Month: December 2008

In utero.

A blog on the daily routines of "writers, artists, and other interesting people."

What does it say about the prospects of modern newsmagazines that the Washington bureau chief of Time would rather work as a spokesman for Joe Biden?

A reader writes:

No doubt you will make a persuasive case throughout the next few days by quoting pundits on the right as they exhibited a distinct lack of moral clarity on this issue. But please remember: for every Glenn Reynolds and Jonah Goldberg you quote, there are the Daniel Larisons and John Schwenklers out there who not only spoke out defiantly and resoundingly against the use of torture techniques based upon their conservative beliefs, but also opposed the invasion from the outset based on those same premises.

Conservatives have an obligation to reflect on their role in allowing the committing of such heinous crimes, yes, but conservatives ought also look within their ranks to see from which corners the correct conclusions were reached and why.

There is a conservative case to be made against the use of torture and people like Larison and Schwenkler went about making it loud, clear, and unwaveringly. A wholesale condemnation of American conservatism is simply not helpful in this case, it inhibits learning, moving forward, and the hope that something like this will never occur again because such condemnation doesn’t allow the appropriate room for much needed reflection, and because it is factually inaccurate.

I take the point. Writers such as Larison and Schwenkler and Shea did indeed stand up. They were, alas, eclipsed by the general capitulation on the right, exemplified by National Review, The Weekly Standard and the Wall Street Journal, let alone Commentary, and even Krauthammer, who penned a clear argument for a special torture squad, on the same line as elite Gestapo officers. And then there were those who simply looked away and said nothing. They know who they are. History will make them more famous than they now are.

A place for writing:

Private Library from A Space In Time on Vimeo.

And Greenwald fumes:

Just ponder the uproar if, in any other country, the political parties joined together and issued a report documenting that the country’s President and highest aides were directly responsible for war crimes and widespread detainee abuse and death.  Compare the inevitable reaction to such an event if it happened in another country to what happens in the U.S. when such an event occurs — a virtual media blackout, ongoing fixations by political journalists with petty scandals, and an undisturbed consensus that, no matter what else is true, high-level American political figures (as opposed to powerless low-level functionaries) must never be held accountable for their crimes.

The MSM also made torture possible – especially cable news. Even PBS demanded that guests not use the word torture to decribe torture. The issue was barely present in the last campagn; and Bush has not been asked about his war crimes in any single exit interview so far. The AP and the NYT and the WaPo collude in robbing the English language of its plain meaning. This is not to bely that amazing work that many MSM reporters have done – from Dana Priest and Jane Mayer to Scott Horton and Charlie Savage. But so many of their editors seem unable to tell the truth about this country’s war crimes in the past seven years.

But do they come with that new car smell?:

This month the Japanese company Prop begins selling a wearable set of air bags [for the elderly] to protect against falls. The device looks something like a fishing vest with a fanny pack attached. When its built-in motion sensors detect a fall, it inflates two air bags — one around the hips, the other around the neck — in a 10th of a second. Instant Michelin Man. It retails in Japan for approximately $1,400.

(Hat tip: Tyler Cowen)

Rob Horning has some sharp words for those in danger of foreclosure:

Shelter is something you consume; it’s not an investment. Bailing out homeowners is rewarding the people who treated housing as an investment and not a consumption good, a fulfillment of personal need. Preventing foreclosures is often a matter of rescuing people from their failure to properly assess risk, not from some unforeseen natural disaster. Let’s not pretend this is any different from bailing out imprudent or inept investment bankers.

Every time the government protects someone or some company from the consequences of their own economic profligacy, the chances of future profligacy increase. It’s vital that the government let the Big Three automakers go down, and vital that only minimal help be given for those so greedy or so stupid that they took on loans they had no way to pay off.

The robot threat grows:

There are now 1 million industrial robots toiling around the world, and Japan is where they’re the thickest on the ground. It has 295 of these electromechanical marvels for every 10000 manufacturing workers — a robot density almost 10 times the world average and nearly twice that of Singapore (169), South Korea (164), and Germany (163).

(Hat tip: Kottke)