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Saturday, February 10, 2007
The Drunk Frog
10 Feb 2007 08:58 pm
A reader writes:
That's no mere drunk frog ... that’s the great Serge Gainsbourg, THE drunk frog. An incomparable songwriter, master of suave wit and understatement in performance (excluding his destroyed final days, witnessed in the clip you posted), agent provocateur and shatterer of sexual taboos. I defy anyone to show me another modern musical artist who wove such elegant and original magic out of sleaze and perversity. Okay, fine. Isaac Hayes, in his prime... the black-American, anglophone answer to Gainsbourg’s French, Jewish classy-creep persona.
George W. Bush's Netflix Queue
10 Feb 2007 07:47 pm
Heh.
Quote for the Day
10 Feb 2007 06:32 pm
"I do think my judgment is superior to [Cole's] when it comes to the big picture. So, I have an idea: Since he doesn't want to debate anything except his own brilliance, let's make a bet. I predict that Iraq won't have a civil war, that it will have a viable constitution, and that a majority of Iraqis and Americans will, in two years time, agree that the war was worth it. I'll bet $1,000 (which I can hardly spare right now). This way neither of us can hide behind clever word play or CV reading. If there's another reasonable wager Cole wants to offer which would measure our judgment, I'm all ears. Money where your mouth is, doc," - Jonah Goldberg, February 8, 2005.
I apologize for missing this a couple of days ago. Jonah wrote last Wednesday that the issue is moot because Cole declined to take the bet. But the underlying issue isn't moot, is it? Goldberg made the bet to prove that his judgment was superior to Cole's. As a simple empirical matter, it wasn't. And the salient fact is not that Jonah got something wrong - we're all human - but that he isn't man enough to admit it, and make an accounting.
Update: I missed this accounting. Here it is, for the record. My bad.
Jeeves Disapproves
10 Feb 2007 06:20 pm
Some fashion hints for Saturday night:
Out of The Rubble
10 Feb 2007 05:25 pm
A church rebuilds after a tornado destroys it. Some see a cross in the clouds. Slide-show here.
Steyn Update
10 Feb 2007 05:14 pm
Who are you going to believe? Mark Steyn at 11.18 am on Obama's foreign policy "experience" or what he wrote at 1.45 pm on Obama's foreign policy "interest"? C'mon, readers, you gotta keep up.
Cheney's Lies
10 Feb 2007 04:29 pm
Here's a YouTube of Senate hearings on June 26, 2006, about the impact and importance of Doug Feith's outfit in rigging the intelligence to mislead the American public about the war against Iraq. The Congress was misled as well. Who is ultimately responsible for this profound betrayal of trust? As Larry Wilkerson says: three words. The Vice President. Here's a thought: is there any precedent for impeaching the vice-president?
The New Party of Lincoln?
10 Feb 2007 03:09 pm
As the Republicans base themselves in the heartland of Dixie, and exploit the current enclaves of cynical division and ugly bigotry, Obama coopts the greatest Republican president:
"The life of a tall, gangly, self-made Springfield lawyer tells us that a different future is possible. He tells us that there is power in words. He tells us that there is power in conviction. That beneath all the differences of race and region, faith and station, we are one people. He tells us that there is power in hope."
Yes there is. And, yes, Obama is helping.
All Right, Already
10 Feb 2007 02:59 pm
TaB still exists - barely.
Obama and the World
10 Feb 2007 01:49 pm
Mark Steyn makes a predictable jab at Barack Obama's defense of his foreign policy credentials. Here's what Obama said:
"My experience in foreign policy is probably more diverse than most others in the field. I mean, I'm somebody who has actually lived overseas, somebody who has studied overseas. You know, I majored in international relations."
There's no question that Obama needs major work in foreign policy. But he is obviously better informed at this point than, say, George W. Bush was in February 1999. And Obama's internationalist pedigree seems to me a golden opportunity for the United States.
I don't think many Americans have fully absorbed yet what the Bush administration has done to America's soft power abroad, to the moral reputation of America, to the respect that many around the world once had for America's democratic institutions, even if they differed from U.S foreign policy. Bush's torture and detention policies, his cringe-inducing diplomacy, his proud lack of interest in other cultures and societies has deeply weakened this country's international clout. Electing a half-African president, with Hussein as a middle name, who attended school in a Muslim country: it's almost a p.r. agent's dream for America. It would instantly give this country a fresh start in the world after the disaster of the Bush-Cheney years. It isn't enough: Obama will need skills and determination in the terror war. But soft power helps; and Obama would put it on steroids. As for youth, Tony Blair was 43 when he became prime minister; Obama would be 48. What's the problem?
(Photo of Obama's formal - and exhilarating - announcement today by Scott Olson/Getty.)
Yes, He Said It
10 Feb 2007 01:18 pm
The White House confirms Rove's remark on immigration, one of the biggest gaffes in a long, long time. The MSM has nothing on it. Losers. Can you imagine if Pelosi had said it? Drudge would have a siren.
