August 21, 2012

Imperial by Design- How America has gotten into a such big mess in foreign policy -John Mearsheimer

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A fascinating lecture by one of America's leading foreign policy thinkers from the University of Chicago. Dr Mearsheimer explains the four major schools of thought on American foreign policy and how one of them has gotten America into such a big mess.

August 21, 2012

Imperial by Design: How we got into such a big mess in foreign polciy - John Mearsheimer

A fascinating lecture by one of America's leading foreign policy thinkers from the University of Chicago. Dr Mearsheimer explains the four major schools of thought on American policy and how one of them has gotten America into
such a big mess.

August 21, 2012

Peace Is Increasing by Prof. Joshua S. Goldstein author of "Winning the War on War"

August 21, 2012

Niall Ferguson trolls everyone in Newsweek by Alex Pareene for salon.com

Getting every single fact wrong in a magazine cover story is a great way to get everyone's attention


Niall Ferguson (Credit: Reuters/Jonathan Ernst)

Niall Ferguson is an intellectual fraud whose job, for years, has been to impress dumb rich Americans with his accent and flatter them with his writings. It’s a pretty easy con, honestly, if you’re born shameless and British (or French). His main argument is that Western Civilization as embodied by the British Empire is awesome and wonderful even though it traditionally involved quite a bit of killing and enslaving of non-Westerners. Since becoming an insufferable American political commentator he’s decided that America needs to cut Medicare and spend the savings on fighting neo-imperialist wars with an army made up of “the illegal immigrants, the jobless and the convicts.” (Also he sued the London Review of Books for publishing this devastating review of his career.)

So Ferguson wrote a Newsweek cover (Newsweek has become “trolling America weekly” since Tina Brown took over) about how he thinks Obama shouldn’t be president anymore, and while there are tons of very legitimate and compelling arguments against the Obama presidency, Ferguson instead based his article on a bunch of crap he made up. And the piece is full of just really obvious fallacies and little moments of mendacity like this:

In an unguarded moment earlier this year, the president commented that the private sector of the economy was “doing fine.” Certainly, the stock market is well up (by 74 percent) relative to the close on Inauguration Day 2009. But the total number of private-sector jobs is still 4.3 million below the January 2008 peak.

Hm! Weird that one thing is measured from January 2009 and the other thing from January 2008, right?

So his piece is just fundamentally dishonest, top to bottom. Like, he says: “The president pledged that health-care reform would not add a cent to the deficit. But the CBO and the Joint Committee on Taxation now estimate that the insurance-coverage provisions of the ACA will have a net cost of close to $1.2 trillion over the 2012–22 period.” Except costing money isn’t the same thing as increasing the deficit, if the provisions are paid for, which the CBO says they are.

read full article:

http://www.salon.com/2012/08/20/niall_ferguson_trolls_everyone_in_newsweek/

August 20, 2012

Is War on the Way Out? - Institute of Politics at Harvard

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Joshua Goldstein, author of "Winning the War on War: The Decline of Armed Conflict Worldwide," and Steven Pinker, author of "The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined," discuss the meaning and implications of their latest releases with HKS professors Monica Toft (author of "God's Century: Resurgent Religion and Global Politics&quot and Stephen Walt. Both Goldstein and Pinker, from distinct vantage points, argue for the counterintuitive notion that violence, among both individuals and states, is on a downward trajectory. Both the supporting data and reasoning behind this positive shift is hotly debated. Professor Joseph Nye moderates the discussion.

Date: Jan 30, 2012


A non-utopian discussion based on hard data - asking the questions about the relative decline in violence worldwide. I first got interested in this subject upon reading a incredible book that challenges all my previous assumptions - The Better Angels of our Nature: Why Violence has declined - by Harvard psychology professor and historian - Steven Pinker

http://books.google.com/books/about/The_Better_Angels_of_Our_Nature.html?id=J7ATQb6LZX0C

I posted another video a few days ago featuring a presentation by Dr Pinker:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/101749549

I am beginning to feel disturbingly optimistic about the future of the world This is a new experience for me and very scary.

