Andrew Sullivan's Blog, page 2827

McChrystal's MoFos

Tapper reports that the general has conceded that he has "compromised the mission". That surely means he is out. When even Bill Kristol and Eliot Cohen have dropped him, it's curtains. Ambers, in his invaluable night-beat feature, writes this:

LOW BLOW: Avowed
opponents of McChrystal are whispering about the DoD's inspector
general's report on abuses at Camp Nama, which McChrystal oversaw as
Commander in Chief of the Joint Special Operations Command. It hasn't
been released.

Low blow...

There They Go Again

Here's where we are in the neoconservative view of the Afghanistan war, now the longest in American history. Boot:

We just need to give it a little time.

Kristol:

If the war can't be quickly won in Afghanistan, it won't be quickly
lost there, either. And in fact it can be won, though it will take some
time.

The question is: can you imagine any feasible scenario in Afghanistan in the next decade in which either pundit would urge withdrawal? I can't.

Afghanistan - War in...

What A Car Costs

Bundle runs the numbers:

The average American spends 72 minutes per day in transit....It's also a lot of money. The average household spent $5,477 on gas and
auto expenses last year, according to Bundle data, an amount which
accounts for about 14.5 percent of daily spending.* That's more than we
spend on groceries or utilities, and more than we spend on travel,
entertainment, clothes and shoes, and hobbies — combined.

...*Bundle's spending data does not include mortgage or rent.

(Hat tip...

How Divorce Spreads

Vaughan Bell touts a fascinating study:

We find that divorce can spread between friends, siblings, and coworkers, and there are clusters of divorcees that extend two degrees of separation in the network. We also find that popular people are less likely to get divorced, divorcees have denser social networks, and they are much more likely to remarry other divorcees. Interestingly, we do not find that the presence of children influences the likelihood of divorce, but we do find that each child...

What A Month's Wages Can Buy

Returning to one of his favorite subjects, Mark Perry colorfully illustrates how much cheaper electronics have become in the last fifty years.
















Electronics - Business - Mark Perry - katyperry - Recreation

The Views From Their Recessions

Sam Biddle, an unemployed class of 2010 Philosophy major in NYC, is having a rough go of it:

At what point do I stop checking Craigslist? Why is there an ad for "MYSTERY SHOPPING" in the "writing/editing jobs" category? How much is their purported "nominal compensation"? A ten dollar per diem? A bag of buttons? A punch in the throat? "THIS IS NOT A FREE MEAL!," the ad warns. Well, then. Forget it! Why does this company leave the 'i' in 'iNC' uncapitalized? Perhaps this is some sort of...

The Rise Of The Kid Flick? Ctd

Drum hops on the thread:

Did adults abandon movies because movies got juvenile? Or did moviesget juvenile because adults abanonded them? I've never come to a firmconclusion about this myself, but I suspect it's more the latter. As asocial experience — for dates, for hanging out with your friends, forgetting out of the house — movies are as good as they've ever been. Andthat's a big part of what kids want out of their pastimes. But adults?They mostly just want to relax with a bit of good...

Why Computers Suck At Jeopardy

Jonah Lehrer notes Watson's flaws. The computer is slow on the buzzer:

Those players on Jeopardy are able to ring the buzzer before they can actually articulate the answer. All they have is a feeling, and that feeling is enough. These feelings of knowing illustrate the power of our emotions. Thefirst thing to note is that these feelings are often extremelyaccurate...The second important feature of these feelings of knowing is theirspeed. As Thompson makes clear, it's the speed of these...

Bigger Than McChrystal

Yglesias ignores the drama over whether McChrystal will retain his job:

The policy question here is more important than the fate of one man.
The military can easily continue to pursue a McChrystal-style strategy
on both the Afghan and US media fronts under different leadership. The
more important question facing the White House is how they feel about
that [strategy:].

White House - Stanley McChrystal - United States - Afghanistan - Military

The Daily Wrap

Today on the Dish, General McChrystal's comments created a firestorm in the blogosphere. Even Kristol felt he should resign. Andrew's take here and here. Stephen Biddle looked on the bright side of Afghanistan and the Texas GOP went off the deep end. BP took its PR to Twitter, the Big Picture took stock of the spill, and another worst case scenario emerged. We chronicled another odd lie.

In assorted coverage, Saletan studied the blood ban for gays, Adam Serwer antagonized the GOP over Faisal S...