Andrew Sullivan's Blog, page 2703

The Other Affirmative Action, Ctd

A reader writes:

It's amazing to me how much of this discussion focuses on trying to address class-based AA at the level of university education.  What about how the relationship between property values, property taxes, and K-12 funding?  Are conservatives in favor of equalizing that to even out class-based advantages in primary education, where it can have the most impact?  If so, I haven't heard about it.  They advocate choice, but offer little to equalize the dollar advantages many...

Will Seniors Come Around On The Health Care Bill?

January Angeles defends the Medicare changes:

Reducing the overpayments will ... help enrollees by making Medicare's
long-term finances more stable.  Along with other Medicare changes in
the new law, it will extend the life of the Medicare Hospital Insurance
Trust Fund by 12 years and keep beneficiary premiums lower.

Medicare - Health care - United States - Politics - Insurance

Breaking News: The Vatican Is Super-Gay, Ctd

A reader writes:

The bubble popped for me two years ago. My still-practicing Catholic friends tell me compartmentalize. The Vatican is not Your Church, forget about



Intellectually I can understand this rationale. But in my heart, compartmentalization does not jive because I know each of our lives is interconnected.

I still have enough faith to believe in God and in the Holy Trinity. But that's about it right now. As a 53 single, professional woman, educated in a Catholic high...

The Conservative Crisis - And Liberalism

A brilliant little essay from P.M. Carpenter:

All that is driving modern conservatism's concentrically defined ideology: exclusion rather than inclusion, pup tents over big tents, intellectual guillotining and purifying bloodbaths. Only a tighter and tighter ideological circumference qualifies as True and Valid Belief -- an absolute killer in popular politics as well as in many an actual revolution. Outsiders need never worry for too long; the revolutionaries will stupidly slaughter...

Polling Pot, Ctd

Nate Silver contemplates the differences between live operator and automated polls:

The original Bradley Effect, named for former Los Angeles mayor Tom Bradley, occurs when respondents in surveys are asked about socially desirable behaviors, such as being free from racial prejudice. Although the racial version of Bradley effect itself is probably a thing of the past,social desirability bias may manifest itself in other ways. Automatedpolls have sometimes shown relatively lower levels...

Email Of The Day

A reader writes:

You forgot to mention that the guy holding the noose sign at the NOM rally, Larry Adams, admitted on tape to being tempted by gay sex.  As disgusting as that sign is, the interview left me feeling more pity than anger.  He actually expresses compassion by stating his main concern: he doesn't want them going to hell and that he wished they could feel God's love (even through he fails to realize they might already).  He honestly believes homosexuality is a choice because he...

Waiting On Innovation, Ctd

Tyler Cowen didn't like the cap-and-trade bill, but he still supports a carbon tax. His logic should be familiar to anyone who follows energy debates:

Even if we cut government spending a lot, some taxes will have to go up. 
This seems like the least bad tax to raise or create, since it has some
chance of producing a better outcome.  It's hard to say that about most
of the other potential tax boosts.

Tyler Cowen - Tax - Emissions trading - Energy - Carbon tax

What You Won't Find In The Reports

Noah Shachtman compares a Wikileaked battle log with his reporting.
















Wikileaks - War - History - United States - War in Afghanistan

Mental Health Break

"Philip Heron and James Adair shot a bunch of stuff hitting other stuff and slowed the whole thing way, way down."

Tempus II from Philip Heron on Vimeo.

Vimeo - Multimedia - Development Frameworks - Flash - Protocols

Saved From A Second Depression?

A paper by Alan S. Blinder and Mark Zandi is pinging around the economics blogs. From the NYT:

In a new paper, the economists argue that without the Wall Street bailout, the bank stress tests, the emergency lending and asset purchases by the Federal Reserve, and the Obama administration's fiscal stimulus program, the nation's gross domestic product would be about 6.5 percent lower this year. Inaddition, there would be about 8.5 million fewer jobs, on top of themore than 8 million already...