Atlantic Monthly Contributors's Blog, page 926
September 30, 2013
The Many Adorable Things That Will Be Killed by the Shutdown
[image error]In addition to putting hundreds of thousands of workers on furlough, a government shutdown — which looked very likely to happen at midnight — would kill some very cute things. The thought of federal workers going unpaid, or threats to their own staffers' health insurance, has not brought the the House and Senate together on a government-funding deal. Perhaps it would help to refocus lawmakers' minds on the cute things that will suffer, like panda cams and frozen yogurt.
Weddings. Nothing's cuter than a wedding, and there are 24 scheduled to take place on the National Mall in October. During shutdown, nobody's getting married on the Mall.
Senate Fro-Yo. What will hungry Hill reporters do for their afternoon treat?
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The Giant Panda Cam. The National Zoo will be forced to shutter the beloved panda cam (as well as dozen of other animal cams) in the event of a shutdown.
Puppy press conferences. A Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council press conference was scheduled to occur at Columbus Plaza on Wednesday, but that won't happen now. Dog owners were planning to bring their pups to the conference.
[image error]Fountains. The Washington City Paper has a roundup of all the pretty D.C. fountains that won't run during a shutdown.
National parks. Don't even think about visiting Yosemite this time of year.
FOIAs. The government won't process Freedom of Information Act requests during a shutdown. That means you can't request government records on cute things like, say, panda spending.
Shutdown could also hurt charitable organizations like Meals on Wheels, which rely on government reimbursements to keep running. Oh, and you won't be able to get a gun permit until Congress reaches a budget deal. Maybe that will convince Republicans to make a deal with the Senate?
Wedding photo by Mila Supinsky and puppy photo by Tatiana Gass via Shutterstock.
We're Incredibly Lucky There Hasn't Been a U.S. Nuclear Catastrophe...Yet
Know that popular Liberty Insurance Mutual commercial that jokingly shows people making small mistakes — dropping an air conditioning unit from an upper-story window or forgetting to put on the emergency brake — that destroy their cars? Funny, right? Now imagine that, but with nuclear weapons.
That's the frightening picture that author Eric Schlosser paints in his new book Command and Control, a look at the many accidents involving nuclear weapons that almost led to massive destruction. His conclusion isn't very comforting — it's partly plain old luck that has kept an explosion from happening, one of several points he made in a phone interview with The Atlantic Wire.
[image error]Take, for example, a 1980 accident in Damascus, Arkansas, which works as the book's headliner because it is both cartoonishly simple and dramatically frightening. There, a young worker at a silo for the Titan II ballistic missile, which held the most powerful nuclear warhead the U.S. had ever built, accidentally dropped a socket while doing regular maintenance. That socket fell, took an awkward bounce, and pierced through the missile, setting off a leak of rocket fuel and sending the Air Force into a desperate attempt to stop an accidental explosion of the warhead.
"I think a lot of the major themes of the book — about the difficulty of controlling complex technologies, the unpredictability of it, how a relatively trivial event can set in motion things that can lead to a catastrophe — It all just seemed present in this story," Schlosser told The Wire.
The book is scarily full of stories like the Damascus Accident, which Schlosser worked to get declassified for the book. In another case, a B-52 plane exploded above North Carolina during a supposedly-routine flight, dropping two hydrogen bombs below. They failed to explode because of a single low-voltage switch, the last safety measure available for the explosives. Other gut-wrenching examples were reported in The New Yorker, Los Angeles Times, and The New York Times Book Review.
[image error]Just as we are lucky that none of these accidents ever resulted in an explosion, we're equally lucky that no unhinged military members had a Dr. Strangelove-like desire to take nuclear action into their own hands, a possibility which, despite Air Force claims to the contrary, was very real. "The reality was until the early 1970s, there was nothing to prevent a bomber crew from just flying to the Soviet Union with their hydrogen bombs and dropping them," Schlosser said. "There were no codes that they had to type in to unlock the bombs or unlock the missiles. So we're glad that never happened but it's a pretty risky way to manage a nuclear weapon."
Even more disconcerting — two people in charge of safety protocols for nuclear weapons didn't even know about all of these accidents until Schlosser told them. That's because of the Air Force's compartmentalized secrecy, which prevents the bomb users from interacting with its developers, Schlosser explained. "There were bomb handlers and pilots who didn't realize some of the safety problems with the weapons, and there were weapons developers who didn't realize how these weapons were being handled. And that's a very bad combination," he said.
