Andrew Sullivan's Blog, page 2587

Flaws in the Meritocracy

by Conor Friedersdorf

An e-mailer writes, "Higher education is the most meritocratic filter we've got to inform decisions about career advancement. Kids who excel at elite colleges are almost all extremely smart and hard working, so what's the problem? These people deserve to make up the ruling class more than anyone else you're going to find."

This statement vastly overestimates the extent to which admissions at elite colleges is a meritocratic process. It's a mindset I encountered a lot...

How Panhandlers Spend

by Conor Friedersdorf

An enterprising reporter hands out prepaid cash cards to find out.

Christianity - United States - Business and Economy - Religion and Spirituality - Business

When An Internet Star Sells Out

by Chris Bodenner

Ugh - to Microsoft no less. Well, at least the double-rainbow dude found a way to get that Internet money, so more power to him.

Microsoft - Economic - Chris Bodenner - Business - Television

When Will Congress Repeal DADT?

by Patrick Appel

Jason Mazzone grows impatient:

President Obama vowed to end "Don't Ask Don't Tell," the Clinton-era compromise on gay and lesbian soldiers serving in the military. But Obama's window of opportunity for ending DADT is quickly closing. At the end of May, the House voted 234-194 to repeal DADT as part of a military spending bill. Just five Republicans supported the repeal and twenty-six Democrats voted in opposition. The Senate Armed Services Committee has also approved the...

The Presidency Is Too Big for One Person

by Conor Friedersdorf

Todd Purdum writes in Vanity Fair:

Washington is hard to govern, above all, because of the radical growth in the scope of the federal government's responsibilities—it's an obvious fact, but it's where explanations must begin. On the eve of World War II, F.D.R. had six high-level aides who carried the title "administrative assistant to the president." Harry Truman, after the war, had 12 of them: they met every morning in a semicircle around his desk. There are now upwards...

The Party Impeding Equality

by Chris Bodenner

Dan Savage is unimpressed by the recent wave of gay tolerance among Republican elites backing Mehlman. He directs his ire toward Democrats:

And here's the most hilarious thing about Democratic cowardice where our issues are concerned: voters who hate the gays don't hate Obama and the Democrats in Congress one iota less for breaking their promises to gay and lesbian community. Just going by the action alerts sent out by rightwing Christian groups—I get all their emails—you...

A Democratic Bloodbath? Ctd

by Patrick Appel

Larry Sabato places his bet:

Given what we can see at this moment, Republicans have a good chance to win the House by picking up as many as 47 seats, net. This is a "net" number since the GOP will probably lose several of its own congressional districts in Delaware, Hawaii, and Louisiana. This estimate, which may be raised or lowered by Election Day, is based on a careful district-by-district analysis, plus electoral modeling based on trends in President Obama's Gallup job...

The Palin State

by Chris Bodenner

Alaska native Marty Beckerman is bitter about Sarah Palin stealing his thunder:

[A:]t college in D.C. I'd get asked every day, as if I were from some exotic fantasy land: "Did you mush dogs instead of driving a car?" "Did your family live in an igloo?" "Did you have a pet polar bear?"

... Did you water ski behind a team of huskies?

No, no, and no, but I loved these asinine, naive, wonderful questions. Saying "I'm from Alaska" was the best conversation starter...

Death by Drone

by Conor Friedersdorf

Says James Poulos:

There's something about drones that makes me queasy. Maybe it's the whole robots-with-guns thing. We're a long ways away from the day when machines programmed to kill fight wars so human Americans don't have to, but I think the following principle is important to keep in at least the back of our minds going forward: war is something awful, serious, and dangerous enough that real people should have to do the bulk of it. Assassinating evildoers in...

Dissent Of The Day

by Chris Bodenner

A reader writes:

I watched (twice) the Beck rally video you posted and forwarded the link to a few of my Beck-loving and Beck-loathing friends.  I anxiously await their responses.  I do, however, feel compelled to make a comment or two with respect to the video, its producer's motives, and your choice to post it.

I'm no fan of Beck (or of Palin), and the people in this clip certainly represent the types of folks that I come up against every day here in small town...