OnePeople

SARS & KOREA: 2 Worries at once

Looking to consolidate your time worrying about global crises? Why not worry about North Korea getting SARS? So far neither Korea says they have it. North Korea claims to have set up a vague "brisk" defense against the disease.
Would they really be able to detect it? Or fight it given that their population is starving and
living in basically the dark ages, at least as far as electricity is concerned.

So far SARS has been largely among health care workers and international business travellers. Having a negligible economy and scant tourist traffic, North Korea's isolation may serve it well with SARS. And even though its refugees flee to China, its border isn't near the south where most SARS cases are.

More worrying is that the SARS chief victims so far -- the nurses and executives -- are the people most likely to get the very best care. What happens if starts slipping into the poor underground populations like illegal immigrants?

The Future of Theory

After a very busy 20th century, the critical theory is in a bind. For years, university departments and superstar professors have made their reputations on a series of Big Ideas like psychoanalysis, structuralism and post-colonialism. With each new paradigm, it brought the other humanities into its orbit -- history, architecture, and music have all felt its influence. At the same time, Theory (big "T") became more and more removed from public discourse. It was obscured from mere mortals by insider language and obscure citations. Witness the Postmodernism Generator, which produces academic texts from randomly generated but plausibly ridiculous snippets of text. Perhaps mercifully, the Big Ideas have all since fallen out of favor. The wane is perhaps best illustrated by the "Social Text" hoax, in which an NYU physicist managed to get a completely bogus paper published in a prominent journal by adopting en vogue language and flattering the editors. Despite some initial enthusiasm over the completely unremarkable Empire, there is little hope for a new Big Idea that can serve as the framework for published papers and tenures.

Critical Inquiry brought more than two dozen of the most prominent humanities professors to the University of Chicago for a symposium on the future of critical theory. The result of the symposium was remarkable: a complete rejection of Big Ideas and of critical theory as a discipline. In response to an audience question comparing the relevance of Noam Chomsky's work to that of more formal theorists, Sander L. Gilman of the Unversity of Illinois at Chicago declared that Noam Chomsky and "most criticism...is a poison pill." Stanley Fish followed up: "I wish to deny the effectiveness of intellectual work." There was some defense of theory as an intellectual exercise, but the consensus was that theory has no hope of being relevant outside the academy.

This is simultaneously liberating and terrifying. On one hand, there is the dark spectre of anti-intellectualism in wartime. Much of the conference was devoted to the rise of the intellectual right, the impotence of the left, and the war. On top of that, the admission that pure theory cannot animate art or politics -- not that it may not be effective now, but might later. Rather, the agreement that critical theory as a discipline is terminally useless in the real world. There is an underlying assumption here, which is that an intellectual pursuit must have manifestation in the real world, or in daily life. History tells us that this anti-intellectualism is dangerous ground.

On the other hand, this marks a sea change in the academy's relationship with the rest of the world. Perhaps to compete with the "hard" sciences, Big Ideas employed specialized language and intellectual acrobatics that would make a scientist blush. Reading an analysis of the Bronte Sisters was a baroque web of insider language and references. The punchline is that in the end, the humanities are not the sciences. The humanities defy many of the rules that govern scientific inquiry -- subjectivity is everywhere, and there is no litmus test for Plato's Republic. One can only hope that this insight will convince theorists to shed the artifice, and instead apply their undeniable mental powers to their real purpose: advancing our understanding of the world.

Pentagon: Dogfaces Don't Need Collars

We are not making this up.

The Pentagon is begging the public to stop sending flea and tick collars to troops in Iraq. They appreciate the sentiment, "but the fact is that flea and tick collars are not approved for humans and in fact are quite detrimental to the skin. Our skin is different from that of dogs, and the pesticides tend to burn our skin," says Army Maj. Dwight Rickard, contingency liaison officer for the Armed Forces Pest Management Board. This isn't just a case of well-meaning but mentally challenged citizens: a 1999 Rand survery discovered that about 20,000 personnel used flea and tick collars in the first Gulf War, and linked their use to some symptoms of the Gulf War syndrome. Everyone head over to the Darwin Awards and make an appropriate submission.

George Michael and the Mukhabarat

Thanks to Dahlia for this Agence France-Presse piece with a revealing insight into the lives of the Iraqi secret police. The Mukhabarat, tasked with quashing any "careless whispers", had a particularly "hard day" after being tomahawked by the United States. They quicly left their "battlestations", "praying for time". In addition to their "father figure", the US found a number of posters on the wall. Among them: "mother's pride" and "love machine" George Michael. Nothing looks the same in light.

Joshua Marshall on CNN

Joshua Marshall of Talking Points Memo is being interviewed by my main man Aaron Brown on CNN at 11:30p EST tonight. Update: Imagine my disbelief and profound disappointment when our Man from Minnesota got to Today's Papers without a mention of Mr. Marshall. Instead, some super-blinky expert on training constabulary. But wait! The plot thickens! TPM says he cancelled on short notice. We're trying to imagine a set of circumstances under which you could not appear on CNN, but could still update your blog...

