Andrew Sullivan's Blog, page 2588

"The Most Meaningfully Pro-Black Policy Today"

by Patrick Appel

John McWhorter advocates for the end of the war on drugs:

What will turn black America around for good is not more theatrical marches but the elimination of a policy that prevents too many people from doing their best. After welfare reform in 1996, countless people thought that black women would wind up shivering on sidewalk grates. They underestimated the basic human resilience of black people. In the same way, if the War on Drugs is ended, the same people will assume that...

Cannabis Commercials

by Chris Bodenner

The first ads for medical marijuana hit the airways:

The 30-second ad, paid for by Sacramento-based "CannaCare" and produced by [Fox affiliate:] KTXL, shows various people delivering testimonials on the benefits of marijuana when used for medicinal purposes. Text at the bottom of the advertisement indicates that marijuana can be used in the relief of many diseases and illnesses, including diabetes, HIV, Hepatitis C and hypertension among others. Marijuana is not shown...

How China Sees The War

by Patrick Appel

Evan Osnos gives the Chinese perspective on Iraq:

China was never fond of the war for both practical and philosophicalreasons. It was one of five countries—the others were Russia,Indonesia, India, and Vietnam—that had oil deals in place with SaddamHussein when the U.S. invaded. It has since recovered its position, andfar more, emerging,

About My Job: The Y2K Programmer and the Systems Administrator

by Conor Friedersdorf

A reader writes:

On December 31, 1999, I along with programmers around the world sat apprehensively in front of my TV watching the date roll starting in the far east.  As each hour passed, and cities still had power, I became more elated.  We had done it!  I think if you had asked most programmers coming up on the date change, we were confident of our company's efforts but not sure whether other companies had accomplished their goal.
 
To hear people refer dismissively to...

Eyeing Iowa

by Chris Bodenner

Scott Conroy says that Palin's planned appearance at the Ronald Reagan Dinner in Des Moines on September 17 is the "clearest indication yet that she is seriously considering a run for the presidency." Erik Hayden surveys the speculation.

Iowa - Ronald Reagan - Republican - Des Moines Iowa - Sarah Palin

Haiti Vs. Pakistan

by Patrick Appel

Ackerman compares:

[T:]here's at least one huge exogenous difference between the U.S.'s ability to help Haiti and Pakistan: sovereignty. In Haiti, the beleaguered and overwhelmed government of Rene Preval had no problem accepting help from its nearby American neighbor. Not so in Pakistan.

In Haiti, "We took over the landing strips. We took over completely the provision of assistance. There was not even a fig leaf of Haitian sovereignty," observes Christine Fair, a South Asia...

Protesting Too Much, Ctd

by Chris Bodenner

Regarding Glenn Beck's fear of assassination, perhaps he had on his mind the closing scene of Network (Beck himself embraces the Howard Beale comparison):

Howard Beale - Network - Glenn Beck - -

The Daily Wrap

Today on the Dish, Afghan men took boy lovers; we learned lessons from Iraq and Obama's . More romantic Dish readers pitched in on progressively alternative engagement gifts; immigration could solve the housing crisis; and healthcare could determine November's election. Weigel wrote the post-mortem on Murkowski; political parties are not dead yet; and Andrew got dragged into the argument over Kos's new book, American Taliban.

In the lead up to Labor Day, we heard from a

Combat Troops in Everything But Name Remain, Ctd

by Patrick Appel

Ricks was underwhelmed by the speech:

As [Obama:] said in the speech, he was fulfilling a campaign pledge to get all combat troops out of Iraq by today. Unfortunately, it was a phony pledge -- the mission of the U.S. troops still in Iraq is, if anything, more dangerous today than it was yesterday. And so the core of the speech was hollow.

Meanwhile, in the under-reported Iraq story of the month, the Iraqi army chief of staff said the U.S. military needs to stay in Iraq for a

About My Job: The Mortician

by Conor Friedersdorf

A reader writes:

I work at a small family owned casket factory in Los Angeles that has been around since 1933.  The Let the Corpses Decay posts from last week captured a few of the peculiarities of funerals, but neither mentioned the grotesqueness of funeral industry overpricing. Funerals are overpriced mostly because of mortuaries and partially due to people's lack of awareness of how to shop for a funeral (e.g. people usually spend an extra thousand dollars by shopping...