Posted by Greg

One of the best things about New Years is browsing around for those ubiquitous end-of-the-year lists and year-in-review summaries. I find these to be helpful not only for providing a snapshot of the last twelve months, but also for filling me in on the details I might have otherwise overlooked, the movies and movies that I may have been unaware, and the trends that I wasn't trendy enough to notice. For your convenience, what follows is a compilation of various lists, annotations and predictions in no particular order, for 2005 (with apologies to a very curmudgeonly Jeff Jarvis).

12:01 AM | Link | Media | Comments (1)

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Posted by Steve

Orin Kerr offers more good legal analysis of the wiretap controversy, concluding with this:

To be clear, I think the legality of the NSA surveillance program is a very difficult question, and it depends on details we mostly don't yet know.

11:14 AM | Link | Law | Comments (1)

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Posted by Hei Lun

Just like some other bloggers, I took the fifty book challenge, and it kicked my ass. I was doing pretty well for a while too, clocking in at 27 before July. Then I spent three weeks rereading the Harry Potter books, and another three weeks reading the new book three times. Around that time, I got a "promotion" that the George Steinbrenner character described perfectly as "a lot more work ... not much more money." And then football season started, and it's much harder to watch football and read at the same time as it was to watch baseball and read. It sounds like a lot of excuses, and it is. But in my defense, I'm lazy and weak-willed.

Since then, I've read a grand total of four-and-a-half books, and one of them doesn't even count for the challenge because I've read it before. Here's some very brief reviews:

Why Do Men Have Nipples? Hundreds of Questions You'd Only Ask a Doctor After Your Third Martini, by Mark Leyner and Billy Goldberg—A somewhat fun book that can be read in one or two sittings, but don't expect to learn much in-depth.

Mind Game, by Baseball Prospectus writers—It's about the 2004 Red Sox, with a statistical approach, but it's surprisingly short on statistics.

Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife, by Mary Roach—The best of the lot, and just as good as her previous effort.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, by C.S. Lewis—Still as good as the last time I read it.

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, by Susanna Clarke—Haven't finished yet. It's long ...

9:49 AM | Link | Fifty Book Challenge | Comments (3)

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Posted by Steve

Kriston posts below about the car monitoring program in England. Between this and the wiretapping affair, privacy and civil liberties are on everyone's mind. Libertarians are equal opportunity contrarians in the United States, railing with equal zeal against the Waco seige and the Iraq invasion. I did a short stint with the black helicopter set in the 1990s and still have my share of libertarian impulses, but as to one issue in particular, I think libertarians and their sympathizers need to chill out.

You see, I don't care if the government wants to surveil me. Go ahead and read my emails while you're at it. I don't mind.

I started down this path because it was convenient to order pizza in college. This is how I learned to stop worrying and embrace Big Brother.

10:41 PM | Link | Politics | Comments (18)

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Posted by Kriston

Ronald Bailey notes one shocking development that was drowned out by the holidays: Woo Suk Hwang apparently fabricated the data behind his breakthrough claim that he developed 11 patient-specific stem cell lines. Today we learn that two members of Hwang's research team attempted to pay another member $30,000 in order to silence him.

Hwang is a visible figure for an such obscure crowd (geneticists: not exactly gracing the cover of Entertainment Weekly, no?). The ethical failure on behalf of him and his research team is sure to inspire much handwringing about the advisable limits of genetic research, and the viability of checks on science in the wake of this massive fiasco. Of course, the question remains as to whether Hwang's research merited visibility at all (did the team clone any human embryos? did they in fact clone the first dog?) and, to some extent, the degree to which stem cell research should inspire such concerns. Here, in one week, three of the greatest accomplishments in genetic–stem cell research—wiped away. We might be a lot further away from the liminal post-human frontier than either cloning supporters or critics know.

10:59 AM | Link | Politics | Comments (1)

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Posted by Steve

Mark Cuban, blogger, billionaire, and owner of the Dallas Mavericks, is never one to mince words. This post about the Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne (a "paranoid fool" according to Cuban) is a gem.

in a perfect world, if I want a company to fail, I wouldn’t go to the SEC, or to the DOJ. (Neither of which I have ever done, nor do I plan to) I would just try to get them to hire Patrick Byrne.

10:18 AM | Link | Economics | Comments (0)

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Posted by Steve

12:24 PM | Link | Photography | Comments (4)

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Posted by Steve

Many thanks to Kevin Drum for including BTD on his holiday list of good conservative blogs. It's an honor to be singled out by Kevin, and to be included among such great company.

So there I was, basking in the glow of Kevin's holiday list, when I happened upon this post by guest blogger Steve Benen. It turns out that GW Bush is on track to win the presidential "Least Likely To Pardon" award, having granted only 69 pardons over fiive years in office. (For comparison purposes, see this chart. This, according to Benen, is a bad thing.

"Compassionate" conservatism? Not so much.

This criticism of Bush, without a look behind the numbers, seems off the mark. Surely Benen would not commend Bush for pardoning multitudes of cronies and donors. It matters who, and why.

11:08 AM | Link | Blogosphere | Comments (11)

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Posted by Venkat

Merry Christmas – There. I said it.

I'm signing off until early January. Have a great Christmas, Reyes, Hanukka, and New Year (or whatever you celebrate during this season). I've had a hectic vacation schedule this winter, and to top it off I'm off to Spain today. (Could be worse I know.)

I never got a chance to respond to Steve's post about BTD's slow descent into the quagmire so I wanted to close off 2005 with my thoughts on that and a resolution for 2006.

Either in Steve's post or in the follow up posts or comments, people noted the transition of BTD from a blog containing posts that were long, detailed, and information and link filled, and also generally containing some specialized knowledge to something else. The original founders of BTD wanted to stay away from social / diary-style blogs and short snarky, link-sans-explanation style commentary. Somehow, somewhere, BTD veered off course. And I must admit to having played my small part in that. I instinctively tend towards shorter and less explanatory posts. In my 'political' persona that's the type of discourse that comes naturally. And I realize that it is not so effective. More importantly it does not add much to the overall discussion. If anything, it detracts from legitimate points. Writing about politics does not come easily to me. I'm more comfortable in my legal writing or in correspondence. Even in my legal writing I've been critiqued as being too brief.

