Amygdala

2008-07-24T15:30:00.001-04:00

REMAKING THE WORLD. Berlin:

[...] But in the darkest hours, the people of Berlin kept the flame of hope burning. The people of Berlin refused to give up. And on one fall day, hundreds of thousands of Berliners came here, to the Tiergarten, and heard the city’s mayor implore the world not to give up on freedom. “There is only one possibility,” he said. “For us to stand together united until this battle is won…The people of Berlin have spoken. We have done our duty, and we will keep on doing our duty. People of the world: now do your duty…People of the world, look at Berlin!”

People of the world – look at Berlin!

Look at Berlin, where Germans and Americans learned to work together and trust each other less than three years after facing each other on the field of battle.

Look at Berlin, where the determination of a people met the generosity of the Marshall Plan and created a German miracle; where a victory over tyranny gave rise to NATO, the greatest alliance ever formed to defend our common security.

Look at Berlin, where the bullet holes in the buildings and the somber stones and pillars near the Brandenburg Gate insist that we never forget our common humanity.

People of the world – look at Berlin, where a wall came down, a continent came together, and history proved that there is no challenge too great for a world that stands as one.

[...]

The terrorists of September 11th plotted in Hamburg and trained in Kandahar and Karachi before killing thousands from all over the globe on American soil.

As we speak, cars in Boston and factories in Beijing are melting the ice caps in the Arctic, shrinking coastlines in the Atlantic, and bringing drought to farms from Kansas to Kenya.

Poorly secured nuclear material in the former Soviet Union, or secrets from a scientist in Pakistan could help build a bomb that detonates in Paris. The poppies in Afghanistan become the heroin in Berlin. The poverty and violence in Somalia breeds the terror of tomorrow. The genocide in Darfur shames the conscience of us all.

In this new world, such dangerous currents have swept along faster than our efforts to contain them. That is why we cannot afford to be divided. No one nation, no matter how large or powerful, can defeat such challenges alone. None of us can deny these threats, or escape responsibility in meeting them. Yet, in the absence of Soviet tanks and a terrible wall, it has become easy to forget this truth. And if we’re honest with each other, we know that sometimes, on both sides of the Atlantic, we have drifted apart, and forgotten our shared destiny.

In Europe, the view that America is part of what has gone wrong in our world, rather than a force to help make it right, has become all too common. In America, there are voices that deride and deny the importance of Europe’s role in our security and our future. Both views miss the truth – that Europeans today are bearing new burdens and taking more responsibility in critical parts of the world; and that just as American bases built in the last century still help to defend the security of this continent, so does our country still sacrifice greatly for freedom around the globe.

In this new century, Americans and Europeans alike will be required to do more – not less. Partnership and cooperation among nations is not a choice; it is the one way, the only way, to protect our common security and advance our common humanity.

That is why the greatest danger of all is to allow new walls to divide us from one another.

The walls between old allies on either side of the Atlantic cannot stand. The walls between the countries with the most and those with the least cannot stand. The walls between races and tribes; natives and immigrants; Christian and Muslim and Jew cannot stand. These now are the walls we must tear down.

[...]

That is why America cannot turn inward. That is why Europe cannot turn inward. America has no better partner than Europe. Now is the time to build new bridges across the globe as strong as the one that bound us across the Atlantic. Now is the time to join together, through constant cooperation, strong institutions, shared sacrifice, and a global commitment to progress, to meet the challenges of the 21st century. It was this spirit that led airlift planes to appear in the sky above our heads, and people to assemble where we stand today. And this is the moment when our nations – and all nations – must summon that spirit anew.

This is the moment when we must defeat terror and dry up the well of extremism that supports it. This threat is real and we cannot shrink from our responsibility to combat it. If we could create NATO to face down the Soviet Union, we can join in a new and global partnership to dismantle the networks that have struck in Madrid and Amman; in London and Bali; in Washington and New York. If we could win a battle of ideas against the communists, we can stand with the vast majority of Muslims who reject the extremism that leads to hate instead of hope.

This is the moment when we must renew our resolve to rout the terrorists who threaten our security in Afghanistan, and the traffickers who sell drugs on your streets. No one welcomes war. I recognize the enormous difficulties in Afghanistan. But my country and yours have a stake in seeing that NATO’s first mission beyond Europe’s borders is a success. For the people of Afghanistan, and for our shared security, the work must be done. America cannot do this alone. The Afghan people need our troops and your troops; our support and your support to defeat the Taliban and al Qaeda, to develop their economy, and to help them rebuild their nation. We have too much at stake to turn back now.

This is the moment when we must renew the goal of a world without nuclear weapons. The two superpowers that faced each other across the wall of this city came too close too often to destroying all we have built and all that we love. With that wall gone, we need not stand idly by and watch the further spread of the deadly atom. It is time to secure all loose nuclear materials; to stop the spread of nuclear weapons; and to reduce the arsenals from another era. This is the moment to begin the work of seeking the peace of a world without nuclear weapons.

[...]

This is the moment we must help answer the call for a new dawn in the Middle East. My country must stand with yours and with Europe in sending a direct message to Iran that it must abandon its nuclear ambitions. We must support the Lebanese who have marched and bled for democracy, and the Israelis and Palestinians who seek a secure and lasting peace. And despite past differences, this is the moment when the world should support the millions of Iraqis who seek to rebuild their lives, even as we pass responsibility to the Iraqi government and finally bring this war to a close.

[...]

Now the world will watch and remember what we do here – what we do with this moment. Will we extend our hand to the people in the forgotten corners of this world who yearn for lives marked by dignity and opportunity; by security and justice? Will we lift the child in Bangladesh from poverty, shelter the refugee in Chad, and banish the scourge of AIDS in our time?

Will we stand for the human rights of the dissident in Burma, the blogger in Iran, or the voter in Zimbabwe? Will we give meaning to the words “never again” in Darfur?

Will we acknowledge that there is no more powerful example than the one each of our nations projects to the world? Will we reject torture and stand for the rule of law? Will we welcome immigrants from different lands, and shun discrimination against those who don’t look like us or worship like we do, and keep the promise of equality and opportunity for all of our people?

People of Berlin – people of the world – this is our moment. This is our time.

[...]

But I also know how much I love America. I know that for more than two centuries, we have strived – at great cost and great sacrifice – to form a more perfect union; to seek, with other nations, a more hopeful world. Our allegiance has never been to any particular tribe or kingdom – indeed, every language is spoken in our country; every culture has left its imprint on ours; every point of view is expressed in our public squares. What has always united us – what has always driven our people; what drew my father to America’s shores – is a set of ideals that speak to aspirations shared by all people: that we can live free from fear and free from want; that we can speak our minds and assemble with whomever we choose and worship as we please.

[...]

We are a people of improbable hope. With an eye toward the future, with resolve in our hearts, let us remember this history, and answer our destiny, and remake the world once again.

I'm for all that.

Y'all?

Read The Rest Scale: 2.5 out of 5.

Version soon to appear as translated on various rightwing sites: "We must surrender to Al Qaeda as soon as possible; I call on you all to become dhimmis -- as soon as my civilian national security force of illegal Mexican immigrants is ready to impose this on you, along with mandatory homosexuality, and 300% taxes; now, join me, and my Vice-Presidential running mate, Osama bin Laden Marx, in denouncing my honkie grandmother, you Nazis."

2008-07-23T17:58:00.002-04:00

MY SPINE LIGHTS UP. Caprica trailer.

Read The Rest Scale: 3 out of 5. Gosh, I just hope we see Boxie's ancestors.

Also:

[...]
--Battlestar Galactica Season 4.5 Webisodes. With the fourth and final season of SCI FI's award-winning series coming to a close, fans can view Galactica Webisodes as they return in the weeks leading up to the final 10 episodes of the show. SCIFI.COM and Universal Cable Production will produce 10 two- and three-minute serialized Webisode chapters, which will complement and enhance the series.

2008-07-22T13:31:00.004-04:00

WHY IS IRAQ CALMER? Prime Minister al-Maliki has an opinion

[...] SPIEGEL: In your opinion, which factor has contributed most to bringing calm to the situation in the country?

