Month: September 2012

Maria Konnikova finds that all digital traces of Jonah Lehrer's suspended book have been scrubbed:

All of a sudden, Imagine did not exist—at least, as far as major online retailers were concerned. Search for it on Amazon, and you get the following message: "Looking for something? We're sorry. The Web address you entered is not a functioning page on our site." Try Barnes & Noble, no better luck. … A further search of [Houghton Mifflin Harcourt]'s site yields no record of Imagine's ever having existed: If you look for its ISBN or visit Lehrer's bibliography, it's like he never wrote it at all.

Why it matters:

An e-book is not a physical book. That point might seem trite until you stop for a moment to think how much simpler it is, in a certain sense, to destroy electronic than physical traces. There's no need of inciting mass cooperation in book-burning enterprises. No need for secret police or raids or extensive surveillance. The power to remove a book from a device, to remove all traces of it from retailers' websites, to expunge it from a publisher's online record: It would simplify the work of a would-be Soviet Union or Oceania multifold, would it not?

A blur-of-the-moment trip to Singapore:

Like Dish readers, Josh Barro notes that Romney can recoup his tax overpayment at a later date. And no one will know:

An IRS employee who disclosed the existence of the amended return would be committing a felony. If Romney is President, he will face political pressure to make continued tax disclosures. But if he’s a private citizen, he won’t have to heed calls for more tax transparency — he can amend his 2011 taxes and nobody will ever know.

So in a sense, overpaying his taxes is the best kind of campaign spending: Romney coughed up an extra few hundred thousand dollars in an effort to avoid some bad press, but he has the option to get all the money back if he loses. It’s exactly the kind of smart investment you would expect from the founder of Bain Capital.

The latest from Mainers United for Marriage's "Yes on 1" campaign:

Meanwhile, Towleroad points to a new initiative called The Four (referring to the four states determining marriage equality issues this election, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota and Washington).

It's the one on the thermostat:

Cornell University researchers conducted a study that involved tinkering with the thermostat of an insurance office. When temperatures were low (68 degrees, to be precise), employees committed 44% more errors and were less than half as productive as when temperatures were warm (a cozy 77 degrees).

Cold employees weren’t just uncomfortable, they were distracted. The drop in performance was costing employers 10% more per hour, per employee. Which makes sense. When our body’s temperature drops, we expend energy keeping ourselves warm, making less energy available for concentration, inspiration, and insight.

"The Master" is a movie I can barely wait to see. Especially after reading this rather brilliant post from Noah Gitell:

We can read “The Master” as an allegory that shows how contemporary America is adjusting to a new reality brought on by a different act of war – 9/11 – and how we have reacted to the destruction of our old moral order by clinging to new certainties. In one crucial scene, Dodd’s methods are questioned by a skeptic at a party. Their exchange, in which Dodd becomes increasingly agitated and defensive by a set of simple questions, reminded me of nearly every talking head I have seen on cable news of late – the kind of pundit that is wrapped so tightly in his or her narrow philosophy that real engagement becomes impossible. Freddie Quell gravitates towards Dodd’s certainty, but those of us who are desperate for such moral certitude today must choose between Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly or Rachel Maddow and Bill Maher.

Anderson is not one to imbue his films with lessons exactly, but the end result of Dodd’s work to cure Freddie of his ills are instructive. Freddie takes on many of the Master’s qualities and especially his contradictions – Dodd’s certainty begets Freddie’s fierce devotion to The Cause – but he never sheds the problems that led him there in the first place. He remains violent and impulsive, like a dog who is given enough food to stay alive but deprived of everything else. Through this tumultuous relationship between two very strange men, Anderson asks his audience what a person – and a nation – are to do when they come face-to-face with the world’s darkness.

At McSweeney’s, Matt Bell draws up his grading scale for the fall semester – “composed entirely of Samuel Beckett quotes.” The passage he designates for Fs:

Nothing happens. Nobody comes, nobody goes. It’s awful. So all things limp together for the only possible. In the immense confusion one thing alone is clear. I forgive nobody. Nothing to do but stretch out comfortably on the rack, in the blissful knowledge you are nobody for eternity. All I say cancels out, I’ll have said nothing. Words are all we have. Every word is like an unnecessary stain on silence and nothingness. To restore silence is the role.

