In video form:
Along the same lines, a Gallup poll from a couple weeks ago shows that the Electoral College is highly unpopular:
Nearly 11 years after the 2000 presidential election brought the idiosyncrasies of the United States' Electoral College into full view, 62% of Americans say they would amend the U.S. Constitution to replace that system for electing presidents with a popular vote system. Barely a third, 35%, say they would keep the Electoral College.
Juvi:
In juvenile detention centers across the United States, one in eight detained children experience abuse in any given year—12 percent of all kids in juvenile detention. Eighty percent of them are victimized by a member of the facility's staff. "In detention facilities, there are extreme power differentials between staff and detainees, and very little oversight," [anti-prison rape activist Lovisa] Stannow says. "When people have unchecked power, bad things happen. When predators have unchecked power, horrendous things happen."
(Hat tip: E.J. Graff)
By Kevin Dietsch-Pool/Getty Images.
Today on the Dish, Alex Horton, who served for 15 months as an infantryman in Iraq, shared war stories, and soldiers were giddily welcomed home. We asked questions about Paterno's culpability, met the "guy who actually saw it," and readers reacted to Wednesday night's riots at Penn State. Andrew clarified his views on Paterno and the cult of authority, and Amazon users were incensed by Jerry Sandusky's outrageously-titled autobiography. Victor Davis Hanson went beserk in Herman Cain's defense, Cain cracked up at the charges against him, and Obama seems to have sold the GOP on a peculiar kind of affirmative action. We previewed Obama's case for re-election in what will be a very close contest, Rasmussen has him tied with Romney nationwide, and Chris Rock is ready for a "gangsta" second term. Wilkinson sees Romney as very much part of the mainstream, Huntsman boldly suggested breaking up the banks, the supercommittee has yet to get serious. In our AAA video, Andrew addressed the New Atheism.
We tracked new developments in Syria, Mark Lynch noticed a paradigm shift among Arab leaders post-Qaddafi, and the drug war is killing Mexico. We prepped for tomorrow's GOP foreign policy debate, Europe's future looks ironically German, and a general was fired for venting about the state of affairs in Afghanistan.
We toured Michael Moore's waterfront mansion, OWS faced a health crisis, and Google+ made a bad first impression. Stress doesn't inhibit conception, scientific fraud resembles Madoff-style financial deception, and poor people eat fast food less often than the middle class. We discussed the "pay-what-you-want" model, continued the conversation on outsourcing and the tax code, and glimpsed the ordinary lives of Muslim-American families. "Nudge" style paternalism undermines democracy, Mark Morford dared Christianists to boycott anti-DOMA companies, and search engines may be passé.
Jon Stewart's Perrygasm here, Moore award nominee here, Von Hoffman award nominee follow-up here, VFYW here, and MHB here.
Thursday on the Dish, Andrew processed the horrific scandal at Penn State, we absorbed the Sandusky Grand Jury report (a reader's response here), and a Penn State fan asked for calm. Buzz Bissinger wanted us to be explicit, Mark Madden saw this coming, and Andrew deplored the cult of authority.
Readers weighed in on last night's debate, Kathryn Lopez and Rick Perry attempted damage control after his historic meltdown, and Gingrich was clearly more than a high-paid "historian" for Freddie Mac. Ideology trumps race, Huntsman missed a big opportunity, and Pete Wehner woke up. Herman Cain's candidacy is clarifying, talk radio gave him an understanding of "the critical issues," and readers complicated his accuser Sharon Bialeck's account here and here. The GOP is revealing itself as utterly unfit for governing responsibility, and in our video feature, Andrew shared his favorite things about England.
McArdle braced for phase two of the global financial crisis, and Millman faulted insecure leadership. The protestors in Syria bravely plunged ahead, and democratic Islamism is possible.
We assessed the long-term market for solar energy, our tax code does send jobs overseas, and health monitoring is going cyborg. Anti-vaccine moms engaged in inadvertent bioterrorism, Sam Harris prepared us for violent attack, and we imagined a future without lying. The development of pumpkin hurling technology is halting, and pegging happens.
Von Hoffman award nominee here, hathos alert here, VFYW here, FOTD here, and MHB here.
Break ton Neck from Alex Yde on Vimeo.
Wednesday on the Dish, Andrew live-blogged the Michigan debate and we collected reax here (quote for the night here). The GOP is a party in free-fall that also doesn't understand that it is, voters pushed back against Tea Party overreach, and the Cain campaign got more chaotic and reckless. Gingrich stands to benefit, there's mounting evidence that Cain is a liar, and the Clarence Thomas narrative won't work. The evangelical soul is preoccupied with "redemptive utopianism," Romney would be completely beholden to the worst instincts of the Republican base as president, and Huntsman may get a second look. We revisited mandatory voting, Millman anticipated that Obama would be re-elected based on "weak but improving" economic fundamentals, and we wondered if the Fed could get more aggressive. In our video feature, Andrew explained that the Democrats are useless, and he addressed the horrors at Penn State.