Maliki: There are many factors, but I see them in the following order. First, there is the political rapprochement we have managed to achieve in central Iraq. This has enabled us, above all, to pull the plug on al-Qaida. Second, there is the progress being made by our security forces. Third, there is the deep sense of abhorrence with which the population has reacted to the atrocities of al-Qaida and the militias. Finally, of course, there is the economic recovery.

Notice anything missing there? (Hat tip to Robert Farley.)

al-Maliki's interview has gotten plenty of attention for a few quotes, but here are a few other less-attended-to bits:

[...] SPIEGEL: Germany, after World War II, was also liberated from a tyrant by a US-led coalition. That was 63 years ago, and today there are still American military bases and soldiers in Germany. How do you feel about this model?

Maliki: Iraq can learn from Germany's experiences, but the situation is not truly comparable. Back then Germany waged a war that changed the world. Today, we in Iraq want to establish a timeframe for the withdrawal of international troops -- and it should be short. At the same time, we would like to see the establishment of a long-term strategic treaty with the United States, which would govern the basic aspects of our economic and cultural relations. However, I wish to re-emphasize that our security agreement should remain in effect in the short term.

SPIEGEL: How short-term? Are you hoping for a new agreement before the end of the Bush administration?

Maliki: So far the Americans have had trouble agreeing to a concrete timetable for withdrawal, because they feel it would appear tantamount to an admission of defeat. But that isn't the case at all. If we come to an agreement, it is not evidence of a defeat, but of a victory, of a severe blow we have inflicted on al-Qaida and the militias. The American lead negotiators realize this now, and that's why I expect to see an agreement taking shape even before the end of President Bush's term in office. With these negotiations, we will start the whole thing over again, on a clearer, better basis, because the first proposals were unacceptable to us.

SPIEGEL: Immunity for the US troops is apparently the central issue.

Maliki: It is a fundamental problem for us that it should not be possible, in my country, to prosecute offences or crimes committed by US soldiers against our population. But other issues are no less important: How much longer will these soldiers remain in our country? How much authority do they have? Who controls how many, soldiers enter and leave the country and where they do so?

SPIEGEL: Would you hazard a prediction as to when most of the US troops will finally leave Iraq?

'As Soon as Possible'

Maliki: As soon as possible, as far as we're concerned. U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama talks about 16 months. That, we think, would be the right timeframe for a withdrawal, with the possibility of slight changes.

Okay, you heard about that last one. But it should be unsurprising that anyone would want foreign troops able to kill at will out of their country ASAP.

For those of us interested in Iraqi history before the recent mess:

[...] SPIEGEL: Exactly 50 years ago, the monarchy in Iraq was overthrown and a republic established. But we didn't see any celebration of this event at all. What does that day mean for the history of Iraq?

Maliki: There may have been people who celebrated. But certainly not all Iraqis. On July 14, 1958, and era came to an end, but what came afterwards didn't live up to our expectations and hopes. What came were decades of military putsches and the dictatorship. We are still dealing with the aftermath today.

Interesting.

Robert Farley also points to the straightforward and always loveable John Derbyshire:

We should tell Maliki, loudly and in public, that he owes his job to us, and that further prosecution of our military operations in his country will be conducted with regard only to U.S. interests, as determined in consensus by our established domestic political processes. And if he doesn't like that, he can go to hell.

Don't these people know they were thrown against a wall for a reason?

Read The Rest Scale: 2 out of 5.

Bonus German report: how Barack Obama looks from Germany:

[...] Never before has there been so much excitement in Germany over the visit of a presumed US presidential candidate. Obama may be running for the White House, but judging by the commotion, one would think that he had already advanced two steps further and were the president of the world.

Which is precisely the issue. Obama raises hopes that he will not just change America, but politics as a whole.

[...]

It is time for leadership. And only one man inspires the kind of confidence that would enable him to assume this leadership: Barack Obama. Germans, in particular, are pinning their hopes on this man. Whereas just 10 percent favor the Republican candidate John McCain, fully 76 percent consider Barack Obama the better candidate.

[...]

"Obama has created a mood that makes it possible to have faith in politics," said Norbert Röttgen, the parliamentary leader of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU). Röttgen spoke enthusiastically about Obama, but his enthusiasm was also an indirect criticism of top German politicians, of men and women who seem to be everything but Obama, or at least everything but the image that many Germans have formed of him.

But it's not all about Obama:

[...] For Germany, perhaps the most important thing about the US elections is that they will end in Bush's departure.

Us, too.

ADDENDUM, July 24, 2008, 7:46 a.m.: Foreign Policy interviews McClatchy reporter Nancy Youssef in Baghdad on who deserves credit for what.

[...] FP: There’s been a debate in the media about how much credit should be given to “the surge” for what you’re seeing now. Barack Obama said it was just one of several factors that helped improve the security situation. Nuri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, didn’t even credit the addition of U.S. troops in his recent interview with Der Spiegel. Meanwhile, John McCain gives the surge the lion’s share of the credit. Who do you think is right?

NY: When you ask the Iraqis here, they say that the added U.S. forces were a part of it, but what really turned things around was the Sahwa movement [of former insurgents switching sides], Moqtada’s ceasefires, and in their minds, Basra. Basra was the first Iraqi-led success story, and it really changed the momentum. So, the Iraqis that we talk to see it as a complex equation with the U.S. troop surge as just one factor. And frankly, the situation on the ground suggests that they’re right, because the surge troops have left, and the security situation remains better.

Read The Rest Scale: 4 out of 5. Via Kevin Drum.

2008-07-22T13:14:00.002-04:00

FIGHT THE POWER. It's never too late.

She's not the messiah, she's the mayor of Aberystwyth and she has a plan.

She's a Cylon.

[...] Sue Jones-Davies is trying to overturn a near 30-year ban imposed by the town on Monty Python's Life of Brian - the film in which she played a role.

Long before she donned her mayoral robes in the mid Wales town, she played Brian's girlfriend in the movie.

[...]

A number of areas in Wales banned it, as former Python John Cleese recalled during an interview on Channel 4's Richard and Judy programme on Wednesday.

But nearly 30 years on, the new mayor of Aberystwyth wants the restriction lifted in her town.

"Given what's on TV now I think it's amazing a ban in Aberystwyth still exists," said Ms Jones-Davies.

"I think it should be lifted."

[...]

"I got the part because somebody dropped out," she said. "I had the same agent as John Cleese and was recommended for the part.

"I went for an interview at a flat in London and all the Monty Python crew were there.

"It was quite funny really because it wasn't a proper interview at all, as you'd expect with Monty Python.

"They were all chipping in and saying, 'Oh yes, she'll be fine'. I wasn't asked many questions."

It was shot in Tunisia, but part of the crucifixion scene had to be filmed in a sandpit in Kent.

"It was great fun to work on, and we had the odd day off. One day I went with Terry Gilliam to buy a carpet and driving along we came to a river," she added.

"Local people nearby were warning us not to go through it, but Terry just drove on - I thought we were going to sink but we managed to make to the other side."

Recalling her famous nude scene, Ms Jones-Davies said: "It was a part and I just played it, although I did call for a closed set.

'Commercial impact'

"It was filmed in a sort of small tunnel, and wasn't very sensual at all."

It is understood a committee made up of church leaders in Aberystwyth recommended a ban in 1979.

Ceredigion council has the power to lift it, but a spokesman said no-one in the licensing department knew about the ban.

But Michael Davies, the owner of Aberystwyth's Commodore Cinema, said he was sure it was still in place.

"As far as I know the Life of Brian is still banned from being shown at the cinema," he explained.

"My father ran the cinema when the ban was imposed and I suppose it would have had a commercial impact at the time because it was a huge film and made a fortune.

"I don't think lifting the ban now would make much of a difference."

On the contrary, a small child might see it, have it change their life, and fifty years later, lead a revolution. It could be vital to history as we will know it!

Always look on the bright side of life.

Read The Rest Scale: 2.5 naughty boys out of 5, particularly if you want a picture or two.

2008-07-22T11:26:00.003-04:00

THE WORST OF THE WORST. My post on learned helplessness took more than a day to get any links at all, despite my attempts to get some via email.

