The following is the complete thread triggered by Andrew’s move to New York City, dealing with Superstorm Sandy, as well as various comments and bits of NYC advice from readers. Wed Oct 10, 2012 – 11:01am: After two full weeks of moving to and living in New York City, I just got back to DC … Continue reading New York Shitty
Lisa Wade dissects the racial implications of for-profit prisons: This is a deeply unethical system and new research shows that, in addition to being disproportionately incarcerated, racial minorities and immigrants are disproportionately housed in private prisons. Looking at three states with some of the largest prison populations — California, Texas, and Arizona – graduate student Christopher Petrella reports … Continue reading Profiting Off Prisoners, Ctd
Below are our posts covering the rise of “sponsored content” at sites like the Atlantic and Buzzfeed. The coverage began in response to a Scientology advertorial featured by the Atlantic in January 2013, then a month later the focus shifted to Buzzfeed and other examples across the web (you can skip directly to that section here). … Continue reading “Enhanced Advertorial Techniques”
Charles Kenny looks at how lax American gun laws impact Mexico: Mexico provides a case study of what happens when more guns meet weak institutions. In the four years following the lapse of America’s assault weapons ban in 2004, 60,000 illegal firearms seized in Mexico were traced back to the U.S. Luke Chicoine, an economist … Continue reading The Second Amendment Goes South
Next year SCOTUS is scheduled to tackle the two issues. Orin Kerr finds parallels:
In both contexts, the debate boils down to the scope of the equality principles found in the Equal Protection Clause. In both contexts, the challengers to the status quo argue that the state can’t treat people differently in the area of fundamental rights. It’s that simple: This is about marriage/racial equality. In both contexts, the defenders defend their institutional practices as allowable and sensible societal responses to difficult social problems. And in both contexts, public opinion is split nearly 50/50, with very passionate opinions on both sides. The similarities are particularly interesting because few people have the same instinctive reaction to both cases.
But I'm one of them. I support marriage equality as passionately as I oppose affirmative action. I believe in formal civic equality of opportunity, not actual equality of results. Ilya Somin also points out that "people who oppose racial preferences in college admissions (the issue the Court will consider in Fisher v. University of Texas), while supporting gay marriage are far from unusual":
Matt Zoller Seitz reviews Ken Burns' latest documentary and how it relates to today's climate change crisis:
More than anything else, The Dust Bowl is about a certain self-destructive strain in the American character that prizes individual will over collective responsibility, stigmatizes real or perceived failure, and stubbornly refuses to learn from mistakes for fear of being thought weak. … There are appalling accounts of farmers continuing to use equipment that pulverized topsoil rather than return to more difficult but responsible methods — even after repeated expert warnings that they were destroying the land — because doing so would have been less "efficient," and because they didn’t like academic pointy-heads telling them their business.
"We always had hope that next year was gonna be better," says survivor Wayne Lewis. "We learned slowly, and what didn’t work, you tried it harder the next time. You didn’t try something different. You just tried harder, the same thing that didn’t work."
Alyssa Rosenberg interviewed Burns and his producer Dayton Duncan:
Duncan: So to me, what’s interesting about it is that this catastrophe that occurred and the manmadeness of it, there wasn’t a single – there is no conspiracy single bad person that you can say "It all goes on them." It’s us.
Today on the Dish, we again spent much of the day covering the ongoing situation in Gaza, as Andrew was less than optimistic about the conflict's perpetual irresolution, then tore into Walter Russell Mead for seeking an "Israeli Sherman". Karl Vick examined the mind games at work from both sides, Goldblog and others offered their … Continue reading The Daily Wrap
By Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images
Friday on the Dish, Andrew agreed with Matt Steinglass about the GOP's Benghazi-fever, saw signs of a Conservative Spring, and found a little bipartisan sunshine near the fiscal cliff. He also reflected on the long road to gay civil rights and thought through the Catholic Church's disconnectedness.
For most of the day we focused on the crisis in Israel, as Andrew lamented the cross-radicalization of both sides, a scary moment in Jerusalem was live-tweeted, and Michael Koplow noted Israel's moral low ground on Twitter, which later got even lower. In addition, Alan Taylor curated yet another fine gallery, Israel's Iron Dome shot down some incoming rockets, and the IDF texted civilians to get out of harm's way. Looking at Gaza's regional effect, Marc Lynch worried about Egypt and Daniel Levy worried about Syria. Looking at Israel itself, several analysts considered the political consequences and intentions of war. Also, readers added their concerns about the ongoing violence, and Goldblog kept asking if Israel has had, or will ever have, an actual strategy. By the way, you can catch up on all this week's Gaza coverage right here.
In political coverage, readers responded to Romney's moocher-paranoia while Nate Cohn championed an electoral Colorado, Neil Irwin tracked the economy's ever-so-gradual recovery, Alexis Madrigal profiled Obama's campaign-techies, and Ambers wondered if Petraeus had lost his nuclear trustworthiness. We also looked for the political divide between America's socio-economic classes, then let Elizabeth McNichol spell out some inequality trends before we counted up the financial-benefits of immigration reform. Oh and Bill O'Reilly somehow kept a straight face.
In assorted coverage, we acknowledged the deep pockets behind legal weed while Balko hoped the stuff would smarten up DC. The rising oceans worried us, wartime led to infidelity, Joel Keller walked lamb chops down the culinary red carpet, and astronomers almost outlined the screenplay to Armageddon II. Then Amit Majmudar heralded excess in literature, a veteran detailed his superfluous military medals, Japan sought regularity from cola, and year-ago Andrew remembered his Catholic childhood. Also, Kermit met Miles in our mashed-up MHB, we were happily distracted by useless websites, visited North Wales in the VFYW, and feared some malevolent boxes in our FOTD.
The rest of the week is after the jump:
Today on the Dish, Andrew mixed it up with some readers over the freedom of speech in private media, called out smear-mongerers who cry pedophile, admired the literate rant of a Times restaurant review, and anything-but-admired Dick Morris the self-professed propagandist. In political coverage, we rounded up reactions to Obama’s presser, Nate Cohn explored the … Continue reading The Daily Wrap
Today on the Dish, Andrew assessed the career of David Petraeus, a view that dovetailed Michael Cohen's. Bob Wright thought the militarization of the CIA was the most important Petraeus controversy, while Greenwald was outraged over the FBI overreach that brought the whole affair to light. Michael Gerson, meanwhile, continued to fall for the Petraeus … Continue reading The Daily Wrap
The Dish 