Author: Andrew Sullivan

It appears to have passed her by.

JPod calls Derb insane. The immigration debate continues to tear the right apart. My own neighborhood is an impromptu Latino rally right now. It’s heavily Hispanic anyway, but the one aspect of this crowd, gathering in a neighboring park before a march, that struck me was an obvious one. I’ve never seen so many American flags. I think they realize now the utter stupidity of appealing to Americans with foreign flags. If you want to come to this country, then commit to it. It’s the least this amazingly generous and open-hearted nation deserves.

Michael Totten is driving from Turkey back into Iraq. He makes one observation:

"Sometimes it seems like everyone in the Middle East hates everyone else in the Middle East. Arabs hate Kurds and Israelis. Turks hate Arabs and Kurds. Kurds hate Turks and fear Arabs. (Interestingly, Kurds love Israelis.) Everyone, especially Lebanese, hates Palestinians."

The photo is by his friend and fellow-traveler, Sean LaFreniere.

A reader writes:

"Being a "liberal of doubt," I find I have more in common with "conservatives of doubt" than with either "liberals or conservatives of faith" most of the time.  So I check in with you daily. I am also a gay man who didn’t have the nerve to fully come out to myself (let alone anyone else) until three years ago at the age of 52. Of course the biggest fear I have is the sometimes overwhelming loneliness.
That loneliness might be a reason that seniors’ positions have softened. I would not be at all surprised if there is a growing support among the senior population for a variety of domestic partnerships, exactly the arrangements that could sustain some of them through their worst fears. It would be interesting to know if the polls ever looked at attitudes toward other non-traditional partnerships to see if the whole landscape is changing."

Fascinating. Here’s more reporting on the generation of gay seniors now planning for retirement.

Joe Klein gives a glimpse into his new book.

And Islamist. And Buddhistist. And whateverist. Marty has a ball. I’m glad he’s blogging. He’s a natural.

The reader who wrote "Revenger’s Tragedy" below backed the war in Afghanistan, which makes his criticism of the Iraq war to my mind more persuasive. But it remains true that some on the hard anti-war left opposed such a war. MoveOn, for example, opposed the war. Michael Moore opposed it. The enclaves of the decadent left opposed it. Criticism of the conduct of the war in Iraq does not vindicate these people. And it’s important to keep score in that respect.

I don’t think there can be much debate that those of us who favor encouraging gay couples to settle down and get married are winning the argument. Here’s a Pew summary of polling that takes the long view. In 1996, when I wrote "Virtually Normal," the first major book to advance the case for marriage rights for gays, 27 percent of the public agreed. That number is now 39 percent. 65 percent disagreed a decade ago, a number that has now declined to 51 percent. After a spike in opposition to marriage rights in 2004 – the year the Republicans decided to mount a campaign against it – the public has shifted dramatically. I’m most surprised by the demographic where the change has been most pronounced: those over 65. In February 2004, 58 percent of those over 65 said they "strongly opposed" marriage rights for gays. Now, only 33 percent hold that position. Who’d have guessed we’d make the biggest in-roads among seniors? (Of course, it’s partly a function of their being the group most opposed in the first place). This shift seems to me to be salient with respect to the idea of amending the federal constitution to ban any legal protections for gay couples. Whatever your view, passing a constitutional amendment to enshrine for ever a public policy position that is in major flux is extremist and imprudent. But moderation and prudence are not virtues currently valued in the GOP.

"’Lawless’ is the best word to describe Baghdad for the meantime. Do whatever you like. No one will ask you what you are doing. You can kill whenever and wherever you want. You can stop your car in the middle of the street, pull your gun and shoot anyone you hate. Do you think police will come for rescue? Huh! Of course not – because they might be the ones who are shooting," Treasure of Baghdad blogger, a week ago. (Hat tip: Greg.)

If the French cannot accept even the teensiest attemp to bring market discipline and free labor markets to their over-regulated economy, then they need no longer be considered a nation with a future. They are a nation committing an extremely slow suicide by suffocation. The suffocation is caused by an overdose of insecurity. Its only cure is nerve. But nerve was never a very common French trait, was it?

(Photo: Chistophe Ena/AP)