Rudy's Solution
10 Feb 2007 12:31 pm
Giuliani is not, pace the NYT, gently shifting to the "right" on abortion and marriage. As best I can tell - and Ann Althouse has done more spadework here - he's simply favoring a federalist answer to divisive, difficult, social and moral questions. As readers know, that's what I've been favoring for quite a while as a small-c conservative truce in the culture wars. There truly is no need to forge a national consensus on issues like abortion and marriage. That's why I've long opposed Roe and supported states' rights on the issue of marriage equality. I don't think Alabama is ready to have the same rights as California or Massachusetts. I feel sure they will one day, just as they eventually dropped slavery and bans on inter-racial marriage. The South is a very conservative place. Forcing them to move more quickly on issues of basic human dignity has historically led to even worse spasms of hatred, as Virginia has shown in the last decade in its vicious legal campaign against gay people.
It seems to me that if the conservative coalition is not going to fracture completely, then federalism is its only option. That way, centrists like McCain, Romney and Giuliani can actually become Republican presidents. Romney, of course, has tried to solve this problem by the most blatant, ugly and naked piece of political cynicism since Hillary focus-grouped her hair. But Giuliani is smarter. For him to adopt the anti-gay bigotry of the GOP base would not be smart politics. Ditto on abortion, where his position is mine: a personal abhorrence for abortion but a reluctant acceptance of its legality in the first trimester, combined with serious efforts to reduce its incidence. Opting to use federalism as the mechanism to allow the social conservatives to support him on other issues like national security and a more competent government, while personally supporting women's freedom and gay dignity, is extremely smart politics.
I think Rudy is the best and most viable candidate the Republicans now have. Scandal may still derail him; but his tolerance, sense of fun, respect for alternative views on abortion, and connection with urban America should be regarded as assets, not liabilities for an increasingly marginalized GOP. Sure: appoint judges who think poorly of Roe. But let the states decide the substantive policy decisions on marriage and life.
And give McCain the Pentagon. They need him.
(Photo: Nicholas Roberts/AFP.)
Soda Nostalgia
10 Feb 2007 12:09 pm
I still haven't quite recovered from losing Tab. But I'd forgotten all about Surge. Someone with too much time on their hands documents a love affair with defunct sodas. Pepsi Raging Razzberry? Yep, it existed.
The View From Your Window
10 Feb 2007 10:56 am
Arlington, Virginia, 12.02 am.
The Constitution and Cheney
10 Feb 2007 08:49 am
Sandy Levinson wonders whether there is anything to be done about the risk of Dick Cheney becoming president.
Should our defective Constitution be amended to allow the removal of a vice president whenever, in the opinion of Congress, (s)he has demonstrated good cause for doubt about the capacity to fill the Oval Office? Many persons have attacked my argument for bounding a President on a "no-confidence" vote because, among other things, it would be destabilizing. I disagree, but reasonable arguments can be found on both sides. Why would any serious person, though, believe that it would be destabilizing to bounce a demented, delusional, quasi-fascistic vice-president whose habitation of the White House and gain of the vast powers of the presidency with regard to foreign policy and military affairs would quite literally threaten us all?
A more salient question is: what would be the real difference in policy between Dick Cheney being vice-president as he now is and his formally occupying the Oval Office? We may have to wait for history to tell us.
Blacks vs Gays
10 Feb 2007 06:49 am
African-Americans are far more homophobic than any other racial grouping in society. That goes for the young as well, according to this new survey, where hostility to gay people is almost double that of young whites and hispanics. Karl Rove was onto something.
Friday, February 9, 2007
Adventures in P.C. Dating
09 Feb 2007 09:37 pm
It can be tough being emotionally correct on campus:
Friends who know me weren't surprised to learn that my Zionist boyfriend and I broke up last summer shortly after Israel began dropping bombs on Lebanese children. But the friends who really knew me were surprised to learn that I had even dated a Zionist to begin with.
In my defense, I thought he was just Jewish when it all began - a progressive one who was white but had tendencies for black supremacy. Politically, we aligned well, so I figured that he'd automatically agree with my stance on Israel-Palestine...
But my new progressive boyfriend, who was supposed to help me save the world, would stop short at any criticism of the Israeli government's racist, oppressive policies. And wha'’s worse, he would sometimes defend them by saying things like that the land was up for grabs because the Palestinians never had an official state to begin with.
Man, you really think you know your white Jewish boyfriend with tendencies for black supremacy.
Tendencies for black supremacy? Is that a euphemism for something?
Did Rove Say This?
09 Feb 2007 08:30 pm
I'd like to know:
"I don't want my 17-year-old son to have to pick tomatoes or make beds in Las Vegas."
Mark Krikorian has not withdrawn the report on the Corner; although others have queried it. It's a very big story if true - because it higlights the deep faultline in the GOP on immigration. Surely NRO should provide more sourcing or retract it forthwith. Or are they not in the business of fact-based commentary?
