Month: April 2011

A reader writes:

Obama's supporters now have a unique opportunity: to link the weaknesses of two GOP front-runners. Both Trump and Romney were for abortion before they were against it (switching when they decided to run nationally), both were for gay rights/civil unions before they were against them, and both supported some form of universal health care before they were against it.  The Donald is now rivaling Romney as the consummate political panderer.

Another writes:

I read somewhere – probably on your blog – that O'Reilly told Trump during an interview that he didn't believe that Trump was really a birther.  I'm pretty sure O'Reilly has it exactly right. 

Demagoguery today isn't really about winning.  It's about creating a personality cult that can be exploited to turn on a revenue stream.  Trump is hungry for attention – he's always been that way, and he definitely knows how to milk fame for money.  So I think he's just trying to tap into the revenue stream.  It's a no-lose proposition for him.  At worst, he'll create an intense connection to a small group of fans.  And there's a lottery ticket chance he could become president.

Another:

What’s even more interesting is where all that support has come from. They did the same poll four weeks ago and Trump was at 10%, Huckabee still at 19% and most of the others unchanged. Where did Trump’s new 9% come from? Mostly from Romney, whose support dropped all the way from 18% to 11%. Gingrich also gave up 3 points. How do you even make sense of a party where people switch support from someone like Romney to someone like Trump?

Gasoline is heading towards $4 a gallon. James Surowiecki says "it's not time to panic" yet:

This spike in prices, while annoying, is smaller and less likely to last than previous spikes. More important, the American economy is better prepared to deal with it. The oil shock of 2008 pushed Americans to buy fewer S.U.V.s and trucks, and more fuel-efficient vehicles, and the cash-for-clunkers program took hundreds of thousands of gas guzzlers off the road. On top of this, the downsizing of American car companies leaves them less exposed to drops in demand than they once were.

Ashley Baccam spots one in a free newspaper from London, Ontario:

Oh boy! A woman's sexual history is like car value depreciation! 

Seth Masket compares last week's near-shutdown to the 1995-1996 shutdown. Masket notices that Obama, unlike Clinton, didn't use the bully pulpit:

We have a lot of beliefs about how the president can change the public's mind and thus force Congress to do what he wants, but it's hard to point to many examples of this actually happening. Speeches, as Obama will surely tell you, can inspire people to service, encourage them to vote, rally your base, and many other things. But can they actually change your mind? Can they change the mind of a member of Congress? Not often.

Expect more where this came from:

Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns make an important point about Romney:

No conversation about the former Massachusetts governor begins with a listing of his strengths as a candidate. Instead, Romney is the rare national politician defined largely by his shortcomings.

David Frum wants Romney to stop avoiding his signature accomplishment. Good luck with that.

Freddie DeBoer defends Joyce:

I like reading Ulysses. In fact, I love it. I get pleasure out of it. Now here's a thought that is a necessary adjunct: my liking Ulysses is not a statement of value about what other people like, or even worse, a statement about the value of other people who like different things. People take that for granted with 99% of the art and media we consume. But for some reason, when it comes to art that is considered high brow, avant garde, or difficult, people assume judgment. I can't help but think that this assumed judgment plays a big part in attitudes like Andrew's.

In the above segment of Rand's appearance on Donahue, the portion relevant to the following email begins at the 6:00 mark  (and continues into this segment). A reader writes:

There is another flaw to Objectivism besides its encouragement of selfishness, something which is in some ways just as dangerous if not even more so. It is what makes Objectivism to be the exact opposite of science, despite the fact that Rand herself seemed to admire scientists and engineers. It is what places Objectivism in opposition to your own beliefs on the conservatism (though sadly not against mainstream conservatism).

Rand believes in the perfectability of genius. To her, to be a genius is to be incapable of making an error.

They never overestimate their expertise in fields outside of their own ability, they are never uninformed or cling to outdated beliefs. This is why Rand's heroes never listen to other people. To be a genius is to be correct. If someone else is a genius, then they must agree with you. If they disagree with you, obviously they are not a genius and they must be ignored.

