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Saturday, April 26, 2008
The Kitchen Sink Yet To Be Thrown
26 Apr 2008 08:28 pm
Hendrik Hertzberg says it well:
Hillary Clinton has not, in fact, survived the worst that the Republican attack machine (and its pilotless drones online and on talk radio) can dish out. We will learn what the worst really means if she is nominated. The Commie law firm will be only the beginning. Many tempting targets—from Bill’s little-examined fund-raising and business activities during the past seven years to the prospect of his hanging around the White House in some as yet undefined role for another four or eight years to whatever leftovers from the Clinton “scandals” of the nineteen-nineties can be retrieved from the dumpster and reheated—remain to be machine-gunned. The whole Clinton marital soap opera, obviously off limits within the Democratic fold, will offer ample material for what Obama calls “distractions.” To take the most obvious example, the former President’s social life since leaving the White House will become, if not “fair game,” big game—and some of these right-wing dirtbags are already hiring bearers and trying on pith helmets for the safari. Is this a “there” where the Democratic Party really wants to go?
Fighting Terror The Right Way
26 Apr 2008 05:32 pm
Kenneth Roth makes the case against preventative detention:
The most common argument against criminal prosecutions is that they examine crimes that were already committed, whereas the threat of terrorism is said to be so dangerous that it requires preventing acts before they occur. But the crime of conspiracy is sufficient to address today's terrorist threat because it is both backward and forward looking.
Continue reading "Fighting Terror The Right Way" »
How To Use A Telephone
26 Apr 2008 05:06 pm
Advice from the 1930s:
(Hat tip: Core 77.)
Captain Cyborg
26 Apr 2008 04:17 pm
This gives a new meaning to high tech jobs:
Those who don't avail themselves of subcutaneous microchips and other implanted technology, [Professor Kevin Warwick] predicts, will be at a serious disadvantage in tomorrow's world, because they won't be able to communicate with the "superintelligent machines" sure to be occupying the highest rungs of society, as he explains in a 2003 documentary, Building Gods, which is circulating online.
(Hat tip: 3QD).
Boy Or Girl?
26 Apr 2008 04:08 pm
From Margaret Talbot's 2002 piece against tinkering with sex selection:
The real trouble with sex selection goes beyond sex discrimination. The real trouble is that it allows us, for the first time, to use a medical procedure to select or reject a child on the basis of a characteristic that has nothing to do with life and death, that is not in any sense of the word pathological, that cannot possibly be construed as sparing a child any pain and suffering. It might sound harmless enough, maybe even kind of cute—this impulse to pick and choose, pink or blue. But if we allow people to select a child's sex, then there really is no barrier to picking embryos—or, ultimately, genetically programming children—based on any whim, any faddish notion of what constitutes superior stock. This time the old and overused accusation would actually be true: we would be playing God—and none too well, in all likelihood, given how little we really know about what makes individual human beings the way they are. A world in which people (wealthy people, anyway) can custom-design human beings unhampered by law or social sanction is not a dystopian sci-fi fantasy any longer but a realistic scenario. It is not a world most of us would want to live in.
It's certainly not a world I'd want to live in. But I do, don't I?
Score One For Hippies
26 Apr 2008 03:58 pm
Shoes are bad for you. There's proof.
Muddy Policy
26 Apr 2008 02:58 pm
Michael Crowley on Barack and Iraq:
The truth is Obama has no secret plan for Iraq. Interviews with nearly two dozen foreign policy and military experts, as well as Obama's campaign advisers, and a close review of Obama's own statements on Iraq, suggest something more nuanced. What he is offering is a basic vision of withdrawal with muddy particulars, one his advisers are still formulating and one that, if he is elected, is destined to meet an even muddier reality on the ground. Obama has set a clear direction for U.S. policy in Iraq: He wants us out of Iraq; but he's not willing to do it at any cost--even if it means dashing the hopes of some of his more fervent and naïve supporters. And, when it comes to Iraq, whatever the merits of Obama's withdrawal plan may be, "Yes, We Can" might ultimately yield to "No, we can't."
Dissent Of The Day II
26 Apr 2008 01:36 pm
A reader writes:
How can you claim that McCain, in stating a truthful quote made by a member of Hamas regarding how he would prefer Obama to win the election, is somehow the same as associating Obama with Wright?
The successful prosecution of Islamic extremists around the world is, for many people in this country, a very important issue.
Continue reading "Dissent Of The Day II" »
Can Poetry Matter?
26 Apr 2008 12:48 pm
From Dana Gioia's 1991 article:
...the poetry boom has been a distressingly confined phenomenon. Decades of public and private funding have created a large professional class for the production and reception of new poetry comprising legions of teachers, graduate students, editors, publishers, and administrators. Based mostly in universities, these groups have gradually become the primary audience for contemporary verse. Consequently, the energy of American poetry, which was once directed outward, is now increasingly focused inward. Reputations are made and rewards distributed within the poetry subculture. To adapt Russell Jacoby's definition of contemporary academic renown from The Last Intellectuals, a "famous" poet now means someone famous only to other poets. But there are enough poets to make that local fame relatively meaningful. Not long ago, "only poets read poetry" was meant as damning criticism. Now it is a proven marketing strategy.
