By Patrick Appel
So says Tim Wu:
Americans today spend almost as much on bandwidth — the capacity to move information — as we do on energy. A family of four likely spends several hundred dollars a month on cellphones, cable television and Internet connections, which is about what we spend on gas and heating oil.
By Patrick Appel
McCain keeps attacking (and Obama’s attempts to hit back are less than inspired):
Ben Smith’s thoughts:
Celebrity is, indeed, a key axis of this campaign. Both men are bona fide celebrities, but Obama’s wattage offers both an opportunity — see the cover of People — and a risk. The question is whether he can keep finding ways (notably, access) to keep the celebrity press in the business of making people feel closer to him, in the Bonnie Fuller model, or whether he becomes — as this ad portrays him — a distant, hard to identify with, figure.
Mockery didn’t work very well for Clinton. We’ll see if McCain fares better.
By Patrick Appel
A plurality Americans say China holding the Olympics is a bad idea.
Warsaw, Poland, 6.27 pm.
By Patrick Appel
A contest.
By Patrick Appel
A new RAND report tackles the question:
The comprehensive study analyzes 648 terrorist groups that existed between 1968 and 2006, drawing from a terrorism database maintained by RAND and the Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism. The most common way that terrorist groups end — 43 percent — was via a transition to the political process. However, the possibility of a political solution is more likely if the group has narrow goals, rather than a broad, sweeping agenda like al Qaida possesses.
The second most common way that terrorist groups end — 40 percent — was through police and intelligence services either apprehending or killing the key leaders of these groups. Policing is especially effective in dealing with terrorists because police have a permanent presence in cities that enables them to efficiently gather information, Jones said.
Military force was effective in only 7 percent of the cases examined; in most instances, military force is too blunt an instrument to be successful against terrorist groups, although it can be useful for quelling insurgencies in which the terrorist groups are large, well-armed and well-organized, according to researchers. In a number of cases, the groups end because they become splintered, with members joining other groups or forming new factions. Terrorist groups achieved victory in only 10 percent of the cases studied.
The study also recommends replacing the term "war on terror," with "counterterrorism":
"The term we use to describe our strategy toward terrorists is important, because it affects what kinds of forces you use," Jones said. "Terrorists should be perceived and described as criminals, not holy warriors, and our analysis suggests that there is no battlefield solution to terrorism."
by Chris Bodenner
"I’m proud to report we have many great, intelligent, talented Academy Award winning actors standing by, awaiting a major press conference to show their support for Senator McCain to help bring him into office as President of the United States of America," – Jon Voight (who yesterday wrote a great, intelligent, and talented op-ed exposing the startling truth that a Democratic "propaganda campaign with subliminal messages" is trying to install an Obama administration, under which "Messrs. Farrakhan, Wright, Ayers and Pfleger will gain power for their need to demoralize this country and help create a socialist America.")
By Jessie Roberts
The WSJ slams McCain for saying that “nothing’s off the table” when it comes to tax increases.
By Patrick Appel
Saletan discusses female suicide bombers:
How many more women have to blow themselves up before we get the message? Female suicide bombing is a logical extension of suicide bombing. Suicide bombing exploits your disbelief about what people will do. Female suicide bombing exploits your disbelief about what a particular group of people—women—will do. Your biases are no longer somebody else’s problem. They’re your problem. Look for Arab bombers, and terrorists will send an American-born Hispanic instead. Look for men, and they’ll send a woman.
By Patrick Appel
Lee Gomes argues McCain’s computer illiteracy is a good thing:
A computer, far from making you more productive, instead loads you down with things to do, and it’s important for the machine to know who is boss. Most people don’t have the luxury of off-loading their email-reading chores to a group of competent assistants. It’s an office perk that presidents are still important enough to deserve.
Silly season has officially begun.
(Hat tip: Felix Salmon)
The Dish 