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Saturday, June 9, 2007
Tagg On MySpace!
09 Jun 2007 09:55 pm
The enthusiastic son of the Republican candidate, Mitt Romney, Tagg Romney, has a MySpace page, complete with contributions from his friends, including "Brittney":
hello. IS IT TRUE THAT YOUR DAD AND YOUR FAMILY ARE REALLY MORMONS? does the public now? will that effect the debate?
Who knows, Brittney, who knows? More Taggish shout-outs from his friends:
I'm SO EXCITED that Mitt is running!!!
He is just what this AMAZING country needs.
Or a simple series of gurgles from "Sam":
You're dad is awesome! ... Excited for the debate? oh man, I can't wait to see your dad. He's so smart! I wouldn't want to debate him.
Tagg's favorite books:
The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, Theodore Rex, The Bible, The Hobbit, Lincoln, The Victome de Bragelonne, Battlefield Earth, Dragon Flight, Dune, Book of Mormon, Tale of Two Cities, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Screwtape Letters, Les Miserables, Harry Potter (my guilty pleasure), Pride and Prejudice, A Farewell to Arms, Ender's Game, Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage.
There's "Battlefield Earth" again. Uh-oh. It seems to have made quite an impact on the Romney family. Here's a good question for Romney if any reporter has the balls to ask: "What is your view of Scientology? Is it a religion?"
In Defense of Romney
09 Jun 2007 08:12 pm
A reader writes:
What's wrong with politicians doing whatever it is we want, regardless of their own personal views? Isn't that what we elect them for, to do the will of the people? It's better than politicians who stick to their own asinine views as a matter of principle, the will of the people be damned.
Maybe Bush is helping Romney, after all.
Ending The Bush Detainee Regime
09 Jun 2007 07:11 pm
Mercifully, the system envisaged by the founders seems gradually to be unraveling this president's ad hoc, arrogant and unconstitutional post-9/11 detainee policy. Here's a masterful post on the subject that sums up where we've come from and how. Money quote:
All this goes to show that creating a new system from scratch is a terrible idea, especially when we already have systems perfectly well suited for the exact tasks. We have courts that can try people for war crimes, and have done so. We have courts that can try people for crimes, and have done so. We have courts that can provide an independent review as to whether someone is or is not properly held, pending hostilities, under the laws of war.
This was done in the 1760s, and can be done as easily now. Now it may not fit the outsized view of executive power some people find in emanations from penumbras in the Constitution (I'll just note that people who think their legal theories are correct don't go around trying to have court jurisdiction eliminated prior to getting rulings) but it fits the actual Constitution that is our patrimony, that was crafted with similar concerns regarding conflict in mind, and was based on the proposition, well tested over the centuries, that diffusion of power best serves the interests of freedom and safety.
The $5 Million Man?
09 Jun 2007 06:35 pm
If the latest report pans out, Ron Paul has leaped out of the asterisk box in the GOP campaign. His largely online funding, if verified, would put him on a par with McCain. Money quote:
Observers close to the campaign are revealing – with some astonishment – that donations to the campaign in recent weeks have pushed the total up to perhaps $4 or $5 million. "That's a huge number at this stage," says one observer. "That starts to put him in a position where he can compete – state by state, anyway – with the major candidates."
I'd credit the Internet, wouldn't you? Stay tuned for confirmation. If it holds up, it means he's in this race for a good while yet - which is good for philosophical diversity in the GOP.
(Hat tip: Radley. Photo: Gabriel Bouys/AFP/Getty.)
Watching the Romney Pivot
09 Jun 2007 06:29 pm
No sooner do I predict that Romney will alter his position on Iraq depending on - what else? - his political interest, than he goes and does exactly that. It's not much of a step, because he's still appealing to the base. But it's an early first distancing from the extreme positions of Giuliani and McCain on endless occupation of the Muslim Middle East:
"Our objective would not be a Korea-type setting with 25-50,000 troops on a near permanent basis remaining in bases in Iraq," the former Massachusetts governor told the Associated Press.
"I think we would hope to turn Iraq security over to their own military and their own security forces, and if presence in the region is important for us than we have other options that are nearby," Romney said.
He aims to please ... whoever he needs to.
Face of the Day
09 Jun 2007 06:12 pm
Darcy Bussell hugging her two daughters Zoe and Phoebe after her final curtain call for her last performance 'Song of the Earth' at the Royal Opera House on June 8, 2007 in London, England. By MJ Kim/Getty Images.
This Is What A Martyr Is
09 Jun 2007 04:59 pm
The Islamists might want to take a look at the life of one Father Ragheed Ganni, a Chaldean Catholic priest, in Iraq:
They killed him on the Sunday after Pentecost, after he had celebrated Mass in his parish church, dedicated to the Holy Spirit, in Mosul.
