Month: September 2011

A reader writes:

I'm sure I am only one of many fans who will point out that Star Trek has already covered this topic in some depth (as is so often the case). From the Wiki entry for the episode "A Taste Of Armageddon":

The crew of the Enterprise visits a planet whose people fight a computer simulated war with a neighboring enemy planet. The crew finds that although the war is fought via computer simulation, the citizens of each planet have to submit to real executions inside 'disintegration booths' based on the results of simulated attacks. The crew of the Enterprise is caught in the middle and are told to submit themselves voluntarily for execution after being 'killed' in an 'enemy attack'.

Whoever thinks science fiction has no social purpose needs to rethink their assumption.

Matthew Knee wants the GOP to back away from them altogether: 

Controversial issues such gay marriage, abortion, or massive budget changes are by nature not the sort of proposals that can garner the 2/3rds of both houses of Congress and 3/4ths of the states. Even an amendment that is necessary to produce a better policy than the status quo can be a serious waste of resources and credibility if it has no realistic chance of passing. 

Harm Reduction International breaks down (pdf), by nation, executions for drug offenses:

[E]ven as the number of states imposing the death penalty for all crimes has decreased to historically unprecedented levels, the number that prescribe the death penalty for drugs has risen. Moreover, a review of state documents, such as those provided for the UN Universal Periodic Review, reveals that governments frequently defend their capital punishment policy by claiming it is reserved primarily for drug offenders. Very often it is argued to be a deterrent measure, yet this would seem to assume that the majority of those caught are cartel bosses in charge of large syndicates. Such an assumption collapses under closer scrutiny. A large proportion, if not an outright majority, are low level couriers, vulnerable to exploitation, and/or foreign nationals.

(Hat tip: Drug WarRant)

Reihan appreciates Douthat's comparison of Rick Perry to Howard Dean. But he points out a key difference:

If we take the Pew Research Center’s 2011 “Beyond Red vs. Blue” report as our guide, ideological conservatives — encompassing the typology groups labeled Staunch Conservatives, Main Street Republicans, and Libertarians — amount to 29 percent of the general public, 35 percent of registered voters, and a large majority of Republican primary voters. Solid Liberals, in contrast, are 14 percent of the general public and 16 percent of registered voters. In a Democratic primary, ethnocultural cleavages and organized labor might also help an ideologically left-of-center candidate, but the Democratic party is perhaps best characterized as a coalition between ideological liberals and moderates in which ideological liberals often have to restrain their impulses. The Republican party, in contrast, is far more conservative-heavy, and far less inclined to allow self-conscious moderates in the party, a small and arguably shrinking minority, to hold sway.

Today on the Dish, Andrew defended Obama's record on the economy, the NYT tackled Palin's "supposed" labor without bothering to factcheck McGinniss, and the right resorted to imagined violence against McGinniss. Palin's affair with a sports-star while in the media drove one sports columnist up the wall, Andrew Sprung disembowled Perry's electability, and Perry doubled down on the evangelical front. Dan Savage earned a Moore award for going overboard on HPV, a reader reminded us about oral cancer, and bioethicists dared Bachmann to produce science to back her claims. Megyn Kelly earned an Yglesias award for her "post-partum compassion," young people took advantage of new healthcare provisions, and Roderick Long tutored Ron Paul on how to talk about libertarians and healthcare. We sized up Warren's fight against Scott Brown, Obama's base happened to consist of Dr. Who fans, and TNC chastised the left for having a bigger bark than bite.

Around the world, Reza Aslan made the case that Palestinians were following Israel's footsteps in declaring a state, and the blogosphere was mostly disappointed by the lack of Israeli creativity. Johann Hari apologized, Thomas Dinham got mistaken for a Jew, and Daveed Gartenstein-Ross exemplified why civility in the blogosphere succeeds. Ann Curry blessed Iran's president with a total softball interview, and the FBI disappointed us with their Islam training material. Drone could one day fight wars better than real soldiers, and Ackerman wondered what happened to all the Islamophobic veterans the right used to trot out.

Rape doesn't just apply to female soldiers, and Canada proved we can't afford to ignore the good soldiers who are female. Lawless fertility businesses spurred innovation, testosterone and happy marriages don't fit into a single box, and the Dish got there first on whether college athletes should be paid. Game theory could predict wars so we don't have to fight them, the way we measure poverty has evolved, and we're not making enough new antibiotics. Meth use plummeted while pot use spiked, Nicolas Cage confronted a naked intruder with a fudgesicle, and Jews love Chinese food because it's varied, fatty and festive.

