July 2009 – Page 78

Outing Iran: O-Hum

by Chris Bodenner

A reader writes:

I like how you made a post about Kiosk. Iran's musical community is vibrant, in spite of the government's efforts to clamp down on it.

Another band that really shows off Iran's musical talent is O-Hum. They weave modern rock music with classical Persian influences and the lyrics of the great poet Hafez. They were the first band after the revolution to perform outside of Iran, even while their music is still illegal. One of the things I like a lot about them is their visual style, which is displayed in their music videos.

Another video after the jump:

Fallows posted a picture on Friday of a help wanted sign in the Xinjiang region that read "This offer is for Han Chinese (汉族) only." This sort of racial bias is widespread in China according to Jim's readers. Here's a bit from a "foreigner with experience in China":

Regarding the "no Uighurs" sign, that type of thing is pretty common in China. Many advertisements for foreign English teachers will include something like "Whites only" or a "Looking for Caucasian teachers" sentence somewhere in the text. Additionally, many a native speaker have flown from their country to China only to find upon arrival that regardless of the applicant's qualifications, the job could only be performed by a white person. At these times the Chinese are usually polite and a little embarrassed (most Chinese are very nice people and mean no harm), but they will remain very firm in their conviction that a person with darker skin than theirs could not possibly make a good teacher.

Daily Chart: Tax the Rich to Pay For Health Care?

By Conor Clarke

The daily chart is a feature I started playing around with over at my blog. (It's pretty self explanatory: I make — or steal, if I've been procrastinating — one chart each day.) And since today's the day that Charlie Rangel is supposed to be announcing his plans to Effective federal tax rates top 1 percent

So what does this mean? Here are a few thoughts:

1. The details haven't been released yet, but most (if not all) of the families that fall under Rangel's tax plan will also be in this 1% range.

2. These are families that paid a lower rate in 2006 (the last date of available data) than they did 15 years ago. That's not an argument for upping the taxes, of course. But it puts it in perspective. (Confession: If you go back to the Reagan years, the top effective rate is lower. But the current rate is still below the historical average.)

3. News reports have anticipated Rangel proposing a 1-3% surtax. Even a 3% increase across the board will leave an effective rate lower than it was in 1995.

I should add that I don't love the idea of paying for healthcare with a big surtax on the wealthy. There are at least three alternative options that I like more, like (a) Reducing the charitable deduction rate; (b) reducing the tax exclusion for employer-sponsored health care; or (c) taxing harmful consumer products with negative externalities, like soda and cigarettes. But as Matt Yglesias says, this gets the job done just fine.

Was Dan Froomkin Fired For Declining Traffic? Froomkin Says No.

By Conor Clarke

Brian Stetler has a piece in this morning’s New York Times suggesting that one reason the Washington Post fired Dan Froomkin was declining traffic. And it’s a theory. Indeed, it’s a worrying theory: If it’s true that papers are increasingly hiring and firing based on traffic, those papers would be turning away from a qualitative standard (“how good do we think this is?”) and towards a quantitative one (“how much does this get us?”). The bottom of that slope is a world in which none of us are writing about the mind-numbing-but-pretty-darn-important aspects of fiscal policy, and instead writing about what how animal training can improve our marriages.

But I couldn’t help but notice that Stetler’s article contained no actual traffic data. Not a word on monthly page views or a peep on unique visitors. This isn’t Stetler’s fault: That kind of reliable data is tightly and privately held. Nonetheless, the important question is whether Froomkin’s traffic fell relative to other content at the Post — after all, everyone’s traffic fell after the election — and I don’t know of any evidence that happened. So I emailed Dan Froomkin to get his thoughts on the article, and he responded:

I don’t think page views were a major factor in my dismissal. (For instance, although they were “down” — as were most other things on washingtonpost.com, after the election — they were still high.) So if there’s a moral to this story — and I think there is — it’s not “watch your page views.”
/p>

Creepy Ad Watch

Stiftung-Prostrata-slip_thumb

by Chris Bodenner

But a cool new development:

“The early detection examination for prostate cancer no longer takes place where it would be expected. A simple blood test in the crook of the arm suffices. Preferably early on. Ask your doctor and gain information on www.prostatakrebs.ch."

You Must Remember This…

by Conor Friedersdorf

As a study abroad student in Seville, Spain, one of the first cultural differences I noticed was the prevalence of public kissing. On any given street, I'd see young lovers unabashedly locking lips in a way entirely different than anything I'd seen in the United States. Asked about the phenomenon, the host family I stayed with insisted it was a vestige of Franco's rule in the country. During his tenure, public kissing was verboten, so after his death, there was a backlash, and those who might have disapproved were largely silenced by fear of being labeled fascists. I've never been able to entirely confirm this account, though it was widely believed among Sevillanos to whom I spoke, so it was effectively true for at least some of them.

I'm reminded of that story by the current kerfuffle in Salt Lake City:

On Friday, a gay couple was strolling by the lovely gardened plaza in front of the Mormon Temple when Matt Aune gave his partner, Dereck Jones a peck on the cheek — and got handcuffed and cited for trespassing and inappropriate behavior — or something like that.

No police reports have been made public yet, the newspaper says. The men also admit to responding to the citation with profanity so no one may wind up looking good in that scenario. Sunday, kiss-in participants were asked to gather with paper hearts on their sleeves or across their faces on masks, to engage in "gentle" displays of public affection on church-owned Main Street Plaza or nearby public sidewalks…

Of course, prohibiting kissing on private property is obviously different than a state imposed ban, but I'm guessing the public relations battle and subsequent social norms are going to be won here by the folks doing the smooching. Too many people can recall being young, in love, and stealing a kiss in a public places. Indeed one must feel sorry for those who cannot recall such a time. Nor can one really get all that bothered about public kissing given the prevalence of highly graphic sexualized displays elsewhere in public life.

Malkin Award Nominee

by Chris Bodenner

"Sarah Palin loves God. God loves Sarah Palin. And that is why they hate her…and Him. And why she — and He — will be back.

[Palin said] the growing of government "outrageously" by President Obama is "immoral." She deliberately chose a God word that suggests evil…. [I]t is evil because it is accompanied by crushing debt that will, ultimately, devour large chunks of individual income, stimulate runaway regulation that will rob us of freedom, and establish involuntary servitude as measured in hours worked to support government. And most of this will fall on future generations; in other words, unborn children. Sarah Palin is concerned about unborn children — another God thing. Fancy that," – Stuart Schwartz, American Thinker.

The View From Your Window

Kileleshwa-kenya-12pm

Kileleshwa, Kenya, 12 pm

The Iran Kabuki Dance

by Patrick Appel

NIAC parses Iran's response to Obama's call for renewed talks:

[It] seems less than certain that Iran is willing to accept the invitation as it was presented to them, and instead would prefer to develop its own package to discuss. This happened in previous rounds of negotiations, in which both sides presented their own version of a plan to the other, and ignored the other’s requests for a response. The result was that both sides waited for the other to respond to their proposal, and talks stalled for nearly two years.

Obama’s Trillions

by Patrick Appel

Felix Salmon comes out against a second stimulus:

[T]he problem is that spending trillions of dollars is actually extremely difficult, and it’s even harder if you try to front-load it. Government, by its nature, moves slowly, and I get the impression that the “easy” spending — and then some — was all included in the initial stimulus bill. The “shovel-ready projects” have already been funded, and any extra stimulus might well take years to kick in.

Free Exchange moderates the macroeconomic cage match.

Month: July 2009