Andrew Sullivan's Blog, page 2747

On Not Becoming Unhinged, Ctd

by Chris Bodenner

A reader writes:

Regardless of my views on the moral or evolutionary arguments, I was struck by the egocentrism and entitlement in your reader's post about his wife's changed sexual responses. I certainly empathize with his frustration, but the reality is that his wife bore the burden of birth control, and the physical consequences of that choice. Now she's faced with the possibility of a lifetime of painful and/or unsatisfying sex. His "getting it elsewhere" would mean she...

Limited Alliances

by Patrick Appel

Julian Sanchez chews over "liberaltarianism":

Yeah, there doesn't seem to be much interest on the left in any kind ofbroad self-conscious "Liberaltarian Alliance"—but practical politicalcoalitions don't actually spring from New Republic essays,any more than real-world friendships arise from a formal declaration ofan intent to be friends. They're a function of actually getting outthere and doing the work, issue by issue, bill by bill, election byelection.  Given my own pattern...

A Thousand Cuts, Ctd

by Patrick Appel

A reader writes:

The post about "A Thousand Cuts" showed a stunning lack of understanding of what it will take to cut the budget. I am very familiar with the budget process in state government and the federal government works the same way.

In the first place, it IS Congress and the various Administrations that have put us where we are. Expecting the bureaucracy to make cuts ignores the fact that the bureaucracy exists to implement and administer laws, not interpret and adjust...

Sarah Palin, King-Maker?

by Patrick Appel

Poulos doubts Kazin's theory:

For it to happen, the GOP would have to (1) produce a leading contender for the nomination who is both (2) unacceptable to Palinites and (3) a man Palin doesn't like personally, doesn't owe any favors, and can't promote to her advantage (let's not kid ourselves: Palin wouldn't veto a woman even if she could). I just don't see that narrow, complex scenario playing out in any event. Palin's ability to shape the party from its margins will likely...

Blogs from a northern town

by Dave Weigel

UNALASKA, AK -- So here's a question that no one has asked me.

"What's it like to blog from a remote location like historic Dutch Harbor/Unalaska, America's largest fishing port?"

Well, I'll tell you. It's rife with difficulties! In previous posts I've mentioned that everyone on this island gets Internet access from a satellite, and I have now learned that the mountain the satellite pickup rests on is called "Haystack." So it's slow. It's also hard to finesse. I'd like to work...

The Evolution Of Skills

by Patrick Appel

Ryan Avent has an important follow-up on manufacturing and outsourcing that should be read in full:

This sounds horribly dehumanizing and generally terrible, but it's how
the world got rich — by moving workers from wretched jobs to merely
crappy jobs, then kicking them out of the crappy jobs and forcing them
to find merely cruddy jobs, then kicking them out of the cruddy jobs
and forcing them to find merely unpleasant jobs.

Outsourcing - Manufacturing - Business -...

The Future Of Parking

by Chris Bodenner

Is here - and amazing:

Hosting - Web Design and Development - Free - Sports Related - Personal

The Correct But Tactless NAACP

by Chris Bodenner

Ta-Nehisi, who has been critical of the NAACP in the past, can't side with me, Weigel, and others exasperated with the group's Tea Party resolution:

Racism tends to attract attention when its flagrant and filled with invective. But like all bigotry, the most potent component of racism is frame-flipping--positioning the bigot as the actual victim. So the gays do not simply want to marry, they want to convert our children into sin. The Jews do not merely want to be left in...

An event of historic significance

by Dave Weigel

Buried in a classic Politico VandeHarris Big-Thinker on how Obama's Democrats are more or less doomed at the polls, we find this:

The liberal blogs cheer the fact that Stan McChrystal's scalp has beenreplaced with David Petraeus's, even though both men are equallyhawkish on Afghanistan, but barely clapped for the passage of healthcare. They treat the firing of a blogger from the Washington Post as anevent of historic significance, while largely averting their gaze fromthe fact t...

The Politics Of More Stimulus

by Patrick Appel

Andrew Gelman checks the political incentives:

I suspect the Obama team knows about the research on the economy andelection outcomes, and, more importantly, I think they knew about thisin 2009 as well. That's one reason they did the big stimulus last year,no? To put the economy on a better footing in the 2010 election year.And, according to many economists, the stimulus worked in that regard;in the absence of a stimulus, we might very well be in much worseeconomic shape (at...