What Are Republicans Complaining About?

Amy Davidson looks at Joe Biden's, "They're going to put y'all back in chains" line from last week:

Biden later said that he has been referring to the frequent use of shackle imagery by Republicans talking about reducing regulations on business. Indeed, CNN came up with a whole highlights reel of Republicans using that phrase, including Paul Ryan (“We believe a renewed commitment to limited government will unshackle our economy”) and John Boehner (“unshackle the private sector”), who has also talked about economic freedom and slavery. CNN, though, said that Biden’s language was different, “given where he was and who he was talking to”—that is, an audience that included many black people, in a town that had been the capital of the Confederacy. There is something awkward, though, about the argument that something that works as a metaphor for a general audience becomes toxic because it’s Danville—weren’t Boehner and Ryan also addressing black Americans? What was confusing was whether Biden’s critics felt that he was being racially insensitive or racially inflammatory. Of course, slavery and the decades of imperfect freedom that followed are no secret, to black or white audiences (or mixed ones, as in Danville), and neither is the fact that medical bills, unemployment, and student loans can leave one (metaphorically) indentured. This is not to let Biden off entirely: one does wonder if, in another context, the imagery would have struck him as useful. The offensiveness here is not that he used an image associated slavery but that he subjected his audience to rhetoric as simplistic and reductive as anything Mitt Romney writes on his whiteboard. But the real complaint seems to be that Biden was being inflammatory—not that Biden and Obama are angry themselves, but that they might make other people mad at Republicans. Artur Davis, a former Democratic Congressman who is now a Republican (and will speak at the G.O.P. convention), summed up the accusation by saying that Biden was accusing conservatives of “racial viciousness.”

I don't understand why Republicans can race bait to white people but Democrats get screamed at for similar things with black people.  Biden gave a poor line there, but in his own awkward way, he was making a point that Republicans are using outrageous language to whine about business regulation, when businesses have screwed lots of people in the past few years, and letting businesses run wild isn't going to make anything better for anybody.  And I can't really feel sorry for the folks who used the Willy Horton ad to scare people, or who go to Philadelphia, Mississippi and talk about states rights.  As Lee Atwater discussed how to use the English language without saying the obvious, he demonstrated Republican race-baiting at its worst:

Atwater: As to the whole Southern strategy that Harry S. Dent, Sr. and others put together in 1968, opposition to the Voting Rights Act would have been a central part of keeping the South. Now [the new Southern Strategy of Ronald Reagan] doesn't have to do that. All you have to do to keep the South is for Reagan to run in place on the issues he's campaigned on since 1964 and that's fiscal conservatism, balancing the budget, cut taxes, you know, the whole cluster.

Questioner: But the fact is, isn't it, that Reagan does get to the Wallace voter and to the racist side of the Wallace voter by doing away with legal services, by cutting down on food stamps?

Atwater: You start out in 1954 by saying, "Nigger, nigger, nigger." By 1968 you can't say "nigger" — that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states' rights and all that stuff. You're getting so abstract now [that] you're talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you're talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites. And subconsciously maybe that is part of it. I'm not saying that. But I'm saying that if it is getting that abstract, and that coded, that we are doing away with the racial problem one way or the other. You follow me — because obviously sitting around saying, "We want to cut this," is much more abstract than even the busing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than "Nigger, nigger."

This has been Republican strategy throughout my lifetime.  The fact that blacks vote for Democrats has much less to do with Obama being black than with Republicans portraying blacks as the enemy to this country.  If Joe Biden ruffled some feathers and hurt some Republicans' feelings, so be it. I would like him to take a little higher road while campaigning, but Joe Biden will be Joe Biden.

NASA Photo of the Day

August 16:

NGC 6888: The Crescent Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: J-P Metsävainio (Astro Anarchy) Explanation: NGC 6888, also known as the Crescent Nebula, is a cosmic bubble about 25 light-years across, blown by winds from its central, bright, massive star. This colorful portrait of the nebula uses narrow band image data combined in the Hubble palette. It shows emission from sulfur, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms in the wind-blown nebula in red, green and blue hues. NGC 6888's central star is classified as a Wolf-Rayet star (WR 136). The star is shedding its outer envelope in a strong stellar wind, ejecting the equivalent of the Sun's mass every 10,000 years. The nebula's complex structures are likely the result of this strong wind interacting with material ejected in an earlier phase. Burning fuel at a prodigious rate and near the end of its stellar life this star should ultimately go out with a bang in a spectacular supernova explosion. Found in the nebula rich constellation Cygnus, NGC 6888 is about 5,000 light-years away.