All of this got me thinking that I would like to revise my blogging style. (Steve: I apologize for the whole Gay Batman thing. I swear.) My new mantra is as a general rule I'm not going post on something unless I can really satisfy myself that my posting contributes some piece of information to the discourse and unless I have some knowledge or experience to contribute. Does this drastically reduce the scope of my posts? Not necessarily. It may change the focus somewhat. I may be posting on Hinduism, law (as painful as that is), food, exercise, my entreprenurial efforts, organization and self-improvement, and who knows what else. I would like to post on politics but I'm still figuring out my voice in that area. It's just not something that comes naturally to me.

Anyway, have a safe New Year's Eve, and remember something for 2006 and beyond:

Just Say NO to King George.

In the context of a nebulous struggle such as the war on terror, it's dangerous to accept that (as now-Professor Yoo argued in a DOJ / OLC memo) the decisions of the President "are for him alone and are unreviewable". There's really no logical stopping point to this idea. Indeed, when pressed, no real limits have been offered.

6:06 PM | Link | Miscellaneous | Comments (2)

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Posted by Kriston

American libertarians (and liberals-cum-libertarians, as the case may be) have no cause for complaint compared with their cousins across the pond. Great Britain is implementing, well, Big Brother:

Britain is to become the first country in the world where the movements of all vehicles on the roads are recorded. A new national surveillance system will hold the records for at least two years.

Using a network of cameras that can automatically read every passing number plate, the plan is to build a huge database of vehicle movements so that the police and security services can analyse any journey a driver has made over several years.

[. . .]

[Chief Constable of Hertfordshire and chairman of the steering committee on automatic number plate recognition Frank] Whiteley said MI5 will also use the database. "Clearly there are values for this in counter-terrorism," he said.

"The security services will use it for purposes that I frankly don't have access to. It's part of public protection. If the security services did not have access to this, we'd be negligent."

UPDATE: Snark aside, is Britain's program more objectionable than ours? Their program seems to be of a larger scope, but then, it's also provided for by law. As Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said, the Bush administration looked to get the relevant law changed so that the spying program would be legal but couldn't muster congressional support. Then they continued with it anyway. Then Bush lied about the content of the program.

1:17 PM | Link | Politics | Comments (11)

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Posted by Kriston

Jonah Goldberg:

I'm not sure you can appreciate what a big deal a transit strike in NYC is if you don't know New York. Maybe there are stats which contradict this, but I wouldn't be surprised if New York is the only city in America where something close to a majority of the blue collar households do not own cars. That's the real significance of those average salary statistics. The transit union is striking against people poorer than themselves and the availablity of cars for car-pooling is pretty limited. It's air traffic controller time.

Josh Marshall reports that "52% of residents of the New York area support the striking union workers while 40% support the MTA." Goldberg's concern still remains: What's the class breakdown for those numbers? On one hand, it's no matter for creative-class telecommuters to tip their lattes in the air in support of the gruff union guys. But then I also imagine that blue-collar residents are more likely to be union members themselves and stand in solidarity even at great personal inconvenience. Nevertheless a majority of New Yorkers don't think it's time to bring in the Gipper—and surely the supportive bloc would be far greater if it weren't just really frickin' cold outside.

So it's weird to read that the strike is near an end, as the Village Voice blog is reporting. At the moment the union has all the cards, doesn't it? The city is bleeding money now, whereas the union is merely being fined; the final settlement of that account is probably contingent on the terms of the strike resolution. The transit workers' salaries are being docked at twice the daily rate of the strike's duration—again, I don't know whether these penalties can be rolled up in during the fencemending phase. It's a game of chicken, and the side that ends up with egg on its face pays up, no?

Nevertheless, it's just days before Christmas, and the city's surely losing millions in tinsel. If the strike's at an end, I don't believe it's the union that gave up the fight.

UPDATE: State arbitration.

11:46 AM | Link | Politics | Comments (12)

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Posted by Hei Lun

I think this sums it up pretty well:

(1): We don't know the specifics of what Bush did

(2): But by GOD we're POSITIVE it was illegal!

7:38 AM | Link | Politics | Comments (3)

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Posted by Venkat

"In the exercise of his plenary power to use military force, the President's decisions are for him alone and are unreviewable."†

† The President's Constitutional Authority to Conduct Military Operations Against Terrorists and Nations Supporting Them (John C. Yoo, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel) (September 25, 2001) [fn. 32].††

I'm no constitutional scholar but I will say this. There's an argument floating around (including in the memo cited above) that while Congress has the power to declare war, the President has plenary power to conduct it (which conduct includes detention, surveillance, etc.).††† The memo notes "[d]eclaring war is not tantamount to making war." But a quick breeze of Article I shows that a whole host of war-related functions are vested in Congress. For example, the right to:

make rules concerning captures on land and water; . . .
raise and support armies . . . ; . . .
provide and maintain a navy; . . .
make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces; . . .
[and to] provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions.

I haven't seen how those who adhere to the declare v. conduct theory address these arguments, but it certainly seems like a textual hurdle of some sort.

In any event the memo cited above is a very interesting read.

†† Schneier on Security (link filled post)

††† One wonders why the administration lobbied time and time again for the reauthorization of the USA PATRIOT Act, given the extent of the President's inherent powers.

3:19 AM | Link | Law | Comments (0)

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Posted by Steve

There are many ways to analyze the wiretap controversy. Here are three.

1) Was the Bush administration dishonest about it?

2) Was it illegal?

3) Was it a good idea?

1:10 AM | Link | Politics | Comments (1)

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Posted by Steve

This addictive site allows you to create original musical compositions based on mathematical patterns generated by cellular automata. The math formed the basis of Stephen Wolfram's controversial book, A New Kind of Science. The music is unexpectedly appealing.

Here's a primer on how the music generator works. The same page also gives a nice overview of cellular automata and Wolfram's surprising experiments. What's interesting about cellular automata is that very simple rules (minor variations of the theme, "if x, then y") can produce astonishingly complex results. A few lines of computer code can create patterns that are so complex as to appear to be random, or infinite. Wolfram's fundamental insight is that all systems that attain a certain level of complexity are equally complex, or as he puts it, "computationally equivalent."

