Women’s Day and Oklahoma

News and analysis…

March is dedicated as Women’s History Month, starting off with International Women’s Day, March 8, 2010. In honor of that occasion, below are some of the recent stories focusing on the status of women in Oklahoma…

Oklahoma House of Representatives | OKLAHOMA CITY (March 2, 2010) — Legislation creating a pilot program that seeks to establish reentry and diversion programs to allow nonviolent offender mothers to receive community-based services in lieu of incarceration unanimously passed the House today.

House Bill 2998, by Rep. Kris Steele, would encourage re-entry and diversion programs as opposed to jail time for nonviolent female offenders in allow them to receive rehabilitative services while maintaining contact with their children.

Oklahoma incarcerates more women than any other state in the nation. Its incarceration rate for women is 131 per 100,000 residents, almost twice the national average of 69 per 100,000.

Most women prison inmates, 68 percent, are in prison for nonviolent offenses.

“This bill will give women convicted of nonviolent crimes access to community-based rehabilitative services that have proven effective,” said Steele, R-Shawnee. “As policy-makers, we can be both tough and smart on crime. The average prison stay for nonviolent women is less than a year, but the impact on their children is lifelong and devastating. In-home rehabilitative services will keep these families together and allow Oklahoma women to receive the help they desperately need.”

The bill passed the House with a vote of 92-0 and will next be considered by the Senate.

Henry G. Bennett Memorial Library | The month of March is Women’s History Month. Between the years of 1907 and 2008 only 77 women have been elected to the Oklahoma Legislature. As of February 2009, 46 of these remarkable women have shared their stories as part of the Women of the Oklahoma Legislature Oral History Project.

Since 2006, Associate Professor/Oral History Librarian Tanya Finchum of Oklahoma State University embarked on a project to capture and record information about women who have served or are currently serving in the Oklahoma Legislature. Within the Oklahoma State University Library website, a website was launched in February 2009. The website is a culmination of her work and includes transcripts, audio excerpts, and memorabilia collected as a result of interview efforts. The web address is http://www.library.okstate.edu/oralhistory/wotol/.

National Coalition Against Domestic Violence | Domestic Violence in Oklahoma:

Oklahoma Law enforcement agencies answer an average of 15, 000 domestic violence calls each year….

Oklahoma currently ranks 10th nationally for the number of women murdered by males. Among cases where the relationship between the victim and offender was known, 91% of perpetrators were known by the victim.

According to a study conducted by the National Clearinghouse for the Defense of  Battered Women, nearly 3/4 of women incarcerated in Oklahoman state prisons reported being physically abused at some point in their lifetime.

Nearly 20 percent of Oklahoma high school students have reported being hit, slapped, or physically hurt by their boyfriend or girlfriend; this is compared to the 9 percent of all students nation wide.

The rate of dating violence for Oklahoma ninth graders is more than three times the national average, at the rate of 26 percent for Oklahoma freshmen, compared to 8 percent nationwide.

New OK | Budget problems have caused cutbacks statewide in services to women who are victims of domestic violence or sexual assault, officials say.

“It hurts my heart,” said Marcia Smith, executive director of the state Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault. “Demand for help is up, but budget problems are forcing some services to go away.”

About 29 state-supported programs offer help to domestic violence and sexual assault victims, Smith said. All of them have experienced a 10 percent cut in funds for the past two months, on top of 5 percent funding cuts every month since July.

“It’s too much for them to absorb,” Smith said.

Huffington Post | Anti-choice legislators in Oklahoma are experts on at least two things: waste and distraction. After repeatedly introducing laws – and having them overturned by the courts for being unconsitutional – that do nothing more than force government intrusion into the professional lives of physicians and the personal lives of women seeking reproductive health care, they continue to waste taxpayer time and money by ignoring constitutional rules.

Yesterday, a bill that may be unconstitutional sailed through the OK House and is on its way to the Senate. It would force physicians performing abortions to narrate an ultrasound description to the pregnant woman on whom the ultrasound is being performed. This was one week after an Oklahoma district court ruled unconstitutional a 2009 law that created a public web site where doctors would be forced to publish personal information on women who have had abortions (including their names and the reason for their abortions). And now the Oklahoma Supreme Court confirmed the ruling of a lower court that mandatory viewing of ultrasounds is unconstitutional putting to rest a 2008 law that would have forced women to view the ultrasound of their pregnancy prior to receiving an abortion…

Astoundingly, the bill passed the OK House without a question or a discussion, despite this history of wasting taxpayer time and money by passing unconstitutional laws and then having them overturned.

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Senators: Lift Ban on Gays Donating Blood  |  365 Gay News

The senators said that while hospitals and emergency rooms are in urgent need of blood products, “healthy blood donors are turned away every day due to an antiquated policy and our blood supply is not necessarily any safer for it.”

Brian Moulton, chief legislative counsel for the Human Rights Campaign,the nation’s largest gay rights group, said they are hopeful that the policy, last reviewed in 2006, will change under President Barack Obama, “who is interested in looking at all the policies that have a discriminatory effect.” The goal, he said, is “to have policies in place that are based on the science” rather than “any discriminatory idea about our community.”

One in three killed by US drone strikes is a civilian  |  The Raw Story

The US military has used drones to attack suspected terrorists in Pakistan since at least 2004. Proponents of the small, unmanned planes say they are capable of “surgical strikes” that reduce civilian casualties and effectively combat terrorism.

Is that true? Well, not really, according to a new report from the New America Foundation, a non-profit research institute.

The percentage of civilians killed by drones in Pakistan is at about 32 percent, or one out of three, the report states, and the strikes themselves have little effect in deterring terrorist activities in either Pakistan or Afghanistan. Researchers do not believe any of the reported strikes targeted Osama bin Laden.

Ford’s First EV Isn’t Sexy, But It’s Smart  |  Wired

Ford’s first mass-market electric vehicle isn’t a sexy sports car. It isn’t a sleek sedan. And it isn’t cool compact. It’s a van. A delivery van, to be exact, designed specifically for fleet use. It isn’t the sexiest way to break into the electric arena, but it’s a smart move for Ford and a logical place for EVs.

Ford rolled into San Francisco with one of the Transit Connect Electric vans that goes on sale at the end of the year. It isn’t much to look at — a big box on wheels with a definite European flair — but it offers 80 miles of range and charges in as little as six hours. Ford is offering it only its big fleet customers for now but opens the order book next year for anyone who wants one.

