I’m impressed, and I’m unimpressed

The New Neo Posted on by

Rep. Rush Holt, Democrat from New Jersey, beats Watson the supercomputer, at “Jeopardy.” Watson previously was unbeaten, even by former mega-champs Ken Jennings and Rutter.

Color me impressed. Holt is himself a five-time winner on the show, and a nuclear physicist. Hmm. What’s a guy like him doing in a place like Congress?

Then there’s Newt Gingrich’s not at all unexpected hint that he’ll be announcing his presidential candidacy soon. Color me unimpressed. He is a very stale commodity with very high negatives.

Walker warns the AWOL Democrats

The New Neo Posted on by

Governor Walker of Wisconsin tells the absent state senate Democrats (and the rest of Wisconsin and the nation) what will happen if they don’t return within 24 hours:

Now they have one day to return to work before the state loses out on the chance to refinance debt, saving taxpayers $165 million this fiscal year,” Walker’s spokesman Cullen Werwie said in a statement.

“Failure to return to work and cast their votes will lead to more painful and aggressive spending cuts in the very near future,” the statement said.

I like this guy’s resolve. So far he has not blinked. We’ll see whether they do.

Post-Oscar post

The New Neo Posted on by

Those of you who are not interested in the topic, please avert your gaze.

Here’s a slideshow of Oscar fashions, for those inclined to gaze. My summary: lots of feathers (a la “Black Swan?”), some of them very unfortunate.

Lots of sparkles, lots of missing necklaces with strapless gowns. Lots of false eyelashes. Lots of changes of costume for the lovely Anne Hathaway, who tried valiantly to be enthusiastic but was dragged down repeatedly by co-host James Franco, whom I’ve never heard of before (I’m just that un-with it).

All in all, it went exactly as I thought it would. “The King’s Speech” is just the sort of vaguely cultural vaguely foreign vaguely highbrow entertainment the Oscars love to reward. Natalie Portman was a foregone conclusion for Best Actress. The only surprise was Melissa Leo’s unclassy but heartfelt f-bomb, and that television is still prissy enough to consider it worth bleeping rather than celebrating.

This predictability is part of the fun, sort of like stopping at a McDonald’s once in a while. And a lot less fattening.

A solution to the jelly bean quandry

The New Neo Posted on by

I went to Walgreen’s last night, and while prowling the aisles I came across an entire aisle of Easter candy.

Easter. It is still February. Easter this year is April 24.

Yet here they are: the myriad chocolate bunnies (which alas, I am not allowed to eat—not even a nibble of ear, the tastiest part). The bland and squishy Peeps, which now come in over a half-dozen unappetizing day-glo colors. The creme de la creme, the Cadbury egg, along with five thousand other varieties of ovoid chocolates, filled and unfilled.

And the jelly bean. Regular readers of this blog may recall that I am extraordinarily partial to the Russell Stover pectin variety, a brand that approaches perfection in the genre. You may also recall that I am inclined to eat whatever quantity I buy, and that these fabulous jelly beans come in 12-ounce bags.

That’s a lot of jelly beans. I have been known to force myself to refrain from eating them all at a single sitting by dumping the last half of the bag’s contents down the disposal. Not an attractive solution, but sometimes the only one.

But last night I discovered a wonderful thing. Walgreen’s now sells individual serving bags of the stuff, 1.5 ounces each and fifty-nine cents. They offer just the right amount to satisfy and yet not overdo. These small bags have the added feature of a see-through window whereby the buyer can estimate the ratio of much-desired reds, oranges, whites, and pinks to the hated and despised greens.

Progress is not an illusion after all.

More from Saif Qaddafi and his brother Al-Saadi

The New Neo Posted on by

I wrote at some length the other day about Qaddifi’s formerly good-guy-reformer son Saif. Here he is, still on the dark side (the Amanpour interview also features his much-less-political brother Al-Saadi):

Amanpour points out that although she’s in Libya, she’s seen no evidence of the strafing and bombing of Libyans by the Gaddafi government, although she’s seen gunshot victims in the hospitals. That’s interesting; knowing Amanpour, she’s be eager to confirm the bombing if she could.

When Saif says, “we didn’t use force,” it does seem rather ludicrous, however. But when he says, “For myself, I believe I am doing the right thing,” one can only imagine that he thinks it’s true, and that he sees no other way out for himself. Clearly, from the interview, he is continuing to try to position himself as the most logical successor to his father, a reformer who will implement what the people actually want.

Although I do not trust this man at all, I also do not trust the media. So I think that we actually have very little idea of what is really happening right now in Libya.

As for Al-Saadi, of all the Qaddafi male offspring, he’s kept himself most apart from power struggles and politics in general. His interview here is fairly non-political, too. He describes the movements as an earthquake that cannot be stopped. When Al-Saadi says “I want to live normal,” I tend to believe him, although I’m sure he’d like to “live normal” with a more-than-normal amount of money.

