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What’s A Bisexual Anyway? Ctd

A reader goes all TMI on us:

I was the last writer in this installment of your bisexuality thread. I figured with the on-going thread and as a counter-point to your perspective, I should share.

First, I was total chicken shit and cheated on my wife with a man. I met him through Craigslist, a visitor staying at a local hotel. Then I didn’t tell her about it for four months. In the meantime, I went through the whole emotional roller coaster, self-loathing, self-doubt and self-analysis, needing to get tested for everything, being a perfect husband from that point forward, etc. The experience itself was one thing. The after effects on myself and my best friend and partner were something I had never really considered. And for that I’m an idiot.

I have to say, whoa. The experience itself was hot, passionate, and masculine, something unlike I’ve felt before in my sex life.

But again, I wasn’t all that experienced when I met my wife at age 20. Kissing this man was more forceful, fucking him certainly was, and just grabbing and pulling at his body in a way that would have felt borderline too much to my petite wife. Heck, even showering with him was far more aggressive than any shower I’ve ever shared with my wife. I came away more than anything convinced of the spectrum of sexual needs and desires.

I realized I really enjoy forceful, borderline dominating sex, and yet for my petite wife it’s just too much for her. So for most of our relationship and sexual relations I’ve held back. I’ve easily hurt her in the past. With this man, sure the anonymity helped, but the underlying aggression and power and masculinity was itself a turn on.

And yet, I wasn’t all that aroused. The feelings felt more alluring than the actual actions. Rubbing, grabbing, stroking, sucking, kissing, fucking, pushing, pulling – it all felt very primal. That was hot! But my equipment was barely cooperative. I enjoyed the physicality but not so much the sex itself, if that makes any sense.

In the weeks that followed, the emotions were a torrent. I kept asking myself what it meant. I struggled to tell my wife of 16 years. I had to get tested fast and hold off on any sex with her. After four months, and one morning of her telling me what a great husband I am, I finally broke. I looked over in bed and said “I fucked a dude”. Her response? “That’s okay”. All my fears of having destroyed my marriage were met with a shrug and, moments later, her being almost proud.

Searching my feelings with her, I felt I understood my humanity better. Searching her own feelings, she soon found herself hurt and wounded. And so we talked and talked some more. I knew I was being very selfish. I needed to try this for myself, by myself. But leaving her out of the exploration was itself a wound that may never heal. That hurts me and of course I’m an idiot.

Now six months later, I haven’t repeated the experience but I want to. And she wants to join in. We’ve watched gay porn together and separately. She says she watches to better understand my experience. I watch because I still fantasize about it. And I’ve started to explore more kinks. Trannies seem hot and fun to play with. She wants a moresome and I want to see her with lots of cocks.

I come away convinced there’s no right or natural path. I totally understand your need for an identity but I think you’re making a big mistake in ascribing yours to any one else, regardless of the historical vestiges of bisexuality. In fact, having used marijuana regularly for over 20 years, male bisexuality seems like just another closet. Society isn’t ready yet, so we partake in silence. Swinging would too, I suppose. Why not a Swingers’ Closet?

Honestly, searching my feelings, this new sexual experience turned on a new button that had I been younger and not committed I could see myself exploring more. But I’m not younger and I am married. I simply didn’t feel these things when I was younger. Growing up I recognized the attractiveness of other boys and men, but I was never drawn to it, nor am I now. I can see how sex with another man is something different than I have known and that I enjoyed. I’m approaching midlife and I’m still finding myself. Isn’t that the point?

Yes it is. I repeat that I believe that bisexuality is real, that people should be able to choose to identify themselves the way they want to be identified, and that my own identity says very little about anyone else’s. Heck, I find the term “homosexualities” to be more accurate than mere homosexuality. We’re complicated sexual and emotional creatures. We owe each other forgiveness, honesty and respect.

The Gig Economy

Sarah Kessler tested it out:

The gig economy (a phrase which encompasses both the related collaborative economy and sharing economy) represents a theory of the future of work that’s a viable alternative to laboring for corporate America. Instead of selling your soul to the Man, it goes, you are empowered to work for yourself on a project-by-project basis. One day it might be delivering milk, but the next it’s building Ikea furniture, driving someone to the airport, hosting a stranger from out of town in your spare bedroom, or teaching a class on a topic in which you’re an expert. The best part? The work will come to you, via apps on your smartphone, making the process of finding work as easy as checking your Twitter feed.

