Duke Dems endorses Sohn for YT (via DukeDems)

Duke Dems endorses Michelle Sohn for Young Trustee. We also encouraged voters to place Ben Getson 2nd on their ballot.

The Duke Democrats would like to endorse Michelle Sohn for Young Trustee; both she and Ben Getson are fully qualified to effectively communicate the concerns and ideas of the undergraduate student body to Duke’s Board of Trustees, and we therefore encourage Duke voters to rank both individuals highly on their ballots. We encourage voters to place Michelle Sohn first on their ballots.  Duke Democrats believes that Ms. Sohn’s spark and en … Read More

via DukeDems

Holy Crap Batman!

This video of Duke’s Kyle Singler making crazy buckets has been making a sensation on campus and on the internets.

Pretty cool. Hard to argue with that big brother.

Really awful news

This is really terrible news. I didn’t know Drew that well, but he was really nice, incredibly smart kid. My thoughts are with his family and friends.

Reid’s closing argument–replacing me with that nut “would be a disaster”

Seemingly aware of how unpopular he really is, Harry Reid closes not by asking for Nevadan’s votes. But by arguing that replacing him with Sharon Angle would be a disaster–not arguing the point that he should or should not be replaced.

I guess the Reid campaign sees no reason to let up, having found the “dangerous” narrative to work so far.

Nobel Laureate/playwright @ Duke, speaking about Duke Theater’s production of his play

Wole Soyinka was at Duke again last week for the opening of Duke Theater Studies’ production of The Beatification of Area Boy, which runs this upcoming weekend as well. I’m looking forward to seeing Duke’s production of the play (which is very powerful).

Here is a link to Duke Theater’s production blog–check it out, there is some interesting stuff).

President Brodhead welcomes Duke Theater Studies to West

Duke Theater Studies, one of my two major departments, moved to West Campus this year–leaving behind its former cramped home on East Campus. President Brodhead welcomed Theater Studies to West this week and riffed on the importance of studying theater at a university:

UN preps for First Contact

This probably strikes some as ridiculous (and for good reason) and will probably not help the UN’s case much with those who think the organization does little of use. But you definitely can’t accuse the UN of not wanting to prepare for every eventuality, including First Contact:

The continued search for extraterrestrial communication, by several entities, sustains the hope that some day human kind will received signals from extraterrestrials,’ she said.

‘When we do, we should have in place a coordinated response that takes into account all the sensitivities related to the subject.
…
Plans to make Unoose the coordinating body for dealing with alien encounters are set to be debated by UN scientific advisory committees. If the idea is backed it will then head to General Assembly.

I think its always good to be prepared. But, in the event of an alien encounter, would we really want the head of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs to be our point-person? Would the president of the U.S., the leaders of the EU, the president of China, the Pope, et. al. really be comfortable saying “Oh, you’re from out there. Can I place you on hold while we transfer you to the Office for Outer Space Affairs?” Then again Zeframe Cochrane didn’t do such a poor job.

HCR begins to take effect, will it make a difference in November?

This week a bunch of very popular aspects of the new health care reform law are taking effect. The president has been out-in-front this week, trying to remind voters that these provisions are part of the law that Republicans are currently promising to repeal. The New York Times covers the very real and positive effect these new provisions will have in the lives of real people:

Sometimes lost in the partisan clamor about the new health care law is the profound relief it is expected to bring to hundreds of thousands of Americans who have been stricken first by disease and then by a Darwinian insurance system.

On Thursday, the six-month anniversary of the signing of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, a number of its most central consumer protections take effect, just in time for the midterm elections.

Starting now, insurance companies will no longer be permitted to exclude children because of pre-existing health conditions, which the White House said could enable 72,000 uninsured to gain coverage. Insurers also will be prohibited from imposing lifetime limits on benefits.

I have no doubt that public opinion will shift in the coming years on the law (history is on our side in that matter), but it is unclear if any of this will dramatically shift public opinion by November.

Then again, so what? Political scientists will tell you political parties exist to win elections–which is true. But they also exist to implement policies. Men and women, by and large, don’t go into politics simply to get elected. If that was the case, we would never have politicians voting for unpopular provisions or disregarding local polls and voting with their party bosses. So if we lose in November, we lose. Pundits will say HCR and the stimulus played a role–and they probably will. But again, so what?

Crist panders to Florida progressives on Cuba

Governor Charlie “flip-flopper” Crist has changes his position on yet another issue in an attempt to pander to Florida progressives, this time on the always contentious issue of travel to Cuba:

As the Republican governor of Florida, Charlie Crist backed U.S. sanctions against Cuba and signed off on a state law hiking costs on agencies that book trips to the repressive regime.

But as a newly independent candidate for the U.S. Senate, Crist is slated to collect checks from some of the same people who successfully fought to overturn the law last year and who advocate opening a dialogue with Cuba.

Crist’s Cuba position is the latest example of his that-was-then, this-is-now political strategy as he tries to build a statewide campaign outside the traditional Republican Party. The heavily Republican Cuban exile community backs strict limits on travel and remittances to Cuba, which they see as financially propping up the communist dictatorship.

Crist’s new position is, of course, the more rational position. Restricting Cuban-American access to Cuba hurts families much more than it hurts the Communist regime. Further, trade with China and Vietnam clearly demonstrates that engagement and commerce are more effective than sanctions.

But Crist’s conversion on this and other issues is anything but sincere. Rather than being motivated by a desire to pursue good public policy, Governor Crist is involved in a cyncial and transparent attempt to fool Florida Democrats into voting for one of the two Republicans that will be on the ballot for Senate in November. Unfortunately, Crist has been quite successful so far at both raising money from Democrats and skimming Democratic and Democratic-leaning independent voters away from the defacto Democratic Senate nominee U.S. Representative Kendrick Meek. Crist would be better than Rubio, but Meek would be much better than both Crist and Rubio.

In the coming months the Crist campaign will do its best to push the narrative that the Florida Senate race is effectively a two-way race between the moderate Crist and the crazy, Club for Growth wingnut Rubio. Meek’s only chance rests in countering that narrative as much as possible. If Meek can keep this a three way race, with Crist taking a large chunk of unaffilited voters and a few Republicans and Democrats, he can hope to slide by with 35 or 36 percent.

Rubio’s camp has to be hoping that Meek is partially successful, with Crist getting a lot of Democrats but Meek capturing enough so that Rubio can score a minority victory. That kind of three-way race, where Crist is squeezed from both sides, offers Rubio his best path to victory in my estimate. Time will tell which narrative wins out with the voters.

The Ghost Writer

On the Atlantic leg of my journey to India last week, I watched Roman Polanski’s new film The Ghost Writer. In the film a young ghost writer (played by Ewan McGregor) is hired to help an ex-British Prime Minister (Pierce Brosnan) write his memoirs, drawing the apolitical McGregor into a web of political intrigue.

Watch the preview:

The film was certainly entertaining, despite the extremely small screens on the United Airlines plane. Polanski’s agile touch made this an edge-of-your-seat kind of film despite the inherent ridiculousness of the plot/end-of-film twist.

I’d rate it netflix worthy, but its not a film you’d watch again. Once you know the twist I suspect the faults of the film’s plot become more taxing on the viewer.