The Commentariat -- Dec. 26, 2013
CW: Finally, a convincing Christmas miracle: I agree with George Will: "Thousands of prisoners are serving life without parole for nonviolent crimes. [Federal Judge John] Gleeson ... is ... dismayed at the use of the threat of mandatory minimums as 'sledgehammers' to extort guilty pleas, effectively vitiating the right to a trial. Ninety-seven percent of federal convictions are without trials, sparing the government the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Mere probable cause, and the meager presentation required for a grand jury indictment, suffices. 'Judging is removed,' Gleeson says, 'prosecutors become sentencers.' And when threats of draconian sentences compel guilty pleas, 'some innocent people will plead guilty.' Barack Obama, Attorney General Eric Holder and Sens. Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) are questioning the regime of mandatory minimum sentences, including recidivism enhancements, that began with the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986. Meanwhile, the human and financial costs of mass incarceration mount." ...
... Hmm, maybe Will is borrowing a sliver of Bill Moyers' show, which aired about a week ago. The transcript is here:
... Here, BTW, is David Simon's talk at the "Festival of Dangerous Ideas," a bowderlized version of which the Guardian published (& I linked) a few weeks ago -- Moyers mentions the lecture at the top of his show:
Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: "A measure that President Obama is considering as a way to curb the National Security Agency's mass storage of phone data is already facing resistance — not only from the intelligence community but also from privacy advocates, the phone industry and some lawmakers. Obama last week suggested that he was open to the idea of requiring phone companies to store the records and allowing the government to search them under strict guidelines." ...
... Peter Walker of the Guardian: "Edward Snowden ... has recorded a Christmas Day television message in which he calls for an end to the mass surveillance revealed by his disclosures. The short film was recorded for Channel 4, which has 20-year history of providing unusual but relevant figures as an alternative to the Queen's Christmas message shown by other UK broadcasters. It will be Snowden's first television appearance since arriving in Moscow":
... Here's Queen Elizabeth's message:
Helena Pylväinen: "A Visit from the NSA." Here's a stanza:
To a familiar housetop the coursers they flew
(From satellite footage they already knew),
And then in a twinkling I heard in the roof
Jingling GPS trackers attached to their hoofs.
** Linda Greenhouse: the National Archives' new permanent exhibit, "Records of Rights" "presents, through a few hundred documents chosen from the billions in the archives' collection, the story of constitutional rights as an unfinished journey, an 'ongoing struggle,' in the words of one of the wall labels.... There is much here that goes beyond the obvious. The display is subtle and sophisticated, documenting ... 'the expansion -- and sometimes the retraction -- of our rights.'" Here's the National Archive's main page on the exhibit, which -- via links -- provides a sort of virtual exhibit.
Do Nothing Congress. CNN: "The worst Congress ever. That's the verdict from two-thirds of Americans about the track record of the 113th Congress, according to a new national poll. And a CNN/ORC International poll released Thursday also indicates that nearly three-quarters of the public say that this has been a 'do-nothing' Congress." ...
... Do-Nothing Congress Whacks the Vulnerable, Ctd. Amrita Jayakumar of the Washington Post: "Struggling homeowners could be hit with an unexpected tax bill in the new year. A law that spared people who owe more than their homes are worth from being saddled with extra taxes when their banks provide mortgage relief is expiring next week. Congress hasn't extended it." ...
... Do-Nothing Congress Whacks the Vulnerable, Ctd. The Washington Post publishes this reminder by Ylan Mui: "An estimated 1.3 million long-term unemployed workers ... are expected to be affected when the [unemployment benefits extension] program expires [this Saturday]. The extended benefits, staunchly opposed by Republicans, were left out of the bipartisan federal budget agreement reached this month." ...
... George Zornick in the Washington Post: "With polls already showing a potential voter backlash and local news outlets giving the story serious play, advocates are ratcheting up the pressure even further by taking out television ads depicting Republicans as heartless Scrooges.... What is particularly useful about this approach is that there's no pressure coming from the other side -- unlike, say, the debate over 'Obamacare,' there are no well-funded conservative groups out there pressing for an end to the emergency unemployment program.... The conservative grass roots don't appear to be fired up about the issue":
... The Fake War on Christmas Goes to Congress. Rebecca Shabad of the Hill: "Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) on Tuesday vowed to protect Christmas against what he called a 'vocal minority' offended by its symbols and traditions. 'There is a vocal minority that is offended at the rest of us who want to celebrate Christmas,' he said Tuesday on 'Fox and Friends.' 'Just because someone is offended doesn't mean that they can shut down the religious celebration or acknowledgment of every other American.' Lamborn recently introduced a two-page resolution, H.Res. 448, that would strongly disapprove of efforts to ban Christmas references, while supporting anyone who wants to promote its symbols." ...
