Tom Waits defends mishearing:
I like hearing things incorrectly. I think that’s how I get a lot of ideas is by mishearing something.
Jeff Ely agrees:
Mishearing isn’t random: your brain does its best to make sense of whatever comes in. Think of the mishearing as some noise coming in and the brain assembling into something useful.
Eric Puchner rejects idealized portrayals of California:
From the gold rush to the dot-com boom, the myth of an earthly paradise welling over with riches and beautiful natives has proved remarkably durable.
These days, explorers to California will encounter a very different island. Twenty-five billion dollars of estimated debt and an unemployment rate topping 12 percent. An elementary-school system ranked forty-eighth in the nation. Subdivisions turned into ghost towns, and tens of thousands of families who've lost their homes. All this, if you believe the press, is proof of California's "implosion," as if we were victims of an overnight disaster. But the truth is, there've always been two Golden States: the one we yearn for and the one that most Californians wake up to every morning.
Japan's reactor damage makes Evan Osnos question the quality of China's nuclear plants:
China presents a unique dilemma for energy strategists: it is expanding nuclear power in a race to meet rising demand for electricity and replace heavily polluting coal power plants. If China’s greenhouse emissions keep rising at the rate they have for the past thirty years, the country will emit more of those gases in the next thirty years than the United States has in its entire history. But this week has laid out in all the detail we could imagine what could result from the combination of rapid construction, poor oversight, and events that were previously dismissed as unimaginable.
In some cases China builds world-class pieces of infrastructure, but we have also seen a steady drip of deeply disconcerting examples of a system growing too fast for its own good. Most recently, when Liu Zhijun, chief of the Chinese Railways Ministry was sacked on corruption charges, it emerged that his agency—celebrated for installing high-speed trains—installed concrete bases for the nation’s train tracks that used cheap, faulty chemical hardening agents, which don’t allow trains to maintain their current speeds of about two hundred and seventeen miles per hour for long.
(Photo: Workers walk past a part of Qinshan No. 2 Nuclear Power Plant, China's first self-designed and self-built national commercial nuclear power plant in this June 10, 2005, file photo, in Qinshan, about 125 kilometers (about 90 miles) southwest of Shanghai, China. Global warming and rocketing oil prices are making nuclear power fashionable, drawing a once demonized industry out of the shadows of the Chernobyl disaster as a potential shining knight of clean energy. By Eugene Hoshiko/AP)
A reader writes:
As a disabled American, I have read with particular interest your commentary on Limbaugh's latest attack on the most vulnerable members of our society. Without citing any evidence, Limbaugh does not hesitate to assert that many, if not most, people receiving Social Security disability benefits are frauds who are freeloading on the taxpayers. You correctly point out, however, that Limbaugh has difficulty defending his position when confronted by a real human being living with a serious disability. Here's my story.
I was raised in the Bronx in a secure and loving family living in very modest economic conditions. Blessed with academic abilities and strongly influenced by my parents teaching me the value of hard work, I became the first member of my family to earn a college degree and then went on to earn a law degree. I did well enough in law school to be selected for the Law Review. I received an appointment as a law clerk at a federal circuit court of appeals, which led to my being hired by a major international law firm.
Before I reached my thirtieth birthday, I was earning a six-figure income. I worked very hard for my success. Seventy hour weeks under stressful conditions were the norm. Perhaps most importantly, I genuinely loved my chosen career at a firm that gave me the opportunity to work on challenging legal matters for both major corporations and indigent prison inmates. In my early thirties, my career was flourishing. My wife and I were approaching the closing of the purchase of our first home and eagerly anticipating the birth of our first child.
Then I began to notice that I was having difficulties with my body's coordination. I had been an above average athlete all my life, but now I was becoming clumsy with the simplest of tasks.
My doctor sent me to a specialist, who ordered a series of increasingly invasive tests. After a month of testing, my wife and I sat in the specialist's office. We held hands as we listened to the words no one ever wants to hear from a doctor, "I am very sorry to have to tell you that . . . ." What I learned was that I had a disease that was causing the neurons in my central nervous system to die slowly. There was no cure or even effective treatment. The disease would cause increasing disabilities and eventually death. Blessed with an incredibly brave wife, and supportive family members and friends, I knew I would not have to face the future alone.
