The New Chinese Fighter Jet

In the discussion of Chinese ascension, we have gone beyond chess. Now, their superiority is showing itself in some serious military hardware:

While the Pentagon downplays China’s rollout this week of what appears to be a jet fighter designed using sophisticated stealth technology, military experts are warning that the aircraft – reportedly capable of besting America’s F-22 in speed and maneuverability – could pose the greatest threat yet to U.S. air superiority.

Decorated Navy fighter pilot Matthew “Whiz” Buckley, a Top Gun graduate of the Navy Fighter Weapons School who flew 44 combat missions over Iraq, says, “It’s probably leaps and bounds above where we are, and that’s terrifying.”

“As a former Navy fighter pilot, going up against something that’s stealthy, highly maneuverable and with electronic systems more capable than mine -- that’ll keep me up at night,” said Buckley, now chief strategy officer at Fox3 Options LLC.

...

“We used be No. 1 at having the leading technology. ... Now, we’re kind of in catch-up mode, where we’ve never really been before.”

The times get interestinger and interestinger.

The New Chinese Fighter Jet

In the discussion of Chinese ascension, we have gone beyond chess. Now, their superiority is showing itself in some serious military hardware:

While the Pentagon downplays China’s rollout this week of what appears to be a jet fighter designed using sophisticated stealth technology, military experts are warning that the aircraft – reportedly capable of besting America’s F-22 in speed and maneuverability – could pose the greatest threat yet to U.S. air superiority.

Decorated Navy fighter pilot Matthew “Whiz” Buckley, a Top Gun graduate of the Navy Fighter Weapons School who flew 44 combat missions over Iraq, says, “It’s probably leaps and bounds above where we are, and that’s terrifying.”

“As a former Navy fighter pilot, going up against something that’s stealthy, highly maneuverable and with electronic systems more capable than mine -- that’ll keep me up at night,” said Buckley, now chief strategy officer at Fox3 Options LLC.

...

“We used be No. 1 at having the leading technology. ... Now, we’re kind of in catch-up mode, where we’ve never really been before.”

The times get interestinger and interestinger.

Of Originalist Constitutionalism

In a November oral argument about a California law restricting minors from buying violent video games, Justices Scalia and Samuel A. Alito debated whether the ratifiers of the First Amendment would have thought that it protected portrayals of violence.

“What Justice Scalia wants to know is what James Madison thought about video games,” and if “he enjoyed them,” Justice Alito said sarcastically. Justice Scalia shot back, “No, I want to know what James Madison thought about violence.” The dispute will be resolved in the opinion, to be issued later this year.

-- Jeffrey Rosen for The New York Times

It's been while since we've done something on the Supreme Court and originalism. Rosen gives a good overview, including the issue of whether conservatives, such as Scalia and Thomas, only truly favor originalism when it comes to Tea Pary-ish agendas and are willing to turn it aside if a liberal result would be more appropriately called for.

Of Originalist Constitutionalism

In a November oral argument about a California law restricting minors from buying violent video games, Justices Scalia and Samuel A. Alito debated whether the ratifiers of the First Amendment would have thought that it protected portrayals of violence.

“What Justice Scalia wants to know is what James Madison thought about video games,” and if “he enjoyed them,” Justice Alito said sarcastically. Justice Scalia shot back, “No, I want to know what James Madison thought about violence.” The dispute will be resolved in the opinion, to be issued later this year.

-- Jeffrey Rosen for The New York Times

It's been while since we've done something on the Supreme Court and originalism. Rosen gives a good overview, including the issue of whether conservatives, such as Scalia and Thomas, only truly favor originalism when it comes to Tea Pary-ish agendas and are willing to turn it aside if a liberal result would be more appropriately called for.

Restless Cats

When I come out of my early morning blogging rounds,
I see that the cats broke into the big room.

The TV and new couch are still intact
and nothing has been destroyed.

I'm content to see it as a needed diversion.

Then, when I brave the outdoors to get the paper,
I see that it's dry enough,

so I let the cats out for a real rampage.

Restless Cats

When I come out of my early morning blogging rounds,
I see that the cats broke into the big room.

The TV and new couch are still intact
and nothing has been destroyed.

I'm content to see it as a needed diversion.

Then, when I brave the outdoors to get the paper,
I see that it's dry enough,

so I let the cats out for a real rampage.

"Guys Gotta Have Fun"

Finished watching "Auto-Focus,"
the biopic of Bob Crane.

Pretty intense.

But for the grace of God, eh?

Hah!

When I get up and go to the kitchen,
I remember that the cats are outside.

I'm surprised that they aren't on the patio
eager to come back in.

Low forties, which might not be so bad for them,
but there is that biting breeze. It's cold.

