Author: Andrew Sullivan

In case you were wondering what the next generation of MSM investigative reporting will look like. Parody to follow.

Flowing Data has made a few eye-opening info-graphics:

BP processes about 1.5 million barrels of crude oil per day, across six refineries in the United States. In total, 150 refineries in the United States process just under 18 million barrels per day, so BP processes about 8.5 percent of it. However, as reported by the Center for Public Integrity, 97 percent of the most dangerous violations found by OSHA were on BP properties.

"Orly Taitz, the original birther, may be the GOP nominee for Secretary of State in CA," – Ambers.

Jeff Wise tells of an encounter with a mountain lion:

When the danger is far away, or at least not immediately imminent, the instinct is to freeze. When danger is approaching, the impulse is to run away. When escape is impossible, the response is to fight back. And when struggling is futile, the animal will become immobilized in the grip of fright. Although it doesn't slide quite as smoothly off the tongue, a more accurate description than "fight or flight" would be "fight, freeze, flight, or fright"­ or, for short, "the four fs."

(Hat tip: Schneier)

Beinart serves up an excerpt from his new book, The Icarus Syndrome: A History of American Hubris:

How could our forefathers have been so cowardly and immoral? Stalin was a monster; so was Mao, and they both had nuclear weapons aimed at us. Why did we live with that sword of Damocles? Why did we accept their dominion over billions of souls? Once upon a time, the answer was obvious: Because we lacked the power not to.

Franklin Roosevelt knew the American people would not sacrifice their sons by the thousands to keep Eastern Europe from Soviet hands. During Korea, Harry Truman blundered into war with Beijing, and realized that in Asia too, the price of denying America’s communist foes a sphere of influence was appallingly high. Even Ronald Reagan proved so reluctant to challenge Soviet control over Poland in the early eighties that conservative commentators accused him of betrayal. In different ways, all these presidents understood that in foreign policy, as in life, there are things you may fervently desire but cannot afford. And in foreign policy, the recognition that resources are limited, and precious, is even more important since you are not merely spending other people’s money; you are spilling other people’s blood.

William Easterly wants the complexity of extreme poverty to inform our responses to it:

E.D. Kain struggles with school choice:

I want to talk about school choice again, because it’s one of those topics that I have a really hard time coming to terms with, and it struck me over the weekend that this is at least partly because the schools and charter schools in my home town are so much different than the schools and charter schools in say Newark or Cleveland. Here, the public schools are actually pretty good and the charter schools are just another alternative – not really a “way out” from a terrible public education monopoly, but rather give people a different approach to education. Maybe a charter focuses on different teaching styles, or performing and fine arts, or more homework. Choice is really just choice and nothing more. It’s not life and death.

Yglesias berates liberals for scare mongering over performance pay for teachers and Ezra takes on the "first hired, last fired" system.

Jim Burroway analyzes a longitudinal study finding that the children of lesbian parents do better than the children of heterosexual parents. His caveat:

This study is one of the very few to suggest more positive outcomes [for children of lesbian parents] than children from heterosexual families, a claim that would require more research before it could be regarded as anything more than an outlier.  But it’s easy to imagine one reason for this surprising finding. These parents were recruited because they were about to undergo artificial insemination. This means that in every case, these children were brought into the world because they were wanted and planned for. None of them are the product of a drunken tryst in the back seat of a Chevy. These mothers had to investigate options, invest money, and really want to become mothers. This alone can account for the difference.

(Image from here.)

Masoud Shafaee keeps faith:

[T]he regime has lost its religious standing in the eyes of countless Muslims. In a region with an increasing number of devout followers – be they Sunni or Shia – it was always the Islamic component of the "Islamic republic" that earned Iran admiration outside its borders. A year after the election, in the face of overwhelming evidence of state-sanctioned murder, torture and even rape, the regime's moral authority is in shreds. Several of Iran's grand ayatollahs have even publicly blasted the government during the last year. As the late dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Hussein-Ali Montazeri, the former heir apparent to Khomeini, put it: "This regime is neither Islamic nor a republic."

Today, many are speculating about the death of the Green movement. Following a brutal crackdown, the massive protests seen in June tapered off, before being definitively suppressed on the Islamic Republic's 31st anniversary in February. Yet while the streets may now be emptier, the Green movement is far from finished. As the Iranian saying goes, "There is fire under the ash."

Today on the Dish, Andrew laid into BP, demanded the full footage of the flotilla, spotlighted an empty apology from Israel, and went to bat for whistleblowers and Wikileaks. Beinart detailed the Israel-evangelical nexus and readers sounded off on his plea for Gilad Shalit. We also touched upon the Helen Thomas row and caught Palin in another lie.

In assorted coverage, tea-partiers started to get serious on military spending, Andrew Exum slapped his forehead over Fiorina, Bernstein further pegged the GOP as the party of torture, and Andrew Revkin kept a close eye on BP. Ezra Klein laid out his budget strategy, Greenwald had a field day with White House reporters Super-soaking with top officials, Chris Beam lampooned political scientists, Kinsely weighed in on worst case scenarios, Douthat looked for a silver lining in the potential Newsmax-Newsweek deal, and Yglesias predicted an army of elder bloggers.

Andrew and a reader discussed Palin's broken Christianity, another reader endorsed a quieter faith, and Stephen Prothero supported a similar non-faith. Elle renewed the debate over male reproductive rights, Sady Doyle downplayed the perils of hooking up, Laura Vanderkam vouched for working in pajamas, Jonah Lehrer gazed into our memories, Nick Carr garnered a bunch of attention, and a reader shared her recession.

Catholic WTF here. A cool ad for gay marriage here. Hot beard action here. MHB here, VFYW here, and FOTD here. Details about a new Dish feature here.

— C.B.