But it's slowly gotten more and more links and hits; it seems to be on the Long Tail, so to speak. Despite that, I don't want this additional Jane Mayer quote to be lost as an addendum (feel free to check out the many addenda I did add, though, please):

[...] Donald Rumsfeld described the detainees at Guantánamo as “the worst of the worst.” A more sober assessment has since been reached by many respected observers. Ms. Mayer mentioned a study conducted by attorneys and law students at the Seton Hall University Law School.

“After reviewing 517 of the Guantánamo detainees’ cases in depth,” she said, “they concluded that only 8 percent were alleged to have associated with Al Qaeda. Fifty-five percent were not alleged to have engaged in any hostile act against the United States at all, and the remainder were charged with dubious wrongdoing, including having tried to flee U.S. bombs. The overwhelming majority — all but 5 percent — had been captured by non-U.S. players, many of whom were bounty hunters.”

You knew that, if you'd been paying attention, but most people hadn't.

Most people won't.

Most people wait until they come for someone they know.

Yes, it's depressing to read about. Yes, you want some light reading during your work day.

It won't be less depressing when they come for someone you know.

Someday, later, rather than sooner, if there is any justice, there will be war crimes trials.

And some day, later, rather than sooner, historians will write of the war crimes, and will ask: why did Americans stand by? Why, like ordinary Germans in the Nazi era, did they look away? Why did they not see what was in front of their faces, what was widely reported in magazines and books and blogs, about terrible crimes committed in their names?

Why were they "good Americans" who were indifferent to torture, to illegal detention, to kidnappings, to the dismantling of centuries-old rights?

And someday you may be asked by your grandchildren, and great-grandchildren: what did you do when your moral right to claim to be a good person was put to the test?

Try to be able to look them in the eye.

Do what you can for them, and for yourself, and for your own family, if not your own honor, if you can't bring yourself to do it for the funny foreigners with the funny names who might, after all, be terrorists.

Do what you can because how will, ultimately, you live with yourself otherwise, when the time finally comes to look back, and answer "what did you do when times became evil"?

Don't look away.

Read The Rest Scale: 4 out of 5 for all but the first link.

2008-07-21T19:48:00.005-04:00

I JUST WANTED A CUP OF COFFEE. I find this and this both amusing, and an interesting comment on the intersection of the online and offline world today. My own take: there's never been a separation, save in some confused people's minds.

Washington Post (not washingtonpost.com, per se)'s take here. The wise and worthy Timothy Burke's take here.

My take: I like good coffee, and I'm enjoying finally grinding beans for the first time in my life.

And people should probably try more of this.

Perhaps fewer threats to punch people in their dick that way. Even with added caffeine.

I recommend this.

For another glancing touch on Chinese culture: Kung Fu Panda as seen from China.

Read The Rest Scale: 3 out of 5. No more coffee for me tonight.

2008-07-21T14:01:00.009-04:00

A VERY SERIOUS SITUATION. I am very concerned about the situation on the Iraq-Pakistan Border.

I am very grateful to mavericky maverick John McCain for bringing this very serious situation to my attention.

Also, I'm glad to learn that Barack Obama doesn't intend to attack the Pakistani Taliban, but intends to attack Pakistan. Remember: genuine mavericks have mavericky insights of great maverickness.

View The Rest Scale: 4 out of 5.

ADDENDUM, 3:01 p.m.: Man, Obama is one powerful Senator. He's responsible for high gas prices!

Obama is like Chuck Norris. Wait until his awesome powers are augmented by the Presidency!

Bonus McCain gaffe links: Top Ten McCain Gaffes of just last week. A greatest hit.

66 McCain Flip-Flops on the wall, 66 McCain flip-flops... if one of the flips should happen to flop, well, can we get up to one hundred?

Yes, we can.

ADDENDUM, 3:16 p.m.: Welcome, as always, Pharyngula readers. As always, feel free to see if you might enjoy other posts. And bookmarking and blogrolling of this 'umble site, which has few regular readers of its own these days, is always highly welcome, and in fact I'll strongly consider performing sexual services for you in ord--

[strange noises]

We're sorry. The previous writer has been sacked. Management apologizes for the inappropriate comment. We now resume our normal blogging. In Swedish.

Donations, btw, still really helpful if I'm ever going to move out of this single cramped attic room and into a place of my own again.

2008-07-20T22:40:00.006-04:00

39 YEARS AGO. Happy Anniversary.

Let's go back, now, please. Because.

Meanwhile, Google Moon. What it was like. Let's do this.

Read The Rest Scale: 3 slices of cheese out of 5.

CORRECTION, July 21st, 6:09 a.m.: Heading corrected from dopey "29 years ago." Numbers are my bane.

ADDENDUM, July 21st, 3:26 p.m.: NASA needs your urine. I say piss on them.

2008-07-19T14:48:00.002-04:00

ATTENTION K-MART SHOPPERS! YOUR LIFE, MARKED DOWN. Think your life ain't worth shinola? You're wrong!

[...] Last week, it was revealed that an Environmental Protection Agency office had lowered its official estimate of life's value, from about $8.04 million to about $7.22 million. That decision has put a spotlight on the concept of the "Value of a Statistical Life," in which the Washington bureaucracy takes on a question usually left to preachers and poets.

This value is routinely calculated by several agencies, each putting its own dollar figure on the worth of life -- not any particular person's life, just that of a generic American. The figure is then used to judge whether potentially lifesaving policy measures are really worth the cost.

A human life, based on an economic analysis grounded in observations of everyday Americans, typically turns out to be worth $5 million to $8 million -- about as much as a mega-mansion or a middle infielder.

Now, for the first time, the EPA has used this little-known process to devalue life, something that environmentalists say could set a scary precedent, making it seem that lifesaving pollution reductions are not worth the cost.

"By reducing the value of human life, which is really a devious way of cooking the books, the perceived benefits of cleaning up the air seem less," said Frank O'Donnell of the District-based group Clean Air Watch. "That has the effect of weakening the case for pollution cleanup."

But I'm sure there was no ulterior motive. It just so happens that after nearly eight years of the Bush Administration, your life is worth less: this is a surprise?

Read The Rest Scale: 3 out of 5. Graphic.

2008-07-19T14:38:00.003-04:00

YOU'RE SO GAY. Good news on the public acceptance front:

[...] Seventy-five percent of Americans in a new Washington Post-ABC News poll said gay people who are open about their sexual orientation should be allowed to serve in the U.S. military, up from 62 percent in early 2001 and 44 percent in 1993.

Majorities of Democrats, Republicans and independents alike now believe it is acceptable for openly gay people to serve in the U.S. armed forces. Shortly after he took office in 1993, Clinton faced strong resistance to his campaign pledge to lift the military's ban on allowing gay people to enlist. At that time, 67 percent of Republicans and 75 percent of conservatives opposed the idea. A majority of independents, 56 percent, and 45 percent of Democrats also opposed changing the policy.

Today, Americans have become more supportive of allowing openly gay men and women to serve in the armed forces. Support from Republicans has doubled over the past 15 years, from 32 to 64 percent. More than eight in 10 Democrats and more than three-quarters of independents now support the idea, as did nearly two-thirds of self-described conservatives.

Changing attitudes on the issue parallel broader swings in public views about homosexuality. In their recent review of 20 years of polling data, the Pew Research Center reported "a major shift away from highly negative attitudes toward gays and support for punitive actions against gays." In the 2007 Pew data, for example, 28 percent said local school boards should have the right to fire teachers known to be gay; that was down sharply from the 51 percent who said so in 1987.

[...]

Fifty-seven percent of white evangelical Protestants now support allowing openly gay service members in the military, compared with 82 percent of white Catholics and 80 percent of those with no declared religious affiliation. Three-quarters of both married and single people support the idea, both significantly higher than in 1993.

Across all three periodic Post-ABC surveys on the issue, women have been more apt than men to support gays in the military. Today, more than eight in 10 women support allowing openly gay soldiers, compared with nearly two-thirds of men. Fifteen years ago, half of women supported this stance; nearly two-thirds of men opposed it.

Furthermore, large majorities across age and education categories now support allowing openly gay individuals to serve in the military.

