Boston and Terrorism
Boston
The absolute must-read on the Boston bombings. David Montgomery, Sari Horwitz, and Marc Fisher in the Washington Post.
Terrorism
Why are we, as a nation, so concerned about terrorism and not about gun violence? A case of misplaced priorities. "For those of you keeping score at home – locking down an American city: a proper reaction to the threat from one terrorist. A background check to prevent criminals or those with mental illness from purchasing guns: a dastardly attack on civil liberties. All of this would be almost darkly comic if not for the fact that more Americans will die needlessly as a result. Already, more than 30,000 Americans die in gun violence every year (compared to the 17 who died last year in terrorist attacks)." Michael Cohen in the Guardian.
Americans who distrust Muslims are likelier to back the war on terror. No surprise there. "Surveys suggest that many Americans do not distinguish between the vast majority of peaceful Muslims and the very small number of Muslims who commit violent acts ... even though many political leaders have made precisely this distinction. ... These stereotypes are consequential. Even after accounting for other factors, people with negative stereotypes of Muslims on the peaceful-violent and trustworthy-untrustworthy dimensions were more likely to support various aspects of the War on Terror." John Sides at Wonkblog.
Senators McCain and Graham want President Obama to hold Dzhokar Tsarnaev in military detention. That's a very bad idea. "First and most important, Tsarnaev may not be an enemy combatant. ... Second ... there’s the small matter of Tsarnaev’s citizenship. Tsarnaev is reportedly a naturalized American citizen, and the government’s appetite for the detention of American citizens under the laws of war has waned—and rightly so. ... Third ... he was certainly captured in the United States, and the military detention of domestic captures is problematic ... Fourth, even if all of these legal and policy problems could be overcome ... military detention offers no clear advantages in this case and has several big disadvantages." Benjamin Wittes at Lawfare.
We need to be less concerned with the 'next attack.' "It’s no way to live. I read this week about a bombing in a restaurant in Israel some years ago. The restaurant was open for business the next day. What we need is precisely that kind of I’m-not-changing-a-thing resilience. The less space terrorism occupies in our brains, the better off we’ll be." Michael Tomasky at the Daily Beast.
But the government and the media probably will lock in a cycle of escalating panic. "It’s the authorities and the media that tend to go a little crazy, and their actions reinforce each other. In the knowledge that virtually every television network, news organization, and news Web site in the country is providing rolling (and often unreliable) coverage ... It’s much easier to play it safe and lock down an entire city. But the result, as Yaakov noted, is that 'a single terrorist can disrupt so many lives and possibly more important—the American way of life.'" John Cassidy in the New Yorker.
Social media went out of control. "This watershed moment for social media quickly spiraled out of control. Legions of Web sleuths cast suspicion on at least four innocent people, spread innumerable bad tips and heightened the sense of panic and paranoia. 'This is one of the most alarming social media events of our time,' said Siva Vaidhyanathan, a media studies professor at the University of Virginia. 'We're really good at uploading images and unleashing amateurs, but we're not good with the social norms that would protect the innocent.'" Ken Bensinger and Andrea Chang in the Los Angeles Times.
Politics
Elections
How fragile is the new Democratic majority? "So what do a governor’s race in Rhode Island, President Obama’s proposed Social Security and Medicare cuts, a bankruptcy in Stockton, Calif., the fiscal cliff, and the funding mechanism for the Affordable Care Act have in common? This isn’t some quirky setup for a joke only a wonk could love. The common thread here is that they all involve cross-currents in the Democratic Party that pose existential threats to their coalition." Sean Trende at RealClearPolitics.
Guns
What Manchin-Toomey means for Senate Democrats. "When you combine the fact that Democratic presidential nominees are winning fewer states with the fact that there is more straight ticket-voting, the Democrats have a major problem on their hands. It's simply going to get harder here on in to win a Senate majority, let alone a super-majority of 60 seats, which a party really needs to overcome the growing use of the filibuster. ... The Democrats who are in 'red' states recognize this fact and you saw it this week in the gun ownership background checks amendment vote." Harry Enten in the Guardian.
Bill Daley goes after Senator Heidi Heitkamp. "Polling has shown that nine in 10 Americans and eight in 10 gun owners support a law to require every buyer to go through a background check on every gun sale. In North Dakota, the support was even higher: 94 percent. Yet in explaining her vote, Heitkamp had the gall to say that she “heard overwhelmingly from the people of North Dakota” and had to listen to them and vote no. It seems more likely that sheheard from the gun lobby and chose to listen to it instead." Bill Daley in the Washington Post.