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August 18, 2012

The Better Angels of our Nature: Why Violence has Declined

War Appears to be as old as mankind, but peace is a modern invention - Henry Maine

Recently I have been reading perhaps one of the most interesting books I have every come across in my entire life. In fact I would have to say that because of this book that I am in danger of becoming optimistic. The book I am talking about is by Harvard Psychology Professor and historian, Steven Pinker and the title is The Better Angels of our Nature: Why Violence has Declined

This riveting, myth-destroying book reveals how, contrary to popular belief, humankind has become progressively less violent, over millenia and decades. Can violence really have declined? The images of conflict we see daily on our screens from around the world suggest this is an almost obscene claim to be making. Extraordinarily, however, Steven Pinker shows violence within and between societies - both murder and warfare - really has declined from prehistory to today. We are much less likely to die at someone else's hands than ever before. Even the horrific carnage of the last century, when compared to the dangers of pre-state societies, is part of this trend. Debunking both the idea of the 'noble savage' and an over-simplistic Hobbesian notion of a 'nasty, brutish and short' life, Steven Pinker argues that modernity and its cultural institutions are actually making us better people. He ranges over everything from art to religion, international trade to individual table manners, and shows how life has changed across the centuries and around the world - not simply through the huge benefits of organized government, but also because of the extraordinary power of progressive ideas. Why has this come about? And what does it tell us about ourselves? It takes one of the world's greatest psychologists to have the ambition and the breadth of understanding to appreciate and explain this story, to show us our very natures.

http://books.google.com/books?id=c3cWa-GnsfMC&dq=the+better+angels+of+our+nature&source=bl&ots=aJiGftVEef&sig=oiK_5h_iWotdveGPfIoKTJb3wwE&hl=en&sa=X&ei=0XsvUIqXFIjc9AT2noHYAw&ved=0CEEQ6AEwAw

here is a brief 21 minute talk by Dr. Pinker in which explains why the world is in fact getting better; much, much better:

August 12, 2012

history trivia? Has the GOP ever nominated a non-Protestant for President or Vice President until

now?

It has been pointed out by someone that this is the first time the Republicans ever ran without a Protestant on the ticket. But I'm thinking that this is the first time any non-Protestant has been nominated by the GOP for either office. Unless someone can point to another case that I'm not aware of. Not that it matters that much..

August 11, 2012

Ryan to be named Romney's running mate

Source: USA Today

NORFOLK, Va. – Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan will be named Mitt Romney's running mate on Saturday, ending weeks of speculation about the No. 2 slot on the GOP ticket.

The Associated Press and several TV networks confirmed the news.

Ryan, 42, is best known as the chairman of the House Budget Committee and author of a dramatic plan to overhaul Medicare, the government-run health insurance program for senior citizens.

Romney is set to reveal his running mate here at a museum next to the U.S.S. Wisconsin, a retired battleship, before setting out on a bus tour of key swing states to highlight his economic plans for the middle class.




Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/story/2012-08-11/romney-paul-ryan-running-mate/56959466/1?csp=34news

August 11, 2012

Paul Ryan is currently leading on Intrade as Romney's VP choice

Now granted Intrade is only of value at the moment and reflects trends that can change on a dime and at any second...but currently
Intrade is rating Ryan at 29.8%, Portman at 25.9%, Pawlenty at 16.8% Rubio at 9.3%, Thune at 4% -

http://www.intrade.com/jsp/intrade/contractSearch/

August 10, 2012

Scott Brown outraged at prospect of poor people voting

Helping welfare recipients register to vote is the new committing voter fraud, apparently

By Alex Pareene for salon.com

Sen. Scott Brown — Massachusetts moderate — has just released one of the most brazen anti-franchise statements I’ve seen from a prominent Republican this year. Apparently the daughter of his challenger, Elizabeth Warren, is the chairwoman of one of a few voting rights groups contracted by the state of Massachuetts to send voter registration forms to people who weren’t offered the chance to register when they applied to receive welfare benefits. That was a violation of federal law, and Massachusetts is sending these people registration forms as part of a legal settlement. And this makes Scott Brown really mad, because if you help welfare recipients vote, they’ll vote against Scott Brown, probably.

I want every legal vote to count, but it’s outrageous to use taxpayer dollars to register welfare recipients as part of a special effort to boost one political party over another. This effort to sign up welfare recipients is being aided by Elizabeth Warren’s daughter and it’s clearly designed to benefit her mother’s political campaign. It means that I’m going to have to work that much harder to get out my pro-jobs, pro-free enterprise message.

It’s actually a “special effort” to comport with federal law, as I said, but the fact that helping legally qualified citizens register to vote is now considered improper is startling. Or at least that a non-insane Republican said as much out loud is startling. This goes beyond phony accusations of voter fraud: Brown is outraged that his opponent’s daughter is working for an organization making it easier for people to legally vote. Because they’re poor.

http://www.salon.com/2012/08/09/scott_brown_outraged_at_prospect_of_poor_people_voting/