Theories on the Religious Expertise of Atheists
Wed, 29 Sep 2010 10:13 am PDT
 The Atlantic Wire - On Tuesday, Pew released its bombshell survey showing that Americans have a shaky grasp of religious knowledge, with atheists outscoring Christians--including on questions about Christianity. Jews and Mormons also scored highly on the test. The Wire brought you the first round of debate yesterday. Full Story | Top |
Should Corporations Have the Same Privacy Rights as People?
Wed, 29 Sep 2010 03:20 am PDT
 The Atlantic Wire - The Supreme Court is taking up a case concerning whether corporations have the same privacy rights as people. The high court will review a federal court ruling that said a company can block the release of government documents that violate its privacy rights. The specific case involved the Federal Communications Commission publishing documents related to its investigation of AT&T's billing practices. The documents were requested by AT&T's competitors via a Freedom of Information Act request. AT&T claimed a personal privacy exception under the language of the Freedom of Information Act and won. Now the FCC is appealing the ruling, arguing that only actual people may claim such an exception. Full Story | Top |
Do the Feds Need the Power to Wiretap the Internet?
Mon, 27 Sep 2010 05:28 am PDT
 The Atlantic Wire - In a move that's frightening privacy advocates, federal officials want to expand their authority to wiretap e-mails, Facebook accounts and other Internet services. Authorities argue that criminals are increasingly communicating online and merely monitoring their phone activity isn't sufficient. As the New York Times' Charlie Savage reports: Full Story | Top |
Is There No Good Choice for Califonia's Senate Seat?
Mon, 27 Sep 2010 05:43 am PDT
 The Atlantic Wire - One of California's largest—and notably left-leaning—newspapers has given GOP candidate Carly Fiorina a significant boost in her bid to unseat entrenched incumbent Democrat Barbara Boxer. The San Francisco Chronicle issued an a rare non-endorsement in the increasingly tight California Senate race, saying that Boxer has "failed to distinguish herself during her 18 years in office," while hedging that Fiorina's conservative agenda "would undermine this nation's need to move forward on addressing serious issues such as climate change, health care and immigration." Though the paper's editorial board was hardly favorable to the Republican challenger, its ringing non-endorsement was more an indictment of Barbara Boxer's "failure" rather than an assessment of the former Hewlett-Packard CEO. Pundits, who were generally surprised by the editorial, parsed its electoral implications.'Narcissistic' Move by the SF Chronicle contends Tim Cavanaugh at Reason. "If you can't get behind either Republocrat you should just run a box saying 'NO ENDORSEMENT,' or -- dare we say it? -- endorse a third party candidate. To the degree endorsements provide any service to the reader, the service is advice about the options in an election. A non-endorsement endorsement is like a tour book that tells you there's nothing to do where you're going."This Will 'Cost' Boxer a Fourth Term in Senate sarcastically relays The Daily Mail's Don Surber. "I have been writing editorials for 20+ years. You don’t kick a three-term senator to the curb without great deliberation. This is better for Carly Fiorina than an endorsement would be. It is a liberal choking on 18 years of elitist liberalism of an insufferable, self-absorbed Queen of Mean."The Chronicle's Decision Is 'Absurd' writes Robert Cruickshank at San Francisco's alternative online daily BeyondChron.org. Cruickshank defends Boxer's Senate record stating that her time in office has "generally been spent under an extreme right-wing majority in Congress, an extreme right-wing President, or both. Of Boxer's 18 years in Congress, only 6 of them came with a Democratic Congressional majority, and only 4 have come with a Democratic president. From 1995 to 2007, Boxer had to contend with Republicans who absolutely refused to make any deals with Democrats unless Democrats sold out their constituents and agreed to support a far-right agenda." He found the Chronicle's rationale for their non-endorsement "contradictory and ignorant of key facts, producing an outcome that lacks basic intellectual credibility."Chronicle 'Goes As Far as It Can to Support Fiorina' ventures Red State's Moe Lane. It's important to remember, the blogger reminds us, that "an endorsement of the Republican candidate for Senate by the San Francisco Chronicle would be about as likely as my being able to get to the Moon by jumping up and down on the ground hard enough. What they did instead was to give as strong a statement about Carly’s technical campaign skills as possible…then helpfully noting Carly’s (actually mostly mainstream) conservative positions."The Paper 'Isn't as Liberal' as Many SF Residents, but a reigning incumbent Democrat like Boxer still should have been able to garner an endorsement, observes Kerry Picket at The Washington Times. The Chronicle makes the case that "she did not make herself available enough to her constituents and only won elections because her opponents were underfunded and not terribly talented candidates." Needless to say, this may hurt come election day: "If this is the amount of excitement coming from Ms. Boxer's own liberal base, one can hardly imagine what kind of turnout Senator Boxer can expect in November." Full Story | Top |
Do the Ideas of 'Freakonomics' Translate Well On Screen?
