procrustean (adj) -
Neil’s Discoveries
9
Dec 10
Interesting Words
8
Oct 10
Nobel Peace Prize to Liu Xiaobo
From The Guardian:
China‘s best-known dissident, Liu Xiaobo, today won the Nobel peace prize from the prison cell where he is serving 11 years for incitement to subvert state power.
The announcement provoked a furious reaction from Chinese authorities, who warned that the decision would hurt relations with Norway.
This is one of those times where I think Chinese government’s reaction is totally idiotic. By displaying outrage and saying that relations with Norway will be harmed (can anyone say “saber rattling”), China looks a child throwing a tantrum because of who was picked first to play a pick up game.
No matter how pissed off they were/are the best reaction would have been no reaction at all.
8
Oct 10
Friday Zeitgeist: Don Boehner / John Draper
In today’s POLITICO Playbook Mike Allen writes about John Boehner, one of the GOP’s many front man now-a-days, and compares him to Mad Men‘s Don Draper.
Granted, they do look somewhat alike, but other than this [literal] surface similarity I don’t see that comparison as being very apt. But then again, what the fuck do I know?
What I find interesting about the comparison is that Boehner is being compared to Draper and not the other way around.
Nonetheless, I belive that this is another example of how Don Draper has become Zeitgeist.
(For the record: I don’t think that Boehner is Zeitgeist at all. I see him as a sort of anti-Zeitgeist. Seriously.)
5
Oct 10
The Political Spectrum Pt. 1
I’m a history / civics teacher, and I’m really into data visualization. So as I was preparing for a class, where my goal was to explain the shift in political idology which took place in Germany prior to World War II, I was looking for a good visual example and/or representation of the political spectrum.
I found some really great stuff that I thought I’d share with anyone who happens to read this blog.
1. A great text breakdown from the public domain. (I know it can’t be read below. Click on the image and you will see the full -readable- version.)
17
Sep 10
The Friday Zeitgeist
A great bit of dialogue from the Big Lebowski appeared in an article in The Atlantic about Sandy Koufax…
The Dude: It’s all part your sick Cynthia thing, man. Taking care of her fucking dog. Going to her fucking synagogue. You’re living in the fucking past.
Walter Sobchak: Three thousand years of beautiful tradition from Moses to Sandy Koufax…You’re goddamn right I’m living in the fucking past!
I believe that this is evidence of just how much a part of the zeitgeist Lebowski has become… Oh, and for the record I think that Koufax is kinda zeitgeist-ish as well. Just sayin’.
[Update: I found out that the entire script of the Big Lebowski can be read on the web. The URL for the scrips, and I want you to read the URL, is http://web.mit.edu/putz/Public/big_lebowski.txt ... fucking double-plus-awesome, eh?]
3
Sep 10
Khamenei Tweets
Today Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei has tweeted …
Israel Is A Hideous Entity In the Middle East Which Will Undoubtedly Be Annihilated
Obviously, a perk of being an Ayatollah is that you can use Twitter without governmental interference.
3
Sep 10
What if Ahmadinejad Fell Down the Stairs?
I saw this comment by retired Army Col. Peter Mansoor in a post over at Tom Rick’s blog.
Not a pretty picture to contemplate, but a likely scenario. Despite the crowd of academics in the United States that says we can live with an Iranian bomb, Israel will not allow the Iranians to go nuclear — at least, not while a Holocaust denier who has made pointed threats against the Jewish state remains in power.
Now I’mjust thinking out loud here… Makes me wonder if someone is saying something along the lines of, “Listen, we can avoid dorpping bombs. All we have to do is take out this Ahmadinejad nut job. So lets get someone on making sure that he accidentally falls down the stairs on purpose.”
2
Sep 10
The Guardian’s Tomasky on Iraq
This goes along with another post I wrote today. In it I continue to sort of think out loud about the long term stability of Iraq…
Michael Tomasky has a great article today in The Guardian about the withdrawal of US combat troops from Iraq.
There’s a lot of big-think, big-picture stuff I could be saying about Iraq today, looking back over the whole arc of the thing, but I’ll leave that for another time, or leave it to you all to debate among yourselves.
What I wish to raise this morning is this question: what conditions would have to obtain for the US to have to resume combat operations there one day? Because this is the bottom-line question, right?
Mr. Tomasky goes on to state that he believes that as Iraq comes into its own politically it is very likely things will become violent. (He uses points made by Tom Ricks of Foreign Policy to further to back his opinion). Tomasky seems to be suggesting that the level of violence could, and and probably will, force the US military to become involved in combat.
However, Mr. Tomasky (rightly) suggests that Shi’a militias will be looking to set up a fundamentalist regime in Iraq.
I find this disturbing for two reasons…
1. If the Shi’a militias deliberately draw the US into combat that can help them politically. i.e. it will give the Shi’a a chance to capitalize on anti-US feelings in Iraq and win political power.
2. If the Shi’a militias don’t draw the US back into combat, such an event can help them politically. i.e. it will give the Shi’a a chance to use violence unchecked to win political power.
In short: I really hope that the US has gamed this sucker out ad nauseum and has some creative solutions in mind for the about 50,000 non-combat (but combat ready) troops that will still be hanging out in Iraq. Because if there is not a damn good plan for how to proceed when shit gets nasty it is only a matter of time before people are saying things like, “If only we had just finished the job we started back in 2010, we would not be needing to deal with [insert catastrophe here] today.”
Unfortunately, this is an election year, and as Mr. Tomasky also points out:
Back in 2006-2007, as Congress debate the question of a “date certain” for withdrawal, Republicans said that if the baddies know the pull-out date, they’ll obviously start planning mischief for immediately thereafter, while Democrats said, well, you gotta pull out sometime (and our base wants us out, although that part they didn’t much say).
Our elected officials have a different set of priorities that focus on shot term electoral victories rather than long term geopolitical stability.
2
Sep 10
Abdul Rashid Dostum, One Hell of a Right Hand
A paragraph this good -and by good I mean packed with information that most people don’t know- just needs top be shared. Notice the area that I bolded..
The inner circle includes but is not limited to the Hazara Vice President, Karim Khalili; Kabir Mohabat, an Afghan with American citizenship; “Marshal” and now Vice President Muhammad Qasim Fahim, a Tajik; and “Marshal” Abdul Rashid Dostum, the Uzbek warlord who disdains any government post but is the President’s “right hand.” (Dostum deserves an Olympic gold medal for opportunism. A leader of the Uzbek people of the North, he fought the Russians, then joined them to fight the insurgents; then he joined the insurgency to fight the Russians; next he joined the Taliban; then he switched sides again to join the anti-Taliban “Northern Alliance” and is infamous for suffocating in steel lift vans in the sweltering summer captured Taliban soldiers. Now – for how long? – he is a supporter of President Karzai.) It also includes Zara Ahmad Mobil who ran what is regarded as the most corrupt organization in Afghanistan, the Ministry of Interior, and (as an editorial in The Guardian put it) “is now in charge of the opium industry;” and, of course, the Karzai family. [Source, first paragraph on the page.]
My reaction to this was to read the paragraph three times in a row. Sit back and think about it for a a few seconds, then read it a forth time.
I can’t make up someone that shady! And yet… Un-fucking-believable.
Time to get some lunch.


