Introducing a guest blogger: Dr. Bill Barnes

Aug 6, ’04 3:01 PM

Here on Extended Phenotype, Dr. Bill Barnes will continue the discussion of Paul Berman’s book Terror and Liberalism with a guest posting. His review essay is a much more detailed discussion of Berman’s thesis than my previous posting on the subject, and well worth reading. I’m hoping to follow his essay with additional thoughts of my own in the next few days.

By way of introduction, Dr. Bill Barnes has a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Michigan, and the J.D. from University of California Berkeley (Boalt Hall). After teaching political science and comparative politics at Ohio State (Lima), Montana State University, Cal Poly at San Luis Obispo, he served as a member of the Commission on Nicaragua Pre-Election Polls in 1989 and 1990. Dr. Barnes is an acknowledged expert on elections and polling in Latin American countries, the author of many publications in the field, and is at work on a book comparing election campaigns and public opinion polling in Nicaragua and El Salvador, with special reference to the successes and failures of the left in learning to operate on this terrain. He currently practices law in Oakland, California.

Welcome, Dr. Barnes!

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Eugenicist running for Congress in Tennessee

Aug 6, ’04 11:41 AM

What the hell is happening in this country? What we believed was solid progress on civil rights, racism, and religious tolerance was really a thin veneer, covering a vast pool of racist, intolerant, illiberal thought.

Today’s case in point: the Republican candidate for the Tennessee 8th district is James Hart, an avowed eugenicist. He’s posted his publication, “Favored Races,” on the campaign website. It makes for interesting reading, resting as it does on a completely unwarranted reading of Darwin’s 19th century Victorian prose and an utter lack of knowledge about modern biology. His platform is a strange mix of eugenics to protect the genetic vigor of the white race, stopping usury and a vaguely spelled out class war, and complete trade protectionism.

Fortunately, Hart is such a wingnut that his own party has completely disavowed him. Barring a miracle, Hart is running in a “safe Democrat” district and he’s on the ballot because no mainstream GOP candidate wanted to run.

But doesn’t it still frighten you just a little that this country still hasn’t completely gotten beyond this kind of abhorrent, pseudo-scientific racist garbage?

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Followup on Flight 327 and Annie Jacobsen

Aug 5, ’04 12:49 PM

In an earlier post, I discussed Annie Jacobsen’s article on Women’sWallStreet.com, concerning the “scare” on Flight 327. My post was aimed at highlighting how “normal” prayer behavior by Muslims can be interpreted by Westerners unfamiliar with Islam as suspicious behavior. The lead air marshal present on Flight 327 apparently agrees, and was interviewed by Time Magazine. It’s worth a read. I said it in my previous post, and will say it again. Vigilance is important, in a world of heightened threats to Americans. Paranoia, however, is a terrible thing, because it can cause us to distrust ourselves, without our real enemies in the world lifting a finger.

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North Korea acquires nuclear missile submarines from the Moonies

Aug 4, ’04 4:12 PM

Normally, you’d see headline like this on the X-Files or in an Onion parody.

Not today.

Reuters reported yesterday that North Korea is deploying sea-based nuclear missiles that can carry warheads. The source is the authoritative Jane’s Defense Weekly. The missiles appear to be based on the decommissioned Soviet R-27 ballistic missile, which was apparently acquired in the 1990’s from Russian missile specialists.

Frightening, no? It gets worse.

Apparently, the North Koreans also have 12 former Soviet submarines which had been sold for scrap metal, but retained elements of the launch systems. Refit the engines, polish the brass, fill the launch tubes, and presto, the lunatic Kim Jong Il can float a missile platform off the West Coast.

Not only did the United States not stop North Korea from developing their weapons program (because we were busy elsewhere), but now they’ve got nuclear missile submarines.

So….where did they get the submarines, you ask? Why, from Rev. Sun Myung Moon, of course! The Moonie leader, whose Unification Church owns the conservative Washington Times, and who contributes heavily to conservative Republicans, is arming North Korea. And the Defense Intelligence Agency knew about it in the mid-1990’s. You can view the declassified documents here. Much of this has been put together by John Gorenfeld, as reported in American Prospect and other sources.

Wow, this looks real. I think we’re in deep shit, because Kim Jong Il is a nutjob.

I’m also wondering what the law has to say about arms sales to foreign governments. Especially ones in the “Axis of Evil.” Or do the large campaign contributions buy Rev. Moon a “get out of jail free” card?

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Michelle Malkin and her defense of internment: expert analysis

Aug 4, ’04 12:27 PM

Given that I’m not an expert in the history of Japanese internment, I’m not going to blog extensively about Michelle Malkin’s new book, In Defense of Internment. She has a point that civil libertarians do the country a disservice by automatically comparing every contemporary counter-terrorism measure to WWII atrocities, but beyond this it seems like her defense of Japanese internment is based on shaky historical grounds at best.

Eric Muller (of isthatlegal.org) is guest-blogging at Volokh Conspiracy on the book, and journalist David Neiwert also has an excellent and detailed analysis. This is the material I’m following right now, and suggest that others read it as well, in tandem with Malkin’s new book.

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Facing up to the root causes of al-Qaeda’s war on the United States

Aug 3, ’04 9:42 PM

The 9/11 Commission Report is a pretty monumental piece of work, but I think one area that’s really lacking is analysis of the root causes for al-Qaeda. The report contains a few pages which discuss this in detail (p. 49-52) but in the way of background. The same degree of documentation and analysis that went into the rest of the report isn’t focused on root causes. And that’s too bad, in my view. For root causes, and how they’re evolving as the conflict matures, matter a great deal.

Root causes don’t matter if one’s goal in a war is to destroy an enemy, because one won’t have to live with them afterwards and forge a peaceful coexistence post-conflict. But anytime we expect to selectively engage, we need to understand what items beyond military victory are needed for a post-conflict return to coexistence. In plainer terms, we need to figure out how to be neighbors and do business once the fight’s over. And that necessitates dealing with root causes, not just attending to military victory.

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