They killed him together with three subdeacons who were with him – Basman Yousef Daud, Wahid Hanna Isho, and Gassan Isam Bidawed. The assailants led Bidawed’s wife away, and struck down the four men in cold blood. Then they placed vehicles loaded with explosives around their corpses, so that no one would dare to approach them. It was late in the evening before the police in Mosul were able to defuse the explosives and collect the bodies...
His testimony is that of an enthusiastic faith. The target of a series of threats stretching back to 2004, he witnessed the pain of relatives and the loss of friends, and yet he carried on to the very end remembering that there was meaning to be found in that suffering, that carnage, that anarchy of violence: it was to be offered up.
After an attack on his parish, on Palm Sunday last April 1st he said: "We empathise with Christ, who entered Jerusalem in full knowledge that the consequence of His love for mankind was the cross. Thus while bullets smashed our church windows, we offered up our suffering as a sign of love for Christ".
"Each day we wait for the decisive attack”, he said just weeks ago, "but we will not stop celebrating mass; we will do it underground, where we are safer. I am encouraged in this decision by the strength of my parishioners. This is war, real war, but we hope to carry our cross to the very end with the help of Divine Grace".
May he rest in peace.
Quote for the Day
09 Jun 2007 04:08 pm
"Anyone wishing to show respect for Jimmy and his family is asked to wear or display red, white and blue ribbons as he would not have wanted black."
That's part of a statement issued by the family of Jimmy Summers, from Bourbon, Missouri, whose death in Iraq on a rescue mission was commemmorated in this poignant window view from a Dish reader last week.
Hollywood For Hillary
09 Jun 2007 04:02 pm
She appears to have regained the initiative from Obama. (Cue theme-tune from Jaws.)
There'll Always Be An England
09 Jun 2007 03:36 pm
Even in a small corner of Baghdad.
Love, Rape, Whatever
09 Jun 2007 02:21 pm
Michael Medved is always pleasant when I go on his show, and then every now and again, we get a glimpse of the raging homophobia simmering beneath the surface.
"The Terror of a Romney Presidency."
09 Jun 2007 01:19 pm
Jon Chait begs to differ with Josh Marshall, and I tend to side with Chait:
To me, Romney's phoniness is exactly why I'm not terrified of the prospect of him as president. I see him as a competent, moderate-minded manager who has decided his only chance of being elected is to masquerade as a whacko.
The drawback to Romney is also what he has going for him. The Christianists need to be careful. Once he's gotten out of them what he needs, why do we think Romney would pursue the Christianist position in office? If he wins, it will be despite evangelicals, not because of them. He's going nowhere in South Carolina. A chameleon can change color back, remember? (Think: the Clintons and the gays.) I'd also bet that if Romney gets through the primaries, and the question isn't moot by then, he could easily pivot against the war and the surge - much more easily than McCain or Giuliani. Remember: he aims to please. Whomever he needs to.
Clinton at Harvard
09 Jun 2007 12:17 pm
For all of you who love the old rogue, a reader has edited his Harvard commencement speech in handy YouTube segments. The first one is here.
A Blogger Or A Writer?
09 Jun 2007 12:09 pm
An old media-new media dust-up.
Analyzing The Polls
09 Jun 2007 11:08 am
Charles Franklin: "Who lost the Iraq funding/veto fight? Both President and Congress."
The View From Your Window
09 Jun 2007 10:59 am
Cape Town, South Africa, 8.45 am.
For an interactive gallery of Dish readers' window views across the world, click here.
Verschärfte Vernehmung In Europe
09 Jun 2007 10:53 am
The report by the the lead investigator for the Council of Europe, Dick Marty, into the secret interrogation and torture sites operated by the CIA these past few years makes for extremely grim reading. For decades, the KGB deployed the classic Gestapo techniques on prisoners; now, under the Bush administration, it is the United States that has adopted the same methods:
Ventilation holes in the cells released bursts of hot or freezing air, with temperature used as a form of extreme pressure to wear down prisoners, the investigators found. Prisoners were also subjected to water-boarding, a form of simulated drowning, and relentless blasts of music and sound, from rap to cackling laughter and screams, the report says.
The report, which runs more than 100 pages, says the prisons were operated exclusively by Americans in Poland and Romania from 2003 to 2006. It relies heavily on testimony from C.I.A. agents...
According to the report, suspects were often held for months with no contact except with masked, silent guards who would push meals of cheese, potatoes and bread through hatches.
The defense of the Verschaerfte Vernehmung (which are all war crimes under international law and were subject to the death penalty fifty years ago) is the Giuliani defense:
"Here's my question. Was the guy a terrorist? 'Cause if he's a terrorist, then I figure he got what was coming to him."
Of course, there is no due process to determine who is or who is not a terrorist, and thereby subject to torture. Many detainees aren't even captured by U.S. soldiers or agents. Only 19 percent of the captives in Gitmo, for example, were actually captured by U.S. forces. Americans' system of justice has been outsourced to Pakistani bounty-hunters. And then the Gestapo-process takes over. But, hey, if they're terrorists, they get what's coming to them, no? That's exactly the system of justice and warfare the Founders had in mind, isn't it?
"Illegals"
09 Jun 2007 09:54 am
A reader writes:
This vitriol with which conservatives demonize a variety of groups reminded me of a line from the movie "The Good Shepherd," which I saw recently. Joe Pesci's mobster character asks Matt Damon's CIA agent: "You know, we Italians have our families and the church, the Irish have the homeland, the Jews their tradition, the niggers their music. What do you guys have?" And Damon responds "We have the United States of America. The rest of you are just visiting." I think that sums up the conservative movement's attitude towards our society.
"I am pro-life. He is not."
09 Jun 2007 07:31 am
Brownback slams Romney.
"The Right to Keep and Bear Alcohol"
09 Jun 2007 07:15 am
Iain Murray explains part of the unwritten British constitution.
Friday, June 8, 2007
Face of the Day
08 Jun 2007 08:38 pm
A competitor plays a video game during the Major League Gaming Pro Circuit event June 8, 2007 at the Meadowlands Expo Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Over 2,500 pro and amateur gamers from across North America have converged onto the Meadowlands Expo Center to compete in the games Halo 2, Rainbow Six Vegas, and Gears of War. The gamers will compete over three days for up to $20,000 in prizes. By Spencer Platt/Getty Images.
Dissent of the Day
08 Jun 2007 08:29 pm
A reader writes:
I think you are being a snarky asshole about Paris Hilton - going to jail is a scary, disorienting, horrible experience. Sympathy and compassion and the right attitude, not mocking joviality - especially from a Catholic. This is actually a real person we are talking about.
From Hanoi To Paris
08 Jun 2007 07:35 pm
A reader writes:
The Nick Ut thing is amazing. And what's more, Wikipedia tells me that the Pulitzer-winning photo of the Vietnamese girl was taken 35 years ago today.
First time: tragedy. Second time: farce.
Unfortunate Logos
08 Jun 2007 07:26 pm
It's very hard to beat the Brazilian Institute For Oriental Studies.
In Paris Hilton's Limo
08 Jun 2007 05:38 pm
As one might expect, man's best friend has the appropriate response to being stuck in a limo with the stupid spoiled whore who just got sent back to jail:
More SSW action here.
Powdered Booze
08 Jun 2007 05:31 pm
I really must go back to Holland soon. They've now invented Booz2Go.
Maybe Al Has A Point
08 Jun 2007 05:28 pm
A reader notices something telling: the photographer responsible for the weeping Paris Hilton photographs today, Nick Ut, has a slightly different journalistic pedigree. He took the Pulitzer-winning napalmed Vietnamese girl photograph. And the beat goes on.
Stem Cell Research
08 Jun 2007 05:10 pm
Why Pelosi's rhetoric is dumber and more insulting than Bush's. I take the point. Can you believe she said something as moronic as this:
"Science is a gift of God to all of us and science has taken us to a place that is biblical in its power to cure. And that is the embryonic stem cell research."
Gag.
A Uniter, Not A Divider
08 Jun 2007 05:02 pm
Let's take a moment to assault reason, shall we? The latest, glorious twist in the Paris Hilton story is something that can surely bring us all together, red or blue, male or female, rich or poor. Whoever doesn't feel an ounce of pleasure at the sight of this mega-rich non-entity finally being treated with a modicum of justice has surely lost the capacity to feel anything. Sorry, Al, I know I should be studying carbon offsets. But far from undermining democracy, this little story about this pathetic, pampered wretch can only restore a little faith in the criminal justice system. It's almost enough to make up for O.J.
By the way, here's a site especially for Al Gore. It's called The Superficial. And it's currently going cable on Hilton. Bonus points: TMZ says her lawyer is filing a habeas corpus suit! That's some corpus.
The Immigration Bill's Death
08 Jun 2007 04:26 pm
Good for McCain? Plus: the inside story of the GOP revolt.
The Black Family and The Black Church
08 Jun 2007 04:05 pm
They need each other:
Statistical analyses of partner supportiveness — such as affection, understanding, and encouragement — indicate that fathers' religious attendance is linked to higher reports of supportiveness by both partners at three years after the birth of the child. Specifically, both mothers and fathers are significantly more likely to rate their partner as supportive if the father attends church several times a month or more. These results hold for both married and unmarried parents and do not vary by race.
