Governor Romney's Nutrition Czar-DesignateA small part of my portfolio at the Duck is wading into the shallow end of the conservative pool of ideas, and in that spirit I bring to you the latest contretemps over Imam Obama and his jihad against loyal, God- and YHWH-fearing Americans.If I were to walk up to you and say that control of our nation's school lunches is a key part of the Communist plot to control our precious bodily fluids, you would...
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Urban Violence Web Seminar
Especially considering that I recently criticized the human security community for failing to pay enough attention to urban violence, I'm delighted to hear of this upcoming web seminar on the topic at Harvard's Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research. These are open to the public but you must register in advance. I've done a few on topics in humanitarian law and find the format and substance quite intellectually compelling. Here's...
Wednesday Morning Linkage
The civil war continues in Syra. As does the one in Mali. Two posts at Political Violence @ a Glance. First, Ron Hassner compares "blasphemy and political violence" in 2006 and 2012. Second, Steve Saideman discusses the New York Times graphic on future border changes.Glenn Grenwald's take on the NYU/Stanford drone study. Chris Clary also tackles anti-Americanism in the Muslim world, but via a critique of the Blaydes and Lindser piece recently...
‘Kangnam Style’s Irony is Missed b/c of the Publicity Wave
<img alt="" galleryimg="no" onload="var downlevelDiv = document.getElementById('ebf10251-da25-4848-80ce-73c0ef653ceb'); downlevelDiv.innerHTML = " ";" src="https://lh5.ggpht.com/-bg7EMQVYiYs/UGAiHha-i9I/AAAAAAAAAWE/8vFAInmqY0A/videodbd98a065f32%25255B6%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" /> yeah, it’s pretty hysterical, especially when you get the underlying social critique I try to avoid K-pop on my website, because I find far too many foreigner...
Workshop + Monday Morning Linkage = Not Many Links
From Her Majesty's Explorer.My attempts to get Dan Drezner an ignoble have failed.Steve Saideman will be pleased that Sara Silverman has jumped on the voter fraud fraud bandwagon (NSFW). Frank Pasquale describes a less amusing side of the story.Plagiarism in Turkey.The Arabist takes on the delisting of the MEK. More on the epistemology of macroeconomics, from Noah Smith. This kind of reflexive sociological meta-blogging seems, well,...
Gangnam Style and IR
So North Korea has issued a "Gangnam Style" video to mock a South Korean presidential candidate, Park Guen Hye, from the ruling conservative party. According to Malaysia's The Sun Daily:"The parody, posted on the official government website Uriminzokkiri, shows a crudely photo-shopped image of Park doing the "horse-riding dance" created by South Korean rapper Psy on the original "Gangnam Style" video.The North Korean version mocks Park as a...
Saturday Morning Linkage
Mass protests against militias in Benghazi demonstrate the power of mobilization-triggers and the weakness of movements that lack proper infrastructure. Marc Lynch analyzes Newsweek's #muslimrage debacle.Chris Zambellis writes at Jamestown's China Daily Brief that Cairo is looking to China to provide it was exit options -- and hence increased leverage -- in US-Egypt relations; Prashanth Parameswaran reports on Sino-Malaysian relations; IPE Zone...
Podcast No. 9 – Interview with Kathryn Sikkink
2012 interview with Kathryn Sikkink.
Brief Friday Morning Linkage
Also Not a DuckAidan Regan: "Reflections on The Monti Python Show" (via CT).Beth Schwanke and Jenny Ottenhoff examine the party platforms for what they have to say about development policy. Dan Drezner talks about "Why Presidents Love Foreign Affairs" in the New York Times.Phil Arena is skeptical about the current tenor of "long peace" argumentation. And he has an alternative. It does seem as if a legal cartel is colluding to protect law...
Friday Nerd Blogging Actual
They are here... Westeros re-election campaign posters for your procrastinating pleasure. For some excellent commentary from the campaign trail, I am linking back to Robert Farley and Matthew Duss' analysis of recent events.Also, weigh in on Scott Eric Kaufman's GoT syllabuilding effort here, in which he unconscionably proposes to force hapless undergraduates to read only the Westerosi chapters of the novel, skipping all the Dothraki-based...
RNC: Don’t Speak in a Publicly-Built Facility when you Attack Government – D’oh!
I got bogged down with NK for awhile, so I missed a chance to comment on the RNC and the US election more generally. I have some thoughts after the break, but a Democrat friend of mine wrote the following, which is a pretty good first draft of the GOP’s problems I think, in this election cycle:On the whole, I found the Republican convention disgusting and not simply because I disagree with their policies. They substantively are disconnected...
Data is not the problem. Data is not the solution.
Data is not good government. Even when it wears a green eyeshade.The Wonkblog view of the world presumes that social problems should be met with policy solutions, and that the best way to analyze policies is to have better data. To an extent, I agree. All else being true, better data does make for better policy.But that is a trivial conclusion. Politics is not policy. Indeed, data isn't politics either. And what Wonkblog provides is frequently...