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Monday (?) Reading List (?)

Ok, I'm not really bouta pretend like I actually ever post on this thing anymore (yet!), but sometimes I feel like sharing links with a maximum audience of 4 somewhat random people, and when I feel that way, I come back to tumblr.

David Frum, Is the White Working Class Coming Apart?: Somewhat repentant neoconservative takes down argument of still-conservative former colleague.

Kamila Shamsie, The Storytellers of Empire: "The stories of America in the World rather than the World in America stubbornly remain the domain of nonfiction. Your soldiers will come to our lands, but your novelists won't. The unmanned drone hovering over Pakistan, controlled by someone in Langley, is an apt metaphor for America's imaginative engagement with my nation."

Taylor Branch, The Shame of College Sports: This is from October; it's tremendous. You will never innocently watch a March Madness or BCS game again, and you really shouldn't.

Dodging Our Own Bullet?: Is violence declining? Good interview by Chris Lydon of author/psychologist Steven Pinker, with mad shout-outs to my boy William James. WARNING: Lydon's voice is pretty annoying on first (and second...) listen; and Steven Pinker is mostly full of shit, in my opinion. But it's still a good interview.

Lost Malcolm X Speech Heard Again 50 Years Later: A Brown University student discovered a speech Malcolm X gave when he visited the university in 1961 that was previously thought to be lost. Malcolm X was introduced by the then-editor of the Brown Daily Herald, one Richard Holbrooke.

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"Just as Oedipus discovers himself to be the son of his wife and the murderer of his father, so Gaddafi, his uncomprehending pleas answered only by truncheons and fists, trapped in a hell of his own making, must have finally fallen upon a terrible self-knowledge. Or maybe I’m just projecting."

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Friday Reading List

American Oracle: Jackson Lears on Reinhold Niebuhr. Worth it just for the quote at the end: "Power always thinks it has a great soul."

Death by Twitter: I like Twitter. I haven't read Teju Cole yet, but I would like to. Either way, this article about his tweets from Lagos is awesome.

Buying Tomorrow: It's about futures markets. NO DON'T STOP READING. I promise you will want to finish this article, it will confuse you and anger you, and you will learn something.

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Erm, the correction at the bottom sort of takes the wind out of your argument's sails there, Blake.

But still, this is a little frightening. Something I've never understood is how independent their English-language arm is from their Arabic-language body, as the English-language stuff has always been less Qatari-oriented. Will that change with Khanfar gone? And more importantly, where will I get my news about the Middle East from now? NYT, it's time for Ethan Bronner to move on. It's not you. It's not me. It's him.

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Thine alabaster cities gleam Undimmed by human tears...

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I guess the Long War just got longer

Check out this story from the NYT: "Plan Would Keep Small Force in Iraq Past Deadline"

It's hard not to have seen this coming this summer, when Panetta and Obama were practically begging Maliki to extend an invitation for U.S. troops to stay. Doing this would obviously be massively unpopular for him, as, in case you forgot, Iraqis haven't been big fans of the war and occupation that has consumed their country and killed 125,000 (or more!) of their citizens for the past 8 years. From this article, though, it seems to me that both sides are trying to do a bit of an end-around on this, turning everything into "training missions."

The Iraqi cabinet authorized the beginning of talks over an American military presence, but insisted that they be limited to a training mission, a senior administration official said. Mr. Panetta’s recommendation fell “within the confines of what the Iraqis said they need,” the official said.

Of course, the whole debate over this "final withdrawal" is relatively moot since we're already committed to keeping thousands of security contractors there.

In some ways, the debate over an American military presence is a rhetorical one. The administration has already drawn up plans for an extensive expansion of the American Embassy and its operations, bolstered by thousands of paramilitary security contractors. It has also created an Office of Security Cooperation that, like similar ones in countries like Egypt, would be staffed by civilians and military personnel overseeing the training and equipping of Iraq’s security forces.

I should mention that the contractors' presence is indefinite, and they operate under no legal jurisdiction. Seriously. Not covered by the UCMJ. Not by American civil law. Not by Iraqi law.

I won't let you spoil my war for me. Destroys the weak, does it? Well, what does peace do for 'em, huh? War feeds its people better.

- Bertolt Brecht, Mother Courage

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Friday Reading List

I know it's 11 pm and I haven't written anything really since the last one of these, but if I'm trying to turn this into a thing then it's time to start acting like it's a thing, dammit. This week: a few of articles I've read recently about U.S. foreign policy, international politics, and generally how the world is run.

"City of Men," by Micah Zenko. I would have called this piece "City of White Men" -- the absence of diversity in the foreign policy establishment is quite depressing, even in comparison to the rest of government, the Ivy League, etc., etc.

