A/C:
The amount the U.S. military spends annually on air conditioning in Iraq and Afghanistan: $20.2 billion.
Why so much?
To power an air conditioner at a remote outpost in land-locked Afghanistan, a gallon of fuel has to be shipped into Karachi, Pakistan, then driven 800 miles over 18 days to Afghanistan on roads that are sometimes little more than "improved goat trails," Anderson says. "And you've got risks that are associated with moving the fuel almost every mile of the way."
And other suspicious causes of death in Chinese prisons:
One advocacy organization, the Chinese Urgent Action Working Group, recently published a list of credulity-defying explanations by officials including death by “being handed toilet paper,” by “playing hide and seek,” and by “face-washing.” The autopsy of one inmate, who reportedly died after “squeezing pimples” on his chest, revealed that a sharp instrument had penetrated his chest and heart. A 19-year-old woman held in a Mongolian labor camp was said to have died “from ectopic pregnancy”; her relatives saw bruises and signs of apparent sexual assault on her corpse. And a man, who supposedly died from “drinking hot water” last year, had had his testicles crushed and his nipples cut off, according to relatives. Those who survive and try to report the abuse are often caught in an Orwellian system where officials in charge of investigating the allegations are the very officials in charge of running the prisons.
Bill Hicks – an atheist – recounts his experience of “unconditional love”. It gets great about 51 seconds in:
John Guardiano claims the institution of marriage is "under threat." Guardino's Jeremiad flies in the face of recent data which show that heterosexual marriages are lasting longer and with fewer divorces since marriage equality became a major debate in this country. Goldblog backs me up:
My marriage these past 14 years has been principally devoted to the care and raising of children, and also to the selection of kitchen tiles. But mostly it's been about children. And this is as it should be. But Guardiano obviously doesn't know very many gay people, because over the past several years, I've seen extraordinary parenting done by gay and lesbian couples, parenting of children who had been actual orphans before they were rescued by the evil gays and provided with homes, stellar educations, and most of all, selfless, limitless parental love. That's what gay marriage is about, then: the embrace by previously-marginalized people of a traditional institution, an institution indispensable for the raising of healthy, whole children.
Stephen Walt reminds us that a single policy can affect more than a single country:
[I]f a few other states were thinking a bit about acquiring nuclear weapons and took a look at Iran's experience, and then concluded that pursuing the bomb just wasn't worth all the aggravation, then Iran's experience might have broader positive effects. It teaches that if you try to get a bomb, you'll face censure, demands for inspections, lots of diplomatic hassle, and maybe even mildly inconvenient economic sanctions. … So while sanctions may have failed in dealing with a hard case like Iran, they may have helped reinforce global nonproliferation norms and thus persuaded a few other states not to start down that road themselves. And if that is indeed the case, then "Policy X" (in this case economic sanctions) may have a more positive "net effect" than a simple focus on Iran might suggest.
A stop-motion tribute to T2, which turns 20 this week:
(Hat tip: LikeCool)
A reader writes:
Like you, I am delighted with the news of the release of Ai Weiwei. Nevertheless, the title of your post – "China a little bit freer today" – struck me as a bit too sanguine. Just two hours after hearing about Ai Weiwei, I got a message from a good friend who runs a Beijing-based NGO that provides legal advice to people with HIV/AIDS: "This afternoon 6/22 our offices were searched by local police officers." Since I have two students interning at this NGO this summer, I immediately emailed them to check on how they were. Thankfully, both are fine. One wrote back [and I translate]:
Don't worry. Yes, the police came, but they didn't say anything. They just looked about and then left. They said it was a routine inspection. My colleague says that, because the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party is approaching, everyone is being held in check a bit more tightly now – especially people like us who work with NGOs. Last week we helped put on the Beijing Queer Film Festival, and we got into a bit of trouble over that, too. People from the Bureau of Culture, the Bureau of Industry and Commerce, and the Police all came by to enforce the law, but there was no follow up. Thanks for your concern. We are all fine.
For more on the difficulties encountered in staging this year's Beijing Queer Film Festival read this article from the shanghaiist. Hope this adds some context.
More context surrounding the anniversary here.
A reader writes:
Today’s link to The Onion, and the bile from Kathryn Jean Lopez and George Weigel, bring to mind this 1968 Firing Line broadcast where Buckley debates Judge Leander Perez, an ardent segregationist and, at the time, one of the most powerful Dixiecrats in the South. Here's one choice moment, in an argument that Weigel is repurposing:
Perez: "I am not a racist. I might mention I am against the Federal Government using its coercive power to force racial integration upon an unwilling free people…"
And later:
WFB: "Well, … have you been widely misquoted? For instance, you're quoted as having said, 'Yes, the Negro is inherently immoral—yes, I think it's the brain capacity.' Is that a misquotation?"
Perez: "It's not a misquotation. It's the truth."
Four decades later, we are shocked to imagine that the likes of Perez were ever tolerated outside of a Klan meeting. History will look similarly on Lopez and Weigel, if they’re ever remembered at all.
Last week, I asked "what field of human activity is a free market system consistently far less efficient than a socialized one?" And I asked why "are those decadent Europeans actually more efficient in providing healthcare than we are?" Austin Frakt answers:
1. Any field for which there are severe market failures — health care being one — is one for which a socialized approach has the potential to help.
2.“Those decadent Europeans” seem to understand this. Moreover, international comparisons are consistent with the hypothesis that a more socialized approach does, in fact, help.
A reader writes:
J. Peter Nixon hints at something significant in his
Sitting in church, you might notice that there are few if any families with seven or more children, but you can't really be certain who is using contraception. You can't tell if any of the women in the pews had an abortion. You can, if you want, continue to believe that only other people get abortions. Unless people go out of their way to inform others, their use of contraception and abortion are hidden. People opposed to birth control and/or abortion aren't forced to reconcile their opposition with the reality that many of the people they know have used (or use) contraception or have had abortions.
But same-sex couples? There's no pretending that they don't exist among us, in our families, our workplaces, and our neighborhoods. The closet helped perpetuate this fiction. Marriage equity explodes it. And this points to the dilemma faced by Dolan and others opposed to marriage equity: They won't be able to avoid the hard work of having to reconcile their public opposition to same-sex marriage and the cousin, niece, or nephew who is going to marry a same-sex partner.
(Photo: Christina Careaga (R) and Hannah Thielmann kiss as they celebrate during the Gay Pride parade on June 26, 2011 in New York City. The parade took on extra significance following Friday night's legalization of same-sex marriage in New York, often regarded as the birthplace of the gay rights movement. By Mario Tama/Getty Images)
The Dish 