She was underwhelmed:

I can easily find dozens of people like Sharon in San Diego, who has a goal of making $300 a week on TaskRabbit to help pay her bills, but hasn’t hit it yet. Or Kristen in New York City, who bids on tasks when she’s working full-time as a receptionist. Or Stacie, who works full-time as a software engineer in Boston, but always keeps the TaskRabbit website open so she can complete tasks on her lunch hour, after work, on weekends, or without leaving her desk. Stacie made about $6,000 on TaskRabbit last year, earning her “elite TaskRabbit” status. She likes helping people out, but she would never work on TaskRabbit just for the money. “If I wasn’t working full time, I could do more tasks,” she tells me, “but even if I doubled that, that’s still poverty–$12,000 a year. And there are no benefits. You don’t know what you’re going to wake up to. You could wake up one day, and be like, oh my god, I made $300 today, and then have three days where you’re making $12.” …

I have come to realize that one of the cruel ironies of the gig economy is that even though it’s geared almost exclusively to serve urban markets, the kind of densely packed cities where space is at a premium, one needs a car to have a shot at the cream of the work that’s available. Even worse, the universe of gig economy startups is mostly relying on young people and others who are underemployed–exactly the people whom are least likely to be able to afford a car in a city. Or have an extra bedroom. Or a parking space. Or designer clothes. Or handyman skills.

“Apology” Of The Day

A lone female blogger, Nicki Daniels, wrote a piece about how hipsters are ruining beards by making it harder for her to find a truly manly man (rather than a poseur who can’t change tires/got me there). I’m way late to this, but the apology she wrote to her countless detractors, is an anti-p.c. blog classic that a reader just sent me. Money quote:

Since I wrote this post, I have been introduced to an amazing group of people called “feminists”. They told me that we are living in something called a “patriarchal society” and apparently it’s guys like you that have been keeping us women down for centuries. My mind is blown! Apparently, by me wishing for a more old fashioned guy, I am encouraging the perpetuation of this nefarious system. I have gotten a library card and plan to read more about this. As a side note, I also learned that no means no.

These awesome feminists also told me that by calling a man a “pussy”, I am equating female genitalia with weakness. I’m still on the fence about that one. Honestly, I just thought it sounds funny. Plus I am always bragging about my own freakishly strong vagina, so by that logic if I call a guy a pussy I am actually calling him “amazing”. Hmmm. Food for thought, friends …

I’m deeply sorry for being sexist, or practicing “reverse sexism”. Honestly, I didn’t know that was a thing. I mean, didn’t we just get the right to vote? You’re right, how would I feel if the situation were reversed, and men were telling me what is a sexy way to dress and look. I have never experienced that before, but I can only imagine it would be profoundly hurtful.

For those of you who said I am perpetuating violence, and stuff like this can actually cause hate crimes, I am actually weeping with remorse. I didn’t realize that people don’t think for themselves. People could read that open letter, and since their minds are as malleable as Play Doh, they might actually hurt someone for having a hipster beard. Please don’t hurt anyone, people. I already feel bad enough. I simply cannot have that on my conscience.

Update from a reader:

Here was my favorite comment and her reply:

From: BEARDBRAIN February 6, 2014 at 11:41 pm

Fuck this article. I don’t go around writing open letters about women’s body hair, appearance, and how it’s inappropriate for them to wear a dress and do taxidermy cause it’s un feminine. If i said anything like this it’d be on jezebel faster than people are willing to dish out the word hipster to any person who doesn’t look like they are from the adult equivalent of the highschool football team. My masculinity and beard is up to me, not to any woman. Fuck off and eat kale.

Reply from: Nicki Daniels February 7, 2014 at 12:23 am

Who’s Kale?

The Down’s Spectrum, Ctd

The discussion thread deepens:

Yes, there is a spectrum. My 16-year-old son, James, has Down’s. We knew that before he was born. We also knew that there was a problem with his esophagus. As it turned out, he was born with no esophagus at all. After several months in the NICU, he was operated on and the surgeons created an esophagus. We have to be very careful about what he eats. Happily, he is devoted to yogurt and hot cereals, which do not get stuck.

He is also very developmentally delayed and has some autistic tendencies. He has a few words but knows how to communicate his needs. He is very social and his receptive language is very good. He is the happiest person I know.

He has two older siblings, now 20 and 23. My wife and I recently talked to them about the decision that we made, including for them, when we decided to have James. They acknowledged that at some point they will be his care givers, at least to some extent. But, when we started to essentially apologize to them, they looked at us like we were crazy. “What are you talking about? He’s our brother.”

It has been hard, but none of us regret the decision we made. The commenters who are looking in at families like ours from the outside should think twice, because they have not experienced firsthand the joys that come with the difficulties.

Another mother of a disabled son shares her story:

Parental care of a medically and developmentally disabled child is sufficiently stressful that it has been found to inflict damage on the parents’ own DNA. This leaves the main caregiver (usually the mother) vulnerable to lethal diseases, shortening her genetically determined lifespan by an average of 13 years.

