Religious bigotry

Given the decades of conflict between Arabs and Israelis, it is perhaps not surprising, though still regrettable, that young people will grow up with racist attitudes towards those they perceive as ‘the other’. A new survey of attitudes among Israeli Jewish high schools shows a disturbing level of bigotry towards Israeli Arabs and that religion, rather than being a force for good and a driver towards peaceful coexistence as its supporters like to claim, only accentuates those attitudes. [Read more…]

Tim Pawlenty out as vice-presidential hope?

Ever since Tim Palenty withdrew early from the Republican nomination race, he seems to have been auditioning for the vice-president’s slot. I thought that he could be a likely choice, having views that are extremely conservative, enough to placate the party’s rabid base, but also able to project an amiable persona that would not alienate the rest of the electorate too much. Indeed it was for these very qualities that I was surprised that John McCain did not pick him in 2008 over Sarah Palin. [Read more…]

DC chief’s ‘shockingly reasonable’ guidelines on recording police actions

One of the worst consequences of wars, including the so-called ‘war on terror’, is that in the name of defense and safety they give the security forces increased and largely unchecked power. When people with power over others such as police, TSA and DEA agents, and other government agents can also avoid public scrutiny of their actions, it inevitably leads to abuse. [Read more…]

Updated Bread and Peace model prediction

Political science professionals tend to discount the importance of the daily news cycle in influencing presidential elections and assert that political and economic fundamentals, based on objective measures, largely determine outcomes. This approach can provide a welcome change from the mindless speculations of the talking head pundit class that assigns deep significance to each ephemeral political event. [Read more…]

Rafalca bows out of the Olympics

Update: It looks like I was premature. There are apparently more dressage rounds to go so Rafalca is still in there though unlikely to medal.]

You have to hand it to Mitt Romney. Thanks to his candidacy, people like me, who had never even heard that there was an Olympic event called dressage, now know more about it than we could have ever imagined, even to the extent of pronouncing it correctly. [Read more…]

How could Romney have blown his foreign trip?

On the surface, Romney’s recent foreign trip must have seemed a no-lose proposition. Go to England, pander to the English and bask in the aura of the Olympics which has played a big part in his resume, then go to Israel and pander to the Israelis, and then go to Poland. The Poland leg of the trip puzzles me, frankly. Why Poland? What was to be gained by going there? It has been suggested that the Poland leg was meant to enhance his appeal to white working class voters but Lech Walensa has been out of the limelight for ages. Given the level of political amnesia here, how many people in the US now would know anything about him or of Poland’s history? [Read more…]

Mitt Romney’s dressage problem

The Olympics turns out to be mixed blessing for Mitt Romney’s candidacy. On the one hand, he touts his role in running the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City as if that were a major accomplishment and, for reasons that escape me, the media seem to take it at face value though it is not clear what running the Olympic games has got to do with one’s ability to be a good president. [Read more…]

Gore Vidal, 1925-2012

Gore Vidal, a class traitor of the best kind, died yesterday.

Born into a well-connected and politically influential family that could have opened doors to a patrician life, he became instead a populist outsider and a scathing critic of the politics of the US. He had wide-ranging interests, writing novels, essays, and screenplays and also acting in films, such as Gattacca where he was pretty good. [Read more…]