Fri, 1 Oct 2010 11:18 am PDT
The Atlantic Wire - In 2005, Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner's bestseller Freakonomics became a cultural touchstone. The book showed that a host of unexplainable phenomena could be explained by counter-intuitive reasoning. Now an indie documentary inspired by the book has arrived. Armed with five teams of directors, it aims to illustrate the same wonky ideas in film. These helmers include the talent behind Super Size Me, Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room, Jesus Camp and Taxi To The Dark Side: a who's-who of recently successful documentary filmmakers. But does the movie convey the nuance and statistical prowess of the authors? More than a few dissenting reviewers found it an unwieldy viewing experience.'Like Leafing Through a Glossy Magazine' is how The New York Times' Stephen Holdren describes it. While it has awkward transitions between some parts, it is mostly successful in using "multiple techniques like witty animation and man-on-the-street interviews to illustrate the book’s theories." Still, Holdren finds it "shallow but diverting." He also notes that the "most problematic episode," which examines falling crime rates in the 1990s, presents the theory that abortion contributed to the crime drop as as "purely speculative."Surprisingly Invigorating writes Kyle Smith at The New York Post. "Seldom do documentaries set out in honest pursuit of hidden truths," but this one hits the mark aside from the "unwise" choice to hand the segments' reins over to multiple directors. "The movie is an eye-opener, a number-cruncher's corrective to the way two fields dominated by lazy thinking (cinema and journalism) analyze using whatever anecdotes confirm their biases."Post-Recession, It Has Lost Appeal The book's"commercial success reflected the once-fashionable notion that economics could explain, well, everything," explains NPR's Mark Jenkins. "After two years of recession and weak recovery, that idea has lost its appeal. So the movie version of Freakonomics functions as a reasonably effective trailer, but for a book whose moment has already passed." Even with that disclaimer, Jenkins thought the "basically faithful" adaptation was a, "brisk and visually inventive treatment."Fails to Grasp the Finer Points of the research and analysis that made the book such a hit in the first place, concludes Tasha Robinson at The Onion A.V. Club. Some of the mini-documentaries are patronizing and others rely on "ridiculously dramatized anecdotes." Another unfortunate part is that the documentary could have used the original authors more often: "Gordon’s personal, lively, funny link segments hint frustratingly at a Levitt-and-Dubner-focused film that might have been."'Peppy Economic Determinism Makes for Lousy Cinema' finds Ty Burr at The Boston Globe. The only part of the film that Burr appears to recommend is the segment called "Can a Ninth Grader Be Bribed To Succeed?" He explains: "This is the only part of 'Freakonomics' that focuses on individuals: a live-wire teenage screw-up named Urail and a baby-faced junior thug named Kevin. One succeeds, the other doesn’t, and what have we learned? That statistics don’t always tell the whole story and that the movie has unaccountably missed the real story, which is how and why these kids are falling through the cracks." Full Story | Top |
Is Obama ready for a stare-down with China?