Those exciting, not-to-be-missed, Oscars

The New Neo Posted on by

Yes, the title is sarcastic. You can miss em if you want tonight, and you probably won’t be missing a thing except a few hours of boredom watching a bunch of self-satisfied, beautiful, but anorexic people congratulate themselves on their super-duper wonderfulness.

I, on the other hand, will turn it on, as usual—although as usual I’ll be doing other things as I “watch.” What draws me is the fashions. I’m just that shallow.

This year I’ll be heavily rooting against any Oscars for “Black Swan.” I probably will be thwarted in that wish, however, since the pregnant Portman is almost a pointe shoe-in for Best Actress.

Is this merely a more complicated way to say “why buy the cow…

The New Neo Posted on by

…when you can get the milk for free?”

An excerpt:

If women were more fully in charge of how their relationships transpired, we’d be seeing, on average, more impressive wooing efforts, longer relationships, fewer premarital sexual partners, shorter cohabitations, and more marrying going on. Instead, according to the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (which collects data well into adulthood), none of these things is occurring. Not one. The terms of contemporary sexual relationships favor men and what they want in relationships, not just despite the fact that what they have to offer has diminished, but in part because of it. And it’s all thanks to supply and demand…

As Baumeister and Vohs note, sex in consensual relationships…commences only when women decide it does. And yet despite the fact that women are holding the sexual purse strings, they aren’t asking for much in return these days””the market “price” of sex is currently very low. There are several likely reasons for this. One is the spread of pornography: Since high-speed digital porn gives men additional sexual options””more supply for his elevated demand””it takes some measure of price control away from women. The Pill lowered the cost as well. There are also, quite simply, fewer social constraints on sexual relationships than there once were. As a result, the sexual decisions of young women look more like those of men than they once did, at least when women are in their twenties. The price of sex is low, in other words, in part because its costs to women are lower than they used to be.

But just as critical is the fact that a significant number of young men are faring rather badly in life, and are thus skewing the dating pool. It’s not that the overall gender ratio in this country is out of whack; it’s that there’s a growing imbalance between the number of successful young women and successful young men. As a result, in many of the places where young people typically meet””on college campuses, in religious congregations, in cities that draw large numbers of twentysomethings””women outnumber men by significant margins.

Somehow I think this article may engender a fair amount of heated discussion.

What about Liz Cheney?

The New Neo Posted on by

In an earlier thread on Palin-hatred, a discussion ensued in the comments section about the fact that a great many conservative female politicians are hated, not just Palin. Michelle Bachmann, for example.

Commenter “LAG” asked a challenging question:

For the sake of a scientific test that holds unimportant variables steady, can anyone point out a single counter-balancing example, i.e. is there anywhere to be found a conservative woman with all the right (Ivy League education, etc) credentials who is or isn’t despised?

First, a little clarification on the meaning of the word “despised,” “to regard with contempt or scorn.” That implies not just hatred, but a looking down from above, a hierarchy in which the despiser believes the despisee to be not only intensely dislikable but also markedly inferior. That describes liberal attitudes towards both Palin and Bachmann.

And so I offer as a possible candidate for a non-despised conservative woman: Liz Cheney. Now my guess is that she isn’t intensely hated yet only because she flies somewhat under the radar screen at the moment, and that if she ever became more popular or ran for office it might be different and she would draw a huge amount of ire. They certainly hated her father.

But I don’t think they despised him; his formidable intellect was respected, and I think it would be that way with his daughter, who is low-key in her delivery, attractive but not glam, articulate, and hyper-intelligent. She would be seen by the left as the evil genius rather than the evil stupidhead, rather like the difference between her father and GW Bush in their eyes.

Palin, of course, would be in the Bush position, squared. Or perhaps cubed.

For neocons: Bolton’s democracy primer on Egypt

The New Neo Posted on by

John Bolton has written an article suggesting ways in which liberal democracy (rather than the siren song of “one person, one vote, one time,” or Islamiscist control) could come to Egypt, and perhaps even other countries in the Middle East.

Neocon thought is often ridiculed as being the simplistic idea that all you need is the right to vote, and all will be well. That’s not it at all, as I’ve devoted quite a few words to explaining. Bolton offers quite a few more:

…[T]oday’s pressing question for Egypt is what steps the new military rulers should take. First, there should not be a rush to elections. It was a fatal mistake for Palestinians when the Bush Administration, reading supposedly irrefutable polls that Hamas could not win, scheduled elections in 2006 that allowed Hamas to do just that. Democracy is a culture, a way of life, as Mill and Kirkpatrick recognised, not simply the counting of votes. Any realistic assessment of Egypt’s “opposition” shows it to be weak, disorganised, and indifferently led. Moving to early elections, as the Muslim Brotherhood wants, will not bring the Age of Aquarius, but only benefit those factions with existing political infrastructures, which is a formula for domination by the Brotherhood. Far better to proceed when the true democrats are ready, which may not be soon enough for some, but which is unambiguously the more pro-democratic course.

