Category: The Dish

Matt’s take:

We have a failed stab at immigration reform, massive tax cuts that saddled the country with big debts but produced a macroeconomic situation worse than that prevailing under his predecessor’s policies, an increase in the level of subsidies for fossil fuel producers, an increase in the level of farm subsidies, a Medicare reform structured as a large subsidy to health insurance and pharmaceutical firms, the institutionalized use of torture and arbitrary detention, and a return of illegal domestic surveillance. Also — No Child Left Behind, and an invasion of Afghanistan whose goals, though eminently justified, have not been achieved.

Apart from that, Mrs Lincoln … ?

A reader writes:

Some of the reaction to this school segregation case has really brought out the worst of what you call the Left’s fundamentalism. I mean I am just absolutely floored by this post at TPM Cafe, which says we "shouldn’t put up with this" from the court. The logic of the post seems to suggest that judicial review should be eliminated.

It’s seems a very similar reponse to the one Delay and company had to the Schiavo case. We didn’t get the ruling we want so the court better look out.

But in a way it’s worse, because the court didn’t really rule against liberals as much as the author believes. Justice Kennedy left open ways to achieve the goal of diversity in schools so long as you don’t do so by racial classification on an individual basis. Yet because a specific means is thrown out the author says the court has ruled in favor of separate but equal. It’s just completely unhinged from reality.

Remember when extraordinary efforts to increase racial diversity were pitched as temporary?

Perjury in defense of wartime deception is now okay, as far as the president is concerned. I’m surprised by Bush’s chutzpah. I retained some minimal respect. No longer. We now know full well what his beliefs are: the law is for other people, not himself, his friends or his apparatchiks.

Panama City, Panama, 7 am.

Two stories that may well convey a more accurate impression of the dangerous world in which we now live: a massive typhoon with over a million now homeless in Pakistan (a nuclear power already on the verge of an Islamist take-over); and a near-miss on nuclear materials in Georgia, in the former Soviet Union. Just adding to the optimism around here.

A fashion face-off!

Charles Murray recently analyzed the evolutionary evidence for high levels of intelligence among Ashkenazi Jews. Commentary’s readers respond. And Charles responds back. A fascinating exchange.

A study of Israel’s "targeted killing" policy and the ineffectiveness of suicide bombing:

We find evidence that the targeted killings of Palestinian leaders by Israel reduce realized Palestinian violence. We find, however, that intended Palestinian violence is increasing at low levels of targeted killings, but decreasing at higher levels. There is little evidence to suggest that suicide bombings against Israelis reduce the number of subsequent Palestinian fatalities. Rather, we find that suicide attacks that kill at least one Israeli lead to subsequent increased incidence and levels of Palestinian fatalities. Our results do not support the notion that suicide attacks and targeted killings follow the ‘tit-for-tat’ pattern that is commonly postulated in the literature.

The future arrives:

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is creating automated kill zones around the Gaza Strip aimed at halting infiltrations by terrorists, arms smugglers and other hostile individuals.

Now in final stages of operational testing, the "See-Shoot" system will add weapons to the network of overlapping sensors already deployed along the approximately 60-kilometer border separating Israel from the Palestinian coastal territory.

Developed by state-owned Rafael, See-Shoot consists of a series of remotely controlled weapon stations which receive fire-control information from ground sensors and manned and unmanned aircraft. Once a target is verified and authorized for destruction, operators sitting safely behind command center computers push a button to fire the weapon.

Bruce Schneier comments here.

We’ve long known that running can help keep the blues at bay. Now, depressed rats have proven it.