I am the mother of one such child, now in his thirties, whom my husband and I care for at home. Our son functions at a two-year-old level. He requires frequent surgery (over 20 major operations since his premature birth). He has been diagnosed with autism, cerebral palsy, severe vision loss, hydrocephalus, and retardation. He has had to endure horrible pain throughout his life. Most recently, he has become oxygen dependent again, much as he was following his preterm birth.

I am in my mid-sixties and nearing the end of my “three-year life expectancy” following a cancer diagnosis. Both literally and figuratively, we are asking parents to sacrifice their lives when abortion is banned in afflicted pregnancies or when sick, disabled newborns are medically “rescued” and handed over to their family for life-long care.

Another reader:

My brother, born in 1966, had Down Syndrome and was profoundly disabled, so he was in that 3% to 12% of children with Down’s who are unable to be without assistance. When he was born, his stomach was not attached to his intestines, and his heart had a “hole” in it. My parents were counseled to leave him at the hospital after his birth. They did not, and they chose surgery for his stomach, but not for his heart. When he died at age 17 months, he had never even lifted his head himself. He had not spoken, or crawled. He did not recognize his name, or respond much to others.

I’ve often wondered how I would be different if he had lived; I was raised as an only child. I do know, though, that were he still alive, and as disabled, I would be responsible for his care, as my parents are both deceased. I certainly wouldn’t have been able to care for him at home, and I truly wonder what kind of life he would have had.

After my brother died, my parents didn’t talk much about him – it was too painful, I assume – but my dad did tell me once that a friend of his was so moved that he, the friend, donated a substantial sum to research that led to amniocentesis. So maybe, because of my brother’s life, other parents can have vital information about their own children. Had abortion been an option, I have no idea what my parents would have done, but when I was pregnant, my father was adamant that I be tested. And my perfectly healthy son is named for my brother.

So Why Do Employers Make Our Insurance Choices Again?

As Hobby Lobby arguments continue, Margaux J. Hall takes issue with the status quo:

[F]or decades we have allowed our employers virtually unfettered freedom to make all health coverage decisions – not just those related to contraceptivess – on behalf of employees and, in many instances, their family members. Why? Isn’t it time to rethink how we got to this place and whether we should do something about it?

Americans often fail to notice that a striking imbalance exists in health insurance purchasing: Although health insurance belongs to the employee, the employer gets to decide what that insurance will cover and under what terms. While contraceptives are the current lightning rod for controversy between employers and employees, tensions have emerged over the years around a whole range of health services, including treatments for autism spectrum disorder, in vitro fertilization, and bariatric surgery.

Why does health insurance actually belong to the employee? Because the employee pays for it – directly and indirectly. Though both employees and employers generally co-finance insurance premiums (in 2012, employees reportedly paid an average of 18 percent of individual plan premium costs, and 39 percent of family plan premium costs), employees functionally fund 100 percent of premium payments.

Russia Loses Its Seat At The Table

Russian wire agency runs with the following headline: "Member of the G7 ended their membership in the G8." via @KSHN https://t.co/tR9zS1pNJ4

— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) March 24, 2014

https://twitter.com/ianbremmer/status/448423006843703296

Ioffe calls the G8’s transformation into the G7 “a clarifying moment”:

Russia insists that it is a European country, and insists on maintaining its membership in various Western clubs and treaties, but when it is accused of violating post-War European norms—guess which government faces the most suits in the European Court of Human Rights?—howls about Russia’s uniqueness and European chauvinism and double standards.

It’s been tough balancing act to maintain, one that Russians call “sitting with one ass in two chairs.” Today, the West and Japan provided a clarifying moment by pulling one chair away, ending the agony. And it’s about time. Russia, in insisting on its mystical duality, has been, increasingly, a thorn in the organization’s side—as well as its own.

Larison expects the move to accomplish little:

Since Putin now seems interested in appealing to a more nationalist audience at home, I doubt very much that keeping it out of G-8 meetings will “sting” at all. After all, being “banished” from the company of Western governments is what many of Putin’s supporters at home desire. … The other members of the G-8 are obviously free to exclude Russia from their meetings, but it is silly to think that this punishes Russia in any meaningful way. The more that Western governments try to ostracize Russian leaders, the easier it will be for them to ignore Western complaints and demands, which defeats the purpose of the ostracism.

Allahpundit suspects that Russia wouldn’t have to do much to get back in the club:

Given the EU’s palpable reluctance to alienate Russia’s energy sector — the price of natural gas just went up in Kiev, don’tcha know — and the continent’s wider terror at a new round of Russian military adventurism, how little would Putin have to do for the G-7 to pronounce him rehabilitated and to re-admit Russia to the group? They’re desperate to keep things on a “diplomatic track”; if Putin turned around tomorrow and said he’d pull Russian troops off the Ukrainian border and return to that track in exchange for western recognition of Crimea as Russian territory, would the G-7 go for that? If instead Putin made a move on eastern Ukraine and then, having occupied it, renounced further claims on the country, would that be enough to turn the G-7 back into a G-8? My sense is that there’s virtually no limit to the slack the west will cut him in return for putting his guns down, so long as he doesn’t make a move on a NATO country.

