Andrew Sullivan's Blog, page 2771
July 9, 2010
The Conservatism Of Same Sex Marriage (Once More With Feeling)
John Culhane sinks his teeth into the DOMA ruling:
The one new justification that the government raised was protection ofthe status quo. The court demolished — I mean, demolished — thisargument, noting that the "status quo" had been for the feds torecognize states' definitions of marriage, so that DOMA radically changedthat status. And the practice of recognizing, and deferring to, locallaw on marriage, had been unaltered throughout our history, even inespecially contentious cases such as...
Manners And Opinion Journalism
Mom and Dad are fighting (a little). In one corner of the living room, we have Jim Fallows, whose combined facility for penetrating analysis and scrupulous journalistic manners has always left me slack-jawed. In the other, we have Mike Kinsley, who parented me into journalism (although I hasten to add bears no responsibility for my subsequent provocations) and is the funniest, rudest columnist I know. Fallows' rule of journalistic etiquette is as follows:
Write as if you might run into the...
DOMA Reax
You can read the rulings here. Jack Balkin thinks they will be overturned:
I am a strong supporter of same sex marriage.Nevertheless, I predict that both of these opinions will be overturnedon appeal. Whether one likes it or not-- and I do not-- Judge Tauro isway ahead of the national consensus on the the equal protection issue.I personally think that discrimination against gays and lesbians isirrational, but a federal district court judge-- who must obey existingprecedents, and who is...
The Evolutionary Case Against Monogamy, Ctd
A reader writes:
As someone who's lived in an open marriage for the last 8 years
have never had sex with anyone else but my wife since we met, I
our experience might shed light on the actual experience.I was 38 when we married. I'd been married before and saw that
implode over one issue: Trust. (Which had nothing to do
infidelity. There was none).When we got together we agreed that this, more than any other thing,would destroy the marriage. So we talked about trust...
The Unstoppable Sarah Palin
Chris Matthews sees Palin inflicting an "early knockout" in the primaries. Larison, still betting against her, argues that the GOP establishment will quash her candidacy:
Palin and Mondale are alike in that they represent the face of theparty as it was when it was defeated, but they are quite different intheir sources of support. Mondale was the candidate of the partyestablishment and important interest groups, and Palin has made a pointof aligning herself with every possible...
Freezing Yourself
Kerry Howley brushes up on cryonics, i.e. low-temp preservation of individuals for future reanimation. Robin Hanson, among those profiled in the piece, explains his enthusiasm for the practice:
I'm pro cryonics not because I'm pro all-med-no-matter-what, but because its cost benefit seems favorable – a >5% chance of decades more life for a few tens of thousands of dollars. And this isn't at all about immortality, the odds of which are far lower, but mainly about more decades of healthy...
Eat Your Vegetables
Dan Ariely wants to know why so much of his produce goes bad. One obvious reason:
I suspect that one of the main culprits is the produce drawer in therefrigerator. Most refrigerators have a special drawer designed tohold produce, usually located at the bottom of the fridge. The draweris often just barely opaque and for some reason difficult to open.Because of these "features," when you open the fridge door, you lookstraight ahead, to the leftover lasagna or apple pie (and theirconvenient...
A World Without Cash
Scott Adams imagines one:
When you eliminate cash, you also eliminate a lot of crime.Criminals need cash to stay off the radar. In a cashless world, drugdealers and crime syndicates could try to set up fake businesses tolaunder their revenues, but it wouldn't work. Imagine setting up a fakedry cleaner, for example. The government could easily determine whetherthat business is buying the type and quantity of dry cleaning suppliestypically needed, and whether the profit margins are at industry...
Does An iPod Ever Lie?
After reviewing congressman Aaron Schock's selected playlist, David Schmader concludes (sadly):
This is not the playlist of a man who wants to have sex with other men.
Aaron Schock - iPod - Apple iPod - Peripherals - Hardware
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