This is all fascinating stuff with lots of potential practical applications. Most of the research is abstract math, but the principle has a poetic intuitive appeal. Proponents of intelligent design might be surprised to learn that complex biological mechanisms aren't so surprising, but arise naturally from simple, natural algorithms. As regular BTD readers know, I constantly suggest that the Republican and Democratic parties are computationally equivalent, though not in so many words.

But I digress. See here, for this post, it's this music that's the thing.

Here's the link again.

Just go play with it. There are endless variations, with controls easy enough for a rank amateur but powerful enough to satisfy a genuine composer. If you make one you really like, you can download it to your cell phone as a ring tone. Me, I just visit the site a couple times a week and tweak the settings for fun, exploring the patterns of this mathematical musical world.

12:14 AM | Link | Music | Comments (2)

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Posted by Steve

11:50 PM | Link | Photography | Comments (0)

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Posted by Hei Lun

I don't know what I think of this whole "wiretap" issue yet, but I do know that most Americans DON'T CARE. I'd bet there'd be more Americans outraged if we had found out that the government isn't listening in on potential terrorists' conversations without a warrant because Bush couldn't get permission to do so. Let's face it, the average person in this country isn't very libertarian at all, and cares less about privacy and civil rights in general than we'd like. With the issue of torture, even many who favor an absolute prohibition acknowledge that when it comes to the hypothetical ticking time bomb, "you do what you have to do". Well, most Americans have the same attitude about many more things that the government does, and listening in on potential terrorists' conversations without a warrant is probably one of them. While people concerned about privacy and/or slippery slopes and the craven Bush regime worry about the potential dangers and consequences, most Americans are going to see this story as much ado over nothing. There's the very real possibility that this is much ado over nothing, with the way many Bush scandals have fizzled, and even if this one doesn't it ranks low on the scale of horrible things that Bush did. Again, I'm not saying that what happened was or wasn't legal, constitutional, or moral, only that Americans aren't going to care either way.

11:35 PM | Link | Politics | Comments (2)

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Posted by Greg

From WIDukie at the BTD Forum, I learn that David Letterman is fighting to have a temporary restraining order reversed that some judge granted to a delusional woman:

A state judge granted a temporary restraining order to Colleen Nestler, who alleged in a request filed last Thursday that Letterman has forced her to go bankrupt and caused her "mental cruelty" and "sleep deprivation" since May 1994.

Nestler requested that Letterman, who tapes his show in New York, stay at least 3 yards away and not "think of me, and release me from his mental harassment and hammering."

State court judges sometimes grant TROs lightly because they are temporary and can be granted ex parte (without giving notice to the other party), and I assume was the case here. Still, this judge embarassed himself by not making Ms. Nester to meet all the requirements for obtaining her temporary relief.

New Mexico, like virtually all jurisdictions, permits temporary restraining orders to be granted ex parte only where "immediate and irreparable injury, loss or damage will result to the applicant." Somehow, I doubt the judge could have been convinced that Ms. Nestler had made a sufficient showing in this case. More likely, Judge Sanchez (a family court judge in First District Court, Santa Fe County) thought he was just temporarily appeasing a crazy litigant. Unfortunately, now its Judge Sanchez who looks foolish, as do the New Mexico courts. Had he abided by the rules, this mess probably wouldn't have happened.

Incidentally and completely unrelated, I once watched a competency hearing for a woman who claimed that Michael Jordan, MCI and Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price were conspiring to monitor all aspects of her life through the use of global telecommunications systems for some unknown nefarious purpose. (Yes, Kriston, this was prior to GWB taking office.) I don't recall what she was accused of—this was a criminal court matter—but I know the prosecutors weren't contesting her attorney's claim of incompetence. She was nuts, but at least her hearing was conducted with some dignity.

9:59 PM | Link | Law | Comments (1)

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Posted by Kriston

Labeled as "credible threats" of terrorism by the Pentagon: gay student groups who have demonstrated against the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy. In order to stop al Qaeda, the government spied on and infiltrated a protest (classified as "potentially violent") held by NYU Law's gay advocacy group and also a kiss-in held at the University of California-Santa Cruz. But don't ask the brass about what went down, cuz they're not tellin'!

That's nearly hilarious. Also, I'm weeping. Courtesy of Blah, Blah, Black Sheep.

5:28 PM | Link | Politics | Comments (1)

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Posted by Kriston

From the NYT:

One internal F.B.I. message, sent in October 2003, criticized the Office of Intelligence Policy and Review at the Justice Department, which reviews and approves terrorist warrants, as regularly blocking requests from the F.B.I. to use a section of the antiterrorism law that gave the bureau broader authority to demand records from institutions like banks, Internet providers and libraries.

"While radical militant librarians kick us around, true terrorists benefit from OIPR's failure to let us use the tools given to us," read the e-mail message, which was sent by an unidentified F.B.I. official. "This should be an OIPR priority!!!" [emphasis added]

And from yesterday's WaPo:

FBI counterterrorism investigators are monitoring domestic U.S. advocacy groups engaged in antiwar, environmental, civil rights and other causes, the American Civil Liberties Union charged yesterday as it released new FBI records that it said detail the extent of the activity.

[. . .]

The papers offer no proof of PETA's involvement in illegal activity. But more than 100 pages of heavily censored FBI files show the agency used secret informants and tracked the group's events for years, including an animal rights conference in Washington in July 2000, a community meeting at an Indiana college in spring 2003 and a planned August 2004 protest of a celebrity fur endorser.

[. . .]

John Lewis, the FBI's deputy assistant director for counterterrorism, told a Senate panel in May that environmental and animal rights militants posed the biggest terrorist threats in the United States, citing more than 150 pending investigations.

12:17 PM | Link | Politics | Comments (0)

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Posted by Vance

Secondly, there are such things as roving wiretaps. Now, by the way, any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires -- a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed, by the way. When we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do so. It's important for our fellow citizens to understand, when you think Patriot Act, constitutional guarantees are in place when it comes to doing what is necessary to protect our homeland, because we value the Constitution.

