One of the hopeful features of the current political climate is that public opinion in the US has not been stampeded into supporting the bombing of Syria, at least not yet. In fact, as the propaganda for the war increases, public opinion is going the other way. Pew reports that just within the last two weeks, opposition to the war has surged from 48% to 63 % with support being stagnant at 28%. [Read more…]
So the case for Congress voting war against Syria is taking the usual turn from the merits of the war itself to how it will affect domestic politics and the elections in 2014 and 2016, and what it means for Israel. These are the topics that our chattering classes really care about. And of course the obligatory comparison with Hitler is brought up because no stampede to war is complete with invoking the latest incarnation of good old Adolph as the enemy. [Read more…]
I can understand why some black people use the n-word though it causes great discomfort to others. They are trying to turn the insult around and reclaim the word, the way that the gay community is trying to do with some words that were used against them in a derogatory way. [Read more…]
President Obama’s claim that he welcomes the debate over the NSA’s activities and planned to have one but that he objects to the fact that Edward Snowden revealed the things that he supposedly wants to discuss was obviously a lie. Does anyone seriously think that in the absence of Snowden, Obama would have one day voluntarily told the public what has been going on? [Read more…]
(Thanks to reader Marcus Ranum)
I wrote recently about Stephen Pinker’s efforts to defend scientism, where he argued that although the use of the word is not consistent and is often used as an epithet, it deserves to be defended because there is a positive meaning that can be salvaged.
There are some problems with his essay. One is that he starts out with a partial straw man. [Read more…]
It is fine for reporters to give anonymity to those who fear retribution if their identity is revealed. But it is wrong to do so just so that the government can advance a message or an agenda without taking responsibility for it. One of the things that I have railed against is the practice of journalists granting anonymity to sources who are speaking with the approval of the government. This allows the sources to say things that can be denied later. [Read more…]
Like others who strongly support a single-payer health care system, I have been highly critical of the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare), seeing it as a bureaucratic monstrosity that was designed to keep the useless and parasitic health insurance industry in business while also allowing the hospital and drug industries to keep making exorbitant amounts of money. I also felt that while it would help some people, it would not do enough and would not reduce costs much. [Read more…]
I found this article that contains comments from Russian president Vladimir Putin that shed an interesting light on the sequence of events that led to Edward Snowden ending up in Russia and his relationship with Putin. The report also says that even though he has little money, Snowden is settling in and learning the language. [Read more…]
There is a new web comedy series Ask A Slave where actress Azie Mira Dungey, who used to work as a ‘living history’ character at George Washington’s plantation in Mount Vernon, re-enacts some of the questions she was asked by tourists.
You know how people say that there are no stupid questions? We might want to rethink that. [Read more…]