The bookshelf

Max Hastings, Winston's War: Churchill, 1940-1945: It's questionable whether the world needed another book on Churchill, but the generally judicious Hastings makes it worthwhile. Sympathetic to the man's greatness without omitting his blunders and failings, Hastings is particularly good on how Churchill's narrow focus on the war sowed the seeds of his 1945 electoral defeat, and on the never-really-friends relations between him and FDR, and the Brits and Americans generally.

Peter Hamilton, The Reality Dysfunction and The Neutronium Alchemist: The first two volumes of a SF trilogy as long as Proust page-wise if not word-wise. Hamilton is one of the Brits who've been rehabilitating "space opera," and does so in this work with a metaphysical twist that comes off better than I would have expected -- indeed, I'm not sure I'd have bought 'em if someone had spoiled the surprise. No great shakes on characterization or style, but he keeps the plot moving and the reader caring.

Theodore Besterman, Voltaire: Why this 1969 classic is out of print, I can't imagine (I actually dropped the NYRB Books folks a line to beg 'em to reissue it if they can). Good luck finding *any* Voltaire bio at your local bookstore; this one's by the editor of Voltaire's correspondence, a scholar whose humane values fit his subject well. I may have an exaggerated sense of Voltaire's historical importance, but values we take for granted today -- free thought, free religion, secular inquiry -- had to be fought for with the pen, and did anyone do more than Voltaire to win those battles?

C.J. Cherryh, Downbelow Station: Not sure how I'd gone so long without reading this (my intro to Cherryh was the Morgaine novels, not the harder SF). A hard-nosed space opera itself, tho with Cherryh's usual difficulty creating interesting aliens (that is a minority opinion, I'm sure). Going to dive into Cyteen next I think.

Friedrich Heer, The Holy Roman Empire: More of a book-length essay than a comprehensive history, Heer's book focuses on the Empire as a European ideal. His treatment of the Salians vs. Gregory VI and his cohort is a brilliant little sketch, from which I'd quote if I had the book handy -- he sees Gregory as identifying holiness with monasticism, fatefully making the clergy into monks.

... Steven Englund, Napoleon: A Political Life: Less limited than the title suggests, this is really a biography of Napoleon that uses its subtitle as an excuse for not repeating well-worn accounts of Austerlitz, 1812, etc. This may be the best English-language biography. Recent efforts by Frank McLynn and Alan Schom are respectively too glibly psychological and too contemptuous of the subject. The man was a disaster, but then, so was Julius Caesar, and that doesn't require us to treat Caesar as a proto-Hitler, or to ignore the fascination of his genius and personality.

Besides, shellfish are an ABOMINATION, like gays and Kenny G

Is seafood from the Gulf going to be poisonous to eat? Short answer: no one knows yet!

the dispersant products, branded Corexit 9527A and Corexit 9500A, were made exclusively by a former Exxon subsidiary now owned by a company called Nalco. Exxon researchers had already acknowledged that they were significantly toxic for aquatic life. But just how toxic was mysterious--particularly for humans. The publicly available data sheets for both products revealed that they have the “potential to bioconcentrate,” but added this stunner: “No toxicity studies have been conducted on this product.”

Information about their precise composition was also vague, clouded by a veil of secrecy based on “proprietary” concerns. I found the information scarcity outrageous. A private company fouls a vast public resource and then dumps hundreds of thousands of gallons of a toxic chemical potion into it. Doesn’t the public have the right to know precisely what’s in that potion?

So eat lots of shrimp and let us know what happens to you. Nalco thanks you for your unpaid self-experimentation. (H/t Sullysaurus.)

Our insecure internet

Jack Goldsmith has a long review article on computer attacks and espionage in TNR (h/t Kenneth Anderson):

For the past few decades, and with increasing frequency, many thousands of foreign agents like the Google hackers, sitting before computer monitors abroad, have “entered” the United States to steal or to destroy valuable digital assets. They have raided the Pentagon and other government agencies to disrupt their communications and to lift sensitive or classified information. They have attacked American corporations and taken or destroyed untold millions of dollars worth of data or intellectual property. They have contacted CEOs and credibly threatened to destroy their businesses unless the CEOs met the extortionists’ demands. And they have planted malicious software--known ominously as malware--inside government and corporate headquarters, and in critical infrastructure systems such as electrical grids and power plants. Some of this malware allows them to monitor activities in these places; other malware, called “logic bombs,” enables them to trigger a destructive attack years later, if doing so would be useful.