Continued here.
The View From Your Window
26 Apr 2008 12:14 pm
Sinai, Egypt, 8 am.
The Clinton-Obama Map
26 Apr 2008 11:45 am
From the Obama website, some political geography:
Yglesias Award Nominee
26 Apr 2008 11:26 am
"On many issues, Conservatives have more in common with ideological liberals than we do with the business interests that come to Washington looking for a handout. Our goal should be to persuade the Left — to use clear failures we agree on, like ethanol — to demonstrate that Big Business will always come to Washington for handouts until Washington stops giving them altogether. Each new handout is the next ethanol, the next sugar — and once you've started giving a handout, it never ends," - David Freddoso, NRO.
Dissent Of The Day
26 Apr 2008 11:14 am
A reader writes:
I don't know what's causing you to abandon your conservatism of doubt, but there's no doubt that's what you're doing. Take, for instance, this unilluminating piece of credulity:
He obviously does care about working class voters, white and black. Why else would an Ivy League educated lawyer return to Chicago to work as a community organizer for the urban poor?
As an earlier, less starstruck, Andrew might have said, "please." This is a classic case of theoretical under-determination. Why might Obama have returned to work as an organizer in a community that became his earliest constituency? Sure, it could be because he "cares about working class voters, white and black." But it also could be because the precinct in which he worked was optimally suited to elect him, a left-wing black, to political office.
Continue reading "Dissent Of The Day" »
Is Religion A Threat To Rationality And Science?
26 Apr 2008 10:05 am
Professor Daniel Dennett argues it is:
If religion isn't the greatest threat to rationality and scientific progress, what is? Perhaps alcohol, or television, or addictive video games. But although each of these scourges - mixed blessings, in fact - has the power to overwhelm our best judgment and cloud our critical faculties, religion has a feature of that none of them can boast: it doesn't just disable, it honours the disability. People are revered for their capacity to live in a dream world, to shield their minds from factual knowledge and make the major decisions of their lives by consulting voices in their heads that they call forth by rituals designed to intoxicate them.
While Lord Winston argues it isn't:
The problem is that scientists now too frequently believe we have the answers to these questions, and hence the mysteries of life. But, oddly, the more we use science to explore nature, the more we find things we do not understand and cannot explain. In reality, both religion and science are expressions of man's uncertainty. Perhaps the paradox is that certainty, whether it be in science or religion, is dangerous. The danger of Dennett's relatively gentle brand of certainty is that it increases polarisation in our society. With inflexible positions on both sides, certainty surely is the biggest threat to rationality, and to science.
When Galaxies Collide
26 Apr 2008 09:04 am
Some amazing new photos from Hubble via NASA.
Friday, April 25, 2008
Dissents Of The Day
25 Apr 2008 09:46 pm
In response to my thoughts on the pope, Michael Dougherty writes:
“This was not an accidental omission,” is a slippery phrase. Does Sullivan mean to imply the pope tacitly approves of U.S. torture? He should use plain language.
“His own priests” is also delightfully non-specific. Is Sullivan saying something about the pontiff’s time as Bishop of Munich (in the 70s), when he would have been in charge of priestly formation in his diocese? If it refers to the recent scandals, when he was Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, this is equivalent to pretending the secretary of health and human services should have devised an exit-strategy for Iraq. There are plenty of people to blame in the Church for what is euphemistically called the "abuse-scandal" - Benedict is not one of them.
“In return, the president refused” is even stranger, as if to say that Bush thought, “Hey Benny, thanks for not taking me out to the woodshed over that torture thing. I’ll do you a solid and not accuse you of covering up child-rape.”
One of Mark Shea's readers remarks on the same post:
The funniest part is that those who fear theocracy are the same people who are bashing the Pope for not smacking down Bush. If the Pope gets involved in American politics, it's theocracy. If he doesn't, he gets blasted for not condemning torture. B16 cannot win. Thankfully he does what he does regardless.
Two responses: anyone who believes that Benedict has no responsibility for the crimes the Church enabled while he was the very apex of ecclesiastical power is in willful denial. Yes, Benedict was the protector and ally of Bernard Law, the man who delayed holding Maciel to account for years, and the careful architect of the strategy to displace blame by holding celibate gay seminarians responsible. He is a man who even now argues that the broader culture is really responsible for the criminal cover-ups in the church he helped run for decades. As for Mark Shea's reader, torture is not a political intervention. It is a profound, universal moral issue that the whole world knows is at the core of what is rotten in the Bush administration. Benedict punted in speaking truth to power. He is as much a politician in this respect as Bush.
(Photo: Benedict XVI and his inseparable aide, Georg Ganschwein, by Franco Origilia/Getty.)
Posthumous Publishing, Ctd
25 Apr 2008 08:59 pm
A reader writes:
Vladimir Nabokov may have had a touch of clairvoyance. His novel Pale Fire's entire structure is the posthumous publishing of a character's (believed to be unfinished) poem and the self-appointed editor's extensive commentary about said poem. The commentary has little to do with the poem itself, but rather focuses on the editor's quest to find himself in the lines of a poem that is clearly not about him. It's Nabokov, so naturally it's more complicated then that, but there is a definite sense that Nabokov considers one man's interpretation of another man's work to be more about the interpreter then the interpreted.