(emphasis mine)

whitehouse.gov link

12:03 PM | Link | Politics | Comments (0)

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Posted by Venkat

Two factors are going to work terribly against GW during Fisagate. One, GW took governmental secrecy to the next level. Two, in prosecuting the war on terror GW declined to use one of the greatest assets of our country: the criminal justice system. The one we see on Law & Order, and the one that requires all criminal defendants to be apprised that their statements can and will be used against them.

Americans are inherently distrusting people. Libertarians and conservative Americans even more so. So when GW says “trust me” they are going to have a tough time doing so. This is exacerbated by the fact that the administration has taken an extremely hard line on government secrecy, often raising frivolous national security concerns as a justification for withholding information. The administration’s extreme efforts for secrecy are apparent even in this episode, when one looks to the personal meeting between the POTUS and the NYT folks or the letter from Senator Rockefeller, the latter being handwritten, as some speculate, because the Senator was forbidden by the administration of even informing his assistant of the President’s secret program if only to type a letter of protest to the veep.

There’s another, more important reason why we will be less willing to trust GW on Fisagate. GW’s (or maybe Ashcroft’s) crucial failing is that in his entire time in office he did not use the American criminal justice system to put on trial a single real live “terrorist”. America was deprived of the opportunity to see first hand, OJ-style, what a real terrorist looks like. Instead we were treated to show trials of the likes of webmasters and university professors†. And against difficult odds, the American justice system came through, finding these---essentially bit players, or more likely irrelevant actors---innocent. Equally importantly for today’s newscycle GW missed an opportunity to demonstrate to the American public the necessity for more powerful tools for surveillance. Instead, much of the administration’s anti-terror operation was conducted in back rooms, sealed proceedings, or off-shore (in so-called "Black Sites"). What GW held up publicly as examples of the revamped American system in action against terrorists fell terribly flat.

But in any event, arguing for blanket executive powers in order to spread democracy in the Middle East is a concept laden with contradiction. More and more, as bits and pieces of the administration's tactics spill out, Americans are starting to believe that even if the governments of the Middle East are recreated in the current image of the United States---or rather the Bush administration---this isn’t going to do anyone much good. Fisagate only provides more ammunition for this argument.

† "Gen. John Ashcroft had called the indictment of Al-Arian one of the first tangible results of the Patriot Act, which gave the government expanded powers to investigate the activities of suspected terrorists and their sympathizers."

3:04 AM | Link | Politics | Comments (0)

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Posted by Kriston

These New Yorkers are all reporting pleasant enough experiences with the MTA strike. I'm guessing New York will react exactly like I would: today, "this is refreshing" and "I enjoy exercise"—tomorrow, "I'll stab your mother" and "unionize these!" Oh well. If I'm walking all over New York in the cold, I had better be seeing Chelsea.

Now, I support unions as much as probably more than the next guy. I think that the antiquated union meme is in large part a slur propped up by anti-union interests, particularly foreign automakers. But in fact unions are still an important, if not crucial, thread in the financial fabric, and their decline in public esteem can be traced to outcomes no one desires: abusive workplace litigation, for example, over disputes that were traditionally resolved between labor and management.

I strongly doubt Mayor Bloomberg's claim that the MTA strike will cost the city $400 million each day—it's not, after all, the mighty chiefs of industry who have to take the subway. But the city's worst off will bear the brunt of the strike: some will have to choose between the multiple jobs they hold; kids will be left unattended for longer periods while parents make due for transportation. So I don't think it's unreasonable (in principle, if not degree) that the union is being sacked for $1 million each day (employees for two days' pay each day).

The Village Voice outlines some of the political machinations that led to the strike. Who knows who New Yorkers sympathize with, but if you believe the city's numbers, the union's likelihood to pull this off increases with the duration of the strike. In three days—so says the city—New York will take a $1 billion hit.

Off topic: That's a pretty neat Google maps gadget, isn't it? Something like that would do wonders for a hook-up/dating site, wouldn't it?

6:16 PM | Link | Politics | Comments (0)

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Posted by Kriston

I've read in a couple places today that the big story behind the Bush administration's authorization of the use of NSA wiretaps to monitor the international communications of American citizens is that the New York Times has been sitting on the story for a year. That begs for an explanation . . . but the big story behind the secret authorization really is that the Bush administration has put aside the rule of law.

Also not the big story but really quite significant is the fact that, given a year to put together so much as a press release, the Bush administration did not have a pat answer ready in the wake of this story. Now, Bush's answer ("There is a difference between detecting so we can prevent, and monitoring") comes close to a reading of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) that says that Bush didn't order subordinates to break the law. (Close, if you grant President Bush a command over the English language language that he notably lacks. The distinction between "detecting to prevent" and "monitoring" amounts to different flavors of administration Kool-Aid. But in form, at least, the President is saying that the law concerns a but he's doing b.)

Jacob Sollum links to an NRO piece that provides exactly the sort of explanation I would have expected: that FISA grants an exception to the prohibition against eavesdropping on Americans' phone calls if some bad shit is going down. Also senseless—is the NSA going to put out a wiretap when bad shit is obviously not going down?—but still an argument that the war on terror falls in line with other longtime American favorites like the separation of powers and U.S. Constitution.

[UPDATE: "[I]s the NSA going to put out a wiretap when bad shit is obviously not going down?" I asked; the FBI answers.]

But that's simply not what other Bush administration officials are saying, Kevin Drum outlines. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales's answer really does amount to: We wanted to change the law to keep this domestic espionage program in the mix, but we got the impression that the assembled representatives of the United States' citizenry wouldn't go for it . . . so we usurped that power from the legislative and judicial branches.

Like so many things about the war on terror, it's not unreasonable for the government to want to listen in on conversations between citizens at home and potential agents abroad, and the laws should reflect those new powers enough American citizens are willing to grant them. But when the Bush administration forthrightly admits that they're not doing the following-the-laws song and dance any longer, but then lacks the courtesy to lie outrageously about their secret espionage programs, I wind up feeling like I must be wearing a stovepipe hat's worth of tinfoil. And worse still—sympathizing with proponents of small government!