Counter-Insurgency 101
09 Feb 2007 05:21 pm
Phillip Carter and David Galula provide some helpful recommendations for Iraq. Max Boot seconds here.
No Fathers Allowed
09 Feb 2007 04:33 pm
If fathers attend playgroups with kids, Islamist mothers might refuse to attend. And so the Netherlands witnesses another small surrender to Sharia.
Move Over, Ricky Gervais
09 Feb 2007 03:52 pm
You want a celebrity interview? This is a celebrity interview. (Warning: Whitney Houston, a drunk frog, and NSFW.)
The Church vs the City
09 Feb 2007 03:26 pm
On this one, I want the church to win. If Christians cannot help the homeless, then religious freedom really is in peril.
Feith-Based Intelligence
09 Feb 2007 02:48 pm
Here's a quote to anger up the blood:
"This was not 'alternative intelligence assessment'. It was from the start a criticism of the consensus of the intelligence community, and in presenting it I was not endorsing its substance."
That's former undersecretary of defense Douglas J. Feith on his Pentagon report detailing a "mature symbiotic relationship" between Saddam's Iraq and al Qaeda. Feith now refuses to endorse the substance of the pre-war intelligence that helped persuade Americans to go to war - and now claims he wasn't even defending the substance at the time! Maybe he could have been clearer back in 2003. Or maybe he's liar and a fraud.
Marcotte Unpacked
09 Feb 2007 02:23 pm
Jane Galt ponders the fallout from the Edwards blog scandal - and the rationality of faith.
Soros Responds
09 Feb 2007 02:07 pm
I linked to Marty Peretz's critique of George Soros yesterday. Here's Soros' response.
Truth Now
09 Feb 2007 01:38 pm
Sam Harris moves the debate forward with his latest (and strongest, I'd say) challenge to faith. I'm actually grateful because it gives me a chance next time to fill in more precisely what my faith explicitly includes, and how I distinguish between believing the core of Catholic doctrine, while rejecting other aspects. So far, I haven't explained very well how reason informs a faith that doesn't start in reason - and I acknowledge that's a big challenge. Anyway, here's his latest in full. Here's the blogalogue in full. The pace has slowed a little, but that's a good thing, I think. We're not - or shouldn't be - engaging in quick-fire debate tactics, but in a serious attempt to figure out some common ground on ancient territory made fresh by the religious-political crisis of our time. Stay tuned. Here's a money quote from Sam's latest:
Given your attachment to Christianity and your admiration for the pope (who, as you know, makes far more restrictive—and, therefore, arrogant—claims about God), I suspect there is a raft of religious propositions that you actually do accept as true—though perhaps you are less certain of them than you are of God. I refer now to the specific beliefs that would make you a Christian and a Catholic, as opposed to a generic theist. Do you believe in the resurrection and the virgin birth? Is the divinity of the historical Jesus a fact that is “truer than any proof… any substance… any object”? If these are not the sort of things a person can just know without any justification, why can’t they be known in this way? If a man like James Dobson is wrong to be certain, without justification, that Jesus will one day return to earth, why is your assertion about the existence of a loving God any different? What would you say to a person who once doubted the story of Noah, but whose doubt “suddenly, unprompted by any specific thought, just lifted”? Is such a change of mood sufficient to establish the flood myth as an historical fact? ...
Let me make it clear that I do not consider religious moderates to be 'mere enablers of fundamentalist intolerance.' They are worse. My biggest criticism of religious moderation — and of your last essay — is that it represents precisely the sort of thinking that will prevent a fully reasonable and nondenominational spirituality from ever emerging in our world. Your determination to have your emotional and spiritual needs met within the tradition of Catholicism has kept you from discovering that there is a mode of spiritual and ethical inquiry that is not contingent upon culture in the way that all religions are. As I wrote in The End of Faith, whatever is true about us, spiritually and ethically, must be discoverable now. It makes no sense at all to have one’s spiritual life pegged to rumors of ancient events, however miraculous. What if, tomorrow, a blue-ribbon panel of archaeologists and biblical scholars demonstrated beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Gospels were ancient forgeries and that Jesus never existed? Would this steal the ground out from under your spiritual life? It would be a shame if it would. And if it wouldn’t, in what sense is your spirituality really predicated upon the historical Jesus?
Read the full thing here. I'll respond next week.
(Photo: man at prayer after the 2005 tsunami by Andrew Wong/Getty.)
The Obama Honeymoon
09 Feb 2007 01:05 pm
It's over:
Obama's about to endure a going-over that would make a proctologist blush. Why has he sometimes said his name is Arabic, and other times Swahili? Why did he make up names in his first book, as the introduction acknowledges? Why did he say two years ago that he would 'absolutely' serve out his Senate term, which sends in 2011, and that the idea of him running for president this cycle was 'silly' and hype 'that's been a little overblown'?
In interviews, strategists in both parties pointed to four big vulnerabilities: Obama’s inexperience, the thinness of his policy record, his frank liberalism in a time when the party needs centrist voters, and the wealth of targets that are provided by the personal recollections in his first book, from past drug use to conversations that cannot be documented.
