Month: September 2010

Today on the Dish, Andrew explained the origins of his own faith, in advance of the Pope's visit to the UK. He expected something better from the right's best and brightest, Yuval Levin. The Missoulian was sick of Sarah's smears and the Republican echo chamber got louder over at Fox News. Obama was not a Kenyan anti-colonialist but he was a voice of sanity and reason in a world unwilling to hear it. We debated intellectual honesty and discovered that Instapundit sure had changed a lot since September 11, 2001. Nate weighed the odds of the House flipping; Chait defended Obama from progressive attacks; and we looked at the future for DADT.

The world was a fractal of inequality, but America's Muslims were better integrated than those living in other Western countries. Joshua Foust annihilated the Afghanistan Study Group's report; various voices sounded off on a still-violent Iraq; and for peace-keeping in Africa to work a constitution matters less than peace on the streets.

Lady Gaga got the Camille Paglia treatment; we picked our nose five times an hour; e-readers made reading too easy; and Google Instant may make us less unique. The haiku bandit hit the streets of Atlanta; our happiness came with a price-tag; and technology made us move to a winner take-all market. Chart of the Day here; VFYW here; MHB here; FOTD here; and the sobering View From Your (Former) Window in Boulder, here. Most sex-workers were paid to listen; our fascination with figs continued, this baby contended for the best, worst stump speech ever and Katie Rooney said yes.

–Z.P.

He writes the following about a paragraph I first noted here and that Nick Kristof subsequently noted here:

The embarrassing sentence is: "I wonder whether I need honor these people and pretend they are worthy of the privileges of the First Amendment, which I have in my gut the sense that they will abuse." I wrote that, but I do not believe that. I do not think that any group or class of persons in the United States should be denied the protections of the First Amendment, not now, not ever… So I apologize for my sentence, not least because it misrepresents me.

Jim Fallows originally pulled back from writing anything about what Marty wrote, and now regrets it. He's also mystified by the apology. I very rarely criticize Marty because of the great friendship I feel for him, and gratitude for the opportunities he gave me, but this was too much even for me. Kristof accepts the apology but insists he does not share Marty's broad views of Muslims as a whole. John Cole says the hatred of Arabs and Muslims in general is not new in the writing of Marty and wonders why only now is an apology in order. I have to say that the sentence "I wrote that, but do not believe that" requires elaboration, or we should assume that everything Marty writes may not be what he believes. The question is: if he did not believe that, why did he write it?

Or would the answer to that question raise still more?

A vote next week?

Jonathan Hopkins, a former Army captain, explains the reality of DADT:

A colleague of mine relayed a story of a soldier whose boyfriend was killed by a roadside blast while both were deployed. The only person the grieving soldier could safely talk to was an Australian officer he didn’t even know. His most trusted teammates — members of his unit — were not allowed to be there for him when he needed them most.

Lawrence Wright decries anti-Muslim bigotry:

The most worrisome development in the evolution of Al Qaeda’s influence since 9/11 is the growth of pockets of Islamist radicalism in Western populations. Until recently, America had been largely immune to the extremism that has placed some European nations in peril. America’s Muslim community is more ethnically diverse than that of any other major religion in the country. Its members hold more college and graduate degrees than the national average. They also have a higher employment rate and more jobs in the professional sector. (Compare that with England and France, where education and employment rates among Muslims fall below the national averages.) These factors have allowed American Muslims and non-Muslims to live together with a degree of harmony that any other Western nation would envy.

A reader writes:

Perhaps I just don't read enough TMZ to have internalized the idea that Lady Gaga's persona is a "misfit," but I have never seen her that way.  I think part of Gaga's appeal is the fact that she IS manufactured, but is up front about it.   And seeing images of her former stereotypical beauty contrasted with her current look has given me the impression of someone who has actively and publicly chosen to reject her "beautiful" self. This resonates with people like me who grew up surrounded by charmed people, tried to keep up, and are starting to realize that beauty is just another rat race.

Another writes:

Why is this even surprising?  It's the only thing I like about Lady Gaga; that with little more than charisma and a few funny hats she's managed to get a lot of people to accept some well-crafted but otherwise unremarkable dance pop as avant garde.  As somebody who listens to a fair amount of experimental and avant garde music, it's kind of hilarious.  Her ability to manipulate the media and perception of her mostly by force of personality is what makes all those Madonna comparisons apt.

Another:

At the end of the day, what is more important: the work or the image (self- or industry-manufactured)?  If the criteria by which we judge the value of an artist is strictly either how much they suffered, or whether they truly lived their lives as they were hyped, well … there wouldn't be enough artists to go around. 

Good thing there haven't ever been ANY poets, playwrights, musicians, composers, painters, or actors who developed personas and/or used stage names.  I hear some of these people actually had relatively "normal" childhoods. I think most of us can relate to having felt "marginalized" during our teen years, whether we were upper or lower class.  Who's to say that she didn't feel a freak? 

I'm sure, in a good way, that non-conformist Paglia felt the same.  Gaga is young, works hard, writes her own songs, has a pretty good voice, and has ambition.  Time and her ability, not Paglia, will tell if she develops into an artist and not just an "entertainer" – not that there's anything wrong with "just" being that. Really, can we give up our Romantic Notions of what we want an artist to be and simply appreciate them for their work?

In conclusion, let me translate what Paglia is saying in her "explosive profile!": "You kids don't know nothin'! Back in my day we knew real music and real sex and real Madonna and … get off my lawn!"

As Drum reads a new Pew report, his eyes widen:

Democrats and Independents have changed their viewing habits only slightly while Republicans have flocked to Fox and dropped both CNN and MSNBC in droves. Back in 2000, it turns out, the viewing habits of all three groups were pretty similar. Since then, as Fox has steadily amped up its conservative branding, conservatives have decided that's all they want to hear. The echo chamber must be getting pretty deafening over there.

Tyler Cowen Alex Tabarrok makes what should be an obvious point:

In a winner-take all economy … small differences in skills can mean large differences in returns and we have moved towards a winner take-all economy because technology has increased the size of the market that can be served by a single person or firm.

Stan Collender lists the consequences of a GOP-led government shutdown:

Shutdowns actually cost the government more money ($800 million last time according to Time) than it would otherwise spend and, therefore, increase the deficit compared to what it otherwise would be. Departments and agencies have to begin to implement shutdown plans within a few days of the possibility that their appropriations might expire. At a minimum, this involves additional communications security, building maintenance needs.