The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan

Saturday, November 3, 2007

03 Nov 2007 08:18 pm

Laughing When Tickled

Is it innate? Or learned? Only a psychology professor would experiment on his own children.

03 Nov 2007 06:35 pm

The Evil In Tehran

, Iran"> , Politics"> , Religion">

They persecute non-Muslims with the intensity they persecute all dissidents. Here's an excellent piece by Paul Marshall in the Weekly Standard:

[The 1991 document] …outlined a plan gradually to choke the Baha'i community. They were not usually to be subject to further arrests or deportations from the country: Henceforth the government was to ensure that "their progress and development are blocked." They could be enrolled in schools but only if they "have not identified themselves as Baha'is." They were to be expelled from universities altogether. They could have jobs only on condition that they not "identify themselves as Baha'is," and, if employed, must have only "a modest livelihood" and be denied "any position of influence." Khamenei added a handwritten note to the directive expressing his approval, thus conferring on it the status of an official decree. (These and other documents have been made available by the Baha'i community--see news.bahai.org.)

The regime continued to persecute the Baha'is, as well as other religious minorities, and parts of this plan were carried out--including their exclusion from universities and many jobs. But now the government's program has entered a more intensive and systematic phase. An October 29, 2005, confidential letter sent on Khamenei's instructions by Major General Hossein Firuzabadi, chairman of the Command Headquarters of the Armed Forces, ordered the Ministry of Information, the Revolutionary Guard, and the Police Force to "acquire a comprehensive and complete report" to identify all Baha'is.

(Hat tip: Norm.)

03 Nov 2007 05:20 pm

How YouTube Captures Gang Members

, Web/Tech">

The cops are thrilled with online exhibitionism:

"I think it's fantastic," said Police Superintendent Daniel Linskey. "If we can play a video for a judge that shows they're involved with criminal activity, that helps us, and bodes well when we go for dangerousness hearings. We like to use these videos to use their own words against them."

(Hat tip: Zach Patton.)

03 Nov 2007 04:15 pm

The View From Your Window

Wayland, Massachusetts, 4.08 pm.

03 Nov 2007 04:05 pm

Horton On Mukasey

, Law and Government"> , Politics"> , Torture">

Scott takes a stand against a man he has worked with and greatly admires, Michael Mukasey. I'm not surprised. Scott Horton has as much integrity as anyone I know:

The New York Times says the issue is one of legal culpability of those who have administered the program. In a speech I delivered in Ohio last October, “When Lawyers Are War Criminals,” I went over this analysis in some detail and concluded it was incorrect. The CIA personnel, military personnel and contractors all have immunity. But there is a class of persons who are probably not immunized in any effective way by the current statutes, namely the administration officials who authored this scheme: Dick Cheney, David Addington, Donald Rumsfeld, Jim Haynes and a handful of others. They are the figures “on the line” who are most adamant that Mukasey (or any substitute for Mukasey) provide them with the protection they feel they need.

Hence, the debate around Michael Mukasey has really ceased to be about Michael Mukasey and his qualifications to serve as attorney general. It has become a debate about the torture issue. And protecting the authors of a criminal scheme from their certain ultimate fate: prosecution.

Greg Djerejian comments here.

03 Nov 2007 03:41 pm

Dissent Of The Day

A reader writes:

Now, now Andrew. Glenn Reynolds just dispassionately links to things pro-torture, pro-Bush, and pro-GOP. He's just doing it for our own good, not that he agrees with it all. Shame on you, for defaming this "honest broker."

03 Nov 2007 02:45 pm

An Inconvenient Truce

, Current Affairs"> , Obama"> , Politics">

My essay on the Obama candidacy is now online:

[T]he most persuasive case for Obama has less to do with him than with the moment he is meeting. The moment has been a long time coming, and it is the result of a confluence of events, from one traumatizing war in Southeast Asia to another in the most fractious country in the Middle East. The legacy is a cultural climate that stultifies our politics and corrupts our discourse.

