Eugene Volokh wonders if we should ignore the decisions of other countries when we think they might be influenced by terrorism:

The foreign countries’ decisions may simply be probative of their own desire not to be attacked, not of what’s the morally right thing to do in the abstract, or what’s the practically right thing to do for us (or even what’s in the aggregate interests of humanity generally). And I don’t see why we should ascribe to a view of legitimacy that makes our actions illegitimate whenever the terrorists are able to force other countries to oppose us.

Assume for the sake of argument that the Spanish elections were influenced by the Madrid bombings, as everyone suddenly decided to vote for the party least likely to get them blown to bits, rather than the party that would be good for the economy, or implement the best environmental regulations, or whatever. This isn’t much different from voting for Bush because you think he’s good on national security (and bad on lots of other things), but there’s lots of people planning to do this and no one’s calling them cowards or terrorist-appeasers - why not?

1. “Al Qaeda wuvs you!” is a legitimate and astoundingly devastating critique of foreign policy.
2. Reasonable individuals never disagree on the best way to prevent future terrorist attacks. God Bless America and her Glorious Leader, ‘cuz everyone else is unreasonable.
3. These people aren’t cowards, they’re bloodthirsty cowboys!

What the Spanish voters are doing (we assumed) is rejecting a strategy of elevated short-term risks with a possible long-term safety payoff if everything works out as planned, and voting in favor of a strategy with a short-term payoff but a possible long-term increase in terrorist attacks if killing people becomes seen as an effective path to change.* Spanish decisions still have probative value in considering the relative merits of these strategies (particularly the chance that everything will work out as planned in Iraq, cough cough).**

If we’re living in a fantasyland where everyone agrees that Strategy X will cause a long-term decline in global terrorism, while the countries responsible for it will suffer a short term spike in attacks, then Eugene has a point. There’s an obvious free rider problem, and foreign policy shouldn’t be run like a public radio pledge drive.*** So should we ascribe to a view of legitimacy that allows us to toss out the objections of free riders? Or should we err on the side of caution when weighing a nation’s objection to self-sacrifice?

I favor multinationalism mainly for its pragmatic and probative values, and not out of belief in some scheme of internationally-derived moral legitimacy, so I’ll give that one a pass. Per Curiam addresses the issue, though as an apparently non-multilateralist pre-emptively countering possible arguments rather than a genuine multilateralist.
(more…)

What’s blue and sits in the corner? Baby in a plastic bag. What’s green and sits in the corner? Same baby three weeks later. Which is how I’m hoping these babies will turn out - green! Or even green with red blotches, which is also a good color combination for a dead baby joke, but some analogies are better left unstretched.

Mad props to the folks at the Path Project for hosting a pleasant afternoon with ducks and a highly civilized seed swap. Though if it had come down to an out-and-out brawl for the choice tomato varieties, I’m sure I could have held my own.

Which is not to say that I need more tomatoes; the tragic death of a young Siberian Peasant still haunts my best sunny patch, so the seeds saved from an heirloom two-pound beast will need to go in containers on the patio. As will the cucumbers. The sunny spot goes to corn, beans, and watermelon; the shade will be getting some angelica, assuming all goes well with the stratification period in the fridge. My fridge has demonstrated its ability to nurture fuzzy blue mold, but I’m not sure how all that fridgy love will translate to angelica seeds.

Items to purchase or scavenge this week: peat moss, big buckets. And here’s hoping the compost at the bottom of the barrel is actually ripe and not just smushed.

Hometown favorite Team Caltech did not win the million-dollar DARPA prize - something about crashing through a fence. So much for Caltech becoming an independent, highly militarized nuclear power with its own robot death machines. Sigh!

Wanting to slash defense spending (and legalize pot, and have free love) makes me a very soft-core libertarian! You learn something new every day. I hope all my newfound libertarian brethren don’t mind when I use the money saved on defense for massive entitlement programs…

(link via Alas, A Blog)

My Google-ju on this subject is finally beginning to wear out, but there’s been a lot of people looking for caffeine-impregnated weight loss hose in the past couple days. To whom I say: holy shit I cannot keep my hands calm or fall asleep in a timely manner won’t you please come swap your tights for my Folger’s crystals k thx!

After all, with enough of that jazzed-up sweetened flavored creamer chemical in my cup, I wouldn’t ever know the difference.

Can there be any unit of measure more stupid than the Miner’s Inch?

So I’m not at all chuffed with the concept of “working for a living”. And it seems that the best way to avoid working for a living is to be independently wealthy, which one accomplishes through some combination of living below one’s means and witchcraft. Or marrying rich. As plans for marrying rich have stalled while I work through my classist antipathy towards the upper crust, I’ve decided to practice witchcraft, aided by an occasional series of book reviews.

Investing With Your Values was written with a nervous reader in mind. Nervous about sacrificing financial interests on the altar of social responsibility, nervous about whether or not socially responsible investment can actually make a difference, nervous about investing and personal finance generally. I was evidently not the intended audience.
(more…)

From: campbellsoup @ casupport.com
To: yami_mcmoots @ yahoo.com
Subject: Re: 2237666A

Ms. Yami McMoots, we received your message and appreciate your taking
the time to contact Campbell Soup Company about our Franco-American
Where’s Waldo Pasta with Tomato Sauce and Cheese.

We continually evaluate our packaging in an effort to provide products
that are environmentally friendly, with an emphasis on providing a
safe, value priced, quality product. Extensive consumer research is
conducted prior to introducing any packaging changes. Nevertheless, we
realize that consumer preferences differ and not everyone will be satisfied
with every change.

Your satisfaction is our greatest concern and customer feedback like
yours is critical to our success. We have forwarded your comments to our
Quality Management Team so that they may benefit from your input.

We have sent you a coupon for the Campbell Soup Company product of your
choice via the mail.

Thank you for visiting the Campbell Soup web-site.

Campbell Soup Web Team
lsc
2237666A

Score one for ecofeminism - even the Campbell Soup Company knows that we will never end patriarchy without first re-evaluating our relationship with Mother Earth. And soup in the mail, fuckin ay!

Apparently tie-dye and ducks are mildly trendy among a small clique of livejournallers. Who knew?

Not me, at least not until I checked my actual referral logs and not just the sitemeter. Those krazy kidz have been pulling medium-sized jpgs off my server every time they reload their own pages during study hall. I’m not wholly satisfied with my automagically generated hotlinking-protection, but until I write myself a better set of .htaccess files, that’s how it’s gonna be. If you are scrambling your referring URL with some kind of cutesy software, no pictures for you!

Livejournallers, no pictures for you either until you upload ‘em to your own server(s). And sweet jesus fuck please learn to spell.