Andrew Sullivan's Blog, page 2713

Mickey Was Right, Wasn't He? Ctd

A reader writes:

Please point this reader to this link. Have him download the data for pre-tax and post-tax Household income.  Then, have him graph the data for the top 1% (pre-tax and post-tax).  Then, have him measure the "much flatter curve" and send in his answer. I'll make a prediction.  His answer will be that he can't measure the "much flatter curve" because there isn't one.

Another:

In this post the readers comments don't really hold up to scrutiny.  If you looked at the same chart, but...

DOMA In Real Life, Ctd

Amy Davidson reflects on this video:

It is tempting to think that marriage is not necessary, legallyspeaking, as long as one is careful about making up wills and signingdirectives and buying insurance policies. But, from a practicalstandpoint, that's just not true (even putting aside the premiums andlawyers' fees for all those papers). Nor is this only about theelderly, though that's bad enough: according to the a

The Other Affirmative Action

Beinart uses the recent NAACP-tea party spat to advocate for class-based affirmative action:

Not only would class-based affirmative action focus remedial efforts onthose African Americans and Hispanics who need it most, it would linktheir fortunes to those of white working-class kids, and undermine theracial-partisan polarization that has marked the Obama years. Morewhite working-class kids at Harvard would mean an American educationalelite less easily caricatured by Fox News, and more able...

Mental Health Break

For those of you with a case of the Mondays:

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Quote For The Day

"Unless Israel takes the initiative to achieve lasting peace, [I.F:] Stone warned, there would be more wars or a spiraling weapons race in which Israel would become a beseiged and paranoid armed camp... Israel "cannot remain a western outpost in an Afro-Asian world casting off western domination", he said. "No quickie military victories should blind it to the inescapable - in the long run it cannot defeat the Arabs. It must join them," - Saul Friedman, 'Debate Divides U.S Jewry', Los Angeles T...

The Most Overused Rhyme In Songwriting

Cliché knows no genre:

(Hat tip: BF)

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Palinpalooza: A View From Abroad, Ctd

First Taiwan, now Brazil:

In his own [presidential:] campaign, Mr. Serra has seemingly taken a page from Mr. da Silva's playbook, vowing to increase significantly the number of families receiving subsidies and the amount of the payments. But he has also said that Mr. da Silva's Workers' Party had connections to the FARC. Mr. Serra's running mate, Indio da Costa, even suggested that the Workers' Party could be linked to drug trafficking, a comment that led a columnist in a Brazilian newspaper...

Are Journo-Listers Even Liberals?

A reader writes:

You're right on just about everything you say about Journo-List, with one glaring, rather obnoxious (to me) misstep. You say, "This is your liberal media, ladies and gentlemen: totally partisan, interested in the truth only if it advances their agenda, and devoid of any balls whatsoever." While I can't disagree that the media is partisan and lacks any substantive cojones, it's silly to me to call them "liberals." These aren't liberals; these are Democrats.

Those in the media...

Creepy Ad Watch

AdFreak files one for BrewDog:

... a Scottish craft brewery that has just released perhaps the most
masculine product ever invented: a beer that contains 55 percent
alcohol and comes packaged inside a taxidermied rodent. It costs £500
(about $760) per bottle and is called The End of History. PETA has yet to weigh in, but an Advocates for Animals rep calls the brew "a perverse idea" and adds: "People should learn to respect [animals:] rather than using them for some stupid marketing gimmick."

...

When Waterboarding Is "Torture" Ctd

A reader writes:

I was listening this morning to NPR discuss the Khmer Rouge trial. At one point they said, "Duch was often present during the brutal interrogations, where the detained were subjected to electric shock, mock drownings, and had their fingernails and toenails pulled out."  Italics are mine. When I heard that, I thought, "I wonder if they are talking about waterboarding?" Then, sure enough, I read your post where you quote the AP. 

NPR uses the word torture early in the story...