Month: May 2012

Nicholas Thompson tries to diagnose them:

Our ancestors may have run barefoot, but they didn’t do it on asphalt and concrete. They didn’t do it on roads caked with broken glass. They also didn’t have potato chips and soda, or bodies shaped by days spent in offices. Running is an extremely complex physical motion. Changing your shoes might help, but the way stress is distributed across your body depends a great deal, too, on how your hold your head, and even how you swing your arms. Ultimately, we don’t really know whether the movement spurred by "Born to Run" will make us more or less hurt.

Some tips:

Nonverbal clues can be revealing because liars don’t rehearse gestures, just words. They freeze their upper body, oftentimes look down, lower their voice, slow their breathing and blink rate, slump, and then exhibit relief when the interview is over. Interrogators will often end an interview prematurely just to look for that relief—that shift in posture and relaxation. Pay attention to science and not myths: We think liars won’t look you in the eyes, but it turns out an honest person will only look you in the eyes about 60 percent of the time.

But be careful:

According to a 2002 study conducted by the University of Massachusetts, 60% of adults can’t have a ten minute conversation without lying at least once. But even that number makes it sound better than it really is; those people in the study who did lie actually told an average of 3 lies during their brief chat. And I know you’re sitting there right now insisting you would be part of the 40% that didn’t lie. That’s what the liars in the study thought, too. When they watched the taped conversations back, they were shocked at how many fibs they had told.

Rove's group is opening a $25 million campaign with the following spot, running in ten states that went for Obama in 2008: 

Maggie Haberman offers context: 

Crossroads is matching the Obama campaign's announced plans for $25 million in TV time over a similar period — providing Mitt Romney with needed air cover as he tries to husband resources. … It's a 60-second ad — a new twist on the old theme of using a television as illustration, this one uses an iPad — and focuses on pledges Obama has made in his term, saying he broke them. "We need solutions, not just promises," is the phrase the ad wraps up. It will run through the end of May. … The fact that Crossroads — which is a third of the way to its goal of raising $300 million on the cycle — is able to quickly match the Obama campaign is a reminder of why Democrats are so focused on outside groups, which they haven't come close to rivaling.

Previous Ad War Updates: May 15, May 14, May 10, May 9, May 8,  May 7, May 3, May 2, May 1, Apr 30, Apr 27, Apr 26, Apr 25, Apr 24, Apr 23, Apr 18, Apr 17, Apr 16, Apr 13, Apr 11, Apr 10, Apr 9, Apr 5, Apr 4, Apr 3, Apr 2, Mar 30, Mar 27, Mar 26, Mar 23, Mar 22, Mar 21, Mar 20, Mar 19, Mar 16, Mar 15, Mar 14, Mar 13, Mar 12, Mar 9, Mar 8, Mar 7, Mar 6, Mar 5, Mar 2, Mar 1, Feb 29, Feb 28, Feb 27, Feb 23, Feb 22, Feb 21, Feb 17, Feb 16, Feb 15, Feb 14, Feb 13, Feb 9, Feb 8, Feb 7, Feb 6, Feb 3, Feb 2, Feb 1, Jan 30, Jan 29, Jan 27, Jan 26, Jan 25, Jan 24, Jan 22, Jan 20, Jan 19, Jan 18, Jan 17, Jan 16 and Jan 12.

Today on the Dish, Andrew went deeper into the notions of Obama as first gay president and "learning how to be gay," attacked Romney's credibility on the debt issue, chronicled the Dish's long history of levelling harsh criticism Obama's way, dropped jaw in response to Jennifer Rubin's blase acceptance of campaigning on homophobia, and took a meta-look at DC life. We explained why today's campaign debates seem so silly, aired a strong approach to Mitt's Bain days from a reader, questioned Romney's approach to the press, analyzed his net worth, gave him acting advice, guessed how undead politicians would shake up American politics, penned a eulogy for Americans Elect's grave, and compared the campaigns' respective outreach efforts to different demographic groups. Future gay men might vote Republican, the black community debated about gays, marriage equality rose in popularity for similar reasons to sushi, and marriage wasn't always a sacrament. Ad War Update here.

We also learned a great deal about the move towards marriage equality in Albania, pushed back against fears of Syria bringing down the region, and raised some ethical questions about bioengineered soldiers. Eating plants wasn't ethically unproblematic (on one theory), "staying interested" in life staved off Altzheimer's, car sharing didn't much cut carbon, and Netflix started original programming. Allahpundit's comment section explained why we didn't have comments, red states had a different set of baby names, and fundamentalism fought a decent rear guard battle in the demographic war. Finally, we explored the lawyer surplus, looked into numerology and Auden, and found an unfortunate English lesson. Ask Jim Manzi Anything here, Charts of the Day here, Hewitt Nominee here, Yglesias Nominees here and here, Quotes for the Day here, here, and here, VFYW here, MHB here, and FOTD here.

– Z.B.

It took twelve centuries for the Catholic church to make it a sacrament. For much of its history, the church was happy to let the state own the issue: 

Those who do not want to let gay partners have the sacredness of sacramental marriage are relying on a Scholastic fiction of the thirteenth century to play with people’s lives, as the church has done ever since the time of Aquinas. The myth of the sacrament should not let people deprive gays of the right to natural marriage, whether blessed by Yahweh or not. They surely do not need—since no one does—the blessing of Saint Thomas.

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Seth Masket does a Q&A on the entry of vampires into the horserace. A snippet:

[Q:] How do you think immortality would influence a vampire’s political platform or view on issues?

[A:] This would have to have a huge effect, since immortality makes irrelevant so many of the major policy issues we deal with, from health care to Social Security to war. Even if a vampire were sympathetic to mortals' concerns over these issues, it would be hard for him to convince many people that he shares their interests.

Very little:

For the most part, the people who sign up for car-sharing services were barely driving anyway. On average, Americans who use these sharing services see their car ownership numbers drop from 0.47 cars per household down to 0.24 cars per household. In other words, they went from barely owning cars to… barely owning cars. In contrast, car ownership for the country as a whole is about 1.87 vehicles per household. That’s one reason the effect on climate pollution is so small.

A reader writes:

A note on the recent Obama campaign ad. As I see it, the real problem is not that Bain ultimately shut down GST. Absent those lucky duckies on the wingnut welfare circuit, no one’s guaranteed permanent employment.  The problem is that, in doing so, they reneged on a series of financial promises made to GST’s then-employees and retirees: their pensions and health care benefits.  These pensions and benefits were part of the employees’ compensation – earned over many years on the job.  Romney, in order to maximize Bain’s short-term profit on the deal, broke those promises.  That is a fundamental breach of the social contract between employer and worker.  Moreover, it is simply a loathsome way to do business.   

You know, it’s interesting, as an attorney, I spend a lot of time reading the libertarians over at the Volokh Conspiracy.  To a man, they purport to believe in the sanctity of contract rights.  During the auto bailout, they raged and gnashed their teeth when various bondholders were forced to take losses by the big unions and their lackeys in the administration.  Remarkably, they never have anything to say when a worker gets screwed out of earned pension benefits or health care coverage.  It’s as if the contract rights of labor are somehow illegitimate or second-class compared to the inviolate rights of the One Percent.

A rescued Magellanic Penguin from South America looks into the camera from its enclosure at the new June Keys Penguin Habitat at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, California, on May 16, 2012, during a press preview one day ahead of the opening of a new exhibit highlighting the environmental threats faced by these animals. Penguins have existed on our planet for more than 50 million years but current environmental issues such as climate change and overfishing threaten their survival. By Frederic J. Brown/AFP/GettyImages.