The Syrian rebellion forged on, the brutality of Assad seems to know no bounds, and it's too soon to panic over Al Qaeda in Libya. Europe has a leadership problem, Italy has a problem with good governance, and according to Barclays, it's also mathematically beyond the point of no return. Jackson Diehl issued a statement on behalf of Netanyahu in the Washington Post, Bibi is a "piece of work," and China is decelerating.
Binge-eating is about powerlessness, "party rock" is not really about rock music, and parenting is self-expanding. Douthat relished the "devastating near-miss" in sports, most people go to college for personal fulfillment, and our social norms and instincts are not scaling at the rate of communication. A reporter agreed to be circumcised with bamboo sticks in exchange for an interview, daylight savings is bad for your health, and if you gay,you gay.
Christianist watch here, President Obama's Dungeons and Dragons Character Sheet here, VFYW here, FOTD here, MHB here, and handstand peeing dog here.
Tuesday on the Dish, Andrew live-blogged the Cain press conference, and we corralled reader reax here and blogger reax here. We assessed new and creepy developments, Karen Kraushaar came forward, and there’s a lot that Cain doesn’t know. The latest WSJ poll represents the broader collapse of popular support for 1980s Republicanism, and the conservative movement has has close to nothing to say about what's happened since. Erick Erickson unleashed "a meaty, anguished" crusade against Mitt Romney as some in the GOP establishment cautiously embraced him, Erickson's notion of conservatism is based entirely on taxes, and Obama's campaign prepared to exploit the GOP's extreme unpopularity. In our video feature, Andrew explained why he's not interested in having children, and a reader pondered the "self-obliteration" of parenthood in response.
Andrew confronted the "literal insanity" of war with Iran, Sarkozy and Obama gossiped about Netanyahu, the hard left held out against the Libya intervention, and we addressedfree speech in the case of Charle Hebdo.
We wondered if OWS is deteriorating, ex-con Jack Abramoff suggested shutting the revolving door, and our oil predicament is not about scarcity and abundance. Obamacarewon big, the WSJ assumed that seniors would happily shed Medicare for the private sector, and cannabis-related health costs are virtually negligible. We reflected on American quirks, Jon Huntsman genuinely loves Beefheart, and chimps can communicate. Peacefulness is not a product of evolution, sperm age matters, and losing weight requires metaphorical surfing. Homesickness plagued the Civil War, Magic Johnson marked the 20th anniversary of his HIV announcement, and Glee broached gay sex. We continued the debate on fantasy and spirituality, and sampled the world's most horrible fonts.
Dish check update here, correction of the day here, tweet of the day here, Doctor Who crack here, FOTD here, MHB here, VFYW here, and VFYW contest winner #75 here.
Los Angeles, California, 10.15 am
Monday on the Dish, Andrew live-blogged Sharon Bialeck and Gloria Allred's press conference (more here), and we collected reax here. The accused employed an unusual media strategy, successful non-politicians are an anomaly in politics, and the GOP turned away another major demographic. Andrew parsed Romney's plan to reform entitlements, conservatives openly resisted the former governor, and the Onion's Jon Huntsman was happy to be rejected by a "terrifying" GOP. The Obama campaign asked "what if," we took an early look at electoral math, and in our video feature, Andrew discussedwhether Obama's "evolving" views on marriage equality matter.
We checked in on Arab Christians, the stakes keep getting higher for the EU, and Pakistan’s national security establishment is at war with the US. Core issues have yet to be resolved in Iraq, we met the Iraqi team tasked with making bombs safe, and George Will demanded intellectual honesty from Republican candidates on the withdrawal of American military forces ("dryboarding" update here).
MTV took to OWS, the Oakland police doubled down, and Republicans in Congress are acting in the interests of nobody at all. Dream jobs are not a right, the generational wealth gap is widening, and progressives aren't against hard work and personal responsibility. The black market is the world's biggest employer, nature makes poisons, and the border is littered with blackened water bottles and caffeine. We addressed mobility and the high costs of moving, were introduced to climate skeptic Lord Christopher Monckton, and asked what America should be the best at. Mississippi is prepared to give an undeveloped embryo legal rights, straight guys did without a certain kind of extreme pleasure, and readers weighed in on fantasy and spirituality. Andrew extolled the uselessness of a classical education, WFB's charm made conservatism palatable, and celebrities have been imposed on animation since Aladdin. We spend more on prison than college, some crap technology actually works, and coffee should really be chased with napping.
Dish check update here, future app of the day here, poseur alert here, cool ad watch here, VFYW here, FOTD here, MHB here, and "ninja squirrel vs. stoners" here.
– M.A.