"Why Sovereignty Matters," by Joshua Foust. I don't know much of anything about "19th and 20th century conceptions of sovereignty," but this article makes me feel like I should, and kind of makes me want to. Also, Libya.

"Egypt's Israel Problem," by Yasmine El Rashidi. Fascinating treatment of recent protests at the Israeli Embassy in Cairo. I wish the NY Times had a single reporter, anywhere in the world, as good as she is.

"Would Cutting the Military Budget Threaten our Security?" by Fred Kaplan. I read probably hundreds of articles just like this one for my internship this summer. It's important to know things about the defense budget, and my heart is with all those who argue that we need to reduce it drastically. But too many of the people who support that policy do what Kaplan does at the end of this article here: saying "we need to re-examine our priorities," not offering a vision of what the new priorities should be, and essentially throwing their hands in the air. Everyone on the right and the left says, "we need to align budgets and strategy," but no one on the left seems willing to stick their neck out and say, "here's what our strategy should be" (except for Richard Haass, and he's not on the left really, and he sucks). It bothers me that so few of the people in the "cut the defense budget" crowd are willing to say, straight up, that we should not pursue policies that will bring us into a war against Iran or China, and therefore, we need not spend so much money on the military. Instead, people use terms like "it's unlikely" when talking about those scenarios, as though we weren't in control of our own decisions on whether or not to go to war. It all just seems like a dangerous fatalism, and one that could easily be reversed -- as soon as "unlikely" turns into "likely," the justification for exorbitant expenditures on the military returns.

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France abounds in sixteenth-century glass. Paris alone contains acres of it, and the neighborhood within fifty miles contains scores of churches where the student may still imagine himself three hundred years old, kneeling before the Virgin's window in the silent solitude of an empty faith, crying his culp, beating his breast, confessing his historical sins, weighed down by the rubbish of sixty-six years' education, and still desperately hoping to understand.

Henry Adams, The Education of Henry Adams, 1907.

And back-to-school time rolls around once again.

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Friday Reading List

Here's a somewhat arbitrary selection of a few random blogs/websites that have made it into my semi-regular reading routine [eye-rolls are welcome and totally warranted]:

Commonweal -- A progressive Catholic magazine! I'll read some of their articles on American politics & culture. I won't read arcane things about popes and such. For a good piece, check out "Selling Our Souls: Of Idolatry and iPhones" by my hero Andrew Bacevich.

Jadaliyya -- Middle Eastern politics, culture, and literature. Overly academic sometimes but has a ton of stuff from great contributors. Mostly #longreads and interviews.

Attackerman -- Dork crush of the month. Mostly about American foreign policy issues. Can be too technical, but the writer does work for Wired, so I guess that's to be expected.

Front Porch Republic -- "Place. Limits. Liberty." That's the motto. Most of the time I disagree with things I read on here, but it's always pretty thoughtful stuff and sometimes I find myself nodding.

Religious Left Law -- Just discovered this one today. Honestly, I have no idea if this blog is at all worthwhile, but I've read two articles that were solid and the title sounds cool. We'll see if it makes it into the rotation.

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Washington // DC

“Washington is a small town.” This aphorism appears to be the unofficial motto of some people who live and work in Washington, DC. It’s usually said with a chuckle, or an expectation that you will chuckle, and it’s best to imagine that the people saying it are holding a glass of scotch as they do so. (If they already are, consider yourself lucky, because you’ve clearly made it). Most residents/employees of the city wouldn't be caught dead saying something so tacky (ghastly), but some people do say it, not in the way people say something they know to be tacky but in the way people say tacky things that no one has ever called them out on. If someone says this to you, or worse, writes it in an op-ed, that person is probably a hack of some sort. Don't say I didn't warn you.

“Washington” and “DC” are two different places. “Washington” is like George Washington: old, dignified, and white as the US Capitol. “DC” is like the DC metro: young, in need of a few repairs, and multicolored. Take note of your situation the next time you hear/say one or the other.

I like the city—the buildings aren't too tall, the street system makes sense, several good bookstores, several locations with good craft beer. I spent most of my time there learning a lot about the defense budget. Time well spent. If you don't know what the "Green Book" is, you're just not that hip.

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Seen and Unseen

Marilynne Robinson, Gilead:

I feel sometimes as if I were a child who opens its eyes to the world once and sees amazing things it will never know any names for and then has to close its eyes again. I know this is all mere apparition compared to what awaits us, but it is only lovelier for that. There is a human beauty in it. And I can't believe that, when we have all been changed and put on incorruptibility, we will forget our fantastic condition of mortality and impermanence, the great bright dream of procreating and perishing that meant the whole world to us. In eternity this world will be Troy, I believe, and all that has passed here will be the epic of the universe, the ballad they sing in the streets.

