Andrew Sullivan's Blog, page 2632

Conservative Elites, Cont'd: Being in on the Joke

by Conor Friedersdorf

Apropos my earlier post about conservative elites and the Park 51 controversy, I want to address the general relationship between certain influential figures in the conservative movement -- Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, Andrew Breitbart, Sean Hannity, and others -- and the rank-and-file conservatives who make up their audience.

As a frequent critics of those particular coastal media elites, I am often presumed to be antagonistic to rank-and-file members of the American...

Divorce Equality

by Patrick Appel

Robert Wood sums up the tax benefits of marriage and divorce:

A divorcing couple can divvy up property tax free. Again, there's no
limit. So if you jointly bought a house, you can transfer your interest
to your ex without tax.

Not married? In that case, you'll likely face income or gift taxes.
If you give your half of the house to your ex-partner and receive
nothing in exchange, you've made a taxable gift.

(Hat tip: Kincaid)

Marriage - Divorce - Tax - Property tax ...

"Hawkers Of 9/11 Porn"

by Chris Bodenner

A reader writes:

I have worked in 100 Church Street for the past 11 years.  Here are my experiences of the day and the aftermath.

On 9/11, I bought my muffin from the Farmer's Market that set up outside of the WTC around 8:00 am and went to my office.  When the first plane hit, we looked out the windows and saw paper floating down from the sky.  So my co-workers and I went downstairs to West Broadway and saw the fire in the tower.  People were screaming and my co-worker said...

Gary Johnson, Cont'd

by Conor Friedersdorf

Apropos my complaint that Gary Johnson isn't taken seriously as a presidential candidate, Marc Ambinder has a sharp post that includes this nugget:

People vote for politicians who sparkle, or who harness their anger; politicians who make them proud to be Republicans... or proud to be Americans.  This political dimension is related in some fashion to the leadership qualities we expect from a president, although there is not always a correlation between the two.

This is...

Rankle And File

by Chris Bodenner

Ann Coulter is dropped as keynote speaker for a WorldNetDaily conference because of her plans to speak at GOProud's Homocon 2010. WND and others are also cannibalizing Glenn Beck over his quiet support for marriage equality.

Ann Coulter - GOProud - Glenn Beck - Conservatism - Politics

Tech Difficulties

by Chris Bodenner

Our RSS feed is down at the moment but should be back up shortly. Thanks for all your emails and patience; here is a video of penguins chasing a butterfly.

Update: fixed.

RSS - United States - Chris Bodenner - World Trade Center - New York City

Grappling with the 9/11 Families, Ctd

by Patrick Appel

E.M. at DiA it as well as anyone:

It certainly would be insensitive, to use Mr Gingrich's terms
wave swastikas by the Holocaust Museum. But for this analogy to work
mosque must be to 9/11 what a swastika is to the Holocaust
however, most politicians are reluctant to suggest that mosques
symbols of terrorism, or that Muslims are all terrorists.

Instead,the complaint seems to boil down to a vague sense that doing Muslimstuff near ground zero is an...

Yglesias Award Nominee

by Chris Bodenner

"By no means am I a fan of Dr. Laura, (as she's known), but I'm evenless of a fan of the n-word, which I find more offensive, more harmful,and more poisonous to our community than Dr. Laura will ever be. ... Now I happen to consider Dr. Laura's laughably flawed logic moreoffensive than her use of the n-word, but considering her doctorate isactually in physiology and not psychology like many believe, it'sreally not that surprising that she knows so little about people orrace r...

Assessing Imam Rauf, Cont'd

by Conor Friedersdorf

Claire Berlinski responds to my earlier post on the Imam behind the Park51 project, and makes a persuasive case that whatever his intentions -- and I still see no convincing evidence that they are malign -- it is a fool's errand to associate with Hizb ut-Tahrir, a case that is only bolstered by this BBC piece I found while trying to read up on the group.

I'd be interested to hear why he attended a conference that they sponsored. It would certainly clarify this discussion. ...

Commuting Kills?

by Patrick Appel

That's what Richard Florida suggests. Avent dilutes this:

Commutes of [over an hour:] are relatively rare, and they're alsoassociated with declining incomes. Someone who has a two-hour commuteexperiences much more stress than someone with a 46-60 minute commute(who is roughly as stressed as someone with a 21-30 minute commute).They might be stressed by the commute, or they might be stressed by theset of circumstances that led them to live so far away from their job —low income...