Jalili on Friday welcomed the cheers of thousands of young men as he hauled himself onto the stage. His movements were hampered by a prosthetic leg, a badge of honor from his days as a young Revolutionary Guards member in Iran’s great trench war with Iraq. “Welcome, living martyr, Jalili,” the audience shouted in…

  • Quote of the Day

    . . .  The President’s view is not necessarily statist in the sense that everything must come from government. He holds the fairly standard view that markets should be robust, but that market failures and other societal needs require government action. His views about the size of government are of course more expansive than that of most readers of this blog, but they are not out of the mainstream: they summarize the standard progressive position. Yet it is not this antinomy between large versus small…

  • Is Our Deficits Shrinking?

    President Obama claims that they are. Keith Hennessey has a better grasp on the facts : CBO projects that  under current law  we would have a deficit of 4% of GDP for 2013, meaning that our debt/GDP will continue to rise. CBO further projects that  under the President’s budget  we would have a deficit of 4.2% of GDP for 2013, slightly higher than their projected deficit under current law. President Obama’s words:   Our deficits are shrinking at the fastest rate in decades. Translation 1:   The…

  • Is Obamacare Affordable?

    There has been some celebrating on the port side ever since stories like this one came out, indicating that premium costs associated with the Affordable Care Act--Obamacare--are, well, affordable . We are to believe that  [b]ased on the premiums that insurers have submitted for final regulatory approval, the majority of Californians buying coverage on the state's new insurance exchange will be paying less—in many cases, far less—than they would pay for equivalent coverage today.  And while a…

  • People Who Are Against Genetically Modified Foods Are Ill-Informed, and Willing to Let Millions Starve to Death

    Read all about it . And remember the port side's insane, completely unjustified opposition to genetically modified foods the next time that someone tells you that the American left and center-left has some kind of monopoly on respect for science and the scientific method. Oh, and be sure to watch the video : Anyone really surprised to find out that members of the anti-GMO crowd are unbelievably uneducated, completely weird, and boast at least one individual who refuses to vaccinate her kids because of…

  • I for One Welcome Our New Robot Therapists

    Soon, we will have virtual therapists . I presume that there will be options to install Jungian or Freudian programs in specific therapist models. Query: Will the virtual therapists smoke virtual pipes during sessions? Will top models come equipped with Austrian accents?

  • THIS Is "Austerity"?

    Paul Roderick Gregory begs to differ with the notion that Europe is in the grips of austerity: The Keynesian stimulus crowd blames austerity for the world’s economic woes without bothering to examine facts. I advise them first to consult my colleague at the German Institute for Economic Research (Georg Erber,  I See Austerity Everywhere But in the Statistics ), who, unlike them,  has actually taken the time to examine the European Union’s statistics as compiled by its statistical agency, Eurostat.…

  • Nice Work If You Can Get It

    $156,000 a year for eating my fill and napping for two hours in the office before I go home? A $1,400/month food allowance? Where do I sign up ? Some labor supporters think that the decline of the labor movement is due to evil conservatives and their evil ways. But perhaps they should contemplate the possibility that labor's decline is due to the fact that the talent pool in the labor movement is not what it used to be.

  • Tumbling 'Round the Intertubes--May 27, 2013

    1. The Urban Dictionary makes it to the courtroom . 2. A Franco-American Memorial Day commemoration . 3. Yes. Let's . 4.  Since this links to a spoiler FAQ, you obviously should not read it if you want to avoid spoilers. But you  should  read it if (a) you don’t care about avoiding spoilers; and (b) you want to laugh so hard that you pull a gut muscle or several.

  • Some Good Economic News, for a Change

    We have been so used to bad economic tidings ever since the onset of the financial crisis that it is hard to remember what good news reads/sounds/looks/smells like. But courtesy of Tyler Cowen , we have some cause for optimism: THE state of the economy is far from ideal, but some very definite positives are brewing. It’s not just that we are continuing to recover from a deep recession; we are also seeing signs that America’s long-term future may be looking up, too. The case for optimism is  hardly…

  • Couldn't Have Titled It Better Myself

    "The secret to immortality: Be a lobster, avoid bisque."

  • Reforming the D.S.M.

    I am no expert on mental health issues, so I don't know whether objections to the D.S.M. are all that valid, but this article struck me as being very interesting: When Thomas Insel, the director of the National Institute of Mental Health,  came out swinging  with his critiques of the American Psychiatric Association’s  Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders,  a couple of weeks ago, longtime critics of psychiatry were shocked and gratified. Insel announced that that the D.S.M.’s…

  • Quote of the Day

    So to the indifferent inquirer who asks why Memorial Day is still kept up we may answer, it celebrates and solemnly reaffirms from year to year a national act of enthusiasm and faith. It embodies in the most impressive form our belief that to act with enthusiasm and faith is the condition of acting greatly. To fight out a war, you must believe something and want something with all your might. So must you do to carry anything else to an end worth reaching. More than that, you must be willing to commit…

  • Tumbling 'Round the Intertubes--May 26, 2013

    1. We are doomed . 2. Anyone really surprised by this ? 3. Have I mentioned recently that we are doomed ? 4. I mean, seriously, we are doomed .