Month: August 2012

The Phoniness Of Rick Warren, Ctd

Even phonier. It turns out Warren didn't cancel the event because of the rancor of the campaign:

"As I understand it, Pastor Warren received tepid responses from both camps well before the supposed 'cancellation,'" said a senior Democratic strategist in contact with the Obama campaign. "It appears that the event was canceled because neither the Romney nor Obama campaigns thought it was in their interest to do," the strategist continued, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a delicate political matter. A source close to the Romney campaign said that the former Massachusetts governor hadn't planned on attending Warren's event: “We were never going, ever. We offered to do a video.”

So Warren isn't just a phony but a liar. Besides, the idea that Mitt Romney would ever have agreed to sit down for fifty minutes to discuss the fact that he believes God was once a human being, that humans can become gods as well, that Israelite tribes once inhabited the Americas and that polygamy exists in the after-life … well, it was never going to happen, was it?

(Hat tip: Towleroad)

America’s Tory President

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Noah Millman thinks the "Obama Administration has been a quintessentially small-'c' conservative one, in that it has tried its best to preserve the status quo in just about every area":

It would be helpful if commentators like Friedman would acknowledge not only that the Republican Party has become a right-wing populist party rather than a conservative one, but that the Obama Administration is the sensible, centrist conservative Administration they claim to want – and either declare their support (rather than wishing for a better opposition) or, if they don’t like the results, reconsider their centrist policy preferences.

Indeed. Which is why my support is so passionate, because Obama is, in my view, the conservative reformist of my dreams. Almost the entire Tory party in Britain would now fit comfortably in the Democratic Party – and Cameron is clearly closer to Obama than to Romney. In fact, there is no mainstream conservative party in the West even close to the GOP's fundamentalist, revolutionary populism.

BurkeOf which other Western right of center party could the following be said: it holds that  man-made climate change is a hoax and that more carbon energy is harmless and indeed vital. On immigration, the party supports a vast wall across the Southern border, and eventual deportation by attrition of 11 million illegal immigrants. On the deficit and debt, the GOP is the only party in the West that refuses to raise any revenues to close the gap, even as revenues are at 60 year lows. On social issues, the GOP would ban any recognition for gay couples, including civil unions and would criminalize abortion in every state by constitutional amendment. More amazingly, a Romney presidency would tackle the genuinely dangerous debt and deficit by cutting taxes on everyone, especially the super-rich, vastly increasing defense spending, and making all the cuts in government medical care for the elderly and the poor. The poor get shafted first by gutting Medicaid; then the elderly get cosseted for another generation until mine and those younger than me – much poorer than the boomers – take the hit. It is, to put it bluntly, a near-parody of far-right extremism.

Larison objects to this definition of "conservative" but Millman holds his ground. Massie intervenes:

There’s a better label for Obama than conservative: Tory. The President is no kind of revolutionary. The change we can believe in is the change needed so things can remain much as they were. This is one reason why he has disappointed what remains of the Democratic left. From Gitmo to drone warfare; from protecting Wall street from the torch-and-pitchfork brigade to accepting the need for long-term deficit-reduction Obama has proved himself a very rum type of peacenik-socialist…

I can see how Obama’s interventions in the economy – from bailing-out Detroit to passing his stimulus package – can be seen as a massive expansion of government power even though a more judicious appraisal would conclude they were designed, sensibly or not, to minimise disruption, uncertainty and fear…

If Obama had come to power in happier times he might have run a different, more expressly liberal, administration. (Then again: in happier times he might never have run for the Presidency, far less won it). But constrained by circumstance and events he’s been compelled to lead in a notable unideological fashion. Rather like one kind of old-fashioned Tory, in other words.

That's why I have long been baffled as to why people said my preference over Obama was some kind of shift to the ideological left. Nope. Against a radical right, reckless, populist insurgency, Obama is the conservative option, dealing with emergent problems with pragmatic calm and modest innovation. He seeks as a good Oakeshottian would to reform the country's policies in order to regain the country's past virtues. What could possibly be more conservative than that? Or less conservative than the radical fusion of neoconservatism, theoconservatism and opportunism that is the alternative?

For thinking conservatives of a classic variety, Obama is the best president since Clinton and the first Bush. We need him for the next four years if we are to avoid the catastrophes that always follow revolutionary ideology. Like another Iraq; or another Katrina; or another Lehman.

(Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty)

Ask Jesse Bering Anything: Why Is The Prostate A Source Of Pleasure?