Obama’s candidacy in this sense is a potentially transformational one. Unlike any of the other candidates, he could take America—finally—past the debilitating, self-perpetuating family quarrel of the Baby Boom generation that has long engulfed all of us. So much has happened in America in the past seven years, let alone the past 40, that we can be forgiven for focusing on the present and the immediate future. But it is only when you take several large steps back into the long past that the full logic of an Obama presidency stares directly—and uncomfortably—at you.

At its best, the Obama candidacy is about ending a war—not so much the war in Iraq, which now has a momentum that will propel the occupation into the next decade—but the war within America that has prevailed since Vietnam and that shows dangerous signs of intensifying, a nonviolent civil war that has crippled America at the very time the world needs it most. It is a war about war—and about culture and about religion and about race. And in that war, Obama—and Obama alone—offers the possibility of a truce.

03 Nov 2007 11:58 am

The Mukasey Precedent

If you want to see how the pro-torture right will use Feinstein's and Schumer's capitulation on the rule of law to advance the torture program, read Rich Lowry:

The Senate had a chance to settle the question in September 2006 when Sen. Ted Kennedy offered an amendment to declare waterboarding and other coercive interrogation techniques a violation of Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions. His amendment lost 46-53. So Senate Democrats are now demanding that Mukasey declare waterboarding a violation of Common Article 3 when the Senate declined to do the same just a year ago.

The current Republican standard is that if the Congress does not explicitly forbid specific torture techniques as illegal, then they're legal. They hold that the clear and broad legal standard - "severe mental or physical pain or suffering" - is too broad and too clear to accommodate what a handful of men, i.e. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Addington, et al. want to do with prisoners under their control.

Even though waterboarding has always been regarded as torture and is illegal under any meaningful understanding of English; even though the United States prosecuted Nazis as war criminals for performing exactly the same torture techniques now authorized by the United States under the rubric of "enhanced interrogation"; even though the United States has court-martialed soldiers for doing what the president has authorized; unless the specific techniques are entered explicitly into the law, according to Lowry, the Geneva Conventions and settled law don't apply. And so any vote for Mukasey will now be interpreted by torture advocates like Lowry and Bush administration officials as legal support for torture. Here's Lowry's proof:

If waterboarding is torture, whoever has authorized and conducted this training should -- as a strict matter of the law -- be vulnerable to war-crimes prosecutions... If the Senate disagrees [with allowing the president to waterboard prisoners], it should put itself clearly on record forbidding waterboarding. Otherwise, it should confirm Mukasey as the careful legal mind he has shown himself to be throughout his career and during this controversy.

See? This is how they keep pumping the poison of torture into the American constitution. And so a new precedent will be set; and the torture program, already well-established, will further entrench itself into US law and practices. The current law is not in any way mysterious.

Continue reading "The Mukasey Precedent" »

03 Nov 2007 11:27 am

Bottoms Up

, Pop Culture">

"Show Me Your Sloggi" was the slogan for a somehow-missed best bottom contest in Munich last week in which, for some reason known to Europeans, Balkan butts triumphed:

And for those who have spent any time in the region, it will hardly come as a surprise that both winners hail from the Balkans. Kristina Dimitrova, 19, of Bulgaria and Romanian Andrei Andrei, 24, each received €10,000 ($14,500), a modeling contract and an insurance policy for their prize-winning posterior... German finalists in both the male and female categories fell behind and were eliminated before the final round.

(Photo: Johannes Simon/Getty.)

03 Nov 2007 11:17 am

Romney On TechCrunch

, Politics"> , Web/Tech">

An interview. And, yes, he's a PC guy, not Mac. Like you didn't already know. (Hat tip: race42008.)

03 Nov 2007 10:19 am

Green Housing

The Canadians are happy to pay a lot more for it.

03 Nov 2007 10:18 am

An Animator Vs His Creations

If you thought this was cool, you'll love the sequel.

03 Nov 2007 09:18 am

Quote For The Day

, Faith and Belief"> , Politics"> , Science">

"Oh, I believe in science. I certainly do. In fact, what I believe in is, I believe in God. I don't think there's a conflict between the two. But if there's going to be a conflict, science changes with every generation and with new discoveries and God doesn't. So I'll stick with God if the two are in conflict," - Mike Huckabee.

