The Dish

In coming to terms with that part of the conservative mindset that switched overnight from being skeptical of government power to wishing to grant it dictatorial authority to suspend core constitutional guarantees, Roger Ailes might be an interesting case. If you think Dick Cheney is terrified of al Qaeda – and I mean scared out of his wits by these medieval loons – then you need to meet the padded bunker of the man who unleashed Hannity and Beck:

On the day of the attacks, Mr. Ailes asked his chief engineer the minimum number of workers needed to keep the channel on the air. The answer: 42. “I am one of them,” he said. “I’ve got a bad leg, I’m a little overweight, so I can’t run fast, but I will fight. We had 3,000 dead people a couple miles from here. I knew that any communications company could be a target.”

His movements now are shadowed by a phalanx of corporate-provided security.

He travels to and from work in a miniature convoy of two sport utility vehicles. A camera on his desk displays the comings and goings outside his office, where he usually keeps the blinds drawn.

Mr. Ailes said he received frequent threats over the years, but his concerns for the safety of his family were heightened by an incident at his New Jersey home after the 9/11 attacks. There was an intruder on his property, but no arrest was made. In Putnam County, he has bought several properties surrounding his home. A sign outside his house shows an illustration of a gun and advises visitors that it is under video surveillance.

This is the Cheney mindset too: paralyzed by fear. If al Qaeda wants to know who it really succeeded with these last few years, nervous nellies Ailes and Cheney are heard to beat.

Berkeley Hills, California, 4.45 pm

A reader writes:

You wrote about your enjoyment of Avatar:

“Or I really am becoming a goddamn hippie after all these years.”

Finally, you begin to understand.

We have been working on you for years. Hard work.

We thought about just shooting you, but — like Jake Sully —  you have a strong heart: Eywa said to save you. And perhaps for the same reason Jake was saved.

I used to live in Portland, Oregon — home to so many fine old hippies, including the famous science fiction/fantasy writer Ursula K. le Guin. About science fiction, she wrote:

“At this point, realism is perhaps the least adequate means of understanding or portraying the incredible realities of our existence… The way to see how beautiful the earth is, is to see it as the moon.”

— or in the case of Avatar, a moon in a far distant solar system, in a far distant future. The point being that the distancing of science fiction — in space, time and imagination — is necessary in order to actually see the here and now, which is the real goal.

Conor is right — Cameron is not commenting on American Indians, he’s “allowing humanity to reflect on its circumstances and fallen nature in a novel way.” Avatar is a better movie than the critics think. 

Btw, these labels — human and Na-vi, liberal and conservative, atheist and theist — these are a fool’s game, children squabbling over imaginary sandcastles. Take these quotes, all by the same author — are they “liberal” or “conservative”?

“If one believes that words are acts, as I do, then one must hold writers responsible for what their words do.”

“The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty; not knowing what comes next.”

They are all — surprise! — by Ursula K. le Guin. I would call them all conservative (using the Sullivan conservative standard). But I can tell you, without doubt, that le Guin never voted for Bush. She would be considered the most radical of “liberals” by non-Sullivanic conservatives. 

The labels are all hogwash. There’s something else, that transcends these silly labels, that waits to be discovered. 

… you'll love the Filthy Critic's review.

“I am by no means alone within the family or the company in being ashamed and sickened by Roger Ailes’ horrendous and sustained disregard of the journalistic standards that News Corporation, its founder and every other global media business aspires to,” – Matthew Freud, Rupert Murdoch's son-in-law, on the propagandist Roger Ailes.

(The first version of this quote confused Lachlan Murdoch with Freud.)

A "twelve-step plan" for Republican self-destruction.

Ben Smith points to a new and particularly disgusting Dolchstoss ad from Liz Cheney’s “Keep America Safe” group. The family's attempt not to go down in history as an incompetent bunch of war criminals who made America tangibly less safe is certainly impressive. But the bitter bile thrown at a president of the US from a former vice-president is unprecedented and classless – like so many of the proto-fascist panic-moves by the scaredy cats posturing as tough guys:

From the prologue of Sean Carroll's new book on the nature of time:

If everything in the universe evolves toward increasing disorder, it must have started out in an exquisitely ordered arrangement. This whole chain of logic, purporting to explain why you can’t turn an omelet into an egg, apparently rests on a deep assumption about the very beginning of the universe: It was in a state of very low entropy, very high order.

The arrow of time connects the early universe to something we experience literally every moment of our lives. It’s not just breaking eggs, or other irreversible processes like mixing milk into coffee or how an untended room tends to get messier over time. The arrow of time is the reason why time seems to flow around us, or why (if you prefer) we seem to move through time. It’s why we remember the past, but not the future. It’s why we evolve and metabolize and eventually die. It’s why we believe in cause and effect, and is crucial to our notions of free will.

And it’s all because of the Big Bang.

(Hat tip: 3QD)

Wired explains the science:

Bornaviruses, a type of RNA virus that causes disease in horses and sheep, can insert their genetic material into human DNA and first did so at least 40 million years ago, the study shows. The findings, published January 7 in Nature, provide the first evidence that RNA viruses other than retroviruses (such as HIV) can stably integrate genes into host DNA…

Retroviruses make up about 8 percent of the human genome. When these viruses insert into the genome, the result is usually bad for the host. But not always: Some retrovirus proteins can help fight off infection with other retroviruses. And at least twice in primate evolution retrovirus insertions have added genes to the host genome that aid in making the placenta. Now those proteins are essential for placenta development, says Cédric Feschotte, an evolutionary geneticist at the University of Texas at Arlington.

And as I did, I became less afraid of it. And I believe that lack of fear and sometimes over-dedication to my work helped me survive it, or, rather, survive with it. I think this is wiser than some modern conceptions of our bodies as somehow alien to illness rather than as part of the web of virology and bacteria and life that exists on this planet. So you tend to your illness as part of your body rather than seeing it as an invader to be conquered. I don't mean some new agey idea that modern medicine is irrelevant. Au contraire. HIV kills you if left untreated and aggressive medicine is vital. I mean a psychological resistance to the war metaphor, an ownership of your own cells, and the spiritual calm that accepts our physical embeddedness and is often the reward of a close call with mortality.

The calm fades so easily so often. But without it, we die.