There are seriously multiple articles on why sex is best on Thursday (don't ask how I got there). So let's riff on that and go through some sex/gender inspired links for the day (a quickie, if you will): The Republican witch hunt of Susan Rice is over as she withdraws...
Last year Nate Silver posted numbers going back to 1972. Bottom line: for Obama and Romney to be running roughly even at this point tracks with 2004--and represents an improvement for the Democrat...
Follow Mitt Romney's storm tips on twitter. Remember that Sandy has already killed over 60 people in the Caribbean, and that many of those deaths are tied (in one way or another) to the unequal...
My daughter is very anxious that Mitt Romney might win the election. Before that she was worried about the European monetary crisis and what might happen if Greece defaults. This suggest that the...
As might (or might not) be clear from recent activity, we're getting an increasing number of requests for guest postings, guest blogging, and links.I'll put up a permanent "policies" pages soonish, but for now:Yes, we love love love guest posts. However, we are biased toward academics, academics in training, and cognate types. Just send one of us a nice email and we'll see if we can make something happen.We are extremely flattered when we get out-of-the-blue requests from people who want to guest post, but the procedure for bringing on guest bloggers is one of those "salami factory"things......
I'm out of town, so this is the best I can do. And since one post with Dunecat isn't enough....Climate:'Tis the summer of depressing climate news. Today is Greenland edition (via). Syria:Dan Byman urges full US support for the rebels. Rob Farley discusses CJ Chivers analysis of the impact of rebel-deployed IEDs on the Syrian army.Russia:A long essay by Greg Afinogenov on Putin's Russia and current protests there. Afinogenov argues that Putinism isn't so much authoritarian as "post-democratic" (via). American Grand Strategy:Celeste Ward Gventer argues that maintaing America's position...
The International AIDS Society conference began Sunday in DC, the first time the conference has been held in the United States since 1990 because of the now-lifted travel ban on HIV+ people coming to the U.S. That means that 25,000 activists, researchers and clinicians have converged on DC and what seems like a fanciful goal - an AIDS-free generation. Given that donor foreign assistance budgets are increasingly constrained around the world, what gives advocates such hope that a renewed push against AIDS will be successful? For a disease that lacks a cure, does an AIDS-free generation means...
Jean-Baptiste Jeangène Vilmer (writing at the Fair Observer) argues that there's no double-standard problem because the Libyan intervention did not establish or reflect a generalized responsibility to protect.The R2P is a slogan that has some media efficacy but a rather dubious legal existence. That does not prevent the majority of observers asserting that it was the basis of Resolution 1973, authorizing intervention in Libya. That is not true either. The Resolution reiterated the internal responsibility “of the Libyan authorities to protect the Libyan population”, but nowhere did it speak...
The logic of inappropriatenessBelow, Scott Weiner argues that Carly Rae Jepsen's song "Call Me Maybe" is an illustration of the dynamics of standard game-theory models, specifically the prisoner's dilemma and stag hunt. Weiner assumes that Jepsen is a rational actor, that both Jepsen and her beau are better off being together than being apart or with different partners, and that Jepsen is rationally choosing to communicate her availability to facilitate their coming together. I share these assumptions, but as I demonstrate Weiner misses the key points of the song. If, as Weiner suggests,...
This is a guest post by Scott Weiner, a PhD student in Political Science at George Washington University.One of this summer's most popular hit singles is "Call Me Maybe" by pop artist Carly Rae Jepsen. In the song, Carly attempts to score a date with an attractive male by giving him her number and asking him to call her in order to set up the outing. This strategy is eventually successful, and while the male "took his time with the call," Carly "takes no time with the fall." This outcome is puzzling given that existing accounts of the scenario might predict a sub-optimal outcome given...
Globalization of Law:Honduras looking into limited outsourcing of criminal justice to Britain (via).David Weigel draws from Cliff's Global Right Wing in an article on the NRA's quest to globalize gun rights (via Dan Drezner).Economic Armageddon, Round II:If you haven't been paying attention to what's happening in Europe, you should be. Education:Chris Lehmann at Practical Theory: "there are a lot of powerful folks right now who are advocating for a pedagogy that they do not want for their own children. Some of these powerful people are running networks of schools that have a pedagogical...
The Punjab Assembly displays a sophisticated view of ontology. Or it just makes your head hurt.Ostrich, a heavy flightless bird of African origin, was officially declared ‘an animal’ on Wednesday when Punjab Assembly passed a bill overruling the objections raised by the Punjab governor who had refused to sign it, saying, it was a ‘bird’ covered under the definition of exotic species not native to Pakistan.This move isn't quite as weird in the context of relevant statutes. And it definitely has Foucaultian resonances.“As the Ostrich comes under the definition of exotic animal, being wildlife...