And this isn't just a historical problem; many of these same issues remain today. "I'm concerned about the arsenal right now, and the morale of the people who are running it, and some of the safety violations we've been having for the last two years," Schlosser said. While his work highlights the potentially huge problems of human infallibility, the solutions he suggests don't offer much. "But if we're gonna have these weapons, we need to take care of them properly," he said. Any other options? "Or just get rid of them."
(Photo of Schlosser: AP Photo/The Penguin Press, Kodiak Greenwood; Photo of book cover: Amazon.)
Less Than Half of Adults Read 'Literature' for Pleasure These Days
The National Endowment for the Arts' survey of public participation in the arts is out, and it contains rather disheartening news—or great news, depending on how you look at it.
On the bright side, an impressive 58 percent of U.S. adults read for pleasure—which is to say, read at least one book not required for work or for school—in 2012. On the other hand, 42 percent of adults did not read a single book for pleasure in 2012. That's probably not too much of a surprise, especially given that the poll doesn't differentiate between those who read one or two books and those who consumed, say, 30.
The poll does, however, distinguish between books in general and "literary reading," which includes novels, short stories, poetry, and plays. Turns out just 47 percent of adults read that sort of material, and as the LA Times points out today, that's a hefty decline in the past five years (with poetry attracting a meager 7 percent of literary readers):
Literature overall—from which the NEA excludes nonfiction—has suffered a decline. Adults who read novels, poetry, short fiction and plays have dropped in every age group since 2008. The biggest ground was lost among readers in middle age; 35- to 44-year-olds dropped by nearly 6%; and both 45- to 54-year-olds and 55- to 63-year-olds by 5%.
It probably won't surprise you (especially if you're Jonathan Franzen) to learn that book readers of all stripes are surpassed by those who partake in (shiver) "arts consumption through electronic media":
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But cheer up, Franzen. As far as literacy goes, Kindles and iPhones and Twitter and Tumblr are still forms of reading. Right?
At any rate, credit is due to senior citizens (adults 65 and older), who now have a higher rate of literary reading than any other demographic group in America.
Photo by Donjiy via Shutterstock.
Tom Hanks' AMA Was Charming, Bizarre
Tom Hanks, award-winning "serious" actor who's not above pulling photobomb pranks, took his quirks to a Reddit Ask Me Anything chat to promote his new film Captain Phillips. His performance in the film already has some Oscar buzz, but aside from pitching a Captain Phillips theme park ride, he kept the conversation as random as Reddit is used to.
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On David Schwimmer's hilarity:
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On the importance of flossing:
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Aw, thanks Hanks!
NBC Scraps Its Hillary Clinton Miniseries, Too
Following CNN's lead, NBC announced this afternoon that it is dropping its planned Hillary Clinton miniseries, according to the New York Times' Bill Carter. The politically charged project had been unpopular on both sides of the aisle for months.
Deadline's Lisa de Moraes says the network explained that they chose to stop development on the miniseries, which was to star Diane Lane, "after reviewing and prioritizing [their] slate of movie/mini-series development." But this has been a long time coming. Back in August, following the RNC's boycott of NBC and CNN over their Clinton projects, The Hollywood Reporter's Kim Masters reported that the project would likely vanish.
After documentary director Charles Ferguson revealed in a Huffington Post piece that he was not moving forward on CNN Films's Clinton documentary, the RNC dropped its boycott of that network. According to Peter Nicholas of the Wall Street Journal, the NBC boycott was still standing this afternoon, but probably won't be for long. But it wasn't just Republicans who were unhappy with these projects. Ferguson made it clear that there was also immense pressure not to go forward from the Clinton camp.
Police Are Searching for Two Parachutists Who Disappeared Near Goldman Sachs
Were they criminals, hobbyists, or just two people who wanted to live life like a video game? We don't know yet, but police are still searching for the two finely dressed men who parachuted into lower Manhattan, landed near the Goldman Sachs building and then disappeared early on Monday morning.
The day's most intriguing story not involving the government shutdown was first revealed on Twitter by a NBC New York reporter:
Odd story: NYPD searching for two parachuters who landed in the vicinity of the Goldman Sachs building in lower Manhattan around 3am today
— Shimon Prokupecz (@shimon4ny) September 30, 2013
More answers were required, obviously, because it's not every day two mystery men fall from the skies near the home of the most powerful financial institutions in the world. (There's a movie that starts this way, right?)