Soon, the Master Plan will be complete, and an all-gay military will be mandatory!

(Back in reality):

DM: Gay characters in books don't raise eyebrows nowadays, but you wrote such characters in the seventies. Why?

JH: Well, it's an interesting thing. I was at Iowa. Iowa City is a very progressive sort of place. It was the center for gay consciousness in the Midwest. I had gay friends and students, and it was important at the time. I suppose it was a little bit daring at time; it was very daring in science fiction. So I had gay characters in The Forever War (1975). That was for a specific purpose. It wasn't about homosexuality. It was about being isolated. I had my character being the only straight in a universe of gays just to show what's "queer" is being different from everybody; there's not a universal set of things that makes one person queer and one person not queer.

Word.

And you can be surrounded by people, and feel so isolated and lonely you want to kill yourself to relieve the pain.

Read The Rest Scale: 2 out of 5 and 3 out of 5. Poll data.

2008-07-18T12:28:00.003-04:00

THE DODDSTER. Interesting report from Marc Ambinder on who the Obama campaign is vetting, so far, for Veep nominee:

A simple exercise, based on public statements and some reporting.

Confirmed

Sen. Chris Dodd

Almost certainly being vetted (based on my and other's reporting)

Gov. Tim Kaine
Gov. Kathleen Sebelius
Sen. Evan Bayh

Unknown

Sen. Chuck Hagel
Sen. Hillary Clinton
Sen. Claire McCaskill
Ex-Sen. Sam Nunn
Ex-Sen. Tom Daschle
Ex-Sen. John Edwards

Not being vetted

Sen. Jack Reed
Sen. Joe Biden (yet)
Ex-Rep. Dick Gephardt
Sen. Jim Webb
Ex-Gen. Colin Powell

Powell would be a clincher, if only it wouldn't scare so many pale people. I continue to view Sebelius with great favor; I continue to view Bah, er, Bayh, with great disfavor -- he isn't your father's Bayh.

Daschle would look too much like Obama's Cheney. I could live with Biden, but he's not the best fit with the "change" meme. Still, he'd be a helluva change from Bush/Cheney.

I love me some Doddster.

Read The Rest Scale: 0 out of 5.

2008-07-17T13:15:00.021-04:00

NO, YOU'RE THE GODDAMN BATMAN. You could be if you just wanted to enough. You knew that.

A skyintific look at the Dark Knight! E. Paul Zehr wrote a book on it! Neuroscience and kinesiology gone bad!

[...] How many of us do you think could become a Batman?
If you found the percentage of billionaires and multiply that by the percentage of people who become Olympic decathletes, you could probably get a close estimate.

Only one more day.

Some early reviews.

I'm just sad that this key character may not appear.

Read The Rest Scale: 3 out of 5. Some previous posts on the Batman here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. Why? He's the goddamn Batman.

But I have this coming from Netflix shortly. Check it out:

Post that may or may not be coming: why you should see Wall-E: cuz it's great!

They still could so totally do Superman vs. Batman, you know.

Digressing to another millionaire unpowered hero, huh, it's Iron Boy.

ADDENDUM, 9:17 p.m.: Watchmen trailer! Yay!

ADDENDUM, 10:44 p.m.: Ten Batman gadgets you can (almost) get today. And, for what it's worth, the trailer for The Spirit, and it must be said that this Spirit very clearly seems to be vastly more "Frank Miller's The Spirit" than it seems to be "Will Eisner's The Spirit," as it's billed.)

Kevin Smith comments on Dark Knight:

Without giving anything away, this is an epic film (and trust me: based on the sheer size and scope of the visuals and storytelling, that's not an overstatement). It's the "Godfather II" of comic book films and three times more earnest than "Batman Begins" (and fuck, was that an earnest film). Easily the most adult comic book film ever made. Heath Ledger didn't so much give a performance as he disappeared completely into the role; I know I'm not the first to suggest this, but he'll likely get at least an Oscar nod (if not the win) for Best Supporting Actor. Fucking flick's nearly three hours long and only leaves you wanting more (in a great way). I can't imagine anyone being disappointed by it. Nolan and crew have created something close to a masterpiece.

It's actually listed as having a run time of 152 min.

Also, on WALL-E:

If you haven't already peeped it, get thee to a theater. It's the ballsiest animated film ever made (right up there with "Persepolis", in terms of untraditional cartoons), yet it'll melt your heart. Seriously - Wall-E's so adorable, he makes E.T. look like Josef Mengele. Alright, maybe not Mengele, but at least Rudolf Hess. Y'know what? Let's drop the Nazi comparisons altogether and just leave it at this: Wall-E (the character) is adorable and "Wall-E" (the film) is a must-see.

Also: perfectly decent, if, of course, unoriginal, sf. But it made me cry; not that that's any great trick, to be sure.

Lastly, Smith remembers George Carlin.

ADDENDUM, July 18, 4:51 a.m.: Hulk vs. Wolverine trailer. Latest Dark Knight trailer. A Caprican diner. Manohla Dargis DK review.

[...] Pitched at the divide between art and industry, poetry and entertainment, it goes darker and deeper than any Hollywood movie of its comic-book kind — including “Batman Begins,” Mr. Nolan’s 2005 pleasurably moody resurrection of the series — largely by embracing an ambivalence that at first glance might be mistaken for pessimism. But no work filled with such thrilling moments of pure cinema can be rightly branded pessimistic, even a postheroic superhero movie like “The Dark Knight.”

Four stars from Roger.

[...] The Dark Knight” is a haunted film that leaps beyond its origins and becomes an engrossing tragedy. It creates characters we come to care about. That’s because of the performances, because of the direction, because of the writing, and because of the superlative technical quality of the entire production. This film, and to a lesser degree “Iron Man,” redefine the possibilities of the “comic-book movie.”

[...]

Something fundamental seems to be happening in the upper realms of the comic-book movie. “Spider-Man II” (2004) may have defined the high point of the traditional film based on comic-book heroes. A movie like the new “Hellboy II” allows its director free rein for his fantastical visions. But now “Iron Man” and even more so “The Dark Knight” move the genre into deeper waters. They realize, as some comic-book readers instinctively do, that these stories touch on deep fears, traumas, fantasies and hopes. And the Batman legend, with its origins in film noir, is the most fruitful one for exploration.

Lenny Bailes in comments below points out a lot of clips from Hush.

ADDENDUM, 7/18, 12:25 p.m.: Watchmen trailer also now up here. Go watch it! Go read it!

ADDENDUM, 7/18, 11:33 p.m.: Saw DK. Loved it.

ADDENDUM, 7/22, 4:27 p.m.: Senator Patrick Leahy is Batman!...'s biggest political fan.

ADDENDUM, July 23rd, 12:48 p.m.: One of the better interviews with Nolan and Bale.

2008-07-17T11:51:00.003-04:00

HITTING THE TARGET. Department of How It Works: we point you to Tom Tomorrow, who speaks for me on the vital topic of The New Yorker.

Bonus Dan Perkins link on the Obama Phenonomenon also known -- most originally! -- as Obama Derangement Syndrome.

Read The Rest Scale: 4 out of 5. I'm goddamn bona fide.

ADDENDUM, July 18th, 12:43 p.m.: Try also Jon Stewart:

After a couple of months of glancing exposure to cable tv news, more or less for the first time in over fifteen years, I'm slowly coming to the conclusion that it melts the brains of those who regularly watch it, and has highly dangerous advanced moron-creating capabilities. Life is too short to listen to such exploitative, IQ-lowering, clowns, people.

Just say no. Don't let your brains be eaten; they're the only brains you have.

Aside from your Amygdala.

2008-07-15T12:16:00.017-04:00

LEARNED HELPLESSNESS. Scott Horton interviews Jane Mayer:

[...] It was completely fascinating to me to learn that Martin Seligman, one of the most esteemed psychologists in the country, a former head of the APA, was connected to the CIA after 9/11. Seligman is known for work he did back in the 1960’s at the University of Pennsylvania in a theory he called “Learned Helplessness.” He and colleagues conducted experiments on caged dogs, in which they used electric charges to shock them randomly. He discovered that the random mistreatment destroyed the dogs emotionally to the point where they no longer had the will to escape, even when offered a way out. Seligman confirmed for me, by email, that in the spring of 2002, as the CIA was trying to figure out how to interrogate its first major high-value detainee, Abu Zubayda, he was brought in to speak about his theories to a high-level confab apparently organized by CIA officials, at the Navy’s SERE School in San Diego. He said his talk lasted some three hours. Seligman said his talk was focused on how to help U.S. soldiers resist torture—not on how to breakdown resistance in detainees.

