Month: August 2010

"The beard is the male equivalent of child bearing hips," – Jack Passion, author of The Facial Hair Handbook. The illustration is in t-shirt form!

A reader writes:

I am no Sarah Palin fan that is for sure, but that video was something else.  The eye rolling at this women being a teacher was shameful but the unbelievably infantile mocking of this women at the beginning –“oh you wanted me to be your governor, I am honored!” – was too much to take.  I have not heard a taunt like that since grade school. When is this farce going to end?

When the money runs out and the MSM gets some balls. Another writes:

The eye roll said so much more than any word or carefully phrased talking point could have. It said: "Ohh, I see. You are a teacher. You are unionized (gee, I think I'm supposed to hate the unions?), you have a liberal bias, you teach school kids to not like me. You spend your time finding ways to put me down. You waste taxpayer money." 

As a teacher myself, I can't tell you how many times I have encountered a foxnews-ite who is immediately suspicious of my profession and makes assumptions about me based on my profession. I am wondering what you and other Dish readers think about this. Where does this come from? Where does the idea that higher education — or ANY education — equate to left wing liberal elitism?

Beinart kinda misses Bush:

The more pessimistic, less universalistic conservatism being born in the post-Bush era probably has something to do with the decline in American self confidence. In the early Bush years, when America’s budget deficit was still small, its military might was largely unchallenged, and the triumph of democracy still seemed like history’s inevitable course, it was easier to be optimistic about the future of Islam. That same ideological and economic confidence also made it easier to believe that the U.S. could assimilate immigrants coming across our southern border. Now conservatives are more aware of America’s limits. And when it comes to Mexicans and Muslims, that includes the limits of American decency, too.

A new study finds that contemporary mosques are a deterrent to Islamic terrorism.

The Chicago Tribune backs what Jon Rowe predicted would be Anthony Kennedy's ultimate decision:

This ruling, of course, will stand only if it is upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, which would be a drastic and highly controversial step. But the justices might seize on the same middle option used by several states — civil unions. The court could rule that equal protection requires giving gay couples the same prerogatives granted heterosexual couples, but not by the same name.

That course offers a compromise that, while satisfying neither side entirely, accommodates each in its central concern. It would show a respect for democracy and a humility about the role of the judiciary.

Goldblog tries to do with the mosque controversy what I failed to do with torture:

One American politician who has always understood the difference between the mass of American Muslims, on the one hand, and radical Islamists on the other is President George W. Bush. … I would hope — especially now that he is finished writing his book — that he would speak out for Muslim enfranchisement in America, in particular in the wake of the "Ground Zero" mosque controversy. He should let American Muslims know that he accepts them as equal citizens under law, and that all Americans, but particularly members of his own party, should do the same. This is an important task, and I believe that George W. Bush is the best man for it.

He won't do it. But I sure wish he would.

So why was that news?

At least half a million barrels of oil and drilling fluids had been spilled offshore before the gusher that began after the April 20 explosion, according to government records. Much more than that has been spilled from pipelines, vessel traffic and wells in state waters — including hundreds of spills in Louisiana alone — records show, some of it since April 20.

Runoff and waste from cornfields, sewage plants, golf courses and oil-stained parking lots drain into the Mississippi River from vast swaths of the United States, and then flow down to the gulf, creating a zone of lifeless water the size of Lake Ontario just off the coast of Louisiana. The gulf's floor is littered with bombs, chemical weapons and other ordnance dumped in the middle of last century, even in areas busy with drilling, and miles outside of designated dumping zones, according to experts who work on deepwater hazard surveys.

"Those who pushed hardest for the Iraq war, Reuel Marc Gerecht, Frank Gaffney, William Kristol, Charles Krauthammer, Liz and Dick Cheney and many others familiar and obscure are now turning up the heat for an attack on Iran. Why so much pressure so early? The reason may lie in the very improbability of the cause. Given the geographical position of the U.S. and the overwhelming strength of our offensive weapons and armed forces, the only way that we could possibly feel threatened by Iran is by taking Israel's side early and acquiring Israel's enemies as our enemies," – David Bromwich.

"As for the few of you who wrote to Goldblog to say they were praying for Hitch's death, I can say that he does not care one way or another what you do or think or pray, but on behalf of myself and the entire team here at The Atlantic, let me just say, Go fuck yourselves," – Jeffrey Goldberg. He talks with Hitch here.