[image error]The New York Daily News and DNA Info report police commissioner Ray Kelly said they are looking for two men who landed at the intersection of West and Vescey Streets, between the Goldman Sachs building and the Conrad Hotel (roughly shown at right, per Google Maps), around 3:07 a.m. Monday morning. "They were seen walking with parachutes from the location," Kelly said at a press conference. "No banners, no notes were left."
The men were wearing black suits with matching helmets, according to footage caught on nearby security cameras, Kelly said. The two men proceeded to pack up their equipment and walk away from the camera, disappearing into the pre-dawn dark. Police are now trying to determine if they jumped from an aircraft or from a nearby building.
Some people guessed these two daredevils were inspired by Grand Theft Auto V, the recently released video game that's been inspiring people to do plenty of dumb stunts. But parachuting into Manhattan seems a little far-fetched, even for GTA's rabid fanbase. The game's setting is inspired by Los Angeles, after all.
President Obama Urges Congress to Avoid a Shutdown
Now that we're hours away from a government shutdown (unless Congress can come to an agreement on a bill to keep funding the government in the next 7 and a half hours), President Obama delivered a statement urging Congress to pass a "clean" continuing resolution and keep the government open.
Calling the actions of those lawmakers who are using a government shutdown to try and pass measure to delay or defund Obamacare the "height of irresponsibility," Obama told Republicans in Congress that "you don't get to extract a ransom just for doing your job."
"Of all the responsibilities the constitution endows to Congress, two should be fairly simple," the president said on Monday, "Pass a budget, and pay America's bills." Saying that a shutdown seems likely at this point (though not inevitable), the President outlined the effects of the shutdown. First, he noted, "Social security will still send checks," and national security, mail delivery, prison guards, border patrol, and the U.S. military, along with a few other necessary services, will continue to operate.
But that's not true for quite a lot else: "NASA will shut down almost entirely," he added. "Office buildings would close, paychecks would be delayed," and a series of "vital services" would be "hamstrung," including Veterans' support centers. The shutdown, he added, affects hundreds of thousands of government employees. "They worship where we do... they are the customers of every business in this country," he said. In addition to the hundreds of thousands of government workers who would continue to work without pay starting tomorrow, Obama noted that several more hundred thousand would go on furlough. "What will not be furloughed are the bills they have to pay."
Then, the president outlined what needs to happen to avoid that scenario:
The idea of putting the American people's hard-earned progress at risk is the height of irresponsibility, and it doesn't have to happen. Let me repeat this. It does not have to happen.
All of this is entirely preventable if the House chooses to do what the Senate has already done, and that's the simple act of funding our government without making extraneous and controversial demands in the process, the same way other Congresses have for more than 200 years.
Obama turned his attention to the health care law under fire. "An important part of the Affordable Care Act takes effect tomorrow, no matter what Congress decides to do today," he said, adding, "You can't shut it down." Speaking of the benefits of the law, Obama said that the Republican plan to delay or defund Obamacare would "sacrifice" the well-being of already sick Americans depending on the new law in the name of a political victory:
Republicans have said that if we'd lock these Americans out of affordable health care for one more year, if we sacrifice the health care of millions of Americans, then they'll fund the government for a couple of more months. Does anybody truly believe that we won't have this fight again in a couple of more months? Even at Christmas?
So here's the bottom line. I'm always willing to work with anyone of either party to make sure the Affordable Care Act works better, to make sure our government works better. I am always willing to work with anyone to grow our economy faster or to create new jobs faster, to get our fiscal house in order for the long run. I've demonstrated this time and time again, oftentimes to the consternation of my own party.
But one faction of one party in one house of Congress in one branch of government doesn't get to shut down the entire government just to refight the results of an election.
The full transcript, via the Washington Post, is here.
Can't get enough government shutdown action? Head over to the Atlantic Wire's shutdown countdown and liveblog.
Apparently, No One Likes Syrah Because It's Too Slutty
"The heavy reds are the girl at the end of the bar with the low neckline and the short skirt," reads a creepy line from Oregon's Register-Guard newspaper, continuing the old-time tradition of comparing wines to women who want to have sex with you. That quote is from Robin Pfeiffer, the owner of Pfeiffer Winery, and is meant to show that a full-bodied red isn't as thrilling as Pinot Noir because it's easy. "Pinot noir is the girl next door that every winemaker is pursuing, it makes you drop to your knees," Pfeiffer adds, bringing this whole slut-shame-y wine-are-like-women comparison to fruition. Pinot Noir is, apparently, like a good girl who doesn't have sex as often as the girl who shows skin. And shame on you if you like those skanky petite sirahs or mourvedres.
