Month: June 2011

Terry Teachout admires his brother, who never left their small hometown:

My brother and I … have both led typical American lives. It is fully as American to stick close to home as it is to become a wanderer, but it's the wanderers who get most of the press, perhaps because we're the ones who write it–and I'm not so sure it should be that way. I left home to find myself, but my brother didn't have to leave home because he knew who he was. I call my mother every night, but he sees her every day. I write books, but he has a grown daughter. I like to think that my work may ultimately prove to have some lasting value, but I'm sure that he's done more to make the world a better place.

Joe Lieberman wants to help balance Medicare's books by moving the eligility age from 65 to 67. Austin Frakt and Aaron Carroll don't think this will save much money. They cite the research of Michael McWilliams et al:

The authors found that, relative to those with insurance before age 65, those without insurance prior to Medicare eligibility spent much more money on health care after they became Medicare eligible. In other words, people wait to get care until their Medicare kicks in.  This is bad both for health and for the federal government’s bottom line.

Delaying Medicare even longer would likely make this worse. People would forego care longer, health would suffer, and Medicare would pay for the consequences later.

"Musee des Beaux Arts" by W. H. Auden:

About suffering they were never wrong,
The old Masters: how well they understood
Its human position: how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;
How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting
For the miraculous birth, there always must be
Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating
On a pond at the edge of the wood:
They never forgot
That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course
Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot
Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's horse
Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.

You can read the rest of the poem here, which was inspired by the above painting.

(Image: Landscape with the Fall of Icarus composed by Pieter Bruegel via Wikimedia Commons)

Alyssa Rosenberg adds a final word to Megan's exploration of bad politics in fiction:

Art takes us to the places we can’t go. Sometimes it lies about what we’d find there, sometimes it misunderstands what it’s trying to see through the wavery glass of prison doors and tank windows. This is why it’s bad to read just one book, to read Gone With the Wind or Atlas Shrugged, or watch Birth of a Nation or Battleship Potemkin and nothing else. But it’s useful to read Gone With the Wind next to Uncle Tom’s Cabin: knowing that Confederate nostalgia is wrong, and racist, doesn’t obliterate the need to understand that people feel it, and are strongly influenced by those feelings. Resolving the moral conundrum is ultimately our work, not any one author of any one work’s, and it doesn’t make sense to fault fiction for that.

Brooklyn, New York, 12 pm

Stephen J. Dubner explained the process of fecal transplants a couple months ago:

[M]any maladies — from intestinal problems to obesity to disorders like multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s and perhaps even cancer — are related to damaged or missing gut bacteria; the solution therefore may lie in transplanting healthy bacteria into a sick person. How is this accomplished? (Okay, hold your nose for a moment.) A fecal transplant. Yes, you read right: taking the stool from a healthy person, mixing it with a saline solution, and injecting it into an ill person. The procedure resembles a colonoscopy; it’s a sort of combination of organ transplant and blood transfusion, which one doctor in our podcast calls a “transpoosion.”

One woman's success story is here. Earlier coverage of this novel treatment here.

Timothy Faust visits the Palestinian zoo of Qalqilya:

Israel lay siege to the zoo during the Second Intifada, and many of the animals died. Some were tear-gassed and choked to death, some were shot, others died in more gruesome ways; this particular (pregnant) giraffe panicked at the sound of combat and ran into a wall, breaking her neck. Her partner died of what the director labels “heartbreak.”

A zoo depends upon an international zoo union for access to animals, feed and medicine. The Israeli zoo in Jerusalem has repeatedly prohibited Qalqilya from joining the union. Since the zoo is unable to import more animals—its finances are either depleted, woefully “mismanaged” (code here for PA embezzlement) or, likely, both—an enterprising veterinarian decided to stuff and mount many of the dead animals so that the zoo could keep its attractions on display. The result is a sub-zoo of animal corpses.

Today on the Dish, Andrew analyzed testosterone as a blessing and a curse (for gay men and straight). We eagerly awaited the Palin emails, the National Review called for an end to the voyeurism, and Palin overpriced her own worth. She also backpedaled her WTF comments, and stole from the lamestream media for her brainwashing videos. We didn't mourn Gingrich's implosion, the pressure was on Rick Perry to declare soon, and Guiliani remained as socially ridiculous as ever.  Readers posited our politics became decadent around the time of Clinton's impeachment, and Frum wondered what it would mean for the Tea Party if Romney wins. Government spending is highly subjective, Reihan examined Singapore's statist healthcare system, and prisons replaced mental hospitals. Bush's tax cuts officially bombed, Pawlenty's moderate conservatism capsized, and God pledged allegiance to the GOP.

The world orgasmed over a small new oil field, a reader defended AIPAC's detractors, and Syria waged its biggest protests yet. PJ Crowley argued for a later transition out of Afghanistan, Twitter helped NATO guide bombs in Libya, and economics trumped Obama's bin Laden bump.

Drum revealed why his depression colors his opinion on assisted suicide, Douthat defended himself, and readers shared their final thoughts. Readers pushed against Andrew's anti-parade stance, scandals bothered women more than dick pics, and Dan Savage slammed the monogomist party line. The telephone entrapped us, college degrees confused us, and video game controllers got a redesign. Andrew broke his pinky finger, cultural intelligence had real value, and real journalism rivaled Onion headlines.

