Small Bits: Silver Linings, Presidential Game Theory, Disclosure, War
- Privacy Law lists the 16 states that now have notification laws. Thanks, Choicepoint!
- At Balkin, ‘JB’ has a long discussion of why 2nd term Presidents all seem to be scandal ridden…since the 22nd Amendment took away what game theorists call ‘the long uncertain shadow of the future.’
I nearly said something about ‘experimental confirmation’ here, because its such a seductive statement, even if its wrong. Good experiments only strengthen a theory when they have the power to disprove it. An increase in 2nd term scandal could be caused by things other than the 22nd Amendment. Campaign finance laws spring to mind.
- Oracle has taken 693 days to fix “Forms Insecure Temporary File Handling. It is unclear to me why ‘Red Database’ has no CVEs in their advisories.
- Finally, and most somber, “A Hawk Questions Himself as His Son Goes to War,” is an article by Eliot Cohen, Robert E. Osgood Professor of Strategic Studies at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University. It’s worth reading:
So it is not an academic matter when I say that what I took to be the basic rationale for the war still strikes me as sound. Iraq was a policy problem that we could evade in words but not escape in reality. But what I did not know then that I do know now is just how incompetent we would be at carrying out that task. And that’s what prevents me from answering this question with an unhesitating yes.
(Via P “No longer blogging” C.)