The Dish

A reader writes:

You see that "Question with boldness" Jefferson quote at the beginning of the Beck/Palin video? Here's Jefferson's full remark:

"Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear."

That's right.  In a video in which he claims that God founded America, Glenn Beck references a quote in which our most important Founding Father stood tall and proud for agnosticism, and against the politics of fear.

Awesome.

The Prop 8 tweeters have been going strong all day (and the Courage Campaign and FDL are still live-blogging the trial). Margaret Talbot highlights one of the more tortured arguments coming from anti-marriage equality activists:

This afternoon, during the cross-examination of the psychologist Letitia Anne Peplau in the Perry v. Schwarzenegger trial, the Alliance Defense Fund tweeted, “Witness admits same-sex couples not similarly situated to opposite sex couples, same sex couples cannot have unintended pregnancies.” Now, why, you might ask, does that matter, and why was this an “admission” worth noting for the anti-gay-marriage side?

The reasoning:

In a 2005 case called Morrison v. Sadler, an appellate court in Indiana concluded that same-sex couples with children did not need marriage because they were already so stable—it was so expensive and complicated for them to adopt or conceive a child that they were bound to stay together. “By contrast,” the court observed, “procreation by ‘natural’ reproduction may occur without any thought for the future.” The stork could come calling on heterosexual couples without invitation, and when it did, marriage helped ensure that the surprised progenitors would stay around to raise the children.

Margaret thinks that "the fact that [this line of argument has] come up already in the trial suggests that the lawyers defending Prop. 8 may have the Indiana and New York decisions in mind as promising precedents."

Mad Men's leading man lets his hair down – as an icon of the clean-shaven past becomes the bearded Victorian of the 2010s.

A Texan reader writes:

I've been following your thread on Palin and am not as fearful as you are. I agree with all of your opinions of her but don't fear her. What keeps my sanity is this. She is drawing only the Bushites' adoration. They are the ones that feel she is the future of the party, America and perhaps even God himself. They are a small contingency in a shallow pool. For God's sake they still think Bush was a great

President!

Even in very red Texas there are plenty of Republicans that did not vote for McCain because of her. And they still find her to be a farce. They see through her facade and understand while she is attractive and charismatic that's all there is. They were and are appalled that she could have been that close to the Presidency. Now I'm not saying some of these sane Republicans won't vote for some of the candidates the tea baggers put on the ballot but they won't vote for her. 

Emily Bazelon on the Supreme Court's blocking of broadcasting the Prop 8 trial.

The Netanyahu government has all but declared war on the Obama administration and then openly disses a vital ally, Turkey. The slow cultural shifts in Israel – toward ever more arrogance, more fundamentalism, more Russian immigrant racism, contempt for the Muslim world, military adventurism, and the daily grinding of the Palestinians on the West Bank and pulverization and inhumane blockade of the people of Gaza … well maybe some others can explain it.

All I can say is: it saddens me, as a longtime lover of the Jewish state. It does not represent the historic mainstream of liberal Jewish society, it is a betrayal of many Jewish virtues that goyim like me deeply admire, and it seems designed for war as some kind of eternal and uplifting state of mind. I hope Israel shifts soon. For Israel's sake.

A reader writes:

I really appreciated your piece (and harrowing photo) about the problem of crystal meth in America.  It is a mainly white, rural horror that is destroying working-class families and towns yet the GOP and "tough on drugs" moralists still demonize all drug use as a black or gay inner-city problem that occasionally seeps into suburbia.  Not true with crystal meth. Having lived in Alaska, and having a mother who works in drug crisis in rural New Mexico, I can attest to meth's horrible grip and extreme societal damage.

However, as a realist when it comes to fighting drug abuse I have to say your final statement – "most become an addict as soon as they try one dose" – does not help battle the problem, and probably does more harm than good. 

People have used crystal meth and not become addicts, myself included. True, the risk is extremely high of developing a dependency and the damaging and life-altering results of crystal meth are perhaps the most extreme and quickly occurring of any drug.  However, to throw around "Reefer Madness" anecdotes like "one time and you're hooked" probably does more harm than good as those who do dabble in the drug world know that is not the case. You risk making them ignore the entire message as fanciful and alarmist even if 90% of it is sound and vital.

Statistics show:

• more than 12 million Americans have tried methamphetamine 
• 1.5 million Americans are regular users

It takes a second or two. Some help:

'Why don't we start profiling?' 'Why don't we buy full body scanners?' 'Why not get air marshals on every flight?' …How about this for improving security? Take the f***ing games off the TSA's computers!

Roger Ebert's moving account of no longer being able to eat or drink has been pinging around the blogosphere. On Tuesday he described the sexual rigidity of the mid-twentieth century:

It was one night in the Capitol that I saw for the first time one man kiss another one full on the lips. This took place among guys we knew at the next table over. I clearly recall that we all fell silent, our eyes evaded one another, and none of we bold bohemians could utter a single word. Something like a mild electric shock ran through my body. No, I didn't "discover I was gay." I discovered that other people surely were. Until then homosexuality had been witnessed by me only in novels, poetry, vague scenes in films, and rumor. I knew lots of "queers," by which I meant "effeminate," but my imagination stopped more or less with them laughing about the same things.

Eric Rauchway reviews Ebert's recent output.