Loveland is soliciting "inchvesters" to purchase inches in Detroit:
These microhoods will function as visitable park and garden spaces spread around the city and mirrored online. Once you inchvest in the project you're able to log into your land, fill out a profile, meet your new neighbors, and make plans for your space. What happens is an open-ended adventure, so expect surprises.
(Hat tip: Boing Boing)
Kevin Kelly remarks on screens:
Today some 4.5 billion digital screens illuminate our lives. Words have migrated from wood pulp to pixels on computers, phones, laptops, game consoles, televisions, billboards and tablets. Letters are no longer fixed in black ink on paper, but flitter on a glass surface in a rainbow of colors as fast as our eyes can blink.
He's run afoul of Alan Jacobs' pet peeve:
I’ve said this before, ad nauseam no doubt, but: please. There is no such thing as “the screen.” A laptop screen is not a TV screen is not a movie screen is not an iPad screen is not a Kindle screen. They’re all different, and we experience them in significantly different ways. And “letters are no longer fixed in black ink on paper”? Really? All these books and magazines and newspapers and memoranda that I encounter every day are figments of my imagination?
Today on the Dish, Andrew jumped off of Noah Millman's point on gay rights to make a larger point about Tea Party nostalgia and America's future. He endorsed some of Pete Wehner's explanation of Bill O'Reilly on Park 51, and Andrew, Frum and others bounced back and forth on a post-November GOP. Jonah Goldberg and Jonathan Chait bet their blogs on Obama's impeachment, while Thoreau and Drum played along.
Andrew called foul on the Obama administration on DADT, while Ed Morrissey envisioned a scenario where the injunction lasted for the next two years. Brian Palmer explained how the military figures out which soldiers are gay, Glenn Beck was disgusted by bigotry for sport, a pollster explained America's increasing support for gay equality, and this Catholic primate thought AIDS was "immanent justice."
Andrew bucked Jamelle Bouie's jeers at the "successful."Joyner agreed that ADHD may be a symptom of an archaic education system, and U.S. life expectancy was low because of Medicare. Oregon was bicurious via our readers, Kaiser looked at the popularity of a health care repeal, and readers weighed in on absentee voting. Reagan reduced California's incarcerations, and the ethanol lobby fueled full-steam ahead. A paraplegic walked on a robot exoskeleton, and Greenwald likened the war on drugs to the war on terror. Pot was more popular than some politicians, Chris Hayes visited and began to understand what occupation requires, and Israel took more steps backwards. More voices sounded off on the foreign money bonanza, Ackerman previewed Monday's WikiLeaks dump, and Larison didn't want to confuse military spending with defense spending.
Hathos red alert here, FOTD here, chart of the day here, quotes for the day here, more responses to views from the recession here, creepy ad watch here, views from your CPAP here, Grant Gallicho's Dish roast here, Jonathan Bernstein's toast here, VFYW here, email of the day here, MHB here, and more beard sportage here.
Thursday on the Dish, Andrew marvelled at Obama's record thus far, even if his messages sometimes suffered for it. Andrew nodded in agreement with Douthat over climate change, and still believed conservatives should seek to conserve. Tim Lee and Andrew expressed concern over the rise of absentee ballots, and Christine O'Donnell was the perfect product of America's talk show culture.
Andrew stayed firm on the Chamber of Commerce foreign funding hoopla, while Wilkinson didn't mind the foreign countries watching out for their interests. Valerie Jarrett redeemed herself with her genuine apology, Dale Carpenter destroyed the myths about heterosexual frailty and DADT, and Andrew seconded this reader about gay pride parades as adult affairs. Jews and Andrew were in agreement over gallivanting, and Israel and America had a lot in common about not being able to see what's being done in their name. Obama didn't listen to his own advice on defense spending, Ron Paul may have been right about terrorism and military occupations, and Africa is officially huge.
