Author: Andrew Sullivan

"Revolution, in any field, means the old stuff people used to do starts failing, and most of the new stuff people try fails too,"- Clay Shirky.

Jason Kuznicki joins the debate:

Your genes are not little avatars of your Self. They are not post-theistic souls on which to pin your dashed hopes for immortality. They are not even alive, for crying out loud. Want to save your genes for all eternity? Build a fifty-foot granite monument and inscribe them. It would work about as well for your purposes.

Kottke passes along this gem:

Richard Thaler repeats his thesis:

I don’t like most pure paternalism either. But I really feel that the best way to fend off pure paternalism is by utilizing nudges instead of shoves, and by insisting that we keep the nudges as gentle as possible. Can any true libertarian really disagree?

I truly believe that libertarian paternalism offers an approach to public policy that libertarians can embrace and, in so doing, avoid being mischaracterized themselves. Libertarians are not lunatics, though by taking extreme views they open themselves to caricature as in the cartoon that appears in this week’s New Yorker. A man is standing in front of his blazing home holding a bucket of water and turning down the help of the fire department with the explanation that “I am a libertarian.”

Today on the Dish, Andrew live-blogged the second debate of the British election. Reax here. Insta-polling here and pre-debate primer here. Prior to the debate, the Tory tabloids trashed Clegg, Twitter rallied around Nick, Lord Mandelson sucked up to him, and Andrew assessed it all. Overall update here.

Andrew cheered on South Park and gave the finger to Viacom over the Muhammad episodes. Matt and Trey clarified the situation.

Matt Steinglass, Daniel Indiviglio, Ezra Klein, and Jon Chait covered financial reform. The Dish started a debate over DC statehood, a reader sounded off on athlete brains, another dissented over Andrew's dissing of Texas, and our clone discussion continued. A Philly politician outed a candidate as straight, Levin called Manzi as zealot, Douthat wanted to laugh it off, and Kottke highlighted a fascinating profile of human endurance. A cool ad here and a final batch of remixes here.

— C.B.

Musings On Iraq watches the latest developments:

Maliki is intent upon holding onto power even though it should be becoming increasingly apparent to him that is a fading dream. As reported before, he has turned on so many parties in the last two years that no one trusts him. He is still hoping that a re-count will give him the most seats, and that will change the dynamic in any talks with other lists. He also apparently believes that if he can hold out long enough the National Alliance will give up their opposition to him. Neither is likely to happen however, so these moves will just be more wasted time until Maliki realizes he has to step aside for Iraq to have a new government.

Joyner alerts us that "a Hitler parody of Constantin Film’s move to  [make YouTube] remove parodies of 'Downfall' with copyright claims has been made." Of course, Hitler was also behind the copyright complaint:

Flipped version here. Ten others here.

You may have noticed that my clip of the original Super Best Friends South Park episode from July 2001 featuring a clear depiction of Muhammed has now been disabled. The message on the site reads:

We Apologize that South Park Studios Cannot Stream This Episode

So since this morning, the censorship has spread to the website. Fuck you, whales! Fuck you, Viacom!

Douthat feels that labeling Levin’s antics entertainment is the only defense:

Both politically and intellectually, American conservatism would be better off if Levin’s fans responded to Manzi’s post, not by objecting that he didn’t take “Liberty and Tyranny” seriously enough (he did take Levin’s arguments seriously, and that’s precisely why his criticisms were so scathing), but by saying “relax, it’s only entertainment.”

 Ah, yes, Limbaugh is just a comedian. Beck is just a showman. Palin is just a hockey mom. Screw that. It’s the lamest excuse imaginable. Either these people are making political arguments or they are not. If they are they have to be able to counter opposing arguments and deal with debate. Period. Friedersdorf counters:

I am sure we’d all be better off if Mr. Douthat prevailed, and they were considered mere entertainers. But imagining that this is even a possibility ignores overwhelming evidence that their very existence as popular entertainers hinges on an ability to persuade listeners that they are “”worth taking seriously as political and intellectual actors.”

Manzi caps off the debate. Not on the Corner.

And total Chait bait.