Brad DeLong on a key problem with Social Security privatization: the economy just isn’t likely to grow that fast forever.
I see that Captain Ed of CG agrees with me about the Intelligence Reform Bill. So does The Talking Dog (from a somewhat different perspective).
David of Cronaca says Jefferson’s being misquoted.
Noah Millman of Gideon’s Blog comments on the U. S. budget deficit (it’s less than Germany’s, France’s, or Japan’s), the trade deficit, and the dollar.
Omar of Iraq the Model on the two halves of the blogosphere.
Dave Neiwert of Orcinus provides quite a good Leftist critique of the War on Terror in general and the Iraq War in particular in refutation of Peter Beinart and Kevin Drum.
The problem with Neiwert’s prescription—infiltrate terrorist organizations—is that, in the case of the radical Islamists that are the enemy we’re facing, it’s impossible. Successful infiltrations by Westerners—like Richard Francis Burton, for example—have been by successfully passing themselves off as non-Western outsiders since any native Arabic speaker can easily identify outsiders by their manner of speech. The close tribal and familial affiliations of these organizations assures that infiltration is just not an option. The best you’ll do is John Walker Lindh— a meaningless spear-carrier. They resist subornation for the same reason.
In this post I’m going to try and make the case that there’s little reason to believe that the Intelligence Reform Bill that has just passed the House will make us any more secure. There are a few links you may find handy in the discussion. First, here’s the text of the bill. And here’s a decent summary of its contents. As it stands now the bill:
Calls for a Director of National Intelligence
Creates a National Counterterrorism Center
Calls for standardized driver’s license rules
Requires screening interviews for visa applicants
Establishes new programs for airline and border security
Creates an independent Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board.
Expands FBI powers on wiretapes, etc.
Calls for a variety of diplomatic overtures.
I’d call these measures probably necessary but not sufficient.
Here’s some of the things in the blogosphere that caught my eye this morning:
Abu Aardvark reports the results of the lastest opinion polling from the Palestinian territories on the upcoming elections there.
Gerald Vanderleun of American Digest has a lengthy post on the future of the blogosphere.
Allahpundit makes a guest appearance in the comments section and explains why he’s stopped blogging.
New kids on the blog, The Becker-Posner Blog, posts on Pre-emptive War. Be sure to read the comments.
That’s Nobel Laureate Gary Becker and federal circuit judge Richard Posner. If the tone in the blogosphere keeps going up like this, they’ll be asking riff-raff like me to leave.
Jeff Medcalf of Caerdroia has an excellent post on intelligence reform.
I’m working on an essay of my own, “Why Intelligence Reform Won’t Make Us More Secure”.
This time he’s posting on medical outsourcing. My own reservations on offshoring or offshore outsourcing have less to do with job loss than with potential loss of intellectual property (and future industries) and, in this case, liability issues. How does one prosecute an Indian doctor in India for medical malpractice? Are there international standards of care?
The Medium Lobster of Fafblog takes on Becker and Posner (see above). Welcome to the Blogosphere, Dr. Becker and Your Honor!
Carnival of the Liberated, a weekly sample of the best from Iraqi blogs, is available at Dean’s World. Trips, warnings of sectarian civil war, a courtesy lesson, and an injured blogger. And the honeymoon isn’t over yet.
A fire is raging this evening on the 29th floor of the historic LaSalle Bank Building at 135 S. LaSalle in downtown Chicago. Eighteen people including two firefighters have been injured. At this point no fatalities have been reported. It’s a three-alarm fire and a third of the city’s firefighting capability has been brought into play to battle the blaze.
The 43 story building was completed in 1934 and until the completion of 1 Prudential Plaza was considered the premiere office building in Chicago.
Long-awaited proposals on reforming the United Nations have been unveiled. Backers hope they will rejuvenate the world body. But they come at a time when the UN is under fire—especially from Americans, many of whom think it is irrelevant and corrupt
[…].
The UN’s sorry state became most obvious with the Iraq war. Those favouring the war were furious that after a decade of Security Council resolutions, including the last-chance Resolution 1441 threatening “serious consequences” if Iraq did not prove its disarmament, the UN could not agree to act. Anti-war types were just as frustrated that the world body failed to stop the war. But Iraq was not the UN’s only problem. It has done little to stop humanitarian disasters, such as the ongoing horror in Sudan. And it has done nothing to stop Iran’s and North Korea’s pursuit of nuclear weapons.
Well, yes, the Iraq War is a factor. But I believe that the critical failings of the UN were brought into sharp relief more than twenty years ago at the time of the Iran hostage crisis. What seems to be forgotten about it is that the U. S. embassy was seized and held over a very long period. I believe that the UN needed to respond to that challege: it was a challenge to diplomacy itself. Either the new revolutionary government was complicit in the hostage-taking or it was helpless or unwilling to resolve it i.e. Iran was a failed state.
International law had been violated. The local government was either unwilling or unable to correct the situation (or there was no local government). That’s a prima facie case for a UN intervention.
And there was no intervention. Nothing happened. The most obvious conclusion that Americans could draw was that the world believed that the purpose of America was to support the UN not to receive support from it.
My packmate, The Laughing Wolf, has got his own Monday morning run-down here.
So does Joe Gandelman of The Moderate Voice. If you’re not reading The Moderate Voice, you’re missing out on the best blog in the blogosphere that’s not in the Top 100.
A timely post from Tyler Cowen of Marginal Revolution on why some stores have longer shopping lines than others.
media girl explains how Tom Wolfe doesn’t get the Internet and gives us her take on the new medium.
Joshua Micah Marshall of Talking Points Memo has an intriguing post on Bernard Kerik’s career from May 16, 2003 to September 3, 2003.
The rise of Al Jazeera is an important development if for linguistic reasons alone. The major broadcast networks—radio and TV—have done a lot to reduce regionalism in the U. S. over the last 50 years. I suspect we can expect the same from Al Jazeera.
Wretchard of Belmont Club deploys his substantial powers against Al Franken.
Rather like using a Howitzer to shoot a gnat.
MC Masterchef of Chez Nadezhda on Uyghur separatism.
This is a topic that doesn’t get nearly enough attention. I’ve heard it claimed that Islamic fundamentalist radicalism doesn’t have much sway among the Uyghurs although the news reports seem to indicate otherwise. Read all about it.
Dr. Tom Boyle of CodeBlueBlog continues his fascinating series on what ails Viktor Yushchenko.
Infidel of Duophony comments on Koreans playing Koreans on American TV. Who’da thunk it?
Nick of A Fistful of Euros has an interesting post on the appropriate application of EU soft power.
Juan Cole of Informed Comment presents the Monday morning casualty count from Iraq and his own proposal for election legitimacy insurance there—proportional representation.
