By Patrick Appel
The publisher of the Detroit Free Press, the country’s 20th largest paper by weekday circulation, is expected to announce next week that it will cease home delivery of the print edition of the newspaper on most days of the week, according to a person familiar with the company’s thinking.
By Patrick Appel
Larison vents:
Am I the only one who finds it absolutely crazy that anyone is this concerned about Obama’s answers on Blagojevich when we have just had a Senate report released that confirms that the highest levels of the current administration were implicated in and responsible for serious violations of the law? This is the sort of thing that some people have insisted not be investigated and prosecuted during the next administration’s tenure for various unpersuasive reasons, and not least because of the concern that it would appear to be a partisan witch-hunt. Obviously, we are not concerned about such appearances in Blagojevich’s case, because we think it important to enforce the law here, so why not enforce it when the crimes involved are far more serious and far greater breaches of the public trust?
by Chris Bodenner
Artist Madelon Galland:
The STUMP project began in 1999 on the sidewalks of New York City — the sidewalk plots where there are tree stumps are generally neglected spaces left to collect debris. The tree stumps reminded me of the childhood story, The Giving Tree by Shell Silverstein, in which a tree has given of herself to the point of being diminished to a stump, but selflessly perks herself up to give to the last, by providing a seat for the beloved boy who is now an aged man.
More stumps here.
By Patrick Appel
Ross’s thoughts:
Obama will probably often end up defining himself against progressivism, rhetorically, even when he’s embracing progressive ideas. (See his campaign’s extremely effective health-care ads for an example of how this works in practice.) The President-elect’s ability to hold his coalition together, then, may depend in no small part on whether the Democratic Party’s left wing feels that it’s getting enough out of his Presidency in practice to justify playing the bad guy in the narrative Obama will be selling to the country as a whole, in which post-partisan "whatever works" pragmatism triumphs over ideologues of the left and right alike.
By Patrick Appel
Gideon Rachman gets Drudged. I’m fairly used to angry and insane e-mail by this point. Here’s an e-mail from one of the Dish’s regulars:
Obama is a Marxist trying to convert our Country into a one party Marxist state. Paying journalists to print their propaganda has been the trademark of totalitarian states. Putting as many people on the Government’s payroll is Obama’s way on ensuring more Democrat Seats in the 2010 elections. I can see why you support his anti-American agenda, but hopefully the rest of America will realize what our affirmative action surrender monkey in chief is up to.
There’s a reason we don’t have comments.
By Patrick Appel
Freddie DeBoer crosses party lines and gets all Freudian on us:
I think the idea that social or cultural conservatives are generally people who are afraid of sex is little more than a gross caricature. As I’ve tried to demonstrate, I equally think a lot of self-professed "sexually liberated" people are, in fact, the ones most likely to feel actual fear for sex, because their attempts to make sex mundane are usually about removing the danger, immediacy and emotionality of sex– that is, the things that make sex so special in the first place.
When I hear someone talking about a naked party, sometimes, they may just think that’s a way to have a good time, although frankly I think the average naked human, even a particularly attractive one, isn’t something you’d like to look at in most social contexts. Very often, though, I think people who are interested in naked parties or the like are people who are paradoxically terrified of sex. They’re attempting to de-eroticize shared nakedness. That’s not liberating sex from anything, it’s robbing sex of its power.
By Patrick Appel
Nathan Hodge reports on how the SOFA agreement is impacting operations in Iraq:
The new catchphrase here is "warrant-based targeting": U.S. forces will need to secure warrants from Iraqi judges in order to conduct missions to detain suspects. How this will work in practice, however, is still something of an open question.
by Chris Bodenner
(Cats are much healthier eaters.)
By Patrick Appel
Chris Hayes questions the sudden surge of pragmatism in DC:
Indeed, in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, "pragmatists" of all stripes–Alan Dershowitz, Richard Posner–lined up to offer tips and strategies on how best to implement a practical and effective torture regime; but ideologues said no torture, no exceptions.
Same goes for the Iraq War, which many "pragmatic" lawmakers–Hillary Clinton, Arlen Specter–voted for and which ideologues across the political spectrum, from Ron Paul to Bernie Sanders, opposed. Of course, by any reckoning, the war didn’t work. That is, it failed to be a practical, nonideological improvement to the nation’s security. This, despite the fact that so many willed themselves to believe that the benefits would clearly outweigh the costs. Principle is often pragmatism’s guardian. Particularly at times of crisis, when a polity succumbs to collective madness or delusion, it is only the obstinate ideologues who refuse to go along. Expediency may be a virtue in virtuous times, but it’s a vice in vicious ones.
by Chris Bodenner
As The Dish has become a depot lately for all things facial hair, I present "A Photographic Ode to the Year in ‘Stache" and "Famous beards and those behind them."
The Dish 