Abu Abbas Captured

The reports are new, and the circumstances are sketchy, but the US has captured Abu Abbas, the head of the Palestinian Liberation Front and "mastermind" of the Achille Lauro hijacking. He was apparently in a house on the outskirts of Baghdad when Special Forces grabbed him. CNN is reporting that he's already tried to enter Syria where he was turned back.

Expect a lot of arguing as to whether this helps the Bush Administration's policy or not. They will treat this as vindication of their "Iraq support terrorism" argument, which had been weak. The opposition will say that Abu Abbas isn't a member of Al-Qaeda, so they haven't vindicated anything.

Vintage Weight Watchers

Weight Watchers wasn't always the bastion of cool it is now. It used to be nasty.

Qifa's Joy

A burly 39-year-old man named Qifa, assigned by Mr. Hussein's Information Ministry to keep watch on an American reporter, paused at midmorning, outside the inferno that had been the headquarters of Iraq's National Olympic Committee, to ask the reporter to grip his hand. The building, used to torture and kill opponents of Mr. Hussein, had been one of the most widely feared places in Iraq.

"Touch me, touch me, tell me that this is real, tell me that the nightmare is really over," the man said, tears running down his face.

Operation: Iraqi Mackin'

The new regime is love, baby.

Stupid Security Awards

The Stupid Security Competition is similar to the Darwin awards, but there are fewer dead people and more embarassingly ill-considered security measures. The winners this year include JFK airport, who made a woman drink her own breast milk, and San Francisco General Hospital for placing armed guards at the main entrance to prevent those without photo ID from entering, while leaving all side entrances unattended. San Francisco International Airport also received an award for their shoe-bomb screening method: banging the shoe against a tabletop.

This is perhaps a good time to mention Bruce Schneier, eminent cryptographer and security guru. Most of you haven't heard of him, which is a pity. His specialty may be computer security, but he's very good at applying computer security techniques to real-world situations. In his Cryptogram newsletter, he often takes companies and governments to task for ill-considered security measures, what he calls "snake oil." In the past, he has discussed airport security measures, National ID cards, and the problem with intelligence agencies. He's whipsmart, and though famous in the tiny computer security community, he deserves a great deal more attention from the general public.

Campaign Finance Reform in Limbo

Everyone remembers the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform, and a few of you might remember that it's been put on hold while the courts mull over the inevitable Constitutional challenges. That's where the story ended for most people; everything else is "inside baseball" which rightfully bores people to tears. Sometimes, though, inside baseball is interesting.

In the last week, reports began appearing on NPR and the Washington Post that the three judge panel considering the McConnell v. FEC is deadlocked, not on the matter per se, but because they just can't work together. Judge Karen L. Henderson announced from the bench that the court would have a decision by mid-late January. This surprised and angered the other two judges, who are accustomed to taking their time after oral arguments. Judge Henderson is rumored to already be writing an opinion, while the other two are reviewing the 50,000 pages of evidence and 1,600 pages of briefs filed with them. These two judges and Henderson have barely talked at all in the last few months, a time when all three are supposed to be crafting a formal decision, which typically weighs in at 1,000 pages. Take a moment to consider how bad things must be in those chambers if the Washington Post is talking about it -- someone had to breach ethics rules to leak this information. Once you've fully considered the magnitude of this mess, imagine writing a 1,000 page book with two other people, and not talking to them. The court's decision could be delayed for months. But who cares?

Everyone cares, which is why this decision was supposed to be fast-tracked in the first place. If the panel does not deliver a timely decision, the Supreme Court will not be able to hand down a decision on the matter before the 2004 elections. Everyone agrees that this would be a bad thing, hopelessly complicating the election for all involved. The supporters of McCain-Feingold are especially interested, though, because they are afraid that the usually campaign-finance-reform-friendly Chief Justice Rehnquist will retire and be replaced with a campaign-finance-reform-hostile Bush appointee.

So the stakes are very high now, and everyone would like to see this law off the desk of the three federal judges. Some are suggesting that the McCain-Feingold supporters petition the Supreme Court for a mandamus, which would compel the panel to adhere to a timetable.

Others are less alarmist, and point out that the last major campaign finance reform case, Buckley v. Valeo, took eight months to reach to Supreme Court in 1976. The Supremes heard arguments in November, and had a decision by January. Buckley wasn't as complex as this case, though -- there are two dozen substantial provisions to consider.

Triple Threat

North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-il, has made a bold move to secure control over all weapons his enemies could use against him. No, this is not what you think.

According to the article, triplets are revered in North Korean tradition, and one is thought by Kim to be the future downfall of his regime. It will help me sleep at night knowing this rational and sound-thinking man is the dictator of a nuclear power.

