Author: Andrew Sullivan

I already revealed my fave. But this one is a total Dish-pander:

Another classic:

 

I thought George Friedman was pushing the envelope on this meme for Obama's political revival, but then David Broder enters the lunatic circus-ring:

Look back at FDR and the Great Depression. What finally resolved that economic crisis? World War II.

Here is where Obama is likely to prevail. With strong Republican support in Congress for challenging Iran's ambition to become a nuclear power, he can spend much of 2011 and 2012 orchestrating a showdown with the mullahs. This will help him politically because the opposition party will be urging him on. And as tensions rise and we accelerate preparations for war, the economy will improve.

I am not suggesting, of course, that the president incite a war to get reelected. But the nation will rally around Obama because Iran is the greatest threat to the world in the young century. If he can confront this threat and contain Iran's nuclear ambitions, he will have made the world safer and may be regarded as one of the most successful presidents in history.

There is so much clinically nuts about this, one doesn't know where to start. Friedman, at least, did not pretend that war is like some kind of tax cut or electoral gambit to be toyed with. Then there's the notion that Republicans would in any way support this president for anything (notice their deafening cheers on bombing the living crap out of Afghanistan yet? Or for the remarkably successful and increasingly tough sanctions on Iran?) Blake Hounshell helps out with the economics:

In case it's not obvious, this is crazy for a number of reasons. One is that markets don't like tensions, and certainly not the kind that jack up oil prices. Second, World War II brought the United States out of the Great Depression because it was a massive economic stimulus program that mobilized entire sectors of society. Today's American military has all the tools it needs to fight Iran, and there isn't going to be any sort of buildup. Hasn't Broder been reading his own newspaper? The Pentagon is looking to find billions in cuts as it confronts the coming world of budget austerity.

I'll leave the question of whether Iran is truly "the greatest threat to the world" to others.

Oh, he just got that talking point from Hiatt's Cheneyesque coterie. The only broader point I'd make here is that it is now clear that "the dean of Washington journalism" can write a column that would barely make it past the link-worthiness of some batshit commenter on RedState or the deeper, crazier recesses of the unpaid blogosphere.

The MSM still has many good columnists. But when you really see the man behind the curtain, you begin to realize just how full of crap these Beltway Wizards of Oz can be.

Using as her main piece of evidence the health insurance reform bill, Megan concludes

I worry that if Republicans get in, we'll end up with a huge budget problem. And I also worry that if Democrats retain control, we'll end up with a huge budget problem.  I see no evidence at this point that I should worry more about one than the other.  We have a huge deficit problem.  And I'm pretty sure that whatever batch of politicians we elect next Tuesday is going to make it worse, rather than better.

I will make my call depending on each party's and the president's responses to the Debt Commission proposals. But the record of the past couple of decades, especially the last one, leads me to believe that the greater threat to America's fiscal future lies with the GOP. But the Dems have yet to show any spine on entitlement cuts. Seeing how health insurance reform's Medicare cuts fare will also be a revealing moment. The Dish remains fiscally obsessed with balancing our books. We'll happily credit either party for making the biggest effort to get us there.

“Since the true things about Jonah Goldberg are more than adequate to make the case that he’s a waste of space on a crowded planet, there’s no need to invent false ones,” – Mark Kleiman.

To me, the column was simply a college Republican at 3 am in a dorm room, making a debater’s point rather than confront any sort of reality. The kind of adolescent attitude that would prompt someone during a high-point of unaccountable executive power, presidentially-authorized torture and pre-emptive warfare, to write a book called “Liberal Fascism.”

“Joe Miller – do not give up. It’s you against the machine. This is it. ‘Lost causes’ are the only ones worth fighting for,'” – Sarah Palin, tweeting.

That's the crowd-count contrast that seems about as solid as these statistics come. Now how many op-eds, feature stories, and front-pages are going to be commissioned about the sensible, but clearly mobilized, sane middle in this country?

(Image via Buzzfeed)

Photographer Sarah Sudhoff "creates large-scale color photographs of stained fabrics from trauma scenes and discusses the invisibility of death in our culture":

At the Hour of Our Death from Mark & Angela Walley on Vimeo.

(Hat tip: Devour)

The following advice to Christian college students applies to secular ones as well:

Be deeply intellectual. We—that is, the Church—need you to do well in school. That may sound strange, because many who represent Christian values seem concerned primarily with how you conduct yourself while you are in college; they relegate the Christian part of being in college to what is done outside the classroom.

The Christian fact is very straightforward: To be a student is a calling. Your parents are setting up accounts to pay the bills, or you are scraping together your own resources and taking out loans, or a scholarship is making college possible. Whatever the practical source, the end result is the same. You are privileged to enter a time—four years!—during which your main job is to listen to lectures, attend seminars, go to labs, and read books.

It is an extraordinary gift. In a world of deep injustice and violence, a people exists that thinks some can be given time to study.

Maynard, Massachusetts, 12 pm