Will Christianity Empty The Churches?

That’s the point made by my friend, Damon Linker, who’s been writing up a storm at his perch at The Week. He recently made the strong case that liberal and conservative ideas about human equality have deep roots in Jesus’ universalization of the call to love and forgiveness. And that very powerful idea has indeed propelled women’s and gay rights in this century. I’ve never made an explicit connection between my Catholicism and my support for gay equality – but it’s probably, along with my own self-respect, the key driver for my activism. But as modern Western society embraces gay and female equality in principle and increasingly in practice, the churches that remain implacably opposed to full equality for men and women in the church are beginning to feel the strain.

Damon thinks Mormonism (currently fast-growing worldwide) and Catholicism (currently in deep flux) are the primary victims. And the most glaring fact about them is restricting priesthood for men and men alone:

Think about it: Men and women in the pews now live in a world in which nearly all obstacles to women’s equality have been torn down. Where once women were relegated to submissive and subservient roles in the family, now domestic gender egalitarianism is the norm. Where once women were excluded from participating in politics — including denial of the vote — such strictures are now unimaginable. Colleges and universities that were once all-male have become coed. Just about every career that once excluded women is now open to them — including that most traditionally masculine occupation, military service. And so forth.

I should say that by far the biggest influences on my faith have been women: my mother and grandmother. Richard Rodriguez and I spoke about this at length when discussing religion and civil rights:

I find the arguments for a male-only priesthood to be as weak as Damon does. Just because Jesus’ 12 disciples were men? Please. From everything we know about the early church, it was unusually filled with women, just as Jesus refused to abide by the idea of excluding women. Only women and his beloved John were at the foot of the cross; it was to women that the risen Christ first revealed himself. Ed Morrissey offers another theological reason for the exclusion of women from the altar:

The belief in the actual presence of Christ in the Eucharist and the Liturgy of the Eucharist as a connection to the one sacrifice at the eternal wedding feast forms the substantial argument for ordaining only men to the priesthood … However, it’s at least a fair point to admit that many Catholics never hear this teaching, for reasons of poor catechism at home or in churches and schools …

Furthermore, the Church’s role isn’t to change with the times anyway. It’s to defend what it teaches as revealed truth, and to spread the truth rather than take polls. That may indeed produce an impulse for congregants to leave, but that may be a symptom of poor catechesis rather than a refusal to change doctrine to suit the modern temperament. If an exodus occurs, that would be the cause, not a refusal to rewrite doctrine.

Seriously? A theological metaphor that sees all Christians as women and Christ as our groom? I know the theology but find it as weak as mere recitation of precedent. And the argument here is not that the church should bend with the times, but that the church should always be considering and reconsidering whether what it does is fully in the spirit of the Gospels. Excluding women is something Jesus never ever did. Why shouldn’t the church follow his example?

(Painting: Detail of Mary Magdalen kissing the feet of the crucified Jesus, Italian, early 14th century. Via Wiki.)

What To Expect From Hobby Lobby

As Sam Baker sees it, “the legal battle over Obamacare’s contraception mandate is essentially tied as it heads into Tuesday’s Supreme Court arguments”:

Both sides have suffered some bad losses in lower courts, and the weaknesses that hurt them before could spell trouble again on Tuesday. The Court has combined two cases on the birth-control mandate – one the government won, and one it lost. Both challenges were filed by for-profit companies that say the mandate violates the religious beliefs of their owners. Five federal appeals courts have heard such challenges, and their rulings are a mess of conflicts. The courts not only disagree with each other, they’re also divided internally. As judges agreed on one question but disagreed on another, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals cobbled together four different majorities in one ruling against the mandate. (That case, filed by Hobby Lobby, is one of the challenges before the Supreme Court this week.)

In other words, there are good reasons why each side might lose at the Supreme Court.

Tom Donnelly considers the conundrum facing Chief Justice Roberts:

On the one hand, Roberts is confronting the ACA for the first time since the conservative firestorm over his decision largely upholding the Act. There’s little doubt that he’ll be tempted to throw conservatives a bone, siding with Hobby Lobby and against the ACA.

On the other hand, a vote in favor of Hobby Lobby requires the chief justice to do at least three things that threaten major disruptive consequences and present serious downstream risks for the Court as an institution.