Ron Bailey wonders what Augustine would think.

03 Nov 2007 07:33 am

Fame, Dickinson, Porter

A reader writes:

Emily Dickinson's poem may or may not have been read by Cole Porter, but he, who would know something of the topic, chose the same theme for the very last song he ever wrote:
Wouldn't it be fun not to be famous,
Wouldn't it be fun not to be rich!
Wouldn't it be pleasant
To be a simple peasant
And spend a happy day digging a ditch!
Wouldn't it be fun not to be known as an important V.I.P.,
Wouldn't it be fun
To be nearly anyone
Except me, mighty me!

Continue reading "Fame, Dickinson, Porter" »

Friday, November 2, 2007

02 Nov 2007 09:48 pm

Rule Of Law Friday

, Torture">

Jacob Sullum, a real libertarian, argues that Michael Mukasey's position on the FISA law is just as disturbing as his refusal to call torture what it is.

02 Nov 2007 07:46 pm

Obama and the Gays

, Politics">

A reader writes:

Yesterday, I went to see Barack Obama speak at North Carolina Central University, a "Historically Black College" in Durham, North Carolina. The vast majority of the crowd was black. In his riffing on what groups we cannot allow to be scapegoated in the next election, Barack built to and concluded with "homosexuals" ... to the conspicuous (and regrettable) silence of the crowd.

It wasn't the "right" thing to say politically, but it was the right thing to say. The national media certainly wouldn't have reported on it had he left homosexuality out of this particular speech. All he accomplished, by sticking to his principles, was run the risk of alienating people whose support he desperately needs. Though, in fairness, this did cement my support.

Andrew, this man is a strong ally. Anyone for whom sexuality issues are important would be making a grievous error to jump his ship over the Donnie McClurkin fiasco.

Can you imagine Senator Clinton defending "homosexuals" in front of a non-gay crowd? Unimaginable.

02 Nov 2007 06:47 pm

Schumer and Feinstein Surrender

They both intend to vote for Mukasey, despite his refusal to state that torture, as practised by this administration, is illegal. Every time the Democrats fold on these matters, Cheney tucks a precedent under his belt. Every time they cave into their cowardice and fear, another critical part of our liberty disappears. These precedents are designed to destroy the rule of law and replace it with the rule of a Decider. And they will last for ever, as will the right to torture, because this war is for ever. This is how democracies perish. The rule of law no longer has any party to defend it. The Republicans want no check on the powers of our de facto protectorate. And the Democrats have no spine. We live under the lawless protectorate we deserve. And such lawlessness is always the result when cowards refuse to confront bullies.

02 Nov 2007 06:32 pm

America The Unfriendly

Another sign of what's going on: some big-name Finnish musicians come to Minnesota for a music tour. One is allegedly the "Bruce Springsteen" of Finland. They've done nothing wrong. But this is what they get at the airport:

Immigration agents at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport subjected them to more than two hours of interrogation that the musicians considered so harsh and demeaning that they filed a formal complaint with the U.S. Embassy in Helsinki.

"It was almost three hours of screaming, door-slamming and accusations, according to the report I received," said Marianne Wargelin, honorary Finnish consul for the Dakotas and most of Minnesota, which has the second largest Finnish-American population in the nation...

"They threatened us with severe punishments if we talk to each other," according to the complaint signed by musicians Ninni Poijärvi and Mika Kuokkanen, "Through the walls, I can hear officers yelling, screaming. They ask about the purpose of our trip -- except we are only allowed to give yes-or-no answers. I try to talk about our plans to meet with Finnish-American folk musicians. Nobody listens. They interrupt me constantly and they yell, 'You are a liar!"'

Oh, and welcome to America.

02 Nov 2007 05:39 pm

What Huckabee Could Do

, Politics">

According to Ross: help kill off Romney's and Thompson's candidacies. And then Rudy picks him as veep, I guess.

02 Nov 2007 05:06 pm

Compassionate Conservatism At Work

An update from the Onion:

Christian Charity Raising Money To Feed Non-Gay Famine Victims

02 Nov 2007 04:47 pm

Me Or Malkin?

