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« December 28, 2008 - January 3, 2009 | Main | January 11, 2009 - January 17, 2009 » Saturday, January 10, 200910 Jan 2009 06:20 pm Mental Health BreakBob Dylan's "License to Kill" from the Letterman Show in 1984: 10 Jan 2009 05:40 pm The Pietà Of The Arab WorldFallows' 2003 article on the case of killed Palestinian child Mohammed al-Dura seems all the more timely this week:
10 Jan 2009 04:37 pm Elements Of LimeranceWhat marriage can give you if you're really, really lucky:
Continue reading "Elements Of Limerance" » 10 Jan 2009 03:57 pm Face Of The DayPicture taken on February 10, 2006 shows wild boars near Allersberg, Bavaria. The number of wild boars in Germany has grown in the last years due to a milder climate. They come closer to cities and private houses, devastate gardens, dig in the rubbish and scare people. By Timm Schamberger/AFP/Getty. 10 Jan 2009 03:28 pm Neuhaus And GaysA full accounting of the man's crusade against any recognition in law or even public culture of the dignity and equality of homosexuals has yet to appear in the various obits. But Neuhaus was central to redefining Republicanism as Christianism, to seeing religion as indistinguishable from politics, and to cementing the marginalization and disdain of gay people as a pillar of the Christianist movement. It was therefore unsurprising that it was Neuhaus to whom president Bush turned when deciding whether to back amending the federal constitution to ensure that gay people were for ever defined as inferior to straight people under the law; and it was Neuhaus' influence that allowed Bush to pursue this agenda without ever even acknowledging the existence of the human beings whose families he was seeking to penalize and stigmatize in the founding document. The homophobia of the Bush administration cannot be understood without understanding how Neuhaus personally pioneered and shaped it. With Neuhaus as with Ratzinger, the gay issue was central and passionate and personal. This needs stating for the record. 10 Jan 2009 02:45 pm Meet The SamounisIn contemplating the continuing Gaza offensive, statistics of the civilian dead never quite sink in as a human event. That is why this piece on one single clan caught in the crossfire is useful, if brutal and sobering. One wonders what Washington's opinion would be if thirty members of a single Jewish family were killed - even unintentionally - in the Middle Eastern conflict. No wonder talk of war crimes is surfacing, even in the Wall Street Journal. And Arab opinion seems increasingly moving toward Hamas. The chance of the PA establishing some post-war stability in Gaza certainly seems more remote. And the emergence of a poetntial terrorist training and recruiting ground in a failed and radicalized society in Gaza all the likelier. Friends and supporters of Israel should worry about this. 10 Jan 2009 02:40 pm On The Palin ExpressI haven't commented on the latest circus routine, but it is worth noting David Foster Wallace's Atlantic profile of the circus-master, John Ziegler:
10 Jan 2009 01:52 pm If YouTube Comments Were LiveOr how you can ruin Shostakovich, Symphony No. 5: 10 Jan 2009 01:44 pm The Cult Of ReaganMassie opines:
Continue reading "The Cult Of Reagan" » 10 Jan 2009 01:43 pm The View From Your WindowGloucester, Virginia, 5.10 pm. 10 Jan 2009 12:26 pm Nearly ThereThe Daily Dish, after a large number of votes, is now neck and neck for lead in the Best Blog category. Thanks so much for the support. As I've said, none of this means very much in the grand scheme of things - and the main benefit of the awards is to surf around and find new blogs worth reading. All the finalists are well worth reading and that includes our chief competitor, Hot Air. But this is your blog as much as ours, and this is one way of helping us (and our ad department) keep the whole show on the road. You can vote for any number of blogs here, and the Dish here. If you already voted more than 24 hours ago, you can vote again. Please do. 10 Jan 2009 12:15 pm Purple Hearts And Marriage EqualityWilliam Saletan joins the PTSD debate. 10 Jan 2009 10:50 am What Equality Looks LikeWhen I came to America from Britain, the gay rights movement was way ahead here of the old country. No longer. Here is a list of the most powerful openly gay people in Britain. The whole list is a staggering contrast with the US. At the top:
The bigotry that infects the Republican party and the cynicism and cowardice that dominates the Democrats on this issue prevent such success and integration in America. And yet many of the causes that have prevailed in Britain - marriage equality and military service, for example - were pioneered on this side of the Atlantic. 10 Jan 2009 09:48 am The Smoke-Free MarketJacob Grier looks at Arlington, Virginia and sees the benefits of a light touch in anti-smoking regimes:
On a related note, Steve Verdon doesn't take kindly to the idea of "third hand smoke." 10 Jan 2009 09:08 am When Will The Recession End?It depends who you ask. Financial journalists in aggregate:
The official line:
Nouriel Roubini aka "Dr. Doom":
Friday, January 9, 200909 Jan 2009 09:04 pm Dissent Of The DayA reader writes:
Continue reading "Dissent Of The Day" » 09 Jan 2009 08:15 pm Mental Wounds IIMichael Cohen is disappointed:
09 Jan 2009 07:33 pm Face Of The DayAn injured policemen walks away during clashes with demonstrators from reaching the Egyptian embassy in Algiers on January 09, 2009. Several thousand protestors rallied in Algiers after Friday prayers, burning Israeli flags and denouncing Tel Aviv and its key ally Washington. 'The army and the people are with you Gaza,' they shouted, adding: 'Take us to Gaza.' By Fayez Nureldine/AFP/Getty. 09 Jan 2009 07:29 pm Blindly In Support Of IsraelYglesias makes a few good points:
Continue reading "Blindly In Support Of Israel" » 09 Jan 2009 06:30 pm The Iran-Hamas AxisAlex Knapp questions the assumption that Hamas is an Iranian proxy:
Alex dukes it out in the comments with readers who aren't buying it. 09 Jan 2009 05:59 pm A Beard MartyrThe tale of Joseph Palmer, from Fashions in Hair by Richard Corson (1965). More vital beard coverage here. Meanwhile, a step back in bear-parent relations: 09 Jan 2009 05:33 pm Quote For The Day"This end of History would be most exhilarating but for the fact, that according to Kojeve, it is the participation in bloody political struggles as well as in real work or generally expressed, the negating action, which raises man above the brutes. The state through which man is said to become reasonably satisfied is, then, the state in which the basis of man’s humanity withers away or in which man loses his humanity. It is the state of Nietzsche’s ‘last man,’" – Leo Strauss, On Tyranny. 09 Jan 2009 05:21 pm Passive-Aggressive NotesWhy doesn't this get a blog award? I'm particularly struck by this entry. (You can still vote, by the way.) 09 Jan 2009 05:14 pm Fisking RoveWhy is anyone printing the views of the most disastrous political strategist of recent times? A take-down of the latest Palin-level delusions. 09 Jan 2009 05:02 pm The Ethanol Black HoleRonald Bailey summarizes a new study:
09 Jan 2009 04:45 pm Mental WoundsJames Joyner agrees with the Pentagon that the Purple Heart should not be awarded for PTSD:
I find both judgments devoid of a real understanding of trauma and its profound mental effects. The mind can be wounded too in the line of duty. In the twenty-first century we should have some way of acknowledging that, even if the Purple Heart may not be the right way to go. 09 Jan 2009 04:20 pm Mental Health BreakHow to make a fruit salad using a deck of cards: 09 Jan 2009 03:44 pm Expel The Heretics!Erick Erickson hates, hates, hates Mitch McConnell:
09 Jan 2009 03:15 pm A Geographical StruggleFor those who don't know the area, looking at a map of Palestine's shifting borders helps explain the conflict in Gaza. So does the Economist's latest:
09 Jan 2009 03:11 pm Relax And LiftIt's Friday. Time to be mesmerized by camp: 09 Jan 2009 03:00 pm What Did The Five Fingers Say To The Face?Slap. A bitchy blog about people who deserve the Rick James treatment. A few offerings: Inaccurate Wikipedia Contributor, Office Food Thief, and Passive Agressive Emoticon User. Expect the author to go the way of LOL Cats and Stuff White People Like and have a book deal soon. 09 Jan 2009 02:52 pm Another 524,000 Jobs LostDavid Leonhardt studies the unemployment numbers that came out today. 09 Jan 2009 02:28 pm With Apologies To Strunk And White(Hat tip: Kottke) 09 Jan 2009 02:18 pm A Post-Ideological Administration?Cass Sunstein, co-author of Nudge, is going to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. Ezra Klein explains why that's significant:
09 Jan 2009 01:58 pm The Dish In PlayThe Daily Dish, after a large number of votes, is now neck and neck for lead in the Best Blog category. Thanks so much for the support. As I've said, none of this means very much in the grand scheme of things - and the main benefit of the awards is to surf around and find new blogs worth reading. All the finalists are well worth reading and that includes our chief competitor, Hot Air. But this is your blog as much as ours, and this is one way of helping us (and our ad department) keep the whole show on the road. You can vote for any number of blogs here, and the Dish here. If you already voted more than 24 hours ago, you can vote again. Please do. Yes we can! 09 Jan 2009 01:24 pm Stu Taylor's ArgumentMy National Journal colleague argues that one source in the Senate Armed Services report on the Bush-Cheney torture program was misquoted. Since he's referring to classified portions of the report that I have no access to, I can't say whether the alleged quip from CIA lawyer Jonathan Fredman - "if the detainee dies, you're doing it wrong" - was said exactly as phrased or not. But the defense Stu offers is telling enough:
So the substance of the claim remains undisputed. And this is what it is: Fredman absurdly narrowed the description of torture to the loss or permanent damage to major body organs (a Gestapo standard the US nonetheless failed to reach), and anything less than this as "enhanced interrogation". Since many prisoners did actually die at American interrogators' hands, and many more were brutalized into insanity, Fredman was accurately describing the line that Bush and Cheney and Rumsfeld had ordered the CIA and military to dance on. His alleged quip suggests to me that he understood the intent of John Yoo all too well. Is Levin's report discredited because a quip might - and I emphasize might - have been slightly garbled? Please. As Taykor concedes, the substance of the charges is in no doubt. The lameness of this defense is replicated in Taylor's attempt to defend Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and the other war criminals on the Potomac. Consider this paragraph:
There may be arguments as to what level of Geneva protection prisoners had and have (I don't favor full POW protections, for example, and never have), but there really is no serious debate about the baseline standards of Article 3 for all prisoners of any kind, standards the Bush administration knowingly violated. Then this argument:
I can appreciate Stu's attempt to be fair-minded here. Seeing people one knows and likes and has covered as war criminals is wrenching. Continue reading "Stu Taylor's Argument" » 09 Jan 2009 01:09 pm Why Not Let The Jett Travolta Story Go?Owen Thomas rounds-up the inconsistencies. 09 Jan 2009 12:47 pm Touchy Touchy
09 Jan 2009 12:38 pm A New DayThe Panetta pick essentially shows that the long, tough struggle to get Obama elected was worth it in a fundamental, vital way. For me, as my endorsement indicated, a return to decency and the rule of law was the overwhelming priority in the last election. In that critical respect, we just won. In Spencer's words:
America is back. Know hope. 09 Jan 2009 12:20 pm Getting Your Internet MoneySimon Dumenco questions whether Huffington Post is worth $200 million, notwithstanding the recently committed $25 million in venture capital money. This stopped me a little short:
Gulp. But Huff is expanding into many non-political areas and has great brand recognition, even if it doesn't actually, er, pay the vast majority of people who contribute to it. Dumenco proposes:
The grim reality for online journalism is that we have yet to find a way to make money from it. We need advertizing. 2009 is not the best moment to seek it. (Hat tip: Frank Wilson) 09 Jan 2009 12:14 pm Capturing New York CityThe New York Times gets creative with new media. This may be its future. 09 Jan 2009 12:08 pm The View From Your WindowConcord, Massachusetts, 9 am. 09 Jan 2009 11:53 am The Two NeuhausesI met Richard John Neuhaus only a couple of times, but he took the second occasion to tell me to my face, with his clerical collar on, that I was "objectively disordered". I remember this rather well because we were in an elevator at the time and I didn't quite know where to look. I have no way to judge him as a person, but admired his candor in a way, and the many glowing personal obits are testament to a man who clearly made great friends and was a witty, funny, humane companion. I knew his work and read it closely and appreciated his influence, which is why I've done what I can to engage and counter it. Neuhaus began on the very far left and ended up rather quickly on the very far right. Continue reading "The Two Neuhauses" » 09 Jan 2009 11:26 am Not Paying Their Fair Share?, Ctd.Auguste plucks out another data set from this report:
09 Jan 2009 11:10 am Obama's Left FlankKrugman is restless about the stimulus and Gupta (no Michael Moore critics are allowed in Obamaland). And John Conyers chimes in against "Sunjay" referring to Krugman's "Noble" Prize. 09 Jan 2009 10:42 am Conservative Degeneracy Watch
09 Jan 2009 10:37 am Proportionality And Terror, Ctd.A reader writes:
Continue reading "Proportionality And Terror, Ctd." » 09 Jan 2009 10:29 am A Brand Whose Time Has GoneBut it remains true that HIV can help you stay slim, along with a balanced diet and exercise: Get AYDS! is after the jump: Continue reading "A Brand Whose Time Has Gone" » 09 Jan 2009 09:56 am The Logic Of CheneyIt all makes sense in his head:
And the administration lawyers were ordered to find torture legal. 09 Jan 2009 09:39 am Will Gates Stay Indefinitely?Some hints he doesn't see himself as a place-holder. Which is a good thing. 09 Jan 2009 09:25 am Mum And Starbucks, Ctd.A reader writes:
Another adds:
That will be my mum when the time comes. And it better be scorching hot. 09 Jan 2009 08:47 am Dissent Of The DayA reader writes:
Point taken. My policy is to air as much of the truth as I can. And one of the benefits of being a blogger is the ability to raise issues and publish images that the MSM won't. I published the Danish cartoons and the beheading of Nick Berg. I have posted countless victims of Jihadism and Islamist sectarianism and the falling bodies of 9/11 victims. And it seems to me that the moral issues involved in thinking through the Gaza blockade and invasion was helped, not hurt, by facing the photographic reality that is sometimes kept from MSM readers. My apologies if you were offended. I'll think about warnings before particularly graphic shots in future. 09 Jan 2009 08:43 am In Need Of A HospitalGoldberg has a good idea for Israel. 09 Jan 2009 08:20 am A Trillion Dollar GambleMarc reports on stimulus happenings:
09 Jan 2009 08:01 am Eartha Kitt On Bernie MadoffShe died too soon. 09 Jan 2009 07:38 am Not A Big Fat Idiot?Weigel speculates:
Thursday, January 8, 200908 Jan 2009 08:57 pm Dissent Of The DayA reader writes:
08 Jan 2009 06:28 pm Into The FutureTom Ricks makes a few predictions about Obama's Iraq:
I think Ricks is optimistic. When one contemplates what president Bush has bequeathed - from $2 trillion deficits as far as the eye can see to a war without end in the Middle East to an intelligence capacity poisoned by torture - the jaw still drops. Did he really do this much damage to America and the world? Yes, he did. 08 Jan 2009 05:52 pm Prop 8 And The Black Vote, Ctd.Timothy Kincaid is skeptical of the new National Gay and Lesbian Task Force report (PDF) on prop 8 and race:
Continue reading "Prop 8 And The Black Vote, Ctd." » 08 Jan 2009 05:44 pm My Mum And StarbucksSo I ordered the fancy-ass Tazo London Fog Tea Latte at Starbucks - because a man has to have something to help the petite vanilla bean scones go down. It cost over $3. And when I started to drink it, I got this Proustian feeling. Starbucks have discovered the old cup of cha that my mother reared me and my siblings on. The same strange blend of hot water and milk and sugar; the same black tea steeped a little too long; the same impact on the nose and lungs on a cold damp evening. All that's missing is that ritual: the English zen of making the tea. My mum (yes, I have to use the English spelling) made around 10 of these a day. We were either drinking tea or the kettle was boiling. If my parents were having a fight, the kids upstairs listening to the uproar would wait until we heard the voices fade and then the all-clear siren: the sound of the water being drawn and the kettle being readied. When I told my poor mother I was a homosexual, it was her first impulse: "Oh my God, I'd better make a cup of tea." My poor mum. Funny how a cup of tea reminds me how much I love her. 08 Jan 2009 05:36 pm Shallow ThoughtIsn't it great to have conservatives complaining about government spending again? It's been eight long years ... 08 Jan 2009 05:35 pm A Time For PrayerJeffrey Goldberg links to a prayer for the children of Gaza. 08 Jan 2009 05:34 pm The Gay LiaisonObama has picked Brian Bond, which makes my day. Brian is a pragmatist but, unlike some others, actually believes in real equality and is prepared to take risks for it. He's a good man. And this is another inspired pick. 08 Jan 2009 05:21 pm Now This Is Anti-SemitismIt seems to me to be important to allow a debate about the wisdom and morality of Israel's current military incursion without accusing critics of being anti-Semites at the first opportunity. But it is equally important to note when genuine anti-Semitism really does rear its disgusting head. Item One. 08 Jan 2009 05:20 pm Faces Of The DaySeagulls sit at sunset and wait for food from passers-by on the promenade of Crosby beach on January 8, 2009 in Crosby, England. Much of the UK has been waking up from a heavy frost and sub zero temperatures with clear skies producing spectacular winter sunrises and sunsets. By Christopher Furlong/Getty. 08 Jan 2009 04:50 pm Post-Racial?Blumenthal praises Ambers' new piece on how the Obama campaign approached race. Cornell Belcher, one of Obama's pollsters, gives his take:
Surely the truth is that there is greater polarization on this than ever before. The range of views and feelings in America on race and gender and sexual orientation now has a far wider span than in the past. Crude bigotry endures at one end while total post-racial consciousness grows at the other. This stretches both across generations and regions, creating a bewilderingly complex picture in which everything you could say about America is true in some respect. Americans, to take the gay example, are probably more homophobic and more accepting of homosexuality than any other modern culture. There is Appallachia and Provincetown. And racially, there are those parts of America that actually trended GOP this past cycle - and then a place like Adams Morgan. To me, this is an overwhelming reason for federalism. America cannot endure as a coherent polity without more of it. 08 Jan 2009 04:20 pm Mental Health BreakA cat owner wondered what his feline friend does at night and set up a time lapse camera. I know a beagle with similar habits: 08 Jan 2009 03:58 pm Not Paying Their Fair Share?Greg Mankiw cites a Congressional Budget Office report (pdf) on effective tax rates. The breakdown:
Mankiw notes: "These figures include all federal taxes, not just income taxes." 08 Jan 2009 03:36 pm The Online RightDoes Pajamas Media believe that the future of journalism really belongs to Joe The Plumber? Or that this is really worth publishing? It seems to me that the right is still culturally disoriented. If they are still promoting Sarah Palin and Joe the Plumber and Ann Coulter and culture-war resentment as their core message, they are obviously in deep denial about what this election really meant. If their only unifying theme is hatred or reified "elite liberals", they are doomed. This denial - this calcification of the worst of the right in the last eight years - is the real danger to Republicans. What they need is a grappling with the public policy issues at hand, and an imaginative constructive, conservative approach to them. But the posturing is so much easier, isn't it? And still, one presumes, really lucrative for a tiny few. 08 Jan 2009 03:12 pm A Green 2009?Freakonomics hosts a debate: how will clean technology will be affected by the recession? George Tolley:
Of course, we get blowback either way. If recovery makes gas more expensive, we bail out Tehran and Moscow. If recession keeps gas prices low, we fail to make the deeper shift toward noncarbon energy that will undermine Tehran and Moscow in the long run. 08 Jan 2009 03:10 pm Gentle ReminderIt's time to take down that Christmas tree. 08 Jan 2009 02:41 pm Obligatory Porn Industry Seeks Bailout PostWe might as well get it over with. 08 Jan 2009 02:39 pm PUMAs Keep On TruckingHarriet Christian angles for Hillary Clinton's senate seat. You remember her, right? 08 Jan 2009 02:19 pm The Outing Of TintinYou knew this was coming. 08 Jan 2009 02:01 pm Rockets From Lebanon, Ctd.David Kenner sees the risks:
Continue reading "Rockets From Lebanon, Ctd." » 08 Jan 2009 01:53 pm Malkin Award Nominee"Unlike her compadres Jagger, Galloway and Livingstone, who all have notorious histories of Communist fellow-traveling, Lennox is not known for far-left or anti-Israel posturing. Indeed, her political activism has thus far mostly consisted of feel-good stuff like singing at the Live 8 concert and generally raising awareness about global poverty. So one wonders what prompts her current, passionate antipathy towards Israel. Maybe it’s something as petty as the 2000 break-up with her Israeli husband, Uri Fruchtmann?" - Jamie Kirchick, Big Hollywood. 08 Jan 2009 01:26 pm The Truth About Marriage's HistoryA reader makes some great points:
Why do social conservatives not want to encourage stability, responsibility and commitment among gay Americans? What real policy do they have for gay Americans at all? 08 Jan 2009 01:15 pm Marc Ambinder On Hulk HoganCan you resist? 08 Jan 2009 12:41 pm The View From Your Window08 Jan 2009 12:29 pm Oy, Ctd.Goldberg quibbles with Daniel Levy:
08 Jan 2009 11:48 am What We Cannot SeeIsrael's refusal to allow the international press into Gaza means we don't have the best sense of what is actually going on there. But this glimpse is very troubling:
08 Jan 2009 11:40 am Daily Fear MongeringA supervolcano is going to destroy us all! 08 Jan 2009 11:36 am Rockets From LebanonAbu Muqawama believes Hezbollah:
Totten adds: "CNN suggests they were fired by Palestinians, not by Hezbollah, and I'm guessing they're right." 08 Jan 2009 11:33 am The Gay AgendaJeffrey Toobin profiles Barney Frank:
I'd take Barney seriously. It's the same agenda as in 1988, and the Human Rights Campaign will ensure that their 20-year-long priorities are taken in order. And not-too-fast either, or the reason for their existence - and the sources of their funding - might dry up. Soldiers can wait; couples should focus on the state level. Pragmatically speaking, it seems dumb to fight this, although I'm against all hate crimes laws and believe that ENDA will mostly be a symbolic piece of legislation. One small prediction: now the Dems are back in power, the political divisions among the gays will probably widen. That was one unintended consequence of the Bush years: he united the right and left of the gay world into a seamless whole. Now: we get to fight again about our competing visions for a gay future. Back to the 90s we go ... I look forward to becoming the most annoying conservative on gay lists soon. 08 Jan 2009 11:20 am The Lowest Point Of The Bush YearsJoe Klein names it. 08 Jan 2009 10:57 am "The Old Man"Pro-quarterback Kurt Warner tells us what God looks like to him: 08 Jan 2009 10:55 am Conversate Amongst YourselvesTa-Nehisi does some Ebonics reporting. 08 Jan 2009 10:37 am Watching The NewsholeGaza takes center stage. 08 Jan 2009 10:12 am The Incidents Of WarAnd so the Gaza conflict isolates Israel even more:
And the dog that didn't bark ... ? A few rockets fly in from Lebanon, but Hezbollah denies responsibility. Is it a good thing that Hezbollah didn't fire the rockets? Or that they're lying about it? Or is this not a good thing at all? 08 Jan 2009 10:04 am Containment And IslamismHitch makes an excellent point in his excellent Gaza column:
The truly good news of the last couple of years has been the decline in support for al Qaeda and other Jihadist elements in Muslim public opinion. What we have learned is that once Islamists actually wield power, their popularity collapses. Religious fanatics do not know how to run countries; their real interests lie elsewhere (you can apply that on a much lesser scale, of course, to the competence of the Bush administration). The place where Shiite Jihadism is least popular? Iran. And remember how al Qaeda managed to turn off the Jordanians after various atrocities; and how they lost the battle for the hearts and minds of Iraqis (with the brilliant and brave help of US troops) - after the Bush administration unwittingly gave them a lease of life in that country? Now: if you're a rational kind of person you might deduce from this that containing Islamism and letting it collapse under its own insanity is certainly a viable policy, given the unsavory alternatives. You might at least consider that taking the bait from these guys and reigniting religious wars might actually be giving them the oxygen they need. And yet prudent containment - even after the Iraq debacle - is still equated with surrender on the hard right. This makes no sense if we actually want to win this war. And we will only win this war when Muslims fight the people whose arguments we keep unwittingly legitimizing. 08 Jan 2009 09:52 am The Times Lives?Felix Salmon tangles with Michael Hirschorn.