Inevitable, I guess. But I wish Obama the best. He's a fresh voice, apparently sincere, with an ability to speak bravely about tough issues with civility and insight. That's not en endorsement, I hasten to add. But it is a hope.
Now, Colombia
09 Feb 2007 12:16 pm
Another step forward for gay couples.
Another Torture Victim
09 Feb 2007 11:52 am
From the WaPo:
The lead interrogator at the DIF had given me specific instructions: I was to deprive the detainee of sleep during my 12-hour shift by opening his cell every hour, forcing him to stand in a corner and stripping him of his clothes. Three years later the tables have turned. It is rare that I sleep through the night without a visit from this man. His memory harasses me as I once harassed him.
Despite my best efforts, I cannot ignore the mistakes I made at the interrogation facility in Fallujah. I failed to disobey a meritless order, I failed to protect a prisoner in my custody, and I failed to uphold the standards of human decency. Instead, I intimidated, degraded and humiliated a man who could not defend himself. I compromised my values. I will never forgive myself.
American authorities continue to insist that the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib was an isolated incident in an otherwise well-run detention system. That insistence, however, stands in sharp contrast to my own experiences as an interrogator in Iraq. I watched as detainees were forced to stand naked all night, shivering in their cold cells and pleading with their captors for help. Others were subjected to long periods of isolation in pitch-black rooms. Food and sleep deprivation were common, along with a variety of physical abuse, including punching and kicking. Aggressive, and in many ways abusive, techniques were used daily in Iraq, all in the name of acquiring the intelligence necessary to bring an end to the insurgency. The violence raging there today is evidence that those tactics never worked. My memories are evidence that those tactics were terribly wrong.
C'mon, Jonah, C'mon, Steyn. C'mon, JPod. Have a good laugh. It's fucking hilarious, isn't it?
The View From Your Window
09 Feb 2007 11:33 am
London, 10 am, last Wednesday, with rare snowfall.
Savage Love
09 Feb 2007 11:20 am
Will talk-radio maniac Michael Savage run for the GOP nomination? Please, God, please. His message? "Borders, language, culture." Sounds like a Chomsky lecture. If I get to see old pics of Savage swimming naked with Allen Ginsberg in Fiji, I'm in.
Another Cheney Theory
09 Feb 2007 10:31 am
Kevin Drum aired it in 2005:
In Karl Rove's world, the base is sacred, and nukes were the key to their support. Joe Wilson threatened to open a crack in that support, and that's why he had to be destroyed.
Rumsfeld-Bolton '08!
09 Feb 2007 09:57 am
That's how desperate the base now is. Heh.
Abortion in Europe
09 Feb 2007 08:51 am
The pro-life movement gets a new lease on life because of population decline. David Kuo comments here.
Faith in Faith
09 Feb 2007 08:26 am
A reader writes:
As a faithless former altar boy, I love your colloquy with Sam Harris. I think it will be a colloquy without resolution, however, as trying to rationally describe the mystery of faith is like trying to unzip fog. In fact, when the expression of faith becomes codified in a liturgy it becomes leaden, earthbound, and encourages rote recitation. It dies a little. Nothing creeps me out like hearing the thoughtless, unfeeling droning of the Nicene Creed at Mass. Beautiful words, rendered dead. I did it myself without thinking for years, until I began to feel like some kind of body-snatched cultist. Like I said, I was once a pious little altar boy, but I no longer believe. But here's the thing: I find myself living in the limbo of not believing in God, but rather having a fervent belief in faith. I deeply envy faith. Funny world, huh? And no place in the world offers me the solace of a semi-darkened, stain-glassed cathedral, with statuary of saints and a hint of incense.
I was raised to believe that we must believe these things because they have inherent power and meaning, and that is why I eventually fell away, because my faith was too weak to stand up to the challenges of the rational world. What I now believe is the obverse: that because we believe in these things they take on a very real power and meaning. And no less powerful or meaningful than what I believed as a child. The Obama quote you cited yesterday afternoon really resonated with me for that reason, as he entered into his life of faith by choice, and not by revelation.
(Photo: Barack Obama by Jeff Haynes/AFP.)
Friendly Fire
09 Feb 2007 07:41 am
It happens in wartime; it's tragic; it's embarrassing. But why did the Pentagon have to lie about it? It's the lying that undermines alliances, not the incidents. The Telegraph rightly vents here:
It is the Pentagon's resistance to assisting in L/Cpl Hull's inquest that is the most disturbing aspect of the case. As the United States' most loyal ally, frankly we deserve better. The Ministry of Defence has presented a feeble spectacle, wringing its hands but unwilling to press the issue with Washington. Then, out of the blue, the video is leaked to a Labour-supporting tabloid (which, to its credit, defied Pentagon threats and published it). If it proves to be the Government that leaked it in an attempt to bounce Washington into action, what a depressing reflection that is on New Labour's methods – and our alleged special relationship with Washington.
