Andrew Sullivan's Blog, page 2630

The Paradox of Power

by Zoe Pollock

Jonah Lehrer gives us both the good news and the bad news. We put people in power who we genuinely like. It's only then that the situation changes:

The very traits that helped leaders accumulate control in the first place all but disappear once they rise to power. Instead of being polite, honest and outgoing, they become impulsive, reckless and rude. In some cases, these new habits can help a leader be more decisive and single-minded, or more likely to make choices that will be...

Waiting Out The News Cycle, Ctd

by Patrick Appel

Steinglass to Ezra:

The effect of this [Park 51:] nonsense, ultimately, is to discourage peoplefrom trying to educate Americans about Arabic language andcivilisation, or from setting up interfaith dialogues between Islam andother American religions. Those ought to be near the top of anyone'slist of worthy, non-controversial projects.It's not justIslam-related projects that get hurt. USAID offices abroad shy awayfrom organisations that work with prostitutes or drug...

Is The GOP's Pandering Working?

by Patrick Appel

Weigel isn't seeing it:

The new Siena Poll
finds that New Yorkers (everyone in the state) oppose the mosque by a
63-27 margin; they defend the constitutional right to build it by a
64-28 margin. At the same time, Lazio trails Cuomo by 34 points. He's
down 2 points -- within the margin of error, but not what you'd expect
if the Great Mosque Debate of 2010 was hitting home.

Republican - New York - United States - Lazio - New Yorkers

Disincentivizing Dissent, Ctd

A reader writes:

I am an academic on tenure track, and I want to raise an importantpoint about tenure that I don't think has been addressed in theseconversations yet. Measured on an individual level, I am not sure whatthe effects of tenure are. Like the historian in a prior post,my own and other junior faculty work is often critical of establishedstuff. I don't fear being blackballed on that basis. Really, thingsaren't like that (as long as one is intellectually rigorous). Academicsthemselves...

15 Million People

by Patrick Appel

Peter Feaver begs the nation to focus on the floods in Pakistan:

The stakes in Pakistan are exceptionally high and the international responsethus far has been inadequate.The United States has done better than most, but we could do more. The mostsuccessful things the Bush administration ever did in the war of ideas were therapid and substantial responses to the Asian tsunami of 2004/2005 and thePakistan earthquake of 2005. More than anything, our actions confounded criticsin...

Islam and Intolerance

by Conor Friedersdorf

Andy McCarthy's latest asserts that "intolerance is not just part of al-Qaeda, it is part of Islam." It's a piece that gets right to the point:

Non-Muslims are barred from entering the cities
of Mecca and Medina — not merely barred from building synagogues or
churches, but barred, period, because their infidel feet are deemed
unfit to touch the ground. This is not an al-Qaeda principle. Nor is it
an "Islamist" principle. It is Islam, pure and simple.

Of course...

"Depressing Because It Is So Persuasive" Ctd

by Chris Bodenner

Thomas Sugrue, guesting over at TNC's place, complements the Dish reader discussion by putting heat on Obama:

Sincethe '70s, support for integration, except rhetorically, has plummeted.Many black parents were (and are) rightly skeptical of the rhetoric ofsome integrationists--namely that mere exposure to whites would somehowmagically uplift their children. And most whites tell pollsters andsurvey researchers that they support racial integration, until morethan a handful of...

How Is Nobody Upper Class?

by Patrick Appel

A reader takes the thread in another direction:

I'm finding this an interesting conversation that we really need tohave as a country. I've thought so ever since I first learned the rootsof class theory and what the origins of the term "Middle Class" are.Living as we do in a country that did away with aristocracy (in thepure sense) at its founding, I've often felt that we miss the point inmost international socio-political conversations about class. Ratherthan defining class by...

Malkin Award Nominee

by Chris Bodenner

"Legislators around the country are considering banning sugar and fatty
foods in schools, removing salt and butter from restaurants and want to
control what temperature you can have in your own homes, because they
fear the potential of health problems. Perhaps they should consider
banning the promotion of a lifestyle that the Centers For Disease
Control has determined actually causes HIV/AIDS," - Ken Hutcherson, pictured between Rush Limbaugh and his fourth wife.

(Hat tip:

Matt Yglesias, Unlicensed Barber

by Patrick Appel

Yglesias has kicked off a debate about professional licensing. Adam Ozimek delves into the literature:

Another problem with occupational licensing as a regulatory tool isthat there is a lot of evidence that it does nothing to increasequality. One strain of research shows that malpractice insurancepremiums aren't lower in states with occupational licensing, which youwould expect if licensing was increasing service quality. Otherevidence comes from research into the...