Fri, 1 Oct 2010 10:28 am PDT
The Christian Science Monitor - After nearly two years in office, President Obama remains untested as a commander in chief during a tense standoff – his own Cuban missile crisis, for instance, or Iranian hostage-taking, Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, or 9/11. Full Story | Top |
Sex and the GOP
Wed, 29 Sep 2010 07:06 pm PDT
The Nation - The Nation -- In the media spectacle that is the 2010 midterm elections, women of the GOP are playing starring roles. Full Story | Top |
Happy Hour Vid: The Scariest Environmentalism Ad You'll Ever See
Fri, 1 Oct 2010 11:10 am PDT
The Atlantic Wire - An immediately controversial ad by the environmentalist campaign 10:10 Global is circulating the Web. Started in Britain, 10:10 seeks to spread awareness about global climate change. In order to do this, they created a grisly video series depicting everyday people being murdered for not limiting their carbon footprint. The goal was to "bring this critical issue back into the headlines," the group explained. By that measure, they succeeded. But the ad also invited allegations of "eco-fascism" and forced the group to issue an apology. But judge the video for yourself. It's essentially Old Testament vengeance meets new-age environmentalism meets Quentin Tarantino: Full Story | Top |
Is Anderson Cooper the Next Oprah?
Fri, 1 Oct 2010 10:26 am PDT
The Atlantic Wire - CNN anchor Anderson Cooper has struck a deal to host and produce his own syndicated daytime TV talk show. According to the announcement by Warner Bros. and Telepictures Productions, Cooper's program will cover "social issues, trends and events, pop culture and celebrity, human interest stories and populist news" and hit the airwaves sometime in 2011, just as reigning daytime queen Oprah Winfrey concludes her own 25-year run in syndication. Will Cooper--who will remain the host of CNN's Anderson Cooper 360--be able to duplicate her success? A sampling of opinions from around the Web: Full Story | Top |
Is Digg Finished?
Fri, 1 Oct 2010 10:15 am PDT
The Atlantic Wire - At its peak, the social-news site Digg.com was one of the most heavily trafficked Web destinations around. The user-driven site delivered a mix of tech news, "man-bites-dog" stories and quirky images. But ever since it launched its latest "V4" redesign, traffic numbers have dipped and loyal visitors have revolted. Trying to lure them back in, Digg started rolling back the site's older features, including a paginated homepage and user submission logs. Unfortunately, the concessions may be too little, too late for jilted users who have moved onto competing sites such as Reddit. Is Digg finished? Full Story | Top |
Top Tweets: Bye Bye Rahmie Edition
Fri, 1 Oct 2010 09:22 am PDT
The Atlantic Wire - In what President Obama deemed the "least suspenseful announcement of all-time," Rahm Emanuel officially stepped down as White House chief of staff Friday to begin his campaign for Chicago mayor. On Twitter, close attention was paid to the colorful chief of staff's East Room farewell speech.David Corn of Mother Jones wondered what all the fuss was about .bbpBox26089389611 {background:url(http://s.twimg.com/a/1285805719/images/themes/theme1/bg.png) #C0DEED;padding:20px;} p.bbpTweet{background:#fff;padding:10px 12px 10px 12px;margin:0;min-height:48px;color:#000;font-size:18px !important;line-height:22px;-moz-border-radius:5px;-webkit-border-radius:5px} p.bbpTweet span.metadata{display:block;width:100%;clear:both;margin-top:8px;padding-top:12px;height:40px;border-top:1px solid #fff;border-top:1px solid #e6e6e6} p.bbpTweet span.metadata span.author{line-height:19px} p.bbpTweet span.metadata span.author img{float:left;margin:0 7px 0 0px;width:38px;height:38px} p.bbpTweet a:hover{text-decoration:underline}p.bbpTweet span.timestamp{font-size:12px;display:block} Why is White House making a big deal of Rahm's departure? How many jobs is this creating? #rahmbutnotforgottenless than a minute ago via webDavid CornDavidCornDC Full Story | Top |
U.S. Infected Guatemalans With Syphilis
Fri, 1 Oct 2010 09:15 am PDT
The Atlantic Wire - The U.S. government has just apologized for deliberately infecting Guatemalans with syphilis and gonorrhea as part of a "sexually transmitted disease inoculation study" back in the '40s. What study? It turns out the program was recently rediscovered by Wellesley professor Susan Reverby, who says the Guatemalan government knew about, gave permission for, and were even involved in the tests. Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom, though, has apparently "accused the US of crimes against humanity," according to the BBC. In one method, infected prostitutes were used to give prisoners syphilis without their knowledge. In another case, mental health patients were given syphilis through abrasion and injection, also without their knowledge. The reaction has been one of shock and horror. Full Story | Top |
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