Defense Budget Matters

Via Barry Ritholtz, a briefing from within the Pentagon on the realities of the Defense Department budget. The two bits of good news are that the department is looking seriously at the idea of ending the practice of giving the Army, Navy, and Air Force equal slices of the budgetary pie despite actual needs, and that they may also finally start look at altering procurement needs to. It's all very heartening, until you remember that the Pentagon has to get Congress on board as well. Say what you want about the military brass, but they're at least somewhat responsive to the executive branch; members of Congress are likely to be responsive to their constituents, including active military personnel and employees of large defense contractors. Voting to lay them off will not go over well, so the White House and Pentagon need to thing about a subsantial transition package to get these workers and soldiers back into the civilian workforce.

Israel/Palestine and Public Opinion

I have basically no insights here, but I feel like discussions of what hypothetical detente between Israel and Palestine might look like (see Yglesias, Ezra, TNR (non-Peretz), Peretz, the RBC, et al.) ought to at least have a passing reference to the current shape of Israeli and Palestinian public opinion. Chris Bowers has a nice primer, and Swisspeace.ch has links to a large number of polls. The polling tends to be very fuzzy, but the general shape of public opinion is that (a) Palestinians overwhelmingly support negotiating with Israel, but (b) as of late have had little faith that any of their elected leaders can get anything done, and (c) reject almost every compromise you see most often discussed in the Western press (shared control of Jerusalem, nominal right of return and compensation for Palestinians who are unable to return, slow dismantling of settlements in the Jordan Valley, etc.). In addition, the United States is the Western nation nation least trusted by Palestinians to make progress on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

Sadly, I've had a much harder time finding polling on Israeli public opinion, which is just as important, since it will be difficult to get Israel's Prime Minister to sign an agreement that will end his chances at reelection.

Two Dudes Playing Fake Plastic Instruments

More substantive posts will be coming shortly, but if you need some low-fi background noise at any point in the next 24 hours, two guys are trying to set the world record for "Longest Continuous Rock Band Drumming" [yes, this record is tracked; there's now a Guinness Book of World Records devoted solely to gaming]. You can watch on Ustream here. The whole thing is a fundraiser for Texas Children's Hospital (one of the drummers is from Texas; the other is Canadian and thus does not need to go to these extreme lengths to fund his country's health care system); you can donate here United Way, you can donate here, though I think somehow they get credit if you go here and the follow the "click here to donate" button.

Roland Burris, Creativity, And Monuments For Dead People

The unusually elaborate gravesite that Roland Burris built for himself has attracted a bit of attention. Personally, I don't feel that designing a gravesite like this for oneself is a sign of bad character. It's natural to try to overcome one's impermanence in the face of mortality by building something permanent about oneself. Naming your children Roland and Rolanda strikes me as a bit more of an excessive ego kind of move, but still, whatever.

What annoys me about monuments like this is the lack of creativity and personal flair. I can't read the inscription, but it looks like it's just a bunch of political achievements. Fifty years later, you see this monument and you think, 'Here lies a dude who was good at scoring himself offices. Good for him, I guess, but I don't see why I should like the guy. Sure, I'm rooting for him because his success represents the overcoming of some historical injustices, but I'm rooting more for the historical forces at play than the guy himself.'

It'd be different with somebody who built a monument of himself, say, riding an ostrich. I'd see a monument like that and think, 'Here's a guy who was probably a lot of fun to hang out with, and who's still trying to amuse people fifty years after his death.' It would actually feel kind of like he was alive. And really, you don't have to do anything that silly -- I'm sure there's something cool in Burris' life connected to his achievements that would give me a better sense of him as a person.

Friday Kitsch Cover

Via First Draft, The Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain performs Isaac Hayes' "Shaft".

I can dig it. Leave your nominations for next week's Kitsch cover in the comments.