Krugman’s blind spot
Mark Kleiman has an excellent observation on a tendency I’ve been noting in Paul Krugman, exemplified by his column today. Kleiman:
Paul Krugman admits the obvious
Mr. Obama will be the Democratic nominee.
But he still can’t bring himself to say a single positive thing about the only person standing between John McCain and the White House. Instead he gives the nominee a bunch of bad and condescending advice. The Bush years have been good for Krugman; he could continue into a McCain Presidency without breaking stride. A Clinton Presidency might have brought him a senior appointment. But an Obama Administration would make Krugman a marginal figure.
Do you think his unconscious mind has figured this out? Or is there any other explanation for his continuing to do what he can to weaken the nominee of the party he claims to favor?
Defending civil liberties more dangerous to US than terrorism
This is interesting. Go to the link, but here’s the chart summarizing the responses from followers of the Coral Ridge Ministries:
How dangerous are the following to the spiritual health of America?
| Very | Somewhat | Not very | |
|---|---|---|---|
| The ACLU and similar groups | 96 | 3 | 1 |
| Pro-homosexual indoctrination | 95 | 4 | 1 |
| Abortion | 93 | 6 | 1 |
| Islamic terrorism | 91 | 8 | 1 |
| Hollywood | 89 | 10 | 1 |
| News Media | 87 | 12 | 1 |
| Darwinism/evolution | 85 | 14 | 1 |
| Cults and false religion | 82 | 16 | 2 |
| Atheism | 82 | 16 | 2 |
| Courts | 81 | 18 | 1 |
| Apathetic/uninformed Christians | 79 | 20 | 1 |
| Colleges and Universities | 78 | 21 | 1 |
| Public education (K-12) | 69 | 29 | 2 |
| Congress | 63 | 35 | 2 |
Graphing belief in Biblical literalism against IQ
Very interesting charts. Intro:
A few months ago I posted data which showed, unsurprisingly, that Unitarian-Universalists tend to have high IQs and Pentecostals not so much. What about something like Biblical literalism and IQ? Well, I plotted the IQ values from the General Social Survey for selected denominations and plotted them against the proportion which believed in a literal interpretation of the Bible.
Side-stabbing stiletto snake
Very interesting snake, well described. Description begins:
It goes without saying that most predatory animals need to open their mouths when they want to stab or bite potential prey items. But, get this, there’s a group of snakes that can erect their teeth and stab prey with a closed mouth. And that’s not all that’s interesting about these snakes. Yes, time for more weird snakes. There are lots and lots and lots of weird snakes, and one of my favourite groups of weird snakes are the atractaspidids (or atractaspids), and in particular the atractaspidid genus Atractaspis. If you haven’t heard of these snakes before it might give you some idea of what they’re like to know that they’ve been variously referred to as mole vipers, burrowing asps, burrowing adders, stiletto snakes or side-stabbing snakes. I’m going to be referring to them as burrowing asps: be prepare to be amazed…
Terrorism is down (except for the war we started)
Interesting: Terrorism has gone down over the past five years except for the terrorism we created by aggressively invading another country. Read the whole article. Here’s a snippet:
… The Simon Fraser study notes that the decline in terrorism appears to be caused by many factors, among them successful counterterrorism operations in dozens of countries and infighting among terror groups. But the most significant, in the study’s view, is the “extraordinary drop in support for Islamist terror organizations in the Muslim world over the past five years.” These are largely self-inflicted wounds. The more people are exposed to the jihadists’ tactics and world view, the less they support them. An ABC/BBC poll in Afghanistan in 2007 showed support for the jihadist militants in the country to be 1 percent. In Pakistan’s North-West Frontier province, where Al Qaeda has bases, support for Osama bin Laden plummeted from 70 percent in August 2007 to 4 percent in January 2008. That dramatic drop was probably a reaction to the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, but it points to a general trend in Pakistan over the past five years. With every new terrorist attack, public support for jihad falls. “This pattern is repeated in country after country in the Muslim world,” writes Mack. “Its strategic implications are critically important because historical evidence suggests that terrorist campaigns that lose public support will sooner or later be abandoned or defeated.” …
Random thoughts on retirement
The contents of this post have been revised, extended, and organized and now can be found here.
Our managed democracy
Chalmers Johnson has a fascinating book review of Democracy Incorporated, by Sheldon S. Wolin. It begins:
It is not news that the United States is in great trouble. The pre-emptive war it launched against Iraq more than five years ago was and is a mistake of monumental proportions—one that most Americans still fail to acknowledge. Instead they are arguing about whether we should push on to “victory” when even our own generals tell us that a military victory is today inconceivable. Our economy has been hollowed out by excessive military spending over many decades while our competitors have devoted themselves to investments in lucrative new industries that serve civilian needs. Our political system of checks and balances has been virtually destroyed by rampant cronyism and corruption in Washington, D.C., and by a two-term president who goes around crowing “I am the decider,” a concept fundamentally hostile to our constitutional system. We have allowed our elections, the one nonnegotiable institution in a democracy, to be debased and hijacked—as was the 2000 presidential election in Florida—with scarcely any protest from the public or the self-proclaimed press guardians of the “Fourth Estate.” We now engage in torture of defenseless prisoners although it defames and demoralizes our armed forces and intelligence agencies.
The problem is that there are too many things going wrong at the same time for anyone to have a broad understanding of the disaster that has overcome us and what, if anything, can be done to return our country to constitutional government and at least a degree of democracy. By now, there are hundreds of books on particular aspects of our situation—the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the bloated and unsupervised “defense” budgets, the imperial presidency and its contempt for our civil liberties, the widespread privatization of traditional governmental functions, and a political system in which no leader dares even to utter the words imperialism and militarism in public.
