Prisoners

A ten-year old student told me that he felt prisons should be separated into different sections. Those who are innocent should be in one section and those who are guilty should be in another, because it wasn't fair to the innocent prisoners to have to be in the same place as the guilty ones. The guilty prisoners might beat up the innocent ones.

A profound, yet almost certainly unintentional, social critique.

The Iran Bomb and the U.S.

There has been talk about whether or not the advent of the Iran bomb could be beneficial to the U.S. somehow. A few courageous analysts have argued that it would be. A larger number of analysts assert that the first group is crazy.

Slate's Fred Kaplan discusses a New York Times piece by Adam Lowther, analyzing it such:

Lowther argues that an Iranian bomb might be beneficial to U.S. interests: The Saudis and Egyptians would want us to protect them by pledging to retaliate against Iran if Iran attacks Saudi Arabia or Egypt; in exchange for this guarantee, we could insist that they institute massive economic and democratic reforms and make peace with Israel. Furthermore, Lowther claims, the Palestinians would also rush to make peace, because the radioactive fallout from an Iranian attack on Jerusalem would kill them, too.

Kaplan counters:

This is one of the nuttiest op-ed pieces ever published in a major American newspaper. Brief rebuttal: No American president is going to treat an attack on Cairo or Riyadh as an attack on the United States. Even if a president said he would, no Egyptian or Saudi leader would believe him.

They both miss the point. In most talk about Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon, there is the assumption that the bomb will inevitably be used. It's an erroneous assumption and a potentially dangerous one if it becomes a staple of U.S. policy. The same assumption was used when Communist China became nuclear. U.S. arch-enemy the Soviet Union never dropped the bomb. The same is true of the vaunted "Islamic bomb" held by the Pakistanis. The reasoning went, what if a rogue military dictator with ties to Islamic fundamentalists took control of Pakistan? Well, it happened, and no bomb was deployed. Even North Korea, led by eccentric autocrat Kim Jong-Il, knows better than instigate a nuclear attack.

The fact remains that only the United States has actually used a nuclear bomb. The U.S. retains the most powerful military in the world. No country in the world, let alone the self-preservationists that run Iran, are willing to engage in a nuclear war with the U.S. or its allies.

If Iran obtained a bomb, it would give them more clout on the world stage. That reality could curb unilateral invasions and attacks committed by the U.S. and Israel. In that sense, it could create more (albeit tenuous) peace than the current situation allows. If one country has a nuclear weapon, there is no deterrent in using it, as exhibited in 1945. However, if competing sides hold that power, there is a deterrent. Of course, the best possible chance for peace is if no country possessed the bomb, a goal every nation on earth should aim towards achieving.

(The HQT-IE)

Dwyane Wade

Don't get me wrong. Dwyane Wade is one of the best players in the NBA. I ranked him as the 5th best player at the end of last season and as the 4th best player now. Yet, somehow, I believe he's overrated. First, let's talk about Wade's positives. He's a great scorer. His career average is an impressive 25.3 ppg including a league leading 30.2 last season. For his career, he piles up 6.6 assists a game (an assist per game more than Chauncey Billups). He grabs nearly 5 rebounds on a given night from the shooting guard position. He also adds 1.8 steals and a block per game.

He's made the All-Defensive 1st Team twice. He also was deservedly the 2006 Finals MVP, willing his team to victory, particularly late in the 4th quarter of Game 3. Of course, his team won the championship that season. In addition to the numbers and the awards, Wade has made a ton of spectacular dunks and blocks. He's also risen to the challenge for the national team in '06, '07, and in the Olympics in '08.

All of that is great. But it doesn't tell the whole story and, in some cases, is even misleading. Wade dominates the ball on offense. If Dwyane Wade isn't holding the ball for the majority of a particular possession, it's probably because Miami's on defense. As much as he has the ball, of course his numbers are going to be great.