Presumably, Dimitri Nabokov, who is also a writer as well as a translator of his father's work, will provide commentary since The Original of Laura was never finished. While I'm sure that Dimitri will serve his father's memory far better then Charles Kinbote served John Shade in Pale Fire, I couldn't help but think about that novel and think that Dimitri publishing his father's work is much more about him then it is about Vladimir.
That being said, as a person who just adores Vladimir Nabokov's work, I would have had a very hard time destroying his words. I do feel for Dimitri, although I would hope that I would have followed my father's wishes.
A Classic Toles
25 Apr 2008 08:35 pm
From the WaPo:
Back To The 1990s ...
25 Apr 2008 08:32 pm
... when Bill Clinton was a less impressive version of Barack Obama. Via Drudge, this is a classic NYT piece from 1992:
Eventually, most of the superdelegates are likely to back Mr. Clinton, if only because there is no place else for them to go. But they will do so "with extreme reluctance," one said, and the delay and the grudging spirit makes it harder for Mr. Clinton to move his campaign onto a higher plateau, free of character issues.
It's a useful reminder that many people saw the moral deficiencies of Bill Clinton long before Ken Starr poisoned the wells. And that young and new candidates will always - and not unreasonably - prompt bouts of buyers' remorse, skepticism and scrutiny.
"Operation Smoke Screen"
25 Apr 2008 07:52 pm
A reader writes:
I just read your blog posting on Limbaugh's view that he is responsible for Hillary's win in PA. I am one of the individuals that changed his/her party registration from Republican to Democrat. I did this because the Republican ideals of rational government, fiscal responsibility, and states' rights over federal rights have been thrown out for religious fanaticism, federal control over every action, and spending out of control. I changed my registration to vote for change...to vote for Obama.
It is cute that Limbaugh saw that the electorate is upset with the Republicans and made up this Operation Chaos as a means of attempting to jump on the band wagon, but the underlying effect is clear. People are not changing from Republican to Democrat to assist the Republican Party in the fall. They are changing their party registrations because they lost faith in the Republicans to lead. If Limbaugh and others do not wake up to this fact, they will be given another great election result such as 2006.Operation Chaos should be called Operation Smoke Screen.
The Harold And Kumar Generation
25 Apr 2008 06:50 pm
That's what the Hannitys and Buchanans and Kristols don't get: the next generation just isn't trapped in the 1970s:
"Harold and Kumar’s attitude toward racism is more frustration at having to deal with idiocy than moral outrage. We try to create a world where racism is stupid."
Not evil, stupid.
Pricey
25 Apr 2008 06:33 pm
The graphic on the costs of Obama's and Clinton's proposals from the WaPo editorial page is a useful and sobering one. The bottom line:
While both Democratic candidates would spend far more on new programs than Mr. McCain would, the Republican's proposals for new tax cuts dwarf the Democrats' plans. The Democrats are clearer than Mr. McCain -- though that's a relative term -- about how they would foot the bill. Still, no one's winning any awards this campaign season for fiscal responsibility.
The lack of courage on both sides is pretty dispiriting. Meanwhile, the debt mounts ...
Letting Her Lose
25 Apr 2008 05:43 pm
A reader writes:
Now that I am recovering from the Pennsylvania Hangover, I thought I would share how I have resolved myself to this continued drama, as one of your typical readers.
Since it is painfully obvious that She Who Must Not Be Named is going to take this battle into Denver (if not into November, as Jon Stewart "joked"), I that it is not the cowardice of the superdelegates to put an end to this, but the nearly unspoken necessity of sitting back and allowing the Clinton Campaign to play it out to its tragic conclusion. To allow that campaign to hang itself. Otherwise, Clinton will be a "victim". Again. This time it would not be the Great Right Wing Conspiracy, but their own party that has denied them. By allowing her to undeniably LOSE this nomination, with as little manipulative involvement possible, she will be forced to accept the truth of the matter, without relying on conspiracy excuses. She and her supporters can not be allowed to lose this with the slightest possibility of feeling robbed.There is the possibility that she will irreversibly bloody Obama up before the end, and that would be part of the Greek tragedy of the Clinton legacy. However, as much of a shame it might be to sacrifice a "new voice" in politics, at least a destructive voice in present day politics might finally be silenced.
The key truth about the Clintons is that they are strongest when being attacked. It was Gingrich that gave Clinton purpose and direction in the mid-1990s; and it was Ken Starr who gave them a life-line in thr late 1990s. They are geniuses at pivoting off those who attack them. So the real answer to the Clintons is to let them collapse on their own terms, to watch them fail to get the necessary votes and delegates to win and desperately try to leverage the constructive forces of their opponent to gain back the White House.
Every push against them only strengthens them more. Obama needs to restate his core positive message, reach out to independents, Republicans, Hispanics, blacks and the young, and get out of the Clintons' sociopathic path. You only get bloodied if you fight them. And watching them self-destruct, slowly and by their own efforts, is the only way they will not turn defeat into some kind of Pyrrhic victory.
