Author: Andrew Sullivan

Goldblog admonishes the ADL:

This is a strange war we’re fighting against Islamist terrorism. We must fight the terrorists with alacrity, but at the same time we must understand that what the terrorists seek is a clash of civilizations. We must do everything possible to avoid giving them propaganda victories in their attempt to create a cosmic war between Judeo-Christian civilization and Muslim civilization. The fight is not between the West and Islam; it is between modernists of all monotheist faiths, on the one hand, and the advocates of a specific strain of medievalist Islam, on the other. If we as a society punish Muslims of good faith, Muslims of good faith will join the other side. It’s not that hard to understand. I’m disappointed that the ADL doesn’t understand this.

But it’s a sign of just how deep the religious war now runs. Adam Serwer:

Let’s be clear. This is not about the proposed Islamic Center. There is already a masjid in the neighborhood, and it’s been there for decades. This is about giving political cover to right-wing politicians using anti-Muslim bigotry as a political weapon and a fundraising tool. By doing this the ADL is increasingly eroding its already weakened credibility as a non-partisan organization.

JF at DiA:

You cannot “categorically reject appeals to bigotry” and then back precisely the outcome those bigots back. You are in essence saying you agree with the bigots but just wish they would be a little nicer about it. You are in essence saying that the right to worship and assemble peaceably should be curbed when exercising those rights might run counter to “strong passions” and “keen sensitivities”. You are in essence saying that grievance trumps first-amendment protections. This is a position unworthy of an organisation that claims to defend civil rights.

Richard Posner didn't enjoy the series:

The overarching theme of the study is that the intelligence system is too large. But in emphasizing sheer size, the study reflects a lack of perspective. Although the national security state has about 100,000 employees and annual expenditures of $75 billion, IBM has four times as many employees and yearly costs approaching the same amount. Is IBM too large? Is $75 billion, which is roughly one-half of one percent of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product, too much to spend on the full range of intelligence activities in which the world’s most powerful and globally committed nation—a nation at war and struggling against terrorism on many fronts, including the home front—is compelled to engage?

A helpful discussion between two of the smartest thinkers on morality, politics and religion:

Avent counters Manzi:

If you look closely, you’ll find that Manzi has gone and made the case for a carbon price in as compelling a fashion as you’re likely to find. Manzi thinks about automobiles and gas taxes and pictures a certain kind of innovation — new cars with new engines that don’t run on gas. And when he looks at Europe he doesn’t see it. But does that mean that there has been no innovation in response to the higher gas tax rates?

Clearly that’s not the case. In general, Europeans do drive different automobiles, which tend to be smaller and more efficient.

Anti-abortion activists hold an event to 'beat and hang' Senator Lindsey Grahams, R-SC, in effigy for committing 'ethical and political treachery against the babies of North Carolina, and the laws of God' on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, July, 29, 2010. By Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images.

E.D. Kain contests this Malkin Award:

If you believe in your heart of hearts that an unborn child is nevertheless a child – a living, growing, human being – and yet the law of the land dictates that said living, growing human being is not in possession of even the most basic right – the right to life – then how different is this from slavery?

Copyranter scratches his head over "the Kurt Cobain dwarf doppelgänger":

The point, I guess, of this unfortunately humorous ad for a New Zealand domestic violence support organization is that, when you've been abused by an angry man-monster, you see angry man-monster faces everywhere. Sorry, but smiles should never be the result of viewing an ad for such a serious subject.

Former NYT food critic Frank Bruni indulges in thoughtless eating:

Too often, those of us who swim deeply in the food culture of the moment give the impression that every dining choice made is a deeply considered one, that life is a series of carefully researched, freighted judgment calls about the content, and destination, of every single meal. But is life really lived that way? Can it ever be? Do any of us really have the time or energy (or budget) for that?

I know I don't. And as often as not, when I wrap up a day on the road around 9:00 p.m., I'm tired enough or eager enough for a solitary moment or interested enough in NOT thinking so hard about eating and food that I just get room service, or plop myself on a bar stool at a restaurant that I select spur-of-the-moment, or do something along those lines. I make a deliberate decision NOT to deliberate too much.

A reader writes:

Your reader writes:

I’ve been smashed in the face to the point of having my front teeth chipped.  Along with that kind of trauma comes cut and severely swollen lips, gum damage, and the inability to smile like she is in the photo

A blow directly to the mouth that breaks teeth is indeed likely to significantly injure the lips.  However, that is certainly not the only type of blow that may result in chipped or broken teeth.  A blow to the lower jaw, for instance, may cause the lower and upper teeth to hit each other with enough force to chip several teeth, while leaving the lips completely uninjured. I’m not a dentist, but I am an emergency physician, and I have seen a lot of patients come to the ER because of a broken tooth.  Sometimes they have lip or gum damage, and sometimes they don’t.

Another reader:

That reader really has gone out on a limb.  In my youth, I chipped my four front teeth after having drunk too much (I fell and apparently had my mouth open when I hit the ground causing my four top teeth to take the entire impact).  I had no lacerations on my face or any other injuries except my bruised ego.  I got up, dusted myself off and continued my evening.  Of course the next day, I was cussing myself out, especially after getting the bill from my dentist.  Note, I do not have buck teeth nor an overly sized mouth.  It was just one of those freak accidents that happen all too often when inebriated.

A final reader:

I think that it is outrageous for someone to assert those pictures are fake. If you look at the picture, you can see her swollen lip. If there was broken skin, it could have been on the inside of the mouth, she could have cleaned it up a bit, she could have taken the pictures several hours after the injury. The benefit of the doubt obviously has to go with Oksana, and given the incredibly nasty phone calls, those recordings reveal exactly the kind of abuse and invective that a domestic abuser would use. It’s not a far reach to think he’d slug a woman.

Jonathan Rauch tracks the Republican-leaning Independents, who are currently tilting to the GOP – but also demanding much more ideological purity:

In a span of only two years, independents went from leaning solidly Democratic on most issues to being scattered toward the middle and often leaning Republican. That was a significant rightward swerve.

But not on all issues … What appears to be happening is that debranded Republicans are more economically than socially conservative. True, many of them may be both, but the issues that motivate them are primarily economic. Their flight from the Republican Party is pulling the average ideology of independents in a libertarian direction, a trend amplified by a milder tendency of non-leaning independents to move in the same direction.

That's great for 2010. But for the long run, it means that the GOP becomes more marinated in the right, while the Dems retain a pretty broad coalition: 

If the GOP take an election victory this fall as evidence that bashing Muslims, illegal immigrants and declaring Obama a socialist while offering no actual specific spending cuts, they could alienate the middle some more. And if Obama, as I expect, pivots to debt reduction through his debt commission next year, fiscal conservatives, disgusted with the GOP and the Dems, could move back to the man they backed in 2008.

Austin Bramwell puts this more succinctly:

As a demographic matter, Republican constituencies are shrinking while Democratic constituencies are growing. At the same time, the Republican constituency is becoming increasingly conservative.

I see no Republican leaders prepared to walk slowly back to the center yet. Why would that change if they win in November? Advantage: Obama.