First, he must conclude that corporations have the same rights to religious freedom as living, breathing humans – something that the Supreme Court has never done. Second, he must unsettle centuries of well-established corporate law practice – a move at loggerheads with the Roberts Court’s (and John Roberts’s own) pro-corporate leanings. And, third, he must extend unprecedented protections to a secular employer, therefore opening the floodgates to new religious freedom challenges to countless other laws. In short, a vote for Hobby Lobby means endorsing a radical departure from well-settled precedent—perhaps nowhere more strikingly than in the realm of religious freedom.

Beutler says the Hobby Lobby case may expose hypocrisy on the conservative arm of SCOTUS:

If Hobby Lobby et al. manage to successfully pierce the veil, to the end of avoiding the contraception mandate, the court’s ruling, if drawn broadly enough, could be used to expose shareholders to liabilities that incorporation is intended to eliminate. It stands to reason that this contradiction at least partially explains why major corporate trade associations have either remained neutral in this case or actually come down on the side of the government.

It also creates an interesting test for this particular court, which, under the leadership of Chief Justice John Roberts, has been remarkably solicitous of corporate imperatives, but has also been sensitive to those who claim their religious liberties have been threatened or curtailed.

Scott Lemieux adds:

Before tomorrow’s oral arguments, let me note again that people interested in the latest ad hoc legal challenge to the ACA should definitely look at Marty Lederman’s series of posts, helpfully collected here. We’ve already discussed one of his crucial points, namely that there is no contraception “mandate.” Hobby Lobby is not legally required to compensate its employees with health insurance at all. The regulations imposed by the ACA are on insurance plans, not on the corporations per se. What is erroneously described as a “mandate” simply means that if corporations choose to take advantage of the tax benefits for compensating employees in health insurance rather than wages, the insurance has to meet minimum coverage standards. As is often the case with specious religious freedom arguments, the corporation wants it both ways, to get the tax benefits without providing the full benefits to employees.

Lowry dissents:

The truth is that the Obama administration wants to bring Hobby Lobby to heel as a matter of principle. In its pinched view of religion, faith should be limited as much as possible to the pews. In its attenuated regard for civil society, it believes government should overawe any person, business, or institution whose beliefs run counter to officially sanctioned attitudes.

Meanwhile, Volokh responds to critics of Religious Freedom Restoration Acts who say that a lot of religious exemption claims don’t have any real support in the Bible:

The American law of religious exemptions is individualistic. The right to a religious exemption belongs to a particular religious believer because of his sincere religious beliefs, whatever they might be. Small denominations are protected, to the same degree as large denominations. The same is true for dissenting groups within denominations. It’s even true for idiosyncratic religious believers. One doesn’t need a note from one’s priest to prevail in a religious exemption case.

Moreover, American courts are constitutionally forbidden from determining what the Bible – or any other religious work – really means. Courts are forbidden from determining whether a belief is reasonable.

Noah Feldman insists the issues go beyond the ACA, religious liberty and contraception:

If all this weren’t enough for you, the fourth issue is arguably more important than the first three: whether corporations are people, too. In Citizens United v. FEC, decided in 2010, the Supreme Court held that free-speech rights should extend to corporations because organizing people to speak more effectively in concert was one of the functions that corporations serve. The case – which as interpreted by the lower courts gave us super-PACs – involved a nonprofit corporation, but it extended to for-profit companies as well. Criticized by Obama in the Supreme Court’s face during a State of the Union address, the decision has been a touchstone for those who would brand the Roberts court as activist and pro-corporation.

The Hobby Lobby case requires the justices to decide if the rule they announced for the free speech clause of the First Amendment applies to the free exercise part of the same amendment. For some liberals, this means an opportunity to reargue Citizens United. For conservatives, it’s an opportunity to depict the rights of corporations in a far more attractive light than corporate political speech. Many sincerely see no difference between a company’s owners and the company itself. Liability should be limited, they believe, but not fundamental free exercise rights.

And finally, Jason Millman suggests Hobby Lobby isn’t necessarily the case to watch today:

At the same time Tuesday morning, the District of Columbia’s Circuit Court of Appeals will consider whether Obamacare allows premium subsidies to flow through federal-run health insurance exchanges. That case has been called “the greatest existential threat” to the survival of the health care law by one of Obamcare’s staunchest supporters. … If we’re just thinking about what these cases could mean for Obamacare’s future, the cases related to federal subsidies are a much bigger deal. Opponents to the law are challenging the IRS interpretation that Congress authorized individuals in states with federal-run exchanges to access premium subsidies.

If the opponents’ challenge is successful – and the law’s supporters say the cases are a real longshot – it would deal a major blow to the law in the 36 states with federal-run exchanges.

The View From Your Window Contest: Winner #197

A reader thinks he recognizes an important landmark in this week’s photo:

It’s the Oh Shit Bridge!

