Supreme speculations

Now that the shouting over Roberts is simmering down, folks are turning to speculations over the next nominee. In addition to the candidates discussed the first time around (such as Alberto Gonzales or Priscilla Owen; see here) there is a lot of curiosity about whether Bush could dig up another "dark horse" like Roberts, with no paper trail to be held accountable for but with powerful conservative credentials. The most intriguing such speculation, to me, is laid out by Will Bunch: Harriet Miers. Die-hard Bush loyalist? check. Little or no judicial history? check. Has some political owage? check! (Bunch thinks she "knows where the bodies are buried" on Bush's National Guard shame.) Other promising parallels? check: Cheney was asked to help pick a Vice Presidential running mate and eventually suggested himself; Miers was in charge of the short-list for Supreme Court, and after Roberts . . .

Soothing troubled waters

Barack Obama voted against the confirmation of Justice Roberts, but he advises against the harsh assaults that have been made (from the left) against the Democrats who voted for the nominee (and he generalizes this advice to other controversies as well).

Russ Feingold, the only Democrat to vote not only against war in Iraq but also against the Patriot Act, doesn't become complicit in the erosion of civil liberties simply because he chooses to abide by a deeply held and legitimate view that a President, having won a popular election, is entitled to some benefit of the doubt when it comes to judicial appointments. Like it or not, that view has pretty strong support in the Constitution's design.

He makes good points, and speaks with typical eloquence and rationality. It puts "big tent" arguments into a valuable perspective.

... to the degree that we brook no dissent within the Democratic Party, and demand fealty to the one, "true" progressive vision for the country, we risk the very thoughtfulness and openness to new ideas that are required to move this country forward. When we lash out at those who share our fundamental values because they have not met the criteria of every single item on our progressive "checklist," then we are essentially preventing them from thinking in new ways about problems. We are tying them up in a straightjacket and forcing them into a conversation only with the converted.
. . .
Our goal should be to stick to our guns on those core values that make this country great, show a spirit of flexibility and sustained attention that can achieve those goals, and try to create the sort of serious, adult, consensus around our problems that can admit Democrats, Republicans and Independents of good will. This is more than just a matter of "framing," although clarity of language, thought, and heart are required. It's a matter of actually having faith in the American people's ability to hear a real and authentic debate about the issues that matter.

Read the whole thing, really.

Quote for the day/weekend

To live with the conscious knowledge of the shadow of uncertainty, with the knowledge that disaster or tragedy could strike at any time; to be afraid and to know and acknowledge your fear, and still to live creatively and with unstinting love: that is to live with grace.

--Peter Abrahams

(via A Mindful Life)

Good idea of the week

An MIT professor is attempting to develop a PC that would be cheap and hardy: his prototype is foldable in various ways, amenable to hand-cranking when power is unavailable, and should cost under $100. [As a bonus, the machines run on open-source Linux, meaning that freeware may be available for many of the user's software needs.]

Professor Negroponte came up with the idea for a cheap computer for all after visiting a Cambodian village.

His non-profit One Laptop Per Child group plans to have up to 15 million machines in production within a year.

The first models will go to Brazil, China, Egypt, Thailand, and South Africa, and Massachusetts' governor Romney intends to buy them for every middle- and highschool student in the state. Now that's empowerment.

(via the Huffington Post)

These give good math

In the spirit of "best movies of the millenium" and the like, some top mathematicians offer The Hundred Greatest Theorems of all time, including favorites from 500 BC to 1976 AD.

(via kottke)

A modest proposal (scientific version)

A brilliant piece by Dahlia Lithwick at Slate points out that rationalists have been overlooking the potential benefits of Intelligent Design-style arguments:

Let's face it: The problem with science has always been that each new discovery unleashes thousands of new questions and ambiguities. So really, the more we discover new stuff, the stupider we get. Clearly, that isn't working. ID says we shouldn't bother ourselves with resolving scientific inconsistencies or untangling puzzles. We should recognize that what God really wants is for us just to stop learning.

Beautiful.

(via a Medley furling)

Hard to be sure what's good news sometimes

More Abu Ghraib photos have been ordered released. Good for accountability and truthfulness, but certain not to be fun or uplifting. yay.

(via Rebecca's Pocket)

Thursday kitten blogging!

Another round of pictures of Pasha, here about 11-12 weeks old. These are teasers for the next batch, which will show Pixel and Pasha in full roll-and-wrestle kitten play. But I thought Pasha deserved another solo outing, lest she suffer from Second Child Syndrome . . .


Here's a great shot, from her favorite new pastime of
leaning out toward the TV to see what all the action is about...


Here she's doing a sideways dance/arch toward Pixel, inviting some chasing
(never a hard sell).


Past kitteny goodness (reverse order): 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0

From the Department of Better Late Than Never

A recent poll gives slivers of hope that the American people may be able to draw conclusions for themselves (if not foresee likely outcomes -- hey, it's a start!):

The war in Iraq has left Americans skeptical about the use of military force as a tool to spread democracy, according to a poll released on Thursday.

