Category: The Dish

"Senator, when you took your oath of office, you placed your hand on the Bible and swore to uphold the Constitution. You did not place your hand on the Constitution and swear to uphold the Bible," – Jamin Raskin, getting to the point, in a debate over a proposed constitutional amendment to the Maryland state constitution to prevent gay couples from having legal marriage rights.

Conservative Christians have decided to take a punt on the issue. But the Catholic bishops may be forced into a conflict with the Republican base.

Conservative Alberta, Canada, wants you to herd some sheep.

The Internet is a wonderful thing. It allows you to read what some don’t want you to read. The full Alasdair Palmer article, expunged from the digital Sunday Telegraph "for legal reasons", is now here. When you read it, you’ll see why it wasn’t good for you. I’m trying to find out the real story. But I also have three weeks to finish writing a book.

Isaac Hayes departs South Park because they dared to take on Scientology. I’m glad to see that Trey and Matt haven’t bought the Isaac Hayes line about "bigotry." Chef didn’t quit after "Red Hot Catholic Love," after all, did he?

Rummy’s Pentagon is enforcing tighter standards for uniforms and physical appearance among military personnel. The troops in Iraq appear unimpressed. Money quote:

"Just returned from OEF yesterday and I’m getting caught-up on these forums. A month ago, as I was urinating at Bagram, a MSgt (1st Sgt) said that I needed to have my hat off while I was pissing! Shock and awed, I asked ‘Why?’
I was advised that having one’s headgear on my head while pissing was not setting a good example of abiding by the AFI (36-2903).
In plain English, I retorted ‘This is my third time here, and when the focus has shifted from killing Al Q-aida to pissing with hats-on, it’s time for me to leave.’"

Others are less diplomatic:

"Hey guys, I s*** you not … I got that tonight and sat back and was like. … WTF? There are assholes trying to provoke a civil war, the media is escalating things, the military is down playing things, s*** is wearing out, money for this bottomless hole is in question, Iran next door is flicking their nose at us and stability is non-existant…..and this is what the hell they are worried about at the high command??????"

No one said Rumsfeld was reality-based now, did they?

A lively debate between Frank Fukuyama and Bernard Henri-Levy. BHL doesn’t come out too well, I fear. Because Europeans grow up with American culture in a way that Americans do not grow up with Europe’s, it’s very easy to reach quick decisions about what America is and what it means. The European already has a stack of assumptions, ideas and arguments about this country; and visiting here requires a steady abandonment of them until something like the complex reality of this marvelous place emerges. Not everyone is able to lose those assumptions, and from what I’ve read of BHL’s book, it’s largely pretentious dreck. I’ve lived here for over two decades now. My first impression, literally, was that I was in a movie. I’d heard those accents my entire life, but they had always been on a screen. Now, they were all around me, like a strange dream. My first summer, a friend and I traversed by car the entire continent and back: Miami to San Diego to Seattle to Boston. I’ve been to almost every state in the succeeding two decades. But I still feel I have only a tentative handle on this country. In fact, I wondered after that first summer whether this entity that spans a continent and includes New Orleans and Seattle, Little Rock and Manhattan, Miami and Minneapolis, can legitimately be called a single country at all. My only consolation is that many Americans seem to feel the same way. Hence one single but increasingly vital word: federalism.

(Photo: AS, July 3, 2005, Provincetown, Mass.)

For those of you who don’t find the Huffington Post sufficiently left-wing, provocative, irritating or enlightened, the Guardian has now started its own version. Enjoy. (Hat tip: Pickled.)

Sometimes, sour grapes are an acquired taste. This diatribe against the Oscars by "Brokeback Mountain" author, Annie Proulx, is quite something. Bitchiest comment:

"[R]umour has it that Lions Gate inundated the academy voters with DVD copies of Trash – excuse me – Crash a few weeks before the ballot deadline. Next year we can look to the awards for controversial themes on the punishment of adulterers with a branding iron in the shape of the letter A, runaway slaves, and the debate over free silver."

The rest is better, but bitter.

According to this website, the woman who edited the now-removed article on Islamist intimidation has now herself been fired. This website seems to have put pressure on the Telegraph. Update: the reasons for Sands’ removal are murky. I haven’t seen anyone directly link it to the Palmer article. But she was suddenly dispatched after a mere eight months on the job.