Clive Davis notices similar spluttering at the conservative Spectator:
There is little grasp in Washington of the resentment felt in this country by people who are instinctively pro-American but also rightly reluctant for Britain to be treated as the 51st State, a ploddingly dependable Delaware off the coast of mainland Europe ... Each time America treats its most trusted ally in this way, the harder it becomes for Atlanticists to take a stand against those who, in increasing numbers, would like to see Britain put some distance between itself and the US.
Bush and Cheney have managed to lose even the British Tories. And they hope to win over the world's Muslims?
Email of the Day
09 Feb 2007 05:15 am
A reader writes:
Welcome to 2004! Your rate of catching up to reality has been increasing. Information has a way of doing that. I will over-look the fact that you called Joseph Wilson a two-bit, irrelevant jerk and a political bug. After all you were just articulating what the administration thought of him and not what you think, right? Good. No, the point I want to make is that you are presenting a false choice: Cheney is, in fact, both arrogant and scared. He was arrogant in thinking that he could use the resources of the most powerful nation on Earth to pursue a strategy of global dominance in petroleum production by trumping up a false story of an imminent Iraqi threat and he then became scared that the deception would be discovered by brave reporters investigating the only honest man to emerge from that period.
If you need somebody to draw this out in picture form then please let me know.
More on these lines here. Suffice to say I do not agree that the war in Iraq was about "global dominance in petroleum production."
Thursday, February 8, 2007
A Welsh Prayer
08 Feb 2007 09:47 pm
A reader writes:
You have made me very happy recently by 1) posting the YouTube I sent you of the Barbarians and the Best Try Ever - note that all the key players were Welsh, and 2) posting that picture of the Welsh team ahead of the match with Ireland. Which they of course lost.
However, this is what I imagine they were praying in the photo, and I imagine it's pretty similar before every Six Nations game but one:
Dear God, it would be nice if we win this one
But if we don't, at least let us beat England,
And if we do, please let me be in the team.
Yes, that's it, I'll play my heart out on this one
And hope we win.
But if I have to choose between winning this or beating England,
I'll take beating England.
Amen.
Torture Humor
08 Feb 2007 08:34 pm
The latest from the pro-torture right.
Thinking Unconsciously
08 Feb 2007 08:10 pm
Maybe our best decisions are not the ones we think most about:
Dijksterhuis and colleagues asked volunteers to read brief descriptions of four hypothetical cars and pick the one they'd like to buy after mulling it over for 4 minutes. The researchers made the decision far simpler than it is in real life by limiting the descriptions to just four attributes such as good gas mileage or poor legroom. One of the cars had more plusses than the others, and most participants chose this car.
But when the researchers made the decision more complex by listing 12 attributes for each car, people identified the best car only about 25% of the time - no better than chance. The real surprise came when the researchers distracted the participants with anagram puzzles for 4 minutes before asking for their choices. More than half picked the best car. The counterintuitive conclusion, Dijksterhuis says, is that complex decisions are best made without conscious attention to the problem at hand.
Just don't tell the president. It will only encourage him.
Vickie Lynn Hogan 1967 - 2007
08 Feb 2007 06:36 pm
(Photo: Carlo Allegri/Getty.)
The Pandagon Papers
08 Feb 2007 06:10 pm
John Edwards' chief blogger, Amanda Jeebus Marcotte, gets started in her new job.
Quote for the Day
08 Feb 2007 05:50 pm
"Like the Whig gentry who were the Founders, I loathe populism. Most especially in the form of populist religion, i.e., the current pestiferous bible-banging evangelicals, whom I regard as organized ignorance, a menace to public health, to science, to medicine, to serious Western religion, to intellect and indeed to sanity. Evangelicalism, driven by emotion, and not creedal, is thoroughly erratic and by its nature cannot be conservative.
My conservatism is aristocratic in spirit, anti-populist and rooted in the Northeast. It is Burke brought up to date. A ‘social conservative’ in my view is not a moral authoritarian Evangelical who wants to push people around, but an American gentleman, conservative in a social sense. He has gone to a good school, maybe shops at J. Press, maybe plays tennis or golf, and drinks either Bombay or Beefeater martinis, or maybe Dewar's on the rocks, or both," - Jeffrey Hart, one of the eminences grises of the American conservative movement (and teacher of Dinesh D'Souza). Jim Kalb comments here.
Steyn Takes The Bait
08 Feb 2007 05:38 pm
There's nothing funnier than conservatives making jokes about their political allies torturing people, is there?
Regretting the New Deal
08 Feb 2007 05:04 pm
Brad DeLong and Arnold Kling have at it over FDR's legacy. My sympathies lie with Kling.