If this were happening before our eyes--if thousands of foreign agents were physically entering our borders, breaking into brick-and-mortar buildings, and removing or destroying billions of dollars of proprietary information and monetary assets--the government would declare a national emergency. But it is happening largely out of public sight, on computers and computer networks, and so most people are not worried. The press is increasingly filled with scary stories about cyber thefts, cyber attacks, and even cyber war, and Google’s public confrontation with the Chinese raised awareness of the problem. But the cyber menace is still largely invisible to the public, which naturally discounts threats it cannot see, no matter how alarming the headlines.

Worth a look.

Low, lower, Palin

Political Wire:

Sarah Palin is trying to set up a meeting with former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher "as part of a bid to enhance her claim to be the heir to Ronald Reagan", according to the Daily Mail.

So far, Palin hasn't made any outreach to current Prime Minister David Cameron.

Said one person involved in the talks: "Palin's people haven't said anything about meeting Cameron. Their main interest is getting a picture of her with Lady Thatcher. I'm not sure they know who David Cameron is.'"

Wikipedia:

On 24 August 2008 it was publicly disclosed that Thatcher has been suffering from dementia. Her daughter Carol described in her 2008 memoir, A Swim-on Part in the Goldfish Bowl, first observing in 2000 that Thatcher was becoming forgetful. The condition later became more noticeable; at times, Thatcher thought that her husband Denis, who died in 2003, was still living. Carol Thatcher recalls that her mother's memories of the time she spent as Prime Minister from 1979 to 1990 remain among her sharpest.

Sucking political advantage from the disabled, of course, is a Palin specialty. Thank god Reagan's gone on and isn't around to be a prey for this ghoul.

(This story is, like, genetically engineered for Andrew Sullivan, who doesn't seem to've picked up on it yet ....)

In a related development, Shakespeare was black

"No white folks have an 'e' on the end of Green. The blacks after they left the plantation couldn't spell, and they threw an 'e' on the end."

-- South Carolina State Sen. Robert Ford (D), quoted by the Charleston Post and Courier, saying that race have played a role in Alvin Greene's (D) surprise victory since he was the only black candidate in a primary with a majority of black voters.

-- Political Wire.

... Mississippi racists are generally smarter than to be quoted saying stuff like that.

Dems' education strategy: Act Republican

Because it works so well with everything else, right?

Dianne Ravitch (yes, Dianne Ravitch) here; see also this.

The situation is alarming. Not only is the federal government about to administer a hammer-blow to the basic principles of public education through its competitive grant program; over the next few months, hundreds of thousands of public school teachers are scheduled to be laid off, as well, thanks to state and local budgets that have been stretched to the breaking point by falling tax revenue and rising unemployment claims. Christina Romer, chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, last week estimated that perhaps as many as one out fifteen teachers would receive a pink slip unless Congress extended the emergency aid that so far has saved more than 400,000 teaching positions. No soap, apparently. House leaders, worried about soaring levels of public debt, instead cut back sharply on the extension.

And nothing spells "economic recovery" like "educational failure."

MSSC roundup

The Mississippi Supreme Court had a busy day yesterday.

Hall v. The City of Ridgeland -- Ridgeland's silly variance allowing a 13-story office tower has been affirmed. The words "spot zoning" make an appearance, but only so that the Court can pooh-pooh the idea that a city "spot zones" where it acts in accord with its "comprehensive plan." Evidently, the City of Jackson needed a "comprehensive plan" facilitating the eating of lunch. ... Penned by the new nominee to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, James E. Graves.

Meadows v. Blake -- Substantively uninteresting: plaintiff didn't file an 11-1-58 motion to dismiss, but the defendants litigated for 2 years before moving to dismiss, and thus waived the issue. Procedurally odd: Waller specially concurs to explain why Blake and Baptist Medical Center, although raising the issue in their answers, waived the issue:

Thus, the defendants knew as early as December 10, 2004, that the application of Section 11-1-58 would serve to terminate the Meadowses’ case. And there was absolutely nothing preventing the defendants from pursuing the enforcement of Section 11-1-58 and achieving that termination by requesting a hearing on their motion to dismiss. Therefore, because they continued to participate actively in the litigation for more than two years, while sitting on their Section 11-1-58 defense, the defendants waived it.

Okay. This op is joined by 5 justices, including Justice Carlson ... who wrote the Court's opinion. Why didn't Carlson just incorporate Waller's language in the opinion for the Court? And what is the precedential value of a 6-justice concurrence?