Rather, the bridge in the far background, mostly hidden behind the similar-looking one, is the Naval Academy Bridge across the Severn that crosses from the Naval Academy and the town of Annapolis towards the Bay Bridge and the Eastern Shore. When you’re coming back from leave, the Academy comes into full view when you start crossing the bridge, hence its name among midshipmen, as in, “Oh shit, I’m almost back at the Naval Academy!” This photo has been taken further up the Severn, looking out towards the Chesapeake.

Another:

Bridge geek here. Older steel bascule bridge on the far left, AASHTO-type girders front and center on both the harbor bridge and the channel elevated bridge. Other than that I have no idea, so I am going to guess Pensacola, FL, since I am about 80% sure of this: it’s the South, we are looking west, and it’s not the Keys.

Another reader:

This sure looks like it could be the bridge from San Diego to Coronado. I’ve only been there once, actually a year ago this week, to stroll about the famous Hotel del Coronado with a dear friend, a woman I hadn’t seen in 52 years. It was great.

Another heads inland:

This is my first time submitting. This looks to be the boat dock in Decatur, Alabama located on the Tennessee River. The bridge appears to be one I have crossed many times on my way to Interstate 65 via Decatur.

Or is it way up north?

The boats are parked at the Canarsie Pier in Brooklyn, NY, with the Belt Parkway in the background. If not, it sure looks a lot like it.

Another heads down Interstate 95 for a look at the boating scene:

The long, low bridge and types of boats shown here take my thoughts to southern Florida, perhaps south of Miami, or somewhere in the Keys. Sailboats, which can be demanding to operate even in the lightest weather conditions, are heavily outnumbered here by motor yachts. Those vessels bespeak an older population of owners: cautious, conservative, and comfortable, who may never even leave the harbor, but who enjoy the ambience of the marina and, from time to time, perhaps invite the boat owner on the other side of the dock to come have a tall one and shoot the breeze for a while. The chairs up on the main dock are very inviting.

Another:

This picture just reeks of the Southeastern US, but I can’t find any set of bridges that matches the configuration seen in the photo. Biloxi has plenty of casino hotel rooms to provide views of this sort, so that is my guess. I can’t wait to see what people came up with for tracking down boat registries.

Or sales listings, which we’ll get to. This reader gets the right state:

Looks like Morehead City, North Carolina, and in particular, a view from the waterfront Marriot. Spent a weekend there last summer and traveled back in time – just a quaint, historic little piece of North Carolina.

Another reader, like the majority of our contestants this week, identifies the correct town and hotel:

This one came fairly quickly to me, as it definitely looked like a coastal area in the Carolinas. I ruled out any areas in the Lowcountry region of South Carolina due to a lack of palmetto trees or marsh, so North Carolina came to mind. The bridges help it determine that it’s New Bern, as there are several crossings of the Trent and Neuse Rivers, which meet at the point where historic New Bern was founded. A beautiful and historic town!

The view is one towards the southeast and appears to be from the fourth floor of the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel that was built in bicentennial park, overlooking a second story pool and the docks, which are angled acutely to the shore.

This is my first time entering into the event!

A local is also ecstatic:

Oh. My. God. I cannot begin to tell you how excited I was to see this week’s VFYW. It’s right in my home town of New Bern! I’m so giddy I can barely type this email. I’ve never gotten closer than the country of a contest in the past, so imagine my surprise when I scrolled down your site and thought – holy shit, that’s where I live! Somehow, I’ll find a way to lose this contest, I just know it. Just know that someone in New Bern, North Carolina loves Andrew Sullivan (& Co.) and is a founding (and renewing) member and is more excited than he should be that he knows this week’s answer.

Well, now for some details. This shot is out of the rear window of the main building of the Doubletree Inn, formerly the Hilton, formerly the Sheraton, overlooking the now privately-owned Marina. Next door are some recently completed condos, making the hotel complex effectively three separate buildings. Not bad for a town of about 30,000. In the back, you can see the recently renovated cantilever bridge that caused a lot of controversy down here when it was built (long story). The deck at the bottom left hosts live music events in the summer.

New Bern itself is the colonial capital of North Carolina, the sister city of Bern, Switzerland, and celebrated its 300th anniversary in 2010. Out mascot is the bear. Go ahead and Google our former mayor Lee Bettis if you want some good laughs. The Marina sits at the confluence of the Trent and Neuse Rivers and today it is absolutely gorgeous here. Ah, New Bern. I can’t believe it! I am nearly certain someone who doesn’t live here will also know the answer, will send you pictures of the window from which the picture was taken, complete with graphs and charts. But I bet nobody else will tell you that they’ve had drinks at the table with the blue and white umbrella (I have), or that the last deck party at the hotel that they attended was two weeks before the birth of their first child (my wife got some disapproving looks that night). So if I lose because someone gets more specific about the picture, so be it. I’ll have a story to tell my kids.

