Year: 2005

An emailer writes:

Many of us either withheld or tempered our criticism before the election for the practical reason that (1) its detrimental effect on Bush’s election chances outweighed any curative effect it would have on his governance (which curative effect it could still have post-November); and (2) Bush, even with his weaknesses, was a better choice than Kerry. You obviously concluded otherwise. That doesn’t make you any more responsible for criticizing Bush or me any less responsible for holding my tongue.

Point taken. We all have to make judgments and I know few people who wouldn’t have preferred a better choice last November. But I think we had also learned by last November that Bush never listens to criticism (except, perhaps, from his wife); that his re-election would confirm him in all the worst judgment calls of his presidency; that his administration was slowly killing off conservatism as we had known it; it was manifestly incompetent and immune to correction; and that the only responsible thing was therefore to back Kerry as the lesser of two evils. I think Kerry would have made a pretty poor president. But Bush was already clearly on course for disaster (and had already made a basket case of Iraq). I wish I was being proven wrong. At least now I feel a little less lonely.

Max Boot is leery of the new agreement with Kim Jong Il. For good reason.

A sea-change? Dan Drezner, who actually criticized this administration when it could have made a difference (yes, he even endorsed Kerry in frustration at the incompetence of it all), notices a change in right-wing blogs. Check out the comment section. Money quote there:

Funny, these are the same guys who idolized him for the first five years of his presidency. What changed, all of a sudden? Certainly not Bush, he is still acting the same way he has his entire career.
What’s changed is that after five years of presidency, the elections are finally over. It is now safe to criticise Bush, because such criticism can’t possibly matter any more – it can’t affect his reelection chances.
Forgive me if I don’t perceive this as responsible conservatism. Responsibility would have been criticising him before it’s too late to do anything about his weaknesses.

Ahem.

“Q: Let me change gears here for a moment, if you don’t mind. I’m curious if you, Governor Schwarzenegger or private citizen Arnold Schwarzenegger, if you’ve have ever attended a gay marriage or a gay commitment ceremony — a gay or lesbian marriage or commitment ceremony?

Arnold Schwarzenegger: I can’t remember.”

– San Jose Mercury News. You mean to say you could forget going to a same-sex marriage or commitment ceremony? Who is he, Bill Clinton? Later in the interview, he says: “I don’t work like a politician.” Uh-huh.

The bird-flu situation in Indonesia appears close to panic. Money quote:

Maybe the most ominous sign here in Europe is that even CNN International devoted a full 10 seconds to the Indonesian situation before returning to the more important business of supermodel Kate Moss’s alleged cocaine use.

Alleged? Meanwhile, the CDC is acting like FEMA in some respects.

Flickr has an idea. Who said fiscal sanity is dead?

NOW, THE FAMILIES: The impact of the new baldly bigoted policy of the Vatican toward gays is not just restricted to gay priests or gay Catholics, but affects their families as well. I know my own family has been torn up by the new anti-gay stance. Others are as well. Here’s an email that speaks to the widespread pain wrought by the proposed ban on gay priests and apparent papal assertion that homosexuality represents a “serious personality disorder”:

I, too have felt the complete and utter devastation of the Catholic church’s new and most hateful policies designed (in my opinion) to push out every last gay Catholic. But let me point out that this is not just affecting the Catholic gay community, but everyone who loves them. As a cradle Catholic and married mother of 3 children, one of them gay, I have found it utterly impossible to pass through the doors of a Catholic church for some time now. I have three children in different stages of their education in three different schools – two in Jesuit Universities and one in a Catholic high school. And though our experience with the Jesuits has been most wonderful, the conclusion reached by this family of five is that we can no longer be a part of a church that has deemed one of our beloved family “evil”. I am all cried out, heartbroken, a bit lost, but at peace with our decision.

Gut-wrenching.

The NYT is preventing syndicated TimesSelect columns from appearing elsewhere online for free. An obvious move – but, again, it might mean fewer papers run the columns; and certainly means fewer people will read them. Meanwhile, WaPo is running a stream of independent blog posts. One way of expressing your opinion is to let the WaPo know that you appreciate their experiment; and look forward to other bloggers’ participation in the future. The email address is opinions@washingtonpost.com.

WAPO SUCK-UP CONTINUES: Meanwhile, they have an excellent new blog on national security. Check it out.

Movies too. Their extinction is now inevitable. An interesting take here.

Marty Lederman reviews the record of Gonzales’ proposed deputy on the matter of abusing detainees in the war on terror. It isn’t reassuring.

LET THE MILITARY IN: I was a campaigner against the military’s ban on gays earlier than many and I still am. But I’m also a supporter of having the best military we can, and at a time of war, that means letting them recruit on campus, despite their vile discrimination policies. I’m glad my alma mater has allowed them back in. Now let’s renew the campaign against this terrible and self-defeating policy. This website is a good place to start.

KATRINA AND GOD: Don Feder, a respected figure on the religious right and a former columnist for the Boston Herald, says that the hurricane was God’s punishment for California’s legislature approving marriage rights for gays, the vandalizing of Gaza’s synagogues, and the recent Pledge of Allegiance court ruling.

An arresting analysis of the Bush administration’s governing “philosophy.” More like Spain and Italy in the 1930s than anything resembling Anglo-American conservatism.