Still No Sunset for Patriot Act Measures

News and analysis…

Once again the US Patriot Act has entered the fray between security and freedom of speech. Within the last month there have been two separate debates circling the act. First is the issue of freedom of speech in relation to the Patriot Act’s prohibition on “material support” of terrorists groups, (a broadly defined term that includes everything from supplying weapons to teaching “terrorist” leaders how resolve disputes peacefully). Second is the recent extension of the Patriot Act without any increased restriction to protect privacy rights of citizens. These are fascinating debates to follow because it so clearly expresses how our government deals with issues of dialogue, privacy, and justice for those groups it declares suspect, and how the ideals of freedom of speech, privacy, and “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” are balanced against national security.

For an extensive background on the current debates surrounding the Patriot Act I recommend this article featured on Truthout.

The Huffington Post |  Dashing the hopes of liberals, the Senate Wednesday night instead passed – by voice vote without debate – a one-year extension of key parts of the USA Patriot Act that would have expired on Sunday.

Thrown away were restrictions and greater scrutiny on the government’s authority to spy on Americans and seize their records.

The House was prepared to approve the extension Thursday, dropping even more extensive privacy protections approved by the House Judiciary Committee.

The Democratic retreat is a political victory for Republicans, who gained new ammunition for their election theme that the GOP can better protect America. The outcome is a major disappointment for Democrats and their liberal allies, including the American Civil Liberties Union, who believe the Patriot Act fails to protect Americans’ privacy and gives the government too much authority to spy on Americans and seize their property.

Foreign Policy  | Senate Judiciary Committee ranking Republican Jeff Sessions, R-AL, confirmed to The Cable that the current thinking was to extend the Patriot Act provisions in their current form, ignoring the changes his own committee approved.

“The Patriot Act has worked and the last thing we should do is weaken it. So I think it’s a good development that we are going to continue it as is,” said Sessions. “That’s the right direction.”

Here’s the scope of the three provisions that will be extended, according to Congressional Quarterly:

One of the expiring provisions allows the government to seek orders from a special federal court for “any tangible thing” that it says is related to a terrorism investigation. Another allows the government to seek court orders for roving wiretaps on terrorism suspects who shift their modes of communication. The third provision allows the government to apply to the special court for surveillance orders involving suspected “lone wolf” terrorists who do not necessarily have ties to a larger organization.”

Alter Net | The specter of McCarthyism is again hanging over America, but this time it has found a new name. Next week, the Court will hear Humanitarian Law Project v. Holder, a case that calls into question broad restrictions on speech. The lawsuit challenges parts of the Patriot Act that prohibit American citizens from speaking with groups said to be terrorists. The government argues that speaking with or on behalf of these groups can be seen as “material support.” This is an eerily similar argument to the one made against Adrian during the Red Scare. I have heard family stories of screenwriters labeled communists for bringing food to a canned food drive loosely connected with the Communist Party. This kind of guilt by association is poison for a free society.

The Patriot Act’s provisions go even further than the Hollywood blacklists that ended careers and forced an entire generation of talented artists, intellectuals, and activists into the ranks of the unemployed and exiled abroad. Now, speaking with the wrong group can get you fifteen years in federal prison.

The upcoming suit is brought by the Center for Constitutional Rights on behalf of Ralph Fertig, a civil rights lawyer and president of the Humanitarian Law Project, a nonprofit group that has a long history of mediating international conflicts. His organization hopes to do human rights trainings around the world to promote nonviolent conflict resolution — but if he does so, he may be thrown in jail under the Patriot Act. It is a tragic irony that under the current law promoting nonviolence could get an American citizen imprisoned as a supporter of terrorism. Throwing Americans in jail for trying to convince terrorist groups to lay down their arms doesn’t make us safer. It weakens our democracy.

NPR | Federal law makes it a crime to provide material support to any organization designated as a terrorist group by the secretary of state. But the definition of material support includes not just providing weapons, money or bomb-making skills; it includes providing any sort of expert advice, training or personnel — including advice on how to resolve disputes peaceably or training on how to make human rights claims before the United Nations.

The nonprofit Humanitarian Law Project has a long history of engaging in such activity, mediating international conflicts and promoting human rights. But it has stopped doing some of its work for fear of being prosecuted under the material support provision.

“My speech is particularly nonviolent,” says Ralph Fertig, president of the organization. “I’ve gone to jail in the United States for my advocacy for peace.”

The federal government, he maintains, cannot constitutionally make it a crime to help others advocate lawful, peaceful solutions to international conflicts. In particular, Fertig and his organization have helped the Kurdistan Workers Party, known as the PKK, make human rights claims before international bodies. They have trained Kurdish leaders in peacemaking negotiations and have brought them to Washington to lobby. But when the PKK was designated an international terrorist organization under the Patriot Act, that all stopped, and the Humanitarian Law Project went to court.

The government, arguing that the PKK had engaged in terrorist activities that have cost some 22,000 lives, said it was justified in making the organization a pariah. Thus, the government contended, even filing a legal brief on behalf of the PKK in an American court would be a crime.

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Sudan Parties Sign Darfur Ceasefire  |  Al Jazeera

The conflict in Darfur, which has pitched ethnic African tribesmen against the Arab-dominated Khartoum government, has raged far the last seven years.

While numerous ceasefires agreements in the past have been short-lived, analysts say that the forthcoming elections in Sudan and increased international pressure could give this initiative a better chance of survival.

But officials warned a March 15 deadline for a final peace deal was overly ambitious.

“After the agreement is signed, the rest will come through more negotiations,” said Adrees Mahmoud, a Europe-based Jem representative, who was in Qatar for the signing.

El Sadig el-Faqih, a former adviser to Sudan’s president, who was also in Qatar, told Al Jazeera the move was a “framework to start discussing the details” and a peace deal could only go ahead when all parties were involved.

Twitter Reaches His Holiness, Now Online @DalaiLama  |  The Raw Story

The Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama has joined micro-blogging service Twitter, attracting over 55,000 followers in just two days.

The Dalai Lama’s Twitter feed — @DalaiLama — was launched on Monday, a day after he met in Los Angeles with Evan Williams, one of Twitter’s founders.

“Met the Dalai Lama today in LA. Pitched him on using Twitter. He laughed,” Williams “tweeted” following the meeting.

The next day, however, the Tibetan spiritual leader had an account and received a “Welcome @DalaiLama” message from Twitter’s new spokesman, Sean Garrett.

Drug-resistance Malaria ‘Growing’ on Cambodia  |  BBC News

Parasites are developing resistance to one of the most important anti-malaria drugs, according to experts.

Artimisinin has been highly effective, particularly in places where resistance to other drugs has developed.

But now some patients along Cambodia’s border with Thailand are taking longer to respond to the treatment.

Experts on the disease are meeting village health workers in Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh, to discuss ways to stop drug-resistant malaria spreading.