Be sure to check out Jesse’s new book, Why Is the Penis Shaped Like That?. From Rose Lichter-Marck’s review:

The book is a compendium of topics normally greeted with skittishness or repulsion. Premature ejaculation, autofellatio, the chemical properties of human semen, cannibalism, masturbation, female orgasm, suicidal thoughts, pedophilia, zoophilia, foot fetishism—nothing is taboo. Bering’s goofy sense of humor makes these concepts easier to digest. The book is studded with puns and self-deprecating asides about Bering’s own sex life, among them tales of his own attempts to self-fellate, musings about how simpler life would be if he could love dogs to the extent that he could “dispense with all those emotional encumbrances that come with being attracted to” another human and settle down with “a sassy little bitch,” and the confession that as a gay man, the female orgasm seems “exotic and foreign . . . like decorative basket weaving in a small African village.”

Previous videos of him here, here, here, here and here. “Ask Anything” archive here.

How Obama Can Change The Game In Charlotte

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Gallup's latest analysis focuses on shifts since the spring in public perceptions of both candidates. In some, Romney has closed a large gap, especially on the "strong leader" question (although he is still seen as weaker than Obama by five points). But Obama has gained on two: taxes and healthcare. On taxes, Obama was behind Romney by four points a month ago; now he's ahead by 9 – a 13 point swing toward the president in one month. On healthcare, Obama was even with Romney a month ago; now he's nine points ahead. In terms of winning the debate, that's a big turn-around.

But here's what's staggering to me: on the deficit, Romney is ahead. The man pledging to slash taxes and increase military spending, while gutting Medicare only for the post-boomers … is actually seen as more credible than Obama. All of which simply reiterates what may come to be Obama's fatal, mortal decision not to embrace Bowles-Simpson, even as his party and Paul Ryan torpedoed it. Imagine if Obama were able to challenge Ryan directly, on the lines David Brooks notes today, and could say: I made the hard decision to cut the debt in a realistic bipartisan fashion, and your fixation on Ayn Rand killed it.

Obama, instead, ducked. If he loses this election, it will largely, in my view, be because of that. And if I were to offer a single piece of advice to the campaign, it would be to use the convention to declare that he would sign Bowles-Simpson as written if it came to his desk. He'd instantly own the fiscal center, isolate the GOP's extremism, and reaffirm his credibility on the deficit.

The paradigm can still be shifted. Obama can say he didn't embrace the original commission because the necessary majority in the Congressional committee couldn't be rustled up. He can openly and rightly blame Ryan for torpedoing the sanest, most practical debt reduction we have on the table. He can tell his own party that they have to tackle entitlement spending and using the Mediscare tactic is not worthy of the constructive change Obama promised four years ago. He can even say he regretted not going out on a limb – but he thought a grand bargain could be reached through negotiation instead. GOP fanaticism stopped it.

The reason – incredibly – that Obama has not done this is a dislike of the big defense cuts and queasiness over muddying the Medicare issue against Romney. This shouldn't matter. What matters is that Obama should declare his first priority on being re-elected would be a grand bargain on the lines of Bowles-Simpson. Force Romney to say no. Isolate him on his tax extremism and defense spending boom. Show you're more serious on entitlement reform than Ryan's ideological fantasies – because you're backing the most credible, practical option available. Re-capture that sliver of the middle that wants to know what Obama wants to do in his second term.

And make news. So far, most of the news Obama has made has been in exposing Romney. He's got the choice election he wanted (a huge strategic achievement) and he has successfuly defined the other party's proposals (ditto). Now he needs to offer the positive choice he represents: a real grand bargain on spending and taxes, immigration reform, infrastructure investment, and embrace of multicultural America. That's the missing piece. In my view, if it isn't fixed in Charlotte, the dynamics of this race in this economy are slowly working against him.

If he doesn't shift to a positive agenda on spending and taxes, in other words, he could well lose. And deserve to.

(Photo: In this handout provided by the White House, U.S. President Barack Obama throws a football at Soldier Field following the NATO Summit working dinner on May 20, 2012 in Chicago, Illinois. By Pete Souza/The White House via Getty Images.)

Dreams Of Their Absentee Fathers

Barron YoungSmith wonders why so many of our most prominent politicians have troubled relationships with their fathers:

One possibility is that kids who are immersed in traumatic personal environments early in life become hypersensitive to the feelings of those around them and develop coping mechanisms that also make them better politicians. Quoting psychology literature, the best biography of Reagan notes that children of alcoholics become perceptive enough that they can "walk into a room, and without even consciously realizing it, figure out just what the level of tension is, who is fighting with whom, and whether it is safe or dangerous." The same instinct may have fed Reagan's desire to comfort the nation on the model of FDR's fireside chats.

A Different Kind Of Doping

Patrick Hubry retells the amazing story of Dock Ellis:

The club arrived on Thursday, an off day. Ellis rented a car. Dropped a tab of acid. Drove north to his hometown, Los Angeles. He showed up at the home of Mitzi, the girlfriend of an old childhood buddy, Al Rambo. The two drank screwdrivers. Smoked marijuana. Talked through the night. Eventually, Ellis fell asleep. Possibly for an hour. Probably less. Around noon — maybe earlier — he took another dose of LSD. Meanwhile, Mitzi flipped through a newspaper. "Dock, you better get up," she said. "You gotta go pitch!"

