As has been widely reported in the Western media, on Friday, China’s state media finally officially announced two changes in human rights policies: (a) an end of the “Laojiao” policy of “re-education through labor” and (b) a change in the one-child policy in China,...
Changing apartments last weekend really brought home the fact that I have been flying way too much lately. I counted 18 long haul toothbrushes and countless little mini toothpaste tubes. If you...
Secretary of State John Kerry signed the Arms Trade Treaty last week, which can be read here in its entirety. Humanitarian disarmament groups hail this as a victory. Guns rights groups call it a...
*via George Takei see also his new book.
Hi Duck friends. Here are some links to start your week... Liao Yiwu served four years in prison for reciting his poem "Massacre" in memory of the 1989 Tienanmen Square protests. His horrifying prison memoir reminds us that "China remains a prison of the mind: prosperity without liberty." More importantly, the memoir show the ways in which the Leninist-capitalist Chinese system of government and economy is replicated inside the prison. The poet's memoir is a portrait of China painted in shit, but it is a rather telling portrait nonetheless. Mong Palatino argues that the trans-boundary...
Although I have made many of the points I am about to make in comments posted on Phil's and Eric's posts about rational choice theory over the past week, what I want to do at this point is to pull the whole thing together and make clear just why I still maintain that rational choice theory -- and indeed, the broader decision-theoretical world of which rational choice theory constitutes just a particular, heavily-mathematized province -- endorses and naturalizes a form of selfishness that is ultimately corrosive of human community and detrimental to the very idea of moral action. This is not...
Robert Lieber takes another swing at the declinism debate. Kyrgyzstan moves forward on evicting the US from Manas. US suspends Bangladesh's trade privileges. China shifts policy on the Dali Lama. Also commits combat troops to Mali. David Schorr on nuclear zero. And also: Kindred W. takes on Dan Drezner's critique of the foreign-policy commentariat. In case you missed it, the next stop for the giant yellow Duck is... Pittsburgh.
In 1998, while I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Ecuador, I decided to apply for a PhD program in political science. I had no idea what I was doing. Though I had majored in political science at UNC-Chapel Hill, graduating in 1993, I had a limited understanding of the "discipline." I barely knew what journals were. I had limited access to information about programs, with no access to the internet on a regular basis (I had a dial-up connection once a month or so if I took a two hour bus ride). In the end, two of the four programs I applied to required prior Master's and I didn't get in to those...
What can I say? It was a good week in the US for gender minorities. (On the other hand, this new list of "most influential people in armed violence reduction" includes only 25 women.) In other lighthearted nerd fare, this inspired the scientist in me who must complete the method(ologie)s appendix for my new book on human security issues by 5pm or (spontaneously com)bust. About that: here is a neglected human security threat I did not think to focus on in my book: mega-solar flares. Earth beware. Speaking of things cosmic, data streaming back to Earth from Voyager I is changing everything...
Paypal has just launched PayPal Galactic "to figure out what currency can be used and how commerce should be regulated off Earth" once all the space travel and tourism picks up." More from MercuryNews.com: "...serious challenges such as space law -- an uncertain legal area still in its infancy -- concerns about pollution and the lack of government regulations could slow the commercialization of space, said Jill Tarter, of the SETI Institute." ICRC releases its first position paper on Cyber Warfare. ICG's latest report on Syria: Syria's Metastasising Conflicts Egypt is unraveling and...
Aside from some abortion rights Texas senate filibuster coverage, this week's morning linkage is all about climate change and President Obama's Tuesday speech at Georgetown University. The announced plan aims to use existing executive branch authority, including the EPA's ability to regulate pollutants under the Clean Air Act, to initiate measures to control carbon pollution and other greenhouse gases. This move obviates the need for additional legislative action, which isn't going to happen with this Congress. Beyond the headline announcement for new controls on power plants, the plan has a...
Yesterday was an exciting day in American politics, featuring legislative time-traveling, a Supreme Court turning back the clock on voting rights, and of course the invalidation of DOMA and the death-by-default of California's Prop 8. But I assume you have Facebook and that you already knew all that. Here's some items you might have missed: Former PM Kevin Rudd ousted Australian PM Julia Gillard as Labor Party leader but not (yet?) as prime minister. Question for our antipodean readers: Why isn't it the "Labour" Party? [The Diplomat] U.S. CEO held captive by PRC workers. I blame nobody in...