Andrew Sullivan's Blog, page 2796

Why Christianism Is Not Christianity

In a fantastic series of Tumblr religious postcards. My favorite:

Yep, that's the "Christian" candidate, Sharron Angle. The Christianists have about as much to do with Christianity as, well, torturers.

Sharron Angle - Christianity - Nevada - Recreation - God

Debating Porn, Ctd: Straight And Gay

A reader writes:

I share Gail Dines' concern that pornography is the only sex education material available to teens who aren't yet able to distinguish between fantasy and reality. But isn't the obvious answer to this problem that children deserve sex education that clarifies the physical and emotional realities of sex? Teens are caught in the crossfire of abstinence-only "education" from adults and relentless social pressure from their peers; eliminating porn does nothing to solve this...

Hitch's Cancer, Ctd

A reader writes:

I think Christopher would like it pointed out that he certainly doesn't
believe "God" poisons everything. As he would say, "that would be
absurd."

I was trying to make a joke/tease. Not very well, it appears. Another reader:

I'm sorry about your friend. But he's a tough cookie and if nothing else, I believe he could send those cancer cells packing by simply telling them where they are being oh so unreasonable. and frankly stupid. If I were a cancer cell I'd be afraid of...

The Final Solution? Ctd

A reader writes:

I can't believe I was wasting time surfing your site during a break from studying congenital adrenal hyperplasia for my MD boards *at the exact moment* you brought up CAH.  I share your moral disturbance that parents may try to find an in utero cure for CAH (more specifically 21-α-hydroxylase deficiency - there are two other enzymatic varieties of CAH). In fairness, however, it is important to note that ambiguous genitalia, virilization and (maybe!) lesbianism are not the...

The Full Troy McClure

You may remember him from .... the definitive list.
















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In Breitbart's World

Yesterday I noticed the rather alarming spectacle of a journalist offering $100,000 to procure emails of other journalists on a list-serv in order to expose and embarrass them by publishing comments that they assumed were off-the-record. If private emails are now grist for ideological warfare, it seems to me we are in over-drive in the partisan warfare that gets Breitbart up in the morning.

I seem to have touched a nerve, since Breitbart exploded with a . When you read the ...

Dissent Of The Day

A reader writes:

Did you really just argue that raising marginal tax rates by 12.4% on anyone making over $106,800 is merely "the closing of a silly loophole"?  Wow.  I'm all for closing tax loopholes, but across-the-board marginal rate increases are only loophole-closers in a world where you assume all money belongs to the government. 

This type of revenue raiser has serious detrimental consequences for labor supply and therefore for economic growth.  And you also call it "basically a big...

Kagan On Marriage Equality

Garrett Epps is covering the Kagan hearings. From yesterday's summary:

Charles Grassley (R-IA) asked, "Do you believe that marriage is a
question reserved for the states to decide?" This question, Kagan
pointed out, was the subject of a high-profile suit now in the courts,
making comment improper. Then Grassley asked whether she considered a
1970 case on the issue, Baker v. Nelson "settled law."

Baker v.
Nelson was an early case claiming that banning same-sex marriage violated the...

Kagan, Liberal

Bucking the majority opinion, Adam Serwer writes that "Elena Kagan's confirmation hearing has been the most substantive and interesting since the Clinton administration":

Kagan's revealed a great deal about her legal philosophy by rejectingobtuse textualism, acknowledging that there are times when judgesshould privilege intent over the actual principle outlined in theConstitution, and arguing that while the Constitution does not change,the circumstances under which we interpret it do. This...