Andrew Sullivan's Blog, page 2649

A Way Forward With Drugs

Mark Kleiman proposes a detailed overhaul of our failed system.
















Health - Mark Kleiman - Business - San Mateo County California - Mark O'Connor

Not Really Clearing The Air

So what was Conan O'Brien doing shirtless on his knees in a grass skirt at 18 years' old?
















Conan O'Brien - Television - Arts - Talk Shows - Programs

A Question Of Integrity, Ctd

Jacob Stokes draws a correlation between Pfc. Bradley Manning's suppressed sexual identity and his decision to go to Wikileaks:

This argument is not to excuse what Pfc. Manning allegedly did, which was against the law and almost surely endangered the lives of Americans and Afghans in the field while revealing little new information about the war in Afghanistan. Nor am I saying that the DADT policy was the sole driver behind Pfc. Manning alleged decision to leak the information. It's clear...

Christianism Watch

This from the group that claims allowing gay couples to marry civilly is an outrage against religious freedom:

"Permits should not be granted to build even one more mosque in
the United States of America, let alone the monstrosity planned for
Ground Zero. This is for one simple reason: each Islamic mosque is
dedicated to the overthrow of the American government. Each one is a potential jihadist recruitment and training center, and determined to implement the 'Grand Jihad' of which Andy...

The View From Your Window

Henderson, Kentucky, 8.30 am

Kentucky - United States - Rand Paul - United States Senate - Republican Party

Your Emails Are Polluting The Earth

Kiera Butler explains:

[E:]mails—especially those with attachments—still use energy and create greenhouse gas emissions, even if you don't print them. ... Part of the reason we have so much data has to do with redundancy:Let's say you take a picture and send it to 20 people. Each of thosepeople then have to download it, which requires equipment—personalcomputers, servers, and storage centers. ... All of a sudden there are 7,000 copies,and because of that there are 7,000 devices that are being...

Chart Of The Day, Ctd

A reader writes:

You asked, "[W:]hy the Democrats are under so much electoral pressure when so many people are doing fine in this economy, indeed enjoying hefty wage increases in an era of very low inflation."

I think the answer is  summarized in three words: real estate prices. Even those who are not unemployed, or who don't have stock market investments, have seen the value of their homes plummet by huge amounts in the last two years. For most of us, that's our primary savings and source of...

"Depressing Because It Is So Persuasive"

John McWhorter reviews Race, Wrongs, and Remedies:

One of the most sobering observations made by [author Amy:] Wax comes in the form ofa disarmingly simple calculus presented first by Isabel Sawhill andChristopher Jencks. If you finish high school and keep a job withouthaving children before marriage, you will almost certainly not be poor.Period. I have repeatedly felt the air go out of the room upon puttingthis to black audiences. No one of any political stripe can deny it. Itis human truth...

Leaving Afghanistan In 2011? Ctd

A reader writes:

Contrary to Ackerman's report, Bagram really isn't that big.  Seriously.  I live there, and I've been there for more than a year.  It's crowded, surely, but it is not a "massive" base.  The crowding, IMO, is more a result of shitty planning on the part of base operations than because it has such a massive number of forces in it (everybody is packed into about two miles along Disney. The rest is more like an industrial park).  The traffic is, as Ackerman notes, absolutely...

The Daily Wrap

Today on the Dish, Ross embarked on a response to Prop 8 (the Dish's is forthcoming), which Andrew addressed from behind enemy lines. Vaughn Walker may not be gay; the case's video and document evidence went public; Newt lived a double life; and two countries with legalized gay marriage now straddle the U.S.

Andrew looked again at the pain of war, at the evil of the Taliban, and at what it is to suffer alone, while this reader took a different road.

On the Cordoba Mosque, Hitch mustered...