Here’s a viewpoint with which I wholeheartedly agree. It’s a defense of Donald Rumsfeld’s use of the English language. He was given an award for mangling the language by the Plain English Campaign. But there are very, very few politicians who speak as plainly and simply and strongly as Rumsfeld. His directness about the awful nature of war was a high-point in recent government speech. You may not like what he has to say, but it’s rare that you don’t understand what he’s saying.
DERBYSHIRE WATCH: Defenders of John Derbyshire at National Review argue that he simply holds arguments against homosexual relationships or sex and is not “anti-gay” or prejudiced. This despite the fact that he has in the past simply avowed that he doesn’t “like” homosexuality. Look, it’s a free country. Derbyshire should be free to like or dislike whatever he wants. But these are not arguments. They’re, well, prejudices. Then he writes something like this: “The goatee is an abomination, and engenders a cloud of suspicion about the wearer’s sexual orientation.” I’m not defending the goatee. And I understand he’s trying to make a jocular comment. But, even in the context of jest, this is a simple, bald declaration that someone’s orientation alone – their involuntary identity, not anything they might or might not do – is “suspicious.” Again, imagine if someone had written that he despised beards because they “engender a cloud of suspicion about the wearer’s possible Jewishness.” Would anyone pass this off as simply humor? Would any serious person publish it? Is National Review endorsing this? And they wonder why “social conservatives have been losing the political debate over gay marriage.”
CLEARING THINGS UP: I was disturbed by the idea that Dan Bartlett had seemingly invented out of thin, atmospheric air the notion that Air Force One had had some contact with a BA airplane en route to Afghanistan. It seemed to confirm for a while the notion that this White House is as stupidly and trivially as duplicitous as the last one. So it’s a relief to hear that’s not the case. When Dana Milbank concedes the issue, I think it’s basically over.
The Dish 