Douthat sharpens his point:
Larison has every right to tout the work that he and other [The American Conservative] writers have done to distance “paleo” ideas from some of the more toxic habits of the paleoconservative fringe. But all of this work will be for naught if a figure like the younger Paul, on the cusp of becoming the face of a new old right in American politics, can’t resist the characteristically paleocon temptation to relitigate the Civil Rights Act.
Alex Seitz-Wald easily dispatches a propaganda video by Cliff Kincaid’s group America’s Survival, which claims that “disease-tainted gay blood threatens our troops".
Loads of constructive criticism:
Pixar’s secret? Its unusual creative process. Most of the time, a studio assembles a cast of freelance professionals to work on a single project and cuts them loose when the picture is done. At Pixar, a staff of writers, directors, animators, and technicians move from project to project. As a result, the studio has built a team of moviemakers who know and trust one another in ways unimaginable on most sets.
Which explains how they can handle the constant critiques that are at the heart of Pixar’s relentless process.
A reader writes:
No matter how much you write, I think it comes down to this. Either there's a possible compromise or there isn't. I think TNR would say, and mean, that under some conceivable terms they would support a Palestinian state. Have the Arabs ever reciprocated that? Is there any conceivable Zionist/Jewish state the Arabs have said they would accept, permanently, to leave in peace forevermore? If the answer to that is "no" then the question of the settlements seems almost trivial in comparison.
Well, Egypt and Jordan made their peace. The Saudi peace plan suggests a settlement is possible. The new Palestinian leadership on the West Bank seems open to compromise and a far cry from the lies of Arafat. A new president who could actually restore some neutrality in the US position was just elected. The war against Jihadism makes a peace deal in both Israel's and America's interests … but the Israelis keep building settlements and won't budge, and AIPAC is right behind them. In those circumstances, given the demographic and political realities facing Israel, the kind of anti-anti-Israel posturing among the neocon left and right really is sad. And, in my view, fatal to the country they love.
A fifty-something reader writes:
I type 50 words per minute. I've had decades of customer service experience and can handle almost any customer. I have a good grasp of bookkeeping, payroll and could if I had to, effectively cover for the manager of Human Resources. I acquired all these skills in sophisticated Information Technology environments. I can't find a job.
Right now I'm working for the Census. To verify I do have skills I've taken civil service tests for jobs with titles like Administrative Assistant or Accounting Clerk or Payroll Clerk. I score very high on the tests. I can't find a job.
When I apply for things like cashier at the local convenience store I have a delightful conversation with the manager ,,,, and I don't get the job. When I apply for sales jobs in places like Best Buys they are thrilled to see me, seem to be anxious to place me in the computer
department. I don't get the job.
I have been able to get work here and there which means I don't collect unemployment while I'm working the temporary job. Even with the extensions I will run out of unemployment in July. I just paid my health insurance bill for June. I don't know how I'm going to pay the one for July. I suspect I'm going to have to apply for welfare and medicaid. If you are able bodied and single with no dependents to maintain your welfare benefits you have to make a reasonable attempt to find a job. That usually boils down to applying for a few jobs a week. I'm going to run out of places to apply in a month or so, there aren't that many employers around here. Which means I won't be eligible for welfare.
I'm considering waiting tables, assuming I can get a job. Forest Ranger for the summer might be possible too. That just puts this off until Labor Day. … live in the Adirondacks, employment is very seasonal and very oriented to tourists. Might have to move in with my sister so that I'm in the metro New York City job market with more options.
Ben Smith gets an email from Joe McGinniss Junior, the son of the non-fiction author. Why does this not surprise me?:
[McGinniss Jr. writes that] "A woman was renting her house and sought out the author because the Palins had crossed her (owed her money for renovations she had done at their request and never paid her for). So she knew McGinniss was writing the book and found him and offered him the house."
The neighbor "turned down more lucrative offers from the National Enquirer who wanted the house so they could 'stalk' and take pictures, etc… She said no," he wrote.
Sargent's reading of the situation:
I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that Sarah Palin is not genuinely all that upset about journalist Joe McGinniss moving in next door to "stalk" her. I'd say it's likely she sees a clear upside: It gives her grist for exactly the narrative she's trying to spin.
Reader responses to Ralph keep getting better. One writes:
I grew up in San Marcos and in high school took a summer job at Aquarena where one of my job requirements was to dress up in a giant Ralph costume. I had to walk around and hug children (or, make them weep in fear at the sight of a large pig). Trust me, dressing in a Swimming Pig costume, in the summer, in Texas, is not a pleasant experience.
Another:
I remember Rufus the Sadistic Swan well. My twin baby sisters had their birthday party at Aquarena Springs in about 1978 or '79. Rufus invited himself, and at some point attacked Margaret and ate her birthday present – a cheap wristwatch from our grandmother. Some park attendants later found my emotionally scared sisters and told them that Rufus had vomited up the watch, and Maggot could have it back. She declined – wisely I think.
Another:
Oh my, GLURPO! I am not normally afraid of clowns, but this early photo of Glurpo really freaks me out. According to the caption, "Glurpo was apparently quite the tourist attraction at the San Marcos Texas 'Aquarena,' where … he would swim out of an underwater cave and horrify small children by mutely laughing and sucking his insane rictus up against the glass like a parasitic eel."
Another:
Aquarena has since become an educational area that is part of the Texas State University system, renamed the Aquarena Springs Center. I took my SCUBA diving certification dive there. All of the old stuff from the park show now lies at the bottom of about 10 meters of water, accumulating algae and providing a home for the fish. The faux-submarine (somehow involved in the mermaid show) has been scuttled, and makes a lovely underwater tour.
A Flickr user says of the above photo, "Let's just say I'm glad the woman, not the man, is feeding the pig in this manner."
Timothy Egan has a devastating column on the former half-term governor's record in picking candidates to campaign for:
A week ago, Palin backed a candidate for Senate in Washington state, Clint Didier, a former professional football player who also owns a farm and has railed against excessive government spending.
But at the same time Palin was calling Didier “a commonsense constitutional conservative [who] will help put our country on the right track,” it was revealed that he took at least $140,000 in federal farm subsidies.
But there's no real inconsistency here. Didier's approach is what you call Alaskan Palin conservatism: big government socialism, masked by pioneer bullshit.
The Big Picture focuses its lens on the gulf. For "top kill" news, the Houston Chronicle is consistently updating their page on the spill.
A reader writes:
I don't blame Palin for being creeped out by Joe McGinniss moving next door. I don't think she is handling it very well, and is upping the "creepy quotient" with her own behavior. Still, there is a stalker element to this.
What could possibly be the reason that McGinniss felt that he would serve his readers by parachuting into the subject's backyard? I'm sorry, and I can't believe I'm saying this, but Palin is right. It's downright weird. Do we want a society where people – celebrities, politicians, or anyone for that matter – have to worry that they can never have a moment of privacy again?
Another writes:
Moving to Palin's town for research is one thing, but moving next door is clearly meant to provoke and mock. It's childish and unbecoming and makes me extremely unlikely to ever read the book. The proper approach to someone like Palin is the kind of reasoned, thorough criticism your blog takes. Petty stunts, on the other hand, are counter-productive and only give Palin legitimate fodder in her otherwise baseless anti-media crusade.
The Dish 