A measure of overall relationship quality — which ranged from poor to excellent and, again, was measured at three years after the birth of the child — is also related to fathers' religious attendance. Once again, both mothers and fathers are significantly more likely to report that they have an excellent relationship with one another if the father, but not necessarily the mother, attends church frequently. The association between paternal churchgoing and relationship quality holds for married and unmarried couples, and it does not vary by race.
I guess religion doesn't poison everything, does it?
A Second Cultural Revolution?
08 Jun 2007 03:37 pm
There are serious signs of student unrest in the Iranian theocracy. Above is a video of a student activist recently being detained and roughed up by Islamist government thugs at Amir Kabir University in Tehran. He's not alone:
Universities in different parts of Iran are experiencing a new wave of repression by security forces. Between 6-8 student activists, members of student associations, and independent professors who dare to think and express their ideas differently than the Iranian establishment, have been arrested in recent weeks, or are awaiting court hearings and decisions from disciplinary committees - some for allegedly failing to respect strict Islamic dress code.
Check out the best English-language blog covering the Iranian opposition:
They broke Arman’s glasses and kicked and punched Salmanpour to the ground until he went unconscious. Both students have been taken to hospital. Soon there were clashes between students and the university guards & Basijis.
Know hope.
Bed-Blogging
08 Jun 2007 03:18 pm
It's here! It's completely insane! Get over it! Tips for doing it yourself can be found here.
The Imprisonment of Children
08 Jun 2007 02:49 pm
One of the eeriest aspects of the Bush administration's conduct of the war on terror has been the inversion of previously held assumptions about the meaning of the West. We fought a war to end torture; we then occupied Saddam's own torture prison and tortured people there. We fought a war to bring democracy to the Middle East and to show Arabs and Muslims how superior it is as a system; we then spawned chaos, civil war and genocide to brand democracy as a nightmare for an entire generation of Muslims and Arabs. But I recall one moment when I felt most secure about our rationale for the war: we liberated a prison full of children who had been targeted by the monster, Saddam. If ending a regime that jailed children was not right, what was?
Except now we know that the U.S. has itself detained, imprisoned and interrogated children. The young sons of Khaled Sheikh Mohammed were detained, and used as a lever in the torturing him. We don't know what was done to them, but one fellow prisoner has claimed that they were mistreated. We do know that KSM was told they were detained, a flagrant violation of international and domestic law. The CIA reassured us four years ago that it would not harm the kids (who were nine and seven when captured):
"We are handling them with kid gloves. After all, they are only little children," said one official, "but we need to know as much about their father’s recent activities as possible. We have child psychologists on hand at all times and they are given the best of care."
But, of course, we don't know what happened to them if they were released, what they said, if anything, and how their detention was used against KSM. Ron Suskind did some reporting:
At the darkest moment we threatened grievous injury to his children if he did not cooperate. His response was quite clear: "That's fine. You can do what you want to my children, and they will find a better place with Allah."
The CIA conceded:
"His sons are important to him. The promise of their release and their return to Pakistan may be the psychological lever we need to break him."
We do know that, in principle, the Bush administration is prepared to torture the children of terrorists, because the chief architect of their detention policy, AEI's resident war-criminal John Yoo, was quite explicit:
"Cassel: If the president deems that he's got to torture somebody, including by crushing the testicles of the person's child, there is no law that can stop him?
Yoo: No treaty
Cassel: Also no law by Congress -- that is what you wrote in the August 2002 memo...
Yoo: I think it depends on why the President thinks he needs to do that..."
Michael van der Galien is trying to find out what happened to them. I tend to think that even Bush's CIA would not abuse children, apart from imprisoning them for the crimes of their father. But I have learned the bad way that Bush and Cheney cannot be trusted with the humane tradition of American warfare. These children belong, like many others, in the black hole of the Bush-Cheney torture and detention regime, beyond the reach of the law, treaties or civilization. Just as Cheney likes it.
An Ethanol Breakthrough?
08 Jun 2007 02:29 pm
Good news from the green front:
At a Brazilian ethanol conference June 4-5, Brazilian government-funded researchers said they have perfected a method of producing cellulosic ethanol that drastically reduces the cost of processing. At this point, the assertion - and many other similarly optimistic claims made at the conference - is unconfirmed. But should it prove true, the world could well be peeking over the horizon at a massive geopolitical, not to mention economic, shift.
Details here.
Most. Awkward. Interview. Ever.
08 Jun 2007 02:10 pm
An instant classic from CNN, in which a pubescent boy behaves exactly as a pubescent boy should - except he's on cable.