James Surowiecki piles on. 08 Jan 2009 09:22 am Senate ApprovedCongress gets into the toy business. 08 Jan 2009 08:53 am Palin For Senate?Nate Silver says not to get too excited about this poll. Know fear. 08 Jan 2009 08:40 am The Best Bad Option?Ross wades back into the Gaza muck:
08 Jan 2009 08:14 am Seating BurrisNate Silver gets it about right:
So does Dave Weigel:
Heh. For a legal anaysis of the case see Sandy Levinson. I have to say I remain a skeptic as to whether Fitzgerald really has the goods on the sleazebag Blago, and have no problem with Burris at all. 08 Jan 2009 07:15 am Prop 8 And The Black VoteTa-Nehisi flags a new report. Wednesday, January 7, 200907 Jan 2009 06:50 pm Email Of The DayA reader writes:
07 Jan 2009 06:11 pm The End Of White America?Could it also mean the demise of the GOP? Publius reacts to the notion that Republicans need to twitter more to attract the next generation:
If you haven't check out the Atlantic cover-story on this very theme, here it is. 07 Jan 2009 05:59 pm Face Of The DayMourners of Israeli army Staff Sgt. Alex Mashavisky, who died during combat in Gaza, take cover as a rocket alarm goes on during his funeral on January 07, 2009 in Beer Sheva, Israel. International calls on Israel and Hamas to introduce a renewed ceasefire deal have increased following a day of significant conflict and an increasing death toll. By Uriel Sinai/Getty Images. 07 Jan 2009 04:46 pm No SolutionReihan considers a two state solution:
Continue reading "No Solution" » 07 Jan 2009 04:20 pm Mental Health BreakOh, Blimey, look at the mattress: 07 Jan 2009 03:57 pm What Happens Then?Noah Millman's thoughts on the Gaza end-game are well worth your time:
07 Jan 2009 03:35 pm Godless WimpsAllahpundit isn't too impressed by his fellow atheists' ad campaign:
07 Jan 2009 03:21 pm A Pentagon Bail-Out?Seriously? Taxpayers for Common Sense fisks Martin Feldstein:
Continue reading "A Pentagon Bail-Out?" » 07 Jan 2009 02:59 pm Gender Difference And Marriage, Ctd.Freddie locks horns with Helen:
Continue reading "Gender Difference And Marriage, Ctd." » 07 Jan 2009 02:52 pm Two Comedy RecommendationsWe're a Netflix-and-beagles marriage so it occasionally behooves me to point out those few occasions when contemporary movie comedy rises above the usual Sandler dreck. I don't know why the critics were luke-warm toward Burn After Reading. Dish readers will love it. But, seriously, I don't know why my stoner readers did not let me know about Pineapple Express before now. Jesus, guys, seriously. There are very few movies that I have laughed almost continuously through to the point of incapacity. The first Austen Powers, Team America, Borat, Harold and Kumar II, South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut, and now Pineapple Express. Plus: Seth Rogen and James Franco are my finalists for Sexiest Man Alive. Never hurts in a movie, does it? Rent it. It's gnar-gnar. 07 Jan 2009 02:29 pm Loopholing Just War TheoryLarison joins the debate. A tart point:
There is something striking about how rigorously theocons apply Vatican teaching to questions of private individuals' sexual and emotional relationships and how loosely they apply it when it comes to tempering right-wing governments from embracing torture, economic inequality, the death penalty and pre-emptive war. 07 Jan 2009 02:06 pm The Lesson Of IraqYglesias laments that many politicos still haven't learned it:
Being chastened is not something Washington ever does well. 07 Jan 2009 01:59 pm 123456The five hundred most common passwords. (Hat tip: Slog) 07 Jan 2009 01:37 pm Quote For The Day"The great misfortune of newspapers in this era is that they were such a good idea for such a long time that people felt the newspaper business model was part of a deep truth about the world, rather than just the way things happened to be. It's like the fall of communism, where a lot of the eastern European satellite states had an easier time because there were still people alive who remembered life before the Soviet Union - nobody in Russia remembered it. Newspaper people are like Russians, in a way," - Clay Shirky, the Guardian. Meanwhile, my colleague Michael Hirschorn has a must-read piece on how the NYT could possibly survive the next few years. It's a grim set of options. For my part, I really hope the dead-tree edition doesn't die. I'm an early adopter of techy shit and was blogging for years before most people knew what a blog was. But every morning, I still take an hour with the dead-tree NYT, some fresh coffee and a box of ginger snaps. It's a ritual I've maintained for twenty years, but actually feel more grateful for now in the age of the web than before. There is something deeply precious about letting expert editors guide you through the news of the day. I find and read stories serendipitously I would never find online. And I read them through because I trust the editors to have done their job. Yes, you wince and splutter from time to time. But most of the time, even the NYT's critics will concede they also learn a huge amount. Under Bill Keller, I have fallen in love with the paper all over again. And I hope they figure out a way to keep it afloat. 07 Jan 2009 01:08 pm The Logic Of The IDFVDH:
He thinks withdrawal is imminent. 07 Jan 2009 01:08 pm The View From Your WindowSeattle, Washington, 11.30 am. 07 Jan 2009 12:53 pm The Damage Begins To Sink In"Over the past eight years, Bush has done more to undermine conservatism than all of the country’s college faculties, elite media and Hollywood studios put together... Conservatism’s core values rested on notions of a strong national defense and free market economics. Bush has punctured these ideas in a way that transcends the effects of historically anomalous scandals such as Watergate or Clinton’s extramarital affairs. Bush has not only dinged the conservative car, he has totaled it," - Joel Kotkin, Politico. 07 Jan 2009 12:25 pm What To Do About Torture?Marc ponders a truth commission. Some seem to think this is an act of retribution. Actually, it would be a path deliberately avoiding retribution. It would seek transparency and accountability for those acts committed by the Bush administration that crossed the line of core human rights. It would do so as a way to prove that the United States is returning to the rule of law and to the moral norms of international behavior that the US itself pioneered. Prosecutions will probably happen anyway as evidence of war crimes increases as the Bush administration recedes (insiders will be much less afraid of whistle-blowing, as time goes by). It's not as if DOJ can simply ignore evidence of criminality in government:
By setting up a truly independent body, bipartisan, above reproach, on the lines of the 9/11 Commission, Obama could insist that his presidential emphasis is on accountability - and not in any way partisanship or revenge. 07 Jan 2009 12:01 pm Dreaming Of War, Ctd.The response to violence is, I think, at the core of today's conservative divide. A reader writes:
I think of Reagan as a conservative of non-violence. I know that's a contestable statement - Grenada, Libya, the contras, etc. - but a conservatism of nonviolence need not be pacifist or unaware of the It is not the dream of some neconservatives, for whom war is the only state of being that brings out public virtu. And constant war to advance what is seen as the good - and stiffen domestic sinews - is something devoutly to be wished. Cheney is a conservative of this stripe. Eisenhower was the opposite. McCain is a warrior; Ron Paul is a conservative of non-violence. At some deep philosophical level, this is the dividing line between Oakeshott and Strauss, as well. (And one has to ponder how Zionism may have contributed to this divide.) I stand with Oakeshott and Eisenhower. Somehow, we have to recover the prudent, non-pacifist conservatism of non-violence and freedom. If not in America, where? 07 Jan 2009 11:40 am Half-RightSteve Coll dissents on Panetta. 07 Jan 2009 11:33 am Kramer vs ColeOne of those eternal blog-spats that gives you a reason to get up in the morning. Or did I just reveal too much about my pitiful life? 07 Jan 2009 11:19 am When Tucker Carlson Found GodHe was reading a book called "Wishful Thinking." 07 Jan 2009 11:07 am Cool Ad WatchA German ad campaign - with impeccable placement - against bulimia: 07 Jan 2009 10:55 am Er, Yes
Or, as Harry Reid put it,
In the US Senate? Surely he jests. 07 Jan 2009 10:29 am Ross, Holbrooke, HaassA three-some for Obama. 07 Jan 2009 10:28 am Graham, Roberts, BayhA three-some for Panetta. 07 Jan 2009 10:27 am Morning After Pill DogmaSaletan fisks the Vatican. Ross gets this right:
The Vatican's inability and/or refusal to understand the science of procreation is something I deal with in great detail in The Conservative Soul. 07 Jan 2009 10:19 am Panetta's QualificationsHere's former CIA deputy director John McLaughlin:
It looks as if they're retaining Kappes as his deputy. But remember: the direct CIA experience thing has to be balanced against the torture inheritance. It was never going to be an easy balance, between continuity and change at the CIA. But I fail to see how Panetta-Kappes isn't about as good a combo as any. 07 Jan 2009 09:14 am Quote For The Day"The African in him is the one who is making him ask, 'What is the consensus?' That’s the African way at its best. The good leader in Africa is the leader who keeps quiet and lets others speak and then says at the end, 'I have heard you all, and this is our mind,'" - Desmond Tutu on Obama. 07 Jan 2009 08:41 am Why A Bipartisan Stimulus?Duh. 07 Jan 2009 08:28 am On Not Taking SidesEzra Klein cites David Miller:
