{"id":157,"date":"2003-05-31T12:51:07","date_gmt":"2003-05-31T20:51:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/archives\/2003\/05\/31\/some-stuff-ampersand-is-reading-today\/"},"modified":"2003-05-31T12:51:07","modified_gmt":"2003-05-31T20:51:07","slug":"some-stuff-ampersand-is-reading-today-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=157","title":{"rendered":"Some stuff Ampersand is reading today"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yay! Groupthink Central is back!<\/b>
\nI knew I was right to leave GC on the blogroll… Yuval has a good post up on Sharon’s surprising use of the “O” word (“To keep 3.5 million people under occupation is bad for us and them”) and subsequent backtracking in the face of horrified Likkudniks. Alas, the permalink <\/a>is bloggered, so just go to GC <\/a>and look for May 27th’s entry.<\/p>\n

Additions to the Blogroll<\/b>
\nTwo new (well, new to me, anyhow) lefty blogs: Magpie <\/a>and Skeptical Notion<\/a>. And also a new-to-me right-wing blog, Assume the Position<\/a>. Please go check ’em out.<\/p>\n

Canada: It ain’t the culture, it’s the institutions<\/b>
\nVia Magpie <\/a>comes this interesting article<\/a>, arguing persuasively that Canada is not more liberal than the US because the culture<\/i> is more liberal, but because of how our respective governing institutions are set up.<\/p>\n

It is often claimed that Canada is a more “socialist” country than the United States. Whatever truth there is to that, it clearly has nothing to do with our culture, since our culture is pretty much American culture. What we do have is much more activist government at all levels, willing and able to implement programs and policies that are in the broad public interest.<\/p>\n

To put it bluntly, with a majority government Parliament can ride roughshod over the particular interests that might otherwise block collective action.<\/p><\/div>\n

Sociobiology as cocktail-party humor<\/b>
\nDavid Chess <\/a>applies sociobiological insights to modern business meetings. He’s not serious (I don’t think he is, anyhow), but his argument stands up as well as many “legitimate” sociobiological arguments do.<\/p>\n

Suddenly, examining root causes is okay<\/b>
\nSkeptical Notion <\/a>points out that Paul Wolfowitz has been saying that a prime reason to invade Iraq was to move US troops out of Saudi Arabia, in order to reduce mid-east resentment of the US. Doesn’t that sound kinda… familiar?<\/p>\n

I was saying much the same thing, in the wake of 9\/11. I wasn’t alone. Quite a few people were talking about the root causes of Arabic terrorism against the US. In addition to Israel, what topped the list was our presence in Saudi Arabia. […] And now, twenty months later, Wolfowitz comes along and says the same thing. The very administration that lead the charge against the ‘Blame America First’ crowd believes the same thing those horrid ivory-tower lefties did.<\/div>\n

Man discovers he’s been dead for over half a century<\/b>
\nNo, really – go read the story on Hot Buttered Death<\/a>. And while you’re there, scroll down to the strangest search request<\/a> of all time.<\/p>\n

The Coming Palestization of Iraq<\/b>
\nIf you read only one blog post this weekend, read this one<\/a>. Back in Iraq 2.0, a blog written by an American reporter who was in Iraq during the war, argues that “an intifada is brewing in Iraq, and American troops are about to stop being liberators and will be forced to embrace their inner occupiers.” Chis’ post covers a lot of topics (it’s pretty much your best one-stop shopping for the current Iraqi situation), and shows why it’s way too early to stop worrying about Iraq.<\/p>\n

So what was that Private Lynch issue about?<\/b>
\nSpinsanity <\/a>has a good post of “myths, misconceptions, and unanswered questions about the war in Iraq.” What I found especially valuable was their coverage of the “saving Private Lynch” scandal, which even-handedly sums the issue up for those of us who haven’t been following it.<\/p>\n

Second-Guessing Rehnquist and O’Connor<\/b>
\nLike most feminists, I was delighted and surprised by the Supreme Court’s decision in Nevada v. Hibbs.<\/a> After a long string of “pro-federalism” decisions, which limited Congress’ ability to impose civil rights protections on the states, the Supreme Court unexpectedly ruled that state employees could<\/i> sue states for violating the federal Family & Medical Leave Act (FMLA).<\/p>\n

It’s no shock that the four (relatively) liberal justices voted the way they did; but why did O’Connor and Rehnquist (!) join them? Ignatz <\/a>suggests, persuasively, that Rehnquist saw that federalism wasn’t going to win in this case, and so joined the majority in order to be able to control and limit the scope of the decision. Jack Balkin <\/a>brings up that theory, but also suggests several other possibilities; I find his alternate arguments more plausible for O’Connor than for Rehnquist.<\/p>\n

Welcome to GIANTmicrobes!<\/b><\/a>
\n“We make stuffed animals that look like tiny microbes—only a million times actual size! Now available: The Common Cold, The Flu, Sore Throat, and Stomach Ache.” As Scrubbles <\/a>says, “cute.”<\/p>\n

Father’s Rights, Trollish Wrongs<\/b>
\nFrank at I Protest <\/a>has found himself embroiled in a debate with an “angry white male father’s rights” type – regarding child abuse statistics, mostly – and is more than holding his own. Trish Wilson <\/a>weighs in, as well. Nice going, folks.<\/p>\n

Mapmaker, Mapmaker, make me a map<\/b>
\nAriga <\/a>presents a contemporary rewrite of “Matchmaker” from Fiddler on the Roof<\/i>. No permalinks, so look for the May 27th entry. Here’s a sample verse:<\/p>\n

For Abu, make it a haven,
\nFor Ariel, make it safe as can be,
\nFor me, well, I wouldn’t holler
\nIf it had a view of the Galilee!<\/div>\n

And the number-one minority in America is…<\/b>
\nA really terrific Village Voice <\/i>article <\/a>by Ta-Nehisis Coates on the odd demographic fact that there are now more Latinos in the US than Blacks. Link via Prometheus 6<\/a>, whose comments are also well-worth reading.<\/p>\n

$44 Trillion dollars ain’t all it’s cracked up to be<\/b>
\nA lot of liberals have been using the “$44 trillion” dollar statement as a club for beating Bush around the head this week. However, Maxspeak <\/a>points out that there’s less in that $44 trillion than you might expect..<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yay! Groupthink Central is back! I knew I was right to leave GC on the blogroll… Yuval has a good post up on Sharon’s surprising use of the “O” word (“To keep 3.5 million people under occupation is bad for … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-link-farms"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}