Utah Bill Criminalizes Miscarriage  |  RH Reality Check

In addition to criminalizing an intentional attempt to induce a miscarriage or abortion, the bill also creates a standard that could make women legally responsible for miscarriages caused by “reckless” behavior.

Using the legal standard of “reckless behavior” all a district attorney needs to show is that a woman behaved in a manner that is thought to cause miscarriage, even if she didn’t intend to lose the pregnancy. Drink too much alcohol and have a miscarriage? Under the new law such actions could be cause for prosecution.

“This creates a law that makes any pregnant woman who has a miscarriage potentially criminally liable for murder,” says Missy Bird, executive director of Planned Parenthood Action Fund of Utah. Bird says there are no exemptions in the bill for victims of domestic violence or for those who are substance abusers. The standard is so broad, Bird says, “there nothing in the bill to exempt a woman for not wearing her seatbelt who got into a car accident.”

Such a standard could even make falling down stairs a prosecutable event, such as the recent case in Iowa where a pregnant woman who fell down the stairs at her home was arrested under the suspicion she was trying to terminate her pregnancy.

A New Film Genre: Terror Comedy?

News and Analysis…

The Sundance Film Festival is known for introducing provocative indie films which tend to disregard political correctness in the name of truth, love, beauty…and satire. This is certainly the case for British director Chris Morris’ film “Four Lions”, which is a self-described “terror comedy” about four would-be jihadis in living in Northern England. Like any satire is intended to do, the film has stirred up considerable debate about whether terrorism is an appropriate subject of humor and criticism on how terrorism (particularly when carried out by militant Islamic radicals), is discussed in the West. Here is some of what is being said….

Salon.com | Morris suggests that he is responding to a toxic Western combination of bigotry, ignorance and political correctness that has left us half-paralyzed by the threat of terrorism. If the Osama wannabes in his movie are thoroughly incompetent, the cops and politicians he shows aren’t much better. “I felt like there was an orthodoxy, in America but increasingly also in Britain,” he says, “where we’re drip-fed a party line about these subjects [Islam and terrorism] that everybody knows is nonsensical but nobody can really talk about. It just struck me that we’re not doing a good job, on any level, understanding these phenomena or addressing them. A movie isn’t, you know, a policy paper; I’m not making recommendations. But if it makes people ask themselves questions, then that’s all to the good.”

Among the observations in “Four Lions” is the idea that the police and authorities are mesmerized by the most rigorous and conservative Muslims — the bearded and veiled set — who may strike Westerners as dangerous outsiders but are most often focused on the mosque, the Qu’ran and the many rules of daily prayer and observance. “What we don’t grasp too well is that there may be people who have extremely conservative views about the world, the separation of women, and the West, but who also abhor acts of violence,” Morris says. “We see a connection or a progression from Salafism to Wahhabism to, you know, Osama bin Laden, and while that exists, it’s simply not true that they’re all the same.”

Guardian.co.uk | It takes serious guts to poke fun at terrorists, sheer idiots or not, especially when their intended target is a place like London, where terror has reared its head so often and did so to devastating effect less than five years ago. So for this, Morris must be applauded as he tries to shed some light on an aspect of terror – the farcical cock-ups – that has slipped through the wall-to-wall media coverage of the past decade. But the switching back and forth from jihadi thriller to farce suggests Four Lions doesn’t really know what it wants to be. What emerges most completely though is a buddy movie about confused men who would struggle to organise a barbecue in their own back garden.

The Observer | Philip Roth once said that the extreme nature of contemporary experience had done the novelist’s work. To say that I found Morris’s film disquieting would be an understatement. I wondered whether it was funny, even when I did laugh. I also couldn’t decide whether the effort wasn’t somehow misguided, whether I shouldn’t conclude, reluctantly perhaps, that some subjects like jihadism can’t – and shouldn’t – be turned into jokes.

Clone Movie | It­’s a c­o­m­ed­y­. T­hat­ m­uc­h I k­no­w fo­r­ sur­e. A po­lit­ic­al c­o­m­ed­y­, in a way­, but­ m­o­r­e spec­ific­ally­ I suppo­se, it­’s a t­er­r­o­r­ism­ c­o­m­ed­y­. And­, need­less t­o­ say­ at­ t­his po­int­, it­’s a pit­c­h-blac­k­ sat­ir­e t­he lik­es o­f whic­h we r­ar­ely­ see. I’m­ c­er­t­ainly­ no­t­ m­ak­ing­ t­he c­o­m­par­iso­n, but­ F­o­ur Li­o­n­s has­ the balls­ o­f­ a Net­wo­­rk, a Dr. S­tra­n­gel­o­ve, and­ a M­*A*S*H­. P­ossibl­y­ al­l­ th­re­e­ fil­ms c­ombin­­e­d. Adje­c­tiv­e­s l­ike­ p­rov­oc­ativ­e­, in­­c­e­n­­diary­, au­dac­iou­s, an­­d sh­oc­kin­­g c­ome­ imme­diate­l­y­ to min­­d.

Is­ the­ wo­rl­d (O­K, is­ Am­e­ric­a) re­ady fo­r a bro­ad and withe­ring­l­y tre­nc­hant farc­e­ abo­ut Al­ Qae­da as­p­irants­ who­ s­c­he­m­e­ and bum­bl­e­ the­ir way into­ bl­o­wing­ up­ a L­o­ndo­n “fun run” m­aratho­n? A c­o­m­e­dy that s­atiriz­e­s­ yo­ung­ te­rro­ris­ts­ l­ike­ P­ol­ice Academ­y lampo­o­n­ed stu­pid po­lic­emen­? A slapstic­k f­ar­c­e in­ wh­ic­h­ su­ic­ide bo­mber­s ar­e (f­o­r­ lac­k o­f­ a better­ wo­r­d) th­e h­er­o­es?? I c­an­n­o­t o­f­f­er­ an­ o­pin­io­n­ o­n­ th­at, bu­t I c­an­ say­ th­at I’m gr­atef­u­l to­ atten­d f­ilm f­estivals, wh­ic­h­ is so­metimes th­e o­n­ly­ plac­e to­ f­in­d mo­vies th­is o­u­tr­ageo­u­sly­ “edgy­” … y­et po­wer­f­u­lly­ in­telligen­t.

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California Councilman: “I’m a Proud Racist” |  Alternet.com

Yesterday, The Los Angeles Daily News featured a video of Santa Clarita councilman Bob Kellar informing a group of cheering protesters rallying against immigration that he is a “proud racist” who considers being called a radical a “compliment”:

We have got to wake up America. I know you guys are engaged and you understand. But I’m telling you this is serious. And if I sound like a radical, thank you. I consider that a compliment … The only thing I heard back from a couple people was “Bob you sound like a racist.” I said, “That’s good. If that’s what you think I am because I happen to believe in America. I’m a proud racist. You’re darn right I am.”