The idea that women who dress in a certain way that doesn't show skin are more worthy of being pursued than women who don't is already an incorrect and deeply troubling notion. That warrants its own separate post. What boggles the mind is why food writers continue to compare foods, wines in particular, to shopworn female stereotypes and tropes. After all, we don't see Rieslings being compared to the guy in the club with a fedora who shoots finger guns while dancing. Nor do we see Gruner Veltliner written about like your friend's Ivy-league, cashmere crew-neck wearing, educated cousin who has a great smile, is funny, volunteers at the Boys and Girl's Club and possesses a firm handshake.
Throughout the years, writers have enjoyed referring to Pinot Noir as woman with plenty of secrets. "Pinot Noir is like a woman: You can devote your whole life to figuring it out," a Pinot drinker told Food and Wine back in 2003. That same article also included this quote, which again equates Pinot Noir to sex: "Anyone who makes Pinot Noir just wants to get laid." And that same article also goes on to equate Pinot Noir to a type of female beauty that isn't "slutty":
Greg Crone, the brand manager of New Zealand's Brancott Vineyards, likened wine drinkers' developing appreciation of Pinot to a man's maturing taste in women. It was, he said, like graduating from Pamela Anderson to Grace Kelly.
And The New York Times in 2012 called Pinot Noir a "femme fatale." The bottom line: Pinot Noir is a grape that's hard to grow, and it isn't appreciated by wine newbies. How this turns into talk about a woman's looks and a heterosexual male (or lesbian) sex drive, is still hard to explain.
At its core, this type of writing is just alienating. It's hard for heterosexual women and gay men to relate to these type of randy narrative. And those two demographics represent a big share of the wine market. Bloomberg reported in 2010 that women represented 53 percent of wine drinkers in the U.S. Heterosexual men and lesbians would probably have a hard time reading about how the Sirahs are the Adam Levines of the wine world.
But this writing style is also disconcerting in that it's one more way women are objectified. There's this idea that only one kind of women/wine is valued, and that eventually people will come to their senses and drop, in this case, the full-bodied red. "These archetypes convey little information beyond the sexual appeal of the woman in question. And food writers repeat the pernicious belief that women are valuable only insofar as men want to look at them or sleep with them: matron bad, "it" girl good," Slate's L.V. Anderson wrote in August.
Anderson points out that food writers do this because writing about food is inherently boring and sex with women is not. Though if these lazy comparisons continue, the latter won't be true for very long.
September 29, 2013
Israel Claims to Have Captured an Iranian Spy
The Israeli government announced on Sunday that it had captured someone that they claim is an Iranian spy. The alleged spy was reportedly photographing various landmarks, including the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv. The suspect, Ali Mansouri, was initially detained on September 11th while attempting to board a flight out of the country.
The capture comes at an auspicious time for Israel, whose leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, is supposed to address the United Nations this coming week. According to The Washington Post, Netanyahu "is expected to argue that Iran cannot be trusted and that stiff economic sanctions should remain in place until it agrees to curtail its nuclear program." Claiming that Iran was spying on U.S. embassies would undoubtedly help such a cause, but all of the news about Mansouri is coming from one source: the Israeli government.
According to Israel's Shin Bet domestic intelligence agency, Mansouri had travelled to the country three times in the past 15 months, hoping to set up a front for covert operations. Mansouri supposedly answers to Iran's Quds Force, which in turn answers directly to the Ayatollah. (Israel currently holds the Quds Force responsible for a terrorist attack that took place in Delhi in early 2012.) Mansouri holds both Belgian and Iranian citizenships.
Here's How Everyone's Reacting to the End of 'Breaking Bad'
The last ever episode of "Breaking Bad" is now out in the world. And the reactions seem to lean towards a positive consensus, rather than extreme polarization. We've rounded up a sampling of those early takes from critics, and from Twitter, for your perusal. But beware: while not quite as much of a spoiler as our recap of the ending, it gets a bit spoilery below as well.