"Guys Gotta Have Fun"

Finished watching "Auto-Focus,"
the biopic of Bob Crane.

Pretty intense.

But for the grace of God, eh?

Hah!

When I get up and go to the kitchen,
I remember that the cats are outside.

I'm surprised that they aren't on the patio
eager to come back in.

Low forties, which might not be so bad for them,
but there is that biting breeze. It's cold.

Arizona Shooting ctd.

Mental illness is not an explanation for violence:

Shortly after Jared Lee Loughner had been identified as the alleged shooter of Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, online sleuths turned up pages of rambling text and videos he had created. A wave of amateur diagnoses soon followed, most of which concluded that Loughner was not so much a political extremist as a man suffering from " paranoid schizophrenia."

For many, the investigation will stop there. No need to explore personal motives, out-of-control grievances or distorted political anger. The mere mention of mental illness is explanation enough. This presumed link between psychiatric disorders and violence has become so entrenched in the public consciousness that the entire weight of the medical evidence is unable to shift it. Severe mental illness, on its own, is not an explanation for violence, but don't expect to hear that from the media in the coming weeks.

As a practical matter, it is enough for rightists to bury the link between their politics and the violence and murder. The main point here, I suppose, is at least to remind people that being mentally ill does not mean one is also violent and dangerous. There is some need for this, because some leaders are pushing for more aggressive institutionalization policies. One may not have to worry too much about this, though, since such would prove very expensive, especialy now that we are trying to play catch-up with the Chinese military.

__________

Vaughn Bell at Slate and MSNBC

LJ

Arizona Shooting ctd.

Mental illness is not an explanation for violence:

Shortly after Jared Lee Loughner had been identified as the alleged shooter of Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, online sleuths turned up pages of rambling text and videos he had created. A wave of amateur diagnoses soon followed, most of which concluded that Loughner was not so much a political extremist as a man suffering from " paranoid schizophrenia."

For many, the investigation will stop there. No need to explore personal motives, out-of-control grievances or distorted political anger. The mere mention of mental illness is explanation enough. This presumed link between psychiatric disorders and violence has become so entrenched in the public consciousness that the entire weight of the medical evidence is unable to shift it. Severe mental illness, on its own, is not an explanation for violence, but don't expect to hear that from the media in the coming weeks.

As a practical matter, it is enough for rightists to bury the link between their politics and the violence and murder. The main point here, I suppose, is at least to remind people that being mentally ill does not mean one is also violent and dangerous. There is some need for this, because some leaders are pushing for more aggressive institutionalization policies. One may not have to worry too much about this, though, since such would prove very expensive, especialy now that we are trying to play catch-up with the Chinese military.

__________

Vaughn Bell at Slate and MSNBC

LJ

Magic Mountain

Hans Castorp has just been diagnosed and
has been prescribed an extended period of bed rest.

I think I'll take a brief break from the novel
for another little book.

I was thinking
I'd just read an essay or two about the novel,
but now I'm sorely tempted
to check out the film book on "Eyes Wide Shut."

It's lunch time now, and
I'll debate it with myself over the meal.

Magic Mountain

Hans Castorp has just been diagnosed and
has been prescribed an extended period of bed rest.

I think I'll take a brief break from the novel
for another little book.

I was thinking
I'd just read an essay or two about the novel,
but now I'm sorely tempted
to check out the film book on "Eyes Wide Shut."

It's lunch time now, and
I'll debate it with myself over the meal.

cats in the sun and leaves

It is nice to see the cats
rolling around in the sun and the leaves.

One wishes they would always be content
to stay in the back yard.

You might think they'd feel a greater comfort level,
instead of always having to be so vigilant
when they venture to the front and the larger neighborhood.

cats in the sun and leaves

It is nice to see the cats
rolling around in the sun and the leaves.

One wishes they would always be content
to stay in the back yard.

You might think they'd feel a greater comfort level,
instead of always having to be so vigilant
when they venture to the front and the larger neighborhood.

Kiss from a Rose

It has been a long time
since I've wowed the Douglas crowd
with Seal's "Kiss from a Rose"

thanks to the holiday music season.

I still haven't figured out the lyrics,
but it doesn't seem to matter.

Kiss from a Rose

It has been a long time
since I've wowed the Douglas crowd
with Seal's "Kiss from a Rose"

thanks to the holiday music season.

