Month: January 2011

Malkin Award Nominee

“No one should be fooled. Any Republican representative or senator who votes to raise the debt ceiling is voting to continue business as usual, to expand warfare, welfare, foreign aid, bank bailouts, and all the other criminal enterprises. Forget talk of the Tea Party, fiscal conservatism, some face-saving agreement with the Democrats. It is a sell-out, a pledging of allegiance to the Pentagon-CIA-Fed-bank-Wall Street regime that runs this country. Shame,” – Lew Rockwell.

Marriage: Past And Present

  Cana-bas-relief

While he gives up some ground, Poulos largely defends "traditional marriage":

Like Christmas, marriage is an institutionalized tradition. And like Christmas, marriage flourishes today in a variety of forms imbued with a range of meanings. But marriage is the more important test case for contemporary traditions because the practice of marriage which we recognize as “traditional marriage” is itself the product of an immensely complicated adjudication of traditions, moralities, and aspects of human personhood. Among them we can count the following: a natural capacity for monogamy; a cultural appreciation for the noble morality of “good matches” made over generations; a separate cultural appreciation for the moral dignity of love, and the democratic character of freely made romantic matches; and a Christian (and post-Christian) appreciation for the power of a spiritual union to transcend, fulfill, discipline, educate, and redeem all our natural capacities and our cultural particularities.

I agree with much of this, although "a natural capacity for monogamy" seems a bit of a stretch for homo sapiens. But the central question James addresses is whether an institution like civil marriage can both retain its connection to its inegalitarian, undemocratic, exclusive past and also be democratized so that everyone can participate (such as women on equal footing, couples of different races, gays).

As Poulos notes, Tocqueville believed this balancing act between tradition and modernity was possible (partly through Christianity). Nietzsche didn't. I'm with Tockers, as we used to call him at Oxford (yep, freshmen history majors were once required to read all of the Ancien Regime in the original, elegant French.) But I don't believe the radical differences between marital experiences today in the West – gay, lesbian and countless variations of straight – can be fully culturally reconciled in modernity.

But they can be lived with – and we do.

Legally, we accept voluntary arranged marriages as civil marriages in America; we accept self-consciously childless marriages; we embrace Mormon marriages and totally secular civil sexually open marriages; we accept second and third marriages as legit; and we accept Santorum-style marriages where reproduction is the core goal and divorce unthinkable. How do we do manage to include all these experiences as part of the same core institution? James has an expression that captures my view:

If our democratic age cannot abide such a closed system [of strictly traditional marriage], the alternative may be a tacit agreement to keep two sets of cultural books, so to speak—with official and unofficial spheres of life largely replacing the customary public and private.

This is the argument in the closing chapter of Virtually Normal – and also explains why I put that "virtually" in the title. Civil equality need not mean an erasure of cultural or religious difference. That is why, as a longtime activist for marriage equality for gays, I also strongly support and respect much more traditional marriages. And any civil attempt to delegitimize the truly traditional should be fought, in my view, by the marriage equality movement.

Modernity requires living with cultural contradictions. And the worst response to modernity is to try and stamp those contradictions out, rather than finding ways to live them, with mutual respect, and civility.

(Photo: a bas relief in Cana, Lebanon, where the famous marriage in the Gospels is believed to have taken place.)

The Safest Sex

It's chronicled by Marty Beckerman:

Discomfort is the name of the air sex game. Since the American league’s 2009 inception—the phenomenon originated in Japan, of course—thousands of attendees have derived voyeuristic delight from watching (often intoxicated) exhibitionists ravish invisible partners. In the words of ASWC founder Chris Trew, “World Series: nothing. Super Bowl: nothing. WrestleMania: something, but it’s not enough.”

You surely know the basics. Air sex has received a huge amount of media attention, and perhaps the joke is getting stale. Except that, to many of the competitors, it’s not a joke whatsoever. A winning performance, Shanker’s improvisation notwithstanding, typically requires hours upon hours of practice.

I await the Vatican's condemnation.