Spelling Bee Winner
Posted Jun 05, 2007
Clinton At Harvard
08 Jun 2007 01:31 pm
A reader comments:
A wonderful speech, but hard to ignore the "hypocrite" label when contrasting those words with the advice Clinton gave to Kerry in 2004 to focus on the "one tenth of one percent" by demonizing gays and supporting a Constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. Or the fact that he signed DOMA into law. Or Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Plenty can talk the talk (and Clinton is a master), but I'd like to see the walk.
Picky, picky. My reader needs to be sent to HRC re-education camp, in order to erase something called memory of the 1990s.
Fear and Loathing On The Right
08 Jun 2007 01:07 pm
A reader writes:
Absolutely right Andrew. I am an occasional listener to talk radio on my drive to work and I have been listening in on the anger of conservative talks show hosts (Limbaugh, Levin, Hannity) and, oh my God, their callers. It's unbelievable. You would think that these people, who are here because the primarily Republican business owners wanted and used cheap labor, would be treated with more sympathy. Or that their desperate attmepts to arrive in the land of the free and the brave would elicit at least some measure of admiration for their determination to seek a better life. In one actual sense these "illegals" are the cream of the crop - those, evolutionarily speaking, who are adapting as best possible to their environment. Yet, the hate spewed against them on radio was so intense I literally gagged.
I agree with you: if Hispanics were listening in on these shows, they are hardly likely to vote Republican for years to come. It wasn't just about illegals, it was about what kind of illegals these were.
If you don't see this, you need to think for one second how this stuff sounds to someone who isn't a member of the majority in this country.
(Photo: David McNew/Getty.)
A Date With Tagg!
08 Jun 2007 12:26 pm
Gosh, I swear it will be fabulous. Promise. Swell, even. He's celebrating his dad's super leads in New Hampshire and Iowa after his amazing successes in the debates. Aren't you excited? Gee-willikers, I know I am.
Romney In New Hampshire
08 Jun 2007 12:17 pm
A 11 9 point lead over Rudy? (I can't add.)
The View From Your Window
08 Jun 2007 11:29 am
Kuwait City, Kuwait, 1 pm.
Obama and Responsibility
08 Jun 2007 11:19 am
A reader writes:
Obama said:
"... by taking mutual responsibility for each other as a society, and also by asking for some more individual responsibility to strengthen our families."
It's a lovely soundbite. But the problem is not that society doesn't take enough responsibility, but that the division of responsibility between society and the individual has lost all balance. And you don't fix a balance problem by adding weight to both sides.
Senator Obama talks like this because he wants more spending and social responsibility and so offers a trade: we'll look for more individual responsibility if you take more social responsibility. It's lot like Bush, who got the idea from Clinton. But his basic motivation leads to statements like this:
"We need to start supporting parents with young children. "
What's with the "start"? I thought that with welfare, Medicaid, food stamps, head start, public education, public housing, etc, we "started" supporting parents a long time ago. Don't get me wrong, there's a place for all of that - but it's a bit much to say we haven't yet "started" with the support.
I don't want politicians talking about individual responsibility as a marketing strategy for their constituencies' interests. I want them talking about it because they understand it's the source of the problem. Anyone who is talking about equal additional increments of social and individual responsibility is marketing, not solving.
Challenging The Christianist Left
08 Jun 2007 11:02 am
The attempt to dragoon the Democrats into Christianist politics is celebrated here by Jim Wallis. But check out the comments. Most are mad as hell. I don't think the religious left has appreciated how much of the current Democratic popularity is bound up with a secular revolt against Christianism (and that secular revolt includes many people of faith). Re-tooling Christianism for the left is not an answer. It compounds the problem. If the Democratic leadership continues to pander to the religious left, I suspect their party will split more deeply than the GOP.
Mickey Explains
08 Jun 2007 11:00 am
His explanation of the collapse of the immigration bill:
Maybe it's about not being able to take the worst ideas from the left (instant legalization of illegals) and the right (second class guest workers), put them together, call it centrism, bask in fawning MSM coverage and ram it down the throat of voters who don't want it!
Maybe it is. And maybe it's all about the collapse of the Republican coalition. My feeling is that this kind of bill requires a president to corral it through the Congress, a president who is able to persuade his own supporters and explain to the public why this kind of compromise is the best available. We don't have such a president right now. He is despised by the entire middle and left, and he has alienated the base of the right. As a lukewarm supporter of the bill - I can't see any other feasible rubric to deal with border security and the 12 million people who are already here, won't leave, and have jobs to do - I was nonetheless never persuaded that this bill was essential. The president's arrogant condescension toward his critics didn't help. And the passion was almost all on the extremes.