Baker Donelson v. Seay -- the "my lawyer slept with my wife!" case that's been the talk of the legal community. The Court finds no fiduciary duty not to screw your client's wife, if it doesn't impact the representation. More predictably, the Court finds that said screwing is a frolic of one's own, and hence can't trigger vicarious liability. Given the Court's recent slashing of the scope of said liability, every shareholder at Baker Donelson would've had to have a go at Ms. Seay for the Court to hold otherwise. -- The really disappointing part of the decision comes after reversing Judge Tomie Green for abuse of discretion on a couple of discovery issues:

The circuit court’s “Order Denying Defendants’ Motion to Compel Physical and Mental Examination of Plaintiff” found an absence of “good cause” and that “defendants offered no evidence that the depositions of [Sam] and his treating physician and the production of [Sam’s] medical records are inadequate or insufficient to show [Sam’s] physical and mental status.”

Mississippi Rule of Civil Procedure 35(a) provides, in pertinent part, that:

[w]hen the mental or physical condition . . . of a party . . . is in controversy, the court in which the action is pending may order the party to submit to a physical or mental examination by a suitably licensed or certified examiner . . . . The order may be made only on motion for good cause shown . . . .

Miss. R. Civ. P. 35(a) (emphasis added). Given the dearth of Mississippi caselaw on Rule 35, rendering this an issue of first impression for this Court, along with the limited nature of the record with respect to this issue (i.e., only the motion and subsequent order), this Court concludes that the circuit court did not abuse its discretion in denying Reed and Baker Donelson’s Motion to Compel Physical and Mental Examination.

Because there's no caselaw on point, the Court will forego the opportunity to create any caselaw? Thanks for the guidance, Court!

Miller v. Parker McCurley Properties, L.L.C. -- The Millers sign a contract to buy a house, which is then ruined by Katrina. The chancery court notes the existence of a contract but invokes equity to set aside the forfeiture clause. 5-4, the Court affirms, over a dissent by Dickinson pointing out that "equity follows the law" and that where the law covers the case, there's no room for equity to provide a different result.

The Millers were buying property under a real estate contract. The majority states that it became “impossible for McCurley to continue providing the property to the Millers,” as if he were a landlord. He was a seller. He had no continuing duties, other than those in the contract. Nothing in the contract required the seller to rebuild the house if it became damaged. Purchasers of property, real and personal, protect their interest in property with insurance, not with equitable remedies in chancery court.

We are a court of law, bound to apply it dispassionately. We may wish the Millers had
not entered the contract, but they did. And having done so, they should now be entitled to remedies provided by law, not equity. For the reasons stated, I respectfully dissent.

Somehow, the fact that the Court's lone chancellor joined Dickinson in his dissent, did not persuade any of the 5 justices in the majority that maybe they were getting the equity thing wrong.

Is your car eating enough corn?

Probably not.

The most disgusting aspect of the blowout in the Gulf of Mexico isn't the video images of oil-soaked birds or the incessant blather from pundits about what BP or the Obama administration should be doing to stem the flow of oil. Instead, it's the ugly spectacle of the corn-ethanol scammers doing all they can to capitalize on the disaster so that they can justify an expansion of the longest-running robbery of taxpayers in U.S. history. * * *

The strongest indication that an ethanol bailout is imminent came last Friday when Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack (former governor of Iowa, the nation's biggest ethanol-producing state) said, "I'm very confident that we're going to see an increase in the blend rate." The "blend rate" refers to the federal rule that limits ethanol blends to no more than 10 percent for standard automobiles. Commonly known as "E10," the fuel contains 90 percent gasoline and 10 percent alcohol. The Obama administration bailout, which would come via approval from the EPA, will likely allow gasoline retailers to blend up to 15 percent ethanol into U.S. gasoline supplies.

Obviously, what we need is the public disgust that would be generated by a massive corn-syrup spill.

(H/t Drum.)

The objectless pursuit of wealth

Over at the Boston Review, Jonathan Kirshner reviews 3 recent books on Keynes w/r/t to our present vicissitudes.

Each scholar’s new book reflects his distinct intellectual engagement with Keynes, but collectively they point in a common direction. Keynes, they suggest, would argue that our current mess has three main causes: failures of the economics profession, mistakes by government, and regrettable social trends.

You can probably guess the first two; what of the third?

These books suggest that Keynes also would have found something troubling about contemporary Western society, or at least the version of it that emerged in the post–Cold War United States. Keynes’s economics was rooted, always, in a normative, philosophical vision, in particular that the economic game was not about winning the candle. This was one of Skidelsky’s great contributions in his biography, and Return of the Master treats us to a chapter on “Keynes and the Ethics of Capitalism,” including Keynes’s aversion to “the objectless pursuit of wealth.” Rather, the purpose of economic activity (and the role of the economist) was to “solve” the economic problem--the provision of adequate needs, opportunities, and comfort--so that the important things in life could be pursued.