The Critics:The balance could shift as next-day reviews surface on Monday, but the early reactions are rather positive — reflecting the, well, conclusiveness of the series conclusion.
Variety/Brian Lowry: "In today’s hyper-caffeinated age, precious little lives up to its hype. But the “Breaking Bad” finale — perhaps appropriately — got the chemistry just right... as Sunday’s finale made eminently clear, this was a show whose narrative fearlessness was only matched by its boundless creativity and unpredictability."
USA Today/Robert Bianco: "In a stunning 75-minute extended finale, Vince Gilligan brought Breaking Bad to a supremely fitting close, tying up all the loose ends in his modern classic AMC series."
Wall Street Journal/Marshall Cook "In truth, as I write this in the two minutes after the show ended, I realize that I’m struggling – as I am sure many are – with the ending for Walter White that played this past week in my head versus the one that played out on screen."
Fraizer Moore/Associated Press: "Any "Breaking Bad " fan could be forgiven for concluding that Sunday's finale held no major surprises.That's because this AMC drama series has delivered surprises, shock and OMG moments dependably since its premier five seasons ago. Just like it did on its final episode.
AV Club/Donna Bowman: "Tonight’s finale is quiet. It doesn’t try to impress. A legend has no need to do that...I don’t know if we’ll remember Walt’s fate with as much resonance as we remember the last shot of Vic Mackey in The Shield, still the gold standard for an antihero's dramatic catharsis. And “Felina” won’t be controversial the way the ambiguous last moments of Tony Soprano were. But Jesse survives. More than that—he’s alive, screaming with shock and joy as he drives away, the kind of alive Walt used to feel when he pulled off a victory. Those other shows didn’t have room for that kind of win, and so the best they could give us was vengeance or our own imagined possibilities."
Twitter:Twitter was mixed, but heavily leaning positive.
On the one hand:
Reactions to ending of @BreakingBad_AMC. @betsy_brandt @deanjnorris pic.twitter.com/utz1eZEZrG
— Fr. Zach Kautzky (@frzachk) September 30, 2013
I guess what I mostly feel is pity. Pity for anyone else who ever has to write a TV finale after the conclusion of Breaking Bad. #iLikedIt
— Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) September 30, 2013
Take that Lost. #breakingbad
— Jamie Kilstein (@jamiekilstein) September 30, 2013
That's how you end a series, bitch! #breakingbadfinalerocks
— Eric Deggans (@Deggans) September 30, 2013
A perfect, beautiful, resonant ending to a great work of art. #BreakingBad
— Xeni Jardin (@xeni) September 30, 2013
Ew, stop with your slatepitchy counterintuitive takes on the breaking bad finale. Let a thing be simple, satisfying, and good once ever.
— Emily Gould (@EmilyGould) September 30, 2013
@chatlierose and Barkley and me LOVED the breakingbad finale tied it all up no loose ends ! http://t.co/SVHdTuLBM7
— Gayle King (@GayleKing) September 30, 2013
(That's Charlie Rose King is referring to, by the way.)
On the other hand:
HOW DID THAT GO FROM SO AWESOME TO SO TERRIBLE IN THE SPACE OF ONE SONG CHOICE #breakingbad
— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) September 30, 2013
Breaking Bad opts for a Hollywood ending. Disappointing for an otherwise brilliant five years.
— Keith Boag (@KeithBoag) September 30, 2013
Meh. #BreakingBad
— Seyward Darby (@seywarddarby) September 30, 2013
Disappointed with the Breaking Bad ending. You can't be promoting snitching. How's the snitch gonna get away and all the real people die
— Chi-Town Bear-Down (@ShowTime420) September 30, 2013
One thing everyone seemed to agree on, however, was that Jimmy Kimmel seemed out of place at the "Talking Bad" cast and crew post-series interview session that aired right after the show.
The biggest thing left unanswered on Breaking Bad is why Jimmy Kimmel is at this event
— samir mezrahi (@samir) September 30, 2013
KIMMEL LET THE BREAKING BAD PEOPLE TALK
— Molly Knefel (@mollyknefel) September 30, 2013
get jimmy kimmel off my beautiful breaking bad evening #ALLDISRESPECTTOJIMMYKIMMEL
— gross (@youresogr8) September 30, 2013
What exactly does Jimmy Kimmel bring to the party? Apart from being simultaneously annoying and unfunny. #talkingbad #breakingbad
— Robert Collins (@RC_Words) September 30, 2013
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