Month: February 2011

Hollywood’s “Whiteout” Problem

Emily Colette Wilkinson downplays Manohla Dargis and A.O. Scott's argument that films this year suffered a dearth of racial diversity. Her prescription for the future:

What we need now are not white movies with Benetton tokenism (think Harry Potter: Cho Chang and the Patel twins), nor movies that ghettoize racial experience. What we need now, if our movies are to reflect American life as it is lived by more and more of us, is not white or black, but multiracial, biracial—movies whose plots and characters show how people of all races, not just white and black, combine and intersect in more mundane ways (marriage, friendship, work) and how these intersections have their particular, subtle racially-inflected nuances but are also just that—friendships, work, marriages.

A Brief Tour Of American Trash

Brian Palmer leads one:

Rather than having lots of tiny dumps scattered everywhere, we now have a small number of mega-landfills. In 1986, there were 7,683 dumps in the United States. By 2009, there were just 1,908 landfills (PDF) nationwide—a 75 percent decline in disposal facilities in less than 25 years.

Which brings us to the problem with the new system: Trash now has to travel farther from your kitchen to its final resting place, and longer trips mean more greenhouse gas emissions. Thirty years ago, a bag of garbage dropped down a chute in Manhattan would have traveled just a few miles by barge to the aptly named Fresh Kills facility on Staten Island. (Until 1931, the city dumped most of its trash in the Atlantic Ocean.) Today, it would likely make an overland journey to Ohio, Pennsylvania, or West Virginia.

The Weekly Wrap

Today on the Dish, Andrew differed with Larison on the future of protests in Iran, and protesters planned for a bloody Sunday. The Bahrain monarchy gunned down protesters by helicopter, Twitter tracked the voices on the ground, and doctors appealed for help. Jacqwi Campbell captured the protests and the police force, we analyzed the religious split, Mark LeVine assessed the US' interests, Ashley Bates provided a primer, and the crackdown continued. We tracked the aftermath of the rage still simmering in the Middle East, Libya sounded off, Nathan Brown glimpsed Egypt's future, and Najla Abdurrahman worried about Libya's invisibility. Gregg Easterbrook hoped for the end of family rule, Fareed Zakaria tracked the Mid East's youth bulge, and Western influence in the region crumbled.

Jacob Stokes lambasted defense budget hawks, we imagined taxes solving the deficit, and Ezra Klein asked progressives to compromise on it now rather than later (without Obama). GOP Senators caved, and partisanship prevailed. Andrew took Joe Klein's view on Wisconsin, and Adam Ozimek considered the drug war's casualties. Andrew admired the political spectrum reimagined, but didn't buy Palin's Birther dismissal. Jennifer Rubin dismissed Newt for 2012, and Palin crumbled under the media boycott. Nina Shen Rastogi exposed Bieber fandom's darkside, Evan Osnos perused Harvard lectures in Chinese, and hello used to imply surprise. The New Yorker fact-checks poems, and women earn more but don't spend it on dress socks.

Cool ad watch here, Moore award here, Yglesias award here, quote for the day here, FOTD here, MHB here, and VFYW here.

Bahrain
By John Moore/Getty Images

Thursday on the Dish, Andrew inquired as to just when the adult conversation on the budget might begin. He tackled Medicare cuts, and others even if they might hurt people now, because they'd hurt more later. Heather Mac Donald urged Obama to call the GOP's bluff, Andrew examined debt in the Golden state, and parsed Wikileaks on Uganda and the gays. We kept tabs on the protests across Bahrain, Yemen and Libya. Mousavi went missing, and Joshua Tucker tallied the lack of violence that usually characterize successful revolutions. Andrew downed Clive Crook's straw man attacks on Facebook, Amy Davidson marveled at the moving Twitter cloud of Mubarak's resignation, and Anand Gopal reported on strikes across Egypt. Ursula Lindsey catalogued sexual harassment in Egypt (readers wrote in about the US), John R. Guardiano reminded us that Muslims saved her, and Ann Friedman argued female journalists also get greater access to stories. Hamilton Nolan broadened the debate,

Frum outed Chris Christie as the RINO-proof nominee, we dug deeper into the Patriot Act reauthorization, and Birtherism is a shibboleth. The GOP's foreign policy muscles deteriorated, FBI may have fooled us twice, and Palin was still thinking about running. John Cassidy viewed the deficit through the bond market lens, and Bruce Bartlett urged Republicans to take a big bite out of the apple. Edward Glaeser pointed to urban schools as the great challenge of our era, Norm Geras weighed voting for convicts, and Mike Konczal exposed why the budget can't help reform prison policy. Reihan applauded the advantage of the English language, gay marriage isn't a slippery slope, and Seth Godin was curious about your overlooked gems. Readers nerded out on Watson, Ken Jennings relived his battle, Keisel sacrificed his beard for charity, and we checked out the Asscam.