But, according to numerous sources (who are quoted on the record in The Dark Side), Seligman’s theories were cited admiringly soon after by James Mitchell, the psychologist whom the CIA put on contract to advise on its secret interrogation protocol. Eyewitnesses describe Mitchell as quoting Seligman’s theories of “Learned Helplessness” as useful in showing how to break the resistance of detainees’ to interrogation. One source recounts Mitchell specifically touting the experiments done on dogs in the context of how to treat detainees.

Through a lawyer, Mitchell has denied that these theories guided his and the CIA’s use of such coercive measures as close confinement, psychological manipulation, and calibrated pain. But Mitchell confirmed, when I spoke to him, that he admired Seligman’s work.

Among the U.S. Government’s interrogation techniques that seem to echo these experiments are the uses of random maltreatment—taking away any predictable schedule from detainees so that they have no idea what time it is, no sense of when meals are delivered, no idea if it is day or night, as well as manipulating temperature, sound, sleep, and using isolation, all of which are meant to cause psychic stress that would erode a prisoner’s resistance to being interrogated and foster total dependency upon an interrogator. Perhaps just coincidentally, the detainees have described other ways in which they were treated like dogs—the use of dog cages and of a collar and leash.

Learned helplessness: it's the treatment that has been administered to this country, and its citizens.

We've been subjected to sufficient random mistreatment that we've been destroyed emotionally to the point where we, as a people, no longer have the will to resist.

Learned helplessness.

Our Department of "Justice" has run rampant with crimes:

[...] [Jessica Radack]'s job in the department was to give ethical advice. She was asked whether an FBI officer in Afghanistan could interrogate John Walker Lindh and use his statements against him in any future trial. By the time she was asked this, however, as she knew, Lindh’s father had already hired a lawyer to represent him. So she concluded that it would not be proper for the FBI to question him outside the presence of his counsel.

To her amazement, the FBI agent went ahead and did so anyway, and then the prosecutors in the Justice Department proceeded to use Lindh’s statements against him in their criminal prosecution. She told me, “It was like ethics were out the window. After 9/11, it was, like, ‘anything goes’ in the name of terrorism. It felt like they’d made up their minds to get him, regardless of the process.” Radack believed that the role of the ethics office was to “rein in the cowboys” whose zeal to stop criminals sometimes led them to overstep legal boundaries. “But after 9/11 we were bending ethics to fit our needs,” she said. “Something wrong was going on. It wasn’t just fishy—it stank.”

What happened next was truly scary. She tried to ensure that a judge overseeing the case, who asked for all information regarding the Department’s handling of Lindh, was given the full record, including her own contrary advice. But instead, she said she found that her superiors at Justice sent the judge only selective portions of the record, excluding her contrary opinion. Her case files, she said, were tampered with, and documents missing. Among the senior Justice Department officials who were sent her files, she said was Alice Fisher, a deputy to Michael Chertoff who followed him as head of the Department’s Criminal Division.

Radack complained about what she thought were serious omissions of the record being withheld from the judge. Within weeks of disagreeing with the top Justice Department officials, Radack went from having been singled out for praise, to being hounded out of the department. Radack got a job in private practice, but after her story appeared in Newsweek, with copies of some of her emails, the Justice Department opened a leak investigation. The U.S. Attorney then opened a criminal investigation. Radack has since become an advocate for whistle-blowers’ rights. But the episode served as a warning to anyone in the government who stood in the way of the so-called, “New Paradigm.”

Learned helplessness.

Horton:

[...] One of the strongest quotes in the book, I think, comes from Philip Zelikow, the former executive director of the 9/11 Commission, former counselor to Secretary of State Condi Rice, and a historian who teaches at the University of Virginia. He suggests in time that America’s descent into torture will be viewed like the internment of the Japanese, because they happened for similar reasons. As he puts it, “Fear and anxiety were exploited by zealots and fools.”

Learned helplessness.

[...] Helgerson’s 2004 report had been described to me as very disturbing, the size of two Manhattan phone books, and full of terrible descriptions of mistreatment. The confirmation that Helgerson was called in to talk with Cheney about it proves that–as early as then–the Vice President’s office was fully aware that there were allegations of serious wrongdoing in The Program.

We know that in addition, the IG investigated several alleged homicides involving CIA detainees, and that Helgerson’s office forwarded several to the Justice Department for further consideration and potential prosecution. The only case so far that has been prosecuted in the criminal courts is that involving David Passaro—a low-level CIA contractor, not a full official in the Agency. Why have there been no charges filed?

Learned helplessness.

Get used to it.

It's your country. It's your choice. It's your former rights that have been disappearing, while you stood by, good Germans, wrapped up in your own lives, leaving it to others to prevent crimes, to pay attention, to work to prevent torture, spying, law-breaking, war crimes, and the criminally unnecessary deaths of hundreds of thousands of people.

What have you done to stop it?

Learned helplessness. It's a choice. It's a lifestyle.

It's the New Paradigm for America.

Land of the freely chosen learned helplessness.

Read The Rest Scale: 5 out of 5. Jane Mayer's new book, The Dark Side. (Click there to purchase, and I get a tiny amount.) My previous posts on the documentary. PBS website with much invaluable material.

Past posts covering Jane Mayer articles are here, here, here. More Mayer. Much More Mayer.

Past post on David Passaro.

Video discussion with Mayer.

End our learned helplessness. It's up to me and you.

Just say no. Impeach. Impeachment after office. After office:

[...] It is possible to impeach someone even after the accused has vacated their office in order to disqualify the person from future office or from certain emoluments of their prior office (such as a pension).

Impeachment means investigation, and unearthing of truth. History.

End our learned helplessness.

ADDENDUM, July 16th, 12:04 p.m.: welcome, Matthew Yglesias readers! Feel free to look around the place and at other recent posts! And feel free to help out Blue Girl and Brian Beutler. Thanks for your consideration!

And do come back again. Consider bookmarking and blogrolling, he pimped himself. Nobody reads me on my own these days! It's so tragic! [author breaks down sobbing and is hauled away]

ADDENDUM, July 16th, 12:57 p.m.: Welcome, also, Sideshow readers. Why, I first met Avedon in 1974, at Discon II. Thirty-four years: that's not too many.

ADDENDUM, July 17th, 12:34 a.m.: Links also from Steam Powered Opinions and Homeless on the High Desert.

ADDENDUM, July 18th, 3:44 p.m.: Fact-esque. Dialog International.

ADDENDUM, July 20th, 12:10 a.m.: Fabius Maximus.

ADDENDUM, July 20th, 7:39 p.m.: Gerry Canavan (boy this guy shares a bunch of tastes/views with me!; lots of good Batman/comics links, too); Long Story Short Pier in a long post delving into comics, bleakness, responsibility, small steps, Joss Whedon, and, yes, political change; excellent post -- go read it! (ADDENDUM, July 22nd, 12:04 p.m: after much reading of Kip Manley's blogs, I have decided I wish to have his babies.)

ADDENDUM, July 22nd, 7:14 a.m.: D-Day.

ADDENDUM, July 22nd, 11:53 a.m.: The Worst Of The Worst.

[...] “After reviewing 517 of the Guantánamo detainees’ cases in depth,” she said, “they concluded that only 8 percent were alleged to have associated with Al Qaeda. Fifty-five percent were not alleged to have engaged in any hostile act against the United States at all, and the remainder were charged with dubious wrongdoing, including having tried to flee U.S. bombs. The overwhelming majority — all but 5 percent — had been captured by non-U.S. players, many of whom were bounty hunters.”

That's who you're so afraid of. Why are you so afraid?

2008-07-12T06:08:00.004-04:00

A GOOD KIND OF EXTINCTION. Your Amygdala so could use this.

