Two Cups A Day

Thoreau is trying to cut down on his coffee intake:

I don’t really want to think of myself as an addict. For starters, it would mean attending more meetings, and I just don’t have time for that. Plus, I hear that they drink a lot of coffee at those meetings, and that would defeat the purpose.

Anyway, it should be blindingly obvious that my life would NOT improve if a man with a gun knocked down my door, confiscated my assets, locked me in a cage with violent criminals, and put something on my Permanent Record that would make it tough to find employment. I am an addict, and I am also a successful professional. I went too far, and now I am solving my problems on my own. I don’t need a man with a gun intervening in my life.

“In Palinworld, Palin, By Definition, Speaks The Truth.” Ctd

A reader writes:

I share your concern about Sarah Palin. And those that think she won't run in 2012 are thinking logically, but not Palin-ly.

There's no downside to running in 2012. Unlike other past politicians who run for office, don't win, and then settle into a life of obscurity, just the opposite awaits a Palin candidacy. If she runs, and is not doing well enough to win, she can merely drop out, claiming that it was the result of media sexism, or wanting to protect her family from the elitism of Washington, or due to her enlightenment that she can help this great country more from the outside than the inside. She then becomes even a bigger hero to her base.

My biggest fear is not that she might actually become a candidate, but rather that American journalism has become so cowardly as to allow her to become a candidate.

The trouble is: a great deal of journalism is now about money, not truth. And man is she money.

An Update From The Empire

In Iraq, as usual, deeply mixed messages. There appears to have been a successful coup against al Qaeda in Iraq, with the seizure of critical intelligence and the assassination of two leaders. And yet we still have a paralyzed government class, the capacity of even a decapitated al Qaeda to kill 72 innocents this past Friday, and a level of violence that would, in other contexts, be regarded more as the product of a failed state than a nascent democracy. But far worse is the prospect of a widespread recount of votes in the recent election which may well mean that the Shiite Maliki will beat out the more secular Shiite Allawi. Today, the unraveling picked up speed:

A special electoral court in Iraq disqualified a winning candidate in last month’s election on charges he once was a member of Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party, two officials said Monday. The decision was the first concrete move to change the preliminary results of the vote that Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki’s coalition narrowly lost. The court’s ruling intensified a political crisis that remains far from resolved, raising tensions and even the specter of violence. The court’s decision, at a minimum, will delay the formation of a new government through the months when the Obama administration has pledged to withdraw its combat troops, leaving a force of only 50,000 after September…  The court, however, also disqualified 51 losing candidates, and the votes they received will be discarded, requiring a recalculation of the winners — and losers — across the ballot, the officials said.

Even an established democracy like the US can unravel when, as in 2000, there was a clear question of legitimacy over the winner (an event that I think is still under-rated in explaining how polarized American politics still is today). Add sectarian divides, and US withdrawal … and the surge is looking like a band-aid, not a cure.

Gingrich And Epistemic Closure

A fantastic dismemberment by Marc Ambinder who is supplementing his reporting role with a sharp newish opinion edge to his wonderful blog. When you see how The Corner viciously assaulted Jim Manzi for breaking with the party line, you can also see Gingrich rounding on AEI's token non-rightist, Norm Ornstein.

The price of dissent on the right keeps going up. Bartlett and me were early canaries in the ideologically sealed mine. And recall that Manzi is a trustee of National Review and that Ornstein is about as centrist and as reasonable a commentator as you can find.

My larger point is that a party that has ceased to debate with others, that insists on retaining its own ideological view of reality, that treats all utterances as 'orthodox' or 'heretic', and that worships media stars … well if that party doesn't nominate Palin for president, it makes no sense at all. She'll believe and say anything for power and money.

Dusty Finds Her Rock

Dustyivy

Aaron has gone up to Ptown early for rehearsals for an early production of "Our Town" at the Provincetown Theater. He took both of the girls, because a) they prefer mommy to daddy (yeah, I'm more the dog-disciplinarian in the house) and b) they prefer the beach to the park. Washington seems bizarrely empty without them, but I still have a lot of crap to get through before I escape to Thoreau-land.

Last year, Dusty, now over twelve, sprained her back leg and was hobbling around most of the summer. I wrote a post about her late-summer insistence on going to her favorite rock in the sand anyway – the same spot she has sat on every summer since she was a few inches long. She loves it there, especially when the wind is strong and she can flare her nose into the wind, catching every smell from the beach and town, and letting her beagle ears fly backward in the wind.

Anyway, the good news is: she's back on her rock, as feisty and as puppy-like as ever. This isn't as good as being there, but it's pretty damn close:

Bonus: Dusty helping to bring in the laundry (not) after the jump: