Friday links! Modern times edition

By Dan Brooks in Uncategorized 6 Comments
Early 20th-century heterosexual Charles Chaplin

Early 20th-century heterosexual Charles Chaplin

When does modernity begin? Is it with the emergence of nation-states in Europe, as my high school social studies teacher insisted? Perhaps modernity arrived with the industrial revolution, when broad changes in the nature of work altered the day-to-day texture of millions of lives. Or maybe modernity started with the internet and the retrospective knowledge that to give everyone a global voice means dramatically reducing, in your perception at least, the importance of your own. Personally, I think modernity started when a law firm realized it could make more money suing people who downloaded free pornography it uploaded to the internet than by making actual pornography. Today is Friday, and modernity begins when society concludes that its work is done. Won’t you knock off early with me?

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Police body cameras in Rialto reduce use of force by 60%

By Dan Brooks in War on Terror 2 Comments
A fun dog

A fun police dog

According to the Times, the police department of Rialto, California randomly required half of its patrol officers to wear body cameras each week of last year. During that period, officers used force 25 times, as opposed to 61 times during the previous year. Officers wearing cameras accounted for only eight uses of force. Knowing someone is (or will be) watching appears to make interactions between police and civilians less violent. I don’t want to draw any unfounded conclusions, but it’s possible that public scrutiny encourages law enforcement to adhere to its own rules. In unrelated news, a secret federal ruling from 2011 rebuked the NSA for repeatedly misrepresenting its domestic surveillance operations to the FISA courts.

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Combat! blog observes animals, isn’t useful

By Dan Brooks in Uncategorized 0 Comment
A bison in high school, when he had that haircut

A bison in high school, when he had that haircut

My father’s whirlwind tour of western Montana continues today with a trip to the National Bison Range. The best time to view animals is early in the morning, say a bunch of park rangers who have to get up early anyway, so there will be no Combat! blog today. Fortunately, the best time to view the internet is also early in the morning, while the trolls are asleep. While I shoot buffalo from a train, how about you read this article about Japanese boredom rooms sent to me by Ben al-Fowlkes. That tactic would not work on Americans.

 

Close Readings: Keith Vaz on detaining Glenn Greenwald’s boyfriend

By Dan Brooks in War on Terror 2 Comments
Keith Vaz, chair of Parialment's Home Affairs Select Committee (artist's conception)

Keith Vaz, chair of Parliament’s Home Affairs Select Committee (artist’s conception)

The good news is that the United States was not involved in any way with the UK’s decision to detain David Miranda, partner of journalist Glenn Greenwald, under Schedule 7 of Britain’s Terrorism Act 2000. Sure, we knew about it in advance, but we didn’t request or encourage it—nor do we condemn it, and we won’t say whether we benefited from it. According to pleasingly-named White House spokesman Josh Earnest, the British detention of the boyfriend of the journalist who reported the Edward Snowden leaks is just a fact the US government calmly absorbed, like a jellyfish encountering a Gummi Bear. Our executive branch’s placidity in the face of what is maybe the most naked abuse of anti-terrorism law in the modern era is a model we all can follow, and so is its use of understatement. Quote from important British person after the jump.

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Combat! blog tramps through woods, isn’t useful

By Dan Brooks in Uncategorized 0 Comment
The woods

The woods

There is no Combat! blog today, because I am taking my dad up to Seeley to run him around in the woods. You have to tucker him out or he’ll bark at raccoons all night. While I misidentify wildflowers, how about you read Andrew Sullivan’s bitterly disillusioned blog post about surveillance, abuse and the War on Terror. He’s referring to Glenn Greenwald, principal journalist in the Edward Snowden leaks, whose partner was detained at Heathrow for the legally maximum nine hours. It’s only a lucky coincidence that his name is Miranda. We’ll be back tomorrow with actual content and/or a story about a bear.