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Best of the Moment

T. Christian Miller et al | Newsweek | 19 March 2010

US-backed Afghan National Police Force totally useless, $6bn disaster. Illiterate volunteers get six weeks' training, learn nothing, start work, take bribes, sell bullets to Taliban

Walking With The Comrades

Arundhati Roy | Outlook India | 20 March 2010

Long report on Naxalite rebels in central India—"a superbly organised, hugely motivated Maoist guerrilla fighting force with extraordinary history of armed rebellion"

Let's Trade With Iran

Jason Rezaian | Slate | 20 March 2010

Iranians love to shop, and they love American brands. By lifting embargoes, America could dominate consumer markets. Great way to make friends and money at same time

Obama Needs This Victory

Andrew Sullivan | London Times | 21 March 2010

Health care loss would cripple Obama's world standing. Victory would give him greatness as leader who changed society, after rescuing economy from brink of depression

South Sudan's Road To Independence

Barney Jopson | FT | 20 March 2010

Excellent report. Southern Sudan approaches independence with almost no skills, resources. Not medicine, not government, not even agriculture. “A society before civilisation”

In Dubai, The Party's Far From Over

Syed Ali | Guardian | 20 March 2010

Dubai succeeded for reasons it's now mocked. Consumer culture unique in Arabian Gulf. Foreigners swapped political rights for good life. Economy will recover, foreigners will return

Gay Soldiers And General Wingate

Toby Young | Telegraph | 19 March 2010

Orde Wingate, one of finest British commanders of WW2 was as bent as nine-bob note. Rarely washed, tried to cut his own throat, forced 40,000 Italian troops to surrender

Israel Loses Liberal American Jews

Jacob Weisberg | Slate | 20 March 2010

Split widens within American-Jewish community. Kadima, Democratic, secular, J-Street gains ground. Likud, Republican, religious, AIPAC embattled. Settlements main reason

A Dagger To The CIA

Robert Baer | GQ | April 2010

Suicide bomber killed 7 Americans at Afghan CIA base in December. Ex-spy blames deaths on poor tradecraft, following shift in CIA culture away from operations towards analysis

Thailand's Succession

Anonymous | Economist | 18 March 2010

King Bhumibol 82, ailing. Discussing what happens next is taboo. Might be nasty. Thailand's democracy already paralysed by post-Thaksin power struggle. Army may be tempted

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's Trial

Benjamin Wittes and Jack Goldmith | Brookings | 19 March 2010

Why try 9/11 conspirators at all? They are held outside criminal justice system. Possible gains from trial—capital punishment, legitimacy, catharsis—not worth political cost

On Banking Reform

Josh Reich | BankSimple Blog | 18 March 2010

Promoter of banking start-up attacks jargon, tricks, fees used by big banks to charge and overcharge account holders. "A confused customer is a profitable customer"

Ratzinger's Responsibility

Hans Küng | National Catholic Reporter | 18 March 2010

Hold bishops responsible for child abuse. They protected priests. End celibacy rule for priests. It reinforces deviant behaviour. Hold Pope responsible. He was in thick of it

Rise And Fall Of Humanitarianism

Mark Mazower | World Affairs | March 2010

After Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq, liberal interventionists rediscover value of legal norms, international stability, institutions in human welfare. Not just a matter of ousting bad leaders

Al Qaeda's Bomb

David Albright | Foreign Policy | 17 March 2010

How Osama bin Laden tried to buy nuclear technology from Pakistan a decade ago—and how his associates may yet succeed. Book extract. Speculative but gripping

Multiculturalism Undermines Diversity

Kennan Malik | Guardian | 17 March 2010

Diversity means a freer, messier society with frictions and fault-lines. Multiculturalism means trying to manage away conflicts, give each group privileged space. First is better

Magnus Carlsen Interview

Maik Grossekathöfer | ChessBase | 15 March 2010

First chess game at 5, beat father at 9, grandmaster at 13, world champion at 19. "Kasparov can calculate more alternatives. My intuition is better". (Translation from Spiegel)

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Browsings

21 March 2010

Claude Lévi-Strauss, on writing:

The primary function of written communication is to facilitate slavery. The use of writing for disinterested purposes, and as a source of intellectual and aesthetic pleasure, is a secondary result, and more often than not it may even be turned into a means of strengthening, justifying or concealing the other

John Kay, on making decisions:

The achievement of the great statesman is not to reach the best decision fastest, but to mediate effectively among competing views and values

20 March 2010

Lexington, on prison overcrowding:

An ex-felon I interviewed yesterday described how the prison in Forth Worth where he served time was so crowded that even when he was in solitary confinement, he had two cell mates

19 March 2010

Jonathan Chait, on terrorist suspects:

We didn’t need to provide habeas corpus rights during World War II because, when we captured a man in a German army uniform, we could be pretty confident that he was actually a German soldier, not some hapless goatherd sold into our custody by a jealous village rival

Robin Hanson, on twins:

In a twin conspiracy, a pair of identical twins would pretend to be only one person. For example, in college each twin could specialize in, and then ace, half of the classes; their GPA would soar. They might together make partner in a law firm by handling a lot more work than other lawyers. They could cheat on their spouse and while offering that spouse a near-constant video of “their” activities. In fact, they could always have an alibi for anything they did

An Andrew Sullivan reader, on child abuse:

I'm surprised the NYT was willing to use the words "molestation" and "abuse." I think "enhanced affection" is more appropriate

Simon Jenkins, on cruelty to animals:

Our concern should be not so much for the supposed rights of animals but for the vices of humans. The principle of not doing unnecessary harm "does not involve extending to animals the privileges and protections that are the gift of moral agency". It derives from our aversion to the human vice of enjoying suffering for its own sake

Jonathan Guthrie on cars:

The Leaf, the electric runabout that Nissan will build at its Sunderland factory, will be the first mass-market car in recent memory to bear a botanically-inspired name

18 March 2010

Felix Salmon, on investment banks:

These shops deliberately go out to hire psychopaths, and then they fire the ones who go soft, while promoting the most aggressive assholes, keeping a few smooth-talking client-relationship types on hand to preserve some semblance of a respectable public face

Isabele Brocas on neuroeconomics:

The individual is not one coherent body. The brain is a multi-system entity (with conflicting objectives, restricted information, etc.) and therefore the decision-maker must be modelled as an organisation