Yes, but Jeffrey Goldberg's words from a few months ago also ring true:
07 Jan 2009 07:59 am The Opening ActTyler Cowen is pleased that tax cuts are making up such a large part of Obama's stimulus:
I don't want to jinx it, but so far, the Obama transition has been two things - focused fundamentally on what works, and finding a way to bring as many people into the coalition as possible. It's immensely impressive. 07 Jan 2009 07:42 am Why Ike Was RightStephen Walt and Matt Yglesias explain. 07 Jan 2009 07:30 am BagramA reader writes:
Bush and Cheney took Saddam's Abu Ghraib and made it a torture zone under American control. They took Soviet sites in Eastern Europe and revived their record of torture, under the American flag. Bagram was part of a pattern. And people wonder why a person untainted by the past should be CIA director. 07 Jan 2009 06:47 am Size MattersArnold Kling wants a smaller stimulus. Tuesday, January 6, 200906 Jan 2009 09:34 pm The Reality Of War, Ctd.Jeffrey Goldberg makes an important point:
Continue reading "The Reality Of War, Ctd." » 06 Jan 2009 08:36 pm Invading BlindToday Marc Lynch attended a lecture by Sallai Meridor, Israel's Ambassador to the United States:
06 Jan 2009 07:34 pm A Propaganda Wave
06 Jan 2009 07:06 pm Getting The Panetta PickA useful reading of the tea-leaves from Fred Kaplan. Then this from Les Gelb:
06 Jan 2009 06:48 pm Dissent Of The DayA reader writes:
Continue reading "Dissent Of The Day" » 06 Jan 2009 05:48 pm Misinformation?Daniel Levy weighs in:
Continue reading "Misinformation?" » 06 Jan 2009 05:16 pm Murkowski 57; Palin 33A new poll in Alaska on a possible Senate race. Know hope. 06 Jan 2009 05:03 pm Proportionality And Terror, Ctd.Law blogger Kevin Heller considers proportionality as defined by the UN charter:
Noah Pollak takes this to the following conclusion:
Heller helps and makes an important point about the core relationship between means and ends. Noah, I think, goes too far in suggesting that a single Hamas rocket in what would now be self-defense justifies anything further the Israelis want to do. I agree with Ross that seeing no just war distinction between unintended but still unavoidable civilian casualties and the wanton terrorism of Hamas makes just war theory untenable in the modern world. The just war question here might therefore be better honed in the following way: does the massively one-sided violence of the past 11 days offer a chance for a real peace that could justify the death and trauma we are watching? As Ross and others have pointed out, this is, at this present moment, unknowable. But from a moral perspective, I think I should adjust my take a little and concede that you could make a weak but real case for the morality of the Israeli attack if it really changed the situation into one that made peace possible. I guess that's my problem. I don't see, frankly, how another ever-more brutal crushing will achieve the goal Israel seeks. The familiar points about who would inherit Gaza from Hamas still operate. But the deeper point, made very well by Bob Kaplan, is that Hamas' real advantage is not military; it's ideological. Sometimes, in these asymmetric cases, clearly excessive military action can strengthen the ideological power of the enemy and actually make peace more, rather than less, distant. To put it bluntly: dead Palestinian children, we can all agree, do not help Israel, even if you were to ascribe moral responsibility for every single one to Hamas. Continue reading "Proportionality And Terror, Ctd." » 06 Jan 2009 04:32 pm Breaking The SilenceObama talks briefly about events in Gaza:
06 Jan 2009 04:32 pm FiguresEugene Volokh finds an old law still in use. 06 Jan 2009 04:20 pm Mental Health Break
06 Jan 2009 04:08 pm The Evil Of HamasMichael Weiss makes the case that Hamas isn't just a threat to Jews:
06 Jan 2009 03:54 pm Quote For The Day II"All nationalists have the power of not seeing resemblances between similar sets of facts. A British Tory will defend self-determination in Europe and oppose it in India with no feeling of inconsistency. Actions are held to be good or bad, not on their own merits, but according to who does them, and there is almost no kind of outrage -- torture, the use of hostages, forced labour, mass deportations, imprisonment without trial, forgery, assassination, the bombing of civilians -- which does not change its moral colour when it is committed by 'our' side ... The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them" -- George Orwell. M.J. Rosenberg applies this quote to Gaza, but it also reminds one of events in the US these last eight years. 06 Jan 2009 03:18 pm Dreaming Of WarJoe Klein fisks Kristol:
The longer I observe the neocons the more I realize that for many of them, war is a natural state of being, even a vocation. Some actually view a martial society as more noble than a peaceful one, and believe in war as both morally good and socially beneficial. I am much more interested in conservatism as a temperament that recoils from violence, rather than being attracted to it. And while I see war as a necessary evil, I have been forced by the Iraq debacle into a much better grasp of its limits and its potential for catastrophe. Others seem emboldened by an occupation they are now declaring a "success." 06 Jan 2009 03:04 pm Not Safe For DogsOr any other creature with a spidey sense:
06 Jan 2009 03:03 pm ProportionalityBret Stephens proposes:
How is that an "endgame" exactly? Isn't it actually a formula for the war never ending? 06 Jan 2009 02:49 pm Alaska NewsClaims that the case against Sherry Johnston was slowed for political reasons have been withdrawn. Levi Johnston has quit his new job because it requires a high school diploma:
06 Jan 2009 02:44 pm Children With EpilepsyA helpful and moving piece about the agonizing choices parents often have to make. 06 Jan 2009 02:42 pm Quote For The Day"Scientology is unalterably opposed, as a matter of religious belief, to the practice of psychiatry, and espouses as a religious belief that the study of the mind and the healing of mentally caused ills should not be alienated from religion or condoned in nonreligious fields. Continue reading "Quote For The Day" » 06 Jan 2009 02:30 pm Bringing DiFi Around
Meanwhile, Roberts is fine with it. Scott Horton thinks the Blair-Panetta combo is inspired. Me too. 06 Jan 2009 02:25 pm Cutting Deep Powder With JesusThis is for Trey Parker and Matt Stone: 06 Jan 2009 02:14 pm The GOP's Number One PriorityRuffini dreams:
06 Jan 2009 02:09 pm A Single Giant ButtonApple's new "key-board-free" laptop. 06 Jan 2009 01:55 pm Block That Metaphor"Suppose a dozen clowns die in a circus fire. Not funny. Now, if a dozen clowns burst into flames while attempting in unison to program their VCR: funnier. Now suppose a dozen clowns beat each other to death with whole, unfrozen bluefin tuna: goddamn hilarious. (Let it be said, for the record, that I am indifferent to clowns, except that I have it on good authority that circus clowns have no souls.) Watching the legal wranglers of torture, "preemptive" military action and Unitary Executive-ism pen an ode to the proper encumbrance of executive power? It is at least clown-and-tuna funny," - Hunter at Daily Kos. 06 Jan 2009 01:39 pm ParalysisJeffrey Goldberg explains why he isn't writing more about Gaza. 06 Jan 2009 01:25 pm ColoradoNot so redneck any more. 06 Jan 2009 01:18 pm Fart-A-FriendThe iPhone's most popular and least celebrated new app. 06 Jan 2009 01:07 pm The Other GitmoIt's called Bagram. The very name makes one shudder at this point. 06 Jan 2009 12:51 pm Gender Difference And MarriageHelen Rittelmeyer has a couple of interesting posts up on marriage questions. As Helen may know, I've long been a believer in the biological power of gender. (See my essay on testosterone from a while back.) I think gender differences are obviously culturally created to some extent, but not all the way down. There is a profound biological difference between men and women that affects our behavior and minds in ways that are irreducible and unchangeable. It is also quite clear, it seems to me, that a marriage between a man and a woman, and between a man and a man, and between a woman and a woman, is each going to have distinct characteristics. They will each be experientially different experiences, and find different ways to endure, and have different problems to tackle. What love brings together gender complicates. I don't need to tell heterosexuals that. But, for that reason, I don't believe this change will reinforce theories that gender is entirely a social construction. Nothing Does this mean that somehow gay marriages will alter the gender dynamics of straight ones? If you believe in gender difference as biological at its core, the answer is no. The power of gender in the lives of 97 percent of the population is never going to affected deeply by cultural acceptance of the homosexual minority. That's why it's odd to find conservatives so frightened by the prospect. Could the emergence of dramatically equal forms of marriage strengthen the model of male-female equality within straight marriage and undermine slightly the fundamentalist insistence on the subordination of wives? Yes. But only in so far as 1 percent of marriages change the 99 percent. And this is surely one of the biggest blindspots of the Christianist right. Continue reading "Gender Difference And Marriage" » 06 Jan 2009 12:46 pm Feinstein and RockefellerThe more I think about this, the more it seems to me that the snub of these two was a deliberate signal. Their oversight of Bush's war crimes was pathetic. Ditto Harman. Obama is telling us he is serious about both improving intelligence and drawing a clear line - for the entire world to see - between the United States and the war criminals who will soon be leaving office, and those who enabled them. Meanwhile, more support from the smart right. 06 Jan 2009 12:21 pm Tim Roemer and PanettaAmbers has the interview:
Ambers rates the chances of confirmation at 80 percent. 06 Jan 2009 12:15 pm Bob Gates And Leon PanettaCrowley discovers a clue to the puzzle. 06 Jan 2009 12:11 pm Robert Baer On PanettaAnother supporter who sees the key rationale:
06 Jan 2009 11:47 am Iraq's Free PressAlive In Baghdad reports on the explosion of newspapers in Iraq. 06 Jan 2009 11:30 am The Panetta PickLaura Rozen talks to various intelligence insiders:
06 Jan 2009 11:25 am The View From Your WindowMoscow, Russia, 3 pm. 06 Jan 2009 11:03 am When Tanks Meet HumansReports are coming in of a particularly grisly encounter at a school in Gaza. Maybe 40 dead in a U.N. school. For a glimpse of how these images are being seen in the global media - very different from American sources - check this story out. The carnage is a cable news 24 hour story:
Continue reading "When Tanks Meet Humans" » 06 Jan 2009 10:50 am Neocons For PanettaFirst Ledeen, now Doug Feith and Richard Perle. Obama is scrambling things ideologically again. In a good way. 06 Jan 2009 10:41 am Into The VanJett Travolta's body has been turned into ashes. No details of the autopsy - monitored by Travolta's own physician - have been announced. Travolta himself piloted the plane as it landed in Florida with his son's remains:
06 Jan 2009 10:38 am Purple ReignWeigel studies the initial numbers from the Swing State Project's tally of congressional districts' voting habits:
Continue reading "Purple Reign" » 06 Jan 2009 10:20 am A New WarPetraeus gives an interesting interview to Foreign Policy. The interviewer asks whether Iraq and Afghanistan are fundamentally different from prior wars. Petraeus replies:
(Hat tip: Crowley) 06 Jan 2009 09:50 am Children, Sickness And Parents, Ctd.A reader writes:
Continue reading "Children, Sickness And Parents, Ctd." » 06 Jan 2009 09:20 am Bush's AIDS LegacyJay Lefkowitz provides a fascinating insider's account. What's impressive about it - and what the outgoing president should always be respected and admired for - is the combination of moral clarity and pragmatism. They genuinely tried to figure out what worked in Africa and went with it. Fauci and O'Neill also helped avoid some dead-ends, like the chimera of a vaccine, and focused on treatments that could and did save and restore countless lives. In the balance against the countless lives that ended because of decisions made by George W. Bush in wartime, these lives lived must also be taken into account. He was a torturer and a man who cared about the victims of AIDS. 06 Jan 2009 09:14 am The Opposition To PanettaJosh is onto something:
That strikes me as exactly right. Feinstein and Rockefeller sense a real individual with real clout at the agency, whom they cannot control. There may have been a lack of foresight here in not phoning Feinstein ahead of time. But it is also indisputable that many leading intelligence Democrats were deeply complicit in the Bush torture program and his illegal wire-tapping. It was just as important for the president-elect to pick someone not beholden to them either. Some are now citing Panetta's appointment as somehow "political" rather than substantive. But it's obvious that Obama has actually found someone both capable of running a bureaucracy as complex as the CIA, of a stature to be approved by the Congress and maintain good relations, and with the good sense to know how interrogation based on torture is never right and much less effective than legal methods. It remains an inspired choice. And the critics help show why. 06 Jan 2009 08:51 am The Logic Of QuagmireMax Boot explains:
And where on this scale would Americans in today's Iraq fall? Are we Israel in Gaza or France in Algeria? Or do we not really have as good an excuse as either? 06 Jan 2009 08:34 am Fighting The Good FightRoss tackles just war theory:
And if you need to win an election ... ? 06 Jan 2009 08:33 am The Question At HandSydney Freedberg asks whether Israel is a liability to the US:
Michael Scheuer, Patrick Lang, Bruce Hoffman, Dov S. Zakheim, and James Carafano respond. 06 Jan 2009 08:01 am Total Asshole Runs For GovernorTerry McAuliffe announces: 06 Jan 2009 07:52 am A Hack BlockadeHow do we know what's actually happening? Journalists are still unable to get into Gaza. Dion Nissenbaum reports:
06 Jan 2009 07:18 am Yglesias Award Nominee"So let’s get this straight: Robert Gates will be the Defense Secretary, we’re ramping up U.S. forces in Afghanistan and providing a reasonable period of time for a hand-off in Iraq, there isn’t going to be a windfall oil profits tax or income tax hike but there is going to be a huge set of business tax cuts – and Rick Warren is giving the invocation at the Inauguration. Who won in November? I’m sure there will be times during the next four years when Obama administration’s decisions on issues (e.g. judicial appointments) have conservatives banging their heads against the wall, bemoaning the fact that John McCain wasn’t elected. But so far it’s hard to imagine McCain would have been doing more than the incoming Obama team seems to be proposing — and with as much chance of success –to further some key center-Right policy aims," - Jennifer Rubin. Monday, January 5, 200905 Jan 2009 09:11 pm The Reality Of WarThe legs of the body of one of three Palestinian siblings from the Al-samoni family, killed by an Israeli tank shell, are seen in the mortuary of Al-Shifa hospital, on January 5, 2009 in Gaza City. Seven members from the Al-samoni family were killed including the mother, three children and a baby, when an Israeli shell struck their house south of Gaza city. By Abid Katib/Getty. 05 Jan 2009 08:32 pm Proportionality And Terror, CtdA reader writes:
Continue reading "Proportionality And Terror, Ctd" » 05 Jan 2009 08:25 pm Yglesias Award Nominee"I always liked Panetta. He served in the Army and is openly proud of it. He seems to be a good lawyer (oxymoronic though it may seem). He's a good manager. And he's going to watch Obama's back at a place that's full of stilettos and a track record for attempted presidential assassination second to none. But Italians know all about political assassination; you may remember Julius Caesar. Or Aldo Moro. The self-proclaimed cognoscenti will deride his lack of "spycraft," and he's never worked in the intel bureaucracy or, for that matter, in foreign policy or national security. But he's been chief of staff, which involved all that stuff. I think it's a smart move," - Michael Ledeen, NRO. Joe Klein comments here. Others, like Goldberg and York, peddle the line that no one who has operated in the "real world" of intelligence could agree with Obama's attempt to move the US past the torture era. No: a huge majority of intelligence professionals agree with Obama on effective interrogation. But after eight years of a CIA tainted with torture and presidentially-sanctioned lawlessness, drawing a bright line under the recent past is critical. That's why the Panetta pick is inspired. The more I think about it, the more that seems true. This is change we can believe in. And in this necessarily secret area, public trust is vital. For the first time in a long dark patch, we will regain it. 05 Jan 2009 07:15 pm Another Take On ProportionalityI hope to respond to Noah tomorrow. Meanwhile:
05 Jan 2009 07:13 pm The Gaza CrisisIn discussing this with a colleague, and thinking how reasonable it is for Israel to expect that its own citizens should have exactly the same freedom from fear and terror as those in other Western countries, I could not help but recall the great Onion headline from their classic book, "Our Dumb Century." It's from 1948:
05 Jan 2009 06:37 pm Face Of The DayChristian Califano of France rests during the third motorcycle stage of the 2009 Dakar Rally between Puerto Madryn and Jacobacci, in Argentina, on January 5, 2009. Marc Coma of Spain won the stage and keeps the lead of the race. By Gabriel Bouys/AFP/Getty. 05 Jan 2009 06:14 pm The Price Of UnvictoryMarc Lynch's take on Gaza:
Continue reading "The Price Of Unvictory" » 05 Jan 2009 05:25 pm An Occasional PrimateRoss catches up on Christmas blogging. 05 Jan 2009 05:20 pm Kaplan On GazaA reader writes:
05 Jan 2009 05:19 pm What are the Isaelis Thinking?, CtdYaacov Lozowick tries to answer the question:
A mite over-optimistic, if you ask me. But who can say? 05 Jan 2009 04:56 pm Proportionality And Terror, CtdA reader writes:
Continue reading "Proportionality And Terror, Ctd" » 05 Jan 2009 04:20 pm Mental Health BreakA mashup of Billboard's top 25 songs from 2008: 05 Jan 2009 04:07 pm In Search Of PragmatismPetra Marquardt-Bigman notes what the term means for Jihadists:
05 Jan 2009 04:00 pm Panetta At CIAWay, way better than Brennan, and, significantly, detached from the torture regime and its apparatus in a way that anyone involved in the CIA in the last eight years would not be. As my colleague Marc Ambinder just said, the man who has had every job in Washington now has the most thankless task in Washington. But this appointment and Johnsen's are extremely encouraging for the restoration of Constitutional order after the Bush-Cheney protectorate. Then this:
Continue reading "Panetta At CIA" » 05 Jan 2009 03:49 pm Quote For The Day"Here is a partial answer to my own question of how should we behave, directed especially to the next president and members of his or her administration but also to all of use who will be relieved by the change: We must avoid any temptation simply to move on. We must instead be honest with ourselves and the world as we condemn our nation's past transgressions and reject Bush's corruption of our American ideals. Our constitutional democracy cannot survive with a government shrouded in secrecy, nor can our nation's honor be restored without full disclosure," - Dawn Johnsen, the new head of OLC. 05 Jan 2009 03:20 pm When A Frozen Bubble BreaksIt looks as cool as this. 05 Jan 2009 03:07 pm Blogosphere PSADan Drezner, Marc Lynch, Tom Ricks, David Rothkopf, and Stephen Walt have fancy new digs at Foreign Policy. 05 Jan 2009 02:45 pm America - PersonifiedMore fat cars by artist Erwin Wurm here. 05 Jan 2009 02:38 pm Ending The Torture RegimeA promising start at Obama's OLC. Imagine: a presidency concerned to uphold the rule of law. Only a couple of weeks left of the protectorate. 05 Jan 2009 02:25 pm The Friend Of My Friend Is My EnemyMarc Lynch analyzes Maliki's trip to Iran:
05 Jan 2009 02:22 pm Israel Has Begun Its War With IranBob Kaplan is unillusioned about the huge risks involved but says we have no choice but to go along and hope for total destruction of Hamas as leverage for future negotiations with Iran. I have to say that the logic of his broader argument strikes me as a good one for containment, not aggression. But there are many factors in play - elections in Israel, Iraq and Iran soon - that will doubtless force all of us to keep re-thinking. 05 Jan 2009 02:11 pm The Wiki CoreKudos to Jimmy Wales for raising a cool $6 million to keep Wikipedia ad-free (what ads? - ed.) This made me chuckle:
05 Jan 2009 02:07 pm Six By TwelveA strategy to make all of New England a marriage-equality zone by 2012. 05 Jan 2009 01:50 pm "A Volunteer Coastguard"In defense of Somalia's pirates. 05 Jan 2009 01:38 pm Gas Tax Now!SUV and truck sales surge. Rapier sighs:
05 Jan 2009 01:33 pm Quote For The Day"Some people are p-ssed off at [Americans for Tax Reform President] Grover [Norquist]. Some people are p-ssed off at the Conservative Steering Committee. Some people are p-ssed off at [current RNC chair] Mike Duncan. Some people are p-ssed off at social conservatives. The social conservatives are p-ssed at leaders in Congress. Everyone is basically p-ssed," - a Republican consultant who has worked with the RNC on the leadership contest. 05 Jan 2009 01:23 pm Signs Of The TimesFrom the front page of the Boston Globe:
And a display ad on the NYT front page. 05 Jan 2009 01:22 pm The Downturn DietAppleyard reports on the recession's silver lining:
Continue reading "The Downturn Diet" » 05 Jan 2009 01:02 pm Is The Gaza Attack A Just War?My preliminary take from this morning is here. 05 Jan 2009 12:58 pm Correction of The Day"Dominic Holden, news reporter at The Stranger, regrets that in an attempt to spell out the word “brassiere” in a Slog post, he mistakenly spelled it “brazier,” which actually means “barbecue.” He further regrets that upon trying to amend his error, he spelled it “brassier,” which, if anything, means “more brassy.” Holden recognizes that, as a homosexual, he should avoid subjects related to women’s undergarments." - The Stranger. 05 Jan 2009 12:37 pm "One Extremely Serious Seizure A Week"That was what Jett Travolta was dealing with, unmedicated, according to the Travolta lawyers. One anti-seizure drug had been used in the past but was stopped because of ineffectiveness and side-effects. No other treatments are cited. 05 Jan 2009 12:28 pm The View From Your WindowPortland, Oregon, 3.06 pm. 05 Jan 2009 12:14 pm The Institution Of MarriageLarison makes his case against marriage equality:
"My Big Fat Straight Wedding" argues the opposite. I think allowing gay couples to marry does strengthen the institution, because it ensures that everyone in a family has access to the same civil rites and rights, and so the heterosexual marriages are as affirmed as effectively as the gay ones. (It is not my experience that the straight siblings and families of gay people feel their marriages affirmed by excluding some of their own.) By removing the incentive for gay people to enter into false straight marriages, which often end in divorce or collapse, wrecked childhoods and betrayed spouses, heterosexual marriage is also strengthened. And the practical alternative to marriage equality - civil unions for straights and gays - presents a marriage-lite option for everyone that clearly does threaten traditional marriage in a way that gay marriage never could. Serious conservatives understand that these are the three practical options on modern America: including everyone in civil marriage; creating a two-tiered system of civil marriage and then lesser civil unions for straights and gays; or simply resisting any change and using the government and law to perpetuate the stigmatization of homosexuality. If those three are the choices, my view is that the first is easily the most authentically conservative. I suspect that the impact on those states that now allow such inclusion will prove it in due course. 05 Jan 2009 11:58 am Despite HerselfSometimes, K-Lo gives good political advice. (Hat tip: TS.) 05 Jan 2009 11:56 am Dissent Of The DayA reader writes:
Continue reading "Dissent Of The Day" » 05 Jan 2009 11:44 am Win-WinKrauthammer proposes a gas tax, balanced by a payroll tax reduction. Joe Klein applauds:
Kinsley also made the case recently. I've long been on board. 05 Jan 2009 11:25 am Some Data PointsThis is instructive:
From 2-1 to 100-1 in six years is a big gain in killing efficiency. Just so long as the Israelis never expect any actual relationship with any actual Gazans, it works after a fashion. But does it deny Hamas a psychological victory? 05 Jan 2009 11:16 am And There Was No YouTube ThenAndy Warhol really was ahead of his time, wasn't he? Boing Boing asks the necessary:
05 Jan 2009 10:51 am Filling The VacuumYglesias worries about "catastrophic success in Gaza":
05 Jan 2009 10:25 am DistinctionsConor goes out on a limb and makes one:
I have a little less hope for Palestinian society than I do for Iraq in the foreseeable future. But I assume there is some distinction between a Hamas mafia boss and the average Gazan. Of course, that distinction has largely been erased - for the time being - by Israel's aggression. And the blockade and destitution within Gaza - and its emergence as an isolated, battered terrorist-run township - may also have elided the distinction further. But I don't believe the distinction has never existed or cannot exist. Larison, meanwhile, contrasts the Georgia and Gaza conflicts: Continue reading "Distinctions" » 05 Jan 2009 09:36 am Proportionality And TerrorNoah Pollak asked me to provide some framework for a discussion of proportionality and just war theory with respect to the Israeli attack on Gaza. In re-reading my Catechism and brushing up on just war theory, I am struck first of all by how alien the context seems for the current war. The asymmetric nature of the threat and the emergence of failed states run by mafioso religious fanatics makes everything more complicated. You could argue that this makes just war theory more important, rather than less, since we are in danger of having the rules of war dictated by barbarians. Or you could argue, along with the neocons, that Jihadist barbarism demands a response in kind. I favor the first view. And it is nonetheless fair to say, I think, that Israel's actions in Gaza fail every traditional just war justification. In the history of the West, the laws of war are clear enough. You do not launch a just war if it leads to greater evils than the status quo But the point of just war theory is to give us a vantage point outside any particular contingency. Even though I may provoke a Jewish-Catholic fight here, the Catholic Catechism has as useful and concise a statement of the right of self-defense as anyone:
Let's take each condition separately.
Taking the vantage point of the conflict from May 2007 on, Hamas has fired several thousand Qassam
At some level, this is meaningless with Hamas. It exists in order to wage total war on Israel. But it is also unclear if the brutal economic embargo on Gaza - imposed by Egypt, Israel and the West for more than a year - was not actually already weakening Hamas from within, and rendering it less popular. It's certainly a plausible reading of recent history. And under just war theory, any possibility that the goal of restraining Hamas or undermining it could be achieved by non-military means renders the current Israeli counter-attack illicit.
