The Dish

Several readers have asked me if there’s a way to get a signed copy of the book without making it to one of the few book readings/signings. Well, I asked HarperCollins, and the answer is: yes, there is.

If you join the book club, and buy the book, you can email me your questions and criticisms (theconservativesoul@gmail.com) – but also, if you want a personalized signature in your copy, let me know and include your name and full mailing address in the email. Put the words "signed copy" in the content line of your email, so we can expedite things.

Harper Collins has "book-plates" – essentially adhesive, paper inserts for the first page – that I can dedicate to you or a friend or family member, sign, and send back by mail. They look like the inserts people once put in books to mark them as part of their own library. When you get it, just peel off the back and stick it into your copy of the book. It’s as good as waiting in line at Barnes and Noble.

Please no lengthy dedications: just the name of the person you want the book dedicated to, or I’ll develop carpal tunnel syndrome. But the general rule is: if you buy the book, I’ll find a way to sign it, if that’s your preference. It’s one more way a blog can interact with a book. Reminder: the email address is theconservativesoul@gmail.com. And put "signed copy" in the content line. Join the virtual book club with a virtually personalized edition. More details here.

"I’m extremely troubled by the fact that the record tax revenue was offset by record spending, which increased 7.4 percent from a year ago. Even more depressing is that a supposedly conservative Congress and President allowed education spending to rise over 28 percent in one year, and Medicare to grow at a rate of 12 percent over the same time period.

Can there be any better evidence that you can’t control the deficit until you get a handle on spending.  Why do we have to explain this to a supposedly ‘conservative’ Congress and GOP, who have ‘gone native’ and utterly failed to grasp the necessity of actually cutting government? And they wonder why some conservatives are thinking of staying home on Election Day (I’m not one of them, but there are many who may do so). Memo to the GOP: Conservative anger isn’t about Mark Foley – it’s about spending like Democrats (as well as immigration).

But the real buzzkill on this news is the utter failure to rein in entitlement spending. If nothing is done about actually cutting Social Security and Medicare rather than reducing the size of its growth then all the prosperity and growth isn’t going to matter one bit.

Quite simply, Social Security and Medicare are bankrupting the United States.  The GOP has done nothing to stop the train wreck and can only say ‘Yeah, but the Democrats will be worse’. That’s not comforting. It’s like asking if you would rather die from a firing squad or lethal injection. Either way you’re dead," – right-wing blogger, Bull Dog Pundit, exposing the fiscal insanity behind the Bush facade.

Earlier this week, secretary of state Condi Rice and First Lady Laura Bush attended a State Department ceremony for the new global AIDS coordinator. His name is Mark Dybul. Money quote from USA Today:

At a State Department ceremony this week, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warmly acknowledged the family members of Mark Dybul, whom she was swearing in as the nation’s new global AIDS coordinator.

As first lady Laura Bush looked on, Rice singled out his partner, Jason Claire, and Claire’s mother. Rice referred to her as Dybul’s "mother-in-law."

There you have it. Among decent elite Republicans, there is often great acceptance of gay people as individuals, and of their families and spouses. "Mother-in-law" is itself an affirmation of marriage for gay couples; and the secretary of state just used those words. And yet her party officially regards gay unions as, in James Dobson’s words, a prelude to the "destruction of the earth". So which is it, guys? Let us know some time, will you?

(Photo:  J. Scott Applewhite, AP.)

The debate continues. I might add that I’ve long felt that the Apple stores are almost sacred in their architecture. If only we designed new churches as imaginatively …

Gallup detects a meltdown in white religious support for Republicans. The Dems are now even with the GOP among frequent church-going whites. Money graph:

This poll doesn’t look so good either.

We have more evidence of serious detainee abuse at Guantanamo Bay:

In a sworn affidavit filed with the Pentagon Inspector General, Sgt. Cerveny says she met several Navy prison guards at a club on the base where, over drinks, they described harsh physical abuse.
"One sailor specifically said, ‘I took the detainee by the head and smashed his head into the cell door,’" Sgt. Cerveny tells ABC News in an exclusive interview.

She says she was "shocked" to hear several guards from different parts of the camp speak openly of mistreating prisoners. "Everyone in the group laughed at all their stories of beating detainees," she recalled. "None of them looked like they cared. None of them looked shocked by it."

One of the guards "was telling his buddy, ‘Yeah, this one detainee, you know, really pissed me off, irritated me.  So I just, you know, punched him in the face.’"

I wonder why they didn’t feel shocked. Gitmo is heavily monitored and staffed by professionals. It’s certainly more closely monitored than many other detention centers. It couldn’t be because abuse and torture are still Bush administration policy, could it?

Just a reminder that this blog is inviting readers to participate in an online book club discussion of "The Conservative Soul: How We Lost It; How To Get It Back." Buy the book, email me criticisms, I’ll read as many as I can and have a third party (a Harvard smarty-pants) select the ten toughest critiques, and I’ll respond to each one on the blog. You’ve got till the end of the month to buy and read the book. And then the fun begins. More details here. Don’t forget Amazon’s 40 percent off discount.

"Frankly, I’m unsure what to conclude from this little debate. I will simply note how perplexing I find your own concluding remarks–about how my construal of the liberal bargain is dangerous because it might vindicate those "Christians and secularists alike" who have contended that there is a tension, sometimes requiring that a choice be made, "between Christ and the republic, between God and Caesar." Funny, I thought it was Christ himself who pointed to just such a tension at the core of the human condition.

Why is it that you, like the theocons I examine and criticize in my book, seem so terrified of the American republic falling short of Christ-like perfection? Why is it not enough that the United States be a good and decent country among good and decent countries? Why is it not enough for you and other pious Christians to enjoy the freedom to worship and pray and proselytize in peace? Why, despite your own better judgment, do you so steadfastly resist seeking your salvation outside of politics? Why do you insist on identifying the fate of your soul with the fate of your country?

You may well be right that, at least at this moment in our nation’s history, you have more of our fellow citizens on your side of this dispute than I have on mine. But that is precisely the problem – for American religion no less than America’s politics," – Damon Linker at TNR, debating Ross Douthat.

Linker nails it in these few paragraphs, but Douthat is, to my mind, easily the best defender of theoconservatism out there, and his arguments are worth reading as well.

Britain’s Chief of the General Staff says it’s time to leave Iraq. Money quote:

"Let’s face it, the military campaign we fought in 2003, effectively kicked the door in." Sir Richard Dannatt added that any initial tolerance "has largely turned to intolerance. That is a fact."
Sir Richard, who took on his role in August, also said planning for what happened after the initial successful war military offensive was "poor, probably based more on optimism than sound planning".

That’s putting it mildly.

We should start a campaign. Release him from TimesSelect. Same with MoDo and TF, Brooks and … well, they can keep Paul Krugman expensive. The evidence is in on online newspapers, and the economic case for keeping online news free is stronger than you might imagine.