But it's nice to have that Harriet Miers mystery sewn up, anyway. That call makes perfect sense now.

12:53 PM | Link | Politics | Comments (0)

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Posted by Hei Lun

When Steve lamented about the state of this blog I made a list of things I can blog about but simply haven't had the time to yet, hoping that I'd be able to the last two weeks. Unfortunately time was still short and the only times I've been motivated to write something was while I was reading something from another blog. Also, the list comprises mostly of things not all readers would want to read about anyway. So I'm going to present part of my list and ask you the readers to vote for one of them to be the next thing I blog about. Hey, at least I didn't ask you to vote in the weblog awards. And if no one votes, the terrorists win.

Pick one and only one, mark your ballots clearly, null and void in the poor black neighborhoods with the obsolete voting machines:

a) whatever happened to the fifty book challenge that I was undertaking
b) how wonderful the (canceled) TV series Wonderfalls is
c) political humor in the video game I'm playing
d) random football thoughts, such as why I'm the only man in America to think the Bears should go with Kyle Orton over Rex Grossman
e) the greatest trick I ever pulled while playing poker (which happens to be two days ago)

11:16 PM | Link | Miscellaneous | Comments (0)

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Posted by Hei Lun

I think I found the only conservative blogger who actually likes Time magazine's choice of Person of the Year. But then it could just be because Eric isn't hysterical and knows what he's talking about ...

10:37 PM | Link | Politics | Comments (0)

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Posted by Venkat

In response to Prof. Kerr's lengthy post analyzing the legality of the secret NSA surveillance program:

The Prez has this power puruant to his authority as commander in chief of all laws supplemented by his power under the Supremacy Clause as supreme leader of the law of the land. Also remember we are at war and thus the President's authority is even greater. 9/11. Lots of people died. Can't happen again. 9/11.

5:18 PM | Link | Law | Comments (1)

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Posted by Venkat

Via Concurring Opinions I see a Salon article describing how search companies such as Microsoft, Google and Yahoo help the Chinese government quash dissent. As described by Prof. Solove:

the companies filter out search results that the government wants to censor, and they help the government track down individuals engaging in criticism and dissent.

First, the bar is pretty high to bring a claim against a company that co-operates with a foreign government in perpetrating a violation. (See this post discussing the Apartheid litigation case¥ and how many companies doing business with the regime could not be held liable.) Second, I think the Act has only been interpreted to encompass "serious" human rights violations, such as torture. I don't think denial of free speech rights falls under this category.

So . . . I have a modest proposal. How about some federal legislation creating a cause of action for these dissidents. Or maybe some law penalizing these companies, maybe denying them certain benefits. I can't think of the specifics off-hand but there has to be a way to incent these companies to foster democratic principles abroad. Given our current push for democracy it would not be hard to get momentum behind this sort of legislation.

¥ Here's a link to the case documents and press releases.

4:43 PM | Link | Law | Comments (0)

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Posted by Greg

During this, my current non-polical, trivial and mundane phase of blogging (and, uh, non-blogging), Cynical-C has become my favorite blog. Chris always manages to pull together lot of the sort of stuff that, when you find it on the internet, you want to email it to your buddies. (For example, the flash-animated pop-up book It's a Wonderful Internet made me smile.) Cynical-C also features a very fine blogroll. Tonight I took it for a spin, and here's a sampling of some of the good stuff I found:

• Stephen King's Top Ten Books of 2005. Probably like most people, and like Carnacki at The Mystery of the Haunted Vampire, I've only read No. 5. But I defy you to read the descriptions for the top two and not think, "Wow, I'm going to have to check these books out!"

• Chris has been hyping TikiBarTV for a while now, but I just got around to watching. It's good stuff. And I don't even drink.

• There's a lot of (yes) interesting stuff at Damn Interesting, including an article about the Austrian doctor who believes it's healthy to pick your nose and eat it (I had read about this earlier on Ananova and thought—naturally—that they had just made it up), a post about the Mad Gasser of Mattoon, and another about a cryptozoological creature, the Mokèlé-mbèmbé, that I'd never heard of (I think it's pronounced "Dikembe"). I'm sure I'll be stopping by D.I. much from now on.

• The Sufjan Stevens Christmas Albums! († Monkeyfilter) (An aside, I was at a friend's house recently, where I picked up his copy of this month's Rolling Stone and noted that Sufjan's new album Illinois is in the top ten of their best albums of the year list. The only other album I own in the top ten on the list is the new Beck album. Both were featured on BTD. Glad to know that the RS music editors read.)

• Ebay merchant extraordinaire and advice therapist Jason 7451. That's quite a collection he's selling. Who wouldn't want relationship advice from this guy? († J-Walk Blog)

11:52 PM | Link | Blogosphere | Comments (0)

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Posted by Steve

I also want to speak to those of you who did not support my decision to send troops to Iraq: I have heard your disagreement, and I know how deeply it is felt. Yet now there are only two options before our country -- victory or defeat. And the need for victory is larger than any president or political party, because the security of our people is in the balance. I don't expect you to support everything I do, but tonight I have a request: Do not give in to despair, and do not give up on this fight for freedom.

11:40 PM | Link | Politics | Comments (0)

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Posted by Hei Lun

"Undercover Economist" Tim Harford writes about the X-Box 360 shortage in Slate. Harford wonders why Microsoft doesn't simply raise their prices to $700, which was the going price on eBay, instead of keep selling them at their current prices ($300 and up), both to quell the shortage and to make more money in the process. He suggests several reasons why prices stay low despite the shortage but calls all of them "unlikely". While Harford knows a lot about economics, it's obvious that he doesn't know much about the console gaming market, because the likely reason for why Microsoft doesn't raise prices is very simple.

In the video games industry, the video games systems are almost always loss leaders. Of the current generation of consoles (Microsoft's X-Box, Sony's Playstation 2, and Nintendo's Gamecube), only Nintendo sold their systems at a profit. The console makers make their money from the games, by selling their own and through licensing fees from third-party game makers.