Move Over, Barbara Walters
08 Feb 2007 04:20 pm
You want to see a real celebrity interview? Here's a real celebrity interview:
Quote for the Day
08 Feb 2007 04:14 pm
"Well, it seems that the military has gone around and fired a whole bunch of people who speak foreign languages — Farsi and Arabic, etc... For some reason, the military seems more afraid of gay people than they are against terrorists, but they're very brave with the terrorists ... If the terrorists ever got a hold of this information, they'd get a platoon of lesbians to chase us out of Baghdad," - congressman Gary Ackerman, to Condi Rice yesterday.
The Drug War vs American Idol
08 Feb 2007 03:59 pm
My favorite singer from last night gets booted out of the competition - for once getting busted for possessing weed. Yep: musicians are no longer allowed to get near the stuff. Musicians ...
"Indifferent To His Own Jewishness"
08 Feb 2007 03:49 pm
Marty Peretz unloads on George Soros. Money quote from Sixty Minutes in 1998:
Kroft: "My understanding is that you went ... went out, in fact, and helped in the confiscation of property from the Jews."
Soros: "Yes, that's right. Yes."
Kroft: "I mean, that's--that sounds like an experience that would send lots of people to the psychiatric couch for many, many years. Was it difficult?"
Soros: "Not, not at all. Not at all. Maybe as a child you don't ... you don't see the connection. But it was--it created no--no problem at all."
Kroft: "No feeling of guilt?"
Soros: "No."
The Athlete's Prayer
08 Feb 2007 03:30 pm
It's by Gregg Easterbrook, another Atlantic colleague. I like its ecumenism:
God (or Adonai or Allah), let me play well but fairly.
Let competition make me strong but never hostile.
In this and in all things, guide me to the virtuous path.
If I know victory, grant me happiness;
If I am denied, keep me from envy.
See me not when I am cheered, but when I bend to help my opponent up.
Seal it in my heart that everyone who takes the field with me becomes my brother.
Remind me that sports are just games.
Teach me something that will matter once the games are over.
And if through athletics I set an example – let it be a good one.
(Photo of Welsh rugby team before their game with Ireland last week by Stu Forster of Getty. In Wales, rugby is a religion, so this prayer seemed appropriate.)
The Next Generation
08 Feb 2007 03:08 pm
One thing that the virulently anti-gay position of the Republican party must deal with is the next generation. I've been to several campuses the past few years to give talks and meet students, and one 
of the most striking things is not just how over it most campuses are on the gay issue, but how the younger generation reacts to the word "conservative." When I was in college, it had something to do with fighting communism, increasing individual liberty, lowering taxes, getting government off our backs, etc. Now, it is almost completely identified with religious intolerance. A key reason for that, I think, is the gay issue - and the gulf between attitudes among the young and their parents.
The next generation, by and large, doesn't care. As this USA Today story shows, kids are now coming out all over the country in their early teens, where only a decade ago, it was college, and a decade before it was in their twenties. The accelerating pace of social acceptance, whether you like it or not, is an empirical fact. I wonder how many Republicans realize that the Rove strategy of appealing to fundamentalist faith as the critical political ideology of the right could eventually destroy the conservative movement. It might have secured a few short-term victories, but at the expense of medium-term coherence as a coalition and long-term collapse. And I have a suspicion that the collapse could come sooner than some might imagine.
Clowns or Monsters?
08 Feb 2007 02:11 pm
Johann Hari sees some post-modern art he doesn't like at all. I don't blame him. The artist in question, however, had a cow:
What a cheap fat-faced ugly four-eyed shot. Cheaper still because a lazy editor saw fit to allow a journalist to sling words like "fascist" around and permit shoddy thoughtcrimes to stand as journalism? Oh yes you did!
"Thoughtcrimes"? See for yourself.
Back In The Day
08 Feb 2007 01:53 pm
Here's an Amnesty International ad from 1989, exposing waterboarding as torture. I don't think they ever imagined that an American president would one day authorize it. Neither did I. Notice that there is no question as to whether this is torture. It took war criminals like Rumsfeld and far-right hacks at the WSJ editorial board to do that.
Hide The Fossils!
08 Feb 2007 01:21 pm
Christianists strike again in Africa.
In Front Of Our Nose
08 Feb 2007 12:39 pm
The Libby trial has proven to be high entertainment for the Beltway, if only because (so far), the case for Libby's perjury seems damn near impregnable. Maybe the defense will turn things around. But it has done something else, I think. Patrick Fitzgerald has been adamant about linking Libby's actions at almost every turn to his political master, Dick Cheney. So what, you might ask? You know the talking points: this is not even about a leak any more, it's about perjury; Libby wasn't the real culprit anyway - Armitage and Rove were; Plame wasn't really undercover anyway, etc etc. I tend to buy most of that but none of it explains what seems to me to be the central question of the case.
Why did Dick Cheney care so much about Joe Wilson? Wilson was, if he'll excuse me, a two-bit, irrelevant jerk in the grand scheme of things. His Niger report was not central to the WMD case; it would almost certainly have blown over as an issue; the Brits maintained their position that the uranium outreach was for real; even the White House climbed down on the SOTU wording eventually; the public didn't really care.
