Month: June 2007

I’ll say more when we have more solid information, but there are two things worth saying, I think, about the rash of car/suicide bombs in Britain. The first is: they look like amateur, Jihadist violence. This is both good in as much as it helped foil all three, and resulted in no civilian deaths – and bad, in as much as it suggests a systemic problem with some Muslims in Britain. We no longer need a professional international al Qaeda to murder innocents in the name of Allah.  The second is: the British authorities must have acquired a wealth of intelligence. They have two unexploded cars, plenty of video, and one captured Jihadist. With any luck, this could lead to better surveillance and prevention of future attacks. That’s looking on the bright side.  The truth is: it’s amazing we haven’t had more of this kind of thing, especially in the US. When it comes, we need stamina, stoicism and calm. And it’s coming.

(Photo: Kieran Dodds/AFP/Getty.)

CNN highlights some obvious information that somehow never made it into "Sicko":

Moore focuses on the private insurance companies and makes no mention of the U.S. government-funded health-care systems such as Medicare, Medicaid, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program and the Veterans Affairs health-care systems. About 50 percent of all health-care dollars spent in the United States flows through these government systems.

"Sicko" also ignores a handful of good things about the American system. Believe it or not, the United States does rank highest in the patient satisfaction category. Americans do have shorter wait times than everyone but Germans when it comes to nonemergency elective surgery such as hip replacements, cataract removal or knee repair.

So half of US healthcare is already government-funded; and patient satisfaction with treatment is the highest in the world. Does that not count for something in the argument?

This has long been the pattern – Christianists so hostile to gay people that they’d rather destroy the institution of civil marriage for all than allow gay couples into it. A Michigan reader notes:

Ok, Andrew – I’ve found beautiful proof of your thesis: the more restrictive states are in passing ant-gay marriage amendments, the faster this actually undermines traditional marriage for heterosexuals.

Take Michigan, for example, which has one of the most restrictive anti-gay marriage amendments. The Michigan attorney general recently ruled that state universities and government institutions had to stop offering insurance benefits to gay domestic partners, since that would "recognize a relationship equivalent to marriage."

So what has Michigan State University done in response? They have re-written their insurance policy to offer insurance to anyone who lives with a state employee who is neither "a tenant or a legal dependent":

"As it happens, the new Michigan State program has at least one positive side effect, at least from the employees’ view: it would potentially expand eligibility to more people than under its previous domestic partnership plan. Unmarried heterosexual couples who met the criteria, for example, could now take advantage of the benefits."

The attorney general approves of Michigan State rewriting its partner benefits this way, since it avoids the issue of the partner’s sexual orientation. Thus, the only way state governments have of responding to conservative attacks on the right of gay people to partake of marriage benefits is to provide insentives to further dilute heterosexual marriage, so that they can continue to offer the same benefits to all. In the name of "protecting marriage" these people are in fact speeding its dismantlement.

I made this point in 1989. I wish they’d listened.

Colin Stacey smokes in the Saracens Head public house in Bath, on June 30 2007 in Somerset, England. From 6am July 1 smoking in all enclosed places such as cafes and pubs will be banned. By Matt Cardy/Getty Images.

A dating website, Darwin Dating, screens out the ugly, so you evolutionary creatures can make more beautiful babies. Among the disqualifying characteristics:

Mullets, acne, out of proportion noses and ears, too long back hair, saggy boobs, hairy feet and mid-digital hair.

No hobbits need apply.

Sounds dreadful. But then you realize the importance of design.

This took stamina, a whole night, and a bunch of flashlights:

Mingle² – Online Dating

And other subtitles for today’s book market.

He’s in a more precarious position with the Vatican than John Kerry was – because he remarried without an annulment. Bainbridge blogs:

Catholics who wish to vote for Rudy because of his stand on substantive issues and/or because the positions of other candidates are unacceptable should be free to do so. Yet, surely Giuliani’s irregular marital status is a relevant consideration. It goes to questions of character and judgment.