Andrew Sullivan's Blog, page 2759

Bachmann Overdrive

by David Frum

Everybody was talking yesterday about Sarah Palin's big fundraising haul: $865,000 in the second quarter of 2010. 

But I'm proud to say that FrumForum star reporter Tim Mak noticed something fascinating underneath the hype: Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann actually raised twice as much as Palin over the quarter. 

And for those who fear that the zanies have taken over the Republican party, Mak offers this reassurance: Palin raised a lot - but Mitt Romney (who has not reported yet...

The Unstoppable Sarah Palin, Ctd

by Chris Bodenner

A reader writes:

One thing I haven't heard discussed amidst all the handwringing is her staff. You can't win the Iowa caucuses with a smarmy TV commercial - you need an actual organization. We seem to know a few things about Palin's staff - there are only a few that she trusts, they have no real practical political experience, and they spent the 2008 campaign being lambasted for their screw-ups. What serious Republican operatives are going to work for her after seeing how...

A Sign of Recovery?

by David Frum

Rush Limbaugh has at last found a buyer for his New York apartment, although for $2.5 mn less than the original asking price. The Wall Street Journal has the details. The photos, if you have not seen them, are well worth the look ... and for Rush's sake, I hope the French are wrong that his style is the man himself.  

Rush Limbaugh - New York - Wall Street Journal - United States - David Frum

Bullet Point Conservatism

by David Frum

Here's more from the young blogger Alex Knepper whom the folks at NewsRealBlog published for months ... but fired as a sex pervert and all-around lying maniac after he offered a post criticizing Ann Coulter. You can see just the kind of dangerous fiend he is too ...

Russell Kirk aptly described ideology as a drug. Meditate on that. Ideology, in the classical conservative worldview, is something that provides a person with a comfortable, affixed set of dogma that serves itself...

Major League Eating

by Patrick Appel

Will Saletan is made sick by the the world of competitive eating:

Ten years ago, the record at the Nathan's contest was 25 hot dogs. Now it's 68, and Chestnut claims to have forced down 72 in a practice session.

He later strains his argument by connecting the pastime to pornography.

Major League Eating - Competitive eating - Nathan's Famous - Joey Chestnut - Nathan

Searching For A New Metaphor

by Patrick Appel

Jonah Lehrer highlights a new study finding that mice with toys in their cages were better able to fight off cancer:

There is something spookyabout this new link between nice cages and reduced tumor growth.Cancer, after all, is just stupid cells run amok. It is life at itsmost mechanical, nothing but a genetic mistake. And yet, the presenceof toys in a cage can dramatically alter the course of the disease,making it harder for cancerous cells to take root and slowing...

The Status Quo

by Patrick Appel

Talbot reads up on the DOMA case:

Which status quo did the Justice Department lawyers mean? If they weretalking about marriage itself, well, yes, heterosexual marriage was thestatus quo in 1996 [when DOMA passed:]. But if they were talking about marriage law, thestatus quo there was for "the federal government to recognize forfederal purposes, any marriage declared valid according to state law."States ruled. The federal government had to recognize even a marriagethat no other...

Picky Eaters

by Patrick Appel

The WSJ profiles adults with limited palates. Jackson Kuhl nods:

We all have likes and dislikes; I don't care how much of a delicacy they are in Cambodia— I ain't eating a tarantula. Still, experience with my son taught methat, as the article suggests, picky eating is a neurosis. I don'tthink it's a coincidence that in both cases, the appetites of my guyand the pediatrician's son expanded at the same agewhen kids demonstrate greater self-awareness and personalresponsibility...

Best URL ever ...

by David Frum

... almost most needed in these hard times: AgainstDumb.com

David Frum - Chats and Forums - Religion and Spirituality - Judaism - United States

Kristol Drinks The Tea

by Patrick Appel

Friedersdorf notes Bill Kristol's peace-offering to the tea parties:

It is darkly amusing that he opens his strangely hollow outreach to
Tea Party movement with a quotation from Alexander Hamilton
Founding Father its typical adherent would most abhor.

Inside the Tea Party movement, there is much annoyance -- some of it justified-- about the treatment received at the hands of media elites. I submitthat Mr. Kristol's latest is as striking an example you'll find...