January 2005 Archives

A recent study finds that high school students know little about the First Amendment and care less. Part of the problem is that school newspapers are being cut owing to budget constraints, so students are not obliged to confront issues of free expression first hand.

A federal judge rules that the military's tribunals in Guantanamo Bay fail to meet the minimal requirements of due process. Our conduct of the war and disregard for basic human rights continues to tarnish our triumphant moment following the successful Iraqi election.

The New York Times > International > Asia Pacific > Very Discreetly, China Buries Zhao, Its Troublesome Ex-Leader

Some 2,000 mourners and at least that many police officers turned out Saturday for a heavily restricted funeral service for Zhao Ziyang, as authorities took steps to ensure that the final commemoration of Mr. Zhao, the former leader, would not touch off anti-government protests.

A reminder that Tiananmen is not forgotten, but China is not free.

Bush Aims to Forge a GOP Legacy (washingtonpost.com)

The Washington Post outlines the Bush strategy to shift political and economic power to the wealthy corporations and individuals who are the primary beneficiaries of the Republican Party, and by doing so to permanently shift power to the Republican elite. The targeted attacks on unions, trial lawyers, and Social Security are the Administration's opening salvos. The Post comments:

When President Bush stands before Congress on Wednesday night to deliver his State of the Union address, it is a safe bet that he will not announce that one of his goals is the long-term enfeeblement of the Democratic Party.

But a recurring theme of many items on Bush's second-term domestic agenda is that if enacted, they would weaken political and financial pillars that have propped up Democrats for years, political strategists from both parties say.

The New York Times > Technology> Review> Chess Players Give 'Check' a New Meaning

The New York Times highlights the ways in which computer technology has made chess more competitive, while at the same time limiting the play of some of the top players. The fact that players can obtain more information about their opponents in advance is apparently a great equalizer in opening play, and computers make it easier to play and develop one's skills. At this point, most of my games take place on the computer because I do not have time to play live. The following paragraph pretty well sums up the article:

Jaan Ehlvest, 42, an Estonian grandmaster, said that better players are more able to take advantage of the abundant information provided by computers and databases because they have the expertise to identify the ideas that are worth pursuing. For lesser players, he said, computers can actually slow development because they cannot separate the good ideas from the bad.

Mr. Ehlvest added that in any case he did not believe that computers made people better than they otherwise would be. Instead, they can help them reach their potential sooner.

MoorishGirl points out that writing doesn't come easily, even to great writers.

Dead Electronics Going to Waste (washingtonpost.com)

RetroBox -- headed by a cheerful Harvard Business School graduate named Stampp Corbin, who sees America's high-tech rejects as a healthy revenue stream -- assures its customers that it will recycle their old electronics and then give them 70 percent of his profits, while simultaneously wiping any confidential business or personal data out of old hard drives.

The moral dimension of the problem of high tech waste is that currently the United States is simply exporting its waste — including heavy metals and other toxic waste — to China and other poorer countries, where it is poisoning their citizens and low wage workers.

The reflections from the new fallen snow and the low hanging clouds give the night a soft luminous beauty. It is easy to overlook such moments. How much we lose when we do.

I knew that it was Inaugural Ball time when I saw a man and a woman on the subway, he in a leather coat and she in a white fur jacket and diamond earrings, both of them wearing matching black cowboy hats and black cowboy boots. I stifled my laughter and resisted the temptation to play bait the Republicans, but it required an exercise of will.

Apparently the recent tragedy in South Asia also reminded William Safire of Voltaire's disillusioned reaction to the Lisbon earthquake. Safire, unlike Voltaire, is not so much impressed by divine indifference as by human compassion.

I used to think that use of the word "hubris" was largely confined to discussions of either Greek tragedy or the Vietnam War. For some reason, the word seems to be making a comeback. Nothing to do with our assumption that we have a quick fix to remake the Middle East in our own image, I'm sure.

I guess my priorities are not in the right place. I find it rather odd that Americans are willing to confirm as attorney general a man who condones brutal torture by American troops that includes rape and murder, but not someone who hired an undocumented immigrant as a nanny and did not pay taxes on her. Not that I endorse denying benefits to immigrant workers either.

MoorishGirl: "We don't need the Americans' intervention. We know who to elect. Not like them -- they elected a moron."

Randa Jarrar on the news quote of the day from a Palestinian factory worker. Also picked up by Andrew Sullivan.

www.AndrewSullivan.com - Daily Dish

Andrew Sullivan discusses the severity and pervasiveness of the torture of prisoners, many of them undoubtedly innocent, by the American military. The practices Sullivan describes include electrocution and sodomizing prisoners with broomsticks, and somewhere between five and twenty-five prisoners were tortured to death. The current nominee for attorney general has a heavy burden to justify his approval of these practices.

"Law school is the most unhealthy thing I've ever done in my life," he says. "I was looking for something to get me back in shape."