Category: The Dish

New Yorkers count the ways.

Santa Clarita, (I-5), California, 5.44 pm.

For a flash animation global gallery of all the window views from the Dish, click here.

"When I see the worsening degeneracy in our politicians, our media, our educators, and our intelligentsia, I can’t help wondering if the day may yet come when the only thing that can save this country is a military coup," – Thomas Sowell, NRO. They get nuttier and nuttier over there.

A classic from Heather Morgan:

I stand corrected. Far from being bombarded by p.c. scorn, I’ve actually received many emails like the following:

As a 31-year old lesbian who has only been out for 7 years, I am still  disturbed and shocked by the appearance of many lesbians, particularly middle-aged lesbians. I think many try to convince themselves that they are beyond any superficial emphasis on physical appearance, but deep down, they harbor such negative feelings about themselves that they have just given up any notion that they can be attractive. I am hoping that as gay rights continue to expand in the US and in the world, lesbians and gay men will learn to have greater value for themselves and consequently to place greater emphasis on their mental and physical health.

Gay men are not immune. We tend to veer from the obsessively lean or hyper-muscular to that segment of bear culture that really is about justifying unhealthy obesity. Hapily, we’re getting less neurotic and healthier with each generation.

A reader writes:

You wrote of Obama: 

"Of course, we also have a liberal voting record, and a lifetime among progressives. But conservatism-as-temperament is often more authentic than conservatism-as-ideology."

This made me realize why Obama is well-suited for the office of the president. As a member of a progressive body, one’s record inevitably will exhibit the views of that body.  But one who is free from ideology but possessed of a conservative temperament is the kind of person who can make hard decisions for the betterment of a diverse country – particularly when the decisions break with the ideologies of one’s past memberships.

The point of conservatism properly understood is exactly that flexibilty, the capacity to "pursue the intimations" of a given moment in time and shape them modestly to better ends. In that sense, Obama seems to me to have a small-c conservative touch. But I’m learning and reading more about him, and have as yet only a provisional sense of him.

A reader writes:

Thank you so much for sharing the story about the man singing show tunes to the empty hospital bed. Those of us who have been out for a while have heard many such stories, and they always give me chills. Partly it’s the emotional effect, but partly it’s the recognition that it could be me. My partner and I have done all that we can to protect our relationship – durable powers of attorney, living wills and the like. Still, our families have shown variable degrees of support for us over the years. Who knows what would happen if one of them were to decide to interfere with our wishes under such trying circumstances? We do what we can and hope for the best but, as you note, nothing will replace the security that marriage will give once it finally becomes available to us.

On a lighter note, Turdus is a very well-know avian genus and includes the familiar and beloved American robin (Turdus migratorius).

"It is not a "moral compromise" to shoot an enemy combatant in wartime. It is just, assuming a just war. However, the mass slaughter of civilians that Barnett cites aboves is not "justifiable". It too is not a moral compromise. It is simply and solely evil: a "crime against man and God" according to the Church. Barnett is calling a largely religious and prolife readership to enthusiastically accept grave evil. He is, in short, a false prophet," – Mark Shea on torture-supporter, Dean Barnett. (Hat tip: Ross.)

Matt Yglesias explains the rules of journalism.

“The [DOJ] and its officials traditionally have been held to a standard of independence and non-partisanship not expected at other federal agencies. While the president has the prerogative to set broad law enforcement policies, and occasionally to participate directly in those DOJ decisions that influence the nation’s direction and priorities, the president must never interject his personal or partisan political impulses into individual DOJ decisions. And it is one of the most important responsibilities of the attorney general to insist that the line between national policy and personal advantage never be crossed. Whenever that barrier has been breached in the past, whenever politics has permeated the decision-making or the atmosphere at the Department of Justice, as occurred in Watergate, the consequences for the nation have been grave,” – Ted Olson, in September 2000, in the American Spectator.