Andrew Sullivan's Blog, page 2758

Greetings from Unalaska

by Dave Weigel

UNALASKA, AK -- When I agreed to blog here for a week I gave a quick word of warning: I was set to spend a week in Dutch Harbor, the remote fishing town made globally famous by 1) the series "Deadliest Catch" and 2) fish.

"Remote" is a word we like to misuse, like "awesome" or "ironic" or "electable." You go to a hunting cabin in West Virginia and you say you're in a remote location. But I am about as far from the great mass of humanity as I could be right now. This is obvious...

Africa FTW, Ctd

by Chris Bodenner

Susanna Ferreira cautions against celebrating too soon:

Anti-foreignerviolence -- temporarily suppressed by the World Cup -- is about to boilover again. Diepsloot was anepicenter for the 2008 rash of attacks against Zimbabwean refugees thatleft atleast 62 people dead -- a third of them technically South African --anddisplaced more than 100,000 across the country. During the last fewmonths,extra cash from World Cup jobs, as well as scrutiny from theinternationalmedia and the...

Emergency Committee for Israel

by David Frum

Jennifer Rubin at Commentary describes the launch of a new pro-Israel group, the Emergency Committee for Israel:

There is a gaping hole in the Jewish community's response to the Obama administration and in its defense of Israel. In the past, these groups' close relationship with incumbent administrations has served them well. But as I have written for nearly a year, that tactic is not suited to the current challenges and has proven counterproductive in the Obama era. The need is...

The VFYW Contest: Winner #6

by Chris Bodenner

A reader writes:

You said you'd make it harder but *#&@ me! 

Is anyone else embarrassed by their desperation to
these things? (Spend ten minutes browsing "License Plates of
World" and you might

Another writes:

What's a Libertarian to Do?

Reason hosts a what promises to be a very interesting three-way debate over the right party-political path for libertarians. The debate opens with a tough-minded entry by Cato's Brink Lindsey:

The spirit of freedom is cosmopolitan. It is committed to secularism in political discourse, whatever religious views people might hold privately. And it coolly upholds reason against the swirl of interests and passions.

On that basis, Brink disavows the old libertarian-conservative political alliance.

...

Cool Ad Watch

by Chris Bodenner

The Billboard Awards spots one:

In order to capture the natural aspects of their products, they used a billboard using nature itself to represent their product.  A perfectly placed billboard that uses the sunset and moonlight to illustrate their superior hair color products and change the hair color of the billboard.  

Billboard - Shopping - Hair care - Health - Human hair color

Tempest In A Teapot

by Chris Bodenner

The NAACP is expected to pass a resolution today condemning the Tea Party movement as racist. Jim Newell sighs:

There are clearly racists in the Tea Party, but how effective can a
resolution condemning "racist elements" of a group be? It would be
condemning the racist elements of Walmart or an intramural
league or any organization. On the other hand, if you're condemning
entire movement as "racist," you're going overboard and

Anyway, the...

How Fear Infects, Ctd

by Patrick Appel

A reader writes:

to keep in mind is that police officers are required to walk into
to participate in events from which the rest of us are entitled
even advised - to shy away.

That fact, I think, is part of the reason why police officers are less likely to be convicted for shootings for which theywould be punished if they were not police officers. I'm not chasingafter a guy identified by a bloodied victim as having raped her; I'mnot supposed to confront him...

Asking Questions

by Patrick Appel

Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman claim that American creativity is declining. Some of their conclusions are suspect, but much the research they round-up on creativity is new to me and well worth pondering:

Preschool children, on average, ask their parents about 100 questions aday. Why, why, why—sometimes parents just wish it'd stop. Tragically,it does stop. By middle school they've pretty much stopped asking. It'sno coincidence that this same time is when student motivation...

Yglesias Award Nominee

by Chris Bodenner

"They should have been indicted. They absolutely should have been indicted for torturing, for spying, for arresting without warrants. I'd like to say they should be indicted for lying but believe it or not, unless you're under oath, lying is not a crime. At least not an indictable crime. It's a moral crime," - Fox News host Andrew Napolitano, on Cheney and Bush.

United States - Fox News Channel - Andrew Napolitano - Indictment - President