One of the core elements of science is cultivating doubt. You create models and you test them. You submit articles to peer review. The scientific community is on the whole not closed in mind. Special relativity and quantum mechanics were both revolutionary and controvertial in their time, and yet because their results were tested out time and time again, science went along. True science cultivates skepticism and demands proof. Genius can still be flawed and fallible; that's why we have peer review.

Rand filled her works with these infallible geniuses who were never wrong, who were always correct in the end, despite what other people said. Rand herself was not famous for being terribly open-minded to criticism either.

A reader writes:

Your news has stirred up in me somewhat conflicted emotions due to my own circumstance, which is similar but very different from yours. I am a USA citizen expatriate who has been living in Canada for nearly six years. My now-husband immigrated here with me.  Our relocation decision was mostly based upon a fantastic job offer, but the side benefit of our move was even much more profound than we had ever expected, namely to receive full civil equality under Canadian law as a same gender married couple. 

I have never felt more at home anywhere as I do in our lovely Vancouver. Through the years of setting down roots here, we have gained many friends who we now consider family. Many of these friends are bi-national couples who are not able to live in the USA due to the wretched DOMA laws. As you hold your green card, please keep this exiled community close to your heart and prayers so that they too may experience the joy you must be feeling today.

Lastly, I am in danger of losing my job here in Canada due to a second round of layoffs and I'm starting to job search.  I have landed an interview in the USA later this week.  My heart is crying a bit at the prospect of having to move back to a country where I am literally a second-class citizen.  

Our Canadian citizenship application approval is most likely only days away. I anticipate the feeling that you are experiencing today when I receive my Canadian citizenship, but have a heavy heart as I realize that I may by then actually be living stateside once again with fewer rights than I do as a non- citizen in Canada. Strange world.

Another writes:

I am extremely happy about your green card news. But I would be lying if I did not admit that I am also a little jealous. I am in the collecting-documents stage of my green card application process (imagine a Ugandan born in Zambia trying to locate her birth certificate!). Celebrate as hard as I will when I get that highly-desired email from my lawyer – hopefully soon. We, however, should not forget to always advocate for binational same-sex couples who are not as lucky as we are. My domestic partner of two years cannot participate in securing my residency in the US simply because we are both women.

Another:

I can feel your exhalation of profound and utter relief 1000 miles away, and it is such a lovely, deeply moving thing.  I am surprised to find myself weeping. I am not exactly creating a scene here, in this coffee shop, but I am very very happy for you, and grateful that you succeeded so well in putting words to the unbelievable stress that comes from living provisionally.

It is almost impossible to explain to straight people, this undercurrent of anxiety that all you hold dear might be taken from you. I sometimes think I am crazy, that most gay people must just have thicker skins in combatting the culture wars and the roller coasters of gay politics.

In my case, the issue is my precarious relationship to my kids. On the one hand, it is solid – we went to great lengths and spent a lot on legal fees to see to that. On the other hand, it is as flimsy as a house of cards. The anxiety is unrelenting, even as our family flourishes. One lives with that daily deep anxiety and life goes on … and then news like yours comes along and it is as if someone has gently eased the lid off the pressure cooker.

My lid will be put back on, I know, but right now I share in your joy and relief. Congratulations, brother.

I can only say that I will use all my opportunities as a permanent resident to keep campaigning for the full and equal rights of same-sex couples, in immigration and everything else. I know the mixed feelings all too well of friends' or acquaintances' achieving personal milestones while you remain stranded and the broad legal discrimination remains in place.

So that's my commitment. Whatever I have been able to contribute as a stranger will be redoubled as a legal permanent resident and, in a few years' time, a citizen. All I can say to my brothers and sisters still in limbo is: hang in. We'll get there. I never really thought it would happen to me. But it did. In the end.

Know hope.

Feel the interspecies love:

(Hat tip: TDW)

This is priceless:

Silvio Berlusconi has denied accusations that he paid a teenage runaway for sex. The Italian prime minister said on Monday he gave €45,000 to Karima el Mahroug, a belly dancer who uses the name Ruby, to help her launch a beauty centre, complete with a laser hair-removing machine, so that she could escape a life of prostitution… Berlusconi repeated his claim that he had mistakenly believed Mahroug could be the granddaughter of former Egyptian leader, Hosni Mubarak. He told police so after her arrest to avoid "a diplomatic incident".

Newt Gingrich has some competition.