The GOP Splits On Craig?

Here’s a fascinating tidbit from CNN about a meeting of Republican senators yesterday to discuss the Larry Craig case. They were not all angry at Craig:

Sen. Ted. Stevens of Alaska, whose home was recently raided as part of a federal corruption probe, stood up to say it’s wrong to prejudge these matters.

He was joined by Sen. Jim Bunning of Kentucky and Sen. Michael Enzi of Wyoming, who also "wagged their finger" at the leadership, in the words of one of the aides.

And Cheney was there, for good measure.

Brownback And Marriage

Watching the following clip from the Republican debate last night, you can feel the death of an argument. Conservatism has often stood for freedom; now, so often, it doesn’t. And the Granite State conservatives still in the GOP – and not chased out by the Christianists – know that freedom means freedom for everybody, as Dick Cheney once put it. Notice also Brownback’s outright lie about same-sex marriage in the north of Europe. He is clearly claiming that after equal marriage rights were introduced there, heterosexual marriage rates plummeted and illegitimacy rates soared. He knows that isn’t true. In fact, that kind of crude causal, chronological relationship has even been denied by the anti-marriage equality advocates like Stanley Kurtz. If you have to lie to maintain an argument, it’s a moribund one:

Thompson and Immigration

The anti-illegal right has a problem:

Some votes are likely to draw scrutiny, particularly a series of votes in the 1990s against cracking down on illegal aliens. Those include a 1995 vote against limiting services other than emergency care and public education to illegal aliens — he was one of just six senators to oppose that proposal — and a 1996 vote against creating an employer verification system to help businesses filter out illegal aliens who apply for jobs.

Ambers has more on Thompson’s legislative record on immigration. It looks to me as if the Washington Times is right.

Face of the Day

Floodyuricortezafpgetty

Children bail out water from their house flooded by the rain at the ‘Cristo Viene’ neighborhood in San Pedro Sula, some 240 kilometers north from Tegucigalpa, 05 September 2007. The remnants of Hurricane Felix drenched Honduras threatening to cause dangerous floods and mudslides on Wednesday, one day after the then-mighty storm killed at least nine people, left dozens missing, and smashed thousands of homes in Nicaragua. By Yuri Cortez/AFP/Getty.

Gay Marriage, Straight Marriage

A reader writes:

I remember discussing the gay marriage issue with a friend in 2004 when many states, including my home state of Utah, were rolling out amendments preventing marriage equality. My friend, who had been married for a year at the time, pulled out the old Christianist saw defending the amendment, claiming that the sanctity of marriage must be defended.

I asked him how allowing two people to marry each other would affect his marriage. He said something along the lines that just knowing that anyone could get married made his marriage less special somehow. Of course he couldn’t explain why. At the time, I argued that there was no way a gay wedding could have no impact on my own hypothetical wedding.

Now, however, having been married for 9 months to a wonderful woman, I’ve been surprised to realize my bigoted friend was right: gay marriage actually does affect mine. But not, however, in the negative way he thought it would.

Seeing the pictures of your wedding – so obviously filled with love and happiness – reminded me of the joy I felt on my wedding day. I remember being overwhelmed – in a good way – by the notion that I was choosing to spend the rest of my life with someone I loved dearly, and that all of our closest friends and relatives were with us simply to share that joy with us. Knowing that two people who love each other and are committed to each other can be married, regardless of gender, and experience the joy, strength and companionship I’ve experienced in my own marriage, makes my marriage all the more sacred to me.

Another writes:

I am 31 and have been with my partner Brian for three and a half years. I’m going to relish the day I get to have pictures such as these taken during a ceremony for marriage in California. Thanks for keeping the dream living on.

Next stop: Iowa!

Blindsight, Ctd.

A reader writes:

Your post on "blindsight" was interesting and reminded me of Dan Simons’ (formerly at Harvard, now at the Beckman Institute at Illinois) work on inattentional blindness (a more accurate term; blindsight typically refers to some neurobiological or physical damage to the visual system where the brain ‘sees’ something of which we are not consciously aware).

The Paris scene you posted is interesting but I think you and your viewers would agree that the car position and pants change of color are relatively minor and require vigilance and attention. Simons’ work showed how blatant the change could be and still be missed.

In two videos that you can see on his website (and the other link below too), people are moving in a circle and passing a basketball around. When experimental subjects are shown these videos, they are instructed to count the number of times one team passes the basketball. However in the middle of the videos either a man with an umbrella or a person in a gorilla suite walks through the scene. Interestingly, most people don’t notice this ‘dynamic event.’ Thus, when actively monitoring something, we may fail to notice or pay attention to something that otherwise would seem very obvious.

You can find an overview of Simon’s work here (with link to videos). And Simons’ Illinois website is here.