Browsing PBH By Articles

Effects Of The Iraq War: The Iraqi Perspective

The Article: How Do Iraqis View the Effects of the Iraq War? by Daniel Larison in The American Conservative.

The Text: This Zogby poll of Iraqi and other opinions about the consequences of the U.S. invasion should be required reading (via Ricks). It is by far the most comprehensive survey of Iraqi opinion about the war that I have seen, and it is first since the withdrawal of U.S. forces. The responses to one question in particular deserve close attention. The question was, “Since the U.S. entered Iraq, how do you feel the following areas of life have been impacted?” Consistent with other surveys, Kurdish opinion tends to be extremely positive, because Iraqi Kurds experienced almost none of the upheaval and violence during the eight and a half years of U.S. occupation. For the most part, Shia and Sunni Arabs perceive almost every aspect of life to have become worse or not changed.

For example, when asked about political freedom, 53% of Shias and 54% of Sunni Arabs say that things are worse now, and less than a third of each group believes that things have improved. As for personal security and safety, there is an overwhelming consensus among both groups (81% of Shias, 88% of Sunni Arabs) that it is worse than before, which is hardly surprising. The responses on economic development/employment are almost as lopsided and negative: 74% of Shias and 80% of Sunni Arabs say that things are worse. In every category except religious freedom, Shia and Sunni Arabs are in agreement that things have become worse since the U.S. invaded. Overall results show that there is only one category (religious freedom) in which there are more respondents reporting improvement over the pre-invasion state of affairs, and even this is just a 39% plurality. Keep these numbers in mind when you next hear some dead-ender complaining about how ungrateful the Iraqis are for all that “we” have done for them.

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The Week In Blogs, January 30th 2012

Under the weight of bristling internet activism against censorship, ArsTechnica reports that support for PIPA and SOPA evaporated over the course of the last two weeks in the Senate. Politicians from both side of the spectrum backed off of the bill after serious concerns were lobbied from across the tech industry about the potential impact it could have on the economy and internet.

Over in South Carolina, Governor Nikki Haley released a doomsday message about unions during her State of the Union. Get a full taste of this nonsense:

The people of South Carolina have a strong work ethic, they value loyalty, and they take tremendous pride in the quality of their work. We don’t have unions in South Carolina because we don’t need unions in South Carolina.

However, as we saw with the assault from the NLRB, the unions don’t understand that. They will do everything they can to invade our state and drive a wedge between our workers and our employers. We can’t have that. Unions thrive in the dark. Secrecy is their greatest ally, sunlight their most potent adversary.

Quick hits: BuiltLean has a great infograph about how ‘fruit juice’ is really just soda in disguise and full body workouts. Doug at Balloon Juice looks at how state and local government contribution’s to GDP have taken a nose-dive in recent years. And the Muppets hit back at Fox News.

GOP Myths On Poverty And Kids

The Article: The Week in Poverty: Kids, Jobs and GOP Myths by Greg Kaufmann in The Nation.

The Text: This Week in Poverty: the impact of stress and early intervention on poor kids, the state of children in America, and the GOP breaks out some Golden Oldie myths about poor people, black people and a lack of work ethic… But first:

The Vital Statistics

US poverty (less than $22,300 for a family of four): 46 million people, 15.1 percent.

Kids in poverty: 16.4 million, 22 percent of all kids.

Deep poverty (less than $11,157 for a family of four): 20.5 million people, 6.7 percent of population.

Impact of public policy, 2010: without government assistance, poverty twice as high—nearly 30 percent.

Impact of public policy, 1964–1973: poverty rate fell by 43 percent.

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Class Conflict Is The New Race Conflict

The Article: In an OWS Era, Americans Are Much More Aware of Class Tension by Nona Willis Aronowitz in Good News.

The Text: It looks like Occupy Wall Street’s message has resonated even after Zuccotti Park cleared out. A new Pew Research Center survey reveals that two-thirds of the public believes there are “very strong” or “strong” conflicts between America’s rich and poor—a number that’s up 19 percentage points since 2009. According to the survey, income inequality now trumps tensions arising from race or immigration—popular answers only a few years before.

Younger people, women, Democrats and African Americans are the most likely to sense class warfare. But the group receiving the most dramatic wakeup call? White people; the number of whites who saw class as a dividing factor increased by 22 percent. That makes sense—people who normally enjoy a higher societal status are more likely to experience a loss of that status, leaving them more attuned to post-recession class tension.

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Lessons Learned By Christopher Walken

The Article: Christopher Walken: What I’ve Learned by Scott Raab in Esquire.

The Text: Morning is the best time to see movies.

I remember once, years ago, I was walking out a door — I’d been having a conversation and I was walking out the door, and this guy said to me, “Chris,” and I stopped and I turned, and he said, “Be careful.” And I never forgot that. And it comes back to me often: Be careful. That was good advice.

That’s supposed to be a fact, that the question mark is originally from an Egyptian hieroglyph that signified a cat walking away. You know, it’s the tail. And that symbol meant — well, whatever it is when they’re ignoring you.

When I was a kid, there was someone in my family, an adult, and whenever I saw them, they would say, “You got a lotta nerve.” From the time I was a little kid, it was always like, “Heh, heh, heh — you got a lotta nerve.” I always thought, What does that mean? But then when I got older, I thought that it was an instruction. If you tell a kid something, it sticks. I think I do have a lot of nerve. But, I mean, I think I maybe got it from that person who said it to me.

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