The Horror of Teen Motherhood | Broadsheet.

In recent weeks, teenagers in Milwaukee have been inundated with promos for the imaginary film on hip local radio stations, during the commercial break for popular shows like “American Idol” and in big-screen previews. All come complete with a gravelly male voice-over and a creeping orchestral soundtrack. The final trailer features the requisite shots of blood, a screaming woman and a pale, wide-eyed child straight out of “Orphan.” The general premise seems to be that a girl goes to a party alone, has sex with a boy, ends up pregnant, her father goes psycho, she has an excruciating labor, her child is, like, the devil’s spawn or something, he grows up to become some sort of delinquent and she has him arrested.

There is no denying that these campaigns are attention-grabbing — and with the seventh-highest teen birth rate in the country, the city can’t exactly afford to make a soft sell — but I get hung up on the hyperbole in the “2028″ ad blitz. The spots don’t talk contraceptives (although at least the Baby Can Wait site does) and portray sex as an inevitably horrific event….

Obama’s “Ice Cream Is Good” Resolution Fails In Senate |  Open Salon

President Barack Obama, hoping for a legislative victory that might jump-start his stalled domestic agenda, was stunned to learn that the Senate failed to pass his “Ice Cream Is Good,” non-binding resolution.

The final vote was 58 No, 42 Yea, with seventeen Democrats joining all forty-one Republicans in casting “no” votes.

The seemingly slam-dunk legislation ran into an unexpected perfect storm of special interest demands, costly amendments, and aggressive pushback from well-heeled cake and pie lobbyists…

Invasion of the Body Scanners?

Analysis …

The attempted airline bombing on Christmas Day has prompted discussion over whether airports should start using full-body imaging scanners on passengers and staff as a way of improving safety and security. Some experts say the scans will provide better protection against attempts by would-be terrorists to sneak explosives or weapons onto planes; privacy advocates say the scanners harm civil rights more than they protect them.

The League of Ordinary Gentlemen |  “What I like about the idea of making full body scans universal and mandatory is that it could help to further remove that element of human judgment from the process by placing individuals who are viewing the images of those being scanned in another room where the scanee is out of sight, limiting the scanning to legal adults only, and requiring that all information obtained be erased following a “clean” scan. Assuming all of that is properly coordinated (perhaps a big if, I suppose), then I think that, as far as air travel goes, full body scanners could stand to improve the application of civil rights.”

AlterNet |  “The body scanner is sure to get a go-ahead because of the illustrious personages hawking them. Chief among them is former DHS secretary Michael Chertoff, who now heads the Chertoff Group, which represents one of the leading manufacturers of whole-body-imaging machines, Rapiscan Systems. For days after the attack, Chertoff made the rounds on the media promoting the scanners, calling the bombing attempt “a very vivid lesson in the value of that machinery” — all without disclosing his relationship to Rapiscan.”

New Scientist |  “In the aftermath of the incident aboard a US-bound airliner on Christmas day in which a passenger attempted to detonate explosives hidden in his underwear, governments are rushing to install full-body scanners at airports to thwart similar attacks. But their efforts could be stymied by the fact that the scanner technology has not yet been certified as fit for purpose by national governments – and manufacturers will not invest in mass production until it has.”

MoJo Blogs |  “We go nuts whenever a terrorist tries to set off a bomb, but we also go nuts over an effective, noninvasive technology just because it gives TSA screeners a brief glimpse of our body fat level? That’s crazy.”

Boston Globe |  “Like drug trafficking rings, terrorist networks strive to be more nimble and adaptive than the government bureaucracies that aim to outsmart them. Upholding one technology as a panacea will not make flying safer. Ongoing adaptation of intelligence, interrogation, and technology will. As Winston Churchill said: “To improve is to change; to be perfect is have changed often.’’”

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Oppose Afghanistan But Not a Pacifist? Tough!  |  Religion Dispatches

While Obama used his Nobel Peace Prize speech to legitimize Afghanistan using just war principles, soldiers are currently unable to invoke these principles in refusing to serve. When we punish soldiers who heed their moral compasses, we deny them religious freedom, and our democracy is threatened. It’s time to allow those who oppose the war on ethical grounds the option of ‘Selective Conscientious Objection.’

Lacking in Self-Esteem? Good for You!  |  Time

New research has found that self-esteem can be just as high among D students, drunk drivers and former Presidents from Arkansas as it is among Nobel laureates, nuns and New York City fire fighters. In fact, according to research performed by Brad Bushman of Iowa State University and Roy Baumeister of Case Western Reserve University, people with high self-esteem can engage in far more antisocial behavior than those with low self-worth. “I think we had a great deal of optimism that high self-esteem would cause all sorts of positive consequences and that if we raised self-esteem, people would do better in life,” Baumeister told the Times. “Mostly, the data have not borne that out.” Racists, street thugs and school bullies all polled high on the self-esteem charts. And you can see why. If you think you’re God’s gift, you’re particularly offended if other people don’t treat you that way. So you lash out or commit crimes or cut ethical corners to reassert your pre-eminence. After all, who are your moral inferiors to suggest that you could be doing something, er, wrong? What do they know?

Loneliness in Numbers  |  Atlantic Correspondents

We can now easily connect with friends on different continents without waiting two weeks for a letter, talk via computer without the expense of international long distance, and share new baby or other photos with hundreds of friends and relatives in a single posting, via personal Web sites and Facebook pages. … But are there hidden costs to all this connectedness? Is it possible that for some, there is loneliness, not safety, in numbers? Two essays by Willaim Deresiewicz in The Chronicle for Higher Education–one last January, and one penned only a few days ago, argue that it is. In his most recent essay, Deresiewicz quotes two studies, one from 1985, and one from 2004, that show a marked decline in people who have a “close confidant.” In 1985, only one out of 10 people said they lacked such a person in their life. In 2004, that number had climbed to four out of 10. And that was before so many blogs and social networking sites expanded the number of options (and distractions) for how we spend whatever social connection time we have.”

The Neurons That Shaped Civilization  |  TEDTalks

Neuroscientist Vilayanur Ramachandran outlines the fascinating functions of mirror neurons. Only recently discovered, these neurons allow us to learn complex social behaviors, some of which formed the foundations of human civilization as we know it.

Is Yemen the Next Battleground in the War on Terrorism?

Analysis …

The United States and Britain over the weekend announced that they were closing their embassies in Yemen due to threats by al-Qaida and growing concerns about terrorism in the region. Yemen has received scrutiny since the failed attempt by the Nigerian-born Umar Abdulmutallab to blow up a U.S. airliner on Christmas. Abdulmutallab was trained in Yemen. President Obama this weekend said that the al-Qaida affiliate in Yemen had ordered the attempt. How did Yemen end up as a base for al-Qaida’s growth? And will it be the next setting for the West’s war on terrorism?

