Month: November 2009

After reiterating that special election races are nearly impossible to predict because of low turnout, Nate Silver looks at the consequences of a Hoffman win:

The “extreme” conservatives do have a few electoral advantages over the moderates: more capacity to generate high turnouts amongst their base, more differentiation from the establishment, and arguably a “fresher” message (even if it’s all in the packaging). If Hoffman does win by some margin, it won’t be so clear that these conservatives are in fact less electable than their more moderate Republican brethren, at least in terms of 2010.

The Longest Way 1.0 – one year walk/beard grow time lapse from Christoph Rehage on Vimeo.

It’s actually a scientific unit:

It’s the physics tiny measurement partner of the light year. Wikipedia defines it as “the length an average physicist’s beard grows in a second”, equivalent to either 5 or 10 nanometers. I assume the namer intended some humor and, as far as physics jokes go, it’s a damn good one. You can convert measurements to beard-seconds using the Google search bar.

James Joyner:

[T]he mainstreaming of homosexuality means that there’s simply less reason to subscribe to magazines about being gay.  Not only are there are plenty of gay-oriented blogs, ezines, forums, and the like but gay culture is part of the larger culture now.  Maybe not so much in small town America but certainly in the big cities.  And, more to the point, in mainstream magazines, movies, and television shows.

Or why I love 1990s Japanese commercials featuring the now-governor of California:

Obama’s general job-approval ratings since August:

This weekend the Dish covered Scozzafava's surrender in NY-23. The local paper shifted support from Scozzafava to the Democrat, she soon followed suit, Charles Franklin looked where voters could go, a reader followed up, another reader shared a shrewd strategy, Andrew sounded off, and Ambers looked ahead.

In other news, DOJ dumped some documents, Ban Ki-moon pushed the remaining HIV-ban countries to follow the US, Plouffe talked Palin, Chris Wallace fawned over Limbaugh, The Advocate was swallowed by Out, and Jon Krakauer explained how McChrystal lied about the Tillman incident.

In religion and science coverage, we examined the rise of creationism among Muslims and its relatively short history in the US, Jerry Coyne discussed atheism and evolution, and Hitchens talked about talking to religious people. In other coverage, Breitbart found a gay against marriage equality, Jonah Lehrer examined online junk food, and we watched the history of evolving gay characters on TV.

In Halloween coverage, we took a look at the holiday in DC, highlighted a few more great costumes, realized how adorable bats can be, watched a family carve a pumpkin, re-watched a horrifying tale of torture, saw some terrifying taxidermy, and discovered the true identity of manbearpig.

In Andrew's column, he contrasted the the wars on prohibition in the US and the UK. Also, he examined the Johnston-Palin war at length.

— C.B.

A reader writes:

Our daughter also needed the ear tubes your reader described. Living in Australia, we have the option of waiting in line for our single-payer system to provide this necessary surgery for free, and most of the time this is what we do. This time we decided we needed to move more quickly (our one-year-old wasn't learning to speak because her hearing was affected) so we took the private option.

We booked in for the surgery the following week with our chosen surgeon. Not having health insurance, we paid the surgeon's and anesthetist's bills (about $1600 altogether) and the government reimbursed us about $600. So yes, I'd say your reader's estimation of an inflation factor of 10 is about right.

The surgery took 10mins, she settled within half an hour of waking, and our silent little girl chatted herself to sleep that very night (while I wept tears of relief in the next room). I'm praying your legislators ears are similarly cleared to healthcare options that benefit the people, rather than the profit-takers.

Equally, what this story says to me is that we'd have a far more efficient healthcare system if more, rather than fewer, procedures were paid for out of pocket.

The severance of the link between a customer and a product removes much of what helps bring market forces to bear. And for many non-emergency medical procedures, allowing for greater areas where patients are not insured, while maintaining catastrophic or minimal coverage, is the best option.

That requires more engaged and knowledgeable patients and more flexibility. Note how in the US we're debating whether to attach a public option to a subsidized private system; in Australia and Britain, they're debating more private options for a state-run public system. It's getting this mix right that's the key.

If Oliver Stone directed a cast of hipsters.

A reader writes:

Some may think that Scozzafava's exit and subsequent endorsement of Owens will somehow swing the race to the Dems, but it isn't going to happen. Hoffman may be a Christianist carpetbagger, but there is no way in Hell the North Country (as it's called by those who live there) is ever going to swing for a Democrat. Northern NY is very beautiful, very cold, very rural, and slowly crumbling to dust beneath the crushing weight of high state taxes and few opportunities for gainful employment. Industry fled years ago, and the main source of employment is a massive Army base, Fort Drum. Everyone else just kind of scrapes up what they can find…retail work, food service, etc. The dairy farmers up there aren't making it. The only way it stays populated at all is that, in time-honored small town fashion, there are always those who are afraid to leave what they know, even if they suffer for it monetarily. And they do.

Rural Northern Ny-ers are, in general, hardcore rednecks and proud of it. They hunt and fish and have snowmobiles and ATVs that are nicer than their falling down homes. They are clannish, but friendly (yes, Yankees really are pretty friendly). They are…well, a lot like Sarah Palin pretends to be. I'm sure her jumping into the fray made a difference, because she appeals so well to the "us vs. them" mentality that has arisen so violently in response to the growing class divide in this country. It makes me sad to see exactly how far Northern NY been sucked into the delusional vortex of the Christianist Right. But then, I watched the area, and the people who live there, decline even as I was growing up.

So many have nothing. They're working on having even less. Drugs have gotten to be a huge problem, as in so many rural areas. But somehow, it's become easier to fixate on the so-called "culture war" than it might be to start looking at real ways to fix what's killing the area. Though at this point, I'm not sure there's really any fixing it. Industry has gone, and it isn't coming back. If it wasn't for Fort Drum, there would be nothing left at all.

Hoffman will be elected, and he will ignore them. But then, the people of NY-23 haven't elected anyone who gave a damn about them in a very long time (yes, McHugh, I'm looking at you). My mother, who is a die-hard liberal, actually spoke very well of Dede Scozzafava. Figures she'd be the one whose head ended up on a pike, figuratively speaking. I'm an Independent mainly because I think most politicians are pretty loathsome, but man, the Republicans are really starting to freak me out.

Me too.

 

Yglesias notes this map from Open Left. It is rather discouraging. Matt draws this inference from it:

I would say that another message is that progressive politics is badly disadvantaged by a situation in which the overwhelming majorities of political leaders and prominent media figures are white men.

When the disparities of experience and understanding are this acute, Washington has a problem with its pundit class. Increasingly, we're talking about ourselves, not America.