Month: December 2012

During America's temperance movement, rumors of alcohol-based spontaneous human combustion were common:

Thomas de Quincey confessed to fearing that his addictions might lead to such "anomalous symptoms," including spontaneous combustion. "Might I not myself take leave of the literary world in that fashion?" he wondered. A drunk explodes in Melville’s Redburn, and Charles Brockden Brown’s Wieland also features spontaneous human combustion (though, in a rarity, the victim there is not an alcoholic). And then there is Charles Dickens’ Bleak House, a novel notable not just for being one of the towering masterpieces of Victorian fiction, but because of its thirtieth chapter, in which the minor character—the alcoholic landlord Mr. Krook—spontaneously bursts into flames.

Amazingly, "the belief in spontaneous human combustion … outlasted the temperance movement, not the other way around":

While largely discredited by the beginning of the twentieth century, it lingered in the medical literature. As the height of Prohibition, Dr. W. A. Brend’s well respected Handbook of Medical Jurisprudence and Toxicology (1928) contained an entry for spontaneous combustion: "Spontaneous combustion of the body, in the sense that the layman attaches to the words, never occurs; but, very rarely, a state of the tissues exists for which Dixon Mann suggests the term preternatural combustibility. The condition has been most frequently noticed in the bodies of fat, bloated individuals who have been excessive drinkers. Probably, in such cases, inflammable gases are generated in the body after death, and, if a light is near, become ignited, leading to a partial consumption of the soft tissues."

The year in film:

Cardiologist James O’Keefe fears that endurance athletes are killing themselves by overtraining. Erin Beresini presents both sides:

"Marathoners and Tour de France cyclists have incredibly fit cardiovascular systems," O’Keefe says. "But it’s not an exercise pattern one should sustain for decades. It demands so much from the heart that you literally accelerate the aging process."

O’Keefe’s findings grabbed headlines—and forced a good number of the estimated 15 million Americans who participate in endurance sports to reconsider their training regimens. Other experts, however, think O’Keefe’s warnings are overblown. "The idea that ultra activities put people at acute risk of sudden cardiac death is warmongering," says Keith George, head of the Research Institute for Sport and Exercise Sciences at England’s Liverpool John Moores University. "It’s not supported by the evidence."

In 1971, Lennon came to New York on a visitor visa. He lost that in 1972 and, due to a drug charge (cannabis resin in his London flat), wasn't able to stay in the country. Katelyn Polantz explains how, with the help of his lawyer Leon Wildes, Lennon's situation "exposed the standards upon which President Obama's administration has built its Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which allows young undocumented immigrants who've grown up in the United States to stay in the country":

Wildes first protested in court using Lennon and Ono's contributions to American arts and the humanities as evidence of why they should stay. Ono was granted residency. Wildes then alleged that the government had targeted Lennon, unhappy with his political advocacy. He also contested the definition of cannabis resin.

But key to Wildes' argument were documents he found proving the government had overlooked deportation cases. Wildes presented 1,800 files showing the government had quietly granted a form of deferred action. Wildes used the records in court on behalf of Lennon, the first time such an argument was made. They won the case in an appeals court in 1975.

"[John] asked me personally, 'Not everybody can afford lawyers like you. Can we publicize this so everybody eligible can try to get it?' And that's what I've been trying to do ever since," Wildes said. This idea helps form the foundation for the present day deferred action program.

Haaretz floats the idea that the new Israeli ambassador to the US could be Netanyahu's own far-right adviser and liaison to Republicans in the US, Ron Dermer. Some pertinent facts:

1. Dermer, who immigrated from the U.S. in 1997, is clearly identified by the Obama administration as a supporter of the Republican party. His family in Miami Beach have close ties with the Bush family, particularly with former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, whose name has been mentioned as one of a number of possible contenders for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016.

2. Aside from identifying him as a Republican supporter, many Democrats see Dermer as the brains behind Netanyahu's support for Mitt Romney. An article published in Tablet Magazine a few months before the elections revealed that Dermer was the one who conceived and planned Romney's visit to Israel in July this year, along with Dan Senor, an advisor to Romney.

Reasonable folks might conclude that Obama's decisive re-election might have affected the total refusal to budge a millimeter among the House GOPers and the Netanyahu administration. So far, not so much. It may be that, now defeated in their effort to oust him in the election, the two chief opponents of the president in Jerusalem and Washington will lash out even more.

Frum expects Republicans to lose the fiscal cliff fight:

Sometime early [next] week, perhaps Monday itself, the president will appear on TV to offer the "Obama tax cut": the fourth biggest tax cut in American history after the Reagan, Kennedy, and George W. Bush tax cuts. Experts will note that the "Obama tax cut" is basically the 2001 Bush tax cut re-enacted, with benefits for the uppermost brackets lopped off, and probably various redistributive measures packed in for the lower brackets. The plan is already written, we can be sure.

Meep meep. Josh Barro argues that individual Republicans are acting rationally:

Republicans are eventually going to have to agree to a compromise deal that is acceptable to a broad swath of Democrats and that substantially raises taxes. Their base is going to hate that. But if they drag their feet and get smacked around enough on the way to the deal, they will be able to sell the idea that they had no choice but to cave. … A good fight — or at least the show of one — placates the conservative base and helps Republicans avoid primary challenges. It also makes the Republican Party look incompetent and reckless, damaging the national brand.

Meep triple meep.

Matt Duss sees the strategy behind their repellent anti-Semite slurs. On assessing foreign policy these past few years:

Hagel’s record shows that he was ahead of the curve. Though he voted for the Iraq war, he was one of its earliest and most rigorous critics. Unlike Senator John McCain and other neoconservative supporters of the war, however, who continue to cling to what Matt Yglesias and Sam Rosenfeld termed (in an influential 2005 article in the Prospect) the “incompetence dodge”—the war was the right choice, but badly executed—Hagel was willing to face up to the fact that the Iraq war was a strategic failure, one that significantly empowered America’s enemies and dramatically undercut America’s influence in the region. The fact that this view is now held by a strong majority of Americans—as well, interestingly, by Israeli leaders across the political spectrum—only seems to make neocons madder.

On the issue of Iran, Hagel has been calling for talks with the country since 2001, a position that Obama successfully defended as a candidate and implemented as policy when he became president. Again, the fact that a broad majority of Americans now see this approach as the correct one only seems to enrage Hagel’s critics all the more.

Hagel's journey has been very similar to my own, in response to the same set of damning facts over the same period of time – and we have both been smeared as Jew-haters for our response to empirical reality. For those reasons, perhaps I am overly fond of Hagel – because he represents a future, reality-based, non-group-think conservatism that can rid itself of the neocon cancer. And that's why Obama's possible selection of him for secretary of defense would not just broaden the range of views within the cabinet on military intervention, but could begin to craft a post-neocon conservatism in foreign policy, where defense – and not hegemonic offense – is the core American value.

(Photo: Getty Images. Painting: Georges Danton, referring to this post.)

Johann Thorsson rounds up his favorite book dedications, including this gem from Neil Gaiman:

You know how it is. You pick up a book, flip to the dedication, and find that, once again, the author has dedicated a book to someone else and not to you.

Not this time.

Because we haven’t yet met/have only a glancing acquaintance/are just crazy about each other/haven’t seen each other in much too long/are in some way related/will never meet, but will, I trust, despite that, always think fondly of each other….

This one’s for you.