Second, participation in the elections, whenever scheduled, should be limited to real political parties. From Mussolini to Putin, from Hamas to Hezbollah, terrorists, totalitarians and their ilk masquerading as political parties do not really believe in representative government. Banning such faux-democrats from participating in the legitimate political process until they become true political parties is entirely legitimate, and may well be critical to avert disaster. America did so for decades by outlawing the Communist Party, as post-World War II Germany did with the National Socialists. Thus, for President Obama to say, as he did, that the transition “must bring all of Egypt’s voices to the table” is not only naive, but fundamentally dangerous.

Third, the West should provide material assistance to those truly committed to a free and open society. In days of yore, the United States supplied extensive clandestine assistance to prevent communist takeovers in post-World War II elections in France, Italy and elsewhere. Undoubtedly, the Obama Administration is too fastidious for such Cold War-style behaviour, but perhaps overt, democratic institution-building assistance is not too much to ask. Advocates of doing nothing will argue that Western assistance, overt or covert, will “taint” the real democrats, and should therefore be avoided. Of course, there are always excuses for doing nothing. At a minimum, we should let Egyptians themselves decide whether they will be “tainted” with outside assistance; if they can live with the taint, so should we.

Fourth, Egypt’s military must restore and extend stability, setting an example throughout the Middle East, thereby allowing whatever progress toward a truly democratic culture to emerge. Egypt’s military will require political space in the months ahead. The Pentagon’s continuing close relationship with Egypt’s military should give us confidence that the right message about civilian control over the military is getting through. One of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces’ first announcements was that it would honour Egypt’s international obligations, presumably including Camp David. This is important and reassuring internationally, but hardly dispositive of what future governments will do.

None of this is at all easy (even with behind-the-scenes pressure and influence), and none is bound to succeed. What’s more, Egypt is probably a walk in the park compared to Libya if the rebels manage to depose Qaddafi. Paradoxically, if the Iranian opposition were somehow successful in getting rid of the mullahs, Iran might even have the best chance of becoming the closest thing to a liberal democracy in a Muslim country in the region (including the nascent and tenuous democracy in Iraq), simply because its people have had such a long and gut-wrenching experience of enduring the opposite after a revolution that briefly promised otherwise.

Wisconsin House Republicans pass public worker union bill

The New Neo Posted on by

There’s been a lot of theater so far in the Wisconsin public worker union budget fight, and last night there was even more drama, as Republicans in the House ended the lengthy Democratic debate and forced a quick vote in the wee hours of the morning.

The result was a foregone conclusion: the bill passed. The real problem has always been in the Senate, where a quorum of 3/5 is necessary and Democrats have gone AWOL to avoid giving Republicans the opportunity to vote on the bill and pass it.

That’s still unresolved, and no doubt the quick action by the Republicans last night was to show that Republicans can play tough, too. The play continues…

Semi-truth: “The Social Network”

The New Neo Posted on by

Last night I watched the movie “The Social Network,” the story of Mark Zuckerberg and his creation of Facebook, which featured his various and sundry betrayals of former friends, who later sued and won settlements against him.

Ironic, of course, because Facebook is all about keeping in touch with friends. But, as its ads note, “You don’t get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies.”

The mostly-praised movie was okay, fast-paced and fairly entertaining, featuring snappy dialogue while it raises (and never answers) various moral, ethical, and legal questions. It also is, of course, about real people and real events, although somewhat fictionalized.

That’s what makes it both interesting and annoying in equal measure, at least to me. What’s fiction and what’s truth? I have always been disturbed by the indiscriminate blending of the two, and the resultant confusion of one for the other. How many people will see the movie and come away from it convinced that it depicts what actually happened? How many people will care?

In a way, whether one thinks Mack Zuckerberg is every bit as dipshitty a back-stabber as in the movie, or an even worse one, or a slightly nicer guy, is not of much import to anyone other than Zuckerberg, family, friends, and multiple (that’s a pun, by the way) ex-friends and their lawyers. But inaccuracies bug me nevertheless; I’d much rather the film used pseudonyms to make it crystal clear this is a work of fiction—but of course, then it would lose almost all of its gossipy appeal.

Zuckerberg is on record as saying:

…that the film portrayed his motivations for creating Facebook inaccurately; instead of an effort to “get girls”, he says he created the site because he enjoys “building things”. However, he added that the film accurately depicted his real-life wardrobe, saying, “It’s interesting the stuff that they focused on getting right ”“ like every single shirt and fleece they had in that movie is actually a shirt or fleece that I own.”

Screenwriter Sorkin (of “The West Wing”) has said, “I don’t want my fidelity to be to the truth; I want it to be to storytelling. What is the big deal about accuracy purely for accuracy’s sake, and can we not have the true be the enemy of the good?” Sound familiar?

But I’m a lot more upset when filmmakers such as Oliver Stone take liberties with far more important history, and their revisions and fantasies become real history in the mind of many. How many, I have no idea; certainly not everyone who watches their creations. But enough to make some sort of difference, I believe.

There’s no way to block this sort of artistic license, and no way I’d wish to do so. What I really wish is that history were taught in such a way as to make people more impervious to those who would play fast and loose with it.