Month: September 2008

Given the metastasizing war in Pakistan, Bob Kaplan’s 2006 article on Predators is worth another read:

…the Predator, especially as it is improved, may also interfere with decision making. As one pilot told me: “No general will want to attack something without visual confirmation from a Predator. It’s the old story—by the time you have all the evidence, it’s too late to affect the outcome.” Rather than expanding the opportunities for operations, the Predator could end up restricting them, even as we fight enemies who have no compunction about waging total war.

In fact, the more missions I watched, the more I realized what the Predator could not do. The Pred can fill only a small part of the gap resulting from our abysmal shortage of human intelligence.

San Francisco, California, 3.45 pm.

Yesterday’s peak was only the second time that has happened since April. Now it’s 49 – 45. Pollster gives him 4.4 percent lead. RCP: 2.3.

Nate Silver points out the problems with a new poll claiming that "Obama’s support would be as much as 6 percentage points higher if there were no white racial prejudice."

An Alaskan reader writes:

Thanks for your thoughtful insights on our Governor — you and a handful of responsible journalists have brought to light what many of us already knew and what the mainstream media in Alaska failed to cover.

If you want to dig more deeply into Sarah Palin’s economic theory — or lack thereof — I think you will find that while she espouses the free market, she has adopted a quasi-socialist and populist belief in the commons. One of her champions is former Gov. Walter Hickel, who has argued that commonly owned resources should be developed for the maximum benefit of the people — and that this system of economic organization represents a new paradigm for states and nations.

In Alaska’s case, that means no individual ownership of mineral rights, which has led to the idea that government surpluses should be distributed to "the people" as direct handouts. Hence the recent $1,200 "energy dividend" given to all Alaskans.  It  has also resulted in the Permanent Fund Dividend, the direct payout to Alaskans every year from what was originally conceived as a rainy day account set aside for when Alaska’s oil wealth runs out.

During this week of unprecedented government intervention in the markets, perhaps her economic theories aren’t so out of the mainstream. However, her brand of populism belies any claim that she actually supports the free market. Perhaps she doesn’t even understand that private ownership of resources is the foundational element of free market economics.

Another segment from Real Time:

Some encouraging news:

Opposition to a California ballot measure to ban same-sex marriage is mounting following Attorney General Jerry Brown’s move to change the language on the initiative, according to a Field Poll to be released today.

The poll found that just 38 percent of likely voters support the measure, while 55 percent intend to vote no. That compares with 42 percent in support and 51 percent opposed in July.

But the fundraising is nowhere near where we need it to be. Donate here.

A little rhetorical excess on my part – but you get the point:

A new anti-Prop 8 ad:

BoingBoing has more context. The No On 8 website is here. If you believe in marriage equality, please donate here. The campaign is being outspent by the Mormon church and the Christianist right.

The final two paragraphs from Michael Miller’s article on neuroscience:

Faith is also being studied. Earlier this year the Annals of Neurology published an article by Sam Harris and colleagues exploring what happens in the brain when people are in the act of either believing or disbelieving. In an accompanying editorial, Oliver Sachs and Joy Hirsch underscored the significance of what the researchers found. Belief and disbelief activated different regions of the brain. But in the brain, all belief reactions looked the same, whether the stimulus was relatively neutral: an equation like (2+6)+8=16, or emotionally charged: “A Personal God exists, just as the Bible describes.”

By putting a big religious idea next to a small math equation, some readers might think the researchers intend to glibly dismiss it. But a discovery about brain function does not imply a value judgment. And understanding the reality of the natural world—how the brain works—shouldn’t muddle the big questions about human experience. It should help us answer them.