Apt. 11D

How Does Populist Fury Become Populist Protest?

In an op-ed in Sunday's New York Times, Sudhir Venkatesh wonders why the "populist rage" regarding the Wall Street and A.I.G. and the bailout hasn't led to riots or protest. He writes, "Today widespread anger and collective passivity exist side by side." We're angry, but we're not going to do anything about it.

Spreadin' Love

Ann Althouse married one of her commenters and freaks out the other bloggers. I have my eye on a certain, foreign spammer.

Nancy Folbre blogging at the Times writes,

But sociologists Shelley Correll, Stephen Benard and In Paik take a step in this direction with research analyzing responses to job applications with credentials equivalent except for signals of parenthood. In one experiment, about 200 undergraduates were asked to rate paired applications for an imaginary midlevel managerial job. Both female and male students rated mothers lower on competence and commitment, recommended lower salaries for them, and judged them less worthy ofpromotion than childless women.

Global Warming Deniers

Sunday's New York Times magazine features Freeman Dyson, a scientist who questions the research on global warming. Today's paper has a full page ad from the Cato Institute; the ad says that the findings regarding global warming are greatly exaggerated and a list of scientist endorse the message. My dad forwarded me a link to Power Line post gloating about all this.

Global warming is one of those topics (and there are many) that I will never have the expertise to judge the data for myself. In these cases, I have to rely on people who are smarter than I am. Dyson's his main objections to global warming, at least how they are portrayed in the NYT, seemed to be political. Coal has enabled millions to make the transition from poverty to a middle class life style in Indian and China, he says, and therefore we should not eliminate its use. People in Greenland are happy with the melting snow. This blog post completely trashes his credibility.

It was impossible to judge the credibility of the scientists who signed the Cato advertisement, because many were from foreign colleges, local schools that I had never heard of before, or workers at companies that I have never heard of. Oddly, a number of them were retired or emeritus professors. I don't want to bash old people, but... well... The studies that are cited in the advertisement are authored by those who signed the ad. And this ad came from the Cato Institute and not an independent organization. The credibility here is very low.

It is possible that the numbers for global warming are wrong. It is possible (probable) that Al Gore is a moron. However, I would need much more credible experts to convince me of that fact. In the meantime, I'm going to keep recycling.

Frost/Nixon

I went onto campus on Saturday to help lead a discussion on Frost/Nixon. I hadn't seen the movie before, so I surfed around for an hour or two before the movie to get some ideas about what I should cover before and after the movie. I jotted down some key dates about Watergate, since most students only have the sketchiest of notions about it. I thought how the movie might relate to some key debates over media and politics.

And then I got it into my head that we should go check out his house. He retired only a couple of miles from here. Maybe we could all pile into the old Toyota, and I would show the kids his old house. So, I googled more to find out where Nixon had lived.

In Nixon's later years, he had bought a house in Saddle River for $1 million. It was a mid-century modern home built by a protege of Frank Lloyd Wright. Nixon split his time between the house in Saddle River and a townhouse in Manhattan. After he died, a family in Japan bought the house for $2.3 million dollar, but never moved in and never turned on the power. Without power, the sump pump in the basement failed to work and five feet of water sat in the basement for several years. The house filled with mold and began to cave in. Eventually, someone bought the property and had to completely demolish it, because of all the rot and mold.

Frost/Nixon was really a fabulous film that explores the personalities between Frost and Nixon. It doesn't fit neatly into any debate about the role of the press in a democracy. It's really a character study. Both Frost and Nixon are portrayed as fallible, but well meaning characters. In some ways, polar opposites, and in other ways, identical. You walk away from the movie with a great deal of sympathy for Nixon. Yes, Nixon remains convinced that the president is somehow above the law, but he is also lonely, tormented, and eager to do the right thing.

There is great tragedy around Nixon. He was a guy who fell victim to his own demons that rotted away his presidency, the country, and his legacy.

Weekend Journal

When school got out on Friday afternoon, the boys and I drove over to my folks' house. Jonah was a little pissed off about this last minute plan. He had envisioned an afternoon of wii playing with neighbor boys. Jonah isn't allowed to play wii on a school night, so by Friday afternoon, he's jonsing like a crack addict.

Midweek Journal

At 8:26, I yelled down the stairs, "Jonah, bus time! Hurry!" I ran down to help him pack up and get him on the bus. He shoved his feet in his sneakers that have been tied with a knot, because he's too lazy to make a bow. I made him change into jeans that didn't have a hole in the knees. "HURRY! It's 8:28!"

Spreadin' Love

Great debate between Tim Burke and Megan McArdle on the AIG bonuses yesterday.

"An 18-year-old has secretly painted a 60ft drawing of a phallus on the roof of his parents' £1million mansion in Berkshire. It was there for a year before his parents found out. They say he'll have to scrub it off when he gets back from travelling." (Thanks to Maia)

The Power of Genetics

There's a scene in Season Five of the Wire where McNulty sits down with a criminal profiler at the FBI. The expert gives his psychological profile of a serial killer, and, since the serial killer is a figment of McNulty's imagination, the profile bears an uncanny resemblance to McNulty. McNulty looks uncomfortable and annoyed that the FBI nailed him so perfectly

Whenever Jonah's fourth grade describes Jonah's strengths and weaknesses, I think of that scene.

The Limits of Wisdom

Nicholas Kristoff starts off his column today with a question, "Ever wonder how financial experts could lead the world over the economic cliff?" His answer is that experts don't really know what they are talking about. He cites the research of Philip Tetlock. Tetlock finds that experts' forecasts on a variety of topics is only slightly better than random forecasts.

Sorry About the Spam

I've been killed with spam this week. Anybody have a semi-automatic weapon that I can borrow?