Global Post |  “The long trail to understanding bin Laden’s connection to Yemen begins in some sense in Wadi Doan. Osama bin Laden’s father, Mohammad, left the village before World War II to make his fortune in the Saudi construction industry.
Mohammad died when his private jet crashed over the Asir province in Saudi Arabia in 1966. Osama is believed to have spent very little time in Yemen, according to research by author Steven Coll. But Osama bin Laden has long expressed deep emotional connections to the region and to his father’s ancestral land.”

New American Media |  “There are definitely a lot of extremists there, but I think the bigger framework to think about Yemen is not as a hotbed of radicalism and terror but as a state where the government does not control all of the land. They’ve been fighting a significant insurgency in the North for six years now and there’s a separatist group in the South that’s in an armed conflict. The Ministry of Interior estimates that there are 60 million weapons outside of government hands in Yemen. And that’s in a country of 20 million people. So it’s a highly-armed, fragmented society and the government hasn’t really had control over the entire country for some time, if ever. So certainly there’s extremism there, but there’s a lot of stuff going on that the government isn’t really in control of.”

The Daily Beast |  “The great challenge for policymakers moving forward is to recognize the existence of American interests in countries like Yemen without overstating them. American foreign policy has never been comfortable with gray areas, and the press prefers table-pounding statements of resolve. But the idea of real, but limited, interests is completely coherent. Around the world we face a number of places where international terrorists can or might gain a toehold, and what’s needed is an approach that can realistically be applied in a broad way, not an endless series of wars as we play whack-a-mole with the latest would-be bomber.”

Foreign Policy |  “Direct American military intervention in Yemen is so obviously ludicrous that it shouldn’t even need to be said. Even the hyper-interventionist conservatives at the Washington Post op-ed page allow that “U.S. ground troops are not needed, for now.” They never should be. The U.S. is already struggling to fully resource and equip a mission in Afghanistan which has been defined — rightly or wrongly — as vital to American security and interests. The U.S. simply does not have the resources to embark on a military mission in Yemen. If you think Afghanistan is a sinkhole, you will love Yemen. The yawning gap between the extent of U.S. interests and the resources necessary to make a difference is even greater in Yemen than in Afghanistan. And the optics of yet another American military intervention in the Arab world — under Obama, no less — would be devastating to the wider Obama outreach strategy. (On the positive side, at least committing scarce U.S. troops to Yemen would make a military strike against Iran that much less likely.)”

Informed Comment |  “I have been to Yemen three times, before and after unification, and have traveled outside Sanaa. I’ve spoken publicly in Arabic in front of big audiences and interacted with Zaidis, Salafis, Sufis. It is an extremely complicated society with multiple ecological zones. It is an arid, tribal (segmentary-lineage) system. Most of the scholars I know who work on Yemen have been kidnapped by tribes or thrown in jail by the government at least once. People are either Arab nationalists or Muslim ones. They have very little use for outsiders. If the US tried to establish a big presence there, they would make the Iraqi resistance look half-hearted and weak-kneed.”

Best of the Web …

Top Ten Good News Stories from the Muslim World in 2009 that You Never Heard About  |  Informed Comment

10. Saudi Arabia opened its first coeducational college campus, the King Abdullah Science and Technology University. In a country where the sexes have been so separated in public that some have spoken of ‘gender Apartheid,’ this move, which came from King Abdullah, provoked raging controversy. When a prominent cleric criticized having male and female students on the same campus and the teaching of modern scientific theories like Darwinism, the king summarily fired his ass. It may seem a small thing, but many big social processes start small. Most Americans forget that Princeton U. did not become coed until 1969.

9. Qatar is on track to average 7.5 percent per annum growth for the next few years. …

Useless democracy promotion efforts? There’s an app for that  |  FP Passport

The Voice of America recently unveiled a new iPhone application that allows Iranian “citizen journalists” to send video and images directly to VOA’s Persian News Network. The app, designed by the Washington D.C.-based company Intridea, is being advertised as a cutting-edge method for Iranian reformers to spread their message across the country. The application “empowers Iranians at a time when the government is staging a crackdown against opposition protesters,” announced the head of the Persian News Network.

I’m sure that this initiative was begun with the best of intentions. However, there’s only one problem — oh, who am I kidding, there are a whole slew of problems. To begin with, a normal iPhone won’t work in Iran.

The 00s: A Bad American Decade  |  Global Post

A decade’s end lends itself to reflection. As a historian, I am thinking about how the 2000s compare to previous decades. While time and perspective may alter my thinking, I believe the 2000s is the worst decade Americans have experienced since the Civil War.

Five Lesser-known Countries That Changed the World in 2009  |  GOOD Magazine

You couldn’t swing a dead cat in 2009 without hitting headlines about the troop escalation in Afghanistan or the troop withdrawal in Iraq. The same goes for the rise of China and the not-so-democratic presidential “election” in Iran. These were some of the big international attention-getters of the year, and for layman and foreign policy professionals alike, they’re stories that most of us have heard about.

But let’s be fair. There are somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 countries in world, not just the 10 we hear about on television. Here are five countries that changed the world in 2009—and are largely absent in mainstream American press coverage.

Speaking Out Against Uganda’s Anti-Gay Law

Analysis …

Last week, evangelical Christian Pastor Rick Warren denounced a piece of legislation in Uganda that would execute or imprison members of the LGBT community, or lead to the prosecution for anyone who failed to turn into authorities members of the TGBL community. Warren, who has had ties with Ugandan political and religious leaders who champion this bill, condemned the proposal and said it stands against the Christian tenet to love one another. Over the weekend, bloggers examined Warren’s move, and also presented the complex history and context of the path that led to it.

Spiritual Politics |  “It’s worth noting that Warren mentions that he expressed his “opposition and concern” to “the most influential leader” he knows in Uganda, the Anglican archbishop. Thus far, the Anglican church in the country has contented itself with opposing the bill’s death penalty provision (for repeat homosexual offenders), but otherwise has taken no official position. A few weeks ago, one Anglican bishop, Joseph Abura of the diocese of Karamoja, wrote an opinion piece endorsing the legislation in no uncertain terms. … Under the circumstances, the bill needs all the opposition that can be mustered, belated or otherwise.”

Andrew Sullivan @The Atlantic |  “I just want to say that I will continue to oppose Tom Coburn in many areas on the question of homosexual equality (although I think we’d agree on a huge amount where it comes to government spending and borrowing). But this statement is one I and many others are deeply grateful for – and it could help save gay lives in Africa.”

