Tyler Cowen warns that "the Haitian social fabric is fraying":
Most people are ignoring the Haitian situation, as they have mistakenly concluded it has stabilized. It has not. You still have a million and a half people, in a basically untenable situation, more or less homeless, with the heart of the country destroyed and not much ongoing reconstruction or reform.
A new Tumblr that narrates scenes found in high-end home catalogs:
Elaine was not amused by Gary’s passive-aggressive response to her request to “garnish the cocktails.”
Drum's counterpoint:
Contra Megan's headline ("No Easy Way To Fix Social Security"), Social Security is a pretty easy problem to address, and the reason it's easy is that you don't have to limit yourself to a single big solution. In fact, Social Security reform practically cries out for a basket of small, almost imperceptible changes. You could, for example, partially uncap the payroll tax or change the tax rate slightly (or a combination of the two); gradually increase the retirement age to 68; and adjust the inflation calculation for annual benefits slightly. This would fix Social Security's problems entirely and would be barely noticeable for most people.
Rob Tisinai vents:
There are plenty of reasons to ban adult/child marriage, reasons that have nothing to do with same-sex marriage, reasons that have nothing to do with tradition. I imagine our opponents would agree with those reasons. But they conveniently forget them when they claim that altering a tradition means anything goes. And I have to wonder — again — if the case against marriage equality is so strong, why must they resort to arguments that collapse into repellent chaos with a moment’s examination?
Of course, that’s a question that answers itself.
Today on the Dish, Kagan yucked it up with Senators, punted on the Twilight question, and went back on her word. The British government moved on torture, a new study proved that the NYT rarely used the term with the US, and the first hurricane seemed to do some good in the Gulf. Andrew challenged Breitbart on his offer to pay $100K for Journolist.
Prop 8 update here. Drug War coverage here and here, and police state watch here. A reader didn't buy the Palin clone's shtick. More on Palin here and here. More Trig talk here, here, and here. The Stranger and Jim Burroway looked at efforts to change sexuality in utero.
Frum addressed his apostasy, Bob Bennett scrutinized his own side, and Continetti criticized Beck. Noah Millman went another round on Afghanistan, McArdle countered Dylan Matthews on Social Security, Dana Goldstein put the conflict mineral trade under the microscope, and Gene Demby noted the end of rubber rooms. A reader demanded evidence showing that porn is detrimental and another critiqued the MSM. Cup coverage here and here. MHB here, VFYW here, and FOTD here.
— C.B.
DiA sums up one of the dullest confirmation hearings in recent memory (as evidenced by Al Franken's "note taking"):
The public knew little about Ms Kagan prior to this week's hearings, and they've learned little new about her during her three days of testimony, at least when it comes to how she might act as a justice. The hearings have proceeded in what has become a predictable fashion. Ms Kagan, a former law professor, has proved to be quick-witted, delivering the most fluid performance by a nominee since John Roberts's display five years ago. She seems able to speak at length about any legal subject, but has artfully dodged queries about how she might rule about most controversial issues, such as abortion and gay marriage.
The Bulwer-Lytton award is given annually for the worst first sentence of a novel. Contestants craft deliberately bad opening lines. Molly Ringle took the 2010 prize with this gem:
For the first month of Ricardo and Felicity’s affair, they greeted one another at every stolen rendezvous with a kiss — a lengthy, ravenous kiss, Ricardo lapping and sucking at Felicity’s mouth as if she were a giant cage-mounted water bottle and he were the world’s thirstiest gerbil.
A reader writes:
Regarding your post about porn and whether or not it's destroying sexuality, I'm calling bullshit. This entire argument seems ridiculously tired to me. First, these books describing the crisis of sexuality in America often rely on one-on-one interviews with very little qualitative data. I've yet to see any serious studies showing that men or women are enjoying sex less, are less satisfied with their partners, etc. The interview with Gail Dines is one anecdote after another. The only thing this woman convinced me of is that she's got shoddy methodology and her kids must spend an inordinate amount of time rolling their eyes.
The sexual data points we do have suggest positive sexual trends: that younger women may be delaying vaginal sex with safer forms of sex (oral) and that women are delaying childbearing (suggesting greater reproductive power), among others. And I'd be willing to bet that women have greater agency in their sexual lives today than ever before. Who do you think was/is more likely to speak up about sex they don't like: your grandmother or your sister? (Sorry to bring your theoretical grandma and sister into this.)
Gail Dines, in the NSFW video above, makes her case against pornography in graphic detail but without the data this Dish reader requests. Amanda Hess has more clips of anti-porn activists speaking at a recent conference in DC.
Gene Demby marks the closing of NYC's holding pens for unfireable teachers unfit to teach. Suspended teachers will now be "reassigned to the city's department of education offices, where they'll work until their cases are resolved":
Designating teachers as unfireable means any serious conversation about good and bad teachers — of what they look like — is essentially tabled. The end result is that the nation's largest public school system essentially grades all of its teachers "competent," leaving the difficult work of fixing schools undone in the face of maintaining polite fictions.
A reader writes:
I am a physician and absolutely do not believe the Palin account of Trig's delivery story. But I am also a woman, and your shock that if she would lie about this is simply a man's perspective. Women lie about pregnancy/birth/parentage all the time. Women withhold the truth when they get abortions and don't tell the potential father. Women have babies and lie about who the father really is even when they know. So what seems like a terrible lie to you doesn't even come close to lies women tell on this subject. This is why I think you overstep on the Trig issue.
The lie about Trig likely came about to feed her ego that she is a hero; she is a martyr for even having him. But I, and I suspect other women, see this as an intrusion. So even if you prove what is likely true – that she is lying – it is neither unique nor crazy.
The Dish 