The study of anxiety is fast merging with the science of memory. No longer focused just on symptoms like social isolation and depressed mood, scientists are turning to the disorder’s neural roots, to how the brain records and consolidates in memory the frightening events that set off long-term anxiety. And they are finding that it may be possible to blunt the emotional impact of even the worst memories and fears.

[...] characterized by intrusive thoughts, sleep loss and hyper-alertness following a horrifying experience.

Living in great poverty for many years adds up to a lot of horrifying, and repeatedly terrifying, experiences, of eviction constantly being needed to be staved off the next week, the next day, of struggling to have money for food that week, and so on.

Here the highly estimable Bruce Baugh wrote (the topic being Social Security):

[...] Dread and worry suck. I don't wish them on anyone but my worst enemies. To me, saying that one wishes more people live with avoidable uncertainty is a hallmark of genuine cruelty, or at least of a total failure of a compassion that I regard as basic for civilization. I am proud to stand in support of a program that ably provides a foundation of, well, social security, and that can continue to do so with only very minor adjustments for decades to come. Would that everything in America worked so well.

I glancingly observed:

[...] "Dread and worry suck."

Especially decade after decade. They become reflexes, even when not appropriate, and can warp personalities. They're destructive in themselves.

Back here, we continue:

[...] P.T.S.D. is one of the most worrisome of the generally recognized anxiety disorders. There are four others: generalized anxiety disorder (G.A.D.), obsessive-compulsive disorder, phobias and panic disorder. G.A.D. is the most common, but all are familiar complaints in doctors’ offices: more than 20 million Americans will suffer one of these during his or her lifetime.

Genetics and the environment play roles in the development of anxiety disorders, but the point where these influences intersect is clearly the brain. The biology of anxiety has been very difficult to untangle in part because it is so familiar, so integral to our survival.

Most people can and do cope with many causes of anxiety, including demanding jobs, rocky relationships, second mortgages and even combat. Every day uncounted millions are beset by the sudden, heart-pounding dizziness of panic. It is normal, even necessary, to feel fear and stress. The brain’s anticipation of threats is an invaluable survival tool. The question for scientists is: Why can’t some people turn down the voltage?

When mammals sense threat, at least two important brain circuits swing into action. One pathway runs through the frontal lobe of the cerebral cortex, the layer of the brain that regulates consciousness, thinking and decision-making functions.

The other circuit is more primal, running deep into the unconscious brain and through the amygdala, a pair of lozenge-sized nubs of neural tissue (one on each side of the brain) specialized to register threats. This unconscious circuit is “quick and dirty,” a primal survival instinct that increases blood pressure, heart rate and alertness well before the thinking cortex is fully aware of what is happening.

The difference between the two may be crucial to understanding how an irrational fear forms. The amygdala records sights and sounds associated with a harrowing memory, and it is capable of sending the body into high alert before a person consciously processes the stimuli.

Most drugs currently prescribed for anxiety, like benzodiazepines and antidepressants, work to ease the symptoms of anxiety and have little effect on the underlying trigger. But scientists are now taking tentative first steps toward altering the brain’s age-old dynamic.

Researchers have been experimenting with a heart disease drug called propranolol, for instance, which interferes with the action of stress hormones like epinephrine. Stress hormones are central to the human response to threat; they prime the body to fight or run, and appear to deepen the neural roots of a terrifying memory in the brain. When the memory returns, these hormones flood again into the bloodstream.

But in one series of studies, people with P.T.S.D. who took propranolol reacted more calmly — on measures of heart rate and sweat gland activity — upon revisiting a painful memory than did similar subjects who took a dummy pill. By blocking receptors on brain cells that are sensitive to stress hormones, experts theorize, the drug may have taken the sting out of the frightening recollections.

Propranolol has not been proved to reliably ease the effects of trauma, but the investigation of such drugs is only beginning. Another candidate, an antibiotic called D-cycloserine, may help severely anxious patients alter the way they think about and react to current everyday concerns.

In one experiment, 28 people who were terrified of heights received so-called exposure therapy, including computer simulated rides in a glass elevator. The therapy helped all the subjects cope with their anxieties. But the participants who also took D-cycloserine learned to override their fears far more quickly than those who did not.

The drug may speed up a process that researchers call fear extinction, the unlearning of frightening associations. In theory, a successful fear-extinguisher might even complement analytic talk therapy in which patient and therapist work to understand how symptoms might be linked to loss, poisoned relationships or childhood traumas. The anxieties that flow from these events flourish deep in the brain, but now there is evidence that they can be rooted out — a chance for balm in an increasingly harrowing world.

I'd love to find a trial study of these meds, as I've suffered intense anxiety and panic attacks, along with the recurring severe clinical depression, all my life.

Balm would be good. Even a little bit.

Read The Rest Scale: 3 out of 5 for the rest of Bruce. Also, a bit more here and here.

Oh, yeah, your Amygdala is awake because, as usual without sleep meds -- and we're waiting for a voter ID card, so as to get a State ID, so as to be able to get into a local clinic, and it's been several months now of waiting -- there is little sleep.

2008-07-11T14:23:00.005-04:00

NOT THE BEST BUZZ. Buzz Aldrin has had endlessly better moments than this:

Apollo 11 astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin Jr. told SCI FI Wire that fantastic space science fiction shows and movies are, in part, responsible for the lack of interest in real-life space exploration among young people.

"I blame the fantastic and unbelievable shows about space flight and rocket ships that are on today," Aldrin said in an interview during an ice cream party held by the National Geographic Channel at the Television Critics Association press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., this week. "All the shows where they beam people around and things like that have made young people think that that is what the space program should be doing. It's not realistic."

The second man on the moon praised real-world films such as Apollo 13. "And Tom Hanks' series From the Earth to the Moon," Aldrin added. "They were fascinating, because it was reality history, and reality fiction can be good if you stick to reality. But, if you start dealing with fantasy and beaming people up and down and traveling seven times the speed of light, you are doing damage. You're not helping. You have young people who have got expectations that are far unrealistic, and you can't possibly live up to the expectations you have created in young people. Why do they get bored with the space program? That's why."

This is just too dumb to even bother to refute, given the endless number of scientists and pieces of real science, and endless imaginations, inspired and stirred by science fiction.

But Buzz is still one of my heros. Even a hero can have an off day, or subject. In that light, we also mention:

Aldrin is hosting a show on the National Geographic Channel called Unseen Moon, which uses a high-definition camera on a satellite to explore the same area where he walked during the Apollo 11 flight to the moon in 1969.

Read The Rest Scale: 0 out of 5.

And From The Earth To The Moon is an awesome series, that made me cry several times, and everyone should see it!

Would have been improved with more beaming, though.

Back on that nasty fantasy stuff, and speaking of heroes, a new Heroes web show:

NBC.com announced that Going Postal, a Web series tied to its hit SF show Heroes, will go live on July 14 at 3 p.m. ET.

In Going Postal, users will get an early glimpse of a new character with special powers and watch his destiny begin to unfold. The fast-paced, twist-filled series of short "webisodes" sets fans on a path that leads to the third-season premiere of Heroes on NBC this fall.

The first webisode, "A Nifty Trick," centers on Echo DeMille, an everyday mailman, who discovers a startling ability that quickly makes him a target.

In the second webisode, "The Houseguest," posting on July 21, Echo races home to protect his girlfriend Gina and finds deadly uses for his new ability.

In the third webisode of this installment, "Let's Talk," which posts on July 28, Echo sends Gina off to safety while he confronts his enemies, but the tables turn with an unexpected twist.

And for extra thrills: "integrated" commercials, oh, joy. Or: how to drive me postal.

And a touch more on the likely-unneeded remake of The Prisoner:

[...] Collier wouldn't reveal much more about how the show is being updated, but he offered one big spoiler: The giant white ball, Rover, will be part of the new show.

Rover was a big part of the TV series; it will be part of it. We can't talk about it extensively now--it will get me in trouble," Collier said.

