There has been a sharp decline in cases of foot-and-mouth disease in Britain – none reported lately – but the morally horrifying slaughter continues. At the peak of the epidemic, around 33,000 animals were being slaughtered daily. That figure has now increased to a daily kill-rate of 79,000. Slaughter on this scale has meant the predictable cruelties. Among the allegations of inhumanity, according to the Sunday Times, are: “Animals being buried alive after suffering hours of pain from bolts fired into their skulls. The slaughter of piglets and kids with soft-nosed dumdum bullets that explode on impact, shattering bone and shredding flesh. New-born piglets and calves being beaten to death with spades and iron staves.” Cheaper than vaccination apparently.
FIRST ARIANNA, NOW KRISTOL?: Frank Foer has a typically stimulating essay in the new New Republic. He limns Bill Kristol’s slide away from conservative orthodoxy toward what Kristol calls “national greatness conservatism.” Foer argues that Kristol’s flirtation with John McCain’s primary candidacy was not just another piece of political opportunism (remember Kristol’s momentary crush on Colin Powell?) but a recasting of the conservative movement. How would it be recast? Kristol’s conservatism would have fewer reservations about a sizable welfare state; it would run foreign policy on moral interventionist lines, rather than rely on classical conservative realism; it would increase its skepticism of corporate America; it would fill the empty public square of liberalism with a sinewy patriotism. Call it New Republic Republicanism. The money-quote of the piece is this from Kristol, whining about his somewhat cramped social life under the Bushies: “Why are conservatives so upset? It isn’t that we supported McCain; it’s that we haven’t apologized for supporting him. There’s something sick about a movement like that.” I’m not convinced that Frank is entirely right. Although Kristol’s urban neocon roots make for an uneasy alliance with the Bush-Cheney axis, there’s plenty of time for Kristol to tack rightward again if the opportunity arises. He’s no Arianna. In fact, I’d put his chances of ending up an Independent or a Democrat as the same as John McCain’s, i.e. close to zero. It would be far more interesting if either broke ranks for good, but both must remember Pat Buchanan. Or the Republican aftermath of Teddy Roosevelt for that matter.
TESTOSTERONE STRIKES AGAIN: You know the pomo left line that there are no real psychological or biological differences between men and women? Since I got mauled by the usual suspects when I posited the bleeding obvious about testosterone in the New York Times Magazine last year, I’ve kept my eyes peeled on the subject. Interesting new study along these lines on pilot error from Johns Hopkins University. Comparing plane crashes between 1983 and 1997 in the U.S., and analyzing the types of error responsible, researchers found that men are more likely to screw up “because they run out of fuel, take risks with the weather and faulty aircraft, or forget to lower their landing gear. Women on the other hand are more likely to mishandle the controls or stall during take-off or landing.” According to the Daily Telegraph, male mistakes were far more likely to be related to risk-taking, flying planes with known problems, or misjudging the weather. Women were more cautious. The study included 144 women pilots and 287 men. Like most of these studies on nature-nurture, this one doesn’t prove anything. But like so many other studies on these lines, it’s mighty suggestive.
ANOTHER LEFTY DROPS THE “BUSH-IS-DUMB” LINE: “The left got rolled for years by Ronald Reagan’s dumb act, and I fear “W” is no dummy either – appearances, quite obviously, to the contrary.” – Eric Alterman, The Nation. Who says they never learn?
GAYS FOR BUSH’S TAX CUTS: Interesting data from Frank Luntz in a poll for the Center for the Study of Taxation. 82 percent of gay voters want to see the estate tax repealed; 72 percent called it discriminatory. That follows up on a Gill Foundation study that found earlier this year that gays and lesbians put taxes on the same level as same-sex unions as their highest priority issue – higher than the “civil rights” agenda favored by many gay rights organizations. Memo to Rove: if you blow this opportunity to make an historic bridge to gays and lesbians, you’ve only got yourself to blame. (Of course, it also means that once again, I’m out of step with my fellow homos. Sorry, guys.)
The Dish 