The Press's "Loose Talk" on Iran

When President Obama took the Republican presidential candidates to task last week on their hyper-macho rhetoric on going to war with Iran, the major news outlets dutifully reported it. What they haven’t done is owned up to their duties in reporting on the Iranian nuclear situation in the first place. If they did that, of course, voters would have the tools to condemn this rhetoric on their own.

Happily, Stephen Walt has written about their failures for Foreign Policy, or at least about the top 10 of them. If you’ve been getting your Iran coverage from people who have spent time in the country and recognize how the country is actually run, you’ll recognize much of this. If not, once you’ve read it, you’ll understand why I grumble at my television and computer whenever the topic comes up.

#2: Loose talk about Iran’s “nuclear [weapons] program.” A recurring feature of Iran war coverage has been tendency to refer to Iran’s “nuclear weapons program” as if its existence were an established fact. U.S. intelligence services still believe that Iran does not have an active program, and the IAEA has also declined to render that judgment either. Interestingly, both the Times’ public editor Arthur Brisbane and Washington Post ombudsman Patrick Pexton have recently chided their own organizations for muddying this issue.

#3: Obsessing about Ahmadinejad. A typical insertion into discussions of Iran is to make various references to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, usually including an obligatory reference to his penchant for Holocaust denial and his famously mis-translated statement about Israel “vanishing from the page of time.” This feature is often linked to the issue of whether Iran’s leaders are rational or not. But the obsession with Ahmadinejad is misleading in several ways: he has little or no influence over Iran’s national security policy, his power has been declining sharply in recent months, and Supreme Leader Ali Khameini — who does make the key decisions — has repeatedly said that nuclear weapons are contrary to Islam. And while we’re on the subject of Iranian “rationality,” it is perhaps worth noting that its leaders weren’t goofy enough to invade Iraq on a pretext and then spend trillions of dollars fighting an unnecessary war there.

Iran is being used–by our politicians, by our allies–to manipulate us into action we might otherwise not want to take. It’s been a bogeyman in international affairs since the 1970s without doing much to maintain its status. People, particularly pro-interventionist hawks with concerns that the U.S. doesn’t control enough oil, keep pointing to Iran as though there were a reason there that we must allow them to dictate our fears and our policies.

I can’t urge you strongly enough to read this article and start talking back to the fear-mongers, whether they be politicians, policy “analysts”, or the press.

The Press's "Loose Talk" on Iran
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My Other Self: Spouse as Proxy

Russell Blackford and I have corresponded by blog post briefly on the topic of marriage as a state-sanctioned institution. When he collected his thoughts on the topic for an opinion piece, he let me know it was there. I read along, generally finding a lot to agree with. I didn’t know we were in more or less the same page on most of these topics, but given some of the other details on which we each turn a skeptical eye on marriage, I wasn’t surprised.

I was slightly surprised to see that Russell was in favor of retaining a role for the state in marriage: Continue reading “My Other Self: Spouse as Proxy”

My Other Self: Spouse as Proxy

How to Choose a Mockable Movie

You’d think it would be as easy as finding a bad movie and setting it to start, but it’s not. There are subtleties to this movie-mocking business. Nuance and stuff.

For example, if you haven’t been mocking movies very long or in a structured fashion, you might not know that it helps if the movie you’re mocking isn’t too awful. Why? Because awful films are frequently awful because they’re boring. There are only so many ways you can count down the minutes left in a film and have it be funny. The same goes for saying, “Wait. What?”, which is the reaction to the other sort of perfectly awful film–the disjointed mess.

When things happen in your movie and they appear to at least be meant to be connected, it much easier to mock the ways in which they fail. A decent rule of thumb is that your movie should have a rating in the 2.5 to 6 star range on IMDB.

Additionally, you don’t really want a movie that is mocking itself. Continue reading “How to Choose a Mockable Movie”

How to Choose a Mockable Movie

Student Pushed Out of School for Noting Injustice

Jada Williams, a 13-year-old student in New York, also suggested that her fellow students needed to work to learn to read, but that doesn’t seem to have made a difference to the teachers and administration at her former school. Of course, it’s possible that it wasn’t her observation that teachers needed to teach the students that was at fault here.

We at the Frederick Douglass Foundation honored her because her essay actually demonstrates that she understood the autobiography, even though it might seem a bit esoteric to most 13-year olds.  In her essay, she quotes part of the scene where Douglass’ slave master catches his wife teaching then slave Frederick to read. During a speech about how he would be useless as a slave if he were able to read, Mr. Auld, the slave master, castigated his wife.

Miss Williams quoted Douglass quoting Mr. Auld:  “If you teach that nigger (speaking of myself) how to read, there will be no keeping him. It will forever unfit him to be a slave. He would at once become unmanageable, and of no value to his master.”

Miss Williams personalized this to her own situation.  She reflected on how the “white teachers” do not have enough control of the classroom to successfully teach the minority students in Rochester.  While she herself is more literate than most, due to her own perseverance and diligence, she sees the fact that so many of the other “so-called ‘unteachable’” students aren’t learning to read as a form of modern-day slavery.  Their illiteracy holds them back in society.

That’s right. Williams dared to treat illiteracy not as an abstract problem of resources and tests and lesson plans. Instead, she did something that few people tolerate well. Continue reading “Student Pushed Out of School for Noting Injustice”

Student Pushed Out of School for Noting Injustice

The Law's Unintended Consequences

We are having a bit of back-channel discussion on this proposition by Gloria Allred:

A high-profile attorney is calling for Rush Limbaugh to be prosecuted on a defamation charge, saying an obscure Florida law can be used to punish him for calling a college student a “slut” and a “prostitute” on the air.