USS Constitution To Set Sail

CBS:

The world's oldest commissioned warship will sail under its own power for just the second time in more than a century to commemorate the battle that won it the nickname "Old Ironsides."
The USS Constitution, which was first launched in 1797, will be tugged from its berth in Boston Harbor on Sunday to the main deepwater pathway into the harbor. It will then set out to open seas for a 10-minute cruise.
The short trip marks the day two centuries ago when the Constitution bested the British frigate HMS Guerriere in a fierce battle during the War of 1812. It follows a three-year restoration project and is the first time the Constitution has been to sea on its own since its 200th birthday in 1997.
Before that, it hadn't sailed under its own power since 1881. The Constitution is periodically tugged into the harbor for historical display.
Chief Petty Officer Frank Neely, a Constitution spokesman and crew member, said the crew wants to honor and preserve the Constitution with Sunday's sail.

That ship is very neat, but it really seems like an odd assignment for somebody in the Navy to be manning a tourist attraction.

The Dieppe Guinea Pigs

August 19, 1942:

The Dieppe Raid, also known as the Battle of Dieppe, Operation Rutter and, later, Operation Jubilee, was a Second World War Allied attack on the German-occupied port of Dieppe. The raid took place on the northern coast of France on 19 August 1942. The assault began at 5:00 a.m. and by 10:50 a.m. the Allied commanders were forced to call a retreat. Over 6,000 infantrymen, predominantly Canadian, were supported by limited Royal Navy and large Royal Air Force contingents.
The objective of the raid was discussed by Churchill in his war memoirs: "I thought it most important that a large-scale operation should take place this summer, and military opinion seemed unanimous that until an operation on that scale was undertaken, no responsible general would take the responsibility of planning the main invasion". Churchill continues: "In discussion with Admiral Mountbatten it became clear that time did not permit a new large-scale operations to be mounted during the summer (after Rutter had been cancelled), but that Dieppe could be remounted (the new code-name "Jubilee") within a month, provided extraordinary steps were taken to ensure secrecy. For this reason no records were kept but, after the Canadian authorities and the Chiefs of Staff had given their approval, I personally went through the plans with the C.I.G.S., Admiral Mountbatten, and the Naval Force Commander, Captain J. Hughes-Hallett." Objectives included seizing and holding a major port for a short period, both to prove it was possible and to gather intelligence from prisoners and captured materials, while assessing the German responses. The Allies also wanted to destroy coastal defences, port structures and all strategic buildings. The raid could have given a morale boost to the troops, Resistance, and general public, while assuring the Soviet Union of the commitment of the United Kingdom and the United States. Research published in 2010 proposes that the Dieppe raid was also a "pinch" raid for the Naval Intelligence Division (NID) overseen by Ian Fleming. A group of No. 30 Commandos were sent into Dieppe to steal code books, setting sheets and a German-made Enigma code machine for encryption and decryption of secret messages.
No major objectives of the raid were accomplished. A total of 3,623 of the 6,086 men (almost 60%) who made it ashore were either killed, wounded, or captured. The Royal Air Force failed to lure the Luftwaffe into open battle, and lost 96 aircraft (at least 32 to flak or accidents), compared to 48 lost by the Luftwaffe. The Royal Navy lost 33 landing craft and one destroyer. The events at Dieppe later influenced preparations for the North African (Operation Torch) and Normandy landings (Operation Overlord).

Well, it wasn't as large of a failure as Churchill's Gallipoli campaign, but the Dieppe Raid resulted in a stunning 68% casualty rate.  That is amazingly bad.

One Episode X-Files Characters

The Awl looks at now-better-known actors who made one episode appearances on The X-Files.  One interesting one:

JACK BLACK

Appeared: Season 3, Episode 3, as Bart ’Zero’ Liquori
Character profile: Black plays Zero, a dimwitted teen who works at the local arcade in the small town of Connerville, Oklahoma. His character is similar to Seth Green’s in that he says “huh,” “what” and “um yeah” a lot. His best friend Darren has recently gained powers that allow him to conjure lightning on command, which translates into Darren killing a bunch of people for silly reasons such as stealing his Street Fighter game while he was in the bathroom. The writers insinuate that Black's character drinks (to get drunk) a lot because in one scene he’s chugging a beer, and as far as “The X-Files” goes, that’s all the character development a viewer deserves.
Did he live or die? Casualty of the truth. Darren convinces himself, incorrectly, that Black has been helping Mulder and Scully with their investigation. He proceeds to kill Black outside the arcade as a really great and angsty song, "Hey Man, Nice Shot" by the band Filter, plays in the background.