Oral Arguments

If our faithful readers missed Slate's coverage of the Supreme Court's oral arguments, you are all the poorer for it. The Court heard some great cases, and Senior Editor Dahlia Lithwick did a fine job not just with the content of the arguments, but with the snappy banter at the bench. Take the Virginia v. Black cross-burning case:

Perhaps it's because Chief Justice William Rehnquist is still home recuperating from knee surgery and Justice John Paul Stevens presides with a lighter touch, but everyone seems to be acting out like they would with a substitute teacher.

In response to a question from Justice Anthony Kennedy as to whether Bowers is still good law, Rosenthal replies that mores have changed and that "physical homosexual intimacy is now more acceptable." Since he suddenly seems to be arguing the wrong side of the case, an astonished Scalia steps in to say, "You think there is public approval of homosexuality?"

Rosenthal catches his pass, then runs the wrong way down the field: "There is approval of homosexuality. But not of homosexual activity." Scalia wonders how there can be such widespread "approval" if Congress still refuses to add homosexuals to classes of citizens protected by the civil rights laws. "You're saying there's no disapproval of homosexual acts. But you can't ... say that," he sputters.

There is nowhere near enough good coverage of the SCOTUS, and it's a shame. These are smart people, working out hugely important issues -- and despite, or perhaps because of the black robes and specialized vocabulary, they can be funny. It takes good writing to bring this out, so full marks to Lithwick and Slate.

Arab News and War Coverage

To sate our insatiable appetite for war coverage, we've been combing the Internet for any English-language Middle Eastern media outlets we can find. We stumbled upon Arab News, which is published in English in Saudi Arabia, and has a number of reporters embedded with the US military.

Many of the Arab News articles seemed a little, you know, tainted, so we poked around. Before long, we found them accusing Israel of launching the 11 Sep 2001 attacks in December 2002. That made them obnoxious, but we'll write that off to the general post-attack hysteria. A little more poking around, and they surpass "obnoxious", reaching "intellectually bankrupt". Here's a well-considered piece of reporting accusing the whole of the US media of being in the pocket of Israel. I like to think of the author, Hassan Tahsin, as their Thomas Freidman... except, you know, crazy. That gem also contains the OnePeople Quote of the Day:

"Moreover, as Zionism is surviving on lies, it exploits every opportunity to target Islam and this is evident following the September attacks on the US. Therefore, the US media that are controlled or dominated by Zionists continue attacking Islam, Muslims and Arabs taking advantage of the fact that the prime suspects in the attacks are Arab or Muslim."

Incidentally, the parent company of Arab News is H.H. Saudi Research and Marketing Ltd (SRM), chaired by Prince Faisal Bin Salman Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud. You can watch him duck important questions about the Saudi regime and Wahhabism in this interview on PBS' NewsHour.

Drugs=Terrorism Spots Killed

Remember those intellectually soft drugs-users-pay-terrorists ad campaign? The Office of National Drug Control Policy killed the spots because they were off-message, untrue, and ineffectual. The Partnership for Drug-Free America didn't like them for being "off-strategy" -- though that maybe more about Ogilvy and Mather doing the creative, which is usually the PDFA's job. Most progressive/decriminalization groups think the campaign was misleading, as terrorists come from dysfunctional foreign policy, and not potsmokers. But they don't like the idea of anti-drug campaigns anyway. The cited reason for killing the spots, though, was that they totally failed, just like all the other ONDCP campaigns.

Recall that in March 2002, O & M had to pay the GAO $1.8 million in fines for billing 3,100 hours of questionable work to the ONDCP in 1999 -- and they still got the contract for the campaign, which started in February 2002. You can read the full GAO report from August 2001.

PS - All of this is paid for by the government, i.e. you.

Let the Christianization Begin

Sunday: PRAY that the President and his advisors will seek God and His wisdom daily and not rely on their own understanding.
Monday: PRAY that the President and his advisors will be strong and courageous to do what is right, regardless of critics.

Precious Iraqi Moments

A number of us have worked in the giftware industry, and have seen more than our share of crap. This is stunning.

House Shelves Honors for Djindjic

Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic was recently assassinated, but won't receive condolences from the US House of Representatives despite leading his country through a series of important reforms and its reconstruction after Milosevic. Why? Last Sunday, while you were watching Six Feet Under, Ed Bradley was on 60 Minutes with documents that indicate Yugoimport, the government's arms export company, was providing equipment and services to Iraq. One memo to the Iraqi Ministry of Defense gives instructions on avoiding UN weapons inspectors. It's unclear exactly how much support was being provided, but it's probably in the neighborhood of US$1.5 billion and US$3 billion. This includes jet engines, artillery shells, and anti-aircraft technology. There's some question as to exactly how much control Djindjic had over Yugoimport, since it is still largely in the hands of the generals of the Yugoslav National Army (JNA) who ran it before the war. Most agree that the Prime Minister was at least aware of the deals. This scandal has also taken down the Serb member of the ruling triumvirate in Bosnia.

Do you get the feeling that the United States was the only country that honored the sanctions?