There are, however, a few attempts at more complex analyses of how we arrived at this sorry state. They include
Land cost: solar vs. coal
Interesting: solar power uses less land than coal (and leaves the land in better shape, not to mention the atmosphere: no mercury emission with solar, for example).
Playing with food
Take a look. And also here, while you look for a toothpick.
Truck-step soap dish
Very cute idea at Cool Tools: an aluminum truck step repurposed as an interesting and not unattractive shower soap dish.
UPDATE: I think in part I like it so much because “truck-step soap dish” is two spondees in succession: 4 beats. That’s uncommon. I always thought it was a bit of a tour de force for Donald Justice to manage 3 beats in succession in this poem:
Landscape with Little Figures
There once were some pines, a canal, a piece of sky.
The pines are the houses now of the very poor,
Huddled together, in a blue, ragged wind.
Children go whistling their dogs, down by the mud flats,
Once the canal. There’s a red ball lost in the weeds.
It’s winter, it’s after supper, it’s goodbye.
O goodbye to the houses, the children, the little red ball,
And the pieces of sky that will go on now falling for days.New and Selected Poems, Alfred A. Knopf, 1999
Donald Justice interviewed me for my admission to the Writers Workshop at the State University of Iowa (as it was then called) 44 years ago.
Alzheimer’s disease
As you age, the specter of Alzheimer’s disease begins to arise: when you struggle to remember a word, the name of a song, or a telephone number, the thought of the disease can’t help but occur to you, whether hypochondriac or not. And for some, it does turn out to be the case. This post from Mind Hacks tells of one new victim:
On the Ropes, BBC Radio 4’s programme about people in difficult situations, interviews author Terry Pratchett about his recent diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease.
In the first half of the interview, Pratchett talks about his early years as a writer and how he came to write the Discworld series and other novels.
In the latter half, he talks through the realisation that he had Alzheimer’s, from being tested for his initial relatively minor stroke, to being more comprehensively assessed for his ongoing cognitive difficulties.
He gives a fascinating first-person account of how he experiences the difficulties and the effects of the medication on his mind.
After his diagnosis, Pratchett was surprised at how little Alzheimer’s disease research was going on and donated half a million pounds to scientific research.
Pratchett fans have set up Match It For Pratchett, a drive to match the Discworld author’s donation and boost degenerative brain research.
The War Prayer, by Mark Twain
Via Kevin Drum, and read his comment on it.
Can a movie drive you mad?
Apparently at least one movie (The Exorcist) really did cause talk about driving mad some who saw it. But… read the details.
Not enough women in math and physics
Having very few women in math and physics careers is a common worry, but Mind Hacks has an interesting take on it. They point to a Boston Globe article by Elaine McArdle that discusses the issue and finds that, when women have free choice, they choose NOT to go into math and physics—women are much better represented in those fields when their choices are more limited. So do we really want women to enter math and physics? Or do we want women to want to enter math and physics. (I’m reminded of the title of a really excellent book, Analyzing Performance Problems: Or, You Really Oughta Wanna, by Robert Mager—if you manage people, you really should buy and read this book (unless, of course, your subordinates never have performance problems).)
Mind Hacks points out that there are very few men in some other fields—life sciences and psychology and nursing, for example—yet the uproar and dismay regarding that inequality is subdued at best.
Read the post at Mind Hacks and the McArdle article. Both very interesting.
Conditional apologies
Can an apology be conditional and still be an apology? The usual political apology goes something like this: “If people were offended, I apologize.” (I’m not referring simply to Senator Clinton here—this is a long-standing trope among politicians and public figures in general, resorted to immediately following the other beloved phrase, “My remarks were taken out of context”—a statement always true in the sense that one doesn’t quote the entire speech or interview in which the remark occurred, for example.)
To say “If people were offended, then I apologize,” when it is obvious that people were offended (otherwise why be saying anything at all?) does resemble an apology. But it’s not an apology, because it puts the onus on those offended: “It’s their fault, not mine. They were silly to take offense, so I have to say something more or less apologetic, but I’m going to make it clear who’s at fault here.” (The quoted matter being thought, not spoken aloud.) Logically, since clearly people were offended, snip the subordinate clause and simply say “I apologize.” Why not? The obvious reason: “Because then it sounds as though I were at fault—and I’m NOT.”
So the only true apology is an unconditional apology.
Here’s an example for you to consider, from TalkingPointsMemo:
UPDATE: See this post for the non-equivalence of “I regret” and “I apologize.”
How to fight terrorism effectively
Focus not on the terrorists, but on the communities providing active or passive support for the terrorists. Kevin Drum explains, with a nice chart showing how the situation in Pakistan is turning around somewhat.
The Monday shave, always a treat
The great benefit of not shaving on Sunday is that the Monday shave is such a pleasure. It always feels as though it’s been a long time since I’ve shaved, and I find extra enjoyment in the whole process. And it’s always a shave-stick shave. This morning I used the Yuzu shave stick from Honeybee Spa, which besides the usual excellent shea-butter-enriched lather has a very nice fragrance that (to me) is citrusy, with a strong hint of orange. It’s not included in the Honeybee Spa fragrance list, so I’ve asked just what it is.
UPDATE: Honeybee Sue says: “Yuzu is a Japanese grapefruit. To me, it smells just like a good ol American white grapefruit, with that distinctive tart grapefruit aroma. I’d say it’s definitely in the top 3 in sales for me. If you like citrus with a little bite, Yuzu is a great choice.”<
The ebony-handled Sabini brush produced a thick, dense, wet lather, and the ivory-handled Chatsworth with the Lord Platinum blade gave a smooth shave. Hydrolast Cutting Balm for the oil pass, and then Booster’s Mosswood aftershave. Wonderful feeling, great shave, looking good. 