[…]

Allred focused her efforts on Palm Beach because Limbaugh both lives and broadcasts his show from the county. She cited a state law that says, “Whoever speaks of and concerning any woman, married or unmarried, falsely and maliciously imputing to her a want of chastity, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor of the first degree.”

Sure, it’s good for a quick giggle, considering the irony of sexist laws being used to punish sexist behavior. It’s still a horrible law, however, and I’m not even talking about the free speech elements. Given that the law deals only with false speech with an intent to injure, we aren’t talking about protected speech, merely speech that is usually dealt with as a civil matter. But that’s not what I’m talking about. Continue reading “The Law's Unintended Consequences”

The Law's Unintended Consequences

Why Rush? Why Now?

A few days ago, I cynically suggested that part of the reason Rush Limbaugh’s latest remarks were making news was that Sandra Fluke is a “perfect victim”, a white law student who wasn’t actually talking about using birth control for nonprocreative sex. Tom Watson at Forbes is maybe a bit less cynical than I am these days. Continue reading “Why Rush? Why Now?”

Why Rush? Why Now?

The Argument from Uneven Privilege

I’m not the “okay if she does it” sort. I understand that some actions aren’t equivalent when they’re aimed at a woman versus a man, all other sorts of privilege being equal. I don’t, however, think bad behavior becomes not bad behavior when done by the less privileged.

That said, WilloNyx has a piece up that is making me think about the subject a bit more. Continue reading “The Argument from Uneven Privilege”

The Argument from Uneven Privilege

Saturday Storytime: No Return Address

The 2011 Tiptree Award winner was announced yesterday. The Tiptrees honor speculative fiction that expands our understanding of gender roles. The award usually goes to a novel, which has more scope, but the judges also produce a longer reading list. It is always worth paying attention to.

This year, I was pleased to discover a story by an acquaintance that I hadn’t read yet. Sigrid Ellis is a local comic book writer and the co-editor of Chicks Dig Comics, which comes out next month.

All these postcards from Europe. All these postcards of beautiful places, with only your initials on the back. When you come home, you can read all the letters I’ve written back to you. Even the first one. I was mad, and hurt, and scared, and I said mean things to you. I thought about taking that one out, but—I love you more than anything. And that’s why I said what I did. And I think when you read all my letters, you’ll understand.

I was angry when we had that fight, too. Our last fight, though I didn’t know that at the time. What did you expect me to say? You come in late and you’re bloody and filthy, and you tell me some story about “the fey,” and “faeries.” About the fey and our family and a war. You said, “I have to go, Mom. The Unseelie Court has taken the Southern Provinces, and only our family’s bloodline can save the High Ones.” It makes no sense. Those are things out of stories, out of books. I just want to know, Amanda—in what universe did you think I would not ask you what drugs you were on?

I mean, really, honey. I was in Seattle in 1990. I know what drugs do. I spent ten months doing a lot of things I shouldn’t have, and I saw some things that I can’t explain except that I was high at the time. I might have seen faeries, too.


Well. Not like this matters to you, but your grandma set the kitchen on fire today. I was in the shower. She wanted toast. She couldn’t wait ten minutes for me to make her a piece of toast.

If you were here, like you’re supposed to be, not off in fucking Austria, I could get a shower without needing the fucking fire department.


You’re in Switzerland. Is it cold, up in the mountains? It’s disgustingly hot here. Humid, too. I run the a/c all the time, for your grandma, but everything is still damp.

She saw this latest postcard and asked about it. She said, and I just don’t know what to make of this, she said she’s been where you’re at, the Schloss Tarasp. Mom picked up the postcard and said that “a Highwayman lives there, a Tom o’ the Roads.” She said that she and Aunt Paulie stayed a night there, when she was in Europe in 1968, and that a dangerous man bothered them. She wants me to tell you to stay away from the Schloss, which she said means castle. She wants you to leave Switzerland. She wants you to stay away from the Highwayman.

I’ve never heard this version of The Story before.

Keep reading.

Saturday Storytime: No Return Address

Atheists Talk: Freethought M.C.

Note: Minnesota Atheists are once again raising money for the airtime costs for this show. If you listen to the show or the podcast, please consider donating.

Freethought M.C. (M.C. standing for “Man of Conscience”) creates hip hop music that invokes compassion, spirituality and a language of reverence while grounded in reason, community, social responsibility, science and ethics.

Though he was raised Baptist, Freethought M.C. grew up questioning religion and philosophy. He became a Zen Buddhist at age 11, studied comparative religion in his 20s and now identifies as a Humanist and a Unitarian Universalist. His lyrics are influenced by Dawkins, Hitchens, and Harris, as well as science fiction. His music also tackles political and social issues such as corrupt governments, nuclear warfare scenarios, African genocide, and the Iraq war.

In 2009 Freethought M.C. released two albums: Diary of a Humanist and Modern Humanology, followed by Freethinker Vol. One in 2010, and at the end of last year he released The Categorical Imperative Strikes Back. Join us this Sunday when Freethought M.C. joins Atheists Talk to discuss his music, as well as his activism in the African American atheist movement.

Related Links:

Listen to AM 950 KTNF this Sunday at 9 a.m. Central to hear Atheists Talk, produced by Minnesota Atheists. Stream live online. Call in to the studio at 952-946-6205, or send an e-mail to [email protected] during the live show. If you miss the live show, listen to the podcast later.

Atheists Talk: Freethought M.C.

Meet Your Financial Industry Censor

A couple of days ago, I explained why government censorship was bad. One of the reasons was the monopoly power of governments–it is not an easy thing to change your government. By extension, when companies that have monopoly power make choices that limit speech, we should scrutinize (and generally resist) that behavior.

Enter credit card companies, PayPal, and erotica. Continue reading “Meet Your Financial Industry Censor”

Meet Your Financial Industry Censor