I still haven't figured out the lyrics,
but it doesn't seem to matter.

like a spoiled prince

I didn't think I was going to get my nap today,
but that was a beautiful twenty minutes,
as I wake up feeling like a spoiled prince,
minus the half-naked dancing girls.

like a spoiled prince

I didn't think I was going to get my nap today,
but that was a beautiful twenty minutes,
as I wake up feeling like a spoiled prince,
minus the half-naked dancing girls.

a mighty load of work

The cats were at the sliding door
itching to come back inside,

but I wanted to vacuum
as well as take care of the litter box,

and when the mood to take care of a mighty load of work
is upon me,

I best take advantage of it
for you never know when it will hit again.

a mighty load of work

The cats were at the sliding door
itching to come back inside,

but I wanted to vacuum
as well as take care of the litter box,

and when the mood to take care of a mighty load of work
is upon me,

I best take advantage of it
for you never know when it will hit again.

GTA 4

I finally broke into the hoity-toity part
of Liberty City.

I'm reminded of how long the game is.

Having played through this game a few times,
I started thinking that I may not need
to finish it,

but just get my feel of molestation and murder
and shoot 'em ups.

On the other hand, more characters and situations
continue to open up,
so maybe I'll stop playing for a while,
but them pick it back up where I last left off,
when I'm in that gangsta mood.

GTA 4

I finally broke into the hoity-toity part
of Liberty City.

I'm reminded of how long the game is.

Having played through this game a few times,
I started thinking that I may not need
to finish it,

but just get my feel of molestation and murder
and shoot 'em ups.

On the other hand, more characters and situations
continue to open up,
so maybe I'll stop playing for a while,
but them pick it back up where I last left off,
when I'm in that gangsta mood.

Britney is looking good

And you gotta love that sex doll mouth.


ontd

I remember when it was thought her career was over, but she has slimmed down and has had a comeback, not that I can really tell, since I've never been able to see her as a singer, but just one of our blonde wet dreams.

Britney is looking good

And you gotta love that sex doll mouth.


ontd

I remember when it was thought her career was over, but she has slimmed down and has had a comeback, not that I can really tell, since I've never been able to see her as a singer, but just one of our blonde wet dreams.

"Frozen"

I thought it was an intriguing concept
when I saw the trailer YouTubed last year:

three collegey types caught on a ski-lift
and left behind.

But I was doubtful how they'd make a whole movie.

But I'm about halfway in,
with the wolves having just torn apart
the dude who jumped,
and the suspense remains high,
even though they spared us all the gore.

It perhaps helps that
we're in the midst of a cold snap ourselves -

Feel-O-Rama!

"Frozen"

I thought it was an intriguing concept
when I saw the trailer YouTubed last year:

three collegey types caught on a ski-lift
and left behind.

But I was doubtful how they'd make a whole movie.

But I'm about halfway in,
with the wolves having just torn apart
the dude who jumped,
and the suspense remains high,
even though they spared us all the gore.

It perhaps helps that
we're in the midst of a cold snap ourselves -

Feel-O-Rama!

David Foster Wallace on Suicide

Susanna gives us a wonderful quote from "Infinite Jest" relating the hell of suicidal depression:

The so-called "psychotically depressed" person who tries to kill herself doesn't do so out of "hopelessness" or any abstract conviction that life's assets and debits do not square. And surely not because death seems suddenly appealing. The person in whom Its invisible agony reaches a certain unendurable level will kill herself the same way a trapped person will eventually jump from the window of a burning high-rise. Make no mistake about people who leap from burning windows. Their terror of falling from a great height is still just as great as it would be for you or me standing speculatively at the same window just checking out the view; i.e. the fear of falling remains a constant. The variable here is the other terror, the fire's flames: when the flames get close enough, falling to death becomes the slightly less terrible of two terrors. It's not desiring the fall; it's terror of the flame yet nobody down on the sidewalk, looking up and yelling "Don't" and "Hang On," can understand the jump. Not really. You'd have to have personally been trapped and felt flames to really understand a terror way beyond falling.

It's all the more poignant that David Foster Wallace just recently lost in his own struggle against the pull of the abyss.

One of these days, I'm going to have to satisfy my curiosity and at least give "Infinite Jest" the good old college try, even if I have to skim through significant parts of it.

David Foster Wallace on Suicide

Susanna gives us a wonderful quote from "Infinite Jest" relating the hell of suicidal depression:

The so-called "psychotically depressed" person who tries to kill herself doesn't do so out of "hopelessness" or any abstract conviction that life's assets and debits do not square. And surely not because death seems suddenly appealing. The person in whom Its invisible agony reaches a certain unendurable level will kill herself the same way a trapped person will eventually jump from the window of a burning high-rise. Make no mistake about people who leap from burning windows. Their terror of falling from a great height is still just as great as it would be for you or me standing speculatively at the same window just checking out the view; i.e. the fear of falling remains a constant. The variable here is the other terror, the fire's flames: when the flames get close enough, falling to death becomes the slightly less terrible of two terrors. It's not desiring the fall; it's terror of the flame yet nobody down on the sidewalk, looking up and yelling "Don't" and "Hang On," can understand the jump. Not really. You'd have to have personally been trapped and felt flames to really understand a terror way beyond falling.

