Month: March 2010

The Daily Wrap

Today on the Dish we saw the president sign the effing bill. Megan lambasted the bill's passage, Josh Green underestimated Pelosi, Walt discounted a boost for Obama abroad, and Frum kept fighting the good fight. Ambinder, Bernstein, Saletan, and Andrew looked to the political horizon. Massie praised the US.

In Vatican watch, Mark Shea explained the back-scratching culture of the Church, George Weigel spun for the pope, and Andrew Brown sensed many more scandals in the future. In ally watch, Netanyahu thumped his chest, Goldblog called out AIPAC, and George Friedman sharpened the US-Israel divergence.

In other commentary, Tom Ricks and Alex Pareene pummeled Thiessen, Dan Choi chastised the Human Rights Campaign, Andrew defended him against dissent, and Katha Pollitt went a bit too far against pro-lifers. Viacom got caught in some serious hypocrisy. Dog-blogging here, cool ad here, and a super cool MHB here.

— C.B.

Dissent Of The Day

A reader writes:

I read your quote for the day and agree with Dan Choi. I also agree with you on all things HRC. However, I don't think Dan Choi is the right poster child for the DADT repeal movement either. I met many people at the SLDN [Servicemembers Legal Defense Network] dinner that told me something along the lines of, "Dan Choi does not represent the LGBT military." Chaining himself to the White House fence was an attention grab, just like Kathy Griffin marching in Freedom Plaza was an attention grab. Neither action invited the opposition into real discussion, and neither action provided much sympathy from the opposition. Over-activism usually works against a worthy cause, and chaining yourself to a fence and making a spectacle makes it easy to dismiss the seriousness of DADT. This kind of behavior makes us look like the radical fringe that the right wing wants us to be. Most gays in the military are neither radical, nor fringe.

I'm tired of these calculations. If HRC had an ounce of the conviction and passion and integrity of Dan Choi, he wouldn't need to be chaining himself to the White House gates.

What Does The Health Care Bill Mean For Start Ups? Ctd

McArdle is –surprise!– not fully buying that the bill will juice entrepreneurship. Her bottom line:

On net, I'd suspect that this will be positive for entrepreneurship–but I don't know that this will translate into a lot more growth.  Enabling people to become self-employed is a fine thing, but it is not the same as enabling them to start transformative new businesses.

Yglesias Award Nominee

"If you're trying to figure out why J Street, the left-wing pro-Israel group, came into existence, just take a look at the schedule for this week's AIPAC conference, at the Washington Convention Center. The list of speakers, apart from the usual suspects (Bibi, Hillary, and the like) includes analysts and advocates from such organizations as the American Enterprise Institute, the Hudson Institute, the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, CAMERA, and so on — the full range of conservative-leaning think tanks…. Most American Jews voted for Obama; most American Jews are liberal; and most American Jews understand the difference between the legitimate security needs of the State of Israel and the theological, political and economic needs of the small minority of Israelis who have settled the West Bank.

So would it hurt [AIPAC] to bring in speakers from the Meretz Party, from the kibbutz movement, from the New Israel Fund, from the Reform Movement, so that the AIPAC attendees could hear for themselves the views of Zionists who disagree with the policies of Israel's right-wing parties? Yes, I suppose it would hurt. AIPAC is interested mainly in presenting an oversimplified vision of the Middle East to its members," – Jeffrey Goldberg.

Sunlight Is Good Medicine

Ezra Klein highlights a little discussed feature of the bill:

[H]ospitals will have to post prices. Insurance products will be presented with standardized information, consumer ratings and quality measures. The payments physicians take from drug and device companies will be in a public database. There will be independent funding for research on the relative effectiveness of different treatments. Some of these changes are small and some are big, but put together, the system is going to become a lot more visible in the coming years.

What Does The Health Care Bill Mean For Start Ups?

Chris Cameron wonders:

Companies with 25 or fewer employees could potentially be eligible to receive a 35% tax credit for buying health insurance as early as this year. By 2014, those companies could see that credit rise to 50%, while even smaller companies could receive a full tax credit to provide insurance for their employees granted their average salaries are below $25,000 annually.

My guess is that a majority of startups (especially smaller, younger startups strapped for cash) would fall somewhere under these tax break brackets, which could entice them to provide coverage. Having the ability to affordably provide health insurance to employees is a tool that could prove useful in attracting and maintaining a talented team at a smaller level.

The World, As One-Big-Neighborhood

Ryan Avent picks up on this map and applies the thought experiment to the globe:

If the world’s population were built at Brooklyn density, it would occupy about 70% of the state of Texas. At Manhattan densities, you could fit the whole world into Virginia and North Carolina. Leaving the rest of the world empty.

In practice, humans have to spread out in order to cultivate land to feed themselves, and agriculture aside, there are significant gains to distribution of population around the world (including the utility gains of satisfaction of varying tastes). But, you know, think about it.