Townsend Quits

Steve Clemons liked her. One of his commenters posted this priceless exchange from CNN:

HENRY: You know, going back to September 2001, the president said, dead or alive, we’re going to get [Osama Bin Laden]. Still don’t have him. I know you are saying there’s successes on the war on terror, and there have been. That’s a failure.

TOWNSEND: Well, I’m not sure — it’s a success that hasn’t occurred yet. I don’t know that I view that as a failure.

My own favorite quote was when she defended the use of torture by the Bush administration by reassuring us that when the prisoner gives up information, the torture stops. Er, yes. That’s the whole point of torture, isn’t it? In her farewell letter, she compared George W. Bush to George Washington. Ahem.

Her Trust Problem

When voters actually focus on the Democratic race, and listen to the arguments and observe the character of the candidates close-up, Obama tends to do well. The latest ABC News poll from Iowa must be encouraging for his campaign:

Most Democratic likely voters in Iowa, 55 percent, say they’re more interested in a "new direction and new ideas" than in strength and experience, compared with 49 percent in July — a help to Obama, who holds a substantial lead among "new direction" voters…

While Clinton still leads on more personal attributes than any of her competitors, just half of Iowa Democrats in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll believe she’s willing to say what she really thinks — far fewer than say so of either Obama or John Edwards. Obama beats her by 2-1 as the most honest and trustworthy candidate.

No wonder she’s trying out a new "trust" ad. Meanwhile, in Florida:

Clinton is the only candidate, Democrat or Republican, with higher unfavorable than favorable ratings; 45 percent of voters have an unfavorable opinion of her, while 38 percent have a favorable opinion.

One Climate Change Palliative

Bjorn Lomborg looks at how over-heating cities have already figured out how to keep relatively cool:

Cities are hotter than the land around them because they are drier. They lack moist green spaces and have drainage systems that efficiently remove water. In London, the air around the river Thames is cooler than it is a few blocks away in built-up areas. If we plant trees and build water features, we won’t just beautify our surroundings, but we’ll also cool things down – by upwards of 8C, according to climate models.

Moreover, although it may seem almost comically straightforward, one of the best temperature-reducing approaches is very simple: paint things white. Cities have a lot of black asphalt and dark, heat-absorbing structures. By increasing reflection and shade, a great deal of heat build-up can be avoided. Paint most of a city and you could lower the temperature by 10C.

Why Daniel Bell Is Still Worth Reading

Tony Judt re-examines the cultural contradictions of capitalism, and the empty, unstable center of our new gilded age:

In the early years of the French Revolution the Marquis de Condorcet was dismayed at the prospect of commercial society that was opening before him (as it is opening before us): the idea that "liberty will be no more, in the eyes of an avid nation, than a necessary condition for the security of financial operations." We ought to share his revulsion.

The second source of anxiety is that the never-ending story may not last. Even economies have histories. The last time the capitalist world passed through a period of unprecedented expansion and great wealth creation, during the "globalization" avant le mot of the world economy in the imperial decades preceding World War I, there was a widespread assumption in Britain—much as there is in the US and Western Europe today—that this was the threshold of an unprecedented age of indefinite peace and prosperity. Anyone seeking an account of this confidence—and what became of it— can do no better than read Keynes’s Economic Consequences of the Peace: a summary of the illusions of a world on the edge of catastrophe, written in the aftermath of the war that was to put an end to all such irenic fancies for the next fifty years.

Cannabis vs Cancer

Some very encouraging research news for women with breast cancer:

Cannabidiol works by blocking the activity of a gene called Id-1 which is believed to be responsible for the aggressive spread of cancer cells away from the original tumor site – a process called metastasis.

Past work has shown CBD can block aggressive human brain cancers. The latest work found CBD appeared to have a similar effect on breast cancer cells in the lab.

Drug warriors can rest easy, however. Such compounds do not have the effect of providing any sort of pleasure to people struggling with serious illnesses.