And when they finally go down under the weight of their own cynicism, what a joyous day that will be. That day is coming. And a new hope lies beyond it.
Obama's Secret Weapon
25 Apr 2008 05:31 pm
A shrewd observation about Senate Dems from a Kaus reader.
The Race Card In North Carolina
25 Apr 2008 05:16 pm
The Democrats are now deploying the same kind of campaign ad as the Republicans. Depressing.
The Wright Stuff
25 Apr 2008 05:01 pm
He's on Bill Moyers tonight. The promo:
Will Bush Become A Catholic?
25 Apr 2008 04:58 pm
K-Lo would die and go to heaven.
The Problem With Jimmy Carter
25 Apr 2008 04:57 pm
Bernard Henri-Levy explains.
Gates's Speeches
25 Apr 2008 04:40 pm
Fallows praises Gates and his speeches this week:
Gates starts out miles ahead simply by not being the man he replaced at the Pentagon, the odious Donald Rumsfeld. And even though Gates has implemented essentially the same Administration policy and administered the same gigantic budget that Rumsfeld left him, he has defended and explained his policies in ways suggesting that he has noticed, thought about, and attempted to address opposing views. This is in contrast to the haughty sneering-away of opposition so familiar from the Rumsfeld days.
Quote For The Day IV
25 Apr 2008 04:34 pm
"Who would I be a good vice presidential pick for? I don't know if the Libertarian Party has had, since its foundation—and I say this most modestly—a bigger fish. They'd had Ron Paul and Bob Barr: Two congressmen. Two congressmen do not make a senator. Four congressman, maybe, make a senator, but not two congressmen." - Mike Gravel, in an interview with Dave Weigel.
Face Of The Day
25 Apr 2008 04:19 pm
A woman cries after the reading of the not guilty verdict in the Sean Bell shooting trial outside of the State Supreme Court April 25, 2008 in Queens borough of New York City. Bell died during the firing of 50 police bullets outside a club in Jamaica, Queens on November 25, 2006. The three detectives were found not guilty on all charges in the shooting death of Bell. By Spencer Platt/Getty Images.
Good McCain, Bad McCain
25 Apr 2008 04:18 pm
Maybe I should be less forgiving:
All I can tell you, Jennifer, is that I think it's very clear who Hamas wants to be the next president of the United States. So apparently has Danny Ortega and several others. I think that people should understand that I will be Hamas's worst nightmare....If senator Obama is favored by Hamas I think people can make judgments accordingly.
Ugh. It's not fair to tarnish Obama by associating him with a soundbite from Jeremiah Wright; but it is fine to associate him with Hamas.
A Smart Obama Move
25 Apr 2008 04:01 pm
He's unveiling a major voter registration effort.
A Major Clinton Defection
25 Apr 2008 03:57 pm
A fundraiser responsible for half a million and a former Clinton-appointed ambassador is switching to Obama.
A View From Pennsylvania
25 Apr 2008 03:57 pm
In February I was a 55 year old white woman trying to choose a candidate, feeling drawn to Hillary. Then I listened to Obama speak and I was inspired. I felt as I had not felt since March 16, 1968 (my 16th birthday) when Bobby Kennedy announced he was running for president. So I chose Obama and volunteered to help his campaign.
I canvassed in my local area, Dresher. As I spoke to my neighbors, my heart sank. Several people told me the country wasn't ready for a black president. One person right out said he would never vote for a black person for president. (Stunned, I stammered that he was only half black.) One person said "the blacks get everything already." Three of my Jewish neighbors (and friends) said that they believed Obama either was a Muslim or had Muslim ties.
More:
"I voted for Hillary," said the first person I ran into, Shelley Goodman, a 53-year-old psychologist walking her coonhound, Blue. "I don't think this country is ready for a black president." This again.
Goodman has adopted or fostered a household of mixed-race children, and so she is speaking from a giant heart. "In this country, you are not half-black," she went on. "If you are any black, you are all black. We have a very skewed view in the East Coast. We think everyone thinks as open-mindedly as we do."
And so the "open-minded" reward the closed-minded. Go figure.
McCain Gets It
25 Apr 2008 03:47 pm
I know that it's possible to infer cynicism on the part of McCain and the GOP with respect to the North Carolina race-baiting ad. But I don't share that cynicism and believe McCain is sincere in not liking or appreciating this kind of politics. With a couple of exceptions (the South Carolina moment that McCain himself has regretted), McCain just isn't a Rove-style sleazebag. That's why his candidacy remains one that many of us alienated from the GOP in recent years still take seriously. Money quote:
"They're not listening to me because they're out of touch with reality and the Republican Party. We are the party of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan and this kind of campaigning is unacceptable... I've done everything that I can to repudiate and to see that this kind of campaigning does not continue."
Good for him. If Republicans cannot win on the merits of their own policies and are reduced to the guilt-by-association racist smears on Obama, they deserve to lose.
Catholicism And Torture
25 Apr 2008 03:33 pm
An orthodox view. From the perspective of Catholic moral teaching, it seems to me that a government that allows abortion to take place is less morally culpable than a government that itself practises and defends a grave moral evil. The silence of the Bush-theocons on this is staggering, but to long-term observers of their political agenda, unsurprising.
