Erica Grieder embraces it:
Efficiency measures can often save as much power as the more glamorous efforts can produce, at a fraction of the cost. One widely used estimate comes from a 2009 report from McKinsey, which reckoned that America could reduce its non-transport energy consumption by roughly 23% by 2020 through efficiency savings alone.
Addendum here.
Today on the Dish, we finally got a clean end to the Iraq disaster, and Andrew hoped Obama would aggressively deploy his successful foreign policy in the campaign. Andrew and The Vatican got on board with OWS, the New York General Assembly marched to a different drummer, big banks subvert capitalism, but we don't really deplore the banker mindset. The greatest systemic failure of all time was probably unavoidable, the administration unleashed an ambitious mortgage program, and hermit crabs faced a housing crisis of their own. Reihan remembered the indigent, the Church of Scientology engaged in creepy criminality, and the TSA is creepy too. In our video feature, Andrew reconciled his sexuality and Catholic faith.
Romney's reckless neoconservatism quashed the big GOP foreign policy debate, Romneycared for illegal immigrants, and, in the absence of an actual campaign, Herman Cain is counting on his lucky number 45. Rick Perry flirted with birtherism, Santorum crusaded against individual freedom, and Rubio rewrote the Cuban exile experience. We indulged in some Bush nostalgia, referenced the Republican dictionary, and Pat Buchanan fearmongered a "nation within a nation."
We relived Qaddafi's final moments, Freddie DeBoer advised against premature congratulations, and Libya braced for a wave of war crime prosecutions. We cheered Tunisia's leading Islamist party, and drones trivialize and perpetuate warfare.
Jonathan Rauch celebrated the King of the gay rights movement, Steve Jobs hurt people, and humor masters the future. Serious gamers make great surgeons, simple training improves voluntary muscle control, and neighborhoods breed healthy neighbors. Divorce drove women to college, and Siri will probably replace human assistants. We looked at racial discrimination on eBay, social accountability might motivate us to cut back on energy consumption, and sex is an "old way" of feeling good.
Correction of the day here, VFYW here, FOTD here, MHB here (a mental health vacation here), YouTube horror show here, and the cutest occupiers of all here.
— M.A.
(Photo: Iraq War veteran Brad Hammond walks up the stairs on September 26, 2011 at his house in Lakewood, Colorado. Seven years after returning home from a year-long deployment in Tal Afar, Iraq, Hammond continues to experience severe post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and the effects of traumatic brain injuries he sustained in combat. He suffers from chronic anxiety, headaches, night terrors, hallucinations and frequent bouts of aggression and cannot hold down a full time job. He helps his wife Dani care for their three children, while also taking a private mentoring classes to help improve his attention and cognitive skills. Hammond was on a team of U.S. soldiers who opened fire on a carload of Iraqi civilians on January 18, 2005 in Tal Afar, Iraq, killing two, when they did not stop at a checkpoint. By John Moore/Getty Images.)
Jon Rauch remembers Frank Kameny. Money quote:
Why is it that I often call Frank Kameny the gay rights movement’s closest thing to King? Because, like King, he rooted his life in the Declaration of Independence’s promise and never lost faith in it, or with it. All men are created equal. Frank held his country to its founding promise and helped it find the better angels of its nature. That is why I remember him not just as a great gay activist but as a great American patriot.
He used to say that his fight for equality at home was an extension of the fight he waged against tyranny in Europe. And so it was that in June, when his car passed, I didn’t cheer. On an impulse, I stood at attention and silently saluted. I will never know if he saw me in the crowd, but I know that, if he did see me, he understood.
Michael Weiss pinpoints a conflict in American culture:
Previous examples of shameless speculation — take junk bonds in the 80’s — drew the same fierce denunciations of the speculators. But somehow, a popular culture simultaneously grew up that glorified these bad guys and rooted in them in the mythos of the American Dream. … OWS sees itself as a battalion against a lifestyle and a mindset that people don’t, in fact, deplore so much as they do the ruin that that lifestyle and mindset causes. Until the movement figures out how reconcile this uniquely American contradiction, and account reasonably for why it exists, OWS will only be subject to further derision and dismissal.
