Quote of the day

Consumed with anger,
The world is an ugly place.
Bathed in happiness,
The world is a wonderful place.
But, aha! the same world.

- Taitetsu Unno
Shin Buddhism: Bits of Rubble Turn to Gold

(via whiskey river)

In case you need convincing

Just bumped across a June article in Slate that I bookmarked in case anybody needed convincing that John Bolton was a bad choice for U.N. ambassador, and it seems timely again in light of this week's recess appointment (simultaneous nose-thumbing at both international and domestic communities).

Nominating John Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations is a little like nominating Jeffrey Dahmer for surgeon general.

heh. Beyond the snark, there's lots of good, if now rather depressing, analysis.

It's not enough to seek allies when suddenly some multilateral project is really important to you; you have to have built alliances by helping allies on projects that are important to them. Building international support, like building social support, is a long-term project, best left in the hands of people who understand this.

There are a lot of basic aspects of national and international functioning that our current leaders appear not to understand. Sigh. The clean-up could take generations...

(originally via kos)

Oh yes, security is our highest aim

In addition to foreign policy that has created and spread terrorists all around the globe, disinterest in real measures to improve the safety of shipping ports or borders, and general preference for appearances (orange alert!) over reality (what no-fly lists?), the Bush administration is now embracing nuclear proliferation in more parts of the world that have consistently proved themselves unstable.

A recent U.S.-India nuclear agreement was so hastily concluded the Bush administration is only now beginning to figure out how to implement it in the face of tough questions from the U.S. Congress and nonproliferation experts.

The agreement, announced July 18 after Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met President Bush at the White House, upends decades-old nonproliferation rules and will require changes in U.S. law and international policy.

Eh, we can't let domestic or international law get in the way of, um... what are we achieving here again??

Deferring to the process

Oh no, wait -- bypassing it! A blogger points out that recess appointments were intended for *openings* that occurred during a recess, not just those where the Senate refused to proceed in the dark.

The Democrats and the White House deadlocked over Bolton's acknowledged request for names of U.S officials whose communications were secretly picked up by the National Security Agency. Democrats said the material might show that Bolton conducted a witch hunt for analysts or others who disagreed with him.
(from the Yahoo piece)

kos makes a strong argument that this strategic choice will undermine Bolton's ability to get anything done at the UN, even by the administration's own measures.

So how can he effectively push for reform when the UN bureaucracy can simply run out the clock on him? And how will such delaying tactics blow back on the UN when Bolton couldn't even garner the support of his own countrymen in the U.S. Senate? And how could anyone take Bolton seriously given the number and severity of the allegations against him?

My cowboy countrymen -- wheee.

[and, of course, obligatory photo of the mystfying moustache...]

Did you read the job description...?

Knotted Knickers has some pointed thoughts for pharmacists who argue that they shouldn't have to choose "between their business and their beliefs" (and for legislators who support that claim). Next time, assess your moral conviction *before* making a career choice! ahem.

Art not just for art's sake

The New York police are using trips to the Frick Collection to hone their skills of observation and deduction.

"In New York, the extraordinary is so ordinary to us, so in training we're always looking to become even more aware as observers," says Diana Pizzuti, deputy chief and commanding officer of New York City's police academy.
. . .
The NYPD course began last year, inspired by similar classes the 38-year-old [Amy] Herman teaches for New York medical students. Those classes are intended to develop diagnostic abilities through better observation of patients.

The trainees say that they learn to think about the bigger scope of a crime scene, where hints may be at some distance from the action; the docent also has learned to look at the paintings a bit differently after insights from the street. Nice.

(via kottke)

Quote/thought for the weekend

A rabbi asked his students, "When is it at dawn that one can tell the light from the darkness?"

One student replied, "When I can tell a goat from a donkey."
"No," answered the rabbi.

Another said, "When I can tell a palm tree from a fig."
"No," answered the rabbi again.

"Well, then what is the answer?" his students pressed him.
"Only when you look into the face of every man and every woman and see your brother and your sister," said the rabbi. "Only then have you seen the light. All else is still darkness."

(via A Mindful Life)

From my local papers

I usually keep on top of the local papers for my Philadelphia blog (see sidebar), but these two stories caught my interest for non-regional reasons. I apologize if either site requires registration -- I can no longer remember...

1. The Inquirer headlines the release of the first medicine for blacks only, that is, a drug designed specifically for the way that African-Americans respond to heart medication (which has differed consistently from the responses of Caucasian patients).

   The FDA on June 23 approved BiDil for "self-identified African Americans," leaving room for interpretation. The agency has looked at race before, but only to warn against, not encourage, patients' use of certain drugs.

   The article focuses more on the ethics of race-specific drug development than on how or why patients of different races appear to experience heart disease differently (which I might have found more interesting)...

   "If we can find a drug that works, by all means we should use that," said Charles R. Bridges, chief of cardiothoracic surgery at Pennsylvania Hospital. "But this should not be misinterpreted to reinforce the concept that race is a useful way of defining" biological differences.

2. The front-page story in this week's CityPaper is called "Ms. deYoung Goes to Washington," and is about one woman's testimony to the unseen domestic costs of the war in Iraq -- not just in casualties, but in programs that have been sacrificed to the pricetag of the war.

