Another account of nutty left-wing relativism – at Duke.
BUSH’S CONSERVATISM: The emergence of debt-ridden, big-government conservatism is perhaps the real innovation of the first Bush term. I used to be surprised. But, of course, much of his base is socially conservative and fiscally liberal: the red states have been draining the resources of the blue states for a very long time. A new study reveals just how welfarist much of Middle America is.
ANKLE-BITERS?? I thought it was a gay slur at first (hey, I can bite my own ankles!) but then I realized it was just another pissy MSM guy mad that more people read blogs than technology columns in Newsweek. But Levy’s point isn’t crazy. Yes, there are blogs that trade on invective and hysteria and gotchaism. And there are others that don’t. In other words, it’s time to drop the idea that the blogosphere is in any way homogeneous – in form, content, style or authorship. Right now, for example, this blog is one of very few that have openly swung from one candidate to indecision. I know I’ve lost some die-hard Bushite readers, but I’m not good at lying. Besides, I’ve always believed that losing readers is a good sign that you’re committing journalism. But I can already feel my incentives shifting. As you can see, I’ve signed up for Blogads – the wonderful collective ad machine that will soon provide a real revenue stream for this site. (Please advertize! See the ad strip on the left.) But suddenly I have a financial incentive to gain big reader bumps. Should I start outing people? Should I mainline the Swiftboat vets? Rathergate-all-the-time? Piss ’em off at Free Republic or Daily Kos? Endorse Bush? The temptations abound. So keep me honest, will you? Let me know if I’m delivering what you’re looking for, and I’ll do something to change it.
IRAQ AND BUSH: Here’s a disconcerting analysis of the disconnect between what just came out of the president’s mouth and something called reality.
ANOTHER ONE: Here’s yet another anti-gay crusader whose own daughter is gay: Sadie Fields, state chair of the Christian Coalition of Georgia, who pushed the constitutional ban on gay marriage through Georgia’s General Assembly earlier this year. So two chief campaigners against gay equality in two big states, California (Pete Knight) and Georgia, have gay offspring. My favorite example (apart from Phylis Schlafly) is Charles Socarides, the chief advocate of “reparative therapy” for gays, whose main contribution to the literature (see my book, “Love Undetectable”) was to argue that fathers are to “blame” for gays sons. Yep, his own son is gay. Actually, the son, Richard, was the Clinton administration’s liaison to the gay community!
The Dish 