On the downside, the Bush strategy of "get some kind of paper approved, however feeble and undemocratic" appears to be working, as most Americans think we should withdraw if the Iraqis have a referendum on some kind of constitution. Too bad for the Iraqis, but maybe it means this will all end some day...

(via kos)

Roberts is in

The Senate confirmed Roberts this morning, with about three-quarters approving (half the Democrats included). Not the highest approval margin (O'Connor was 99-0), but hardly the most embattled either (Thomas was 52-48) [*]. On to the next, I suppose.

Protest wrap-up

I haven't said much about this past weekend's anti-war rally in D.C., because I was on the wrong coast at the time, but I think this photo-summary at The Tattered Coat is great, from the amusing to the sobering. People sometimes wonder about the effectiveness of marches, but their ability to renew one's sense of hope and interconnection is hard to overestimate...

Quote of the day

Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.

--John Steinbeck,
novelist, Nobel laureate (1902-1968)

(via A.W.A.D.)

Good strategies aren't always obvious

It looks like one of the lessons of Katarina will be an unexpected one: you will save more people if you're willing to save their pets as well (Philly paper; registration required).

"We've always assumed that pets would be left behind," said Thomas Sullivan, Montgomery County's director of public safety. "But it's unrealistic to think we're going to be able to force people, in great numbers, to do something they're not going to want to do."

Lots of the anecdotal stories have shown people sticking it out because they couldn't put their dog in the back of a friend's car and didn't want to leave it to starve; many pet owners would feel the same way. We don't want to abandon large numbers of people because they value their four-legged friends --- widen the compassion a bit and everybody wins. Many things seem obvious in hindsight.

Below the radar but not forgotten

The investigations into corruption among Tom DeLay's associates has been going on for a while, but pretty much nobody thought that DeLay himself would actually be indicted, given the walls of protection around him, the willingness of his colleagues in the House to change the rules to protect him, and some stupid legal technicalities as well. Well, he was indicted and has resigned as House Majority Leader. Wow!

For those needing a refresher, the case concerns questionable use of funds by an organization under DeLay's control:

State law bans corporate money being spent in connection with political campaigns and Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle, a Democrat, has spent almost three years investigating whether Republican groups and their business allies violated that ban. The groups helped elect a Republican majority to the state Legislature which, in turn, drew new Congressional districts that benefited Republican candidates.

(See previous rantage here, here, and here.) He's being included in the mess now under a conspiracy charge, rather than a direct election violation charge. Expect to hear more about this in the next few days than you ever wanted to know . . .

(via kos)

Update: looks like there's reason to believe that DeLay was charged as part of a plea bargaining deal, and may go for "nolo contendere" when the time comes...

A retroactive savings plan

Or, um, belated realization by the Bushies that conservation is key to our future -- although I have to say that I'm not sure there's actual belief here, beyond the belief that Words Speak Louder Than Actions . . . Sigh.

I know you are, but what am I?

Sociologists and scientists never seem to lose their fascination for the study of boys and girls (of whatever ages), who does what better, why they should be treated differently, blah blah. Gendergeek had a good rant about one such recent study here, reiterating the seemingly obvious point that conclusions about groups tell you little about individuals, and that there are countless social and cultural factors that confound our ability to make causal links between much of anything in human behavior.

Anyway, Knotted Knickers now points up a meta-study looking at a range of previous comparisons of girls and boys or of men and women, which finds that the sexes are more alike than different on a host of measures (cognitive, social, and other). Not as exciting for headline-writers, I fear, but perhaps a little voice of reason in the maelstrom of political and social agendas . . .

Amazing

I guess it shouldn't come as a surprise that a government that consistently rewards its thieves and criminals (see, e.g., this) should appoint a disgraced national figure to evaluate, in essence, his own previous effectiveness.

Out of the frying pan...

It appears to be possible that organic produce can bring some risks of its own (due to a commonly used plant-derived pesticide), raising the ever-difficult question of what is "natural," let alone "healthful" . . .

(via Follow Me Here)

Tracking the narrative

Coverage of the Katarina aftermath was rich with the sense of chaos -- refugees looting stores, killing one another in the stadium and other shelters, etc. Now it turns out that the violence was exaggerated:

The vast majority of reported atrocities committed by evacuees — mass murders, rapes and beatings — have turned out to be false, or at least unsupported by any evidence, according to key military, law-enforcement, medical and civilian officials in positions to know.

Conditions were as terrible as reported, supplies just as low, help as far from arriving; but strangely, the people weren't falling upon each other as seemed to be so quickly circulated. Make sure that you don't buy into the narrative that the victims here are to blame for their suffering or unworthy of a better outcome -- it's just part of the smokescreen attempt to cover for massive official failure.

(via rc3.org)

Tuesday Josh-blogging

I know that onetime blog mascots Sid and Josh have been rather overshadowed of late by the irresistable cuteness of kittens, but they are not forgotten. Today's installment is sparked by the occasion of Josh's posting some wedding and honeymoon shots (awwwwww), which included this excellent snippet, demonstrating the philosophical/existential reflections that such life changes can elicit . . .