I love the guy killing people with lightning for ticking  him off storyline.  Man, just reading through those stories makes me remember how weird that show was.

Talking Reason To Israel

YNetnews, via nc links:

Once every few years Israel needs a slap in the face to remember where it stands in the world. On Tuesday it was US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey who assumed the role of the responsible adult and slapped Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, the duo orchestrating the national hysteria surrounding the possibility of an attack in Iran.

Israel can "delay but not destroy Iran's nuclear capabilities," he said while sitting next to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who visited Israel a few weeks ago to allay the concerns of the leadership in Jerusalem. Dempsey's comments should be taken seriously, as should the stern message conveyed by Panetta, the White House and the American security establishment: If we can't reason with you, the Israelis, we will have to get tough.
The general's remark was not a slip-of-the-tongue. It was a calculated statement from a general of Irish descent and character. His words constituted a slap in Israel's face, a punch in the face, and a kick to the most sensitive part of the body. To be more precise, the US slammed Israel's head against the wall and said: "Shut up. Stop babbling about Iran. Without us there is not much you can do, and don't assume for a second that we are dancing to your tune. You shouldn't do anything stupid, and stop driving the entire world crazy."

The furor over Iran is completely overblown.  While the regime is made up of religious fanatics, they are not irrational religious fanatics.  They are not going to attack Israel with nuclear bombs.  Israel is still by far the strongest nation in the Middle East, but their paranoia is extremely dangerous.  It has been completely irresponsible on the part of the Republican party to fan the paranoia and promise their support for anything that Israel does.  Republicans have time and again sided with a foreign country against the interests of their own country.  How do they wrap themselves in the American flag and declare themselves more patriotic than Democrats?  They are complete asshole morons.  At least somebody will tell Israel they need to act in their own best interests and chill out about Iran.

Fermat's Mysteries

Ariane Coffin remembers Fermat on August 17, his birthday:

Fermat is best known for his little theorem and last theorem. Fermat’s little theorem states that if p is a prime number, then for any integer a, the number a^p − a is an integer multiple of p. He introduced this theorem in 1640 in a letter to a friend, which read:

“Et cette proposition est généralement vraie en toutes progressions et en tous nombres premiers; de quoi je vous envoierois la démonstration, si je n’appréhendois d’être trop long.”
(And this proposition is generally true for all progressions and for all prime numbers; the proof of which I would send to you, if I were not afraid to be too long.)

And on that cliffhanger, Fermat’s little theorem was left unproven until 1683 by Leibniz and again in 1736 by Euler.
As for Fermat’s last theorem, Fermat scribbled it in 1637 in the margin of a book:

“Cubum autem in duos cubos, aut quadratoquadratum in duos quadratoquadratos, et generaliter nullam in infinitum ultra quadratum potestatem in duos eiusdem nominis fas est dividere cuius rei demonstrationem mirabilem sane detexi. Hanc marginis exiguitas non caperet.”
(It is impossible to separate a cube into two cubes, or a fourth power into two fourth powers, or in general, any power higher than the second, into two like powers. I have discovered a truly marvelous proof of this, which this margin is too narrow to contain.)

In other words, no three positive integers a, b, and c can satisfy the equation aⁿ + bⁿ = cⁿ for any integer value of n greater than two. Perhaps the most deceptive of all mathematical theorems, Fermat’s last theorem looks simple but quickly became mathematics’ holy grail. Centuries of geniuses unsuccessfully attempted to discover a proof, let alone one elegant enough to be Fermat’s alleged marvelous proof.
Fermat’s last theorem was finally proven by Andrew Wiles, a professor at Oxford University, in 1994 (published in 1995). However, Wiles’ very long and very complex proof used principles of modern mathematics that were completely unknown and unimaginable to Fermat at the time, insinuating that Wiles’ proof was clearly not the same as Fermat’s.
So while Fermat’s last theorem was proven at last, the mystery remains. Is it possible Fermat devised an elegant proof that no one in the world could fathom for centuries thereafter? Did he possess a proof but later realized it was incorrect? Did he outright lie, time after time, about having proofs to his theorems in order to look smarter?

That is really funny.  You have to say that even if he did just lie about having proofs, in fact, he was right.  He probably cranked through enough permutations to convince himself that nobody else was ever going to come up with an example to prove him wrong.  I may have to check out the book, Fermat's Enigma.

