A Lie Too Far

The hopeless stupidity of Obama's hugging of Derek Bell goodness knows how many years ago is obvious, I think, to anyone with eyes to see. At the same time, this video of Bell's wife shows the proper response:

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Justice!

No one involved with planning and justifying the kidnapping and torture of foreigners in Gitmo and elsewhere will ever face a tribunal; no one involved with the fraudulent sale of credit defaults or other bizarro financial instruments will ever face a judge. If, on the other hand, you are a single mother who "robs" a school district of education for you son by moving your van to a different city, the hammer of justice falls swiftly.

Too Many Secrets

According to the AP, the CIA declassified a WWI document that tells us of the

techniques used by spies, generals and diplomats to send secret messages in a diplomatic war that raged long after the guns stopped. The records reveal how invisible ink was used to send word between allies, and spies learned to open letters to read each others' secrets without leaving a trace.
There's even a document written in French of the German's secret ink formula, showing the French had cracked the enemy's code.

Why did "[t]hese documents remained classified for nearly a century"? Because .

[r]ecent advances in the chemistry of secret ink, and the lighting methods used to detect it have made the secrets revealed Tuesday obsolete, explained CIA spokesperson Marie E. Harf.

Seriously? 

Changing Attitudes 1

The other day Larry Kudlow claimed that

“[t]he human toll [in Japan] looks to be much worse than the economic toll, and we can be grateful for that.”

He later claimed he had mangled the line he intended to give, although it's difficult to imagine whatall he meant to say. The underlying principle, however, seems clear: our central concern must always be on the economic impact of any act of god or humanity. This really not a new set of ideas and it is one we have been trying to overcome for most of the 20th century. 

In Bellamy's Looking Backwards the key to the transformation from the wretchedness of the 19th century to the wonderfulness of the 20th was exactly to stop thinking that way and to start thinking about putting human needs first.

No doubt, Bellamy's prescription for what ails us is overly optimistic; however, in this post by Ed over to GinandTacos, he shows what can happen

[i]f government takes its responsibilities seriously (which requires the preliminary step of recognizing that responding to an unthinkably large natural disaster is a government responsibility) it is possible to see that the animal-level needs of its people are met. Japan does have the advantage of being a small, dense country, but nonetheless its public sector has managed to shelter, feed, and rescue itself admirably. Why? Because its government is not devoted to the idea that government should be abolished.


Beyond that, Japan hasn't build its entire society on the principle of every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost. Their idea of disaster preparedness is not hoarding enough bullets to shoot their neighbors who run out of food. When America has a natural disaster, the private sector immediately focuses on profiteering and jacking up prices. In Japan the prices are lowered and in some cases basic necessities are even given away gratis. Japanese are more willing to look out for and help one another because unlike the U.S., their social dynamics focus on group harmony (critics say "conformity") rather than constant reminders that You are responsible for yourself and no one else. If your neighbor needs help, the American response is to lecture him about failing to better prepare himself for the crisis.

 Americans' attitudes, or some very loud and annoying Americans' attitudes, toward the state and their fellows do drive policies that make life less sweet and, it follows, if we change our attitudes we might find ourselves living in a kind of margaritaville.

The Wrong People Run The World

Tom Vilsack was a govenor of Iowa and is currently sec of ag in the Obama administration.  This interview with Ezra Klein is a sign that he isn't fit to fill either role. Vilsack argues that, among other things, that as  44% of our military comes from rural areas we have to continue to subsidize corporate farming or

we would have fewer people. There’s a value system there. Service is important for rural folks. Country is important, patriotism is important. And people grow up with that. I wish I could give you all the examples over the last two years as secretary of agriculture, where I hear people in rural America constantly being criticized, without any expression of appreciation for what they do do. When’s the last time we thanked a farmer for the fact that only 6 or 7 percent of our paycheck goes to food? We talk about innovation and these guys have been extraordinarily innovative. We talk about trade deficits and agriculture has a surplus.

It is one of the oddest examples of pure bullshit, in the Frankfurt sense of bullshit, I've run across. Klein, who I find superficial and boring, actually makes a whole series of good points, although he misses the obvious point that corporate farms aren't rural Americans, that make Vilsack look even dopier. Rural values don't define America because they don't exist as a coherent doctrine of one hundred percent Americanism in large measure because urban values, which don't exists as a coherent doctrine, offer a counter weight to the nonexistent rural values.

A Path to Citizenship

The repeal of DADT is the first step toward full equality not only because military service and citizenship are tightly linked in the "western tradition" but also because of the generational split it exposes between and among Conservatives. So, I say, well done Obama well done.

DADT

Yah team. So, how, one wonders, is the repeal of DADT a slap in the face by Obama to various liberal/left groups?

Relatedly, John McCain waxes incoherent:



And Rachel Maddow exposes his flippidy floppitdy:



Just imagine if that warmongering nutbar was our president.