Author: Andrew Sullivan

Douthat takes a hard look at the long-term debt.

Ezra Klein wants to know why the fight over unemployment benefits extension hasn't gotten more attention:

This dispute has gotten quieter and quieter, even as its results have become more and more dire. The vote last night means that 2 million Americans will lose their unemployment checks by July 12. But neither the New York Times nor The Washington Post are carrying it on their homepages above the fold.

A reader writes:

Why is Kathleen Parker using anything Paul Payack says to make a point? Payack is a hack who gets nothing but eye rolls from linguists. In 2008, his meticulous attention to language had him saying and writing "Obama Barack" instead of "Barack Obama." I shit you not.

A reader writes:

Burroway says: "Of course, many on the religious right would still condemn all abortions regardless of the reason. But for them, finding a medical “cure” for homosexuality would be perfectly acceptable."

Although I don't doubt that the religious right would be quite alright with the eradication of homosexuality, I think that a biologically based "cure" would create a bit of a conundrum for them. After all, their opposition to homosexuality, at least ostensibly, stems from the fact that they see it as a sin. But if there is a biological basis for homosexuality, then one cannot say that homosexuality has been chosen. And if you don't have a choice about sexual orientation, then homosexuality cannot be considered a sin. One can't be held accountable for something they have no control over.

So the religious right would have to choose between their homophobia and the rationale for their homophobia. If you back the "cure", then you acknowledge that homosexuality is biological in nature and, therefore, not a sin. But if you choose to believe that homosexuality is chosen, and a sin, then a medical cure for homosexuality presents a legitimate challenge to that belief.

Linguist Mark Liberman lays into Kathleen Parker for calling Obama "our first female president":

What's her evidence for this lack of "rhetorical-testosterone"? Along with a lot of vague stuff about how Obama is "a chatterbox" who shares with "Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton" (!) the ability to "assume feminine communication styles effectively", the column includes exactly one relevant fact:

Obama's [oil crisis] speech featured 13 percent passive-voice constructions, the highest level measured in any major presidential address this century, according to the Global Language Monitor, which tracks and analyzes language.

… The first thing to say is that there isn't the slightest evidence that passive-voice constructions are "feminine". 

Women don't use the passive voice more than men, and among male writers, number of passive-voice constructions doesn't appear to have any relationship at all to real or perceived manliness. The "passive is girly" prejudice seems to be purely due to the connotations of (other senses of) the term passive, misinterpreted by people who in any case mostly wouldn't recognize the grammatical passive voice if it bit them on the leg. …

I don't have time this morning to try to figure out how Mr. Payack [of the Global Language Monitor] derived his passive percentages, if any information about this is available — I'll have more to say when I've looked into this further. But I did just make a quick analysis of president George W. Bush's post-Katrina address to the nation. I count 142 sentences, 25 of which contained one or more passive-voice tensed verb constructions. That's 17.6%. Doing the same thing with Barack Obama's post-oil-spill address, I count 135 sentences, 15 of which contain one or more passive-voice tensed verb constructions. That's 11.1%.

Alyssa Rosenberg posts the trailer to the next season of Jersey Shore. When will Snooki run for Congress as a Republican? She seems to have all the necessary credentials.

"Let’s just disengage ourselves from the myth that Ronald Reagan never raised taxes. He did. And here are four big ones. So I hope this will clear the air for some of the groups today. In 1982, the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act, that rolled back about a third of his ‘81 tax cuts, raised corporate tax rates, and to a lesser extent income tax rates. Raised taxes by almost one percent of GDP, which at that time was the largest percentage in peacetime increase ever. 1982 gas tax increase, 1983 Greenspan commission raised payroll taxes…Then there was the 1984 deficit reduction tax…Then there was the Railroad Retirement Revenue Act, Consolidated Omnibus Budget of ‘85…So there were a lot of them. Just thought I’d throw that in," – Alan Simpson, reality-based conservative.

If you want to cut the debt, you will have to raise taxes. Letting all the Bush tax cuts expire is a start. Ending an unsustainable tax cut is not a tax hike. It is simply financing the government through taxation rather than borrowing from the Chinese.

Allahpundit notices:

[Obama] once told “Meet the Press” (again, back in 2007) that while raising the retirement age is “not the best option,” he’d listen to all arguments in the interest of restoring long-term solvency to the program. Why the left thinks he wouldn’t be willing to deal with a Republican Congress on that point is beyond me; as he’s shown repeatedly, first and foremost during ObamaCare, he’s happy to compromise on progressive sacred cows like the public option in order to get something passed. There’s already talk from unlikely quarters about investing a chunk of the Social Security trust fund in the stock market. Why would the retirement age be off limits if that isn’t?

I think this will be the dynamic of the second two years – calling the Republican bluff on spending, debt and entitlements. I cannot wait. In that sense, a GOP takeover in one chamber would end the current Republican game of nihilism. They'd have responsibility – and might be forced by Obama, yes, Obama, to walk the walk of their own alleged fiscal conservatism – something they haven't done in a decade and a half.

Then watch Obama's ratings with Independents …