http://harpers.org/rss/index.xml Harper's Magazine: Founded June 1850. en-us Copyright Harper's Magazine Tue, 15 Dec 2009 15:39:03 -0400 http://www.harpers.org/media/image/Harpers_305x100.gif http://harpers.org http://harpers.org/archive/2009/11/0082723 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/11/0082723 Frederick Seidel Tue, 15 Dec 2009 15:35:01 -0400 My father was a hunchback. He had an accident on his bicycle when he was a child, which ended with his falling into a coal cellar, a fall of thirty feet from the sidewalk. There was an irony in this in that his family was in the coal business and he himself became the coal baron of the large industrial city where he lived, the foremost city in America for making shoes and beer. He had been an athletic daredevil of a kid, and he stayed athletic despite his injury. He was also a stoic. When the accident happened, and he fell to the stone floor far below, he lay there for hours, twelve years old, and then picked himself up, with a broken back, somehow got back up to the street, and walked across the city to his house, where he told no one what had happened. He walked with a broken back all the way home, where the only person who noticed that something was wrong with him was his older brother. He was made to go to a doctor, who put him in bed and put him in a tight corset, a torture chamber my father refused to wear. So the story went. My father never talked about the accident, not once. His refusal to keep the corset on, so the story goes, resulted in his hunch and his stunted growth. He had the large fine hands of a tall man, and a large handsome head, on his shortened body. He remained a gifted athlete, as I said, excelling at handball and golf, quick hands, good eyes, fast of foot. I used to marvel at the dozens of custom-made suits he had, which stylishly disguised the hunch. Once, when I was in Paris, eighteen years old, and tempted to buy a motorcycle, but needing money from home to do so, my uncle who had heard about this pleaded with me not to. My father, he said, would never bring it up, but his childhood accident would mean he would be terribly concerned for me. The bike I was thinking of buying belonged to a friend. Before I could buy it, I crashed on it, riding as a passenger behind my friend, with a beautiful girl squeezed in between us, three on a bike, a Triumph, going far too fast, all of us drunk, around Place de la Concorde, and slipping out of control on the wet cobbles at 4:00 a.m. Pardner, don’t get on a motorcycle with drink in you. . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/hbc-90006237 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/hbc-90006237 Scott Horton Tue, 15 Dec 2009 13:01:26 -0400 I was in Europe meeting with a crowd of academics and NATO officers when Barack Obama delivered his Nobel Prize acceptance speech in Oslo. I had the impression that his speech was followed closely and received very well, but also that there was some anxiety over whether Obama’s conduct would match his words. That was particularly the case among those committed to the North Atlantic alliance—a military organization that has been the cornerstone of U.S. security efforts since the conclusion of World War II, and which today seems struggling for a purpose. Obama did not articulate a purpose for the alliance in his speech—it would indeed have been the wrong place and time for such a step—but he did begin to lay the foundations for that. . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/hbc-90006238 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/hbc-90006238 Ken Silverstein Tue, 15 Dec 2009 12:56:14 -0400 Unemployment stands at over 10 percent, meaningful health care reform is collapsing, and the banks have reaped huge profits thanks to the Obama administration’s policies. Naturally, liberal bloggers are upset–particularly Matt Taibbi. . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/hbc-90006239 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/hbc-90006239 Ken Silverstein Tue, 15 Dec 2009 09:47:00 -0400 From the Daily Mail: . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/hbc-90006236 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/hbc-90006236 Ken Silverstein Tue, 15 Dec 2009 09:45:04 -0400 From the New York Times: . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/WeeklyReview2009-12-15 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/WeeklyReview2009-12-15 Theodore Ross Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0400 President Barack Obama accepted his Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo and used his acceptance speech to justify American military dominance, imperial conquest, and the ethical value of violence. The United States, he said, is “morally justified” in attacking other nations, and is in fact the “standard bearer” for wars that have “helped underwrite global security” with “the blood of our citizens and the strength of our arms.” NY Times Obama's domestic approval rating declined to 47 percent, Fox News via Drudge Karl Rove predicted that the Democrats would shortly cease to be “masters of the political universe,” Wall Street Journal and the New York Times suggested that Obama and his wife consider “closing the kimono” on their private lives. NY Times In Iran college students staged protests against the government, chanting “Death to the dictator,” and “This is the last warning,” and burning images of Ayatollah Khomeini. NY Times Danish security forces completed preparations for the Copenhagen climate summit by constructing security fences, establishing a detention center in a former beer warehouse, and spending a total of $122 million to ensure that conference attendees will not be forced to interact with the public. NY Times Kenyans, considered Africa's worst-dressed people, were embracing fashion; BBC Dubai's stock market fell 6 percent; BBC and in the Pakistani city of Lahore, simultaneous bombs blasts at a bank and a police station killed at least ten people. BBC In Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, commander of U.S. forces, and Karl Eikenberry, the U.S. ambassador, were reportedly looking for their “happy place,” NY Times and in Iraq, the announcement by the Presidency Council that parliamentary elections would take place on March 6 was immediately followed by five bomb blasts in Baghdad--at least three of them by suicide attackers--killing more than 120 people. At a mosque in northeast Baghdad, a woman, her arms and legs burned by an explosion, shouted, “Are we cursed? When will we be finished with this election issue?” NY Times Myanmar and Vietnam pledged to cooperate in their efforts to suppress religion. Vietnam Plus . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/hbc-90006231 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/hbc-90006231 Mon, 14 Dec 2009 17:28:00 -0400 . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/hbc-90006226 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/hbc-90006226 Scott Horton Mon, 14 Dec 2009 16:35:30 -0400 The mounting disclosures surrounding Blackwater and its extralegal relationships with the Central Intelligence Agency and the Joint Special Operations Command demonstrate ably the privileged role of private security contractors in the Bush era. This $100 billion dollar industry expanded dramatically in the last decade, largely as a result of the privatization of important aspects of U.S. national security. The heavy involvement of Blackwater in highly classified operations may explain why the Bush Administration was determined to immunize them and other security contractors from legal accountability: they “knew too much,” and a prosecution might lead to disclosure of operations the Bush team preferred to keep secret. . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/hbc-90006215 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/hbc-90006215 Scott Horton Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:27:51 -0400 Today marks the twentieth anniversary of the death of the Russian physicist and democracy crusader Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov. To mark the occasion, I put six questions to historian Jay Bergman about his new book published by Cornell University Press, Meeting the Demands of Reason, a biography of Sakharov that focuses on the development of his political and social thinking. . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/hbc-90006228 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/hbc-90006228 Ken Silverstein Mon, 14 Dec 2009 10:29:38 -0400 From ProPublica: . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/hbc-90006229 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/hbc-90006229 Ken Silverstein Mon, 14 Dec 2009 10:21:56 -0400 If you missed this last week, here’s Robert Reich’s take: . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/hbc-90006192 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/hbc-90006192 Mon, 14 Dec 2009 07:06:19 -0400 Sometimes one reads or hears about a crisis of rational thought—that rational thought is impotent when confronted by the complexity and irrationality of human life. I am convinced that such doubts are unfounded. Historically, it has been the representatives of science—that is, of rational thought—who have recognized and tried to solve the problems of economic and social regulation, environmental protection, pollution control, the management of irreplaceable resources, population planning, the maintenance of an open society with the free exchange of information, and disarmament including the control of nuclear weapons. . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/hbc-90006218 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/hbc-90006218 Sun, 13 Dec 2009 01:29:40 -0400 Per me si va ne la città dolente, per me si va ne l’etterno dolore, per me si va tra la perduta gente. Giustizia mosse il mio alto fattore: fecemi la divina podestate, la somma sapïenza e ‘l primo amore Dinanzi a me non fuor cose create se non etterne, e io etterno duro. Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch’intrate. . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/hbc-90006135 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/hbc-90006135 Sat, 12 Dec 2009 00:48:57 -0400 L’inferno dei viventi non è qualcosa che sarà; se ce n’è uno, è quello che è già qui, l’inferno che abitiamo tutti i giorni, che formiamo stando insieme. Due modi ci sono per non soffrirne. Il primo riesce facile a molti: accettare l’inferno e diventarne parte fino al punto di non vederlo più. Il secondo è rischioso ed esige attenzione e apprendimento continui: cercare e saper riconoscere chi e cosa, in mezzo all’inferno, non è inferno, e farlo durare, e dargli spazio. . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/hbc-90006222 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/hbc-90006222 Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:07:28 -0400 . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/hbc-90006224 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/hbc-90006224 Mr. Fish Fri, 11 Dec 2009 17:49:33 -0400 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/hbc-90006221 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/hbc-90006221 Scott Horton Fri, 11 Dec 2009 16:51:33 -0400 Federal prosecutors who brought a controversial corruption prosecution against trial lawyer Paul Minor and two Mississippi judges, Wes Teel and John Whitfield, suffered a one-two punch in federal courts this week. The result is that Minor, Teel, and Whitfield are now all likely to be freed. . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/hbc-90006220 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/hbc-90006220 Scott Horton Fri, 11 Dec 2009 11:56:14 -0400 James Risen and Mark Mazzetti of the New York Times continue the disclosures about Blackwater Worldwide, now called Xe Services: . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/hbc-90006213 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/hbc-90006213 Thu, 10 Dec 2009 17:59:32 -0400 . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/hbc-90006209 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/hbc-90006209 Ken Silverstein Thu, 10 Dec 2009 12:07:50 -0400 Robert Kagan, one of the intellectual architects of the Iraq War, is swooning over Obama’s speech. That’s scary: . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/hbc-90006208 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/hbc-90006208 Ken Silverstein Thu, 10 Dec 2009 11:37:53 -0400 From Politico: . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/hbc-90006206 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/hbc-90006206 Wed, 09 Dec 2009 18:32:29 -0400 . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/hbc-90006204 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/hbc-90006204 Scott Horton Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:25:02 -0400 The Supreme Court heard a group of appeals on Monday that included convicted press baron Conrad Black, convicted Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling, and Bruce Weyrauch, an Alaskan legislator facing a corruption charge. The cases have united a broad coalition against the Justice Department: the U.S. Chamber of Commerce joins hands with the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, for instance. Although the cases raise fundamental questions about the fairness and judgment of Justice Department prosecutors, they are likely to be resolved on a highly technical question: is the honest services fraud statute unconstitutionally vague? Congress adopted the statute in 1988 to reverse a Supreme Court decision that insisted on a very narrow reading of the fraud statute. The new language, codified at 18 U.S.C. § 1346, is simple: “the term ‘scheme or artifice to defraud’ includes a scheme or artifice to deprive another of the intangible right of honest services.” . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/hbc-90006205 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/hbc-90006205 Ken Silverstein Wed, 09 Dec 2009 14:38:03 -0400 She never learned what a “czar” was while studying at Oxford. From the Daily Show: . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/hbc-90006203 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/hbc-90006203 Ken Silverstein Wed, 09 Dec 2009 10:02:57 -0400 From Public Citizen: . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/hbc-90006201 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/hbc-90006201 Tue, 08 Dec 2009 17:03:52 -0400 . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/hbc-90006200 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/hbc-90006200 Scott Horton Tue, 08 Dec 2009 13:54:09 -0400 Christopher Soghoian is a graduate student at Indiana University busily working on his Ph.D. dissertation addressing public policy issues relating to surveillance. In the course of his work he discovered something startling: a single telecommunications service provider, Sprint Nextel, has provided law enforcement authorities with the GPS coordinates of its customers some eight million times—apparently without its customers knowing anything about it. The information came in the course of remarks delivered by Paul W. Taylor, a Sprint executive at the October 11-13, 2009 conference of ISS World America, an organization for law enforcement surveillance support systems. . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/hbc-90006199 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/hbc-90006199 Scott Horton Tue, 08 Dec 2009 10:45:25 -0400 Last night, I discussed the Seton Hall review of a military investigation into three suspicious deaths at Gitmo with Keith Olbermann on MSNBC: . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/WeeklyReview2009-12-08 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/WeeklyReview2009-12-08 Rafe Bartholomew Tue, 08 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0400 President Barack Obama, after a meal of Chesapeake striped bass and mango sorbet, visited West Point and announced his plan to send 30,000 additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan in order to “deny Al Qaeda a safe haven,” “reverse the Taliban's momentum,” and “strengthen the capacity of Afghanistan's security forces and government”; and then, after eighteen months (more than a year before the 2012 election), to start withdrawing troops. Republicans in Congress worried that the announcement of a withdrawal date would allow the Taliban and Al Qaeda to plan for the American military's departure, while Democrats questioned whether a significant drawdown in U.S. forces would actually occur. “Can any of you tell me, after July 2011, that we won't have tens of thousands of troops years beyond that date?” asked Senator Robert Menendez, a Democrat from New Jersey. “We will have 100,000 forces, troops there,” Defense Secretary Robert Gates explained later in the week. “And they are not leaving in July of 2011. Some handful, or some small number, or whatever the conditions permit, will begin to withdraw at that time.” Representative Jeff Flake, a Republican from Arizona, suggested that the combined escalation and exit strategy was engineered to please critics. “There's an old adage that a camel is a horse designed by committee,” Flake said. “This looks to be a policy designed by committee, a little something for everyone.” Hillary Clinton pointed out that camels are sturdy, ancient, and, though plodding, will get you where you need to go. The Atlantic NYT NYT NYT Politico . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/hbc-90006197 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/hbc-90006197 Mon, 07 Dec 2009 17:48:23 -0400 . . .