But Cheney cared. In fact, he cared terribly. He cared so much he risked outing a CIA agent, something he must have known was very dangerous - to both himself and his cronies. He is no fool and has been around Washington for a long time. He knew the risks, and he took them anyway. While the insurgency was first beginning to take off in Iraq, Cheney was far more focused on fighting a petty Beltway skirmish in the press over a petty issue in the recent past.
Why? There are only two plausible explanations I can think of for the disproportionate concern. The first is pure arrogance. Cheney thought of himself - and still does - as a sort of prince regent protecting the country from its enemies, arrogating to himself enormous and unconstitutional executive powers, assuring the world that the WMD evidence was watertight, declaring the insurgency in its "last throes", embracing the "dark side" of torture techniques for the good of all, and so on. Any querying of his position was an affront a man of his arrogance couldn't tolerate - even if it meant risking a huge amount to squash a political bug the size of Wilson.
The alternative explanation is that Cheney was scared - so scared he took a huge risk that eventually led to the loss and public humiliation of his most trusted aide, Scooter Libby. But why would he be scared? The most plausible inference is that he knew he had deliberately rigged the WMD evidence to ensure that the war took place. He knew, even if the president was blithely convinced otherwise, that the WMD evidence was weak, and his success in distorting the evidence was threatened by Wilson. Not that Wilson had all the goods - Cheney must have known this was a minor matter. It was the danger that journalists or skeptics pulling on the thread that Wilson represented could get closer to the much bigger truth of WMD deception. This is a huge deal for one single reason: if true, it means that the White House acted in bad faith in making the case for war. There is no graver charge than that. In fact, if true, it's impeachable. I don't want to believe it. But I find it increasingly plausible that this is what Patrick Fitzgerald smells in the Libby case. He can't prove it yet; he may never prove it. But he's getting warmer; and he won't give up.
(Photo: Alex Wong/Getty.)
Bush's War and Bush's Budget
08 Feb 2007 11:53 am
Some parallels? Money quote:
OK. Take a breath. The U.S. economy is not Iraq, and today's headlines are upbeat: The economy's vigor is producing tax revenue that is keeping today's deficits in check, and the unabated willingness of foreigners to lend to the U.S. is keeping interest rates down.
But look ahead, and there is an unwelcome parallel between Iraq and the budget. Current policy is unsustainable, but there is no easy way out. Extend the president's tax cuts beyond their scheduled expiration in 2009 and 2010, and the fiscal hole is enormous. Let them expire, and the tax increases could derail the economy.
Musicians Against Torture
08 Feb 2007 11:28 am
They take a stand. How long before Mark Steyn makes a joke?
The View From Your Window
08 Feb 2007 10:54 am
West Lafayette, Indiana, 4 pm.
Hyper-Links
08 Feb 2007 10:50 am
I've heard you. Many of you want the links to open in a new window as they once did. We're on it. We've fixed the RSS feed, I hope. If you have any more suggestions for the new site, I'm always eager to hear them. Many more incremental changes are in the works: e.g. the Atlantic has bought me a subscription to Getty Images (which the whole Atlantic site shares as well). I'll now get to pick the photos myself, rather than relying on ones already selected by photo editors. Yay! And thanks for showing up in such large numbers in the new home. The traffic data show no loss in readership from the transition at all (even an increase), which surprised me. They also show that 83 percent of the readers yesterday came directly to the site. Obviously, many of you bookmark www.andrewsullivan.com. It remains the best and simplest way to find the blog. Thanks again for making this blog part of your day.
The Latest Romney Switcheroo II
08 Feb 2007 10:22 am
Dizzy yet? This time, it's campaign finance. Back in 2002, he backed McCain-style reform. Now: Not so much. Money quote from The Hill:
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who strongly criticized campaign-finance regulations in a private meeting with House conservatives last week, once touted dramatic restructuring measures such as taxing political contributions and placing spending limits on federal campaigns.
Romney makes John Kerry look immoveable.
The Latest Romney Switcheroo I
08 Feb 2007 10:18 am
This time on taxes. He was an inclusive, secular politician who could see the benefits of balanced budgets, even occasionally at the expense of tax cuts. Now, he's a supply-side Christianist crusading against gay relationships. But that's what the base demands. So that's what the base will get.
Wakey Wakey
08 Feb 2007 09:42 am
David Bernstein wonders why Bush hasn't appointed more judges friendly to liberty. Has he been in a coma the last six years?
Rove and Hillary
08 Feb 2007 09:34 am
A reader has a paranoid theory:
I'm sorry, but the recently choreographed burst of GOP high-strategist handwringing over the possibility of a Hillary run feels purely Rovian to me, fresh from a think tank. How did we get from "A Hillary candidacy is the one thing that could galvanize the Base and save Republican prospects for the White House," to "Fear Hillary" so quickly?
And whence cometh the seemingly responsive timing to the recent and building nationwide coming out party for Obama? This is Rove-a-Dope redux. They are hoping ardently to have Hillary Clinton on the Dem lead horse. Let the 'Base' be regalvanized ...
