tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-74269462009-02-21T04:00:40.172-05:00<i>bits & pieces -- news & views -- passions & fashions -- odds & ends</i> nadezhdanoreply@blogger.comBlogger33125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426946.post-1134257245167192092005-12-10T18:24:00.000-05:002005-12-10T18:27:25.180-05:00

Stop by American Footprints (fka Liberals Against Terrorism) where I blog with praktike, Eric Martin, the Armchair Generalist and others. Or still at my home blog, chez Nadezhda.

nadezhdanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426946.post-1095270382281375482004-09-15T13:44:00.000-04:002004-09-15T13:46:22.280-04:00

Spending most of my time these days over at chez Nadezhda, trying to get things put in place and then up and running. It's still under construction, but we'd love to have you stop by for a visit!

nadezhdanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426946.post-1093093417596888082004-08-21T09:03:00.000-04:002004-08-21T09:03:37.596-04:00

Via Reuters (Yahoo News), it seems that the US has changed or softened policy on West Bank settlements after failing to object to the Israeli government's decision to construct 1000 homes in the West Bank. Several factors are reported: US Changes West Bank Policy to Help Sharon: NYTimes

nadezhdanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426946.post-1093064590153720982004-08-21T00:57:00.000-04:002004-08-21T01:03:10.153-04:00

The anti-spam devices may finally be working, if this email subject line is any indication. Perhaps it requires a certain creative flair to pass through the various layers of walls, blocks and filters. Anyway, this showed up yesterday: Tuba player bodice rippers for $61 I was so taken with the subject line that I actually confirmed it was for a natural rather than, shall we say mechanical,

Lady Cnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426946.post-1093022955400463712004-08-20T13:29:00.000-04:002004-08-20T13:29:15.400-04:00

Oh, goodie! Stephen Fry does Evelyn Waugh -- two great favorites with a good deal in common. I was certainly leery that it would be too much of a good thing when I heard "Vile Bodies" was being produced. But Stephanie Zacharek from Salon gives "Bright Young Things" a review that shows she brought a devotion to the comic Waugh along with her to the screening. And she gives Fry's "deliciously

nadezhdanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426946.post-1092867028889636892004-08-18T18:10:00.000-04:002004-08-20T10:20:52.890-04:00

Via Atrios, tipping the hat to the General's responseFrom KTVU-TV (SF CA) AP storyBRIELLE, N.J. -- An 8-year-old girl who has a rare digestive disorder and cannot consume wheat has had her first Communion declared invalid because the wafer contained none.Now, Haley Waldman's mother is pushing the Diocese of Trenton and the Vatican to make an exception, saying the sacrament should be changed to

nadezhdanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426946.post-1092415961901714062004-08-13T12:50:00.000-04:002004-08-13T16:35:01.470-04:00

From Macallan at Tacitus: You're only young once, but you can be immature the rest of your life.

nadezhdanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426946.post-1092413898726477932004-08-13T12:15:00.000-04:002004-08-13T12:27:32.110-04:00

Courtesy Wikipedia Benford's Law of Controversy, as established by science fiction author Gregory Benford in 1980, is: Passion is inversely proportional to the amount of real information available.

nadezhdanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426946.post-1092375011879896132004-08-13T01:22:00.000-04:002004-08-13T01:35:53.876-04:00

From The Brooding Persian, Thursday, August 12, 2004 Neither fear nor respect! Since apparently the born again, reformed binging, latte hating frat boys don’t do nuances, I am going to drop the guarded observation routine and let it out straight. It wasn’t working to begin with. I am plenty mad about the butchery in Iraq. Killing and tormenting people, in an ancient cemetery no less.

nadezhdanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426946.post-1092232452479396032004-08-11T09:54:00.000-04:002004-08-11T10:53:51.563-04:00

Eugene Volokh, offers this take on a Finnish warning of a future of internet weaklings:Corporal Klinger should have thought of that! According to AFP,A growing number of conscripts have to be dismissed from Finland's armed forces every year due to an internet addiction that makes them unsuited for service, an official said on Tuesday. "It's an increasing problem. More and more young people are

nadezhdanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426946.post-1092148110112198842004-08-10T10:28:00.000-04:002004-08-13T12:29:26.306-04:00

In "The Vicious Cycle That's Killing Us," Tech Central Station, Aug 6, 2004, Radley Balko reports:It appears that America has a new public health crisis on its hands, one "every bit as threatening as the terrorist threat." Economist Christopher Ruhm concludes in a paper published last year by the National Bureau of Economic Research:"During temporary economic downturns, smoking and weight

nadezhdanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426946.post-1092097405707134192004-08-09T20:21:00.000-04:002004-08-09T20:26:24.020-04:00

Some additional observations on yesterday's thoughts re the organizational design challenges of reforming the intelligence community. The other side of the Commission's reform package is going to be even harder than the restructuring of the executive branch. The NYT has a good editorial on it yesterday, and it makes for gruesome reading: The 9/11 commission report has inspired an unseasonable

nadezhdanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426946.post-1091997302145960102004-08-08T16:33:00.000-04:002004-08-09T11:37:01.026-04:00

Conversation snips -- Comments by nadezhda Brayden King has a post criticizing the idea of a new "intelligence czar." He cites with approval a recent Slate article by Duncan Watts: "Decentralized Intelligence: What Toyota can teach the 9/11 commission about intelligence gathering." Key thoughts from Brayden: Watts takes to task the idea that a centralized director is going to improve the

nadezhdanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426946.post-1091984202478692582004-08-08T12:37:00.000-04:002004-08-08T13:03:12.606-04:00