Beijing vs The Dish
25 Apr 2008 03:17 pm
A reader writes:
I haven't been able to reach your site for about a week now. I can get to it using a proxy server, but either you or The Atlantic said something that the CCP didn't find appealing.
Yes, others have told me as much as well. I blame Fallows.
Benedict And Religious Freedom
25 Apr 2008 03:07 pm
Scott Appleby notes how far we've come since the Second Council.
Inside Faith, And Outside
25 Apr 2008 02:44 pm
A reader writes:
I was appalled by Wieseltier's suggestion that you were an anti-Semite -- anyone who has followed your work closely would cringe at the idea -- and am now pleased that he did the right thing to clarify his knee-jerk comment. And your response this morning furthers the debate, a good thing. I'd like to take that argument a step further, though.
When you offer a detailed critique of evangelical Protestantism in America, I may agree with the vast majority of your points (and I do), but I know you're writing about that culture with no lived-in knowledge of the complexities and nuances of why evangelical Protestants think and behave in the ways they do. That's why some of the Obama smears in Pennsylvania shocked you but didn't surprise me in the least -- I could see them coming from miles away. Similarly, I could offer my own opinions on the narcissistic impulses of certain strains of Catholicism or the Kristol/Lieberman faction of American Jews who conflate this country's interests with Israel's, but those opinions, informed or not, would lack a deeper ring of truth because I haven't lived the experience. That's why a writer like Reza Aslan is so important -- he can describe and interpret the dangers of militant Islam and the larger internal conflict within Islam in far more illuminating ways than, say, Wieseltier or Peretz.
Natural Law Update
25 Apr 2008 02:23 pm
Benedict will be pissed: masturbation keeps men healthier - and certainly at lower risk for prostate cancer. But it's been a long time since the Catholic church's claims about "natural law" were actually reflected in what we empirically know about nature. About 700 years, actually.
Virtual Walls
25 Apr 2008 02:14 pm
As a new type of traffic light?
Quote For The Day III
25 Apr 2008 01:40 pm
"One in ten voters say they changed party registration to vote in this year's Pennsylvania primary. Ten percent of the vote is huge. That would be five times the past high for a crossover vote with a closed primary. That's an absolutely huge number -- and once again, ladies and gentlemen, that is Operation Chaos," – Rush Limbaugh, one of the Clinton campaign's most important supporters.
Type Racing
25 Apr 2008 01:25 pm
Friday fun.
The View From Your Window
25 Apr 2008 01:12 pm
London, England, 5.22 pm.
Out Of It
25 Apr 2008 12:47 pm
Leave aside the actual merits of the current neocon-Clinton-Limbaugh campaign against Obama - that he's linked to the Weather Underground, that his pastor is a "racist", that he cannot appeal to Reagan Democrats, that he's another McGovern, that he's a closet Communist, etc. etc. What strikes me is the energy with which these pundits actually derive from these associations and debates. It's quite clear that they really anger up the blood of a certain class of people. And yet they don't me, particularly. They seem pretty irrelevant to me, in the context of an election about a major war, a teetering economy, a weakened constitution, a mounting level of debt, a plummeting dollar, and a warming planet. I understand that this is politics, that these are vulnerabilities of associations, that these issues have some traction and a sliver of justification, but I still can't get that worked up about them. Why, I wonder?
When you think about these controversies, you being to realize just how generationally-focused they are. For a lot of people under 40, the Weather Underground sound like an Austin Powers out-take or a rock band. Even if you come to the conclusion (as I do) that William Ayers is a scumbag, the issue is not a dispositive one. Ditto the obvious racial panic around Obama - about Wright, about Farrakhan, about affirmative action. This was Pat Buchanan's view:
Continue reading "Out Of It" »
White Ethnics Or Independents?
25 Apr 2008 12:38 pm
In some ways, that's the electoral question for Democratic super-delegates. The Clintons have managed to create something like the dynamic of previous red-blue general elections within the Democratic base itself. But that makes the base of their support white working class ethnics - the Reagan Democrats. But how would those voters lean if asked to pick between McCain and Clinton? Surely a Scots-Irish veteran hero is more competitive with them than Ms Wellesley. But in the other key swing group - independents - Obama and McCain are much more evenly matched. Moreover, Obama brings a massive advantage among the young and African-Americans and among Republican-leaning well-off independents. Hard to dispute this:
The congressional Democratic leaders don't draw the same conclusion from Pennsylvania and earlier contests that many observers think they do: that Obama's candidacy is fatally flawed because he has as yet been largely unable to win the votes of working class whites.
They point out something that has been largely overlooked in all the talk: The Ohio and Pennsylvania primaries were closed primaries. One key congressional Democrat says, "Yes, he doesn't do really well with a big part of the Democratic base, but she doesn't do well with independents, who will be critical to success in November."
Minnesota, Virginia, Colorado: these states may be where the real battle will lie.
Quote For The Day II
25 Apr 2008 12:11 pm
"It's nonsense, it's nonsense, it's nonsense, it's nonsense, it's nonsense. I don't have anything additional to say. It's nonsense, it's nonsense, it's nonsense, I don't have anything more to say ... it's nonsense. I reject it categorically," - John McCain referring to his endorser, John Hagee's view that Katrina was payback for gays and sins in New Orleans.