The question becomes: Is Wade dominating the ball the best thing for Miami? The reality is that he should be more of a team player. He's often excused for his ball-hogging because it's pointed out that his teammates aren't very good. At this point, he doesn't have championship teammates, but the team should be better than it’s been. Michael Beasley is a good offensive player, who suffers in Miami's offense. Jermaine O'Neal isn't the star he used to be, but he's often ignored. The difference between Steve Nash's ability to make a player better and Wade's becomes obvious when you look at Shawn Marion's career path.

Wade should be the go-to-guy for Miami, but he needs to learn how to make his teammates better. It was a slow process for Kobe Bryant as well, something Bryant has picked up only in the last three years. One of Wade's big problems over the last two seasons has been his determination to shoot an insane amount of three-pointers despite his paltry shooting average. Also, he can play great defense when the effort is there, which rarely occurs. He's a numbers guy on defense, often gambling for blocks and steals instead of being in position.

In a bit of revisionist history, some have considered the 2006 Miami Heat to have been "Dwyane Wade's team." Wade averaged the most amount of points, and his numbers were better, but the team was at the very least co-led by Wade and Shaq. It wasn't until Game 3 of the Finals that Wade put the team on his back. Shaq had a miserable Finals and Wade deserves a lot of credit for coming through in the clutch, but throughout the season, those roles were not nearly as defined. The bottom line is that Wade is a great player whose garish numbers are deceptive to a degree.

The Next Georgia O'Keefe

It is my (recently discovered) dream to become the Georgia O'Keefe of painting abstract assholes. I can just hear the praise coming my way:

"He's managed to capture the true beauty and power of the asshole."
"I'll look at assholes in a whole new light from now on."
"His Made You Look Dirty Crook is a modern masterpiece."


Now I just gotta learn how to paint.

Chauncey Billups

Following the '08 and '09 seasons I ranked Chauncey Billups as the 6th and 4th best player in the NBA respectively. Right now I have him as the 5th best. Those might be surprising rankings to some. Billups isn't a flashy player. If you judge NBA players by their number of 360 dunks appearing on SportsCenter, Billups won't make your top 10 list. Except with respect to free throws (he shoots a career 89%, good for 7th all time), Billups doesn't do anything especially spectacular.

But Chauncey Billups does everything well. He's a good shooter. He's a good three-point shooter, with 6 out of his last 7 seasons (this one included) above 40%. He's known as Mr. Big Shot for his ability to knock down a clutch attempt. He knows how to run a team from the point guard position. His assist numbers are low (they have been descending since his career high of 8.6 in '05-'06). He's averaging only 6.1 this season and has a career average of just 5.6 per game. However, the number of assists is not always an indication of how well a player runs a team. In Denver, Carmelo Anthony tends to dominate the ball, taking away assists from Billups. In Detroit, the team usually used more than one pass to score, also limiting Billups's assist totals.

Billups is a good on-ball defender. When he came to Denver, he changed the team's ability to defend. The Nuggets rivaled the worst defensive teams in the league before Billups brought accountability on that end of the court. That takes us to Billups leadership. His arrival in Denver changed the course of two franchises. The Nuggets thrived; the team he left, the Pistons, faltered. On the one hand, he was a great fit for both teams. Allen Iverson, the man he was traded for, and his propensity to shoot a ton, didn't work in either situation. But Billups's leadership was the real key. This leadership is also exhibited by the fact that he is the only player to have played in a conference finals each of the last 7 seasons.

Billups does have his shortcomings. He has been criticized for taking contested three-pointers early in the shot clock at crucial points in a game, usually after he's hit a few in a row. As happened in Detroit, Denver is notorious for laying an egg every once in a while due to a lack of energy. If Billups's ability to lead is responsible for his teams' successes (and I believe it is) then his leadership must be blamed when his team fails to bring energy on a given night.

Despite Billups few faults, he is one of the best players in the NBA today. It's been a while since he led the Pistons to the championship in 2004, garnering a Finals MVP in the process. But he is still the leader of a contending team. One fascinating statistic is that the Nuggets are considerably better without scoring-sensation Carmelo Anthony than without Billups. Mr. Big Shot is the best player on the West's second best team. he also deserves more respect than he gets.

