Andrew Sullivan's Blog, page 2794

Exhausted

Ezra Klein wants to know why the fight over unemployment benefits extension hasn't gotten more attention:

This dispute has gotten quieter and quieter, even as its results have
become more and more dire. The vote last night means that 2 million
Americans will lose their unemployment checks by July 12. But neither
the New York Times nor The Washington Post are carrying it on their
homepages above the fold.

Ezra Klein - Washington Post - United States - New York Times - Unemployment...

"Empirically Vacuous Meme-Replication" Ctd

A reader writes:

Why is Kathleen Parker using anything Paul Payack says to make a point? Payack is a hack who gets nothing but eye rolls from linguists. In 2008, his meticulous attention to language had him saying and writing "Obama Barack" instead of "Barack Obama." I shit you not.

Kathleen Parker - Barack Obama - United States - President - Oval Office

The Final Solution? Ctd

A reader writes:

Burroway says: "Of course, many on the religious right would still condemn all abortions regardless of the reason. But for them, finding a medical "cure" for homosexuality would be perfectly acceptable."

Although I don't doubt that the religious right would be quite alright with the eradication of homosexuality, I think that a biologically based "cure" would create a bit of a conundrum for them. After all, their opposition to homosexuality, at least ostensibly, stems from the...

Face Of The Day

A teenager refreshes in a fountain in Lille, northern France, on July 1, 2010, as temperatures soared all over the country. By Philippe Huguen/AFP/Getty Images.

France - Lille - People - Nord-Pas de Calais - History

"Empirically Vacuous Meme-Replication"

Linguist Mark Liberman lays into Kathleen Parker for calling Obama "our first female president":

What's her evidence for this lack of "rhetorical-testosterone"? Along with a lot of vague stuff about how Obama is "a chatterbox" who shares with "Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton" (!) the ability to "assume feminine communication styles effectively", the column includes exactly one relevant fact:

Obama's [oil crisis:] speech featured 13 percent passive-voice constructions, the highest level measured...

Soup Bait

Alyssa Rosenberg posts the trailer to the next season of Jersey Shore. When will Snooki run for Congress as a Republican? She seems to have all the necessary credentials.

Jersey Shore - New Jersey - United States - Travel and Tourism - Metro Areas and Regions

Quote For The Day

"Let's just disengage ourselves from the myth that Ronald Reagan never raised taxes. He did. And here are four big ones. So I hope this will clear the air for some of the groups today. In 1982, the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act, that rolled back about a third of his '81 tax cuts, raised corporate tax rates, and to a lesser extent income tax rates. Raised taxes by almost one percent of GDP, which at that time was the largest percentage in peacetime increase ever. 1982 gas tax...

Obama, Willing To Compromise

Allahpundit notices:

[Obama:] once told"Meet the Press" (again, back in 2007) that while raising theretirement age is "not the best option," he'd listen to all argumentsin the interest of restoring long-term solvency to the program. Why theleft thinks he wouldn't be willing to deal with a Republican Congresson that point is beyond me; as he's shown repeatedly, first andforemost during ObamaCare, he's happy to compromise on progressivesacred cows like the public option in order to get something...

Mental Health Break

Ten glorious minutes of movie insults:

Australia - Directories - Hosting - Web Design and Development - Sports Related

Kagan, Liberal, Ctd

Bernstein acknowledges that we don't know how far to the left she is:

Scott Lemieux that what we know now is what we knew going in, that Kagan is "liberalin a broad sense" but that where she sits on the a spectrum "from LarrySummers to Thurgood Marshall...is likely to remain a mystery."  He'sright -- but I don't think that's a problem with the process.  We don'tknow, because as she approaches a twenty year career on the Court, giveor take twenty years, even Elena Kagan probably doesn't...