Ad Placement
25 Apr 2008 11:50 am
Abercrombie & Fitch denies credit for the Obama speech trio:
Tom Lennox, VP-corporate communications for A&F, said the company doesn't "seek product placement at all." He went on: "We appreciate the exposure, but can not take credit for it. So, thanks to the Obama campaign for this great product placement. We wish we had thought of it."
I blame the gays.
Quote For The Day
25 Apr 2008 11:49 am
"I finally understand the party nostalgia for Reagan. Everyone speaks of him now, but it wasn't that way in 2000, or 1992, or 1996, or even '04. I think it is a manifestation of dislike for and disappointment in Mr. Bush. It is a turning away that is a turning back. It is a looking back to conservatism when conservatism was clear, knew what it was, was grounded in the facts of the world," - Peggy Noonan, WSJ.
Race Matters, Ctd
25 Apr 2008 11:30 am
I've been overwhelmed by lots of thoughtful emails on the racial question in this campaign. Here's one particularly concrete and honest one about unconscious attitudes among liberals:
I'm white, and I live in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where I've been for all but a few of the past twenty-five years. In the last few years, I've been heavily involved in a youth basketball program that my twelve year-old son participates in. The teams in the program are overwhelmingly African-American, and they play in leagues and tournaments throughout southeastern Michigan and in some neighboring states. Many of the teams they play are predominantly or exclusively African-American, many are all white. In watching these teams compete, as both a spectator and coach, I've had a revelation about how many white people have reflexively suspicious, if not antagonistic, attitudes about African-Americans.For example, consider the differing reactions to games where one team blows out another. Competition levels are often uneven in youth leagues, and scores of 45-10 are common. In a Detroit league, when one African-American team dominates another by that kind of score, no-one objects. It's another day in the gym. In a league in almost-all-white Livingston County, a white-on-white blowout elicits the same reaction. But how do the losing parents and coaches react when an African-American team blows out a white team? There's a palpable sense of anger and resentment. The winning team is accused of playing dirty or "too physical" or of running up the score, or of having ringers who are really older than the maximum age, or (most revealingly) of being "thugs."These prejudiced responses come from whites in places like Howell, a town with a long and storied tradition of KKK activity, or Livonia, a quintessential enclave of middle-class Reagan Democrats. But white left wingers from Ann Arbor react the same way. Exactly.
Continue reading "Race Matters, Ctd" »
The Trouble With Ethanol
25 Apr 2008 11:07 am
NRO goes after ethanol:
There is little the U.S. government can do to make gasoline less expensive and nothing it can do about the weather in Australia. The production of ethanol, on the other hand, is directly related to government policies that subsidize it and require its use in gasoline. Absent government intervention, there would be little demand for ethanol. It has a lower energy content than gasoline, it is not significantly cheaper, and it is more difficult to transport to points of sale.
I have to say that the impact on carbon emissions of ethanol has changed my mind about this. This subsidized fuel is actually hurting the climate. That wasn't the intention, of course. But it has become the result. And it has also helped tip millions of the poor across the planet into a bare-knuckled fight for affordable food.
A Next Generation Vent
25 Apr 2008 10:53 am
A reader writes:
Isn’t it crazy how all the hope you’ve had for your country your whole life can be drained out of you in one primary election cycle? I’m 26 and if this thing takes the turn it looks like it’s going to take, this will be the very last time I submit myself to this. I’m not built for this sort of disappointment. After the last 8 years, I can’t believe we are still trapped in the same gutter of fear and deception.
Maybe everyone was right about Obama. Maybe I have been naïve. The Clintons knew all along it would come to this. Maybe they didn’t expect it now, but they knew they’d have to get the White House this way. They’re just breaking out their General Election game early. And it’s genius. They ARE monsters.
But they are also wrong and it really is time to chill about the Clintons (memo to self: take your own advice).
Continue reading "A Next Generation Vent" »
Handing Over Iraq
25 Apr 2008 10:20 am
Robert Kaplan explains the significance of Petraeus's promotion:
...the personnel changes indicate that the administration is desperate to show enough improvement in Iraq by the end of the year that an incoming Democratic president wouldn't dare reduce troop levels precipitously and risk being blamed for a dramatic security meltdown. To wit, these appointments demonstrate that, irrespective of who will be the next president, the presidential transition has already begun -- on this administration's terms.
Metrics
25 Apr 2008 10:19 am
Mark Blumenthal looks at the popular vote argument.
Hope For Iraq?
25 Apr 2008 09:03 am
Philip Carter on the latest news from Iraq:
The New York Times reports this afternoon that the mother of all political deals may be coming together in Baghdad, one that would bring Iraq's largest Sunni political bloc back into the Shiite-led government.This is potentially huge news. If this grand bargain goes through (and there is some reason for worry), it would represent a substantial step toward rapprochement between the Sunnis and the Maliki government and toward the formation of a viable, lasting national government. It could also boost the prospects for provincial elections in the fall.