By the way, New Bern got a shout-out in last night’s “Better Know A Disctrict”; evidently the town was featured in The Notebook. Another reader:

At first glance, I thought of Tampa Bay, but then switched to New Bern, NC. For such a tiny town, New Bern has an impressive array of bridges. The airport is small – the person who checks you in runs round the back and loads your bags, then checks your boarding pass at the gate. It’s also near the awesomely (and aptly) named Dismal Swamp. If it’s New Bern, the pic would probably have to be from the Bridge Point hotel, as I can’t think of another one directly on the water. That’s the extent of the research/trolling through my memory I’m willing to do given that it’s probably actually somewhere in China, and someone else will have hacked a NASA satellite to take a picture of the person currently occupying the correct room shaving in the bathroom mirror.

It was the structure at the base of the closest bridge that did it for me; it looks familiar:

Many readers focused on the boats for clues:

My immediate gut reaction was Coronado, CA, but a quick check of Google Maps and Street View indicated that the bridge was wrong. My next thought was somewhere along the Florida keys; but it only took about 5 minutes of scrolling along US 1 in Google Earth to recall that the majority of the bridges in the keys were flat and not arched. I figured I best step back and really take in the clues.

My first thought was to check boat registrations on the two names that are easily visible – Carpe Diem and High Five, but there are just too many possibilities and it didn’t look like I could easily sort it out that way. The next step was to search on Neptune. That one boat in the foreground has several banners on it and then the Carpe Diem named boat next to it has one so it looked like it was a tour boat service of some sort.

I messed around with a couple of Google searches using Neptune boat tours and kept coming up with wine tours in San Fran. When I was searching for boat registrations for High Five, I noticed a bunch in the Virginia area and that got me thinking about the Chesapeake Bay. When I searched on “neptune boat chesapeake” I immediately go a hit on that logo and noticed the Trident shaped E matched the one in the photo – Bingo!

From there it was a quick search of the Neptune Yacht sales website to see that they’re in New Bern, NC. Just typing in New Bern, NC into Google Earth and you can immediately see the arched/curved bridge and the perpendicular one. X marks the target zone (and the marina):

Zooming in on the marina you can pretty quickly spot the pool and fence that shows up in the photo. X marks the fence and pool chairs that belong to the Double Tree/Hilton. The room clearly looks out over the pool, facing South East – the camera view is just slightly beyond the pool. The circle is the room, the line is the view, the X are the pool chairs. In the frame of the photo, you are just to the right of the fence line that returns towards the hotel so I think it’s that 5th window from the end. The question is which floor…

The view is relatively high up, but there are no signs of the balcony, which is only on the top/5th floor. My bet is therefore the window on the 4th floor, circled below:

Another has more on the boat:

Using the marina and landmarks in the distance, I’m guessing that the picture was taken from the seventh room from southwest corner of the south tower. According to a reviewer in Trip Advisor, the fifth floor is the only floor with walkout balconies, so this along with the angle leads me to believe the room was on the third floor.

As an aside for the nautically interested, the sailboat “Carpe Diem” in the middle of the marina, is a well maintained 1995 Beneteau Oceanis 400 for sale and recently reduced to $98,900:

If anyone’s interested in buying the boat, several admiring readers passed along the link. Another:

I know people usually name the room number, but I have NO idea how they do that. So … let’s go with room 302, which might instead be numbered 319, 332, or 339, depending on how rooms are numbered on the floor plan. Or maybe 303/318/333/338???

You’ve won my dad’s interest in this contest. So we’ll be doing these together now, and since he did the legwork on the city, he’ll get the book if we win this time.

You two were close! Many readers guessed correctly this week, but nobody picked the right room number, not even Chini. Here is a composite of many of the (incorrect) window choices this week:

Of the few people who guessed the correct window, the following reader had the most previous correct guesses without a win, so he gets the prize this week:

First thing that popped into my head this week was “Tampa Bay.” A quick map check showed that was not right, but it seemed something along the intra-coastal waterway or maybe up the east coast of the US. Once I figured out the configuration of the bridges – with three distinct spans at the right side of the picture – I spent some time panning around maps looking for them. No luck.

Next I decided to search on the names I could see on the boats. Do you know how many different boat-related enterprises use the word “Neptune”? Do you know how many people name their boats “Carpe Diem”? Finally I stumbled across the logo of Neptune Yacht Sales and Service of New Bern, NC, which looked like a match.

