Horse race
When folks challenge you to produce real evidence, that’s probably pretty much what you should do. That still isn’t what’s happening with allegations that Russia intervened in the U.S. election.[1] So it doesn’t even begin to make sense that I would now suddenly be convinced. But I guess the powers that be think maybe if they repeat a claim often enough, it will be accepted as true—which the media are indeed increasingly doing.
Although the unclassified report, which is based on a longer, classified report, uses the strongest language and offers the most detailed assessment yet, it does not or cannot provide evidence for its assertions. That virtually guarantees that it will not change many minds in the debate, which has become heavily partisan. The intelligence community is in effect telling readers, “trust us”—something the president-elect, among others, has been unwilling to do.[2]
David A. Graham, “An Intelligence Report That Will Change No One’s Mind,” Atlantic, January 6, 2017, https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/01/odni-report-on-russian-hacking/512465/
Star Trek: Axanar
“[N]on-monetary benefits for the creators such as future job opportunities?”[3] It seems to me this might be over-broad.
For [U.S. District Court Judge Gary] Klausner, the case is pretty cut and dry. The work is clearly not a parody, clearly uses the Star Trek brand and, according to the judge, does not qualify as nonprofit because — although it was going to be distributed for free — was intended to drive non-monetary benefits for the creators such as future job opportunities.[4]
Sean Buckley, “‘Star Trek’ fan film loses fair use case, moves to jury trial,” Engadget, January 5, 2017, https://www.engadget.com/2017/01/05/star-trek-fan-film-loses-fair-use-case-moves-to-jury-trial/
Alan Sokal
If there is a single incident that made the post-modernist tendency toward obscurantism untenable, this might be it. For that alone, I think Alan Sokal deserves a lot of credit.
Jennifer Ruark, “Bait and Switch,” Chronicle of Higher Education, January 1, 2017, http://www.chronicle.com/article/Anatomy-of-a-Hoax/238728
War
Micah Zenko, “Scary Fact: America Dropped 26,171 Bombs in 7 Countries in 2016,” National Interest, January 6, 2017, http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/scary-fact-america-dropped-26171-bombs-7-countries-2016-18961
Alleged climate change hiatus
Jason Daley, “New Study Confirms There Was No Global Warming Hiatus,” Smithsonian, January 6, 2017, http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/study-backs-noaas-disputed-ocean-temperature-data-180961697/
- [1]David A. Graham, “An Intelligence Report That Will Change No One’s Mind,” Atlantic, January 6, 2017, https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/01/odni-report-on-russian-hacking/512465/↩
- [2]David A. Graham, “An Intelligence Report That Will Change No One’s Mind,” Atlantic, January 6, 2017, https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/01/odni-report-on-russian-hacking/512465/↩
- [3]Sean Buckley, “‘Star Trek’ fan film loses fair use case, moves to jury trial,” Engadget, January 5, 2017, https://www.engadget.com/2017/01/05/star-trek-fan-film-loses-fair-use-case-moves-to-jury-trial/↩
- [4]Sean Buckley, “‘Star Trek’ fan film loses fair use case, moves to jury trial,” Engadget, January 5, 2017, https://www.engadget.com/2017/01/05/star-trek-fan-film-loses-fair-use-case-moves-to-jury-trial/↩