Month: April 2009

Yglesias appreciates Obama's changes to our Cuba policy but wants the president to go further:

What they’ve done here, pretty clearly, is tightly target those measures where a clear case can be made that relaxing restrictions does much more to weaken the regime than anything else. That’s clever politics and probably a smart start. But the plain fact of the matter is that the whole embargo is based on faulty logic. Making the Cuban population as poor as possible isn’t going to bring democracy to the island, and the idea that a more prosperous Cuba could somehow become so prosperous as to pose a security threat to the United States is ridiculous.

"No reasons given, and absent that, not much any of us can say, except to make the entirely obvious and banal observation that that man has some pretty serious demons, in the same way that China has a lot of people," – Rod Dreher on news of Mel Gibson's divorce.

I have my issues with Gibson, but we're all human and no one needs demons to get a divorce. Sometimes that just happens. I hope he and his former wife emotionally survive this.

Marion Nestle explains how best to convey information about nutrition.

Soccer, homo-eroticism and shirt-swapping. A morsel of post-gay culture from New Zealand.

A reader writes:

I celebrated Easter yesterday with my ultra conservative family. I love my family but they have gone so far to the right over the past 8 years that it is difficult to have any sort of discussion with them. I think they are typical of conservatives born in the baby boom. They are scarred by the culture wars and the hatred they have for the left is so strong that it becomes disturbing.

Another important point is that 9/11 pushed them away from any level of pragmatism. My family is originally from Manhattan, so 9/11 was taken as a very personal attack. My father worked on the 76th floor of the WTC for years, he lost a lot of friends that day… So with this in mind I compiled a few themes from the days discussions that you might find interesting (or horrifying). None of this is ground breaking but it is interesting to see these generalizations about the current conservative movement be personified in ones family. 1. Total insulation from MSM. Everyone refuses to read the New York Times or Washington Post. Sunday morning while getting ready for Church I put on "Meet the Press" and my father looked on with disgust and changed the channel to Fox News. At dinner I brought up an article in The Economist that was critical of Barack Obama and my uncle said that it was a socialist rag.

2. Distrust of centrists When discussing the future of the Republican party I suggested that we needed to create a bigger tent and avoid social issues that alienated us from younger voters. My GRANDMOTHER responded that we don't need the back benchers like Christopher Buckley dictating our principles. I think that line was straight from the Mark Levin show.

3. Neoconservative aspirations The most interesting part of the day, was that so much of the discussion focused on the Somali Pirate issue. It was the story of the day, but I didn't think their was that much to talk about. Surely, not as interesting as talking about Iran, Obama's budget, the economy etc. However we spent most of the day discussing Obama's lackluster response to the issue and the weakness he displayed in not acting quicker. My father was incensed that the media kept referring to this as a crime rather then an act of terrorism. His suggestion was to engage in a land war in Somalia…

It convinced me of one thing that if a new conservatism is going to flourish, it is going to have to be led by a younger generation. People born between 1947 and 1960 have way too much baggage.

It will get much much worse before it gets better.

Robert Reich counters the Kudlow crowd:

I'm not even sure we're at the end of the beginning. All of these pieces of upbeat news are connected by one fact: the flood of money the Fed has been releasing into the economy. Of course mortage rates are declining, mortgage orginations are surging, and people and companies are borrowing more. So much money is sloshing around the economy that its price is bound to drop. And cheap money is bound to induce some borrowing. The real question is whether this means an economic turnaround. The answer is it doesn't.

As Megan McCain calls for a gay-friendly Republican party, Kristen Soltis bows to reality:

…whether the Republican Party amends its actual policy stance on gay marriage or whether it simply makes efforts be more tolerant and inclusive of homosexuals generally, the Republican Party cannot ignore the vast differences in public opinion between young and old voters on the issue. This difference certainly presents a serious challenge to the party's long-term ability to swell its ranks among young voters.

A reader writes:

Just wanted to let you know that Mark Thompson is right.  The tea party idea has actually been around for a while now.  It grew out of the left over Ron Paul supporter groups from the last election.  I was heavily involved in that campaign and, as such, still am on the contact list for a lot of the grassroots groups that were created during it.  The first time I heard about the "Tea Party" idea was probably well over a year ago. 

More recently, a flurry of e-mails started to show up from those groups that led to the first couple of tea parties being organized. However, since the lost in the woods Bush conservatives and mass media have picked it up, all the grass roots libertarian organizations have pretty well backed off.  Like so many other things, it is now a casualty of Republican party political leaders and those who follow them blindly.

A reader writes:

After the singing, and the audience reaction, the most satisfying thing about that was seeing Simon Cowell taken down a peg.  I hope his world view is sincerely rocked for the better. He's never sung in a church or temple choir, I don't think…Susan Boyle looks like a lot of the women with whom I've sung over the years, and has the spunk that they have, too.  Her chat before and after indicated a bright spirit, I know the type and have sung with these women, and girls, many times. Also, women's voices don't really reach full maturity until early to mid-40's.  I've gone from a soprano to a high mezzo and my voice is completely different than it was 5 years ago (I'm 39.).  I suspect she is reaching her voice's best range at her age.

Creative spaces are to be found in the unseen and unexpected.  They should have some church choirs on American/British Idol, both countries have very strong traditions of group singing and as a result individual singing.  There are more good singers around here than you can shake a stick at.  I bet she sings in her church choir in her 'villages.'

Just because people don't look like, oh, I dunno, Britney Spears at first glance doesn't mean they can't rock the house.  I hope Miss Boyle keeps her wits about her if she goes through the star factory.

"If you condemn the evil tactics of the 'other side' you cannot then take them up yourself without injuring your integrity, credibility, or soul," – Jonah Goldberg, stumbling upon the truth.