March 17, 2010






Leaving Afghanistan



 
Robert Wright & Matthew Hoh
Mar 16

+ show topics

Matthew’s experience in Iraq and Afghanistan
How Matthew became disillusioned with the war in Afghanistan
Matthew: Leave rural Afghans alone and they’ll leave us alone
A critique of the Marja campaign
The fallacy of fighting Al Qaeda in Afghanistan
Negotiating a ceasefire with the Taliban

Counter-Contrarian Edition



 
Mark Schmitt & Noam Scheiber
Mar 15

+ show topics

Explaining the current obsession with Rahm Emanuel
An evaluation of Rahm
Why didn’t Obama go confrontational on health care from the start?
The social psychology of Senatorial gutlessness
Why House Dems will be better off if health care passes
Financial reform: Would Dems prefer no bill to a compromise?

An Exceptional Diavlog



 
Robert Farley & James Poulos
Mar 15

+ show topics

Critiquing Lowry and Ponnuru on American exceptionalism
What made Rob shake his military-historian fist in rage
Rob: Hey, remember a little thing called slavery?
The crosscurrents of race and Americanness in Obama’s identity
Flag pins, the metric system, and the filibuster
James unearths mass transit’s ideological underpinnings

Values Added: Reinhold Niebuhr Edition



 
Peter Beinart & Daniel Schultz
Mar 14

+ show topics

Who Reinhold Niebuhr was and what he believed
How his philosophy evolved from WWI to the Cold War
Invoking Niebuhr in the torture debate
The decline of theologians in public discourse
Niebuhr’s odd place in today’s politics
What would Niebuhr have said about Iraq and Israel-Palestine?

UN Plaza: Peacekeeping in Sudan and Congo



 
Mark Leon Goldberg & Erin Weir
Mar 13

+ show topics

A quick tour of Sudan’s recent past and near future
Is the comprehensive peace accord of 2005 unravelling?
Conflict in oil-rich Abyei strains the UN mission
Is a new outbreak of violence in Sudan inevitable?
Congo: Peacekeepers adapt while attacks on civilians continue
Getting smarter about peacekeeping

Science Saturday: What’s Wrong With Transhumanism?



 
Mike Treder & Massimo Pigliucci
Mar 13

+ show topics

Is transhumanism fatally optimistic?
Massimo’s ethical qualms with life extension
The dangers of rapid technological advance
Massimo vs. Mike on whether it’s possible to upload your mind
Is the Turing Test a behaviorist blunder?
Pesky limitations imposed by human biology

The Week in Blog: Bocephus Edition



 
Bill Scher & Matt Lewis
Mar 12

+ show topics

The bizarre Eric Massa scandal fails to take down Rahm
Bill: The Massa story reveals the downside of blogging
Reconciliation: Conservatives jeer, liberals applaud
Why Matt isn’t pinning his hopes on Stupak killing the bill
Your moment of meta: TWIB talking about TWIB
Financial reform and country music

Intensely Resisted Worldviews



 
Robert Wright & David Frum
Mar 11

+ show topics

David (almost) endorses Mickey Kaus for Senate
Are the Iraqi elections cause for celebration?
David and Bob try not to refight the Iraq War. They fail
Should/will Iran get bombed?
Can Israel live without a Palestinian peace deal?
The different flavors of the tea party

Crisis in Nigeria



 
Dayo Olopade & Eliza Griswold
Mar 11

+ show topics

A history of violence in Nigeria
Is the source of the conflict religious or economic?
Clan loyalties threaten national coherence
Could the country split in two?
How Nigeria produced the underwear bomber
Seventy million youths with no access to education

The Academy and the Academy



 
Heather Hurlburt & Daniel Drezner
Mar 10

+ show topics

Why did it take so long to make a good Iraq war movie?
Dan’s paean to Pixar
The ivory tower vs. real-life experience
Why it’s hard to bring together academics and policy makers
After Iraqi elections, guarded optimism
Heather to Dems: Run on national security in 2010

Degrees of Essential



 
Mark Schmitt & Megan McArdle
Mar 9

+ show topics

Is there a common thread in the New York Dem scandals?
Megan defends lobbyists
The idiots on the congressional finance committees
The trouble with unemployment insurance
What do the long-term unemployed most need?
The inevitability/impossibility of passing health care reform

more diavlogs
Sean Carroll
Cosmic Variance, California Institute of Technology
George Johnson
talaya.net, Fire in the Mind, The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments

Science Saturday: Physics Party Cocktails
Play entire diavlog
Recorded: July 12 Posted: July 13
email


You can read comments for this diavlog in our old forum.



Sean’s homepage
Cosmic Variance
Sean’s extended review of Smolin
Joe Polchinski guest blogs at CV on the string debates
Polchinski at CV: “Science or sociology?”
Sean argues string theory is losing the public debate
Sean: String theory not dead yet
more links
George’s talk at KITP on the string wars
Lubos Motl’s blog
Woit’s book “Not Even Wrong”
Christopher Hayes in The Nation on heterodox economics
NYT article on heterodox economics
George’s article on Wikipedia
George on deism and theism
George’s book “Miss Leavitt’s Stars”
CV on dealing with crackpots
Sean on Dawkins’s “The God Delusion”
Sean’s post on whether atheism is fortunate
Cocktail Party Physics
Engagement announcement at CV
Engagement announcement at Cocktail Party Physics
George’s article on the Harvard astronomical plates


uncle ebeneezer: We know how you feel, Mike! 

bjkeefe: Hear, hear! 

uncle ebeneezer: What does it really mean? 

uncle ebeneezer: Is Tom purposely trying to steer interest away from his profession? 

themightypuck: Bob the Baptist comes out. 

uncle ebeneezer: Will formulates a scenario where the terrorists, literally, win! 

sapeye: Hmmm, is Bob guilty of serious stereotyping? 

Stapler Malone: No, Bob. It’s not. Nothing ever is.  

d7greene: Lawrence Lessig knows a juice-boxer when he sees one. 

Toryentalist: Matt is great, Matt is great—listen and repeat. 

thouartgob: Joel’s elegant refutation of Bob’s point. 

uncle ebeneezer: George Johnson, hopeless romantic! 

themightypuck: Robert Wright, Asteroid Cowboy. 

bjkeefe: Spelling is fun-damental! 

nikkibong: The joy of taking stuff out of context. 

bjkeefe: Who stole Matthew’s tie? 

uncle ebeneezer: The Art of Subtlety. 

bjkeefe: Heather slaps the entire BhTV community. 

bjkeefe: Can anyone find a case where this is not ultimately Mickey's advice to Dems? 

Ken Davis: The racial blind taste test. 

Stapler Malone: Go forward, not backward; upward not forward; and always twirling, twirling, twirling towards freedom.... 

Simon Willard: Bob steps outside himself here. 

JonIrenicus: Puzzle spelled out. 

uncle ebeneezer: George's response here was absolutely priceless. 

graz: Bob takes Tom Jones down a peg. 

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