And there it was, the New Bern DoubleTree, overlooking the marina and the bridges. I found a picture from 2005 with a similar scene; there is a drawbridge span that has clearly been replaced since then. Going to Street View and looking back from the structure at the north end of the bridge – probably a drawbridge control room – gave me a line to the room. Street View also had a picture taken at the back of the hotel which shows the same two Neptune boats and the back of the hotel. Looking at the angle I guessed it was the third floor, and based on the overhead I figured fourth window over from the right.

I got last week’s hotel right but miscounted the floors, missing the correct window by one. Hoping I am a little more accurate this time.

Accurate enough for a big win. From the original submitter:

This picture was taken on February 17, 2014, from the window of my hotel room (#307) at the Hilton Doubletree Hotel in New Bern, North Carolina. I believe it was the 4th window from the center of the hotel (the hinge or bend), on the 3rd floor, behind the top of the tree on the left. A sleuth can discern that the scene is in New Bern by the several banners advertising Neptune Yacht Sales, a business located in New Bern.

(Archive)

A Staggering Death Sentence

Egypt’s mass death sentences breach global rights law: UN http://t.co/MEQGILBOEh pic.twitter.com/N1m6inasTI

— Dunya TV (@dunyanetwork) March 25, 2014

https://twitter.com/jonleeanderson/status/448176865929613312

The numbers:

An Egyptian judge on March 24 sentenced 529 Muslim Brotherhood supporters (147 in custody, the rest at large) to death for the killing of one police officer—in the largest capital punishment conviction in modern Egypt. Though the sentences can still be appealed, they offer a stark illustration of the depths to which Egypt’s political conflict has plunged.

Magdi Abdelhadi calls the decision “preposterously self-defeating”:

[M]ost observers will conclude that the verdict is political, designed to send a message to the Brotherhood and its backers abroad – in Cairo this usually means Turkey and Qatar, which have made no secret of their unwavering support for the Brotherhood– that the Egyptian state is still in no mood to compromise with the Islamists: surrender or annihilation.

But coming down with a sledgehammer on anything that moves makes the government look more like a raging bull than a confident operator playing by the rules. It also adds to perceptions of the Brotherhood in the outside world as clear victims, despite the fact that government action against the Islamists still enjoys broad support in Egypt itself.

McBain was repulsed by the reaction within Egypt:

So is the judge Saeed Elgazar acting on a personal grudge against Morsi’s Islamist party, or is he coming under political pressure? This isn’t clear, but what is more evident, and deeply disturbing is that several Egyptian news channels welcomed the verdict. One TV presenter argued yesterday that: “The state cannot meet violence with violence? What should it meet it with? A wedding procession? Ball gowns?”

Lucia Ardovini and Simon Mabon add historical context:

What must be remembered is that what is happening in Egypt is not new but can be traced back to several previous periods in recent history. This cycle of Islamist engagement within politics followed by violent repression also occurred under Nasser, Sadat and Mubarak. What is clear is that the Muslim Brotherhood faces the most severe challenge to its long-term stability since the time of Nasser.

Anna Newby believes that Egypt won’t actually kill all the convicted Muslim Brotherhood members:

The convicted group can appeal the ruling, and legal experts say the case is likely to be overturned or rejected by the Grand Mufti, the country’s official authority for issuing religious edicts, who reviews all capital punishment sentences. The court determined that a final verdict would be issued on April 28. In any case, the idea that Egypt would actually execute the 529 people it sentenced to death today is far-fetched. A state execution on that scale would be unprecedented, and as Karim Medhat Ennarah of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights points out, it would be impossible to prove that each of the 500 people had a significant part in the killing of a single police officer. He adds: “Clearly this is an attempt to intimidate and terrorize the opposition, and specifically the Islamist opposition.”

Juan Cole weighs in:

Among Middle Eastern countries, the most execution happy is Iran, with over 300 a year. With just one trial, Egypt has made itself more Draconian than Iran.

And it appears to be just the beginning:

Egypt Opens Second Mass Trial of Brotherhood Members http://t.co/JYBcGyC1WH

— Voice of America (@VOA_News) March 25, 2014

Update from a reader:

This seems minor, but it strikes me as odd: It seems that the Guardian and McBain both called the judge who handed down the sentence “Saeed Elgazar” (or in the case of some Guardian articles, “Saeed Youssef Elgazar”). The problem: “Saeed Elgazar” in Arabic literally translates to “Happy the Butcher.” I thought this was awfully poetic, so I searched for the name in Arabic sources. All I could find as far as clear references to him were in Brotherhood-related sources; the relatively reputable Almasry Alyoum, for its part, gave his name as simply “Saeed Youssef” in its original article on the sentencing (article is in Arabic). I suspect we may have a bit of Brotherhood spin leaking out. If I am wrong and that is his name, of course, it is delightfully if darkly poetic.