The American Prospect |  “Conservative African clergy frequently speak of homosexuality as a prime symptom of Western enervation. This is the great irony of anti-gay politics in Africa: It appropriates quintessentially American culture-war rhetoric in the name of fighting Western influences. Like Hamas repurposing the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Africa’s anti-gay demagogues channel their biases into an American narrative about a sinister international homosexual “agenda” that must be combated in order to preserve national vitality.”

Alas, a Blog |  “A new report released today details the role that US-based renewal church movements have played in mobilizing homophobic sentiment in at least three African countries. “Globalizing the Culture Wars: U.S. Conservatives, African Churches & Homophobia,” written by Rev. Kapya Kaoma for the progressive think tank Political Research Associates, was the result of a yearlong investigation into the relationship between conservative clergy on two continents, which has hastened divisions within denominations and has “restrict[ed] the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people.” Renewal groups and their neoconservative ally, the Institute on Religion and Democracy, have long sought to conservatize or split mainline American churches—frequently over gender or sexuality issues—and liberal scholars have traced many of the mainline schisms that have dominated headlines over the past several years to groundwork laid by the IRD and others.”

Box Turtle Bulletin |  “The inability of LGBT people to reveal themselves to their own family is perhaps the greatest obstacle to improvement in Ugandans’ attitudes toward gay people. Uganda’s main opposition newspaper, The Monitor, has just published an amazing profile of a lesbian couple which seeks to begin to change all that.

“The couple (one is out while the other remains closeted) are rightly worried about the Anti-Homosexuality Act that is now before Parliament. This interview, which The Monitor calls “the first of its kind with a newspaper journalist,” provides ordinary Ugandan readers with an extremely rare look at the day-to-day concerns of LGBT people, without the monstrous stereotypes which run rampant in the country — and which have been reinforced repeatedly by American Evangelicals who have been meddling in Uganda’s affairs.”

On the Web …

Yep, That’s Houston, Texas, Y’all  |  Pandagon

Annise Parker won the Houston mayoral run-off yesterday, which means that Houston is now the biggest city in U.S. history to have an openly gay mayor.  This will almost certainly cause a lot of people to say, “Is this the same Texas that we hear so much about, the Bible-thumping, gun-shooting hellhole?” And the answer is yes, that’s the very same Texas.  Here’s the dirty little secret about Texas: It’s more liberal than you think.  Or, to put it another way, Texas (like most of the country) is divided in the same way that the nation is, down population density lines more than by “red” versus “blue” states.  It’s not just Austin that trends blue.  All the major cities went for Obama in the last election, at least within the city (suburban counties trended red).

Faux Friendship  |  The Chronicle of Higher Education

In our brave new mediated world, is friendship becoming? The Facebook phenomenon, so sudden and forceful a distortion of social space, needs little elaboration. Having been relegated to our screens, are our friendships now anything more than a form of distraction? When they’ve shrunk to the size of a wall post, do they retain any content? If we have 768 “friends,” in what sense do we have any? Facebook isn’t the whole of contemporary friendship, but it sure looks a lot like its future. Yet Facebook—and MySpace, and Twitter, and whatever we’re stampeding for next—are just the latest stages of a long attenuation. They’ve accelerated the fragmentation of consciousness, but they didn’t initiate it. They have reified the idea of universal friendship, but they didn’t invent it. In retrospect, it seems inevitable that once we decided to become friends with everyone, we would forget how to be friends with anyone. We may pride ourselves today on our aptitude for friendship—friends, after all, are the only people we have left—but it’s not clear that we still even know what it means.

The Tragedy of Hope  |  Andrew Sullivan @The Atlantic

Obama has never been a pacifist. Never. His opposition to the Iraq war, as he said at the time, was not because he was against all war, but because he was against a dumb war. He is, in so many ways, a Niebuhrian realist. And with Niebuhr, there is the deeper sense that even though there is no ultimate resolution in favor of good over evil on this earth in our lifetimes, we still have a duty to try. It is this effort in the full knowledge of ultimate failure on earth that is the moral calling. It is to do what we can, knowing that it will never be enough.

When a Penny Matters  |  SmartMoney

In a recent study in the Journal of Consumer Research found that when pens were priced at $1.99 and $4.00, only 18% of the participants chose the higher-priced pen; but when the pens were priced at $2.00 and $3.99, 44% of the participants selected the higher-priced pen. That one-cent price drop makes the $4 pen seem a lot cheaper.

For whatever reason, we can’t take our eye off that leftmost digit. But we can at least try.

Peace Price

Analysis…

Thursday President Obama accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo.  Winning the Prize has earned Obama much criticism from every angle.  Voices  from both the left and the right  have said that Obama has not yet earned the prize.  Others point to prizes given in anticipation of great work, such as the one awarded to Archbishop Desmond Tutu before apartheid had fallen in South Africa.  In all the murky nuance of criticism and support, one thing is clear, for Obama the prize has a price. 

Washington Post | The traditional Nobel Peace Prize lecture, given every year at Oslo’s modernist City Hall, does not usually include such words as: “I’m responsible for the deployment of thousands of young Americans to battle in a distant land. Some will kill, and some will be killed.”

President Obama accepted the Nobel for peacemaking by delivering an eloquent, often grim treatise on the nature and necessity of warfare. Anyone who doubts his commitment to the war in Afghanistan, which he has escalated with an “extended surge” of 30,000 new U.S. troops, should read a transcript of the Oslo speech. Hawks who suspected — and doves who hoped — that Obama was a secret pacifist will see that although he did not set out to be a “war president,” he has accepted his fate.

The Hill | President Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize speech on Thursday “sounded really familiar,” said former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R).

Palin said approved of Obama’s speech in Oslo, where he described the concept of a “just war” in his troop surge strategy for Afghanistan, saying he mirrored her own thoughts on the use of force.

“I liked what he said, in fact, I thumbed through my book quickly this morning and said, ‘Wow, that sounded really familiar!’ because I talked in my book too about the fallen nature of man and how war is necessary at times,” Palin told USA Today in an interview.

Slate | Yes, Obama’s speech is filled with ambiguities, dilemmas, and contradictions. More to the point, it explicitly grapples with them. If there is a single theme to the speech, it’s that a philosopher-statesman of our time (which is what Obama is trying to be) must recognize and grapple with both universal principles and contingent realities, with our ambitions and our limits, with—as Martin Luther King Jr. put it in his Nobel lecture (and which Obama quoted today)—the “is-ness of man’s present nature” and the “ought-ness that forever confronts him.” 