So no tears. In general, I'm happy to see laws not being passed. I'm not convinced that this bill or any bill would dramatically increase national security, and so fail to see the urgency. If this means that we can concentrate on border enforcement in the near future, so be it. Politically, I tend to think this will hurt the GOP badly in the long term. The reason is not the cogency of many of the arguments; it's the patent cultural and social panic that animates the Republican gut. This fear of the other and need to demonize and objectify it is obviously the emotional core of the opposition. You can see it in their faces. If these immigrants were Poles or Italians or Irish, I can't see the Mickey-Dobbs-Limbaugh coalition getting so upset. I say that not from the basis of their arguments (which are largely respectable) but from the hysterical tone of their remarks. I guess as a gay man, I have come to recognize that tone. More and more members of minorities hear it coming from the GOP. It will come back to haunt them.
Blogging The Bible
08 Jun 2007 10:55 am
David Plotz finishes an online odyssey. I have to say it has read at times like the best of web journalism: a simple idea, followed through persistently, egged on and informed by thousands of reader emails. All to bring ancient texts to new life. Mazel Tov, David. And check out the final entry.
Swear Jar
08 Jun 2007 10:28 am
For casual Fridays in the office:
The U.S., Turkey and Iraq
08 Jun 2007 08:38 am
A helpful primer on "the great underreported story" of the war so far.
Hannity and Hitchens
08 Jun 2007 07:58 am
A match made in heaven, so to speak. Another clip:
The French Left
08 Jun 2007 07:54 am
After Sarkozy, what's a socialist to do?
"Almost Fascist"
08 Jun 2007 07:53 am
Chris Matthews gets Rudy right. Giuliani has no understanding of what it is we're fighting for in this war. Given his crude 9/12 analysis of the terror war, I don't even think he understands what we're fighting against. His candidacy speaks to the worst part of us: fear, loathing, and an instinctual belief that freedom is a threat to us, rather than the core of us.
What Flavor?
08 Jun 2007 06:52 am
I'm a bit of a Gatorade freak myself. We buy them in bulk from Peapod, and store them in relays in the fridge. Occasionally, I'm asked which flavor I prefer. I really have no preference, or, rather, my preference is rather like my taste for a particular color of skittle. Having signed off on the general concept - over-priced, sugary, colored water - I'm quite happy to be pleasantly surprised. It turns out I'm not the only one who feels this way. A Singapore company has come up with some new, and mysterious soda drinks:
Out of the Box caters to consumers who respond to "What would you like to drink?" with a non-committal "anything" or "whatever". Two weeks ago, the company launched two complementary brands: Anything and Whatever. Anything is fizzy and comes in six flavors (Cola with Lemon, Apple, Fizz Up, Cloudy Lemon and Root Beer) and Whatever is non-carbonated (Ice Lemon Tea, Peach Tea, Jasmine Green Tea, White Grape Tea, Apple Tea, Chrysanthemum Tea).The surprise part? Consumers don't know which flavor they're getting until they take a sip.
Makes for a cool guessing game too, I guess. But I won't hold my breath for the US version.
Thursday, June 7, 2007
Weepy Thursday
07 Jun 2007 11:11 pm
A reader responded to the Clinton commencement link thus:
I wept. I am usually too jaded for that.
Another reader reponded to this Atlantic D-Day link thus:
I'd have never found that if not for you. I cried for about 10 minutes.
Just spreading the joy around. But seriously, if you haven't read Bill Clinton's speech, take a look. It's him at his best. And there's a great anecdote about Rush Limbaugh.
Be a Man! Stop Complaining!
07 Jun 2007 10:21 pm
David Frum has advice for Joe Klein. (Hat tip: Ross.)
Face of the Day
07 Jun 2007 09:34 pm
A Thai muslim student looks at the gutted structure of his school building that was set on fire by unidentified militants in Thailand's insurgency-torn southern Yala province, 06 June 2007. More than 2,200 people have been killed and thousands more wounded in a separatist insurgency that has been raging in the Muslim-majority southern region bordering Malaysia since January 2004. Violence is growing despite peace-building moves by the military-installed government, which came to power after a coup in September 2006. By Muhammed Sabri/AFP/Getty.
It's Dead
07 Jun 2007 09:26 pm
According to Politico.
CLR James
07 Jun 2007 08:58 pm
A reader corrects:
Great quote, but you called him "African-American." There's nothing American about the man; pure Trinidad. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend "Beyond a Boundary," his great work on cricket, maybe the smartest and best writing on sport I've ever read. And on colonialism.
On Hannity's Level
07 Jun 2007 08:24 pm
A reader writes:
Yes, I love that clip of Hitchens refusing to stand down for the bullying and buffoonery of Sean Hannity. This is why Hitchens is so valuable in the fight against religious fundamentalism. He lives for getting dirty in the trenches of what passes for political debate in today's climate. He lives for the opportunity to take on buffoons and bullies like Hannity defending Christianism on the right and Hedges defending Islamism on the left.
By contrast, Sam Harris, who I admire and respect greatly, is far less confrontational and far more polite and reserved, and thus I find myself almost yelling at the computer screen for Sam to defend himself whenever another youtube clip of him "debating" Nancy Grace or the like appears.
Harris won't sink to Grace or Hannity's level. Hitchens will, and I love him for it.
He's "Fine" With Lesbian Motherhood
07 Jun 2007 07:18 pm
Mitt Romney blurts out his real views in New Hampshire. He's really got to watch that. The Christianists are getting pissy. But isn't Romney obviously correct? He's sticking with the Hewitt-approved line that only a man and a woman should have the legal protections of civil marriage, but he is acknowledging that in a free country, others will be able to bring kids up in a variety of ways. He's also acknowledging a simple fact: all the evidence suggests that kids who are brought up by two moms fare just as well as kids brought up in other contexts. So what do the Christianists want? Are they really going to demand that Republicans not only forbid those moms from having legal protections for the child-rearing and relationships but also regularly denounce and condemn them? I guess so. Let me just offer some advice: going around trashing mothers is not the best politics. Especially when the next generation is so over this crap. And especially when one of those moms is the daughter of the vice-president.
Islam's One-Hour Marriages
07 Jun 2007 07:09 pm
I linked to a Shiite cleric's defense of them yesterday. A "one hour marriage" is to prostitution what "enhanced interrogation techniques" is to torture: an attempt to deny reality. Here's a link to a photo-essay by Veronique De Viguerie, a gifted photographer, who documented the practice in Afghanistan (that's her photo of a Muslim john and a prospective hire two years ago). Money quote:
With the comeback of democracy, the Shi'ite tradition of Sekha, or temporary marriages, has returned, in Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan, on Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2005. This contract of marriage allows a man to get married with the consent of the Muslim religion for a certain amount of time, from one night to a few months. Here, Mullah Razul Jan, 25, as a Mullah, can authorize himself as many temporary weddings as he wants. Since he practices Sekha, he has married more than 100 times. He plans on marrying between two to five times per month depending on his money situation, most of the time for a few nights, which he negotiates for around 35 dollars.
Religion can deny human nature or it can find ways to accommodate it. When you hear the Islamists going off about the alleged degeneracy of the West, remember that they're about as credible as Ted Haggard. And the impulse for denial and oppression of women and all non-hetero-male sexuality is the same. A reader adds:
Add the fact that the legal age for girls to marry is 9 years old, and you have a society that is not only OK with prostitution, but with child prostitution. It's hard for me to see how you get more debased and decadent than that.
I don't have a problem with prostitution - just a viciously anti-woman culture that makes it less of a choice and more of a fate. And the preaching to the West is gag-inducing.
"Effete Conservative Elites"
07 Jun 2007 06:52 pm
Michelle Malkin lambastes the Wall Street Journal editorial board on immigration.
Clinton and Harvard
07 Jun 2007 06:00 pm
The former president - a transcript and a video.
The Appeal of the Sopranos
07 Jun 2007 05:47 pm
It's the same as all gangster movies, as the great African-American critic C. L. R. James was among the first to point out:
"In the end ‘crime does not pay,' but for an hour and a half highly skilled actors and a huge organization of production and distribution have given to many millions a sense of active living..."
Who's Waiting In Line For An iPhone?
07 Jun 2007 05:13 pm
A 31-year-old college-educated male New Yorker (or Californian) who may or may not already own an iPod and has a yearly household income of $75,600.
It's the Wii for grownups.
Yglesias Award Nominee
07 Jun 2007 05:00 pm
"Not that Scooter Libby has asked for my advice, but I also must say that that the ardor of his supporters — including, I believe, NR — has hurt him, and hurt the conservative movement, in very fundamental ways. As to him personally, all this passionate rhetoric about his heroic service to the United States, how the investigation should never have happened, and how he got unfairly singled out and screwed (all of which I agree with) would be fine if it weren't obscuring something fairly important: Lying to the FBI and a grand jury is a very bad thing, even if we all think it was an unworthy investigation," - Andy McCarthy, NRO. Read the whole post.
McKinnon On Obama
07 Jun 2007 04:51 pm
Another Republican - even one working for McCain - sees the potential for Obama's re-branding of America. Not great news for the Arizona senator, of course. But I hazard Mark McKinnon is fond of McCain and Obama for the same reason: beneath all the compromises, both men are decent in a time of indecency.
"Bookporn"
07 Jun 2007 04:37 pm
Major nerd discovers eighteenth century Koran.