I continued to work full time for almost two years, making the adjustments required by my failing health. When I could no longer work full time at my office, I continued to work as best I could from my home. Eventually, despite my best efforts, I came to the difficult realization that the state of my health would no longer allow me to meet my clients' needs. My application for Social Security disability benefits (and the vitally important Medicare coverage that goes with them) was approved.
I will not live long enough to collect Social Security retirement benefits. My disability benefits and Medicare coverage have allowed me to remain in my home without bankrupting my family.
While there may be cases of people fraudulently obtaining Social Security disability benefits, it is hard for me to believe that they are more than a very small percentage of the total claims. I am grateful that I live in a country that still believes in providing a system of social insurance for all its citizens. I paid my premiums into that system for more than a decade, and I do not believe I am a "freeloader" now that I have been forced to claim the benefits of that social insurance.
P.S. For those of us who are mainly confined to our homes, the internet is a tremendous gift of maintaining contact with the world. Thanks for all you do.
Sharon Begley warns of an underreported danger in Japan:
The spent fuel produced by reactors has been a challenge since the dawn of the nuclear industry, with most reactor operators opting to store it in pools of cooling water on site. At the 40-year-old Fukushima plant, which was built by General Electric, the fuel rods are stored at a pool about three stories up, next to the reactor (a schematic is here). Satellite photos raise concerns that the roof of the building housing the pool has been blown off, says Robert Alvarez, a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies and a senior policy adviser to the secretary of energy and deputy assistant secretary for national security and the environment from 1993 to 1999. He and other experts are now warning that any release of radioactivity from the spent-fuel pool could make the releases from the reactors themselves pale in comparison.
Barry Brook provides a summary of the current status at Fukushima.
Today on the Dish, we tracked the latest from Japan, a man survived two days at sea, and we gathered info on how to help. China reacted, and Mark Vernon intuited the religious meaning of the wave. Boing Boing explained power plants, Michael W. Golay assessed implications for the US, and Andrew favored nuclear energy to cut down on our carbon intake. Qaddafi's forces moved east, Niall Ferguson proposed a Helsinki Final Act, and John Lee Anderson reported from the front lines. Contra Mark Steyn, Andrew assessed Obama's temperament, Greenwald called Obama out on being untrue to his word, and the US aped torture methods from the show 24.
Brave voices on the right unleashed on Palin, Larison parsed the timing of their turn against her, but Rush came to her defense. Judd Gregg didn't underestimate her, Keith Humphreys predicted religion would derail some candidates, and Americans do want a truce. Ronald Reagan supported collective bargaining, Heather Mac Donald applauded Wisconsin's Republicans, Haley Barbour's press secretary let loose, bias is hard to admit, Readers defended one man's confession of infidelity, John Corvino applied the monogamy debate to gays, and Alex Massie kept tabs on the Lib Dems. Standardized testing is a farce, female teachers helped women choose math and science, and Alan Jacobs wanted to end year-end student evaluations. DC commuters hitched a ride, cupcakes and gang violence overlapped, and children love cartoons more than they love sugary cereals. Ta-Nehisi demystified White Flight, digital storage shrunk, and Will Wilkinson qualified the happiness of the happiest man in America.
Photos of where children sleep here, non-racist jokes here, quotes for the day here and here, correction of the day here, life through a dog's eyes here, Malkin award here, Goldblog bait here, headline of the day here, VFYW here, MHB here, and FOTD here.
–Z.P.
This is a fascinating moment. Rush Limbaugh tries to fathom just why any leading Repubican would trash Sarah Palin as the Al Sharpton of the right. Part of this, to my mind, has to be Limbaugh's deeply ingrained racism. To compare a Republican white woman with a Democratic black man prompts this kind of response:
Look, I could understand not wanting her to be the nominee, I can understand thinking there's somebody better, but this? There's an all-out assault on her by our guys that puzzles me — and now this latest to say that she's Al Sharpton? Our version of Al Sharpton in Alaska? So you guys gotta help me out out there. Somebody's gonna have to explain this to me because it makes no sense. You know, I'm totally immersed in logic and common sense, and some of this doesn't register that way for me. I don't get it.