, Polls"> , Weblogs">

We're both finalists in the Weblog Awards Best Blog contest. Thanks, if you nominated me. I don't believe in awards, unless I win one. In which case they're brilliant insights into online excellence.

02 Nov 2007 04:44 pm

Harry Shearer On Waterboarding

I don't know whether to laugh or cry:

02 Nov 2007 04:39 pm

Lileks Crack

A blogger discovers a JC Penney catalog from 1977 in the attic.

02 Nov 2007 04:36 pm

Dept Of Chutzpah

, Religion">

"I think Bill [O'Reilly] asked the governor [Huckabee] if he really believed in Adam and Eve. The answer doesn't matter to me so much as what the question represents: A huge breach in the previously widely respected understanding that such questions are not asked of presidential candidates and, if asked, politely turned aside as inappropriate in a nation built on the premise that religious tests are unconstitutional in law and that politics is best kept very clear of theological disputes appropriate to church debates and academic settings," - Hugh Hewitt, one of the main architects of turning the GOP into a sectarian, fundamentalist organization, and demanding adherence to a set of religiously-based propositions as a condition of being a GOP nominee. Now, of course, he needs a Mormon to enforce theoconservatism, doctrinal issues are suddenly verboten. Alas, they're not. You fuse politics with religion, you have to live with the consequences.

02 Nov 2007 04:13 pm

Honest Obe

, Politics">

A reader writes:

I'm a Republican and I pray to God that Obama gets the nomination. I'll vote for him in a heartbeat. He's a rational man who understands and respects the people that he wants to represent. With this attitude, he shows the public that he believes in what we can accomplish together. It's not what HE can do for us, it's what WE can do together. Reagan was the last president who seemed this optimistic about the American public, and it goes a long way towards explaining his appeal. I would go so far as to say that Reagan's appeal here in the Midwest was really never about policy per se, but about his disposition. He believed in Americans. Obama can go there, and does with striking clarity. It's not an act, like Clinton, it's a belief system.

02 Nov 2007 04:11 pm

A Poem For Friday

Emily Dickinson presages Paris Hilton:

I’m nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there ’s a pair of us — don’t tell!
They'd banish us, you know.

How dreary to be somebody!
How public, like a frog
To tell your name the livelong day
To an admiring bog!

02 Nov 2007 03:42 pm

Fighting The Man

An animated stick figure fights with an animator trying to torture him. And he can use the brush tool and the eraser tool. Cool:

Animator vs. Animation by *alanbecker on deviant ART

02 Nov 2007 03:21 pm

America The Unfriendly

A reader writes:

Yes yes yes. I haven’t been to NYC for almost 20 years and would love to go again, but after our recent horrendous experiences flying via to Mexico via Houston my wife has vowed not to travel to or through the US until there are signs of things changing. That’s $600 at least of tourists’ money lost to the US economy for a start.

Another writes:

My partner and I got a taste of this flying back to the US from Johannesburg, South African to JFK. During the 1 hour refueling break in Dakar, everyone had to take all belongs out of the overheads and hold them in our lap while the plane was inspected ("In order to prepare to enter US Airspace").. as if passengers spent the last 8 hours of the trip assembling bombs and putting them in the overheads for safe keeping.

Then upon arrival, my partner and I went up to passport control (The US citizen line) and were yelled at as we were not family so we were not to come up together (not an issue in the 3 countries visited on our trip..nor any other country we have visited and we have traveled extensively around the world). I know this does not compare with non-residents but we both felt anything but a nice welcome back to our own country.

Gay couples can expect abuse from US immigration authorities if they start acting as if they are a family in any way. In the end this takes a toll.

02 Nov 2007 03:08 pm

Compare and Contrast

Glenn Reynolds vs a real libertarian on torture.

02 Nov 2007 02:37 pm

Apology Of The Day

"Apology: Augustus Caesar. In our review last week of Lucien Polastron's book on libraries we said that Augustus had destroyed the Alexandrian library in 48BC. Since the lad, then called Octavian, was only 15 at the time, he obviously didn't. And Julius Caesar, who did, hadn't actually meant to. We apologise to Mr Polastron, the many well-educated readers who have complained, and to Augustus, now divine," - the Economist this week, print edition.