It's all the more poignant that David Foster Wallace just recently lost in his own struggle against the pull of the abyss.

One of these days, I'm going to have to satisfy my curiosity and at least give "Infinite Jest" the good old college try, even if I have to skim through significant parts of it.

The Constitution

The Constitution is ink on parchment. It is forty-four hundred words. And it is, too, the accreted set of meanings that have been made of those words, the amendments, the failed amendments, the struggles, the debates—the course of events—over more than two centuries. It is not easy, but it is everyone’s. It is the rule of law, the opinions of the Court, the stripes on William Grimes’s back, a shrine in the National Archives, a sign carried on the Washington Mall, and the noise all of us make when we disagree. If the Constitution is a fiddle, it is also all the music that has ever been played on it. Some of that music is beautiful; much of it is humdrum; some of it sounds like hell.

-- Jill Lepore for The New Yorker

I suppose this overview on Constitutional history and contemporary attitudes was spurred by the Republicans' theatrical call to have it read aloud when they took control of the House. Part of the power of the Constitution may be the sparseness and vagueness that allows it to be all things to all people.

The Constitution

The Constitution is ink on parchment. It is forty-four hundred words. And it is, too, the accreted set of meanings that have been made of those words, the amendments, the failed amendments, the struggles, the debates—the course of events—over more than two centuries. It is not easy, but it is everyone’s. It is the rule of law, the opinions of the Court, the stripes on William Grimes’s back, a shrine in the National Archives, a sign carried on the Washington Mall, and the noise all of us make when we disagree. If the Constitution is a fiddle, it is also all the music that has ever been played on it. Some of that music is beautiful; much of it is humdrum; some of it sounds like hell.

-- Jill Lepore for The New Yorker

I suppose this overview on Constitutional history and contemporary attitudes was spurred by the Republicans' theatrical call to have it read aloud when they took control of the House. Part of the power of the Constitution may be the sparseness and vagueness that allows it to be all things to all people.

Bonobos Make Love, Not War

At a recent informal meeting of New York City sex therapists to discuss his new book Sex at Dawn, psychologist Chris Ryan played us a videotape showing a bonobo orgy.

...

Ryan explained that the group sex we’d just been watching had been prompted by someone throwing some apples into the midst of the group.

The part about the apples didn’t make any sense, until he explained to us more about bonobo society.

Bonobos like apples. They like them a lot. As a matter of fact, it’s difficult to do bonobo research without a supply of green apples to motivate them to do the experiments.

But they like group harmony most of all. And the sudden appearance of the apples in their midst immediately raises the threat of discord. Who will get to eat the apples?

If these were chimpanzees, the strongest males would immediately claim the fruit. There would be a fair amount of shoving, and possibly some bloodshed.

But bonobos are so communal that the tension produced by something so precious as an apple in their midst must be dispelled by a gesture of community. In this case, everyone gets to cool off with a little sexual comfort from their neighbor. Then, self-interest replaced by a certain yummy group feeling, they settle down to share the apple.

-- Stephen Snyder at SexualityResoursce.com

It's difficult not to consider for a moment how the world might look if this were the path that human evolution took. It seems beyond Utopian, doesn't it?

Bonobos Make Love, Not War

At a recent informal meeting of New York City sex therapists to discuss his new book Sex at Dawn, psychologist Chris Ryan played us a videotape showing a bonobo orgy.

...

Ryan explained that the group sex we’d just been watching had been prompted by someone throwing some apples into the midst of the group.

The part about the apples didn’t make any sense, until he explained to us more about bonobo society.

Bonobos like apples. They like them a lot. As a matter of fact, it’s difficult to do bonobo research without a supply of green apples to motivate them to do the experiments.

But they like group harmony most of all. And the sudden appearance of the apples in their midst immediately raises the threat of discord. Who will get to eat the apples?

If these were chimpanzees, the strongest males would immediately claim the fruit. There would be a fair amount of shoving, and possibly some bloodshed.

But bonobos are so communal that the tension produced by something so precious as an apple in their midst must be dispelled by a gesture of community. In this case, everyone gets to cool off with a little sexual comfort from their neighbor. Then, self-interest replaced by a certain yummy group feeling, they settle down to share the apple.

-- Stephen Snyder at SexualityResoursce.com

It's difficult not to consider for a moment how the world might look if this were the path that human evolution took. It seems beyond Utopian, doesn't it?