Andrew Sullivan's Blog, page 2742

Do Sanctions Boost Fundamentalist Thinking?

by Patrick Appel

Andrew Cockburn reviews Invisible War: The United States and the Iraq Sanctions by Joy Gordon:

Denis Halliday, the UN humanitarian co-ordinator for Iraq who resignedin 1998 in protest at what he called the 'genocidal' sanctions regime,described at that time its more insidious effects on Iraqi society. Anentire generation of young people had grown up in isolation from theoutside world. He compared them, ominously, to the orphans of theRussian war in Afghanistan who later formed...

On Not Becoming Unhinged, Ctd

by Chris Bodenner

A reader writes:

The male reader who wrote this angers me for some reason.  First of all, if he has been sleeping with his male friend for years, then he is not "straight" - he is obviously bi-sexual. 

This guy gets to have his cake and eat it, too. To the outside world he is a married heterosexual, but he is secretly engaged in an intimate relationship with his male friend, thereby never suffering the stigma of being gay/bi or whatever he calls himself.   He is basically a...

What Does Inequality Mean?

by Patrick Appel

Claude Fischer reviews The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger:

If inequality does, to some degree, cause social problems, why?Wilkinson and Pickett emphasize that the mechanism here is socialpsychological: inequality creates anxiety about status and feelings ofunfairness that eat at people. In the words of a chapter title,"inequality gets under the skin." Unlike the volume of studies on thecorrelation between inequality and health, there is little...

"Totes Huge Diff"

by Chris Bodenner

The latest drama between boys being girls and girls being boys:

United States - Sports - Shopping - Chris Bodenner - Recreation

Legal Marijuana And Broken Windows

by Patrick Appel

Mike Konczal picks up on an important contradiction.

Mike Konczal - Commercial bank - United States - Paul Krugman - Mitch McConnell

'Republicans underestimate him at their peril'

by Dave Weigel

Charles Krauthammer tells it like it is:

The net effect of 18 months of Obamaism will be to undo much ofReaganism. Both presidencies were highly ideological, grandly ambitiousand often underappreciated by their own side. In his early years,Reagan was bitterly attacked from his right. (Typical Washington Postheadline: "For Reagan and the New Right, the Honeymoon Is Over" -- andthat was six months into his presidency!) Obama is attacked from hisleft for insufficient zeal on gay...

Over and out

by Dave Weigel

I'm signing off now and heading back into scenes like the one you see above you. It's been a fun week, and I want to thank Andrew for letting me into his habitat again. I also want to thank David Frum for joining me, and Patrick Appel and Chris Bodenner from ascending from the underblogverse to keep everything humming. That included churning out their own posts, keeping me alerted to commentary on what I'd written, and helping me put things online in those frequent moments when ...

Face Of The Day

by Chris Bodenner

Palestinian boys
taunt Israeli soldiers during a protest in the West Bank town of Nabi
saleh, near Ramallah, on July 16, 2010 against the expropriation of
Palestinian land to expand the nearby Jewish settlement of Halmish. By Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP/Getty Image.

Ramallah - West Bank - Palestinian territories - Middle East - Israel Defense Forces

'Grand Theft Ovid'

by Dave Weigel

Seth Schiesel has my favorite review of the week, if only for the line "the actor Fred Backus deserves praise for his performance as the deliciously rapacious Pac-Man." It's for "Theater of the Arcade," which is exactly what it sounds like. Let the creators explain:

"We would have these parties in junior high school and all the guyswould be playing Street Fighter and most of the girls would be offdoing their own thing, but I was pretty good at Street Fighter anddefinitely beat a ...

Dissent Of The Day

by Patrick Appel

A reader writes:

You write:

"Iran is a proud country with an ancient history; trying to bend it to America's will through force alone is unlikely to succeed. It sees itself as an equal, as a superpower – or at least a regional superpower – in the making. However far-fetched that may seem to Americans, treating the nation like a donkey, to be controlled with carrots and sticks, is insulting to many Iranians and politically strengthens anti-American forces inside the Iranian...