The Prisoner, AMC's second original miniseries, combines espionage, thriller and science fiction and will star Jim Caviezel as Number Six, a part originated by Patrick McGoohan. McGoohan served as the creator, producer, writer and director of the 1960s series. Lord of the Rings star Ian McKellen will play Number Two, Six's boss and the man who apparently controls the mysterious Village in which he is trapped.

"We got Jesus and Gandalf!" Collier said. "What better cast could we get for those two characters than Ian McKellen and Jim Caviezel? It will be a limited series, that's how we could get those guys. But it is extensive; it is six hours."

I remain dubious -- I've yet to see the remake of The Andromeda Strain, but it sounds fairly bad -- but this way perhaps I can be pleasantly surprised if it turns out to be at all good, after all. If not, Collier should be sent to the Village.

Amygdala is not #1, but we try harder. Also, we're all with the noes on being a number, but yeses on being the free guys. And we're always all about wanting the information. Information! INFORMATION!

Karate chop! I'd settle for being #6!

ADDENDUM, 3:41 p.m.: And here's intriguing news:

Charlie Collier, general manager of the cable network AMC, told SCI FI Wire that he is actively looking to mine classic genre TV shows and SF movies for miniseries, movies and remakes that would appeal to viewers in their 40s or 50s, a la AMC's upcoming Prisoner miniseries.

"There's a wealth of old TV shows and sci-fi movies to look back at and see if we can take them and update them and reintroduce them to the public," Collier said in an interview after he introduced his cable TV channel's lineup at the Television Critics Association press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., on July 9.

[...]

"We are having a ton of fun looking into the acquisitions of past science fiction, both movies and television," Collier said.

There's very little real science fiction ever been done as either movies, or on tv, of course, but if they're making new stuff, that could possibly open some doors, particularly if they try, you know, adapting some actual science fiction text stories.

I have a little list, I have a little list.

2008-07-11T06:25:00.017-04:00

AUTHENTICITY is our theme for this morning: what's "real," and when does it matter?

Folks have been talking for years about how Photoshop and similar tools have rendered photographs even less reliable a measure of authenticity than they ever were -- "the camera doesn't lie" was never true, pictures could always be faked, but it used to be much more difficult -- and now much of the world is atwitter over this image that Iran released of their past week's missile tests:

As news spread across the world of Iran’s provocative missile tests, so did an image of four missiles heading skyward in unison. Unfortunately, it appeared to contain one too many missiles, a point that had not emerged before the photo was used on the front pages of The Los Angeles Times, The Financial Times, The Chicago Tribune and several other newspapers as well as on BBC News, MSNBC, Yahoo! News, NYTimes.com and many other major news Web sites.

Agence France-Presse said that it obtained the image from the Web site of Sepah News, the media arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, on Wednesday. But there was no sign of it there later in the day. Today, The Associated Press distributed what appeared to be a nearly identical photo from the same source, but without the fourth missile.

As the above illustration shows, the second missile from the right appears to be the sum of two other missiles in the image. The contours of the billowing smoke match perfectly near the ground, as well in the immediate wake of the missile. Only a small black dot in the reddish area of exhaust seems to differ from the missile to its left, though there are also some slight variations in the color of the smoke and the sky.

[...]

For its part, Agence France-Presse retracted its four-missile version this morning, saying that the image was “apparently digitally altered” by Iranian state media. The fourth missile “has apparently been added in digital retouch to cover a grounded missile that may have failed during the test,” the agency said. Later, it published an article quoting several experts backing that argument.

From the linked piece:

[...] After being shown the photograph by AFP, Mark Fitzpatrick of the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) said: "It very much does appear that Iran doctored the photo to cover up what apparently was a misfiring of one of the missiles.

"The whole purpose of this testing was to send a signal so Iran both exaggerated the capabilities of the missile in their prose and apparently doctored the photos as well."

[...]

But Fitzpatrick, a former US State Department official, said: "In terms of capability, they claimed the Shahab-3 could travel 2,000 kilometres carrying a one-tonne warhead. This is very unlikely.

"The Shahab-3 normally has a range of 1,300 kilometres and the range can be extended to 2,000 kilometres but it would require a much lighter warhead.

"This is typical of Iran to exaggerate the accomplishments of the missiles and its nuclear programme."

Ah, public diplomacy and deceit: who could imagine not being able to trust an official governmental claim!?

Thank goodness we at your Amygdala live in a country that would never deceive you about anything serious, year after year after year, something as serious as a cause of war.

No, that could never happen. Other governments will lie, but not ours! Always trust your government! Believe what you are told! You'll never go wrong that way!

Unlike those who believe the foolish Iranians!

Elsewhere on the authenticity beat, well, grant me the serenity to learn that:

Generations of recovering alcoholics, soldiers, weary parents, exploited workers and just about anybody feeling beaten down by life have found solace in a short prayer that begins, “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change.”

For more than 70 years, the composer of the prayer was thought to be the Protestant theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, one of modern Christianity’s towering figures. Niebuhr, who died in 1971, said he was quite sure he had written it, and his wife, Ursula, also a prominent theologian, dated its composition to the early 1940s.

His daughter Elisabeth Sifton, a book editor and publisher, wrote a book about the prayer in 2003 in which she described her father first using it in 1943 in an “ordinary Sunday service” at a church in the bucolic Massachusetts town of Heath, where the Niebuhr family spent summers.

Now, a law librarian at Yale, using new databases of archival documents, has found newspaper clippings and a book from as far back as 1936 that quote close versions of the prayer. The quotations are from civic leaders all over the United States — a Y.W.C.A. leader in Syracuse, a public school counselor in Oklahoma City — and are always, interestingly, by women.

Some refer to the prayer as if it were a proverb, while others appear to claim it as their own poetry. None attribute the prayer to a particular source. And they never mention Reinhold Niebuhr.

[...]

Mr. Shapiro, who edited “The Yale Book of Quotations,” said in an interview, “Reinhold Niebuhr was a very honest person who was very forthright and modest about his role in the Serenity Prayer. My interpretation would be that he probably unconsciously adapted it from something that he had heard or read.”

I think that's plausibly right, and, of course, the question matters not at all one way or another, save to those who care extremely deeply as to whether Niebuhr deserves full credit for reshaping the words into precisely those that we know, or less credit, and really, unless you're related to Niebuhr, or did your thesis on him, what's it matter much to anyone else?

Words, in particular, are malleable, and in questions of plagiarism, where credit is deserved, due, and not given, it becomes a matter of ethics to claim something as yours something not substantively your own: deliberate dishonesty should never be tolerated or we'll only get more of it, sez me, and damn, but I hate dishonesty over something serious, something that matters -- but whether you've precisely invented the exact wording of something, or merely unconsciously paraphrased something long in folklore: not such a big deal, so long as you're not trademarking it, writing a scholarly work, or getting royalties.

I have the serenity to accept that.

And the serenity to not care if there's an intelligence to the universe, or not.

Read The Rest Scale: 2.5 out of 5. It's the governmental lies that lead to millions of deaths that make me a tad grumpy. And I'll rage, rage, before I go gentle into that good night, before I stop fighting against that, even if it means I don't have the wisdom to know how little I can do to change it, or not.

Your Amygdala's motto for the day: Stand back! I'm armed with a blog!

And we live one day at a time.

ADDENDUM, 7:19 a.m.: Elsewhere on the authenticity beat, Photoshop of Horrors!: When Fox News Attacks! Vanity Fair does unto others. It couldn't happen to nicer lying creeps. (Background.)

ADDENDUM, 11:37 a.m.: Welcome, Pharnygula readers. As always, please feel free to look around the joint, to check out the other posts since last time you came by. Archives can be found on the lower left sidebar, way way down. Also, Brian Beutler and Blue Girl can use your help.

The bar is in the rear. Y'all come back now, heah?

ADDENDUM, July 12th, 10:26 p.m.: Belated welcome, also, to any remaining Crooks and Liars readers!

ADDENDUM, July 13th, 11:38 p.m.: Check out this great new photoshopping of the Iranian missiles, When Kittens Attack, or LOLMissile. Via Hilzoy. There are several other nice ones at the Are We Lumberjacks? post, as well.

ADDENDUM, July 17th, 11:57 a.m.: Tom the Dancing Bug comments with visuals.

