Year: 2013

Henry Wiencek is unimpressed with Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power, Jon Meacham's latest foray into history:

The shadow of the Peculiar Institution looms over this book and, I suspect, is the main reason why Meacham so persistently emphasizes Jefferson’s political “realism” and his refusal to move farther and faster than the law or the public mood allowed. Meacham has no problem with bold presidential moves such as the Louisiana Purchase, which as Meacham admits, was illegal (the Constitution did not provide for its acquisition) and Jefferson’s naval action against the Barbary pirates, which he pursued without Congressional approval (he secured it retroactively). But slavery is always a special case. Slavery was just one of “the complexities of life.” Sally Hemings was not enslaved by Jefferson but by “geography and culture.” When the political issue is slavery, the man who elsewhere seizes control and imposes his will, immediately gives up: “Wounded by the defeats of his progressive efforts on slavery, Jefferson was finally to retreat to a more conventional position.” Meacham does not let Jefferson entirely off the hook, but his rebuke is gentle.

Frank Dikötter reviews a new book on China's trade policies in the developing world:

From the copper mines of the Democratic Republic of Congo to the natural gas holdings of Turkmenistan, a giant octopus extends its tentacles, trading finished products for natural resources. In South America 90 per cent of exports to China are unprocessed or barely processed natural resources. The proportion is about the same for Africa. China not only extracts, it also constructs. In what the authors call 'stadium diplomacy', dozens of 'friendship stadiums' are presented as gifts to countries around the world. Critics characterise them as Trojan horses used to conquer local markets. 

(Photo of a stadium in Togo, Gabon by Flickr user Panoramas)

Ambers carefully considers it:

Here is a thought experiment: Going over the fiscal cliff would have damaged the economy and thrown it back into a recession. Defaulting on the national debt would probably send the economy into a depression. Why would the Republicans, who, after all, were reasonable enough to vote on a tough deal to avert the fiscal cliff, refuse to make a deal on legislation to avert the debt ceiling default, which would imperil the country and anger their donor base even more?

It may be wiser for Republicans to use all of their leverage to insist on deep cuts during the sequester fight without upsetting the financial markets by holding the debt ceiling over the president's head.

Ezra Klein's view:

In the end, [Republicans] weren’t even willing to go over the fiscal cliff. The debt ceiling would do far more damage to the economy than the fiscal cliff, and Republicans would receive far more of the blame. After all, many thought President Obama did want to go over the fiscal cliff as going over raised taxes, and so it was possible Republicans could’ve portrayed the breakdown in negotiations as a Democratic strategy. No one thinks that the White House wants to breach the debt ceiling, and so Republicans will take all the blame.

Today on The Dish, Andrew explained what our soon-to-be-independent business model was, as well as made clear how transparent the Dish would be (and why) before then releasing the overwhelmingly-positive data from our first 24 hours signing up members. Andrew also went through more reader responses to our announcement and appreciated Jay Rosen’s appraisal of the “mutualized journalism” the Dish is trying to do. In other IndieDish coverage, Dean Starkman questioned the likelihood that others could follow our lead, Jeff Bercovici passed along The Atlantic’s new thoughts regarding a pay-meter of their own, and @MelloMcGee mashed up MGM with the Dish’s independence in our Tweet Of The Day.

Andrew also responded at length to the pending investigation of the CIA’s involvement in Zero Dark Thirty, tried to unpack the polarized vitriol between conservatives and liberals, and called out the Obama administration for its “indefensible secrecy” regarding the assassination of US citizens who wage war on the US.

In political coverage, David Brooks noted the GOP’s fiscal rock-and-a-hard-place, Tim Huelskamp pushed back on the idea the the full House GOP really supported Speaker Boehner, hunter Ari LeVaux took on the NRA, and David Gutting claimed that Obama rolled the GOP with the fiscal cliff deal. We also explored Al Jazeera’s purchased-entry into the US television market, about which Pamela Geller made a deranged statement to earn herself a Malkin Award nomination. Looking overseas, Ackerman tried to make sense of the newest death toll out of Syria, Jacob Newberry was troubled by reverse exploitation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Keith Humphreys questioned pot’s profitability for drug cartels, Max Paris surveyed the sad state of the Kyoto climate change treaty, and we learned about China’s democratic near-miss of a hundred years ago.

In assorted coverage, Drum highlighted the link between lead exposure and crime rates, Eric Moll detailed what we could do to combat fossil fuels, Ian Frazier lamented modernity’s lack of mystery, Adam Green introduced us to the world’s greatest pickpocket, and Tom Jacobs examined the psychological power of a woman in high heels. Also, Evgeny Morozov dispelled the environmental friendliness of telecommuting, a reader further explained the dangers of eating fructose, Jelani Cobb pointed out that Django Unchained was “a riff on the mythology we’ve mistaken for history”, and Willoughby Cooke stood up for the typically over-worked and under-paid line cook. We then wondered if being a little overweight might actually be good for us, again contemplated the universe’s possible opinion of humanity, considered the interactions generated by provocative-book reading in public, saw a Brooklyn substation through the VFYW, literally took a second look at 2012 in today’s MHB, and an owl was inventoried in our FOTD.

Once again, please consider joining the Dish as a founding member here, and a massive thank you to the nearly 12,000 of you who already have.

– C.D.

Lawrence Krauss sees humanity's insignificance and eventual disappearance as reason to cherish the time we have. Norm Geras pushes back:

[W]e may celebrate an individual life when it has ended, as having been rich in experience, loving relationships, achievement and so on; but when it's over, that is a loss some people will grieve about and more people still will feel as being such. How much more true must this be if death is the future, even a remote future, for humankind? What a gigantic loss! We might accept – those of us who do – that it is both inevitable and irredeemable. But to treat the whole business, smilingly, as only spiritually uplifting seems to miss a certain tragic dimension in things.

Chef Paul Gerard is going back to his roots:

 

Willoughby Cooke criticizes how high-end restaurants take advantage of kitchen staff:

[My] career has spanned eleven years, during which I’ve worked as a prep cook, fry cook, pantry cook, grill cook, pastry chef, and baker. The least I’ve made was $7.50 per hour; the most was $13.50. To be a line cook and eventually a chef you must submit to the hell that is the professional kitchen: long hours, low pay, no breaks, no respect. As you advance up the line, the work gets harder and the responsibility increases while the pay does not. An entry level line cook job starts at as low as $8 an hour and tops out at around $15. (In 2011, the national median wage for line cooks was $10.61, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.)

Tom Jacobs reviews research on high heels. A recent study's findings:

[H]igh heels exaggerate the differences in the ways men and women walk, making the wearer appear more feminine. This stimulates "sexual arousal in males," as well as increased attentiveness on the part of women who are scoping out potential competitors for male attention. This can happen on either a conscious or an unconscious level, but this evidence suggests the dynamic is real, and transcends fashion fads.