Walt Whitman, "Of the Terrible Doubt of Appearances:"

Of the terrible doubt of appearances,

Of the uncertainty after all--that we may be deluded,

That may-be reliance and hope are but speculation after all,

That may-be identity beyond the grave is a beautiful fable only,

May-be the things I perceive--the animals, plants, men, hills, shining and flowing waters,

The skies of day and night--colors, densities, forms--May-be these are, (as doubtless they are,) only apparitions, and the real something has yet to be known

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Idealism in Indonesia

I just read Ian Buruma's review of the new biography of Barack Obama's mother, Ann Dunham, which in many ways is a commentary on Americans abroad, or at least one style of being an American abroad. Dunham's attraction to all things "East" would strike many Americans--maybe even me, if I took a ride in the Tardis to 1969 Jakarta--as exactly the kind of disingenuous disposition all too common among wishy-washy liberal types. I'll admit that this tendency creates serious problems, not the least of which is replicating the Orientalist tendencies it seeks to avoid. Embracing the "natives" because of their perceived eroticism, closeness to nature, or whatever else is as culturally ignorant as condemning them for the same.

But Ann Dunham clearly did not do this, which is why Buruma's last line, in which he says that Ann had a "naiveté our more cynical times could use a bit more of," seems the wrong conclusion to draw from her experience. Buruma takes pains to note her ability as a listener and her seriousness as an anthropologist. He argues that "the idea of Ann Dunham as a hippy-dippy dreamer in batik shirts could not be more wrong." So where, then, does naiveté come in? Certainly Ann Dunham was idealistic. Assuming the two are the same thing seems like part of the reason we found ourselves in these "cynical times" to begin with.

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Law and Order

Rand Paul channeling his father in the debate over the Patriot Act Reauthorization (and look at those luscious locks of hair!): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXLGyOdE_tc

Gil Scott Heron on 'no-knock' warrants, first proposed in 1969 by the Nixon Administration (I think they just wanted to practice their breaking and entering): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKJziJGrASo

A section from Gamal al-Ghitani's 1974 novel Zayni Barakat, from the notebook of the character Zakariyya, the head spy of Cairo:

He doesn't see what his men are doing now. But he knows what is happening. He hasn't seen Said's face, but he knows him thoroughly from what he has read about him. He knows things about him that Said himself doesn't know. He wishes time could hurry up so that he may see his face sooner; the face about which he read much and how silent it was. Now he was going to know every tremor that passed through it. ... The Supreme Shihab says, 'The step by which a man crosses our threshold should be a clear line of demarcation separating two eras. That moment should divide a man's life into two parts in such a way that the man comes out of here, bearing the same name, but, in reality, a different person.'

The account of Dorothy Parvaz, journalist for Al Jazeera English, who was held by Syrian security forces in a secret prison for 18 days: http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/05/2011518184325620380.html

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Why is there so little solidarity among all of us paperworkers? Why do we so often feel sorry for ourselves, so burdened by paperwork of one kind or another, while having so little sympathy for others—the dean who signs off on a clumsy sentence, the secretary who misaddresses an envelope, the paralegal who misses a deadline, the insurance agent who misfiles a claims form?

The reason, I think, is that paperwork has never fit comfortably into our idea of what work means, or what it means to work.

Having worked as a hospital clerk, a telefundraising supervisor, and a nebulous intern, I was grateful to read Ben Kafka's exploration of the "paperwork genre," especially his comments on one of my favorite short stories, Melville's Bartleby, the Scrivener. For anyone stuck at a desk today, give it a read.

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I have heard what the talkers were talking, the talk of the beginning and the end, But I do not talk of the beginning or the end. There was never any more inception than there is now, Nor any more youth or age than there is now, And will never be any more perfection than there is now, Nor any more heaven or hell than there is now. Urge and urge and urge, Always the procreant urge of the world.

Walt Whitman, Song of Myself.

Once in the summer of 1864, Whitman bought fifteen gallons of ice cream and carried it through all fifteen wards of Carver Hospital in Washington, DC, passing a little out to each of the soldiers who lay wounded there.

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Reboot

Same URL, new generalist attitude. A fresh start in summer 2011. I'm re-rolling out this tumblr blog. Get ready, people.

My old posts from last summer in Egypt will still be here, but (hopefully) will quickly be overloaded by new thoughts on politics and culture, books and arts.