“I’m so conservative that I approve of San Francisco City Hall marriages, adoption by same-sex couples, and New Hampshire’s recently ordained Episcopal bishop. Gays want to get married, have children, and go to church. Next they’ll be advocating school vouchers, boycotting HBO, and voting Republican. I suppose I should be arguing with my fellow right-wingers about that, and drugs, and many other things. But I won’t be. Arguing, in the sense of attempting to convince others, has gone out of fashion with conservatives. The formats of their radio and television programs allow for little measured debate, and to the extent that evidence is marshaled to support conservative ideas, the tone is less trial of Socrates than Johnnie Cochran summation to the O.J. jury.” – P.J. O’Rourke, in the Atlantic.
QUOTE OF THE DAY II: “Deborah Solomon: You recently created a stir when you defended the interrogation techniques at Abu Ghraib.
Trent Lott: Most of the people in Mississippi came up to me and said: ‘Thank Goodness. America comes first.’ Interrogation is not a Sunday-school class. You don’t get information that will save American lives by withholding pancakes.
DS: But unleashing killer dogs on naked Iraqis is not the same as withholding pancakes.
TL: I was amazed that people reacted like that. Did the dogs bite them? Did the dogs assault them? How are you going to get people to give information that will lead to the saving of lives?” – From the New York Times Magazine.
THE PEACE PROCESS: I have to say I haven’t been so amused in a very long time. At a United Nations ceremony, one of the doves of peace, released by the Sri Lankan public security minister, “was dead before takeoff and ‘dropped like a brick.'” They’re launching an inquiry. Oil for Food program? Billions in kickbacks. Bosnia? Genocide enabled. Dead dove? Priceless.
KRAMER VERSUS SULLIVAN: Larry Kramer calls Reagan Hitler. I respond. In the Advocate. One reason why I was so surprised by Jonah Goldberg’s assertion last week that I was playing to the gay audience with my non-endorsement of Bush is that I have spent much of my career alienating the gay establishment by arguing against some of their shibboleths. I have opposed hate crime laws; I have had reservations about employment non-discrimination laws; I favored the right of the Boy Scouts to practise discrimination (even while I deplored the discrimination itself); I have challenged AIDS orthodoxy: I have battled victimology in the gay world; I endorsed Dole over Clinton in 1996 and Bush over Gore in 2000; I have praised the drug companies’ successes in HIV treatment. Very few members of a minority have been as controversial as I have in the gay world. It just happens that I believe that the Constitution is not the place to decide social policy and that civil marriage is a civil right for all Americans, not just the straight ones. I say that to all audiences. Always.
BLOGGING THE CONVENTIONS? It’s happening. For my part, I think bloggers could make more of a statement by not going to these elaborate infomercials. All they are are schmooze-fests for journalists, pundits and political types and then many layers of corrupting parties for donors. The only political importance is as television shows, and you can better understand that by, er, watching television. New York might be fun – as long as you hang outside with all the left-wing freaks, as opposed to inside with all the right-wing freaks. Am I rationalizing staying in beautiful Ptown? Er, no. Never. Wouldn’t dream of it. Of course not. Are you kidding?
The Dish 