He sees Sharpton as a criminal, and fails to see the identity politics point these writers were obviously making. But in some sense all this is moot for Rush. His standard is not that high:
I'd vote for Elmer Fudd if the Republicans nominated him, if Obama's the Democrat.
When that's your basic standard, you can see why Palin passes (though she knows a little less about hunting than Fudd). Meanwhile, Rush's emails keep flooding in:
Some of them say: "You stupid fool, don't you know it's because they're jealous of her?" That seems to be, by the way, the number one explanation from people answering the question.
Charles Krauthammer is jealous of Sarah Palin? Ooookaaaay. Rush's stab at his own answer:
I think the simple explanation here is, if you want to be an accredited intellectual, one of the tests is, do you hate Sarah Palin? Do you think she represents a pox? Is she a danger to whatever? If you do, then you will pass the test and you are, therefore, an accredited intellectual.
Then this possibility:
There are, I think, elements of the conservative intellectual movement today who are looking to be the next Buckley excommunicating the next Bircher, whoever it might be, movement individual, what have you.
But Rush swiftly moves to say that Palin is no Bircher, even though she clearly received some mail from them. Then a few sharp elbows excommunicating the unsound:
Krauthammer used to write speeches for Walter Mondale. Yeah. Howard Baker was his choice in '76 or '80, I forget which. George Will was a late arrival to the Reagan revolution …
And this final identification with Palin:
Some of these conservative intellectuals were totally smitten with Obama at the outset, remember? Totally smitten with Obama. In the case of David Brooks, it was because of the freaking crease in his pants. He said that. "The crease in his pants made me know he was going to be president." And these are the intellectuals. But to these guys Obama was like them. They were like Obama at the outset. I don't think too many of them want to be perceived as like Obama now, but the outset. But Palin, never. They never see themselves as like Sarah Palin, for obvious reasons, be it the pedigree, the education, all the other things.
If it comes down to it, Palin can rely on Rush. In today's conservative movement, that's a little more important than being dismissed by George Will. If I were to bet, I'd bet on Palin and Rush.
This really is going to be an interesting primary season, isn't it?
Felix Salmon is against donating money to Japan:
We went through this after the Haiti earthquake, and all of the arguments which applied there apply to Japan as well. Earmarking funds is a really good way of hobbling relief organizations and ensuring that they have to leave large piles of money unspent in one place while facing urgent needs in other places. And as Matthew Bishop and Michael Green said last year, we are all better at responding to human suffering caused by dramatic, telegenic emergencies than to the much greater loss of life from ongoing hunger, disease and conflict. That often results in a mess of uncoordinated NGOs parachuting in to emergency areas with lots of good intentions, where a strategic official sector response would be much more effective. Meanwhile, the smaller and less visible emergencies where NGOs can do the most good are left unfunded.
Above, Eli Lake and Dan Drezner agree that past American aid to Egypt contributed to the ability of the United States to ease Mubarak out of power with minimal violence. Pity the same aid seems to have zero leverage over Israel.
A reader writes:
As an educator, I have never been a big fan of standardized testing. But as a parent, I am amazed at not only how little it tells us (which pretty much boils down to the fact that wealthy school districts do wonderfully and poor ones do not), but how disruptive it is.
This week my daughter will be taking her 3rd grade state assessment. I can't believe how much the parents have been prepped for pre-testing sleep schedules and nutrition advice in advance (along with downright pleading to avoid keeping "somewhat" sick kids home or scheduling appointments during testing time). It leads me to question what goes on in poor districts where those are issues every day. I have also been informed that students will be provided with lollipops and gum to have during the testing because it keeps them more interested and focused on the tests. But the most amazing thing? A notice from the teacher that stated "Due to the state assessment, we will not have any Spelling instruction this week." And as everyone is busting their collective humps to do well on these tests, we get notice from our governor that school budgets will be slashed next year. It's a farce.
The Dish 