02 Nov 2007 02:10 pm

Defending The Rule Of Law

, Politics"> , Torture">

A reader writes:

One further point to your post on Mukasey: when we make laws against certain things - let's take the example of murder - we recognize that there may be certain circumstances where murder may be justified. We handle this in 2 ways:
* We write special-case exceptions into the law, e.g. self defense.
* We conduct trials where the guilt and punishment are determined by a jury of peers, who can refuse to convict if their collective conscience tells them that the crime was justified.
But more importantly, we create serious legal consequences for murder because we don't want anyone to commit murder unless they're willing to accept the consequences. This sets a 'threshold of seriousness' so that when a person considers murder, they must determine whether their justification is dire enough that they are willing to put their own liberty at stake. This sounds like a great standard for the president to have to meet when considering torture of an individual, doesn't it?

Yes. And, moreover, to turn a one-in-a-million emergency exception into the rule, and to pretend that we need to know any more specific details to know that waterboarding is both torture and plainly illegal is to turn the rule of law on its head. The notion that you have to explicitly make waterboarding illegal - or even more absurdly that if the Congress hasn't done so, it has essentially accepted the legality of waterboarding - is a little like saying that the law against murder doesn't apply to someone who suffocated someone with a pillow, because that particular method hasn't been specifically outlawed.

Murder is murder. Torture is torture. The latter is the application of any "severe mental or physical pain or suffering" to force an individual to say what he otherwise might not say in captivity. The point is the coercion - however it is applied. It is illegal and unconstitutional - and that applies not just to waterboarding but to any such tactic that has that effect. To give the president the power to order this against the law as a routine matter and to declare that s/he has that power permanently and with respect to anyone is tyranny.

The last time I checked, conservatism is not a defense of tyranny. It is a defense of the Anglo-American tradition of freedom that this president and the current GOP have been abusing for six years. Conservatism must now mean resisting this president's abuse of power, not enabling it.

02 Nov 2007 12:25 pm

The Politics of Parsing

I'm just grateful the real Hillary Clinton is now up for discussion:

Dodd's new ad is also pretty toxic to the Clinton machine.

02 Nov 2007 12:16 pm

Defending The Rule Of Law

, Torture">

It was something of a breakthrough for me to watch Jon Stewart last night pick up a dictionary and look up the definition of torture - both etymological, but more importantly legal. Pace the pro-torture Andy McCarthy, there is no "excruciating complexity" here. There is a broad and easily understandable legal ban on the infliction of

severe mental or physical pain or suffering

on any prisoner in wartime as a means to extract "information." Yes, to thrash a horse in advanced stages of rigor mortis, as a philosophical matter, this might, in a million-to-one scenario, still allow a president to authorize illegal torture if the entire republic was at stake or if a major city was about to go down in nuclear flames, and we knew we had an individual who knew how to stop it. But the president would still subsequently have to subject himself and all those who did such a thing to legal punishment. That is what the rule of law means, guys. It means there is no exception. We either live in a republic of laws or the imperium of one man. We cannot live simultaneously under both. The oath of the president is to enforce such laws, not to avoid them. And that is why it is insane to say we have no right to demand that the attorney-general nominee assure us in advance that he will uphold the rule of law in office. We do not merely have the right. We have a duty to ensure that an attorney general of the United States will uphold the law.

There is no question whatsoever that "simulated drowning," "water-boarding" or whatever name we give to a technique routinely deployed by the Khmer Rouge is illegal however it is done, whoever does it, and whomever is subjected to it. If the attorney general cannot say this in public without equivocation before he is nominated, then the Congress is indicating that it condones the Bush administration's contempt for the rule of law and routine use of illegal torture. I cannot see how Republicans who impeached a president for perjury in a civil suit cannot see what the issue is here. It is the most bedrock principle of a free society. Do the laws apply to the highest executive authority? Do we live in a tyranny or a republic?