Cool ad watch here, app of the day here, FOTD here, MHB here, VFYW here, and the real recipe for Coke here.

Face_day
By Esteban Felix/AP.

Wednesday on the Dish, Andrew chided Obama for being more neocon than the GOP on the military budget, and wagged his fingers at Americans for being closet socialists. Andrew joined Frum in itemizing the right's budget delusions, and Ezra Klein clung to his optimism. We examined how Americans view defense spending, Kay McDonald blamed high food prices on corn ethanol, and Howard Gleckman continued to lay into Obama. Nyhan yawned at Silver's 2012 predictions, and Larison worried over Mitch Daniels' penchant for pandering. We photo-hunted the two-faces of National Review, and the right thought Islamists were infiltrating their ranks. Goldblog wasn't laughing at rape jokes, young conservatives shamed an old racist dude, and Dan Savage's Santorum prank lived on.

Libyans took to the streets, Tom Kutsch assessed regimes' stick and carrot methods to try to stop protests, and a reader gave us the insider baseball dish on Egypt. Andrew shed light on the disproportionate killings leaked in the Gaza memo, and Iraq's dysfunctions ran deep. Readers rebutted Gladwell, Brian Fishman contemplated al Qaeda's tone-deaf response to the revolutions, and not all Islamists are created equal. Andrew tested Beiber-Gaga magic, and previewed Matt and Trey's "The Book Of Mormon," Pinker didn't trust Watson to do more than play Jeopardy, and Jim Behrle prayed for a human win.

The best Mac apps here, ghost signs of Chicago here, content farm here, quote for the day here, dissent of the day here, Malkin award here, Moore award here, MHB here, FOTD here, VFYW here and unofficial contest here.

Vfyw
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 3 pm

Tuesday on the Dish, Andrew bore down hard on Obama for wimping out on the budget. Howard Gleckman joined the pile-on, Ezra Klein called it a spork for its ineffectiveness, and Annie Lowrey put the budget in a manageable perspective. Andrew nudged Paul Ryan to step up to the plate, the right debated entitlements, and Yglesias and E.G. argued Social Security for different generations. Andrew's eyes widened at Obama's delusions, but he wasn't breaking up with him yet.

Andrew remained optimistic but not delusional on Egypt, the Internet graded Obama's performance, and Obama just couldn't win with the right. Mohammed Ayoob feared military regimes, Wendell Steavenson reported the tenet of the revolution was holding, and Erik Voeten charted today's coups that lead to competitive elections. We took stock of yesterday's protests in Iran, where the government isn't beholden to American aid, and Persiankiwi tweeted again. Thomas Ruttig reminded us of Afghanistan's mini-Mubaraks, Joel Wing kept an eye on Iraqi protests, and Robert Mackey compiled the footage and accounts of Bahrain's protests.

Andrew demolished Gladwell's thesis on the Civil Rights Movement and social ties, and Kevin Drum countered David Carr on why Twitter didn't kill online news. Nate Silver compared Sarah Palin to Al Sharpton, and she spurred the voting Birthers on. The CPAC war raged on, fueled by a diminishing Limbaugh, and Julian Sanchez eviscerated the Heritage folks on the Patriot Act. Families defended their gay relatives, the internet needed display ads, and Watson would never make for great TV.

Malkin award here, sane conservatism watch here, creepy ad watch here, FOTD here and reaction to yesterday's here, quotes for the day here, here, and here, dissents of the day here and here, MHB here, a heartbreaking VFYW here, and VFYW contest winner #37 here.

 

Monday on the Dish, Andrew defended Anderson Cooper for calling out Mubarak's lies and pushed back against those who insist on the irrelevance of social media. Jeff Jarvis likened Zuckerberg to Gutenberg, Andrew responded to renewed calls for neoconservatism, and Ellis Goldberg considered a slow-motion coup. Cairo quieted down, Algeria got active, Bahrain erupted, and Iran ignited. Graeme Wood updated us on post-Mubarak emotions in Egypt, Twitter funneled viewers to Al Jazeera, and Frum insisted too much is unknown. Egypt reminded a reader of the birth of a child, and the revolution could be connected to sex. Bruce Riedel highlighted al Qaeda's irrelevance in Egypt, Heather Mac Donald upended America's obsession with foreign terror, and Dexter Filkins compared Afghanistan to Egypt under Mubarak. Olivier Roy argued Iran isn't a model because jobs can't be found in the Koran, Larison distinguished Iran from Egypt, and we kept tabs on the country's dramatic protests into the night.

