Andrew Sullivan's Blog, page 2686

The Grim Mid-Terms For The Dems

A chilling interactive chart.
















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The Myth Of True Social Knowledge

City Journal has an excerpt from Manzi's forthcoming book. He focuses on the limits of social science:

At the moment, it is certain that we do not have anything remotelyapproaching a scientific understanding of human society. And themethods of experimental social science are not close to providing onewithin the foreseeable future. Science may someday allow us to predicthuman behavior comprehensively and reliably. Until then, we need tokeep stumbling forward with trial-and-error learning as...

Abortion And Slavery, Ctd

Ta-Nehisi and Megan tackled this topic a while back. Here's TNC:

Slave-masters often allowed--indeed encouraged--slaves to engage in acts common among people. Slaves married. Slaves were baptized. Slaves were converted to attend Christianity--and even attended white churches, at times. Slaves and masters exchanged gifts on Christmas. Slaves were allowed to hire themselves out and buy their own freedom. Slaves were manumitted by masters. The point is that what you see in all of that is...

The Chinese Century

It's their turn, after all. An they've been around a great deal longer than the US. Frum on the historical context:

European history extends a long way back: Cro-Magnons were painting caves 25,000 years ago, Celts were making good-looking swords and pots a thousand years before Christ, and the Parthenon is near as old as Confucius.

But here's the difference between Europe and China, and it takes considerable adjustment to absorb all the implications of this difference.

The history of Europe is...

HuffPo Sherroded Me

A blogger's lament.
















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Another Catholicism

An independent Catholic community in San Diego ordains a female minister.
















Catholic - San Diego - United States - Counties - California

Time's Cover, Ctd

A reader writes:

That photograph is open to a multitude of interpretations. Time
clearly has set this up as: "Look what will happen if we leave."  But I
look at that picture and think to myself, "What can we possibly hope to
accomplish there?"

This girl's face isn't a warning about the consequences of withdrawal.It's a tragic reminder of the futility of the United States' effortsin Afghanistan. After all, this girl was not maimed before theAmerican occupation. She was assaulted during the...

Mental Health Break

Almost makes you want to visit. Almost:

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The Tel Aviv Beach Bubble

Dan Drezner is in Israel:

[Israelis:] think containment can work in Gaza, and that engagement can workin the West Bank.  The wishful thinking that regime change will solveIsrael's problem runs strong and deep within Israeli security circles(coincidentally, this is the only issue on which Israelis sound moreoptimistic than their America counterparts).  Mostly, however, Israeliofficials are concerned that the attractiveness of the status quo willlull the population into inaction.  At a time when...

Effortless Fashion

Not so fast:

If one word could be removed from fashion writing, I'd pick the following: "effortless." It never, ever, ever, ever accurately describes the look in question.

How is a shot of someone who clearly takes care of herself hair- and body-wise and took particular care to dress nicely that day evidence of a lack of effort? It's nearly impossible to come up with a styling result that couldn't be labeled "effortless," so meaningless is this adjective in the fashion context. I've...