Unembeddable scene of Boiler Room characters quoting Gordon Gecko here. On a related note, Christopher Orr recommends the latest film on Wall Street culture, Margin Call.
After airport security discovered a vibrator in Jill Filipovic's bag, they left the following note for her:
Ackerman puts these searches in perspective:
TSA has yet to prove that its invasions of privacy have stopped a single terrorist. Would-be underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab snuck explosives onto a U.S.-bound plane — precisely the scenario TSA exists to prevent — but TSA has successfully forced a disabled four-year old to walk through a scanner without his leg braces, and investigated its critics.
Enjoy. Money quote:
- Jesus: Charismatic religious leader and son of God; born in Bethlehem in the year 0; beliefs include love, charity, enhanced interrogation, privatized healthcare, elimination of the estate tax, and the right to carry concealed semiautomatic weapons.
- League (Ivy): an association of eight Eastern universities and colleges, the lack of a fancy education from which qualifies a candidate for political office.
- Liberal: A person who should be rounded up and shot but not really.
- Marxism: A political and economic philosophy developed by Karl Marx and promulgated by Paul Krugman.
- Media (Mainstream): Where you won't hear things.
- Medicare: A fraudulent, socialistic boondoggle that is sacrosanct.
- Mexicans: Brown people who have it coming.
- Mountaintops: Ancient rock formations that have it coming.
- Muslims: Brown people who have it coming.
- News: Fox News
- Obamacare: A Federally-mandated policy to address the national oversupply of grandparents through euthanasia.
- Organic: Eaten by lesbians.
In an interview with Tim Goeglein, one of George W. Bush's longest-serving aides, Timothy Dalrymple reconsiders "compassionate conservatism" as an approach to civil society:
Personally, I’ve sometimes wondered whether “compassionate conservatism” came out, in effect, to big-government conservatism. I no longer think that’s the case. Although Bush expanded government spending, he often directed that spending in ways that did not further bloat the government bureaucracy but, instead, empowered churches and ministries and other organizations in the private sector to do their work.
Perhaps this is just a case of "non-ironic Bush nostalgia." Scott Galupo's post-mortem:
Maybe one day Republicans will rediscover compassionate conservatism—a modest vision that was overwhelmed by terror, war, economic calamity, and, finally, an ugly ideological freakout.
A reader writes:
On July 30, you
to the discovery that Björk was going to be performing the album at the just-opened, state-of-the-art Harpa concert hall in Reykjavik in October. We booked a trip to Iceland that very day and got tickets for her first show, which coincided with the Iceland Airwaves music festival.
Long story short: watching that MHB led us to our escape from Seattle to Reykjavik this past week, leaving the endless bad news slog to join 6,000 other people from all over Europe and elsewhere who were doing the same.
After having our minds blown by Björk’s performance the first night, we wandered the city for the rest of the week, soaking up music that ranged from the Icelandic Symphonic Orchestra playing works of local composers to John Grant falling in love with Iceland while singing his bitter torch songs. We met people from at least six different countries and for once didn’t get into the “What’s wrong with the U.S?” conversations that Americans abroad usually encounter, but instead bonded jovially over our shared love of music and appreciation of Iceland.
My boyfriend and I came home feeling lighter and with a refreshed perspective, ready to tackle our problems with new energy. We don’t want to substitute hippie jams for activism, but sometimes the “tunes” can help us lighten up and shed the bitter thinking that has taken hold.
(Our reader’s photo caption: “Of Monsters and Men, a talented young band in Iceland”)
A significant problem for Libya's post-conflict reconstruction.
David Cortwright calls for a time-out on drone warfare:
[Drones] allow leaders to conduct military operations without risking the lives of U.S. soldiers or drawing public disapproval. They give the false impression that war can be waged with fewer costs and risks. Any development that makes war appear to be easier or cheaper is dangerous and morally troubling. It lowers the political threshold of war. It threatens to weaken the moral presumption against the use of armed force.
The use of drone aircraft perpetuates the illusion that military force is an effective means of countering terrorism and resolving political differences. … Terrorism is essentially a political phenomenon. It cannot be defeated by military means. The RAND Corporation's 2008 report"How Terrorist Groups End"shows that the most effective tools against violent extremism are political processes and police operations.
David Friedman extends Cortwright's argument.
The Dish 