Month: September 2009

Today on the Dish, Andrew concentrated on the consequences of empire in Afghanistan and the effect Palin is having on the far right. He also discussed the Catholic sex scandal, while a reader shared a heartbreaking account of abuse. Another heartbreaking story stemmed from the consequences of the gay marriage ban, though we did see some movement toward repealing DADT.

The blogosphere is buzzing with the Polanski scandal; we compiled some commentary here, here, here, and here, and ran some reader dissents here.

— C.B.

Kottke passes along a picture of a 400,000-year-old actinobacteria from Siberia.

Bryan Bender reports:

An article in the Pentagon’s top scholarly journal calls in unambiguous terms for lifting the ban on gays serving openly in the armed forces, arguing that the military is essentially forcing thousands of gay men and women to lead dishonest lives in an organization that emphasizes integrity as a fundamental tenet.

Zengerle adds:

[W]hile the decision to publish the paper was ultimately made by the journal’s editorial board, Mike Mullen’s office did review the article before it was published–which could be an indication that the Pentagon is beginning to lay the groundwork to do something about DADT.

And Ambinder does some reporting:

Nathanial Frank, a Palm Center scholar the University of Santa Barbara, calls the article a “watershed” in the debate. “It does not mean that Chairman Mullen has announced his support for repeal, but it does reflect a seismic shift in military opinion on the gay troops issue. It shows that even people inside the Pentagon are increasingly critical of the policy and are willing to air that publicly.”   Among the biggest objections to a DADT repeal — at the among the objections that carry water with military brass — is that soldiers, on balance, oppose a repeal. But surveys also show that most believe that they, personally, could get along with gay soldiers.  Another sign: Lt. Daniel Choi, the Arabic linguist kicked out of the military for being gay, is the featured speaker at two West Point classes this week. His Tweet: “Heading up to West Point to speak to two classes. “Hooah, Beat Navy!”)

Soldiers from The Royal Scots Borderers say goodbye to their loved ones as they depart from Dreghorn Barracks for a six month tour of Afghanistan on September 30, 2009 in Edinburgh, Scotland. Around one hundred soldiers from the battalions B company will be deployed to the Helmand Province area for the first time. By Jeff J Mitchell/Getty.

Anne Applebaum created a firestorm over her passionate defense of Polanski and her failure to disclose that her husband, a Polish foreign minister, is lobbying for the dismissal of Polanski's case. Defending herself, Applebaum digs deeper:

[T]here were some very legitimate disagreements, including two excellent ones from my colleagues Gene Robinson and Richard Cohen, and I take some of their points. But to them, and to all who imagine that the original incident at the heart of this story was a straightforward and simple criminal case, I recommend reading the transcript of the victim's testimony (here in two parts) — including her descriptions of the telephone conversation she had with her mother from Polanski's house, asking permission to be photographed in Jack Nicholson's jacuzzi — and not just the salacious bits.

Those "salacious bits," of course, include giving a 13 year old alcohol and Quaaludes, then sodomizing her to repeated cries of "no." Ed Morrissey is appalled:

Nowhere in this transcript is this “permission” to get photographed in a jacuzzi mention. […] Applebaum crosses the line into some despicable territory here.  She argues that once someone gets into a jacuzzi, regardless of their protestations and their refusals, that a girl is fair game for a rapist no matter what her age.  No no longer means no if the shameless hussy leads on the poor, victimized male.

Read the transcript for yourself. And while Applebaum places responsibility on the victim and her mother, screenwriter Robert Harris blames the "pornographic relish" of Polanski critics. Massie pounces.

The Daily Beast dips its toe in the water:

On a typical publishing schedule, a writer may take a year or more to deliver a manuscript, after which the publisher takes another nine months to a year to put finished books in stores. At Beast Books, writers would be expected to spend one to three months writing a book, and the publisher would take another month to produce an e-book edition.

The Dish is still working on a View From Your Window book. It should be ready in time for the holidays. Ezra Klein adds his thoughts:

Writing doesn't take very long. Quoting doesn't take very long. But assembling information used to take an awful long time. It required a lot of phone calls and microfiche and faxes and walking over to Brookings and paging through newspaper archives and begging a source at Gallup. Now it doesn't take much time at all. That allows me to be the equivalent of a very fast columnist, and there's no reason it won't allow others to become very fast book authors.

NIAC passes along a conveniently-timed story coming out of Iran:

Fars News reported today that seven to ten policemen involved in the Kahrizak prison abuse cases have been arrested. Police Chief Brigadier General Ismail Ahmadi Moqaddam announced the arrests, but also argued that the magnitude of human rights violations were “exaggerated and magnified in the media.” The timing of the arrests and General Moqaddam’s statement seem to be timed to take the sting out of any accusations of human rights abuses during the upcoming negotiations…It should not be allowed to blunt a confrontation over its human rights abuses by arresting low-level participants in the post-election government abuse scandal.

Katherine Tiedemann, as is her habit, rounds up news from Afghanistan. This stood out:

Tragically, a young Afghan girl was killed in late June by a box of information leaflets falling from a British military plane over Afghanistan's southern Helmand province, in a case that the U.K.'s Ministry of Defense said it was investigating earlier this morning (Reuters, AP). The box failed to break open mid-air as planned and struck the girl, who later died of her injuries (BBC). Michael Evans details the case and writes that this is believed to be the first time a civilian has been killed by a box of information leaflets (Times of London).