Jobbed Liver

Saletan questions Steve Jobs' liver transplant, given his announced leave. The point, however valid, seems unusually callous to me:

Given his symptoms, in the absence of further information, the most likely reason [for his leave] is recurrence or complications of his cancer. If that's the case, then Jobs, having gamed the system to obtain a liver that could have saved somebody else, might soon take that liver to his grave. And he's had it less than two years. … We're all pulling for you. It's your life and your family. But that liver wasn't yours. Somebody died to make it available. And other people who aren't billionaires may have died on waiting lists so you could have it.

At least Will gives Jobs props for being honest about the transplant and promoting easier organ donation in California. But still, the man is ill.

The Worst Sheriff In Arizona

Despite his imprudent comments in the aftermath of the Tucson shooting, it isn't Clarence Dupnik, as Dara Lind points out – for that, one must look to Maricopa County's top law man:

Arpaio's approach to public safety has led to the alleged misspending of up to $80 million of Maricopa County taxpayers' money over the last five years — and, of course, a 58% spike in violent crime in the county since 2002, especially telling given that Arizona's statewide violent crime rate has dropped by 12 percent. Dupnik, by contrast, turned around a corrupt department when he inherited it in 1980, and according to Arizona Department of Public Safety reports, violent crime has dropped 15% in Pima County since 2002.

Obviously the Dupnik recall effort has nothing to do with public safety, and everything to do with politics — and in fairness, for a sheriff, who's an elected officer, politics is part of the job. But the fact that a sheriff's job performance is so irrelevant to his political presence should be worrisome. It's probably a good thing that crime rates have been declining for so long that people are no longer primarily concerned with the ability of their law enforcement officers to keep them safe — but, as we've seen in Maricopa County, that trend won't continue if officers start thinking they don't have to keep an eye on public safety as long as they talk a tough game.

A Bad Case Of China Envy

Francis Fukuyama and Steven Pearlstein are awestruck by the authoritarian decisiveness of China. Pearlstein claims that with "its state-controlled economy, China can force its companies to act collaboratively to achieve the country's strategic economic objectives." He wants America to adopt exactly the protectionist and statist policies of the Communists. Ryan Avent raises an eyebrow:

America's government is far from perfect, and I think there's a case that it's become too sclerotic and is in need of some institutional reform. I don't think I'm alone in wishing that America's leaders could agree to fund basic infrastructure appropriately and build a rail line in less than an average human lifespan. But to suggest that the ability to force its companies to act collaboratively is a Chinese strength?

Yes, this China syndrome is worth watching. Every now and again an authoritarian state gives some Americans a thrill up the leg.

Geller At CPAC

TPM Muckraker has the story:

At the Conservative Political Action Conference next month — the one decried as being "infiltrated" by the Muslim Brotherhood by the likes of sharia alarmist Frank Gaffney — an event will be held titled, "The Ground Zero Mosque: The Second Wave of the 9/11 Attacks." The event is a movie premiere, hosted by mosque opposition leader Pamela Geller and her partner Robert Spencer. It will be followed by "a question and action and strategy session on how to stop the Islamic supremacist mega-mosque at Ground Zero."

So the conservative movement's premier conference will include a strategy session where participants will figure out how to prevent the lawful construction of a religious structure. And they'll doubtless talk about their fealty to the Constitution and their love of freedom while doing so.

Palin Crack Round-Up

1. You've got to love this fearless piece of honesty from Joan Rivers:

"I think Sarah Palin is an amazing woman. I think she represents everything strong a woman can be, and I think she should go someplace — to another planet, to show them, and get out of our face."

Obviously, Joan missed the civility memo and I'm not sure Ms Rivers is in any position to tell anyone else to get out of our faces. But it's bizarre that Fox subsequently nixed her for a promotional gig. Is FNC really now reduced to never inviting on anyone who has ever called Sarah Palin "stupid"? They then backtracked, under Gawker pressure.

2. For the true Palinheads, a Facebook fight between Bristol and Mercede. It appears that the Palin family's first impulse when insulting 0thers (like Joe McGinniss) is to call them child abusers.

3. The National Enquirer. I'm not linking because I have no way to confirm the story. It's on the newsstands. Like all Palin stories, there's some bizarre coincidences. What are the odds that Bristol's and Levi's baby, Tripp, would have as his first name the last name of what the Enquirer alleges was Todd Palin's indiscretion?