... OR, as D. S. Wright of Firedoglake puts it, "After spending a term outright attacking the poor and meek -- whom Jesus spoke favorably of -- House Republicans want the symbols of Christ's birth to be protected from a phantom menace." ...
... CW: ALSO, the author of the Gospel of Matthew has Jesus sternly & repeatedly warn against people like Rep. Lamborn, in a series of verses that describe hypocrites who flaunt their piety & in so doing disgrace themselves before God. The one big difference: Matthew's hypocrites do give alms to the poor.
Mary Elizabeth Williams of Salon: "2013 -- the Year in Sexism."
John Carney of CNBC imagines "some of the biggest names in economics and econ-blogging [getting] into a fight about Christmas." CW: Carney proves himself a fine mimic.
Ken Belson of the New York Times: "Most researchers believe that C.T.E., or chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the degenerative brain disease found in dozens of former N.F.L. players, can be diagnosed only posthumously by analyzing brain tissue. Researchers at U.C.L.A. have developed a test they assert might identify the condition in a living person by injecting a compound that clings to proteins in the brain and later appears in a PET scan. But some are skeptical."
Quack. Wes Venteicher of the Chicago Tribune: "Jesse Jackson Sr. has ... compared ['Duck Dynasty' star Phil] Robertson's recent comments about African-Americans, gay people and women to comments made by the driver of Rosa Parks' bus. 'At least the bus driver, who ordered Rosa Parks to surrender her seat to a white person, was following state law,' he said in the release. 'Robertson's statements were uttered freely and openly without cover of the law, within a context of what he seemed to believe was 'white privilege.' Jackson's human rights group, the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, has demanded meetings with A&E and with Cracker Barrel regarding the two companies' treatment of Robertson...."
News Ledes
AP: "A Roman Catholic church official who has been jailed for more than a year for his handling of priest sex-abuse complaints had his landmark conviction reversed and was ordered released Thursday. A three-judge Superior Court panel unanimously rejected prosecution arguments that Monsignor William Lynn, the first U.S. church official ever charged or convicted for the handling of clergy-abuse complaints, was legally responsible for an abused boy's welfare in the late 1990s.
New York Times: "The United States is quietly rushing dozens of Hellfire missiles and low-tech surveillance drones to Iraq to help government forces combat an explosion of violence by a Qaeda-backed insurgency that is gaining territory in both western Iraq and neighboring Syria. The move follows an appeal for help in battling the extremist group by the Iraqi prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, who met with President Obama in Washington last month."
AFP: "Nationalist Prime Minister Shinzo Abe paid an inflammatory visit to the Yasukuni war shrine Thursday, angering China which accused Japan of whitewashing a history of warmongering and said it must 'bear the consequences'. South Korea also blasted the 'anachronistic' move and Tokyo's chief ally the United States declared itself disappointed with an act that it said would worsen tensions with Japan's neighbours."
AP: "Thailand's election commission on Thursday called for upcoming polls to be delayed as street battles between security forces and protesters seeking to disrupt the ballot killed a police officer and injured nearly 100 people, dealing fresh blows to the beleaguered government. Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra wants the Feb. 2 elections to take place as scheduled, believing she would win handily and renew her mandate. The street violence adds to pressure on her to take a tougher line against the protesters, risking more chaos and possible intervention by the army."
AP: Abu Mohammed al-Golani, "the shadowy leader of a powerful al-Qaida group fighting in Syria, sought to kidnap United Nations workers and scrawled out plans for his aides to take over in the event of his death, according to excerpts of letters obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press."
AFP: "Russia on Thursday started issuing visas to foreign crew members of a Greenpeace protest ship and dropped the criminal case against the last member of the 30-strong team. Italy's Christian d'Alessandro was notified by investigators that the case against him had been dropped, Greenpeace said. Earlier this week, Russia closed the cases of the other 29 crew members of Greenpeace's Arctic Sunrise ship under a Kremlin-backed amnesty."