The Christian Science Monitor echoes one of the most powerful statements from the Democratic National Convention, made by the head of the Black Caucus, Elijah Cummings: security isn't just protecting us from terrorists. As Cummings noted, more Americans feel directly threatened by what would happen if one of their family had a medical emergency than by the risk that they or their friends and

nadezhdanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426946.post-1091976700895641382004-08-08T10:51:00.000-04:002004-08-08T10:51:40.900-04:00

"Stay calm everyone, there's Prozac in the drinking water." So reports The Observer today, via Guardian Unlimited. It seems that Brits are consuming Prozac at such an increased pace that the chemical is showing up in tests of groundwater and rivers that supply drinking water. The discovery raises fresh fears that GPs are overprescribing Prozac, Britain's antidepressant of choice. In the

nadezhdanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426946.post-1091973456040327642004-08-08T09:57:00.000-04:002004-08-08T09:57:36.050-04:00

M Scott Eiland at Tacitus celebrates Greg Maddux' 300th win, "making him the 22nd major league pitcher since 1876 to attain that lofty milestone." Scott's pens a fitting tribute to Maddux' career:Maddux was never one of those pitchers who blew hitters away with overwhelming stuff (his fastball was, at its best, about a "B+"--with Roger Clemens getting an "A" and Nolan Ryan an "A+"), or by

nadezhdanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426946.post-1091803481973507882004-08-06T10:44:00.000-04:002004-08-07T10:03:11.286-04:00

The current debate in Israel sounds extremely familiar. On one side is the head of Shin Bet, Avi Dichter, who thinks terrorism can be eliminated via force, and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz agrees. On the other side is Military Inteligence chief Aharon Ze'evi-Farkash, who thinks that they can eliminate one source, but another will pop up as long as underlying drivers of terrorism aren't addressed.

nadezhdanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426946.post-1091648881516671092004-08-04T15:48:00.000-04:002004-08-07T10:03:55.240-04:00

Wondering what "neuroeconomics" is but afraid to ask? With the word floating around various posts, links and abstracts, it's getting a bit like nano-anything. Though a lot less ubiquitous.Here finally is a great thumbnail -- not toooo cryptic, but not chapter-length. Courtesy Kevin McCabe at George Mason University who posts (infrequently) to his cleverly-named Neuroeconomics blog.

nadezhdanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426946.post-1091645186094250782004-08-04T14:46:00.000-04:002004-08-07T09:52:50.443-04:00

Taking a different view toward Sharon's policies iand their long-term impact on the Palestinians is another Israeli peace activitst As described by Patrick Seale in Dar Al Hayat: Yossi Beilin, the prophet of the Left, had spoken out in favor of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who, for most Arabs and indeed for much of the world, is the very epitome of a brutal, expansionist and militaristic

nadezhdanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426946.post-1091636101019571442004-08-04T12:15:00.000-04:002004-08-07T09:52:31.056-04:00

An essay by an Israeli peace activist Middle East Times 2004 argues that Arafat remains indispensable for peace. The starting point of Uri Avnery's argument is the strategy he attributes to Sharon, which leads him to take as a starting premise that "disengagement" from Gaza is just the next step in a long-term strategy of slow "ethnic-cleansing." The disengagement plan has triggered the outbreak

nadezhdanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426946.post-1091598365517625532004-08-04T01:46:00.000-04:002004-08-07T10:04:47.546-04:00

Economic Principals has an item that should warm the heart of the Bill Safires of this world.

nadezhdanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426946.post-1091417146237245952004-08-01T23:24:00.000-04:002004-08-04T20:00:12.716-04:00

Inter-Palestinian violence is spreading even further in the West Bank after the torching of the Jenin Governor's offices on Saturday by militia. It seems that the armed factions within the Fatah movement are beginning to take sides openly, some to push out Arafat's Tunis crowd (all the while paying lip service to supporting Arafat) and others being sent by Arafat's people to defend him against

nadezhdanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426946.post-1091414488717692102004-08-01T22:32:00.000-04:002004-08-07T10:07:12.316-04:00

The WTO has at long last adopted a negotiating agenda that has the EU's CAP as a central item. Yes, it will take decades for the EU, US, Japan et al to rationalize their agricultural sectors. But the CAP is finally on the agenda. And that's sprung free the rest of the Doha process. So trade agreements haven't been delayed for an additional 2-5 years. That's really good news for the developing

nadezhdanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426946.post-1091326911557913762004-07-31T22:13:00.000-04:002004-08-07T10:05:47.676-04:00

Y'all know that list of addictive substances that humankind has enjoyed for at least centuries but were on 20th Century Man's veboten list? Well another myth has hit the dust. The Chicago Tribune alerts us to the recent news that "evidence is growing on the health benefits of a cup of joe." Though the virtues of coffee drinking may have been debated in the past, now there appear to be new

Lady Cnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426946.post-1091330004709520302004-07-30T11:12:00.000-04:002004-08-08T17:16:44.143-04:00

Conversation Snips -- from Tacitus blog Story by Nadezhda -- July 25, 2004 The Manchurian Candidate has come up several times recently on Tacitus. It was named frequently in the "favorite Cold War movies" thread. And with the current release of the remake with Denzel Washington and Meryl Streep, the original movie has reappeared in an open thread, garnering a strong con as well as

nadezhdanoreply@blogger.com0