Readers joined the tea with unicorns party on Clinton era tax rates, Paladino thought girl on girl porn was awesome, and Alex Gibney rewrote the Spitzer saga. Frum knocked Jonah Goldberg down a notch over his anti-elite elitism and Greg Easterbrook didn't feel so sorry for seniors. Foreclosure journalists invaded privacy but with good reason, and readers set the record straight on Rand Paul and Kentucky's meth problem. Starbucks slowed its baristas down, and the Kindle may be bringing the pamphlet back. Prohibition birthed Nascar, which Dish readers already knew, the Insane Clown Posse were awed by magnets, and W.G. Grace batted through the greatest sports beard ever.
View from your recession here, MHB here, VFYW here, opinions on the miners here, Drezner's Dish toast here, Juan Cole's here, FOTD here, readers on straight men fruit flys here, and Andrew on Parker Spitzer here.
Los Angeles, California, 1 pm
Wednesday on the Dish, Andrew shook his head at the evolution of Goldberg on Israel. Paladino apologized but Andrew was unimpressed. We relived Paladino saying that gay marriage is like Hitler, while Valerie Jarret just blamed teenage suicides on a "lifestyle choice." Jonathan Chait and Matthew Yglesias toasted the Dish and Andrew treated himself to a a classic Trig relapse.
Andrew sighed over lazy legislatures and the culture that reelects them, whereas Matt Continetti and Matt Welch duked it out over tax cuts. The war raged in the air over Afghanistan, and Andrew condemned the right's inablitity to wake up to the realities of tax rate hikes. Andrew jumped in on Dana McCourt's disdain for the term illegal immigrant and we rounded up opinions on insider trading by congressional staffers.
Serwer bemoaned the left's drug attacks on Rand Paul, McCain didn't think he was pandering, and politics pimped itself out for paid speeches. Josh Green profiled Ron Paul in the new issue and Andrew believed his integrity, at least. Huckabee may be the biggest contender for 2012 according to Obama's folks, and Sarah was looking ever more stoppable.
Yglesias examined the Dutch marijuana model, and a child psychiatrist responded to readers about teenage pot use. Self-driving cars could speed up the electric car revolution, Aaron Sorkin somewhat clarified the female computer nerd conundrum, and for former bullies, It Gets Worse. An anniversary/ apnea recap of the view from your CPAP here, map of the day here, VFYW here, MHB here, quote for the day here, Google time sink here, creepy ad watch here, FOTD here, and beards in sports here.
Tuesday on the Dish, the Log Cabin Republicans trapped Obama on DADT, Andrew butchered Paladino's perverted speech and Steinglass thought he just blew his chances. Andrew reminisced about the past ten years of blogging and apologized again for his "fifth column" remarks. For the anniversary he appeared on Charlie Rose, and readers offered their two-cents.
Sarah Palin wanted war with Iran and she rehabilitated the odd lie about the death panel that is out to get her family. Andrew prodded Obama to fight the fiscal fight, and Ilya Somin doubted a burqa ban could stop radical thoughts. Goldblog shot down Pamela Gellar's obsession with a Muslim takeover, we analyzed the semantics of calling people "illegals," and Tim Cavanaugh mocked politicians who promise things they can't deliver. Democrat Joe Manchin took a rifle to cap and trade, and Beinart patted down Obama's new national security adviser Tom Donilon. Dan Savage asked Valerie Jarrett to put her money where her mouth was at the HRC dinner, and Benjamin Dueholm wagged his finger at Savage for attacking all Christians for the sins of a few.
Will Wilkinson wanted more rules for government's oversight of the economy, and James Poulos didn't know who was going to offer up undergoing the pain of fiscal conservatism. John Carney tracked the banks' inability to trace their own steps in the mortgage debacle, and Tyler Cowen targeted systemic economic biases. Readers ignited a debate over how bad pot is for teenagers, Balko attacked Woodrow Wilson, and the GOP's reluctance to admit the truth about climate change was preventing the world from fixing it. Canadians don't travel to the U.S. for health care, British conventions are small affairs compared to their American counterparts, and water in a box didn't master the tap yet. We stared at Hot Guys on Judge Judy, Ebert and O'Hehir went at it over a horse movie, and women had a role in creating Facebook, even if the film doesn't portray that. VFYW here, MHB here, FOTD here, Yglesias award here, correction of the day here, and the VFYW contest winner #19 here.
