Forms of Inquiry: 12/10/14 Today's Links

So, my beautiful gaming desktop finally bit the bullet. I'm getting nasty blue screens whenever I do any thing more intense than use the internet. I guess I'll be putting together a new PC a little earlier than intended and I'll be posting from work more often.

The Links:

The biggest news, clearly, is the Senate's torture report. Vox roundup here. Andrew Sullivan live-blogged it. I usually don't go for this kind of thing but his commentary here is pretty good. Greenwald's coverage is also excellent.

Does torture even work? No. But don't let that stop us. I mean, let's really be honest with ourselves here. The CIA knew torture didn't work at the outset but getting information was never really the point. It was about punishment, sadism, and revenge. Moreover, Americans freaking love torture. Also, paging Dr. Mengele.

Nearly a quarter of the world's countries helped run the CIA torture program.

Dan Drezner comments here.

to suggest that this Senate report will really tip the scales when it comes to the United States’ enemies rallying support, you have to believe that the following exchange is happening somewhere in the Middle East:ABDUL: Ahmed, why won’t you come with me to attack the infidels? You are not outraged that the United States has invaded Afghanistan and Iraq and caused so much suffering in two Muslim countries?AHMED: It’s not enough for me to take up arms.ABDUL: You are not outraged that in the past three years the great Zionist oppressor has waged air campaigns against two Arab countries — Syria and Libya — and accomplished little but to extend the suffering of our Muslim brothers and sisters?AHMED: It’s not enough for me to take up arms.ABDUL: You are not outraged that the great Western imperialist power has launched drone strikes with impunity in two other countries — Yemen and Pakistan — killing scores of innocent Muslim families in the process?AHMED: It’s not enough for me to take up arms.ABDUL: You are not outraged that the infidel superpower has defended Israel as that Zionist pig-state has done nothing but displace, bomb and humiliate our Palestinian brothers and sisters?AHMED: It’s not enough for me to take up arms.ABDUL: You are not outraged that two successive U.S. presidents, in two flowery speeches, have claimed that the United States wants to bring human rights and democracy to the Middle East, only to tolerate authoritarian crackdowns in Egypt and the Gulf states?AHMED: It’s not enough for me to take up arms.ABDUL: You are not outraged about all the stories of infidels torturing our Muslim brothers in Abu Ghraib, in Bagram, in Guantanamo Bay? The stories about infidel soldiers desecrating the Koran?AHMED: It’s not enough for me to take up arms.ABDUL: You are not outraged by the just-released Senate report about CIA torture?AHMED: Wait, did you say ‘Senate report’? Okay, I will take up arms now.

Is the Rust Belt about to come back to life?

Two factors drive this change. One is the steady revival of America as a productive manufacturing country, driven in large part by new technology, rising wages abroad (notably in China), and the development of low-cost, abundant domestic energy, much of it now produced in states such as Ohio and in the western reaches of Pennsylvania.

The second, and perhaps more surprising, is the wealth of human capital already existent in the region.

We might get a nice little upward revision in GDP for last quarter.

Uncivil Disobedience.

This Article asks how we might make sense of these more paradoxical protests, involving not explicit law-breaking but rather extreme law-following. We seek to identify, elucidate, and call attention to the phenomenon of "uncivil obedience."

So, I read this as an argument for giving the poor proles the table scraps instead of inviting them to dinner.

If firms cannot or will not offer rising wages, they should at least offer non-pecuniary benefits: more control over working conditions and the assurance of good rewards if the business thrives in future.