Author: Andrew Sullivan

Spain's David Villa – and a thing of beauty:

Villa ended up scoring both of his team's goals in the 2-0 defeat over Honduras (and he nearly scored a third).

Responding to Chait, Plumer wants legislation to tackle climate change:

In the long term … we'd really need a price on carbon to transform the country's energy sector and give people incentive to develop new clean-energy technologies—having the EPA just flatly tell polluters that they have to adopt this or that specific pollution-cutting gizmo isn't very good for innovation.

He also weighs the pros and cons of a utility-only energy bill. As do Dave Roberts and Michael Levi. The question here surely is whether using the EPA now is a form of emergency measure to preserve the option of a carbon bill or tax later. If you assume that climate change is already well in motion and that inaction could lead to unpredictable feedback loops, then time is the essence thereof. But I much prefer legislation and a full public debate to try to get Americans to put long-term interests above present gratification. Fat chance, I know, when it comes to the sacred brown substance now despoiling America's sea shore.

"This age needs rather men like Shakespeare, or Milton, or Pope; men who are filled with the strength of their cultures and do not transcend the limits of their age, but, working within the times, bring what is peculiar to the moment to glory. We need great artists who are willing to accept restrictions, and who love their environments with such vitality that they can produce an epic out of the Protestant ethic … Whatever the many failings of my work, let it stand as a manifesto of my love for the time in which I was born,” – John Updike.

This sentiment – exploring what we know and not seeking to "transcend the limits of our age" is very conservative in the Oakeshottian sense, and one senses an appreciation of that by the few public intellectuals who retains a grasp of the conservative core, Sam Tanenhaus.

"If I were given carte blanche to write about any topic I could, it would be about how much our ignorance, in general, shapes our lives in ways we do not know about. Put simply, people tend to do what they know and fail to do that which they have no conception of. In that way, ignorance profoundly channels the course we take in life. And unknown unknowns constitute a grand swath of everybody's field of ignorance," – David Dunning.

Matt Steinglass was for marijuana legalization before living in countries with lax drug laws. He now prefers  decriminalization:

In the Netherlands, marijuana possession for personal use remains illegal. It's just never prosecuted. And indeed this seems to be the case for all the European countries with relatively permissive marijuana policies…It would be nice if we could arrive at an ethically and logically consistent legal stance on drug use, but it may be that in practice that's very hard to do, and not actually very important. Basically, while Sarah Palin's position on this issue, as on many others, is semi-deliberately incoherent, it is in this case a semi-deliberate incoherence that has proven to be effective policy in many countries, and I'm not even sure it's the wrong stance on the issue.

Jonah Lehrer finds Shirky's latest book wanting:

While Shirky pokes fun at [lolcats], he still argues that it represents a dramatic improvement over the passive entertainment of television. "The real gap is between doing nothing and doing something, and someone making lolcats has bridged that gap."

There are two things to say about this. The first is that the consumption of culture is not always worthless. Is it really better to produce yet another lolcat than watch The Wire? And what about the consumption of literature? By Shirky's standard, reading a complex novel is no different than imbibing High School Musical, and both are less worthwhile than creating something stupid online. While Shirky repeatedly downplays the importance of quality in creative production–he argues that mediocrity is a necessary side effect of increases in supply–I'd rather consume greatness than create yet another unfunny caption for a cat picture.

Further thoughts at Jonah's blog:

The larger point, I guess, is that before we can produce anything meaningful, we need to consume and absorb, and think about what we've consumed and absorbed. That's why Nietzsche, in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, said we must become a camel (drinking up everything) before we can become a lion, and properly rebel against the strictures of society. 

That's Steven Zeitchik's view:

Families are the ones going to the movies these days. Perhaps the only ones.

That's not just a summer phenomenon. Almost every big hit among the 2010 releases has been a movie whose primary, if not overwhelming, audience is children 12 and under — "How to Train Your Dragon," "Shrek Forever After," "Alice in Wonderland." Ditto for the year's biggest sleeper, "Diary of a Wimpy Kid." In fact, there isn't a single big-studio movie aimed at children that failed, save perhaps for "Marmaduke" (and some would argue that wasn't a movie).

The Atlantic's James Parker recently reviewed "Diary Of A Wimpy Kid."

Desktops are on the way out:

Amazingly, by 2015, desktops will constitute just 18 percent of the consumer PC market, if Forrester's projections bear out. In other words, more than 80 percent of PCs will be portable. Part of this is driven by what Forrester forecasts will be the wild success of tablet computers like the iPad. In just three years' time, tablets are projected to outsell desktops, becoming the second-largest PC category after laptops. This sounds crazy until you consider that Apple alone is already selling 1 million tablets a month.

Today on the Dish, we passed along BP's latest duplicity on the extent of the leak, processed the easing of the Gaza blockade, spotlighted the latest evils to emerge over Maciel, and blogged the tweeting of an execution in Utah. The new coalition in Britain laid out its views on gay equality while Kagan stiffed gay rights. A view of the violence in Afghanistan here.

BP also burned turtles alive. Michael Barone backed Barton and Reihan did as well (but soon followed up). Crist could be coming back from the political dead because of "Drill Baby Drill". Palin wanted to pray the leak away.

Chait pushed for the EPA to bypass Congress on climate change and worried about Sharron Angle. Frum predicted that the Tea Pary will lose the GOP seats, Ariel Levy put her money on Huckabee in '12, and Larison poured cold water on Palin's chances. Kinsley criticized Krugman over the debt. Friedersdorf blegged over what could replace local newspapers and a reader responded.

In other commentary, Steven Berlin Johnson critiqued Nick Carr's new book, Evgeny Morozov went toe-to-toe with Clay Shirky over his new book, Shirky sounded off on the publishing industry, Wilkinson countered Bryan Caplan over having lots of kids, and Dreher felt sorry for child geniuses.

World Cup crack here and here. Uber pwnage of a politician here, delicious unicorns here, and Bieber-looking lesbian coverage here. MHB here, VFYW here, and FOTD here. Andrew gave Hildog some love.

— C.B.