At work, I don’t use livejournal, because, well, it’s not appropriate, and the last thing I want showing up in the lists of urls I go to is my own blazingly partisan blog. Well, maybe gay porn would be worse. Straight porn would definitely be worse. But I’m digressing.
So, instead, I’ve started keeping up on current events from newssites directly, instead of relying on
- New York Times
- The Economist
- A book review I ran across on drug companies and tthe development of new drugs discovered while doing work related research. I won’t comment on it, because it’s work related, but I wanted to share it. I ought to share other articles to give a fuller perspective on the matter, but I’m lazy.
- And finally, from
an article on a politically oriented college for fundamentalist christians
Commentary:
1.1 Makes me sad. Doctors should not be involved in torture. Not that the hippocratic oath means much, but still.
1.2 It’s good to hear frank truth, even if unpleasant.
1.3 He’s probably right, but staying in there doesn’t seem to be slowing them down much.
2.2 United States religious extremists are a force to be reckoned with, and rational people aren’t as dedicated to keeping them where they belong, on the margin. The article is sadly accurate.
4. I found this article scary and sad at the same time.
Re: 1.3 – what a lot of people, especially people in Congress and Senate, have been asking for is not necessarily a timeline, but a set of criteria that says, “okay, now it is reasonable and safe to bring the troops home.” The Administration refuses to even give out that. That’s not the same as giving a timeline, and doesn’t necessarily help the insurgents any.
Besides, if the insurgents were really going to believe the US was ever going to leave at all, they’d be smart and _stop_ the attacks in Iraq now, and then wait for the US to leave. Once the US felt they’d ended the insurgency and left, they would be free to resume the attacks and quickly take over the country. The problem is, they don’t believe the US is _ever_ going to leave the country… and frankly, I’m not sure I believe we are, either. It’s almost a sure bet that if Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld get their way, the US will get a permanent base in Iraq (or two, or three, or…)
Given that the US is an occupying power that has basically dictated quite a few terms to the Iraqis, I’d be very surprised if the insurgency ever went away, so long as US forces were in the country.
Actually, we are going to mostly, if not entirely, leave the country before another 5 years has passed. Here’s the basis for my prediction. The military is losing enlistment. People are not signing up for another go. Gradual attrition will result in an accelerated decline of the stability in Iraq and Afghanistan. Alternatively, the draft is started and the republicans lose all sympathy from the political center, going down in a shitstorm of bad press. Remember, they have to keep this up for 3 more years. Either that, or young republicans will start putting their lives where there mouths are and enlist. I’m not holding my breath on that possibility.
Relatedly I found this nytimes article about prison re-whatever-it-is rates interesting.
(Possibly my interest in the matter has increased since the boyfriend of one of our neighboors started his 4-month ‘vacation’ for selling pot and mushrooms downtown)
From what I hear, once one gets out of prison, one is on some sort of probation where one is checked far more frequently for weapons and drug violations then before. This means that people who did drugs before going to prison are far more likely to get caught for drug offenses after one prison term. In this framework, the “going back to prison” rates should naturally be really high.
Kinda reminds me of the causation-correlation issues in the “IQ versus probability of being incarcerated” rates. The second table in this wikipedia section has the statistics.