To sell games, Microsoft needs customers to own the systems. But wouldn't the number of people who own X-Box 360's now be the same regardless of whether they charge $300 or $700 because of the shortage? Yes, but people who want a 360 now but can't find one can put down a deposit at their local Electronic Boutique. Very few of these people would be willing to put down a deposit for a system if it's priced at $700. They could wait a few months for the price to drop, but that's not what Microsoft wants, because many of these people might decide in three months to wait for the Playstation 3 instead. But if they had already put down a deposit, they likely would not change their mind, because of the high deposit (I think it's $100). Also, many parents who can't find the 360 now might be willing to put down a deposit as a Christmas present for their kids, but they won't be willing to do that come January when all the presents have been given. So for Microsoft to raise their prices now would increase their short term profit in exchange for a definite lost in future profits on game sales.

UPDATE: Alex Tabarrok offers an alternative explanation.

5:16 PM | Link | Economics | Comments (0)

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Posted by Venkat

To the Iraqi people. And to GW. This certainly feels like a milestone. [Regardless of what it feels like to us, it most definitely is a milestone for those who voted.]

3:53 AM | Link | Politics | Comments (0)

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Posted by Venkat

Ryan Malkin at law.com has an article entitled “Blogging is the New Black,”† harkening the impending tidal wave of law (read: big) firm blawgging. The article touts blawgs as the latest marketing killer app.

Not so fast my friend.

2:35 AM | Link | Media | Comments (0)

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Posted by Greg

There's really no way for me to improve upon House Concurrent Resolution No. 29 from the Idaho Legislature. So rather than think up clever commentary or witty rejoinders, I present you the legislation itself, with annotations:

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. 29 BY WAYS AND MEANS COMMITTEE A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION STATING LEGISLATIVE FINDINGS AND COMMENDING JARED AND JERUSHA HESS AND THE CITY OF PRESTON FOR THE PRODUCTION OF THE MOVIE "NAPOLEON DYNAMITE."

Be It Resolved by the Legislature of the State of Idaho:

WHEREAS, the State of Idaho recognizes the vision, talent and creativity of Jared and Jerusha Hess in the writing and production of "Napoleon Dynamite"; and

WHEREAS, the scenic and beautiful City of Preston, County of Franklin and the State of Idaho are experiencing increased tourism and economic growth; and

WHEREAS, filmmaker Jared Hess is a native Idahoan who was educated in the Idaho public school system; and

WHEREAS, the Preston High School administration and staff, particularly the cafeteria staff, have enjoyed notoriety and worldwide attention; and

WHEREAS, tater tots figure prominently in this film thus promoting Idaho's
most famous export; and

WHEREAS, the friendship between Napoleon and Pedro has furthered multiethnic relationships; and

WHEREAS, Uncle Rico's football skills are a testament to Idaho athletics; and

WHEREAS, Napoleon's bicycle and Kip's skateboard promote better air quality and carpooling as alternatives to fuel-dependent methods of transportation; and

WHEREAS, Grandma's trip to the St. Anthony Sand Dunes highlights a long-honored Idaho vacation destination; and

WHEREAS, Rico and Kip's Tupperware sales and Deb's keychains and glamour shots promote entrepreneurism and self-sufficiency in Idaho's small towns; and

WHEREAS, Napoleon's artistic rendition of Trisha is an example of the importance of the visual arts in K-12 education; and

WHEREAS, the schoolwide Preston High School student body elections foster
an awareness in Idaho's youth of public service and civic duty; and

WHEREAS, the "Happy Hands" club and the requirement that candidates for
school president present a skit is an example of the importance of theater
arts in K-12 education; and

WHEREAS, Pedro's efforts to bake a cake for Summer illustrate the positive
connection between culinary skills to lifelong relationships; and

WHEREAS, Kip's relationship with LaFawnduh is a tribute to e-commerce and Idaho's technology-driven industry; and

WHEREAS, Kip and LaFawnduh's wedding shows Idaho's commitment to healthy marriages; and

WHEREAS, the prevalence of cooked steak as a primary food group pays trib-
ute to Idaho's beef industry; and

WHEREAS, Napoleon's tetherball dexterity emphasizes the importance of physical education in Idaho public schools; and

WHEREAS, Tina the llama, the chickens with large talons, the 4-H milk cows, and the Honeymoon Stallion showcase Idaho's animal husbandry; and

WHEREAS, any members of the House of Representatives or the Senate of the
Legislature of the State of Idaho who choose to vote "Nay" on this concurrent
resolution are "FREAKIN' IDIOTS!" and run the risk of having the "Worst Day of
Their Lives!"

Sweet!

10:37 PM | Link | Movies | Comments (0)

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Posted by Steve

Among jam band aficionados, guessing which band will replace Phish as the Next Big Thing is a popular pasttime. It's the hippie equivalent of water cooler conversation. The Grateful Dead begat Phish and Phish begat... who? Who will lead the unwashed hordes on discursive tours across the land? Who will inspire the next generation to come up with clever new names for weed?

The leading contenders include Widespread Panic, String Cheese Incident, and moe. Some tout smaller acts with dedicated followings such as the Disco Biscuits, Particle, Sound Tribe Sector 9, or the Big Wu.

These are all great bands in their own way, but the next big thing has already arrived. It's been under our noses all this time. Quietly and without much fanfare, the next big thing got big while the jam band scene had its head turned.

The hottest touring act, armed with the biggest crowd and the best songs and players is, by far...

11:59 PM | Link | Music | Comments (0)

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Posted by Hei Lun

Previous post here. And a fun fact before I start: On Tradesports, there are contracts for Colin Powell to be the nominee for both the Democrats and Republicans.

6:19 PM | Link | Politics | Comments (0)

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Posted by Hei Lun

A group calling themselves Mass Citizens for Marriage has been running radio ads recently on their efforts to get the four state judges who voted to legalize gay marriage in Massachusetts impeached. I haven't done much research on them but I think this article of theirs titled, "Is Masturbation a Constitutional Right?" is indicative of their views.

