(Nuance is usually a weak defense in political campaigns.)

Obama Gets a Taste of the Coming Battle

Support from studios has been widely cited as the reason for Blu-ray's victory, but few consumers know that the studios were likely won over by the presence of a digital lock on movies called BD+, a far more sophisticated and resilient digital rights management, or DRM, system than that offered by HD DVD.

This is very interesting.

How Crypto Won the DVD War | Threat Level from Wired.com

Paul Pillar has written an important article in the latest issue of Foreign Affairs:

Two new books on intelligence reform -- Tim Weiner's Legacy of Ashes and Amy Zegart's Spying Blind -- distort the historical record. A third, by Richard Betts, rightly observes that no matter how good the spies, failures are inevitable.

I haven't read these books (yet), but it's notable that Pillar is absolutely lambasting a National Book Award winner:

Tim Weiner's Legacy of Ashes won the 2007 National Book Award for nonfiction -- but probably would have been a better candidate in the category of fiction.

Legacy of Ashes is not a history of the CIA, much less the history that the subtitle promises. It is largely a collection of tales of derring-do, deceit, and defeat. This highly tendentious book should be viewed the same way as a good novel: a lively read not to be trusted as history.

Based on Pillar's review, I think the new book by Betts is consistent with Timothy Naftali's book, Blind Spot: The Secret History of American Counterterrorism, which I reviewed in 2005. In a conclusion consistent with Pillar's observation now, I wrote:

Naftali seems resigned to the reality of future attacks, and he is definitely skeptical of any quick fix or silver bullet.

Intelligent Design? The Unending Saga of Intelligence Reform

It's McCain!

Diebold Accidentally Leaks Results Of 2008 Election Early

The New York Times offers a very cool interactive info-graphic.

Summer blockbusters and holiday hits make up the bulk of box office revenue each year, while contenders for the top Oscar awards tend to attract smaller audiences that build over time. Here's a look at how movies have fared at the box office, after adjusting for inflation.

The visualization technology bears a strong resemblance to ThemeRiver.

The Ebb and Flow of Movies: Box Office Receipts 1986 - 2007

We both, Vasili Ivanovich and I, have always been impressed by the anonymity of all the parts of a landscape, so dangerous for the soul, the impossibility of ever finding out where that path you see leads — and look, what a tempting thicket! It happened that on a distant slope or in a gap in the trees there would appear and, as it were, stop for an instant, like air retained in the lungs, a spot so enchanting — a lawn, a terrace — such perfect expression of tender, well-meaning beauty — that it seemed that if one could stop the train and go thither, forever, to you, my love ... But a thousand beech trunks were already madly leaping by, whirling in a sizzling sun pool, and again the chance for happiness was gone.

This short story appears in The American Idea.

Cloud, Castle, Lake | Vladimir Nabokov | June 1941 | The Atlantic

In our unending search for panaceas, we believe that happiness and "success" — which, loosely translated, means money — are the things to strive for. People are constantly surprised that, even though they have acquired material things, discontent still gnaws.

An Englishman said to me recently, "You Americans live on a much higher plane of expectancy than we do. You constantly work toward some impossible goal of happiness and perfection, and you unfortunately don't have our ability just to give up. Really, it's much easier to accept the fact that some things can't be solved." He is right; we never accept it, and we kill ourselves trying.

This essay appears in The American Idea.

The Captivity of Marriage | Nora Johnson | June 1961 | The Atlantic

Elizabeth Rubin's latest dispatch from Afghanistan is heartbreaking -- and essential.

I went to Afghanistan last fall with a question: Why, with all our technology, were we killing so many civilians in air strikes?

After a few days, the first question sparked more: Was there a deeper problem in the counterinsurgency campaign? Why were so many more American troops being killed? To find out, I spent much of the fall in the Korengal Valley ...

As hard as Iraq was, nothing was as tough as the Korengal.

... If you peel back the layers, there’s always a local political story at the root of the killing and dying. That original misunderstanding and grievance fertilizes the land for the Islamists. Whom do you want to side with: your brothers in God’s world or the infidel thieves?

Captain Kearney met as many villagers as possible to learn the names of all the elders and their families. But he inherited a blood feud between the Korengalis and the Americans that he hadn’t started, and he was being sucked into its logic.

It didn’t take long to understand why so many soldiers were taking antidepressants.

... Kearney smiled. He was getting used to the routine between the Americans and the villagers — miscommunication and deception. The encounter felt as much performative, a necessary part of the play, as substantive. And I wondered how Kearney was going to keep his sanity for 10 more months.

A Bloody Stalemate in Afghanistan

Russia is far more volatile than anyone now wants to believe. We do ourselves no favor by generously pretending that Russia is going to hold some type of "flawed" vote, when the real election will be determined by the scorecard of the clan wars.

The pliant justice system in Russia is being incorporated into inter-clan warfare.

If the West should have one hope, it is that Russia's next president, Dmitri Medvedev, will call a truce among the warring Kremlin factions, reinstitute judicial independence and bring his country back from the brink at which it now perilously totters.

From the archive:

Russia appears to be a nation off of its crutches and seeking to define its place in the world. Yet Russia has singularly failed to make others see clearly what it wants, or see the world as it does—revealing a dangerous flaw in its foreign policy implementation.

A closer look at Russian foreign policy reveals a lack of strategic priorities and a Russia alone and adrift.

Today's global liberal democratic order faces two challenges. The first is radical Islam -- and it is the lesser of the two challenges. The second, and more significant, challenge emanates from the rise of nondemocratic great powers: the West's old Cold War rivals China and Russia, now operating under authoritarian capitalist, rather than communist, regimes.

The real power struggle

New Middle Ages ...

The southern port city of Basra has been, in effect, on its own since September, when British forces here moved to the outskirts, yielding authority to local leaders. British and American officials say Basra’s experiment in self-rule could serve as a model for Iraq’s future, but if so — many locals and outside advisers say — that future remains dark.

... a deeply troubled city: disappearances are common, political parties have militias of "hired mercenaries", political murders are executed by the "police", women are frequent subjects of targeted killings, and more.

What makes the situation in Basra so alarming is that it is a test of Iraqi rule under relatively optimal conditions.

From the recent archive:

"The connection between the softball and the parties and the corruption and the beatings was greatly intertwined."

Ominous Signs Remain in City Run by Iraqis