Shame on Senator Jeff Flake. "One of the U.S. senators who voted against gun control legislation Wednesday lied to a heartbroken mother whose son was killed in the Aurora, Colo., movie massacre, she says. Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake sent Caren Teves a handwritten note last week saying he was 'truly sorry' for the loss of her son and that 'strengthening background checks is something we agree on.' Then, just days later, he helped kill a bill that would do just that." Tina Moore in the New York Daily News.
The Media
Please, don't let this deal go through... "Three years ago, Charles and David Koch ... laid out a three-pronged, 10-year strategy to shift the country toward a smaller government with less regulation and taxes. ... The third one was: media. ... Now, Koch Industries, the sprawling private company of which Charles G. Koch serves as chairman and chief executive, is exploring a bid to buy the Tribune Company’s eight regional newspapers, including The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Baltimore Sun, The Orlando Sentinel and The Hartford Courant." Amy Chozick in the New York Times.
International
Asia
Earthquake in China kills 186. "Saturday's earthquake in Sichuan province killed at least 186 people, injured more than 11,000 and left nearly two dozen missing, mostly in the rural communities around Ya'an city, along the same seismic fault where a devastating quake to the north killed more than 90,000 people in Sichuan and neighboring areas five years ago in one of China's worst natural disasters." Gillian Wong at the Associated Press.
Europe
Middle East
Allegations of Syria using chemical weapons continue to fly. "Britain and France have written separately to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon of the United Nations that there is credible information suggesting Syria’s government has used chemical weapons in the civil war on multiple occasions since last December ... Israeli officials have also said they believe there is evidence that Syrian forces have used the weapons, which the government of President Bashar al-Assad is known to have stockpiled." Rick Gladstone and Eric Schmitt in the New York Times.
Economics
How can we get back to full employment? Simple. Public sector job creation. (AKA - AT: Free market hacks). "Here, I want to introduce a different solution ... It’s direct public job creation. That is, if the private sector can’t be counted upon to generate the needed job opportunities to absorb our labor supply, then there is a role for government to correct this important market shortcoming. ... Even if we didn’t have the structural changes in 'labor-saving technology' ... that I suspect are afoot, we would need to move in the direction of more publicly supported employment." Jared Bernstein at On the Economy.
Checking in on the pitch drop experiment. "Pitch at room temperature is actually fluid! In 1927 Professor Parnell heated a sample of pitch and poured it into a glass funnel with a sealed stem. Three years were allowed for the pitch to settle, and in 1930 the sealed stem was cut. From that date on the pitch has slowly dripped out of the funnel - so slowly that now, 80 years later, the ninth drop is only just forming." University of Queensland, Australia.
The precursor to human language? "Sounds made by a little-known monkey living in Ethiopia’s mountain grasslands may hint at the origins of human speech. Unlike most other primates, which communicate in strings of short, relatively flat-toned syllables, geladas possess uncannily human-like vocal tempos and undulations. ... 'The ability to produce complex sounds might have come first.' Earlier research on lip-smacking in macaque monkeys ... noted an intriguing correspondence to the universal rhythms of human language." Brandom Keim at Wired.
Miscellaneous
The flaws of massive open online courses. "MOOCs seem like a really cool idea, but pose some problems when politicians and administrators consider them as a panacea for solving some of the real challenges we face in higher education--spiraling tuition." Steve Saideman.
Stonehenge is thousands of years older than previously thought. "Excavation near Stonehenge found evidence of a settlement dating back to 7,500 BC, revealing the site was occupied some 5,000 years earlier than previously thought. ... Indeed, carbon dating of the material revealed the existence of a semi-permanent settlement which was occupied from 7,500 to 4,700 BC. The dating showed that people were present during every millennium in between." Rossella Lorenzi in Discovery News.
The ideal subway seating arrangement. "Researchers from the Transportation Research Board (TRB) recommend designing a subway car with vertical poles in the middle to maximize that premium near-the-door space for short-trip passengers, and transverse seating at the ends of the cars for long-distance riders. There would also be some seats along the walls near the doors separated by poles and partitions." Keith Barry at Wired.
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