Republican Liars Piss Off Bob Lutz

From James Fallows:

Bob Lutz, a long-time titan of the auto industry, has in recent years devoted himself to the development of GM's electric car, the Chevy Volt. This is what he says in an interview with Charged, a magazine covering the electric-vehicle business. For context it's worth noting that Lutz, a former Marine Corps aviator, is on the right-wing side of the normal U.S. political scale (emphasis added).

The level of owner satisfaction is extremely high. Quality and reliability is extremely high. But the downside is that the political extreme right has been distorting the facts of the Volt.

The Volt passed the government crash tests with a five-star safety rating, and didn't roll over. But the testing protocol requires that even if the vehicle doesn't roll, it has to go through the rotisserie maneuver, which is five minutes on one side, five minutes on its back, five minutes on the other side, and then back on its wheels again. At some point during the rotisserie, some fluid leaked out, and three weeks later caused a short in the battery and the vehicle caught fire. I mean, how safe it that? Three weeks should give people adequate time to exit the vehicle.

And what did all these right-wing commentators make of that? "Chevy Volts catch fire." All of them were talking about "yeah, they all catch fire. GM's gonna recall 'em. There's just another Obama-inspired program - a misguided socialist automotive policy. And not only did they spend a lot of your hard-earned tax dollars creating this vehicle, but now they put a $7500 tax credit on it."

Well, there are a couple of things wrong with all those statements. First of all, the Volt was my idea in 2006. We showed the first prototype at the Detroit Auto Show in 2007. Obama wasn't elected until late 2008, so Obama could not be the progenitor of the Chevy Volt. And what they also conveniently forget is that the $7500 tax credit for electric vehicles was enacted under the Bush administration....

And these people are supposed to be for American jobs? They did such reputational damage to the Volt that the demand dipped to a very low level. So GM did the right thing, which was to idle production for 5 weeks and lay off workers. So here are these right-wing pundits who are always talking about jobs, jobs, jobs. Actually through their irresponsible reporting on the Chevrolet Volt they managed to put American workers out of their jobs for five weeks! It annoys me to no end. ...
 
As a conservative myself politically, it annoys me no end to see deliberate lying and misinformation coming out where they will trash an outstanding American product and do damage to American employment just to get at Obama. That's just plain unethical.

Wait, people are noticing that Republicans will lie and cheat to win elections, and will even intentionally damage the economy and screw innocent people to give themselves a better chance to do so.  If a Republican president was in the White House in February 2009, we would have seen a massive stimulus plan, because Republicans wouldn't have wanted any blame to fall on their President.  These guys have cut spending and done everything they could to make sure that the economy would struggle.  They've brainwashed a bunch of small businessmen into believing that the government is the root of all their problems, and then those businessmen are convinced they can't hire people until some idiot Republican is elected.  It is insane.  As Lutz says, these guys are lying assholes who don't give a fuck about Americans.

Hey, You Still Have My Linear Algebra Book

Megan Garber highlights a really funny exchange with the Curiosity rover team:

Yesterday afternoon, a group of the scientists and engineers orchestrating NASA's Curiosity mission got together to do an "Ask Me Anything" on Reddit. They got -- and answered -- questions about the mission itself, about the engineering that went into the Curiosity rover, about the lifestyle the mission requires of them. (For example: They reset their alarm clocks by 40 minutes every day to keep Mars time.)
The many exchanges of the AMA were, unsurprisingly, informative and illustrative and educational. But my favorite was, practically speaking, none of those things. It went like this:

That is hilarious. She goes on to point out that with robots doing the space exploration, the NASA folks don't seem as heroic as the old astronauts do.  Anyway, the work the engineers do is damn impressive.

Climate Change And Crop Production

Big Picture Agriculture points to an article on climate change and plant growth:

Ken Caldeira (Stanford) wrote “The Great Climate Experiment – How far can we push the planet?” for the September 2012 issue of Scientific American. In my opinion this was an outstanding article and I liked his style of presentation from his huge picture outlook on the amount of carbon which humanity will most likely continue to extract from the Earth’s crust, to the maps, to his comments about food.
“In a high CO2 world, plants can grow more using the same amount of water. … The outlook may be for increased crop productivity overall, with increases in the north exceeding the reductions near the equator. Global warming may not decrease overall food supply, but it may give more to the rich and less to the poor.” (Statement based upon geography.) “Climate change may usher in a world of weeds.”

Some of the bean fields are starting to look like a world of weeds, as the marestail gets heavier and heavier.  The possible outcomes of climate change are innumerable, but I have a feeling they won't be overly positive.