By Athit Perawongmetha/Getty Images.
Monday was the Dish's 10th anniversary.
–Z.P.
Larison finds little reason to believe that Obama will ever trim the military budget. He also argues that we shouldn't confuse military spending and defense spending:
The constituencies that strongly support reductions in military spending are progressives, libertarians and deficit hawks, which also happen to be three constituencies with the least influence in their respective parties when it comes to national security policies. Obama’s military budgets are huge because there are no significant political obstacles to making them that way and there are no political incentives to make them smaller. A first, small step in changing the way we talk about military spending involves referring to military spending as just that. If military spending is ever going to be reduced, most Americans will need to acknowledge that the vast majority of military spending has a tenuous or non-existent relationship to the defense of the United States. At the very least, critics of that spending should avoid casually referring to it as defense spending, when that is not the purpose of most of these expenditures.
Jonathan joins the party:
I do remember very well what the world was like for political junkies before the Daily Dish, and it pretty much stunk compared to the world now. Then as now, there were plenty of long-form articles and essays. But intelligent political conversation?
I remember when I first watched Crossfire on CNN when it was new, and thinking it was more intelligent than whatever else was available (no, really. Not joking).. People watched the McLaughlin Group because it was more entertaining than other political shows. And then Sullivan and Kaus showed up, and as far as I was concerned most TV talk shows became instantly obsolete. They weren't nearly as intelligent or entertaining as the blogs. And then, the blogs got better, and Andrew Sullivan deserves a lot of credit for that, too.
So from Plain Blog, a hearty Mazel Tov to the Daily Dish, and I hope to be reading it for a long time to come.
A reader writes:
My unicorns are honored to have been posted by one of your readers searching on Google images. A friend of mine saw them and sent me the link. What a small world!
Jacob Sullum asks Eric Holder to face reality:
Attorney General Eric Holder is promising that the federal government will "vigorously enforce" marijuana prohibition in California if Proposition 19 passes. "…
Good luck with that. In 2008, according to the FBI's numbers, there were about 848,000 marijuana arrests in the United States. The feds accounted (PDF) for less than 1 percent of them. The DEA has about 5,500 special agents nationwide, compared to nearly 70,000 local police officers in California. It certainly can make trouble, but it simply does not have the resources to bust a significant percentage of the state's marijuana offenders now, let alone after every adult is allowed to grow his own pot. If the DEA could not block access to medical marijuana under Bush or Obama, what chance will it have after the drug is legal for recreational purposes as well?
Is there any recent example of smug insidery journalistic wankery than the following from Jonathan Capehart about his fawning interview with Valerie Jarrett, where she made the "lifestyle choice" gaffe:
Contrary to the caustic comments on websites like firedoglake, I know Jarrett knows better than this. That's why I didn't correct her or ask her to explain herself during our sit-down at the White House.
And how did you know, Jonathan? Because you're such chums? Are you a journalist or a social secretary?
Kaiser looks at various polls on the popularity of health care repeal:
[U]nderstanding what the public means when they say they want ‘repeal’ might be a more nuanced task than it seems. In the latest Bloomberg National Poll, a robust 47 percent of likely voters say they want to repeal health reform. But asked to say whether each of eight specific provisions should be repealed, majorities wanted to keep six of them (perhaps not surprising, given previous polling that suggests many of the early provisions are widely popular).
For example, roughly three in four likely voters want to keep the temporary high risk pools, the right to guaranteed issue, and the provisions which close the doughnut hole. Two in three want to keep the provisions which allow young adults to stay on their parents’ health insurance, and nearly as many back the exchanges. What, exactly, do most likely voters actually want to repeal? Six in ten want to repeal taxes on so-called Cadillac health insurance plans, and about half want to repeal the individual mandate. In other words, for at least a sizeable group of voters, an expressed desire to ‘repeal’ health reform may actually represent much more mixed views on the full content of the new law.
The cute bear version.
The Dish 