In one of their ads, they did some really creative math accounting that any political spinner would be proud of. The decision that legalized gay marriage in Massachusetts was a 4-3 vote. How did the ad characterize this? According to them, the vote was a "3-3 tie", which allowed Justice Margaret Marshall to "impose her views" on the whole state. Why didn't Al Gore's lawyers think of that? It wasn't a 5-4 decision in favor of Bush, it was a 4-4 tie, which allowed Rehnquist to handpick the president! Sic semper tyrannis!

Thankfully, despite their artful "logic", their movement isn't going anywhere.

5:30 PM | Link | Politics | Comments (0)

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Posted by Steve

"When you ain't got no money, you gotta get an attitude."

1:17 AM | Link | MEMORIAL | Comments (1)

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Posted by Steve

By now you know an Air Marshal shot a man in Miami for claiming to have a bomb and reaching into his bag.

According to a witness, the passenger ran down the aisle of the Boeing 757, flailing his arms, while his wife tried to explain that he was mentally ill and had not taken his medication.

Blog reactions are predictable. Many have already made snap judgments, based on scant information, about whether the shooting was justified.

Federal law enforcement officers are floating the theory that the Miami Air Marshals were on edge because of a false shoe-bomb alert in New York a week ago. I suppose this is meant to explain or excuse a questionable shooting, but aren't the Air Marshals always watching for shoe bombs and other threats? The supposed psychological connection between the incidents in New York and Miami is tenuous at best.

As someone who is boarding an airplane later today, I have a minor personal interest in this story. I would like to think the airport security will be its ordinary, everyday, massive inconvenience. We're all used to long lines and shoe removals and the rest. We usually still make our flights and it's nice to know someone is paying attention. Now that we're allowed to bring our nail clippers on vacation, it's almost like a free country again.

But I fear the airports will be in a virtual state of lockdown. There's something about incidents and accidents that compels the government to "do something," and if that's not possible, at least to give a false impression of "doing something." In this case, I fear the response will be to reassure us that we are safe by tightening the usual security procedure, lacing it with an ominous reminder that they'll blow us away if we get out of line.

8:38 AM | Link | Miscellaneous | Comments (0)

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Posted by Greg

Thankfully, some whiz kids at MIT have unmasked this fiendish plot to gain even more control of our brainwaves:

Among a fringe community of paranoids, aluminum helmets serve as the protective measure of choice against invasive radio signals. We investigate the efficacy of three aluminum helmet designs on a sample group of four individuals. Using a $250,000 network analyser, we find that although on average all helmets attenuate invasive radio frequencies in either directions (either emanating from an outside source, or emanating from the cranium of the subject), certain frequencies are in fact greatly amplified. These amplified frequencies coincide with radio bands reserved for government use according to the Federal Communication Commission (FCC). Statistical evidence suggests the use of helmets may in fact enhance the government's invasive abilities. We speculate that the government may in fact have started the helmet craze for this reason.

All I can say is thank you, MIT dudes, for the public service. († DURFC Viking Dude at the BTD Forum.)

9:33 PM | Link | Technology | Comments (0)

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Posted by Hei Lun

The thing that made John Kerry even more weaselly than other politicians isn't that he flip-flops, it's that he tries to take both sides of an issue at the same time. With that in mind, it's obvious that the early favorite for the Democratic nomination in 2008 is ... John Murtha. He says there's a civil war in Iraq, and there isn't a civil war in Iraq. He says the Iraqis aren't going to ask us to leave, and that they're going to ask us to leave. Best of all, he says all of this in the same interview. How could the Democrats not elect this man?

All cheap shots aside, Ryan asks in the comments for thoughts on the next presidential election, so here are a few about the contenders off the top of my head:

11:51 AM | Link | Politics | Comments (0)

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Posted by Vance

The era of the abandonment of personal responsibility continues. The headline of this Wall Street Journal article (subscription required) sounds like it comes from The Onion:

Panel Faults Food Packaging For Kid Obesity

Yes, that's it! It must be the package's fault that my kid is obese!

Unfortunately, the article is serious. Here is the press release from the Institute of Medicine regarding their research paper that generated the WSJ article. The quote that really grates on my nerves:

The report finds that current food and beverage marketing practices puts children's long-term health at risk.

Bunk. The marketing practices don't put the food on the table, the parents put the food on the table. And that is where the blame should lie.

The parents of obese kids just need to grow a backbone.

11:15 AM | Link | Culture | Comments (0)

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Posted by Greg

I'm finally getting podcasting (though I still hate that name). This weekend, while performing assorted various work around the house like replacing a toilet's innards, I downloaded and listened to a few podcasts, and now I love the format. Here are a few of my favorite podcast sites:

• The Official Lost Podcast (naturally).

• The Ricky Gervais Show on Guardian Unlimited - Ricky Gervais is best known as the writer and star of BBC's The Office and he's hilarious. Stephen Merchant and Karl Pinkington (Gervais's collaborators) also participate.

• The Ticket Podcasts. The Ticket is a wildly popular and somewhat infamous Dallas sports radio station. They specialize in schtick, and their best bits (along with a few serious sports topics) get put into podcasts. It's an acquired taste, I'll admit. If you don't like this spot for "Meth Burgers," (probably NSFW) for example, Ticket podcasts are probably not for you.

Please let me know about some of your favorite spots for downloading podcasts in the comments section below.

11:28 PM | Link | Media | Comments (0)

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Posted by Greg

Submitted for your disapproval, the following merchandise from Urban Outfitters (†Gattigap at the BTD Forum):

Good Grief. Learn the true meaning of Christmas with Charlie Brown's classic pathetic Christmas tree. Leave it bare or dress it up all fancy. The tree is an exact replica of the tree from the famous cartoon, made of wire branches and plastic needles with a criss cross wooden base. The bendable branches allow you to make it look just how you want, super pathetic or just kind of pathetic. The tree comes with one red Christmas ball ornament. Plus the bendable branches make it possible to fold the tree entirely flat for easy storage during the non-yuletide times of the year.
* Wire / plastic / wood base
* Base: 91/2"l, 27/8"w; Tree: 21"h; glass ball: 3"w
* Take care with rough wood base, as it tends to splinter
* Imported

Good grief, indeed. As I've mentioned before, I really like A Charlie Brown Christmas. But I can't think of a less fitting tribute to this classic holiday special than this.