   By letting Americans see that specific examples of waste in Iraq can equate — dollar for dollar — to a service that's been cut in their own community, she thinks voters might force their elected officials' hands.
   . . .
   It seems today's United States is nothing like it was in the World War II era, when a Democratic senator named Harry Truman forced a Democratic administration to answer allegations of war profiteering. His committee was given an initial budget of $15,000. It saved Americans $15 billion. Now, the party in power would just as soon sweep the issue under Cheney's bunker rug. Not a single Republican lawmaker has broken ranks and said, hey, maybe we ought to take a look at these allegations, embarrassment be damned. This is what the matronly woman who never had children of her own is up against.

   Their focus is on money squandered on poorly accounted-for charges from contractors like Haliburton, but the argument could eaily be expanded to a guns-versus-butter reassessment of the entire undertaking.

Gratuitous Sid-blogging

What with all the blatant kitten-bragging, I've left the Sid-crazy masses rather deprived of their favorite blog mascot -- that, and I've committed the cardinal crime of neglecting the older pets in the face of a new arrival, a policy that leads only to resentment and maladjustment. To make up for all of the above, this tiny increment of Sid-blogging:

Classic Sid face icon	Sporty Sid racquetball foot

whoot! look at me, using a table in a blog post!

This blows my mind

NYTimes reporter Judith Miller has attracted the negative attention of many liberals for her promotion of bad intelligence (*cough*Chalabi*cough*) and for writing in a way that seemed to be as much about advocating policy positions as about reporting facts. But this story, in which she muscles an entire military operation into putting her guidance above military judgement, just drops my jaw.

[It's also on top of this grim picture of her involvement in the Plame debacle.]

How justices do in the Senate

This NPR opinion column has some interesting historical perspective for those looking ahead to the Roberts hearings this fall -- it reviews the confirmation votes of the current Supreme Court Justices and lists who voted against them. Several were confirmed unanimously, but others had anywhere from around a third to nearly half the Senators against them. Also some other historical tidbits about courts and legislatures.

(via How Appealing)

Removing any doubt

Santorum goes on the record as saying that birth-control is harmful to women and society, and he doesn't support it. I somehow suspect he's missed the majority viewpoint on that one... (as though the patronizing moralism weren't off-putting enough)

(via Atrios)

Update: Medley has more to say on this, perhaps more productive than my silent apoplexy...

Some things really are more distracting than others

When legislation started covering cell phone usage, many people made the counter-argument that speaking with a passenger should be just as distracting, but the evidence indicated otherwise. Now scientists have some insight into the difference: variations in the signal level of a cell phone in a moving car, even below the level of conscious detection (like few-hundred millisecond gaps), mean that a listener has to work harder to keep track of the conversation. More good reasons for pulling over if you need to use the phone.

(via Follow Me Here)

Get some answers

A group of Senate Democrats, conspicuously female, is asking the web to suggest the questions they'd like to see asked of John Roberts during his Supreme Court confirmation hearings. Perhaps they're looking for good wording? Compiling statistics to give them cover in getting serious with their inquiries? Either way, here's your chance for some input. Armando has a couple of suggestions to get the ball rolling, but I'm sure many of you have had a chance to wonder many things about this dark horse by now...

Tinfoil hats

Tom Tomorrow reports on the latest conspiracy theory (which also, just coincidentally, helps with the desire for self-justification --what luck). I'm with him in not knowing whether to laugh or cry when I read such things...

Groggy afternoon

Three silly distractions in case you're having a slow end of the week too...

• 24 ways to lace shoes, from the practical to the decorative. (Not tie: lace) (via Kottke.org)
  
  
• A group of delightful (and perplexing, of course) Japanese smoking etiquette signs... (via mimi smartypants)
  
  
• A basic primer on napkin folding, for those looking for a new artistic outlet. (Confession: I was really into this as a kid.) (via a Medley furling)

Happy surfing!!

A bizarre display of priorities

The Republican leadership apparently pulled the entire defense spending bill rather than allow some anti-torture amendments to be discussed.

In the face of a series of amendments by Republican Senators McCain, Warner and Graham that would have instituted new rules against torture, as well as other Republican-backed attempts to strengthen veterans benefits and delay base closures until after the Iraq War, Bill Frist has simply pulled the entire $450 billion defense bill from the Senate floor. Funding the troops now won't be reconsidered until after the summer recess.

Because being against torture is anti-American! oh, no, wait...

Same the world over

That is, widespread dismay at the specter of the uppity political wife. How dare she have an intellectual life of her own! Doesn't she realize that her husband has become Somebody Important?? Sigh.

For Democratic infighting spectators

Hunter at dailyKos has a good post looking at the controversy of the DLC (Democratic Leadership Council) within the party, as well as at its tendency to call for solutions rather than offering concrete proposals. And a lot of other stuff.

What we see, in both the DLC and among other Democratic pundits and strategists, is a modern Democratic leadership so focused on triangulation and exposition, so obsessed with precise and intentionally puddle-shallow framing, that it is categorically unable to react to the changing circumstances of actual campaigns, much less of leadership.

Interesting if you're intrigued by the factionalism, and also if you're trying to think generally about what the Dems need to do to start succeeding more on the national front.

More handshake deals

The House just approved CAFTA, an extension of NAFTA to Central America -- but the final vote had a margin of only 2 votes and apparently involved some last-minute whip-cracking that kept the vote open for extra hours. I'm sure we'll eventually see the results of the deals made with the undecided Republican legislators in order to secure their votes.