Secularism in India

Previously I examined secularism in India with regard to the prevalence of religion in society. But secularism should not only be defined in terms of an absence of religion. So here I will examine the aspect of secularism which argues that each religion should enjoy legal symmetry.

Certainly, India's constitution is secular. It does not allow for favoritism for any particular religion. But India's societal make up is less clear cut. Hindu nationalists have gained a foothold into the mainstream. The BJP, a party that espoused a Hindu nationalist agenda, ruled India from 1998-2004, although the party never achieved anywhere near a majority of votes. but to have a ruling party promote an ideology of exceptionist nationalism on the basis of religion surely rocks the foundation of secular claims.

Traveling through cities such as Agra and Lucknow, it is impossible to miss that the poorer "old cities" are largely Muslim in character and population. Muslims do not have a unique claim on poverty in India, but urban Muslim areas are often poor. But lower caste Hindus share the same economic frustrations with a large portion of India's Muslim community.

In 2007, a bomb went off in Hyderabad's famous Mecca Masjid. The Indian media assumed that the perpetrators were Muslim extremists aiming to cause friction between Hindus and Muslims. The prospect that the responsibility could lie with Hindu extremists wasn't merely dismissed, it wasn't even considered. This in an era where Hindu extremists destroyed the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya in 1992 on religious grounds, leading to intercommunal riots and the 2002 massacre of Muslims in Gujrat, just to name two internationally infamous instances of violence committed by Hindu extremists.

The increased political success of Hindu nationalists in recent years, the relative economic struggles of Muslims (admittedly, however, an unambiguous dichotomy involving Hindu prosperity and Muslim poverty is far from reality), and couplet of anti-Muslim violence with the media's portrayal of those events, are all threats to India's de facto secularism. Hindu extremists and their allies, a minority of India's population, hope to eradicate all notions of India's secularism. While they have not been successful, they have created challenges to the concept of religious symmetry.

(The HQT-IE)

So Long Nate

The Knicks traded away Nate Robinson just before the deadline this past Thursday. Why, I have no idea. Maybe the Knicks just hate me and want to deny me of the one pleasure I get out of watching their no-defense-playing asses. The Knicks are coming to DC in a week too, which would've been a great opportunity to watch Nate and Earl Boykins match up once again. But no, the Knicks want to deny me of that too.

Some Thoughts on the Winter Olympics

In a room full of Korean students, I innocently referenced last weekend's short track speed skating race where two Korean skaters took each other out of the race and Apollo Anton Ohno glided in for silver. There was an audible groan from students of all ages.

American curler John Shuster chokes worse than Bill Buckner and Joe Pisarcik combined.

I've always felt that men and women shouldn't compete in separate competitions. Having only one competition will hurt women's sports in the short run, but I bet women will catch up soon enough. It depends on the sport, but in 50 years, I think you'd have half men and half women competing on the top level.

Top 5 QBs and RBs Now

This list takes more into account than one pass, one game, or even one season. But it's not a list one the best who happen to be active. It also isn't a prediction of what will happen either. Injuries are not ignored. The previous list was posted on January 25, 2009.

Quarterbacks (Previous Rank)
1. Peyton Manning (1)
2. Drew Brees (5)
3. Tom Brady (NR)
4. Brett Favre (NR)
5. Donavan McNabb (2)

Running Backs
1. Adrian Peterson (3)
2. Chris Johnson (NR)
3. Thomas Jones (4)
4. Maurice Jones-Drew (NR)
5. Ryan Grant (NR)

Hating Kids?

Recently, I saw a license plate driving north on 95 that read "IH8KIDS." It made me think, what would drive a person to put that on a license plate?

I was able to deduce two possibilities. Either the driver is one of those numerous deposed dictators who seek refuge in the United States. Or, he's a pedophile and the license plate is a cover to try to throw off suspicions of his criminal affection for children. Either way, I'm onto you sicko.