2008-07-09T15:53:00.008-04:00

HELP IS ON THE WAY. Want to be patriotic after the Fourth of July?

Support the troops:

[...] Toward the end of his remarks, Obama vowed to protect military families "who are being stretched thin because of repeated moves and long deployments."

Families, he said, who "are being preyed upon by predatory lenders. If you're protecting America, America should be protecting you from unfair bankruptcy laws."

He said he would create a "fast-track bankruptcy practice" for military families, which would ease restrictions against declaring bankruptcy, eliminate "unnecessary" paperwork and "let them keep a greater share of the value of their home."

Obama said he would work to help seniors keep their homes when emerging from bankruptcy. Their homes, he said, "are the cornerstones of a secure retirement," and also promised a larger homestead exemption for seniors.

[...]

"It's not so much tailored toward a particular electorate as it is my sincere assessment of what's happened in our economy," he said.

Plus, he added, the mortgage and credit crisis facing the country has seen that "pain trickles up," hurting companies and individuals to reaped the rewards of a questionable decade of banking.

"Our economy has gotten out of balance," he said. "The American people don't resent wealth, they want to be rich. America has historically rewarded innovation and accomplishment and free enterprise, and I want to ensure we continue to do that."

But Obama's critics have painted him as not just wanting to raise taxes on upper-income earners but on those lower-income individuals he claims to want to help.

Obama addressed that criticism head on during Tuesday's town hall. Specifically, he acknowledged the GOP claims that his own tax proposal would raise rates on those who make as little as $32,000 a year.

Not true, Obama said.

"If you are a family making $250,000 or less, we will not raise your taxes," he said. "Not your income tax. Not your payroll tax, not your capital gains tax. Not any tax. We will cut your taxes. So I'm happy to have a debate about taxes with John McCain."

Let's dance.

Read The Rest Scale: 3 bankruptcies out of 5.

Incidentally, have you gotten this scary email?

There are many things people do not know about BARACK OBAMA. It is every American’s PATRIOTIC DUTY to read this message and pass it along to all of their friends and loved ones.

Barack Obama is a PATRIOTIC AMERICAN. He has one HAND over his HEART at all times. He occasionally switches when one arm gets tired, which is almost never because he is STRONG.

Barack Obama wears a FLAG PIN at all times, even in the shower. One time he DROPPED THE PIN down the drain, and he PATRIOTICALLY disassembled his entire plumbing to retrieve it.

Barack Obama says the PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE every time he sees an American flag, and he has an American flag in EVERY ROOM in his house. Some days it takes him OVER 45 MINUTES to get out of his house. He also ends every sentence by saying, “WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL.” On the INTERNET there is video of Obama quietly mouthing the PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE in his sleep.

Barack Obama has the DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE tattooed on his stomach. It’s upside-down, so he can read it while doing sit-ups. He does FIFTY SITUPS every morning, which is the same number as OUR FOUNDING FATHERS did to commemorate our FIFTY STATES.

Barack Obama take his daughters HUNTING every weekend — HUNTING LIBERALS, that is. Liberals are ALWAYS IN SEASON.

Barack Obama is a DEVOUT CHRISTIAN. His favorite book is the BIBLE, which he has memorized. His name means HE WHO LOVES JESUS in the ancient language of Aramaic, which is the language JESUS SPOKE before he learned English. He is PROUD that Jesus was an American.

[...]

PLEASE FORWARD THIS EMAIL TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW! SPREAD THE TRUTH ABOUT BARACK OBAMA!!!!!

And there's more! Spwead the twuth!!!!!

And why don't you know who is behind Obama?!?

ADDENDUM, July 11, 8:20 a.m.: I need to find more time to blog about the awful turn Obama took with FISA, but let me quickly say that I completely agree with Hilzoy and with these folks. Read some good coverage here.

2008-07-09T15:26:00.003-04:00

NORTH CAROLINA: SIGNS OF CIVILIZATION. I may fit in yet.

RALEIGH - L.F. Eason III gave up the only job he'd ever had rather than lower a flag to honor former U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms.

Eason, a 29-year veteran of the state Department of Agriculture, instructed his staff at a small Raleigh lab not to fly the U.S. or North Carolina flags at half-staff Monday, as called for in a directive to all state agencies by Gov. Mike Easley.

When a superior ordered the lab to follow the directive, Eason decided to retire rather than pay tribute to Helms. After several hours' delay, one of Eason's employees hung the flags at half-staff.

The brouhaha began late Sunday night, when Eason e-mailed eight of his employees in the state standards lab, which calibrates measuring equipment used on things as widely varied as gasoline and hamburgers.

"Regardless of any executive proclamation, I do not want the flags at the North Carolina Standards Laboratory flown at half staff to honor Jesse Helms any time this week," Eason wrote just after midnight, according to e-mail messages released in response to a public records request.

He told his staff that he did not think it was appropriate to honor Helms because of his "doctrine of negativity, hate, and prejudice" and his opposition to civil rights bills and the federal Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

[...]

In a string of e-mail messages with his superiors, Eason was told he could either lower the flags or retire effective immediately.

Though he's only 51, Eason chose to retire, although he pleaded several times to be allowed to stay at the lab. Eason, who had worked for the Agriculture Department since graduating from college, was paid $65,235 a year as the laboratory manager.

Several people, including his wife, argued to Eason that the flags belonged to the state, as did the lab. But Eason said he felt a strong sense of ownership.

Eason and a previous boss had sketched out the building's rough design on a napkin at the Atlanta airport in 1984 after attending a national conference on weights and measures.

He then worked to get funding for it in the state budget, and he recently helped snag state money to study building another lab.

"I designed and built that lab," he said. "Even though technically the bricks and mortar belong to the state of North Carolina, I feel very strongly that everything that comes out of there is my responsibility."

I have to say that I do think that no matter how strong one's sense of attachment to a state position or building, it's not yours, and not your right to make decisions on behalf of the state. If Eason had claimed any kind of right to act on behalf of the state, or to over-ride the state, and keep his job, I'd have disagreed.

However, as an act of individual conscience, that the man was willing to retire over, I have no problem. Jesse Helms was a despicable racist, sexist, and homophobe, just for starters.

Now, let's all do the Frug with Jesse:

“The nation has been hypnotized by the swaying and gesturing of the watusi and the frug.”
-- WRAL Viewpoint, 1966 WRAL Viewpoint, 1966

“White people, wake up before it is too late. Do you want Negroes working beside you, your wife and your daughters, in your mills and factories?” – Helms-created ad.

"The Negro cannot count forever on the kind of restraint that's thus far left him free to clog the streets, disrupt traffic, and interfere with other men's rights." --WRAL-TV commentary, 1963

"There is not one single case of AIDS in this country that cannot be traced in origin to sodomy." --States News Service, 5/17/88

"Homosexuals are weak, morally sick wretches."
-- 1995 radio broadcast

Larry King Live caller praises Helms for "everything you've done to help keep down the niggers," Helms' responds by saluting the camera and saying, "Well, thank you, I think." -- Wilmington Star-News, 9/16/95

"They should ask their parents if it would be all right for their son or daughter to marry a Negro."
-- To Duke University students after Martin Luther King, Jr. assassination, 1968

Helms ad against Harvey Gantt:

Maybe someday I can go to this school: The University of North Carolina, aka "the University of Negroes and Communists." -- Capital Times, 11/22/94

1993:

Later, in 1993, Helms took then President Bill Clinton to task for attempting to appoint an openly gay assistant secretary at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

"I'm not going to put a lesbian in a position like that," he said in a newspaper interview at the time, according to the Associated Press. "If you want to call me a bigot, fine."

Fine.

Wait, Jesse a bigot? Naaaah:

“No intelligent Negro citizen should be insulted by a reference to this very plain fact of life. It is time to face honestly and sincerely the purely scientific statistical evidence of natural racial distinction in group intellect. ... There is no bigotry either implicit or intended in such a realistic confrontation with the facts of life. ... Those who would undertake to solve the problem by merely spending more money, and by massive forced integration, may be doing the greatest injustice of all to the Negro."

And always beware the bloc vote.

Read The Rest Scale: 3 Klaverns out of 5. Hey, better late, then never.