Change.org | My reservations about the speech, and about Rice’s remarks at the Holocaust Museum tonight, are due to the fact that this Obama Doctrine is, indeed, still in development. Progress on clarity of purpose is not yet matched by action, leaving the principles established by the president feeling out of sync with reality. In his speech, Obama exalted human rights as a corner stone of peace, yet earlier this week the State Department issued a belated and rather tepid response to a brutal crackdown on protestors in Khartoum, following nearly a year with very little reaction to the repeated human rights violations by the authoritarian regime.

News…

The God Particle May Be Somewhere Else | Entangled States

There are so new indications that the Higgs particle (the “God particle“) may not be found where we are looking with the Large Hadron Collider. A team of researchers have been looking over a collection of data that indirectly puts bounds on the mass of the top quark has been able to use that data to make some predictions about the mass of the Higgs.

A Recent History of Things That Have Been Thrown at Political Figures | Daily Intel

Last week, Sarah Palin was signing copies of her highly successful and accurate book when she suddenly became the intended target of two airborne tomatoes — the latest addition to a proud and noble tradition of throwing things at political figures we don’t like. It’s an act of defiance that presidents, pundits, mayors, governors, and Ralph Nader alike have been unable to escape. We’ve put together a guide to the most notable incidents involving American politicos over the past decade or so, some of which — thankfully, because they’re usually hilarious — were captured on video for posterity.

Pastor Rick Warren Denounces Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill | Change.org

Faced with a bill in Uganda that would execute certain members of the country’s LGBT population, sentence many others to lifetime jail terms, and imprison straight advocates for LGBT rights, Pastor Rick Warren has finally spoken up with a loud and clear message: Uganda, don’t pass the Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009.

McChrystal’s Testimony

Analysis…

 A week ago, President Obama spoke at Westpoint to roll out his strategy on Afghanistan.  Yesterday Gen. McChrystal voiced his feelings on the Obama plan at the House Armed Services Committee.  Despite having requested 40,000 troops and Obama only appropriating 30,000 troops, Gen. McChrystal is in support of the Obama strategy.   

Huffington Post | On Capitol Hill, Gen. McChrystal declared under questioning by congressional committees, “I’m comfortable with the entire plan.” But in lengthy sessions before Senate and House panels, the four-star general cautioned against expectations of immediate results and said the strategy must show progress within 18 months, Obama’s deadline for beginning to bring U.S. troops home.    The sober fact is that there are no silver bullets,” McChrystal said. “Ultimate success will be the cumulative effect of sustained pressure.”

Slate | McChrystal noted that he has accumulated several years of command experience in that country since the war began. And yet, he confessed, “There is much in Afghanistan that I do not understand.”  None of the legislators audibly gasped, or asked any questions about this remark, but they should have.

Politico | Later, during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, McChrystal said capturing or killing the leader of Al Qaeda was the key to victory.  McChrystal called Osama bin Laden “an iconic figure,” whose survival has allowed the terrorist organization to expand its influence.

News…

Rescued Child Prostitutes Not Receiving Help | LA Times

Reporting from Washington – More than a month after the FBI announced it had rescued 52 children from “sexual slavery” in a nationwide crackdown on child prostitution, none of the victims is receiving the help experts say is necessary to overcome such trauma and rejoin society.

Richard Estes, a social policy professor at the University of Pennsylvania and an expert on child sexual exploitation, said the “best fighting chance” for victims is “24/7 residential care for a long period of time.”

Law Suit Filed Against McDonald’s for Refusing to Hire Trans Woman | Feministing

This summer, 17-year old Zikerria Bellamy was refused for employment at an Orlando McDonald’s when one of the managers learned that she was transgender. In response, the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund (TLDEF) has filed a discrimination lawsuit against the restaurant, and they have pretty damn good evidence: a recording of the voicemail the manager left Bellamy. He tells her, “We do not hire f*ggots.”

Happy Chanukah, Merry Christmas and the December Culture Wars | Windows and Doors

Of course it would be an upgrade if people offered the greeting most appropriate to those they are greeting, instead of the one which they themselves would like to get. But either way, good wishes are good wishes, and I wish that more Jews could just lighten up about the whole Merry Christmas ‘thing’. By the same token, so should more Christians.

America’s Role in Mexico’s Drug War | Newsweek

Forty years ago, the United States government began a “war on drugs” whose cost so far is estimated at $1 trillion, and rising. In 2006, newly elected Mexican President Felipe Calderón began a crackdown on the drug-smuggling cartels—a “war on drugs” that really is a war, involving military troops and weapons and more than 10,000 dead so far. Americans buy drugs from the cartels and sell them guns, and Washington arguably provided the example for the Mexican government’s hard-line tactics. So is America to blame for Mexico’s drug war? That was the topic at last week’s Intelligence Squared US debate at New York University.

End-in-sight-istan?

Analysis…

Tuesday night, President Obama spoke at West Point, detailing his future strategy for the War in Afghanistan.  The speech included a summary of events leading us to this place, the president’s plan, an account of the president’s difficulty in making this decision, and a refutation of potential criticisms of his plan.  The substance of his strategy includes increasing our forces by 30,000 troops starting in 2010 with the intention of beginning to withdraw them in the summer of 2011.   The reactions to the speech have been varied.   

FiveThirtyEight | What you have here, in both policy and political gambits, is the equivalent “surge” for Obama in Afghanistan to what Bush did with his surge in Iraq. I suppose violence is down in Iraq post-surge, but the long-term situation there isn’t going to be any better as a result, is it? And although Obama’s less-in-Iraq-means-more-for-Afghanistan argument is better than a more-in-both-countries further over-extension of our military and treasury, scaling back in Iraq is not in by itselfa rationale for ramping up in Afghanistan. Failure at a lower cost-per-fatality, cost-per-casualty, cost-per-dollar-spent investment is still a bad return. What matters is whether this counterinsurgency strategy really can work. I’m still not sure it will, and given that the president’s Afghan approval numbers are lower than his overall approval numbers, I wonder how many Americans believe it will work.

Alternet | There remains substantial Democratic discomfort with Obama’s plan to surge more than 30,000 additional troops into what — despite the talk of an exit strategy — is sounding more and more like an endless, and very probably pointless, war of whim. One hundred members of the House, the vast majority of them Democrats, have now sponsored Massachusetts Congressman Jim McGovern’s call for the development of a formal plan to bring the troops home. In the Senate, Wisconsin Democrat Russ Feingold and Vermont Independent Bernie Sanders make no secret of the fact that they believe the president is making a mistake, as does Obey, author of the “fool’s errand” characterization.

The Huffington Post | After the Bush years of outright lies and systematic deception, we now have Obama plumbing new depths as he tortures the very language itself. 1984here we are. Escalation is withdrawal; establishing a protectorate wherein the United States runs the government behind a nominal Afghan façade is “not nation-building;” a facsimile of a British style native state under the Raj is transmuted into self-determination.