Wieseltier Responds
25 Apr 2008 08:54 am
I'm relieved by this:
About one thing I wish to be piercingly clear: I do not believe that Andrew Sullivan is an anti-Semite. No, it is more than a matter of my own belief. I know as an incontrovertible fact, based on my long acquaintance with him and his writings, that he is not an anti-Semite. Of course he is not an anti-Semite. I should have said so before I pounced.
The valid question at issue is the following:
Why a Catholic cannot call a Muslim a fraud or a Jew call a Protestant a liar or an agnostic call a believer a cynic, or why one's identity should have any bearing upon the truth or falsity of anything one says.
I take that point. Yes, in some respects, anyone is at liberty to call anyone else a fraud and their own identity can be irrelevant to that judgment. What I was trying to get at - not so artfully - is the following point. When a Catholic calls another Catholic a bad Catholic or a phony Catholic, it is evident that he is fighting over what both acknowledge is the same corpus of belief. They are both trying to get at the truth they should share. There is an understandable inference of sincerity and good faith. But if, say, a Muslim were to call a Catholic a fraud, it is not so clear that he is arguing out of sympathy for the common belief. And if he also has a political advantage in playing up divisions within another faith community, one's suspicion of cynicism and opportunism on his part should ratchet up a notch. That was my point. In retrospect, I think I over-stated it. But I don't think it's without merit either.
Marsh Bait
25 Apr 2008 08:24 am
Why Obama should drop out. It's jujitsu:
Dropping out now nearly guarantees that he’ll be elected president in 2012. Here’s the roadmap:
Obama drops out next week, stating that although he could almost certainly win the nomination by fighting it out until the convention in August, he is simply not willing to drag the party through a battle that will cripple its chances against John McCain. He then pledges to help support Sen. Clinton in her bid—with full knowledge that she will not take him up on the offer.
In one stroke, Obama will regain his messiah creds by making the ultimate sacrifice for the good of the party. His followers will be furious. The mere mention of Clinton’s name will provoke unspeakable acts. They will abandon Clinton in numbers sufficient to hand McCain the election in November.
The trouble is: it would be a betrayal of his supporters and his message. And there is a golden rule in politics: never give the Clintons a life-line. They will use it to strangle you the minute they have the opportunity.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Yglesias Award Nominee
24 Apr 2008 09:01 pm
"No matter how many kicks the rest of us find in such famously fun primary states as Indiana and South Dakota, it's going to be McCain versus Obama in 2008. I believe the cement set around the Clinton coffin last Friday. The Obama campaign announced it had received the support of former Sens. Sam Nunn of Georgia and David Boren of Oklahoma," - Daniel Henninger, Wall Street Journal.
Accepting Hillary's $10 Million Haul
24 Apr 2008 08:28 pm
Marc makes a fair point:
As an amateur observer of human social behavior, I am quite impressed by the steel wall of aversion that some Obama supporters put up whenever they're confronted by something that does not fit with their established perception of Hillary Clinton -- namely that there is just NO way that Hillary can raise that much money in such a short period of time...because she is, well, Hillary. The fundamental attribution error is at work: it must be a lie because Hillary is a liar; the situation -- a 9 point victory in Pennsylvania, or the roughly half of the Democratic electorate who supporters her -- well, it matters much less.
In general with the Clintons, however, it is safe to assume that what they say is a lie until proven otherwise.
The Hillary Rap
24 Apr 2008 07:12 pm
This is quite the cultural artifact:
Posthumous Publishing
24 Apr 2008 07:06 pm
Vladimir Nabokov's son allows the publication of something his father never wanted to see the light of day. It's hard to control what people make of or do with your work after you're dead. But the important thing is: we know the author's intention. And readers can weigh that in the balance.
Why Torture Is Different
24 Apr 2008 06:17 pm
A reader writes:
I've been following your debate with McArdle and Larison about war crimes and total war with interest. I think it's misguided to conflate things like Night Area Bombing of Nazi Germany, or even the use of the Atomic Bomb at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, with things like torture camps. They're just entirely different in kind. Strategic bombing in World War II fulfilled clear strategic objectives in fighting very powerful industrialized nations: it weakened the will of the people to fight; it destroyed industrial capacity and killed factory workers; and it demonstrated the severe consequences of starting wars. I put things like this on par with General Tecumseh Sherman's March to the Sea during the Civil War, in which he burnt down houses and destroyed essential infrastructure. His professed aim was to: "make war so terrible that they will be ready to exhaust all peaceful remedies before taking up arms." These aims--a speedy end to war and the prevention of future war--are legitimate and real: the south has not fought again, nor (yet) have Germany and Japan.Torture and torture camps are an entirely different aspect of war, and in my view they are unjustifiable. The difference is that torture's aim is as much humiliation and dehumanization as it is to obtain information.