It is, however a fitting tribute to Urban Outfitters, the mall store that lures rich white teenagers in with promises of prefab hipness: "Spend large chunks of your parents' cash so you can look edgy and disheveled! Buy our pre-packaged, mass-marketed authenticity! Our clothes are factory frayed for that well-worn look! Dress like you shop at a thrift store for fifty times the price!" Whenever I've been to an Urban Outfitters in the past, I'm reminded of the uncool Billy Joel lyric "You can't dress trashy 'til you spend a lot of money." Urban Outfitters also specializes in cheap reproductions of retro pop-culture items (e.g., Dukes of Hazzard lunchboxes, Fat Albert action figures, etc.). All this is meant to be ironic, of course. It's nostalgia devoid of warmth or fuzziness.

So it's particularly disheartening to look at the picture of the tree and read Urban Outfitters' cynical claims about teaching kids kids the true meaning of Christmas as it shills its product. The irony that runs full circle and implodes. In the TV special, Charlie Brown, the ultimate uncool outsider ends up buying the tree in a desperate attempt to avoid the commercialism of Christmas. His peers all insist that he get a nice aluminum tree, and mock him bitterly when he returns with his sad little sapling. Urban Outfitters' version, on the other hand, is itself made of wire and plastic and designed to illicit the response, "Hey, cool tree!" Rather than teaching anyone anyting about Christmas, it represents nothing more than a cheap attempt to cash in on callow comercialism. Or, I suppose, if the true meaning of Christmas has become "a season for too clever marketers to exploit empty sentimentality for a quick buck," then, yes, this tree does teach us something.

Sigh. At least the ad copy isn't deceptive: this tree is pathetic.

9:44 PM | Link | Culture | Comments (0)

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Posted by Hei Lun

Greg talks about how when he started blogging he "tried to avoid the trivial and the personal." But sometimes the personal is just more interesting. Like today, for example, when I found out that seven members of management in my company were fired for allegedly ...

7:09 PM | Link | Miscellaneous | Comments (0)

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Posted by Greg

In response to Steve's post on the state of the blog ("Let's Face it, This Blog Sucks"), here are some of my thoughts, given partially in response to Steve, but in larger part to explain my own feelings and thoughts about Begging to Differ.

1:17 PM | Link | Blogosphere | Comments (0)

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Posted by Hei Lun

This is a response to Steve's post below.

A few weeks ago I started playing a new Playstation game the day it came out, and lurking in the Gamefaqs forum for that game. By the end of the week I started seeing people talk about being 20-30 hours into the game. How could they be so far ahead, I wondered. Then I realized: most of these people are probably 15-year olds who could play the game from the moment they get home to the moment they go to bed 2 am in the morning, like I had done when I was 15. I'd be lucky now if I could find a few hours of free time in a day.

As you can guess by now, the same applies to blogging. Here's what I wrote in the comments in Chris Lawrence's post on Steve's post:

I don’t know how anyone with a normal job have time to blog. Back when I worked part time, I had time to read 20 blogs a day and post 20 times a week. When I worked full-time in a position where I had time to sit around, I had time for 5 posts a week. Now I barely have time to stop and eat at work and by the time I’m home I’m too tired to spent more mental energy to spit out whatever thoughts I had that’s probably been posted elsewhere 6 hours ago by someone who doesn’t work a 9–5 job. And really, there’s nothing to post about that isn’t halfway depressing.

That last part has I think depressed the volume of posts by me and others recently. There's just been nothing upbeat any one of us can post about lately. I was blogging on Katrina and Harriet Miers, but the bad news never seems to stop. Avian bird flu? Intelligent design? Bleh. Valerie Plame? At this point it's just a partisan battle; there's no greater significance or national security implications. Even the local sports teams aren't doing much to cheer me up. The Patriots are 6-5, the Celtics might be one of the three worst teams in the east, and the Red Sox and Bruins both recently got rid of their most important person in the organization, both for stupid reasons.

But that doesn't mean there aren't things to post about; plenty of bloggers still manage to produce interesting content every day. And anyway, I have to say that I'm inspired by Steve's post. So inspired that I'm going to set aside all obstacles to post regularly again. In fact, I'm going to post so often (i.e. more than 3 posts a week) that soon Steve's wife Kelli will be asking him, "Why isn't he paying the server bills instead of you?"

10:08 AM | Link | Blogosphere | Comments (0)

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Posted by Hei Lun

The number of homicides in Boston is the highest since 2001. The city's solution? Harass a guy for selling T-shirts.

A store in Dorcester and a local website has been selling T-shirts with the words "Stop Snitchin'" on the front. Not exactly a message I'd endorse, but hey, it's a free country. The city of Boston, however, disagrees. A few days ago, mayor Tom Menino threatened to seize the store's shirts if the store does not stop selling them. He also is quixotically looking for a way to stop the website from selling these shirts (yeah, good luck with that). According to Menino, the shirts are designed to intimidate crime witnesses. How this allows the city of Boston to prohibit free speech and seize private property, I have no idea.

8:00 AM | Link | Politics | Comments (0)

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Posted by Steve

If you're a regular reader of Begging To Differ, you have noticed we hardly ever post anymore. I sent a group email to our authors, describing my own recent apathy and asking where they stood. Only two responded. So it's not just apathy. It's meta-apathy. High level apathy. An overarching, all consuming apathy which, were it anything but apathy, would make something (rather than nothing) occur. But it's not. It's apathy. And you know what's worse?

I don't even care.

2:22 PM | Link | Blogosphere | Comments (0)

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Posted by Greg

That, my friends, is why I love this show. Tonight's episode had everything that you could ask for. Freaky moments on the island that teeter on the edge of the paranormal? Check! Gripping and revealing flashback sequences that explain a main character's inner motivations? Check! Additional unraveling of the island's mysterious history? Check!

I loved tonight's episode with a love that is pure and good.

More pointed observations (and spoilers) after the jump.

1:05 AM | Link | Television | Comments (0)

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