But in the mania of the American housing bubble, the chase of wealth became everything. The financial sector expanded, national savings rates plunged, and Clinton-era deregulations were followed by the Bush administration’s abdication of government oversight. Financiers eagerly accepted the open invitation to recklessness and enjoyed astronomical compensation packages for embracing imprudent risks. Borrowers took on debt far beyond any responsible expectation of what they could repay. In retrospect even Alan Greenspan finally understood the errors of the era of unregulated finance he championed.

Probably you'd guessed that too.

Where Obama chiefly disappoints is in his failure to challenge "the objectless pursuit of wealth" in favor of different values, social values. It's an uphill climb, but if the president can't do it, I wonder who can.

Not getting the contrast here, sorry

Jim "No Comments, Please, I Have Nothing to Learn from You People" Lindgren:

Sometimes it’s hard to figure out Glenn Beck. One day he is (ridiculously) calling Cass Sunstein “the most dangerous man in America.” Another day he is teaching his audience about Hayek’s “Road to Serfdom.” Go figure.

Go figure what?

Banishment vanished

So, I was looking to pull up the hand-downs list for June 3, 2010 on the Mississippi Supreme Court's website (win some, lose some), and I found that rare creature, a non-Thursday opinion: Mackey v. State.

DICKINSON, JUSTICE, FOR THE COURT:

We have discovered that . . . to banish the knight does not alleviate the suffering of the peasant.
– C.S. Lewis

¶1. This is a banishment case in which the Circuit Court of Forrest County issued a
suspended sentence of thirty years and then ordered the defendant not to come within one hundred miles of Hattiesburg. Upon learning the defendant had violated the banishment order, the trial court revoked the suspension of the sentence.

Continuing the recent string of luck for pro se appellants filing for cert, Mackey got his banishment reversed, though the Court did not go so far as to forbid the practice. Randolph dissents, saying that he wouldn't reverse, but if reversal's to occur, the guilty plea (which accepted the banishment) should be withdrawn. Graves and Kitchens agree as to the latter point.

The epigraph to the opinion would make more sense if the Court were expunging the practice of banishment, but it does appear to make Dickinson the first justice to quote C.S. Lewis by name in a published opinion of the Court.

... Apparently the Monday handdown was due to Mackey's having brought the case up on cert -- the deadline was near to running.

Fake values, real values

Item: George W. Bush reminisces about old times:

Sure, we waterboarded Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, former President George W. Bush reportedly said on Tuesday. And he would “do it again to save lives.”

Item: an Army intelligence officer writes in Miliary Review that Abu Ghraib was a "strategic defeat" for the United States, and interviews interrogators who served in Iraq:

These experienced HUMINT leaders believed that it was not only wrong for American Soldiers to employ enhanced interrogation techniques on real world enemies, but that such techniques were largely ineffective. “For an interrogator to resort to techniques like that [techniques derived from SERE schools] is for that interrogator to admit that they don’t know how to interrogate,” said Groseclose, who was awarded the U.S. Defense Department’s HUMINT Collector of the Year Award for 2003. He added, “Our interrogations produced results.”

Both via Scott Horton.

... Bonus irony item:

I prayed a lot. I really did. I prayed before every major speech. I prayed before debates. It was a very important experience. I don't see how you can be president and not believe in a higher power.

Indeed. (Via Political Wire.)

Of course, Obama will fail to halt the roiling alligator-filled wall of flame

Xkcd visits the Gulf oil spill.

The target market for Jack Daniels

In a comment at his blog, NMC pinpoints the essence of this demographic:

Jack Daniels is whiskey for people who are glad they started using corn sweetner in soda pop.

... Even when I was just starting out with liquor and pouring it into my (corn-sweetened) Coke, I went with Evan Williams bourbon, not Jack.

"Anál nathrach, orth’ bháis’s bethad, to a reasonable degree of magical certainty"

The supreme court has held that there is no requirement that an expert use magical language in his testimony ....

Vanlandingham v. Patton, Miss. Ct. App. June 1, 2010.

... Myself, I would've been more afraid that it was error to *admit* magical language. I feel sure that magical language would never have been admitted under the Frye standard!

... I sincerely hope for your sake, Gentle Reader, that you need to click this link to have the post title explained to you.