It was a dramatic weekend in Libya, starting on Friday when tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets in Benghazi to protest against Islamist militias, including Ansar al-Sharia, the group many believe to be behind the attack on the US consulate there. Then after the main demonstration ended, many protesters regrouped to storm several militia compounds:

Chanting "Libya, Libya," hundreds of demonstrators entered, pulling down militia flags and torching a vehicle inside the compound, Ansar al-Sharia's main base in Benghazi – once the base of forces of former leader Muammar Gaddafi. The crowd waved swords and even a meat cleaver, crying "No more al Qaeda!" and "The blood we shed for freedom shall not go in vain!"

"After what happened at the American consulate, the people of Benghazi had enough of the extremists," said demonstrator Hassan Ahmed. "They did not give allegiance to the army. So the people broke in and they fled."

Though one militia fought back, resulting in eleven deaths, others simply evacuated, and their compounds were subsequently taken over by the Libyan military. In fact the government quickly took advantage of the opportunity to coordinate a crackdown on the militias, later announcing that all illegitimate armed groups must either submit to government authority or disband:

The announcement of the ban came hours after two armed groups said they would lay down their weapons and leave their bases in the eastern city of Derna. Derna residents say five military camps are now empty, after Abu Slim and Ansar al-Sharia, the two main militias in the area, withdrew.

"Abu Slim had three camps and Ansar al-Sharia had two. So it's five. Empty. All empty," Siraj Shennib, a 29-year-old linguistics professor who has been part of protests against the militias, told the Reuters news agency by telephone.

The Abu Slim and Ansar al-Sharia decisions were said to have been motivated by events in Benghazi on Friday.

Ranj Alaaldin cautions:

[Simply driving the militias underground] will compound existing security problems because it means militias could switch to operating as small units, instead of larger groups that are more easily identified and targeted. The government could still try to eliminate militias in their new form, but it remains doubtful that the state army, usually suited to targeting larger military formations and identifiable headquarters, has the organisation, experience and effectiveness to combat smaller, dispersed units that might continue and even increase their hit-and-run operations.

Moreover, this implies that the government is abandoning the idea of a reconciliatory process in favour of direct armed confrontation. That could be problematic in an unstable post-conflict environment that has yet to remedy differences between existing rulers and their predecessors. It could also be detrimental because of the links militias have with local regions and neighbourhoods. Some have extensive tribal, political and familial ties. The ramifications of this will be all the more severe because of the lack of state control and a functioning security force.

 Daniel Serwer also adds cold water:

We should not take much satisfaction from retribution.  What is needed is justice, which requires a serious investigation, a fair trial and an appropriate punishment.

Also needed are reliable, unified and disciplined security forces:  police, army, intelligence services.  This is one of the most difficult tasks in any post-war, post-dictatorship society.  Demobilization of the militias really is not possible until the new security institutions are able to start absorbing at least some of their cadres. Reform of security services and reintegration of former fighters are two sides of the same coin:  establishing the state’s monopoly on the legitimate use of force.

Still though, many around the world are savoring the Libyans' resolve:

I only wish Chris Stevens had lived to see Benghazi citizens reclaiming their city from armed salafists bbc.in/ONz8Ly

— Tony Karon (@TonyKaron) September 21, 2012

If his death actually catalyzes Libya's new-born democracy into a more stable state, then it will not have been in vain. Arab democracy was his life's work.

John Corvino has a new series of videos on marriage equality. Click the video below and the various videos will play, one after another. He begins with the definition of marriage, then considers the polygamy canard, moves on to the "children need a mother and father" argument, and so on:

The full list of videos is here.

The Seattle Times, the largest daily newspaper in Washington state, has endorsed I-502, Washington's marijuana legalization initiative. It begins:

The question for voters is not whether marijuana is good. It is whether prohibition is good. It is whether the people who use marijuana shall be subject to arrest, and whether the people who supply them shall be sent to prison. The question is whether the war on marijuana is worth what it costs.

Initiative 502 says no.

Dominic Holden rounds up additional pro-legalization editorializing from the paper. Scott Shackford contrasts Washington's editorial boards with California's:

When pot legalization hit the ballot in 2010 in California, allegedly liberal newspaper editorial boards ran screaming into their local police chiefs’ offices and hid under the desks until those bad, bad marijuana junkies went away. Statism trumped civil liberties at California’s news outlets (Cities would be able to set their own guidelines? What the hell is this – Somalia?). None of the major dailies endorsed it.