Alyssa Rosenberg calls TLC's All-American Muslim, which premieres on Sunday, "one of the best new shows of the fall":
One of the most important things that distinguishes All-American Muslim from its reality-show peers is simply that the cast is uniformly likable and engaging. … The show never treats the difficult and ongoing project of trying to reconcile the demands of faith and the possibilities of the modern world as if it's easy, or if there's an obvious answer the characters are missing. And it manages to generate powerful tension out of that most anodyne subject: tolerance.
On the other hand, Jorge Rivas is wary.
CBS and National Journal, who are hosting a GOP foreign policy debate tomorrow, solicited questions from David Frum, among others. The first question on David's list:
Mexico is being torn apart by a civil war to control the drug routes to the United States. Many Mexican leaders urge drug legalization in the US in order to move the drug trade away from violent criminals to legitimate business. If a Mexican president asked you to consider such a step, what would you answer and why?
Drezner suggests some of his own. Among them:
Many of you have criticized the Obama administration for ignoring military advice on troop decisions in Afghanistan and Iraq. During the pre-war debate with respect to Iraq, however, the Bush administration rejected troop estimates from Army Chief of Staff (and now Secretary for Veterans Affairs) Eric Shinseki. When would you be prepared to overrule the advice you receive from the military?
Jacob Sullum summarizes new research on the subject:
[A] recent study led by J. Paul Leigh, a professor of public health sciences at U.C.-Davis, finds that poor people eat in fast food restaurants less often than the middle class. Looking at data from the Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals and the Diet and Health Knowledge Survey, Leigh and co-author DaeHwan Kim found an inverse relationship between income and fast food consumption up to an annual household income of $60,000. Beyond that point, people were less likely to eat fast food.
2009 map of every McDonald's in America from here.
Gary Morgenthaler, Siri's first investor, believes that the digital assistant foreshadows Google's unraveling:
A million blue links from Google is worth far less than one correct answer from Siri. People don’t really want search engines. Rather, they want “do” engines. They want to get things done. Siri is the precursor to a revolution in search that provides far more intelligence in filtering results. The end goal is a single correct answer.
Reihan muses:
Google is a large, deep-pocketed, and resilient business enterprise, and we have no reason to believe that Siri represents the beginning of its end. … [T]he same could have been said of Tower Records and Blockbuster.
Alex Horton wants the celebration of veterans to be less about ostentation and more about listening to what they have gone through. One of his stories:
Rain had transformed Baghdad's many unpaved roads into one giant muddy sinkhole, and the engine of a Stryker vehicle moaned in a failed effort to escape. The vehicle sunk under the weight of its armor and required a tow. The driver and vehicle commander leapt to the ground to attach towing cables to the front, only to discover they weren't shin-deep in mud—they were stuck in an open sewer. One of them had to completely submerge himself to get to the tow hook. When it was over, both men were covered head to toe in jet-black ooze and sprayed down by a benevolent Iraqi in her courtyard. The worst part of that day? It was Christmas Eve, and surely one we'd remember.
The holiday muck fest is one of my favorite stories to tell civilians. Even though it's repulsive, it doesn't have an ounce of violence. No one had their limbs torn away from their bodies. No rendition of Taps swept over a memorial service to mingle with recollections of the dead. Everyone comes out okay in the end, albeit a bit filthy. My Christmas story humanizes my fellow soldiers in a way many of my other stories can't.
(Photo: Members of the military stand for the national anthem during a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on Veterans Day at Arlington National Cemetery November 11, 2011 in Arlington, Virginia. President Obama delivered remarks at the cemetery amphitheater after laying the wreath. By Kevin Dietsch-Pool/Getty Images.)
A reader counters the nomination of James C. Moore's prediction that Perry will win the presidency:
Ahem:
"I think the GOP probably will nominate Perry, and probably regret it," – Andrew Sullivan, October 3rd, 2011.
Another adds:
I think you failed to see the sarcasm in Moore's original post. And knowing his past writings against George W. Bush, I just don't see him as a big Perry supporter.
A sentence with two probablys doesn't qualify for a quality VHA. But I'll take my lumps.
Marc Lynch reads the Arab League deliberations about Assad's murders as evidence of a paradigm shift among the region's leaders:
The rapid spread of a new norm against Arab regimes killing their own people is a frankly astonishing, but largely unremarked, change in the regional game. Since the Arab League backed the UN intervention in Libya in March, the idea that regimes might be sanctioned for their domestic brutality has become a normal part of the Arab political debate and enshrined in official Arab League resolutions. Both the GCC's political transition plan for Yemen and this month's Arab League peace plan for Syria condemned regimes for their violence and called for far reaching political changes. They haven't stopped the violence. But the idea that they should is something genuinely new — and has major implications beyond the immediate outcome in either country.
Walter Russell Mead isn't buying it.
The Dish 
