Andrew Sullivan's Blog, page 2750

Chart Of The Day

by Patrick Appel

I'm not sure what to make of this:

OkCupid is a gay- and bi-friendly place and it's not our intention
to call into question anyone's sexual identity. But when we looked
messaging trends by sexuality, we were very surprised at what we
People who describe themselves as bisexual overwhelmingly
either one sex or the other, not both as you might expect.

This suggests that bisexuality is often either a hedge for gaypeople or a label adopted by straights to...

Picky Eaters, Ctd

by Patrick Appel

A reader writes:

As a hardcore meat-eater who recently went vegetarian, I wanted to chime in on this debate.

Until January, I was eating meat at least once a day, usually twice, and never in small quantities at a time. I always admired vegetarians, but I never thought I could handle it myself. Even six months into this new diet, I have never in my life eaten a salad.

But early this year, I moved from Philadelphia to Georgia and in doing so decided to give this whole vegetarian...

A Thousand Cuts

by Patrick Appel

Veronique de Rugy argues that cutting spending is not only possible and necessary but that it can be politically expedient:

Cutting public spending can seem challenging. Entitlementspending increases automatically in a recession and as thepopulation ages. Meanwhile, military actions in Afghanistan andIraq and the ongoing threat of terrorism all help lawmakers claimthat those parts of the budget are off limits. Lawmakers tend to bewary of spending reductions in general, as...

The Evolutionary Case For Monogamy? Ctd

by Patrick Appel

A reader writes:

I think Christopher Ryan leaves out part of the picture by suggesting that genetics can be the only source for evolutionary selection in the Darwinian sense.  This is basically an extension of the nature/nurture debate.  Just like the evolution of our genes can determine who we are and how we behave, so too can the evolution of cultural norms within a given society.  Societies that perpetuate ideas and norms that are beneficial to quality of life in the long...

Illustrating Discrimination

by Chris Bodenner

Xeni Jardin digs up an Army comic book from 2001 instructing soldiers on DADT.  Ackerman narrates:

"Dignity and
opens with the saga of Private First Class Howard. He has
misfortune of being observed in a homosexual act by two of his
soldiers. That triggers a tiptoe through a thicket of regulations
bureacrat-speak. Like: "What is a 'reliable person?'"
Howard is given the boot.

Then comes the tale of Sergeant Williams. He considers himself...

On Not Becoming Unhinged, Ctd

by Chris Bodenner

A reader writes:

My wife and I love each other very much.  A while into our relationship, before we married, she had her Norplant birth control device removed from her arm, and went to the NuVa ring device.  We didn't know this at the time, but this slowly caused sex to be more painful to her, I'm guessing due to some hormonal imbalance that caused her to not produce natural lubrication, and this spiraled to more mental anguish issues.  This sex and pain issue got to the...

The Daily Wrap

Today on the Dish, Bristol and Levi got engaged - again. A reader summed up reaction in the inbox, Pareene bemoaned the MSM's role, and Jesse Griffin reported a damning detail on Levi. In other news, a Tea Party spokesman fueled the NAACP's fire, Dan Choi got off the hook, John Cloud relayed research on cougars, and Pew showed how the blogosphere lives off traditional media. DOMA coverage here and especially here. Cannabis coverage here and especially here.

Weigel responded to reader...

Would The Supreme Court Strike Down DOMA?

by Patrick Appel

Andy Koppelman is hopeful:

On the current Supreme Court, thiscase would probably depend on the swing vote of Justice Anthony M.Kennedy. (If he is still there when it is heard — appeals take years,and he turns 74 later this month.) In a 1996 decision striking down aColorado law that repealed all antidiscrimination protection for gaypeople, he noted that it "has the peculiar property of imposing a broadand undifferentiated disability on a single named group." This kind...

Would The Supreme Court Strike DOMA Down?

by Patrick Appel

Andy Koppelman is hopeful:

On the current Supreme Court, thiscase would probably depend on the swing vote of Justice Anthony M.Kennedy. (If he is still there when it is heard — appeals take years,and he turns 74 later this month.) In a 1996 decision striking down aColorado law that repealed all antidiscrimination protection for gaypeople, he noted that it "has the peculiar property of imposing a broadand undifferentiated disability on a single named group." This kind...

Face Of The Day

by Chris Bodenner

Workers put the finishing touches on a massive billboard advertisement at a shopping center in Dubai on July 14, 2010. By Karim Sahib/AFP/Getty Images.

Dubai - Shopping mall - United Arab Emirates - Middle East - Business and Economy