The Dish

"It’s certainly true that conservatives today are more divided than liberals about whether the Iraq war has been a fiasco. I simply disagree about what this fact tells us. Conservatives see their split on this proposition as evidence of intellectual acuity. I see it as evidence that roughly half of all conservatives are barking mad," – Jon Chait, quoted by Matt.

Glenn Greenwald tests the ideological waters:

I am a Contributing Writer at Salon Magazine and a contributor to the nationally syndicated Alan Colmes Show on radio. I am writing to request an interview with General David Petraeus, to be broadcast in its entirety on the Alan Colmes Show, along with a full, unedited transcript to be published as the feature story on Salon. There was some controversy triggered when Gen. Petraeus this week gave an exclusive interview to highly partisan, pro-war Republican talk show host and blogger Hugh Hewitt.  Concerns were expressed that Gen. Petraeus was submitting to interviews only with those who have a reputation for conducting highly reverent and uncritical interviews with Bush officials and military commanders. As a fervent supporter of the Bush administration and the Iraq war, Hewitt’s questions were, as one would expect, designed to enable Gen. Petraeus to make statements without any questioning or challenge.

As I am much more of a war skeptic than Hewitt, both the questions I would pose and the audience which would be exposed to the interview would be different than the one Gen. Petraeus conducted with Hewitt.  It is my sincere hope that Gen. Petraeus, in order to facilitate as honest and robust a public discussion as possible, is willing to discuss the situation in Iraq and the merits of the current strategy with both supporters and critics of the initiative.

According to publicly available reports, the audience size for the Hugh Hewitt Show is roughly equal to the audience size for the Alan Colmes Show.  The readership of Salon is vastly larger than the readership of Hewitt’s blog.  Thus, the interview I am requesting with Gen. Petraeus would be for a larger audience than the Hewitt interview, and presumably, the audience would reach a much different segment of the American political landscape.

All Americans, across the political spectrum, are deeply interested in the events in Iraq.  I would think that Gen. Petraeus would be interested in reaching as many Americans as possible with his assessments, not only those who are already political supporters of the current administration.

I would make myself available for any date and time that is convenient for Gen. Petraeus and would look forward to a real opportunity to hear from the General in a civil and constructive setting.

We’ll see, won’t we?

National Review makes it; CATO seconds.

And other fashion brands – from the new Harper’s Bazaar.

More analysis here and here. On the surface, it does seem like an incremental step forward. But we know that this administration treats every new attempt to place interrogation on a legal and humane footing as an invitation to exploit the loopholes. Once you have lost the trust of the public and world opinion, and once you refuse to simply return to the tradition of humane warfare initiated by George Washington, you can’t get the trust back. After a while, moreover, you begin to see why the administration is so attached to torture as an instrument of policy. Their broader intelligence-gathering efforts remain so paltry and ineffective that torturing detainees may indeed be the best weapon they think they’ve got. Given the weakness of intelligence procured by torture, this is extremely worrying. One day, we need a president and Congress determined to fund real human intelligence-gathering among the Jihadists. Until then, we have sadistic grand-standing.

The neuroscientists tackle the Scottish sport:

Sian Beilock, a professor of psychology at the University of Chicago, has shown that novice putters hit better shots when they consciously reflect on their actions. The more time they spend thinking about the put, the more likely they are to hit the ball in the hole. For these beginning golfers, putting is like a puzzle. It’s important for them to think about the put so they can avoid making obvious mistakes.

However, experience changes everything. After golfers have learned how to put – they have memorized the necessary movements – spending more time analyzing the put is a waste of time. Their unconscious brain already knows what to do. It automatically computes the necessary variables, and settles on the best putting angle. In fact, Beilock found that when experienced golfers think about their puts they actually hit worse shots. "We bring expert golfers into our lab, and we tell them to pay attention to a particular part of their swing, and they just screw up," Beilock says. "When you are at a high level, your skills become somewhat automated. You don’t need to pay attention to every step in what you’re doing."

I guess Tiger had his thinking cap on yesterday.

Here’s a great idea: no fares for buses in major cities. It speeds things up, gets more people out of cars, opens up parking spaces, helps the enivronment. More reasons here. How to afford it? Tax cars some more, or enact the London-style traffic tolls. It’s Michael Bloomberg’s fantasy. Of course, it’s the kind of idea that only really gets traction in Canada. Sigh.

MEMRI has put out a helpful guide to exposing and identifying websites that urge and organize Islamist mass murder and terror. They have a translation service. And here’s a list of terrorist blogs worth looking out for. Here are Hezbollah’s websites.

Bush hits 25 percent in the ARG poll. 71 percent disapproval.