"Dozens" Of Confrontations
07 Jun 2007 04:23 pm
Former clerk of the House, Jeff Trandahl, breaks his public silence on the Foley scandal. He reports:
"Foley was a ticking time bomb. His case shows how dangerous closeted gays can be for openly gay people."
If you think Hastert didn't know all about this, you're dreaming.
Lest We Forget
07 Jun 2007 04:22 pm
From the Atlantic archives, a first-person account of D-Day, the anniversary of which was yesterday:
"We saw no sign of fear in him. Watching him made men of us. Marching or fighting, he was leading. We followed him because there was nothing else to do."
Blog Rage, Ctd
07 Jun 2007 03:55 pm
TBogg is unimpressed with the Politico's coverage of the GOP campaign:
How odd that a a dazzling urbanite like Roger Simon, who is wise in the mysterious ways of the Beltway, is so starstruck by the twinkly eyes and big shoulders of His Man Mitt, yet the good common sense Iowaians can see right through him.
World Of Womencraft
07 Jun 2007 03:42 pm
An interesting nugget about online gaming:
It is three times more common that men choose to play women than vice versa.
A Strange Beauty
07 Jun 2007 03:27 pm
The visual gorgeousness of nuclear destruction, in a music video. (Hat tip: Blowhards.)
An STD Clinic In China
07 Jun 2007 02:54 pm
Fallows reports:
I know my doctor's name in Chinese, but I don’t see it anywhere in the all-Chinese signs and listings. So I send him a text message on my mobile phone saying that I have arrived. A minute later, a teenager wearing sandals, khaki pants, and an untucked shirt walks up – listening to an iPod. This is my doctor. We walk up the concrete stairs to a little anteroom on the next floor. He has me sit on a stool and he looks closely at my nose. "I think – electricity!" he says, in English. "I ask the surgeon." He disappears.
Paris Hilton's Medical Condition
07 Jun 2007 02:52 pm
Diagosis: clinically privileged.
Obama and Poverty
07 Jun 2007 02:35 pm
The headlines screamed about "quiet riots" among many African-Americans. But Obama's speech/sermon at Hampton University was about much more - an outline for a presidency focused in part on urban isolation and despair. I'm putting the full speech up on the blog (continued after the jump) so you can make your own mind up. But here's a very Obama passage:
We can diminish poverty if we approach it in two ways: by taking mutual responsibility for each other as a society, and also by asking for some more individual responsibility to strengthen our families.
If we want to stop the cycle of poverty, then we need to start with our families.
We need to start supporting parents with young children. There is a pioneering Nurse-Family Partnership program right now that offers home visits by trained registered nurses to low-income mothers and mothers-to-be. They learn how to care for themselves before the baby is born and what to do after. It's common sense to reach out to a young mother. Teach her about changing the baby. Help her understand what all that crying means, and when to get vaccines and check-ups.
This program saves money. It raises healthy babies and creates better parents. It reduced childhood injuries and unintended pregnancies, increased father involvement and women’s employment, reduced use of welfare and food stamps, and increased children’s school readiness. And it produced more than $28,000 in net savings for every high-risk family enrolled in the program.
Notice the conservative pitch for a liberal policy. Obama focuses on young children and ex-offenders. His big government programs are all geared toward fostering conservative social behavior and opportunity. Who does this remind me of? George W. Bush, of course. The rhetoric at least. Perhaps the true legacy for compassionate conservatism will be in the Democratic Party. Anyway, here's the transcript. Worth reading in full:
It is an honor to be here at Hampton University. It is a privilege to stand with so many ministers from across this country and we thank God and all His blessings for this wonderful day.
Continue reading "Obama and Poverty" »
That Turkish "Invasion"
07 Jun 2007 02:14 pm
Not so much. But the omens aren't good:
I think the chances of a significant incursion, meaning beyond what we've recently seen reported of late (and beyond what we saw on and off in the 90s), is trending north of 50/50, perhaps as soon as this summer/fall.
The Economist was ahead of the curve. I stick with my view that we should be as adamant on Turkish involvement in our departure as we were indifferent to them upon invasion. And some see evidence that we are giving democracy short shrift in the one part of Iraq where we have seen relative success:
During my trips in Iraqi Kurdistan, I see how grateful ordinary Kurdish citizens are to the U.S. government and American people for the establishment of the safe haven in 1991, the no-fly zone, and Iraq's liberation. But the mood is changing. Today, the Kurdish parties misuse U.S. assistance and taxpayers' money. Rather than support democracy, the Kurdish party leaders use their funding and their militia's operational training to curtail civil liberties. What angers Kurds is the squandered leverage. Instead of demanding rule-of-law, the White House has subordinated democracy to stability not only in Baghdad and Basra, but in Iraqi Kurdistan as well. Rather than create a model democracy, the Iraqi Kurds have replicated the governing sy