Hathos alert here, cool ad watch here, tweet of the day here, quote for the day here, VFYW here, MHB here, and FOTD here.

Thursday on the Dish, Andrew dismantled AIPAC's disproportionate popularity in Congress. He also pinpointed the moment our political system became decadent, and poked Limbaugh for thinking anyone in the world thinks Palin is sane and stable. Herman Cain kept chugging along on the crazy train, Bruce Bartlett rejected Pawlenty's economic nonsense, and Gingrich's staffers jumped the sinking ship.

McArdle debated marriage and monogamy, Democrats defriended Weiner, New Yorkers didn't appreciate being represented by him, and readers analyzed our online avatars. Financial scandals mattered more than moral ones, Cynthia Haven was sick of fake apologies, and willpower comes in a finite amount. Obesity spiked our healthcare costs, and Americans failed at efficiency in private healthcare markets.

We hashed out Mubarak's trial, the Syrian regime tortured another boy, and John Yoo gave Bush the same authority. We continued the assisted suicide thread here and here with thoughts on palliative care here. Circumcision removed human choice, TNC pondered race in pop culture movies, prison hurt an employee's prospects, and Gabby Giffords was recovering slowly. The Smurfs didn't stump pop culture, and an Egyptian challenged a lion.

Chart of the day here, hathos alert here, creepy ad watch here, Malkin award here, adorable lecture fail here, metal vegan chef here, VFYW here, MHB here, and FOTD here.

By Marco Prosch/Getty Images.

Wednesday on the Dish, Andrew marveled at American puritanism about sex, and picked apart what it means to live, both online and off, while we all seek out our authentic selves. Feds broke up nice marriages, and Andrew examined what it could mean for children to never consider closeting themselves and exited the holding pen of gay pride parades.

Andrew praised Huntsman's moderate conservatism, but Nate Silver thought it doomed him. Andrew dismissed Pawlenty's insane tax cuts, McArdle chalked it up to the inflated candidate ego, while the rest of the GOP geared up to out-tea-party him. Bachmann started a brawl with Palin, Palin's team fought back, and Andrew dismantled Palin's answers to "gotcha questions." Andrew drew comparisons about Palin's post-pregnancy look, the real Palinization was backwards enough, headlines battled over polling, and business cred doesn't help a GOP candidate for the most part.

Syria's impending civil war differed from Libya's, we wondered if the Gay Girl In Damascus could be a hoax, the Syrian regime forced young men to become snipers, and Peter Van Buren made the case for shrinking the embassy in Iraq. We debated pain vs depression as to when people request assisted suicides, and readers recommended and spoke highly of hospice care. Incarceration doesn't stop drug addiction, we stressed the importance of keeping DNA evidence for exonerations, and a man hid a cellphone SIM card in his mouth to save his recording of the cops. We experienced walking on a minefield in the first person, snake oil medicines used to fool us pretty easily, and the social cost of smoking totals about $40 a pack. The French deconstructed the Smurfs, and X-men remained a good metaphor for the gay rights movement.

Yglesias award here, cool ad watch here, quotes for the day here, here and here, chart of the day here, VFYW here, MHB here, and FOTD here.

Tuesday on the Dish, and Andrew backtracked on his original defense of Weiner since the lying complicates things. Savage scoffed at those who characterized Weiner's horniness as an illness to be cured, and unbeknownst to Weiner, Jewish girls do give blowjobs. Thatcher rejected Palin, Henry Blodget appealed for some Trig closure, and America got Palinized. GOP candidates puffed up their radical chests and the shameless battled the clueless. Obama put politics before policy on the debt, but his popularity defied election logic. Healthcare managed to include the worst of both public and private worlds, Reagan and Thatcher never touched their healthcare systems, and when you factor in medical costs our US taxes aren't really that low compared to the rest of the world.

Syria slipped towards civil war, we encouraged readers to help find Amina, and women feared for their rights in Tunisia. Joe Klein predicted a faster withdrawl from Afghanistan, and Israeli settlers lashed out.

Saletan connected assisted suicide to abortion, Dan Savage defended assisted suicide, and Drum wasn't buying Douthat's religious slippery slope. Sexsomnia exists, and reparative therapy for homosexuals still doesn't work. We applied to daughter test to the drug war, 800,000 people are arrested each year for marijuana alone, and consumer protections for banking might actually help the financial sector. Readers debated moving icebergs, and Twitter combined the worlds of text and speech. Babies skated, Smurfs weren't facists, and being bourgeois wasn't all bad.

Dissents of the day here, Moore award here, Yglesias award here, chart of the day here, FOTD here, MHB here, VFYW here, and winner #53 here.

Chicago, Illinois, 5.35 pm

Monday on the Dish, Andrew demolished the Republican agenda as a fulfillment of Christian ideals. Conservapedia changed history to support Palin's revisionism, doublethink got a new mascot, and Longfellow shuddered. Amanda Marcotte deconstructed Palin's distorted metaphor using Paul Revere for the Tea Party, and her movie tapped into all the brainwash methods a la Clockwork Orange. Romney ignored Sarah Palin and believed in global warming, while Mormonism had built itself into a sanctified multinational corporation, and Beinart got premonitions of four more years for Obama.

