Category: World at Large

When (Old New and New Old) Worlds Collide.

I am very late to the table with this link, but oh well. A friend of mine in the department passed along this recent controversial essay, Robert Kagan’s “Power and Weakness”, on the philosophical underpinnings of foreign policy differences between Europe and the US today. I don’t agree with everything he has to say (the Morrison and Worley responses here point out some key flaws, for example – is all of transatlantic difference really reducible to a question of disparate power?), but it is food for thought nonetheless.

Agents Orange.


Speaking of Orwell (is it Eurasia or Eastasia today, Saddam or Osama?), the Dubya administration capitalizes on terror panic to drum up war fever (and good media coverage.) It’s amazing to me how worried many people here in town seemed about the recent orange alert (status update via Looka.) One friend told me that his out-of-town guests cancelled their flight into the city because of a possible attack, and a handful of other folks I know wouldn’t use the subway. I dunno…I just can’t get too stressed about something that’s so completely out of my hands. Besides, it’s probably true that living in New York City increases the chances that I’ll die as a result of terrorism, but it also vastly decreases the chances that I’ll die in a car wreck, which is still the leading cause of death in America for people under 33. So, it’s basically a wash. Not that I’m ambivalent about perishing in a gas attack or something worse, mind you, but I just don’t see the utility in freaking out every time the US intelligence community decides to cover its ass by issuing warnings based on non-specific “specific information.”

Marat’s Bathing.

Speakin’ in tongues, it’s still worth a broken lip. R.E.M.’s Murmur turns twenty. (Via Looka.) Unlike the cover bands of today (The VU Strokes and Interpol/Joy Division immediately come to mind), these four Athens lads put out a first record (Chronic Town E.P. notwithstanding) that still sounds original and distinctive two decades later, and we’re still reaping the rewards. Up the stairs and to the landing…

License to Incense.

Dahlia Lithwick fills us in on the legal standing of the pro-life license plates sprouting up across the South these days. Hmmm. I assume these plates afford much better protection from random police stops than would, say, a “Jah is my Co-Pilot” bumper sticker. I’m curious as to what percentage of these license plate owners also drive easy-to-flip SUV’s. If you’re so pro-life there, fella, why are you driving such a pro-death vehicle?

Death from Above.

The depersonalized video game nature of modern war has been noted in a lot of places (Patriot Games, for example), but this video of a US raid on the Taliban from an AC-130 Spectre Gunship really drives it home. A fascinating look at the 21st-century military at work, although a bit unsettling once you realize the white dots fleeing in every direction are in fact enemy combatants.

Treading Lightly Amid the Palmettos.

John Edwards and the rest of the Democratic field try to figure out how to manage the NAACP boycott of South Carolina. Sigh…between Bob Jones University and the Stars ‘n Bars, it’s always a bit embarrassing to hail from South Carolina in an election year. Hopefully a day will someday come when the post-Strom Palmetto State will finally get its act together.

He’s No Adlai.

Well, unfortunately I was in a class during Colin Powell’s presentation to the UN yesterday, so I can’t really attest to its effectiveness, although Saletan’s scorecard seems to suggest some minds were changed at the Security Council. (And the Guernica coverup, via Quiddity, made for some biting commentary on the day.) At any rate, it seems war is inevitable at this point…I only hope it was worth ticking off most of the international community to get our way.