We will see. Perhaps the "don't fuck with the Jews" message will finally be heard and a profound shift will occur in the hearts and minds of Gazans. But the Middle East's history of the past two decades (and its culture of eternal revenge) is not exactly encouraging in this regard. Continue reading "Proportionality And Terror" » 05 Jan 2009 09:26 am HormonesThe reason Steve Jobs says he's been losing weight. 05 Jan 2009 09:25 am Resist The Executive!On cue as a Democrat becomes president, John Bolton and war criminal John Yoo rediscover their conservatism. 05 Jan 2009 09:02 am Someone Else's Problem?Juan Cole has a long historical post on the origins of the Gaza conflict:
Continue reading "Someone Else's Problem?" » 05 Jan 2009 08:26 am The Essence Of CheneyismMichael Goldfarb channels John Yoo:
Goldfarb favors a near-dictatorial presidency with the power to detain and torture. John Yoo was even prepared to countenance crushing the testicles of the children of terror suspects as inherent in the constitutional powers of the American executive. Yoo is a fellow at AEI, and Goldfarb was spokesman for McCain. This is neoconservatism, guys. 05 Jan 2009 08:24 am Eye Of The StormOver the break, Noah Millman had a long, insidery post on ratings agencies and the financial downturn. It's worth a read. 05 Jan 2009 08:08 am Israel's Democracy - And Ours'A reflection on what total war does to civilized people:
05 Jan 2009 07:19 am Conflicts Of InterestManzi explains the danger of government funded pharmaceutical research:
05 Jan 2009 12:41 am More Annoying Than Al GoreSunday, January 4, 200904 Jan 2009 10:04 pm Another Suicide BombingToday's atrocity claimed at least 40 lives, mainly Shiite pilgrims. Over 24 tribal leaders were massacred by one of their own in a suicide bomb attack Friday. On December 27, a car bomb killed 24. So in the last week or so, close to a hundred people have been murdered by terrorists in Iraq, with hundreds more wounded. This is occurring even with 130,000 US troops still in the country. And this, remember, is "victory." People keep asking me for predictions for 2009. Here's one: we will either leave Iraq in a bloodbath or we will never leave Iraq. 04 Jan 2009 09:36 pm Israel's Strategy IIMichael Oren and Yossi Klein Halevi say it's all about Iran:
Continue reading "Israel's Strategy II" » 04 Jan 2009 09:19 pm Israel's Strategy IAs I scour the web to find one that makes sense, this piece by Martin Kramer pops up. It's well worth reading, because it brings the West Bank more fully into the equation. The goal, according to Kramer, is to destroy as much of Hamas as possible, and get a ceasefire without any lifting of the blockade. The aim is to bolster the PA in the West Bank by opening up the border and rewarding coexistence with engagement - while at the same time pounding the Gazans into the dust. As a way to enforce the cease-fire, Israel might also want to use PA officials and military to go into Gaza. The trouble is: I'm not sure who would replace Hamas in "governing" Gaza. If it were the PA, there could be a brutal civil war in which the potential for more terror - as well as more human devastation - is real; and the threat to Irsrael could even worsen. Kramer himself acknowledges this:
So Israel will have killed many innocents, wounded itself in international opinion, lost soldiers and treasure ... to create an even more unstable and beleaguered Gaza. Maybe they hope to cede Gaza to Egypt; or maybe this is the beginning of a war Israel wants with Iran sooner than later. Or maybe it's just another blind military leap whose full consequences were not fully thought through. Imagine that. 04 Jan 2009 08:52 pm Face Of The DayA wounded Palestinian boy is helped as he arrives at a hospital on January 4, 2009 in Gaza City, Gaza. Medics and witnesses have reported that Israeli shells killed at least 12 Palestinian civilians and wounded 40 others when they exploded in Gaza City's main shopping area. By Abid Katib/Getty. It's the hand I can't get out of my mind. Please pray for him - and for everyone suffering and dying in Gaza. 04 Jan 2009 07:47 pm Words To Live By"You can go back to your, what do you call it, your Google, and you figure out all that," - president George H.W. Bush on the catastrophe of his son's presidency. 04 Jan 2009 07:39 pm Children, Sickness And ParentsThe possibility - and we do not know for sure - that John Travolta refused his son anti-seizure medication raises broader questions of what responsibilities parents have to the bodies of their children. We rightly understand sexual abuse to be horrifying and a legitimate reason to intervene. But withholding vital medication from a child out of religious or ideological reasons strikes me as no less abuse. I'm reminded of this acutely by the case of Christine Maggiore, a woman I met and interacted with as another person with HIV. Christine adamantly denied that HIV was related to AIDS and refused anti-HIV medication on those grounds. She died last week. Of AIDS. That was her choice, it seems to me, however tragic it is. What was also her choice, however, was to refuse anti-HIV meds when pregnant and then to refuse HIV meds for her daughter when she was born. Eliza Jane lived three years before succumbing to HIV-related pneumonia. Magiore was never prosecuted for negligence, since she had taken Eliza Jane to doctors. One of those doctors suffered mild professional consequences. What rights did Eliza Jane have to protect her very life from her own mother? What rights did Jett Travolta have under the control of Scientologist parents? I find it hard to believe they had none; and I find the sympathy for parents under those circumstances to be misplaced. 04 Jan 2009 06:02 pm That Word "Robust"A glimpse into the Cheney mindset, courtesy of Andy McCarthy. The world right now is about who will "crush" whom. McCarthy knows which side he's on; and his moral guide is Osama bin Laden:
And how easily some Americans seem to have picked it up. 04 Jan 2009 05:09 pm Conservatism And Gay CouplesIn the US, one of the striking aspects of the Republican rump is its insistence that one of only a handful of defining policies is its opposition to marriage rights for gays. Joe Carter recently argued that it was inconceivable that conservatives could support such a thing, or that a conservative case can be made for it. If that is true, then the British Tories are no longer conservative:
The news leaked in the Telegraph society column. Think of a Republican cabinet with two openly gay and legally married men in it. I can dream, can't I? 04 Jan 2009 04:18 pm News From AlaskaAccusations of political meddling in the case of Sherry Johnston, Palin's daughter's kinda-mother-in-law. 04 Jan 2009 03:10 pm The View From Your WindowVancouver, BC, Canada, 12 am. 04 Jan 2009 01:56 pm "Just War"Noah Pollak unveils what he sees as the real goal of the Gaza invasion:
I'm not sure how that works in practice for more than a short time. I'll respond to his just war questions later but wanted to link to this point first. 04 Jan 2009 01:49 pm AliensI think Glenn Greenwald - who has less fear than any journalist I know in Washington - is onto something important here:
The inability on both sides to see Jews and Arabs as equally and indistinguishably human before they are Jews and Arabs is at the heart of the problem. In a contest between Israel's flawed democracy and Hamas's theological murderousness, I see no moral equivalence. But Israelis and Arabs demand exactly the same respect as human beings, every single one, including the "worst of the worst". A refusal to grapple with the moral costs of this conflict, and a glib dismissal of the terrible human carnage now being inflicted by Israel (and paid for in part by Americans) is a sign of moral unseriousness. But it is the same mindset that can authorize the torture of human beings and see it as "coercive interrogation" only when Americans do it to Muslims. And when I read Michael Goldfarb, I become more and more aware of just how disgusting the McCain campaign was; and how lucky we are to have removed these thugs from office. 04 Jan 2009 12:30 pm To Put It MildlyI have to say the online discussions of whether the "conservative" movement has the right institutions, think-tanks or online skills to compete with Obamania seems misplaced to me. You can have the best set of think-tanks in the world and still be useless in the face of a Republican administration determined to combine the worst foreign policy utopianism of the left with the worst social draconianism of the right. No conservative institution could or should have backed the Bush administration. In doing so for so long, they eviscerated their brand and destroyed their intellectual coherence. They richly deserve the wilderness they face. Same goes for online journalism. However good your marketing or messaging, a pile of doo-doo is still a pile of doo-doo. Or as Julian helpfully summarizes,
04 Jan 2009 12:20 pm The Photographic Dictionary04 Jan 2009 11:37 am From Travolta's BiographerAn explanation:
04 Jan 2009 11:16 am Baby DocThe new Who is revealed. A little too much like Pater Davison for my taste. One assumes the hair will improve. 04 Jan 2009 10:57 am A Platform I Can Live WithPeter Berkowitz proffers the following as a basis for conservative renewal:
Continue reading "A Platform I Can Live With" » 04 Jan 2009 09:31 am The Kuttner TestObama is passing it, according to Mickey. 04 Jan 2009 09:27 am Life As LanguagePatrick Tucker searches for the essence of morality:
04 Jan 2009 09:12 am The Missiles They UsedThis may help explain some of what is going on:
The attack on Gaza may be a test-run for Iran's nuclear sites. In that case, what we may be witnessing is Israel's initiation of full-scale war with Iran. That would certainly make as much sense as the current stated rationale for invading Gaza. |