The Gitmo Farce
08 Feb 2007 08:54 am
It's almost a Monty Python skit. After under-oath testimony of FBI agents reporting beatings of detainees, an investigation was initiated. There were no beatings. How do we know? You know the drill:
Col Bassett carried out 20 interviews with suspects and witnesses, but not with detainees, the Southern Command said, according to AP. "He talked to all the parties he felt he needed to get information about the allegations that were made," a Southern Command spokesman told AP.
In the words of Principal Skinner, "Now, let's have no more curiosity about this bizarre cover-up."
Sea Knight Down
08 Feb 2007 07:28 am
Do we have a helicopter problem in Iraq? It doesn't look good:
The latest helicopter casualty, an Apache, "exploded in a ball of fire" on Friday, according to witnesses.
"That's unlikely to happen due to small arms fire," [Kiowa Warrior pilot ME] says, "and the odds of hitting an Apache heads on with an unguided RPG [rocket-propelled grenade] are pretty slim."
The fuel cells are crashworthy, and unless they are hit by something like an API (armor piercing incendiary - like a .50 cal or higher) shell, I don't think they are going to explode. Hitting munitions onboard isn't likely to make a fireball either. But the explosion of a SAM hitting it might look like a fireball.
Blogs Win
08 Feb 2007 02:43 am
January 23 was a bad day for neophyte blogger, Jay Carney, Time magazine's Washington bureau chief. But, hey, the MSM isn't quite used to the higher standards of the blogosphere. But they're getting there.
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
A Rugby Rearing
07 Feb 2007 10:38 pm
A reader writes:
I appreciate the recent rugby focus of the blog. I grew up in a "rugby family," which in the U.S. is not so normal. Not only did my father play, my mother did as well. Explaining to friends that my mother lost her voice for two months because she got elbowed in the throat during a rugby game was just one of the interesting tales I got to tell my friends.
Most of all, I remember how wonderful I was treated as a child by the rugby players and their families. There weren't a lot us kids at the games but we always felt like part of the crew. And falling asleep while listening to members of the visiting Australian team singing bawdy songs in the living room was always grand (what's the one where you hold your tongue while singing?). I have nothing but fond memories of growing up that way. Although I never played myself, my brother did, and my father just barely gave it up after numerous knew surgeries. He would've played until he was 80 if he could have.
Mine was a rugby home too. My dad was always AWOL on Saturdays, captaining or playing for the town team. But I didn't really find running for my life in a muddy bog once a week my idea of fun. And I kinda liked my ears as they were. My dad's got plastered halfway round his head by the time he was my age - and his nose was broken a few times as well.
Whitman On Campus
07 Feb 2007 08:52 pm
I asked re: Whitman:
Why are young gay students not being taught about their extraordinary cultural inheritance?
A college professor writes:
The seminal book on this was published in 1991 by one of the preeminent senior scholars in American literature, Michael Moon, Emory University. The book was called Disseminating Whitman: Revision and Corporiality in Leaves of Grass (Harvard Univ. Press).
There are any number of other scholars working on gay Whitman. For example, one of the best Whitman scholars is Michael Warner, who is also known for having been instrumental in the development of "queer theory." You can't seriously do Whitman in an American university today without articulating his patriotism with his homosexuality. Whenever I teach him, it is in this vein. My classes read, for example, "Scented Herbage of My Breast" alongside his ode to Lincoln, "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd." I'll be doing that pairing in two classes this spring, in my Survey of American Literature, 1865 to Present, and in a seminar on the 1890s. But I'm hardly original in this regard.
(Photo: Thomas McVety.)
Bush's America
07 Feb 2007 06:47 pm
The United Nations gets 58 countries to sign a long-negotiated treaty prohibiting governments from "disappearing" individuals or keeping anyone in secret detention. A no-brainer, right? The United States is defined by its refusal to indulge in such totalitarian, police state practices. Well, it was. But not under this president. The U.S. won't sign.
A Terror War Success Story
07 Feb 2007 05:46 pm
Time for some good news in the war. In the Philippines, there's been success against a Jihadist entity called Abu Sayyaf which captured three American hostages in May 2001 and threatened the Philippine government. My new colleague, Mark Bowden, has a cover-story in the new Atlantic on this under-reported victory, a victory that might be very helpful in figuring out how to win the war in the coming years:
Eliminating [Aldam Tilao, the group's leading figure and spokesperson] was a small, early success in what the Bush administration calls the "global war on terror," but in the shadow of efforts like the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, it went largely unnoticed. As a model for the long-term fight against militant Islam, however, the hunt for Tilao is better than either of those larger engagements. Because the enemy consists of small cells operating independently all over the globe, success depends on local intelligence and American assistance subtle enough to avoid charges of imperialism or meddling, charges that often provoke a backlash and feed the movement.
Bowden is interviewed about his report here.
Trump Smooches Giuliani
07 Feb 2007 05:31 pm
Will it go down well in South Carolina?