A personal anecdote: I went to a Quaker High School, and when we attacked Afghanistan, many people at the school expressed disapproval at our Meeting for Worship (the Quaker religious service). I stood to defend the war. I'm still proud I did that. What I'm not proud of was the words I used. I called the men we were fighting "animals, who deserved to be treated like animals." This is the mentality that not only justifies torture but makes it appealing: to reduce your enemies to pathetic creatures; to at once demonstrate your superiority and to make someone--anyone will do--the vessel for your own pain and your own humiliation. It's a psychological form of warfare all the way down, and it dehumanizes all parties.So it confuses the issue to talk about strategic bombing as being comparable to the torture regime. Strategic bombing and the like aims to end war and prevent war. The torture regime is a war on persons and an exercise in power and domination for its own sake. If we can't make this distinction, it's difficult to see where the Allies and the Nazis would part ways in our moral calculus.
Minnesota
24 Apr 2008 06:14 pm
The candidate the Clintons and Rove say is weak has a 52 - 38 percent lead over McCain. Clinton's lead is 5 percent. There's a reason the GOP establishment wants Clinton. And the "he's a commie leftist God-Hating racist" line of attack hasn't worked too well:
Sixty percent (60%) of Minnesota voters have a favorable opinion of Obama, up from 57% a month ago. McCain’s favorables are at 56%, Clinton’s at 51%.
The only way past this is through it. Yes he can!
No Mo Michigan!
24 Apr 2008 05:34 pm
Michelle Cottle draws a line. Good luck, Michelle.
9.1 Percent
24 Apr 2008 05:28 pm
The final tally.
"Fake Optimism"
24 Apr 2008 05:25 pm
A reader writes:
I'm currently reading this collection of the correspondence between two of my favorite writers, "Striving Towards Being: The Letters of Thomas Merton and Czeslaw Milosz," that spans the last 10 years of Merton's life. It's a fascinating read that for some reason is not currently in print (though used copies can be found quite easily online). When I read the following from Merton I had to chuckle. I guess people are people, whether it's 1960 (when this letter was written) or today:
"It is quite true that I ought to speak more with the accents of my time. They are serious, they are not just a pose, the bitterness of people is not just something to be dismissed. I detest the fake optimism that is current in America, including in American religion. I shall continue to think about these things."
Tactics And Strategy
24 Apr 2008 05:02 pm
Judah Grunstein questions Petraeus's credentials:
I'm surprised that, so far, no one's had the temerity to point out that compared to his CENTCOM predecessors, Gen. Petraeus' credentials are underwhelming for such a strategically vital regional command. Admiral Fallon's prior regional command experience was too deep to count. Gen. Abizaid did prior staff tours in the Office of the Army Chief of Staff, the Southern European Task Force, and the U.S. Army Europe HQ. Gen. Franks commanded the 3rd Army for three years prior to taking over CENTCOM, and Gen. Zinni was CENTCOM Deputy C-i-C for nine months before assuming the top spot.
The bulk of Petraeus' experience, meanwhile, has been in operations and training (which is what you'd expect for someone who has demonstrated such tactical brilliance). Challenging as it is, Commander MNF-I is his broadest command to date. Now it could be that Petraeus is, in addition to being a tactical genius, a strategic genius as well. But a case could be made for the argument that, in leapfrogging Adm. Fallon through his personal relationship with President Bush, Petraeus has essentially served as de facto Commander of CENTCOM for the past year and a half. And in that time he has put the Iraq theater ahead of our broader regional interests, and according to many, ahead of the health of the Army.
On Swearing
24 Apr 2008 04:53 pm
John Harris urges restraint:
Contrary to the idea that the F and C words have lost their impact, they seem to me to still have the power not necessarily to shock, but to render the atmosphere charged and discomfiting. Couple them with an insult, and the point becomes even clearer. Far from believing that 21st century swearing is all but meaningless, I'd wager that we all know this: to swear is still to ramp up the force of what's said, and its potential to offend. In short, in the right (or, rather, wrong) context, swearing can still be brutal and non-empathetic - verbal violence, if you will,...
Apply that to the ever-increasing flood of swearing on post-watershed TV, or the ubiquity of the words in your average town and city, and you might arrive at the following conclusion: to take umbrage at all that profanity isn't to ally oneself with the Daily Mail and the successors to Mary Whitehouse, but to understand that vocabulary speaks volumes about prevailing social conditions, and that all our swearing says something very powerful about what a mutually contemptuous, atomised, inarticulate society we're becoming.
Why Can't She Close The Deal?
24 Apr 2008 04:37 pm
A commenter at TNR nails it:
For all of Hillary's brand recognition, institutional advantages (including the ferocious support of a former president), fund-raising head start and inherent appeal to the party's core constituency (working class white women), she finds herself on the ropes, in debt and having to go hugely negative just to stay alive. Does any sane Democrat really think that this is a viable alternative to Obama?
South Park And The Web
24 Apr 2008 04:28 pm
A symbiosis of sorts - and a return to their roots. A fascinating interview with Matt Stone.
Political Purgatory
24 Apr 2008 04:19 pm
If this contest were still at the point where momentum, symbolism, and reading tea leaves mattered, Clinton would be in pretty good shape. Everything she has needed to happen is happening now. Obama is getting tougher press coverage and critical examination. He’s also getting rattled a bit, and he didn’t perform well in the recent debate in Philadelphia. Clinton is winning in big, important places, but it’s happening about three months too late.[...]
As long as Clinton is winning, she can’t quit. But even in victory, she isn’t getting any closer to securing the nomination. This political purgatory will continue if she