Andrew informed anyone under 30 that Obama just threw them under the bus with his budget.  Andrew applauded Mitch Daniels for his CPAC dose of reality and praised Ron and Rand Paul for their candor and dissents. HuffPo profited off of vain writers willing to give it up for free, and Glenn Greenwald got targeted by a firm for supporting Wikileaks. Conspiracies don't die, stocks declined, and the Pigford case soaked up reactions from readers and in the blogosphere. Video games mirrored reality, Tyler Cowen shrugged over the new Ayn Rand trailer, O'Reilly got meme-ified, the Internet aged gracefully, and Andrew thanked everyone and Aaron. 

Quotes for the day here and here, chart of the day here, MHB here, FOTD here, and VFYW here.

–Z.P.

Face Of The Day II

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A woman mourns during a funeral procession for a slain anti-government protester on February 18, 2011 in Sitra, Bahrain. Three slain protesters were buried Friday. Security forces opened up with live ammunition on demonstrators in fresh clashes in the early evening, resulting in unconfirmed reports of four dead and undetermined number wounded. By John Moore/Getty Images.

Quickly Crumbling

Daniel Korski and Ben Judah argue that the "three pillars of US post-World War II power in the Middle East – commercial ties, military bases and client states – are crumbling." They note China and the Far East's rise:

America used to be the essential trade partner for the Gulf countries, but this has now changed. In 2009, Saudi Arabia exported 57% of its 2009 crude oil to the Far East, and just 14% to the US. Responding to this underlying shift, King Abdullah has been pursuing a “look East” policy since 2005, resulting in trade worth more than $60 billion.

This eastward shift has made China a bigger trading partner than the US for both Qatar and the UAE. And almost a quarter of Qatar’s trade is with China, compared to just over 5% with the US. Likewise, 37% of the UAE’s trade is with China, India, and South Korea. To many Middle East states, what China wants is now just as important as US interests.

Palin February, Ctd

Jack Stuef predicts Palin's campaign strategy:

She knows she can’t win, but she needs to be in the presidential conversation to make her money. So she’s probably going to refuse to go to Iowa and New Hampshire so she can take her message to the whole country, i.e., the places that will pay her tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars to say her catchphrases for an hour and pose with conservative men on oxygen tanks who want nothing more in the world than to fuck her. It’s the dream of every little girl in America to run such a “campaign” for president!

Unfortunately for Sarah Palin, she can only be paid the big bucks to announce her candidacy once. Unless she starts up some sort of traveling Wild West show in which she tells every audience at the state fair grounds she’s announcing her candidacy for the very first time at the show’s finale. Now that’s entertainment!

Drug War Calculus: The Costs We Don’t See

DrugWarPedroPardoGetty
Adam Ozimek tallies the drug war's victims:

It’s hard to grow up in any class in America without knowing someone with some kind of drug problem. So when voters in this country think about the costs of decriminalization, I think they’re probably mostly considering the people they know who would have developed worse drug problems had they been more available. What they don’t think of are the Mexican villagers being harassed and [murdered] because our drug laws create profit centers for their criminals.

Who we are or aren’t thinking about is important, because the only way the utilitarian calculus of our drug laws comes down in favor our of current system is if you value the well-being of Mexicans as being worth an order of magnitude less than Americans.

(Photo: Closeup on one of the corpses of two murdered men found near the Costera Avenue in Acapulco, Mexico, on February 5, 2011. More than 30,000 people have been killed in violence related to the drug trade across Mexico since December 2006, when the government of President Felipe Calderon launched a major military offensive against organized crime. By Pedro Pardo/AFP/Getty Images)

 

A Youth Revolt

Fareed Zakaria puts the Middle Eastern protests in context:

The central, underlying feature of the Middle East's crisis is a massive youth bulge. About 60% of the region's population is under 30. These millions of young people have aspirations that need to be fulfilled, and the regimes in place right now show little ability to do so. The protesters' demands have been dismissed by the regimes as being for Islamic fundamentalism or a product of Western interference. But plainly these are homegrown protests that have often made the West uneasy as they have shaken up old alliances. And what the protesters want in the first place is to be treated as citizens, not subjects. In a recent survey of Middle Eastern youth, the No. 1 wish of the young in nine countries was to live in a free country, although, to be sure, jobs and the desire to live in well-run, modern societies ranked very high as well.