Some Chicago Boyz know each other from student days at the University of Chicago. Others are Chicago boys in spirit. The blog name is also intended as a good-humored gesture of admiration for distinguished Chicago School economists and fellow travelers.
Gosh, scientists are mystified as to why the military would suddenly classify data they have made public for years. [h/t Instapundit] Well, I have an idea and if the scientists and the journalists had bothered to think about it from the perspective of military intelligence, they could have figured it out as well.
The public data lets a potential enemy figure out the sensitivity of the satellites and how to create countermeasures.
Dutton’s Arts & Letters links to The National’s “The Trial of Leonid K“, which chronicles the attempt by Khruschev’s grandchildren to resurrect the reputation of their father, a World War II hero maligned of late. It is a cry against thuggery – the Russian tradition of rewritten history. Gossip, rumors, suggest: “The point is to suggest; soon, the suggestions will evolve into a belief, which will evolve into an orthodoxy.” But if our libel suits are complicated and victories sometimes counterproductive, in Russia such attempts are even more likely to cross quicksand:
From a story about a fake vet who campaigned heavily for Democratic candidates, including Obama, in Colorado. [h/t Instapundit] The candidates, who claim that they were defrauded along with Colorado voters, say:
The Polis and Udall campaigns emphasize that Strandlof was a bizarre exception to the outpouring of help they received from veterans disillusioned with Bush-era policies. “His actions in no way reflect on the credibility of real veterans who supported Mark’s campaign or on the importance of their issues,” said Trujillo, Udall’s spokeswoman.
If there were a lot of veterans disillusioned with Bush-era policies (now Obama-era policies) why did they find it necessary to rely on a fake vet? If they had dozens or hundreds of real vets ready to sign on to their campaigns what are the odds the most prominent one would be a mentally-ill fraud?
You con someone by playing to their prejudices. Strandlof conned the Democrats by presenting them a fabricated persona and history custom-designed to fit the Democratic narrative. An actor playing a vet scripted to their narrative served their purposes better than a real vet
However, the real reason they didn’t check Strandolf’s creditials is that they didn’t care if he was real or not.
We’ve all seen the same plot line time and time again. Evil institution does something sinister, but the conscience of one person inside the institution drives the person to leak damning information to a plucky reporter, who bravely publicizes the information, which creates public pressure to investigate the evil institution. Hurray!
This narrative is ingrained into our intuitive understanding of scandals. We assume that any particular scandal unfolded just as the narrative said it should. Given this, it’s easy to see how Matt Welch defaulted to the narrative when reporting on the recent developments in Obama’s hypocrisy on national security.
Did the Abu Ghraib photos, which illustrated what had already been described in various reports, add to your understanding of the gravity/extent to what we were doing in the world? Yes, I believe it did. Images add value that words cannot convey. The “chilling effect,” too, is nonsensical. If anything, images increase public pressure on the government/military to conduct investigations in the first place (as in fact happened at Abu Ghraib).[emp added]
Except even a casually perusal of the time line of the Abu Ghraib scandal shows that the publication of the staged pictures came months after the military: had launched an investigation, reported the results to the media, pressed charges against both the principals and those in their chain of command, conducted preliminary courts martial against most of the defendants and initiated reforms in the entire detainment system, based on the investigation.
My son and I like to watch “Life After People” on The History Channel. The show is a thought experiment that examines what would happen to man-made structures and nature if humans suddenly disappeared while leaving everything otherwise intact.
I like the show but one thing about watching it creeps me out.