Washington Post: "President Obama spent a quiet Christmas ... in his native Hawaii thanking military service members and their families for their 'incredible sacrifices' to their country. After opening presents and singing Christmas carols with his family at their lush and secluded vacation compound, Obama paid a visit to about 580 active duty troops and their families at Marine Corps Base Hawaii in what has become an annual tradition for this president. He said he also called 10 troops who are deployed in such far-away locales as Afghanistan, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia."
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Reader Comments (6)
@Noodge & JJG:
Happy Generic Holiday, Ctd.
This refers to a discussion in yesterday's Comments. I think JJG is referring to the Antitheses in Matthew 5. Christians commonly believe, as Noodge points out, that Jesus is "improving upon Judaism." However, some of Matthew's set-ups are stretches at best, & all of his "new & improved" Judaism is just that: it is representative of the thinking of first-century -- and before -- reform Jews, like Hillel & the Pharisees. Many of the "sayings of Jesus" in the Gospels -- like the Golden Rule -- come from Jewish writings & tradition. Of course, many of those writings -- like the Golden Rule -- come from earlier Greek, Persian & Egyptian, etc., traditions.
If more people treated the Gospels as part of an ageless, continuing philosophical discussion, which they are -- instead of as historical documents telling a true story in which an earthly divinity lays out the word of God, which they are not -- the Western world would be a happier place.
Marie
CW: Excellent. Thank you.
Holiday Greetings, RXers!
First, a big thank-you to Marie, who keeps this blog going no matter the holiday or weather event -- even when she loses power at home and ends up in the local McDonald's. Like any addict, I require my daily 'hit' of RX, and I'm grateful that it's always there.
Next, and in keeping with the comments so far, I've stumbled upon a potentially quite useful web site I'd like to share:
http://jesusneverexisted.com/
This is a good repository of all the scholarship that many of us have encountered, and perhaps some that we haven't. It's a good go-to reference for those of us who occasionally (or more often) have orthodoxy shoved in our faces. Beyond that, it's a lot of fun.
Not wishing people "Merry Christmas" or even "Happy Holidays," but instead, hoping you all had exactly the kind of holiday you wanted. And here's to the New Year!
Namaste,
Rose
"http://www.salon.com/2013/12/24/the_10_best_segments_from_the_daily_show_and_colbert_report_this_year/". For some thoughtful holiday chuckles. Cheers!
Have always been partial to the insight that made so many murky things clear to me years since, to wit: that man is not the rational animal, after all, but the rationalizing one. Thought it the Occam's razor of psychology when I first heard it, new and wonderful to my confused young mind.
Grateful as I was to the formulation then and often since, turns out it was new only to me. Came across these words of Ben Franklin the other day, expressing serious skepticism about the Enlightenment's (specifically his contemporary and friend, Thomas Paine's) worship of reason: "So convenient a thing it is to be a creature of reason, since it enables one to find or make a reason for everything one has a mind to do." Each generation, it seems, is consigned to learn the same things all over again. Franklin's insight two centuries later became a whole school of psychology.
So, for the human race, people have known for a long time that reason comes in second. If it did not, we would pay more attention to what the real facts of history tell us, about Christianity, about the effects of inequality, about most everything that has and will become an RC topic this year and next. And as I think about it, it occurs to me, the "I hate history" crowd that has made it such an unpopular school subject may not so much be reacting to the poor way in which the subject has often been taught, but to the more basic fact that most simply don't want to know that much about the past. What we might learn about all those other people, not nearly so hip or modern as ourselves, is often constricting, confusing and for many downright inconvenient. History is packed with things we don't really want to know, so we forget them, ignore them, or re-shape them to our liking.
Kinda like the economics the Koch brothers don't like, so they just buy their own.
P.S. Happy New Year to the RC hostess and coterie, who battle cant, genuflect to fact, and demonstrate their own enlightenment in their rare respect for reason.
Re: Jesus, the new improved Jew;
@ Noodge, CW; You know, I had one of those "Saul to Paul" moments when I read your responses. Of course the members of the Jewish faith must feel a little short changed when it comes to the Jesus story; "What?, no credit for the beginning but Yea, great, blame for the ending.
I did not pay too much attention in my everyday religious upbringing but I think my catechism classes taught by nuns formed my "history of record" thinking.
Since then the remains of that education lay scattered in the ruins of my distrust for any organized religion.
Now I believe in the idea that "God" is everything outside and we are like that cat that can't not observe himself; observing himself, in our search for a higher truth.
I know the above is not political enough for RC but it's yesterday so no one will know.