The Arab Spring hit economic bumps in the road, Saleh fled Yemen, "ghosts" spied on citizens in Syria, and a gay girl in Damascus was disappeared. The discovery of AIDS turned 30, even great authors had reprehensible views, and Sam Harris clarified the difference between determinism and fatalism. Icebergs could quench the Middle East's thirst, luck distorts success, and price doesn't indicate quality of food.

We were mesmerized by motion in NYC, Hemingway didn't breed six-toed cats, cellphones endangered sperm, and kids came out. The NYT allowed for a hot lesbian exception, Andrew's beard aimed for crazy, and Andrew defended Weiner as "were you fully erect?" echoed across the blogosphere. Cool ad watch here, gaffe of the day here, threat compilation here, quotes for the day here and here, Yglesias award here, Moore award here, VFYW here, MHB here, and FOTD here.

 –Z.P.

Some remaining thoughts on this week's popular discussion thread:

Drum's critique of Douthat's column is legitimate. Douthat is certainly taking a religiously-held opinion and distilling it in such a way that it might become suitable for broad public consumption.

The religious reason for this is easy. You do not own your life. It is a gift from God that you did nothing to earn. And ultimately, it is His to take away, not yours. Taking it yourself is a final act of arrogance and the attempt to take that kind of control over life in general is akin to that deadliest of sins, Pride, whereby you view yourself as nearly equal to God and wise enough to judge that ending a 35,000-day life two days early will have no effect on the world.

But I think there is a secular argument to be made.

Do we truly own our lives? Or aren't they indeed shared in the vast matrix of social interactions and familial connections? I really don't buy the argument that this is done to ease suffering. Morphine eases suffering. This is about an imagined dignity where people have a right to hit the escape button so that people they care about don't see them drooling or losing control of their bowel movements. Rather than ending intense pain, it's closer in aspect to the fashion model in the movie "Seven" who commits suicide after having her nose cut off rather than live with a disfigured face.

Another writes:

I can appreciate the arguments in favor of assisted suicide/euthanasia.  What I can't appreciate is how folks like Dan Savage or Kevin Drum are so totally and reflexively dismissive of any and all objections to it.  The reality is that if assisted suicide/euthanasia is legalized and normalized, people will kill themselves for reasons that have nothing to do with good health or personal dignity.

They'll kill themselves due to financial pressures.  They'll kill themselves because of societal or family pressures, explicit or inadvertent.  They'll kill themselves out of loneliness.  They'll kill themselves out of motivations that would disappear in a month or a week or a day.  There is no way to have a system or rules of assisted suicide/euthanasia where that won't happen.

How many would needlessly die?  I don't know.  Maybe not that many.  But how many have to die because Dan Savage suffered a personal tragedy?  How many have to be sacrificed on Kevin Drum's aetheistic altar of autonomy?

Another:

I'm not in pain, and I'm able to be up-and-about most of the time.  I live in somewhat pleasant circumstances, but I'm old (82) and simply tired of all the routines of living that are increasingly difficult to handle.  All of my orifices leak.  I drool, my eyes water, my nose runs and the lower two places don't always cooperate either. 

For the most part I've had a good life.  I made my contributions as a teacher and school administrator, but I'm way past my prime and as far as I can determine, I serve no good purpose.  I'm a comfortable agnostic and am willing to take my chances on whatever comes next; if it's another life, okay; but if not, that's okay too.  Believe me, if there were some sure way of ending my life without creating a mess for someone to clean up, or of merely damaging myself and having even less control of myself, I'd go for it in a second. 

This is why assisted suicide is so important.  Why do I have to wait until I'm even less in control or in pain?  And who's to say that an intelligent person shouldn't be able to know when it's time for him to say farewell?

Kevin Carey chronicles the long history of doom-and-gloom stories about a glut of college degrees:

[T]he press misunderstands how the education needs of the modern economy have been augmented by technology and globalization. Many jobs involving simple, repetitive tasks have been rendered obsolete by machines. … Economists call this “skill-biased technology change." Under this scenario, more productive workers earn more, on average. And the workers who come to the labor market able to take advantage of complex technologies and manipulate flows of information are disproportionately college graduates. That’s why the labor market continues to pay a premium for degrees.

The great recession of 2008 threw people from all walks of life out of work. But college graduates were most likely to have jobs when the economic crisis began and were least likely to lose them in the financial storm. Even as unemployment remains stubbornly high, college graduates are the only members of the labor force whose employment rate rose during the first five months of this year.

Yglesias chimes in:

The other thing that I always think is worth mentioning about this is career ladders. You don’t need a college degree to be a cook in a restaurant. But if you’re a good cook, you might want to start your own restaurant one day. And if you’re looking to start a business, then I think you’re going to find that skill in math, writing, etc. are all very useful. You don’t really “need” to go to college to learn that stuff, but it’s probably helpful, as are the personal and professional connections you might make in college.