Andrew Sullivan's Blog, page 2753

Chart Of The Day

by Patrick Appel

From Pew:

Blogs have become an important source for news junkies looking for breaking news and instant analysis, but blogs still look to old media for news stories. In fact, more than 99% of the news stories linked to in blogs come from traditional media sources such as newspapers and broadcast networks. The larger news organizations dominate these links. The BBC (23% of all blog links), CNN (21%), the New York Times (20%) and the Washington Post (16%) combined accounted...

Sarah Wants To Be Your Friend, Ctd

by Patrick Appel

Michael Kazin tweaks Michelle Cottle's thesis:

Perhaps a clever media strategy has made her into what Cottle calls"the p.r. genius of our time." But the beliefs which Palin is toutingmatter far more than her own beaming, resolutely confident self. In twoyears, she will at least be able to veto any Republican who seeks thenomination and be king, or queen-maker, of whomever gets to run againstObama. That frightening prospect is what talented reporters like Cottleshould begin to...

Bastille Day

by David Frum

In honor of the French national day, a link to Francois Furet's classic essay, "The French Revolution is Over." It opens (my bad typing, please excuse):

Historians engaged in the study of the Merovingian kings or the Hundred Years War are not asked at every turn to present their research permits. So long as they can give proof of having learned the techniques of the trade, society and the profession assume that they possess the virtues of patience and objectivity. The discussion...

The Palin-Johnston Engagement, Ctd

by Chris Bodenner

Jesse Gryphen adds a wrinkle to the melodrama:

Do you the really tacky thing about this US Weekly photo?  Last Friday,
after ignoring Sadie and his mom for days, Levi suddenly called up and
asked Sherry to cut his hair.  When he arrived they asked what it was
for, but he refused to say anything other than that had a photoshoot on
Saturday.  So Levi woke his mother up, demanded that she cut his hair,
but said NOTHING about his engagement to Bristol.

Stay classy Levi.

...

On Not Becoming Unhinged

by Chris Bodenner

A Slog commenter accuses Dan of pushing open relationships on people. He protests:

There's a column, pretty recent one, not gonna look up, where I
encouraged a guy who was into monogamy to dump a girl who wasn't
told him he was fine. Go and find it! Gotta run.

I do advocate, however, being realistic about the odds that one or theother or both partners in a truly long long-term relationship willcheat at some point. The stats on infidelity? Shocking, consideringthat...

Maybe he should have gathered more armies

by Dave Weigel

Rick Barber -- the man who cut three of the most dizzingly amusing YouTube ads of the cycle -- will not be heading to Congress. He badly lost last night's runoff in his Alabama district, falling by 22 points to Montgomery City Councilwoman Martha Roby, who pitted the support of the Republican establishment against Barber's aggressive courting of tea parties.

There is a lesson here, as well as an excuse to post Barber's best video. It's easy to look at a loss like this and...

Trig-onometry

by Dave Weigel

Who could have expected this? Criticizing my blog-host's indulgence of the "Trig isn't the son of Sarah Palin" theory inspired a bunch of e-mail, some of it critical of me for doubting. Or of not doubting enough. I've lost track.

Yourargument comparing the Birthers and those questioning Trig Palin'sbirth misses the largest most salient fact of all. Obama has answeredhis questioners with a legal document that clearly proves those statinghe was not born in the US are choosing to...

Pot Polls

by Patrick Appel

Thoreau is saddened by them:

Regarding the marijuana ballot measure, it appears that support is strong among whites and opposition is strong among minorities. At first this surprised me, given that minority communities are theones most impacted by the insanity of drug enforcement.  On the otherhand, that sort of thing cuts both ways.  If prohibition exacerbatesthe pathologies associated with drug abuse, then the least advantagedcommunities that are impacted the most by...

Email Of The Day

by Chris Bodenner

A reader writes:

For the first time I really believe she will run.  I don't think anyone takes a breath in that family without clearing it with Sarah first.   If this isn't "getting your house in order," I don't know what is.

The announcement was clearly meant to ruin Andrew's vacation.

United States - Republican - Politics - People - Chris Bodenner

How Bias Bends Fact, Ctd

by Patrick Appel

Jonah Lehrer's two cents:

Unless we engage with those uncomfortable data points, those stats
which suggest that George W. Bush wasn't all bad, or that Obama isn't
such a leftist radical, then our beliefs will never improve. (It
doesn't help, of course, that our news sources are increasingly
segregated along ideological lines.) So here's my theorem: The value of
a political pundit is directly correlated with his or her willingness
to admit past error.

George W...