Contents — some updates to previous posts on the FM website, and 3 Quotes of the Day
- About our shameful prisons, a stain on America
- About the “mancession”
- Can the European Union survive the recession?
- About Japan, slowly sinking
- Quotes of the Day about our response to jihadists’ terrorism
(1) About our shameful prisons, a stain on America
- Report of the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission, June 2009 — The Commission was established by the 2003 Prison Rape Elimination Act.
- Can Our Shameful Prisons Be Reformed?, David Cole, New York Review of Books, 19 November 2009
- “Sexual Victimization in Juvenile Facilities Reported by Youth, 2008-09“, Allen J. Beck, Paul Guerino and Paige M. Harrison, Dept of Justice, 7 January 2010
- News story about the above report: “The Crisis of Juvenile Prison Rape: A New Report“, David Kaiser and Lovisa Stannow, blog of the NY Review of Books, 7 January 2010
(2) About the “mancession”
- “Another (sobering) slice of the jobs data“, blog of Time magazine, 7 December 2009:
- “Female power — Women in the workforce“, The Economist, 30 December 2009 — Great graphics, as usual for The Economist.
For more about this see Yes, it is a “mancession”, with men losing more jobs than women. Just like all recessions. (5 October 2009) and Update on the “mancession” (2 December 2009).
(3) Can the European Union survive the recession?
- “Can Euroland Survive?“, Stephanie A. Kelton and L. Randall Wray, Levy Institute, November 2009
- They’re already thinking about the divorces to come: Withdrawal and expulsion from the EU and EMU: some reflections, Phoebus Athanassiou, European Central Bank, December 2009.
For more about this see Can the European Monetary Union survive the next recession?, 11 July 2008
(4) About Japan, slowly sinking
- “It is Japan we should be worrying about, not America“, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, op-ed in the Daily Telegraph, 1 November 2009
- See the report A global fiasco is brewing in Japan, Dylan Grice, Société Générale, 12 January 2010 — Posted at Zero Hedge.
For more about this see As Japan sails into the shadows, let’s wish them well and wave good-by., 14 July 2009
(5) Quotes of the Day about our response to jihadists’ terrorism
It’s a hat trick today, with 3 great quotes! All in red.
“Academic Freedom Abridged at Yale Press“, Cary Nelson (AAUP President), American Association of University Professors (AAUP), 13 August 2009 — Red emphasis added. Excerpt:
“We do not negotiate with terrorists. We just accede to their anticipated demands.” That is effectively the new policy position at Yale University Press, which has eliminated all visual depictions of the Prophet Muhammad from Jytte Klausen’s new book The Cartoons That Shook the World. Yale made the unusual decision not only to suppress the twelve 2005 Danish cartoons that sparked organized protests in many countries but also historical depictions of Muhammed like a 19th-century print by Gustave Doré. They are not responding to protests against the book; they and a number of their consultants are anticipating them and making or recommending concessions beforehand.
In an action that parallels prior restraint on speech, Yale also refused to give the author access to consultants’ reports unless she agreed in writing not to discuss their contents. Such reports typically have their authors’ names removed, but a prohibition against discussing their content is, to say the least, both unusual and objectionable.
Publishers often refuse to print color illustrations to save money or limit the number of black and white illustrations to reduce the length of a book, but Yale Press has not raised any financial issues here. The issues are:
- an author’s academic freedom;
- the reputation of the press and the university;
- the impact of these twin decisions on other university presses and publication venues;
- the potential to encourage broader censorship of speech by faculty members or other authors.
What is to stop publishers from suppressing an author’s words if it appears they may offend religious fundamentalists or groups threatening violence? We deplore this decision and its potential consequences.
“Darkness Falls“, Mark Steyn, National Review Online, 12 January 2010 — Red emphasis added. Excerpt:
Christopher Caldwell also weighs in, apropos the attempt to kill Kurt Westergaard — and, in a very explicit sense, intellectual freedom. Few industries congratulate themselves on their “courage” and “bravery” more incessantly than artists and journalists — at least when it comes to plays about a gay Jesus, or joining the all-star singalong for Rock Against Bush. But it’s easy to be provocative with people who can’t be provoked. Faced with an opportunity to demonstrate real courage, the arts and the media shrivel up like a bunch of dying pansies. As I wrote in my book:
If it were just terrorists bombing buildings and public transit, it would be easier; even the feeblest Eurowimp jurisdiction is obliged to act when the street is piled with corpses. But there’s an old technique well understood by the smarter bullies. If you want to break a man, don’t attack him head on, don’t brutalize him; pain and torture can awaken a stubborn resistance in all but the weakest. But just make him slightly uncomfortable, disrupt his life at the margin, and he’ll look for the easiest path to re-normalization. There are fellows rampaging through the streets because of some cartoons? Why, surely the most painless solution would be if we all agreed not to publish such cartoons.
We Eurabia types aren’t predicting a Muslim conquest on a set date in 2025 but a remorseless, incremental surrender. And, actually, we’re not predicting it, because it’s already well under way.
Afterword
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