Andrew Sullivan's Blog, page 2681
August 3, 2010
Dissent Of The Day
A reader writes:
Years ago, I took great pleasure in reading your takedown of Ben Sherwood in Spy. I had a special reason for doing so. He and I were among the dozen or so candidates at the California state Rhodes Scholarship semi-finalist competition hosted at Cal Tech in late '85.
I can't say that you get to know people particularly well in what was then a two-day event, but I and others knew him well enough to realize he was an ass - not just in his choice of words but in the way he...
The Right And The Terror War II
Terrorism - National security - Newspaper - Warfare and Conflict - War on Terrorism
The Right And The Terror War I
Some welcome hints of a rethink are peaking above the surface. Gene Healy writes:
Our interminable war on terror sometimes seems designed to justify every bad thing libertarians have ever said about government. For example, it's uncontested that the Bush administration's "enhanced interrogation" techniques came from a training program adopted after Chinese communists tortured U.S. soldiers captured in Korea.
Morality aside, it's almost impossible to imagine a dumber basis for fighting terror...
Save The Tweets
The Associated Press reports:
Politicians' tweets and status updates should be held to the same standards as paid advertising that voters see on television, hear on radio or find in their mailboxes, California's campaign watchdog agency says in a report being released Monday.
The Fair Political Practices Commission is considering how to regulate new forms of political activity such as appeals on a voter's Facebook page or in a text message.
Paul Sherman reacts:
To bureaucrats like those at...
On Counter-Insurgency, Israel vs America
Andrew Exum contests parallels between the IDF and the US military:
If anything, the adoption of population-centric counterinsurgency bythe U.S. military has caused U.S. military officers and analysts tocast new doubts on the efficacy of Israeli strategies and tactics inthe Palestinian Territories. (And in southern Lebanon, as my buddy Dan Helmer points out.)I looked through Dr. Khalili's extensive endnotes and didn't see theU.S. military's counterinsurgency manual referenced once. Maybe...
Quitting Chistianity In The Name Of Christ, Ctd
E.D. Kain's two cents on Anne Rice Christianity:
Certainly Christians can be terrible Christians. Certainly Idisagree with much of what is said and done in the name ofChristianity. Certainly I get a knot in my stomach every time theCatholic hierarchy bungles yet another sexual abuse crisis, and themore revelations of how un-Christian so many priests and pastors andothers have been while peddling the words of Christianity the moreangry and saddened I become over the whole state of...
Dan Rather, Sphynx Of Our Time
United States - Magazine - Magazines and E-zines - Arts - Literature
How Long Till Insufficient Sun Screen Is A Crime As Well?
Steven Greenhut objects to a Sacramento Bee series that examines crime in California's state park system:
Despite the hysteria, there's no reason to avoid state parks or in any way be alarmed. The series doesn't document a crime wave so much as it details how the Nanny State criminalizes even the most modest rule-breaking. We don't see a rash of violence or assaults, but the increased willingness of law enforcement to treat smoking, drinking, rafting without life preservers, noise-making and...
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