I missed it. We were watching the new Woody Allen movie, "Match-Point." It’s not available on the Daily Show site yet, but I’ll make sure to watch when it is. I saw Ramesh on "Real Time" and, in a debate about abortion, he never actually stated his position. Odd. A reader comments:
The first word that came to my mind after watching him last night was "evisceration". Besides his extremely offputting voice and deer-in-the-headlights manner, Ramesh didn’t make any statement that approached coherence. Stewart’s question asking Ramesh to justify killing innocent people in the war was the highlight. Ramesh’s only response was that he was opposed to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Gulp!
Oh, be nice. That whole just war argument is so pre-Benedict. Opposing war is not part of the Party of Life. Neither is opposing torture. Puhlease. Besides, in Ponnuru’s mind, more full-fledged human beings die in a womb in an average fertile woman’s lifetime than have perished in many wars. Priorities, priorities.
Update: I just saw it. I’d say Stewart did an extremely good job of flushing out the absolutism of Ramesh’s position. And the title of the book is obviously a huge impediment to constructing the kind of debate we need. I wonder if Ponnuru regrets it now. I should say I will read this book as soon as I get a chance. It isn’t fair to keep commenting on it without reading it. Today, I finish the copy-edits on my own. So time will open up, I hope.
The Dish 