"What are you talking about?" he said. "I pitch tomorrow." Mitzi gave him the sports page. Ellis scanned the newsprint. Padres-Pirates. Doubleheader. Friday. Today. Game time: 6:05 p.m. Game 1 starter: Ellis, D. "Oh, wow," he said. "What happened to yesterday?"

The stunning result:

Two hours later, he would be standing on the mound at San Diego Stadium, throwing baseballs he couldn't always feel, in the general direction of batters he didn't always see, trying very, very hard not to fall over.

Ellis ended up pitching a no-hitter. Much later, he became a drug addiction counselor. Update from a reader: "Though Robin Williams' description is hilarious, be sure to check out this video of Dock talking about the incident in his own words":

The Fine Print Of Small Government

Former Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm argues that austerity has called the bluff of small-government supporters:

Austerity cuts at the state and local levels have cost over 600,000 jobs, as spending has dropped nine out of the last ten quarters. Bloomberg points out that the public sector has lost more jobs in the past three years than any other, and total government employment has reached levels not seen since the 1960s. Unemployment would be a full point lower had this not happened.

But Granholm overlooks the sizable swaths of the American public willing to tolerate the consequences of “small government”. Monica Potts flags an example:

The biggest experiment in gutting local government came from Colorado Springs in 2010. The previous fall, voters had rejected a plan to raise their own taxes to cover a shortfall in revenues. Local officials then warned that they’d have to end certain services, like neighborhood community centers, park maintenance, and streetlights. Undeterred, local residents decided to chip in to clean up in local parks, and, ultimately, the city decided to privatize some services.

This desire for “small government” bears out the polls, notes Jared Bernstein – but with a pretty big caveat:

[A]s you’d expect, significant majorities of both Republicans and Independents say they support a smaller government that does less, which is a fair description of the Republican platform and is embodied in their budget proposals…. When you ask a slightly more nuanced question about whether certain goods and services would be available to ordinary people absent government intervention—a question that hints at the role of government amidst market failure—two-thirds of respondents, including 55% of Republicans, 70% of religious Republicans, and even 30% of Tea Partiers agree.

And Bernstein, “as a member as the President’s economics team during the implementation of the Recovery Act,” recalls:

If you asked people about the Recovery Act, you’d find that most thought it was a waste.  But component parts of the bill like expanded unemployment benefits, health insurance, infrastructure, rail, and tax cuts polled in the 60-80+ percent approval range.

The Salt Sweet Spot

We need sodium to function, but too much is deadly. Luckily our bodies know when we're in danger:

[W]hile mice like the taste of salt, past a certain concentration they find it disgusting. The same is true of us. This appears to be a biological mechanism to keep us from overdosing.

"With sweet, in general, the system is geared to finding it—if you detect sweet, you want to eat it, because this is energy and you need it. With bitter, you’re programmed to avoid it. There is no fine balance of ‘eat it now’ versus ‘don’t eat it’ at another instance," says Jayaram Chandrashekar, a senior scientist in the Zuker lab at Columbia. Although humans may develop preferences for a certain amount of sweetness or nurture a love of bitter coffee, on a fundamental level salt is the only taste that has this kind of switch.

China’s Sexual Education

Dan Levin explains how the explosion of social media in China – a country with a retrograde sex ed system – "is fueling a sexual revolution the government is unable to stifle":

"People like to get off and [China's Twitter] Weibo makes that easy if you know where to look," said Lu, 21, a university student who asked that his full name not be printed to protect his identity. Not only has social media given him a cram course in sex education, it’s dispelled the government-touted myth that his countrymen are far more chaste than, say, the Japanese, who are renowned for their myriad, if pixelated, perversions. "It’s shocking what some Chinese girls will show online, but you won’t hear me complaining," he said.

Levin explains how improving technology is giving horny users a leg-up over the propaganda bureau:

While censors remove many smutty posts, the rapid-fire nature of Weibo and other social media sites make this technology far more resilient than just blocking a URL. "Websites are easy to control but Weibo is limitless," said Pan Suiming, director of research on sexuality and gender at Renmin University in Beijing. As social media has gone mobile, so has cruising. Like Grindr, the gay app that shows users the photos and locations of nearby users, China is awash in GPS-loaded apps that make it, um, easy, to  find a "date" on the go.

But, as Anthony Tao notes, censorship is only one tool the Chinese government uses to sexually repress citizens:

China has been abuzz over orgies recently, thanks to a set of scandalous pictures that surfaced last week featuring three pairs of swingers…. Amid speculation (since dispelled) that the men were high-ranking government officials, one of the men, Wang Yu, confessed to being in the photos, and he and his wife have since been fired from their [state] jobs and expelled from the Communist Party.