Alas, the president almost certainly will never be prosecuted for the war crimes he has committed. He has already seen to that and so, shamefully, has the Congress by passing a law that retroactively granted him immunity. Surely that is bad enough. To compound that by allowing an attorney general to take office by refusing to say whether he will uphold the law in the face of the Cheney-style Protector-Presidency is inexcusable. This is history in the making. Who will defend the rule of law?

02 Nov 2007 12:04 pm

Obama To Clinton: "Stop Playing The Victim"

, Hillary Clinton"> , Obama"> , Politics">

A pitch-perfect take. This race is shifting a little, isn't it?

02 Nov 2007 11:49 am

The View From Your Window

Berkeley, California, 9 am.

02 Nov 2007 11:41 am

One Better Than Wikivision

, Web/Tech">

Flickrvision. Like The View From Your Window, but on meth.

02 Nov 2007 11:07 am

America The Unfriendly

It is by far the biggest change I have experienced in my quarter century living in America: the experience of coming and going. While the illegal border is still chaotic, the legal border seems to be getting more and more onerous, unwelcoming, bureaucratic and sometimes terrifying. Getting any kind of visa can be a nightmare of bureaucracy; being finger-printed and treated like a criminal is the first actual experience many foreigners have of entering the US, and the process of getting through customs and immigration can be, even in completely incident-free circumstances, frightening. My elderly mother arrived for my wedding and started sobbing in my arms after the rough treatment she had received from airport security. The reputation of the US under Bush is in the toilet. But the experience of actually entering America may be affecting far more. These little anecdotes spread. And, in the end, Americans pay the price - in lost tourism revenue, less trade, forgone taxes, and so on. When Bush goes, the country's reputation will instantly soar (unless he's succeeded by Giuliani, in which case, we're headed for pariah status). But unless we get a grip on the police state atmosphere at the legal border, the opinion of mankind with respect to America will only continue to worsen.

02 Nov 2007 10:36 am

Matthew's Navel

A fascinating series of comments about the art of blogging. Kudos to Matt for inviting it. This is not an invitation to a similar critique, mind you.

02 Nov 2007 10:30 am

TR On "Inhuman Conduct" Against Military Prisoners

"The president desires to know in the fullest and most circumstantial manner all the facts, ... for the very reason that the president intends to back up the Army in the heartiest fashion in every lawful and legitimate method of doing its work; he also intends to see that the most vigorous care is exercised to detect and prevent any cruelty or brutality and that men who are guilty thereof are punished. Great as the provocation has been in dealing with foes who habitually resort to treachery, murder and torture against our men, nothing can justify or will be held to justify the use of torture or inhuman conduct of any kind on the part of the American Army,” - Teddy Roosevelt, upholding the American tradition that Bush and Cheney have unforgivably and indelibly trashed.

He was specifically referring to "waterboarding." There is no doubt whatsoever about the illegality of the practice.

02 Nov 2007 10:02 am

Race and Earwax

Since this discussion is already underway: Yes, there's a connection.

02 Nov 2007 09:55 am

HIV Update

A reader emailed me wondering if my failure to provide any health updates was some kind of bad sign. Nah. My latest bloodwork was among the strongest I've had in fourteen years of being HIV-positive: undetectable viral load and my CD4 cells near an all-time high. I'm grateful for having employer-based insurance, private and public sector research, good doctors whom I had the right to choose, the pharmaceutical companies and lucky genes. I cannot forget those I left behind, or the terror - and I mean terror - of the past. But I figure the best way to remember the unlucky ones is to live well until I die. And one day, maybe, this country will stop discriminating against people with HIV and repeal the Jesse Helms provision that keeps me and many others from becoming a citizen of the country we love. But gay HIV-positive immigrants are not exactly popular right now, are they?

02 Nov 2007 09:35 am

Is This Obama's Moment?

, Obama"> , Politics">

Joe Klein channels my own thoughts:

A few days before the debate, I spent a day with Obama in Iowa, and the most striking thing to me about the Senator's performances was the scrupulous honesty of his answers, his insistence on delivering bad news when necessary. A woman asked if he believed that stay-at-home moms should be eligible for Social Security. There is a way most politicians answer such questions: a moving tribute to the virtues of child-rearing, then on to the next question without ever making the commitment. Obama did the moving tribute — with a joke about his ineptitude as a parent — but then he told the woman no. "We can't extend those benefits without huge financial implications," he said.