Chart of the day here, cool ad watch here, VFYW here, MHB here, and FOTD here.

–Z.P.

Will Wilkinson encourages skepticisim with respect to the Census Bureau's report that 1/6 of Americans live in poverty:

The methodological arbitrariness of the poverty measure becomes evident when one considers that American poverty-alleviation policy has shifted away from the kinds of government assistance that are counted and toward the kinds that aren't. This leads to a number of oddities. Perhaps most significantly, America's largest poverty alleviation programme is now the Earned Income Tax Credit, but it's effects in alleviating poverty are simply ignored when calculating the poverty rate.

Kevin Drum thinks a more useful measure will be reported next month. Walter Russell Mead looks to history for a silver lining of sorts.

(Photo: A man sleeps on the sidewalk on September 14, 2011 in New York City. New Census Bureau figures released today reveal that 3.08 million people in New York State were living in poverty in 2010, or 16 percent, up from 15.8 percent in 2009. By Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Spencer Ackerman got his hands on some disturbing FBI training materials:

At the Bureau’s training ground in Quantico, Virginia, agents are shown a chart contending that the more “devout” a Muslim, the more likely he is to be “violent.” Those destructive tendencies cannot be reversed, an FBI instructional presentation adds: “Any war against non-believers is justified” under Muslim law; a “moderating process cannot happen if the Koran continues to be regarded as the unalterable word of Allah.” These are excerpts from dozens of pages of recent FBI training material on Islam that Danger Room has acquired. In them, the Constitutionally protected religious faith of millions of Americans is portrayed as an indicator of terrorist activity.

Will Oremus rounds up reax and related news.

A reader writes:

I have, perhaps, a different perspective on the subject than your American readers: I am from Canada, and for most of my life, since 1989, women in Canada have been serving in combat roles. We've even been allowed in that last bastion of male-only service, submarines, since 2000. The only stats I can dig up on short notice are from 2006, but at that time 15% of Canada's military force was made up of women. The regular combat force had 225 female personnel (about 2% of the total regular combat force).

And yes, Canadian women have died in combat in Afghanistan. It's not a pretty fact, but considering that it's 2011, it's just that: a fact.

Captain Nichola Goddard died in 2006 in a firefight in the Panjwaye District of Kandahar Province. As a whole, Canada mourned her passing while honouring her service. There was no serious talk of rescinding the women in combat regulations, nor was there at the deaths of Trooper Karine Blais (killed in 2009) or Master Cpl. Kristal Giesebrecht (killed in 2010).

Most women, even those already in the military, aren't cut out for combat service. For that matter, neither are a lot of men. It's likely that in the future, combat forces will continue to be mostly male (as the Canadian evidence points). But to exclude one group, no matter their drive, talents, or motivations, based solely on their gender (and the resultant discomfort of the men in charge) is to be blinded to the real benefits they and their skills may offer in the field. Can any nation really afford to ignore that potential advantage?

What is it about the fringe right that always gets them to threaten violence against critics? Check out this post from the deranged rightist, Robert Stacy McCain, about what he can imagine would happen to Joe McGinniss for writing a book that includes (unlike Going Rogue) plenty of reporting and facts – all of which can be empirically challenged in open debate. Instead we get this neofascist fantasy:

Joe McGinniss underwent emergency surgery Wednesday night after police say the author was beaten senseless by Republican presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s husband Todd at a Manhattan party where McGinniss was signing copies of his new book about the former Alaska governor.

“It was one of the most brutal attacks I’ve ever seen,” said Venona Wineglass, who was waiting in line to get her copy of the controversial anti-Palin book signed at the Upper West Side reception when, she said, Todd “came out of nowhere” and began punching McGinniss. “He was just like bam, bam, bam, and it took three guards to pull him off.”

And McCain thinks there aren't enough nut-jobs out there ready to unleash violence against McGinniss because they belong to the cult of Sarah?

People visit the 24th China International Optics Fair at the China International Exhibition Center on September 14, 2011 in Beijing. The three-day fair opened on Wednesday, attracting 770 exhibitors from 23 countries and areas. By ChinaFotoPress/Getty Images.