FP Passport | If anything, the cautious tone of this speech revealed a president far from enthusiastic about his strategy. You can expect commentators to suggest that the president’s heart isn’t in the fight. But I expect that the mindset Obama projected — deeply ambivalent about the options he’s faced with but resigned to what he believes is a necessity — will resonate with many viewers much more than a guns-blazing call-to-arms would have. 

News…

Puerto Rico - First Recorded Hate Crime Murder? | Questioning Transphobia

Which makes me wonder if the victim may have been a transgender woman, despite the majority of the reports I’ve read referring to a “gay teen”and using male pronouns and a name which may well have been the name in hir legal documentation, but perhaps may not have been the name ze always went by. Regardless, it’s hard not to see it as a blatant and cynical attempt by the accused to lay the foundations for either a gay panic or trans panic defense at his trial.

No Minarets, We’re Swiss | Get Religion

Government leaders said the ban was not a rejection of Muslims, their faith or their culture. It was beyond the ability of Timesreporters Nick Cumming-Bruce (in Geneva) and Steven Erlanger (in Paris) to see how many people believed this, but the Muslims quoted by the reporters were understandably skeptical.

Deer Swims 2,000 Yards Across Hudson River | Daily Intel

Jealous of the attention heaped upon Ilya the Manatee, a deer from New Jersey made a plea for some fawning media coverage of his own today by swimming some 2,000 yards across the Hudson River. The 10-point buck jumped into the water sometime after being spotted at an intersection in Jersey City. A few hours later a police boat found him running along the rocky edge of Governors Island, shot him with a tranquilizer and transported him to a nature preserve on Staten Island. Now he’s among friends, and next time he wants to go for a swim he won’t have to go stag.

Paying for War

Analysis …

As President Obama prepares to announce this week whether he will boost troop levels in Afghanistan, questions over how the U.S. will continue to pay for the war — as well as fund the increases — are cropping up among Washington’s politicos. Rep. David Obey, a Wisconsin Democrat, recently suggested a graduated tax for corporations and individuals, a “sharing of sacrifice” to help fund the conflict whose price tag has reached $3.6 billion a month. Although the proposal is currently considered more rhetoric than actual legislation, it has sparked discussion over how the U.S. — both the government and its people — are paying for war.

Forbes |  “It’s doubtful that this legislation will be enacted. But that’s not Obey’s purpose. He will probably offer it as an amendment at some point just to have a vote. Republicans in particular will be forced to choose between continuing to fight a war that they started and still strongly support, or raising taxes, which every Republican in Congress would rather drink arsenic than do. If nothing else, it will be interesting to see those who rant daily about Obama’s deficits explain why they oppose fiscal responsibility when it comes to supporting our troops.”

Time |  “How much the extra troops would cost is in dispute. Orszag pegs it at $1 million per soldier per year, which works out to an additional $30 billion a year for 30,000 more troops. The Pentagon says it’s half that. But a new study by consulting firm Deloitte makes clear that fighting inside a landlocked country where the Taliban has shut down much of the meager road network has drastically inflated even routine costs. The average U.S. trooper in Afghanistan requires 22 gal. (83 L) of fuel a day–but the cost of buying a gallon of fuel and shipping it to the deepest corners of the country averages $45. That’s nearly $1,000 a day per soldier.”

Alas, a Blog |  “Of the many genuinely brainless and irresponsible things Republicans and blue dogs believe, the childish belief that we can endlessly cut taxes while increasing our spending may be the most harmful. (Well, that and their belief that it’s okay to do nothing to address climate change).”

Tapped |  “While this does present a serious challenge for those who would champion putting more resources into the conflict, but it will be hard for them to argue against this bill in good faith. These members of Congress are right to point out that many Americans are insulated from the effects of this conflict, and the least they can do is feel it in their pocketbooks. Should this bill come to a vote, it will be especially hard for Republicans who support the war effort but don’t, in general, support higher taxes for any reason. (That’s fiscal responsibility!) For now, it’s just one more wrinkle in President Barack Obama’s effort to make the right choice in Afghanistan, but if it forces him to make a real case to the American people about what U.S. forces are doing in Afghanistan and why it is worth the price, then it can only be a good thing. And if this legislation highlights his inability to do that, even better.”

Political Animal |  “Support for escalation in Afghanistan appears, by some measures, to be growing. The question then becomes fairly straightforward — do Americans expect future generations to pick up the tab, or do they support higher taxes now to pay for the conflict?”

Best of the Web …

Bill Sparkman’s Death Ruled a Suicide  |  Pandagon

Bill Sparkman, the Census worker found dead hanging from a tree with the word “Fed” scrawled across his body, was found to be a suicide.  This news is sure to cause some darkly amoral celebrating on the right, who will claim that this vindicates their paranoia and hatred they’ve built up against innocent, hard-working federal bureaucrats as part of a larger anti-tax-for-the-wealthy program.  It does not, and I flinch to think of how tasteless this is going to get.  Sparkman’s death was a tragedy, no matter how you slice it.  That he staged it as a murder to get the life insurance payment most likely only speaks to his concerns about his inheritors, probably his son.  Depression is a terrible and often deadly disease, and obviously, it distorts people’s thinking.

Video Game Veterans and the New American Politics  |  The Brookings Institution

Finding your future warriors via a video game sounds a bit too much like the plot of the 1984 film “The Last Starfighter.” But it works. The Army has found it, according to testimony to Congress, more effective at recruiting than “any other method of contact.” Indeed, a 2008 study by two Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers found that “30 percent of all Americans age 16 to 24 had a more positive impression of the Army because of the game and, even more amazingly, the game had more impact on recruits than all other forms of Army advertising combined.”

Selling Out Democracy in Honduras: The U.S. and the Honduran Election  |  AlterNet

The June 28 military coup d’etat that overthrew Honduras’ democratically elected president provided President Obama with “a golden opportunity…to make a clear break with the past and show that he is unequivocally siding with democracy,” as Costa Rica’s former vice president put it.  However, the U.S.’s recognition of the sham election Honduras’ de facto regime (staged) on Sunday makes it quite clear that Obama is choosing instead to side with the  far-right Republicans who support the coup.

That Couple  |  FiveThirtyEight

I am sick to my stomach over That Couple. And now comes news they are peddling their exclusive story to the highest media bidder. Disgusting, but hardly surprising.

I’m not going to use their names because you can be sure that, between giddy calls to their agent and lawyer, they are rushing to their computer every half hour to Google themselves. Who’s talking about us now? What are people saying? Look, another picture of us on the web! We’re more famous than any of our friends—no, all of our friends, combined! Tehehehee—the joke’s on you, America!

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