Continue reading "Is This Obama's Moment?" »

02 Nov 2007 09:15 am

The Greenest Supermarket

Britain's Sainsbury's in Greenwich. Pretty cool.

02 Nov 2007 08:29 am

Internet Stars Are Viral

But you knew that already. Happy Friday:

02 Nov 2007 07:50 am

Race and IQ II

[M]ight it be fair also to say that the champions of 'no difference' in race or sex, or intelligence ... are the guardians of a greater 'untruth' that allows people to live together in mutual harmony, implying that these critics really deserve to be praised as our protectors even when they are factually wrong? ... it is roughly how the self-appointed guardians choose to present themselves - leaving aside, usually, the step of frankly admitting that they are promoting factual untruths when they know that they are," - W.D. Hamilton, Narrow Roads of Gene Land. Vol. II: The Evolution of Sex.

Read the entire post.

02 Nov 2007 07:30 am

Race and IQ

The issue won't go away. Are Jews genetically smarter than other ~~races~~ ~~ethnicities~~ genealogical communities with connected DNA? Will Saletan tackles the question:

The average IQ of Ashkenazi Jews is 107 to 115, well above the human average of 100. This gap and the genetic theories surrounding it stirred discomfort in the room. Zoloth, speaking for many liberals, recalled a family member's revulsion at the idea of a Jewish race. Judaism is about faith and values, she argued. To reduce it to biology is to make it exclusive, denying its openness to all. Worse, to suggest that Jews are genetically smart is to imply that non-Jews are inherently inferior, in violation of Jewish commitments to equality and compassion...

But what if Judaism as a genetic inheritance is compatible with Judaism as a cultural inheritance? And what if the genes that make Jews smart also make them sick? If one kind of superiority comes at the price of another kind of inferiority, and if the transmission of Jewish values drives the transmission of Jewish genes, does that make the genetics and the superiority easier to swallow?

I like the fact that asking these kinds of questions is also part of the Jewish inheritance. But the Blank Slaters will have their usual cow.

02 Nov 2007 07:22 am

Quote For The Day

"You don't build community cohesion by throwing out our history and denying the fundamental contribution Christianity has played and does play to our nation. "As a British Muslim I can see that - so why others can't just staggers me," - Sayeeda Warsi, the Conservative Party spokesman on community cohesion in Britain.

Thursday, November 1, 2007

01 Nov 2007 09:03 pm

Civil Unions Come To Ireland

This overwhelmingly Catholic country adopts civil equality for gay couples. The Church's influence has collapsed after the sex abuse crisis. And deservedly so. Stateside, Fred Thompson says his personal belief is that me and my husband should have no civil protections for our relationship. But he adds this:

"I do think that states have the power under our constitution to make their own determination with regard to those matters ... (I) think the federal government's powers ought to be limited to what's set out in the Constitution - and states, with regard to matters that are traditionally state matters, ought to be free to make those decisions themselves, even if Fred Thompson might disagree with them."

It says something that it is so refreshing to hear a leading Republican talk about the limits of the federal government's powers.

01 Nov 2007 08:12 pm

Hunter's Point

A reader writes:

While I enjoyed Troy Paiva's wonderfully spooky and evocative photographs of the old Hunter's Point Naval Shipyard here in San Francisco, I must take exception to his description of the old base as "out of the public eye for decades… abandoned and forgotten."

It's true the base was decommissioned, with some facilities abandoned or locked down (for many reasons, including radioactive contamination in some buildings), and it's also true that the place is in transition, from the Navy to the city and now slowly on to the developers.

But for years the "abandoned" base has provided a low-cost home to hundreds of creative artists, non-profits and small businesses of all kinds.

Continue reading "Hunter's Point" »

Saturday, November 3, 2007

Friday, November 2, 2007

Thursday, November 1, 2007

Andrew Sullivan

Dish Prep