Is Bush making America safe for liberalism? You betcha. Bush has legitimized a huge expansion of the welfare state, liberalizing immigration, and using force for democratization abroad. All the next Democratic president has to do to finish Bush’s hard work is to raise taxes to pay for it all. And by the time Bush is done, the deficits will be so enormous, tax hikes will seem defensible. Advantage: the left.
MICROBICIDES: I’ve long wondered why we have done so little research on how women can use microbicides in their vaginas to lessen the risk of HIV infection. The main reason for resisting this obviously promising line of research, as Amanda Schaffer points out in Slate, is puritanical. The social right is leery of anything that might actually allow people to have sex while preventing HIV infection. In some of their eyes, it’s far better to use HIV and AIDS as a means to terrify people out of sex rather than make sex safer. Even worse: the microbicides empower women sexually, another social right bugaboo. Still, there are signs that a real product may be on its way to the market. Even if it ratchets infection rates down a notch, it could have a huge epidemiological impact. And with African-American women as the new vulnerable population, and with African-American men so hostile to condoms, a microbicide seems to me a vital line of defense. And why not for gay men as well? Ah, yes. That would mean endorsing gay sex, wouldn’t it?
STANLEY KURTZ PROVEN CORRECT: Yes, after marriage for gays, Dutch society is falling apart. Now even the ducks are gay necrophiliacs.
ENGLISH SELF-PARODY ALERT: Yes, I can’t resist linking to this article on the scientific standards for making the perfect cup of tea. Remember Orwell’s essay? Hat tip: Norm.
The Dish 