Andrew Sullivan's Blog, page 2828

Against The View From Nowhere

Jay Rosen encourages reporters to be more transparent, against "using opacity as a tool of power," for accountability in government, and against demagoguery. Ambinder asks how these guidelines are supposed to function in real life:

Tonight,I'm learning a lot about the back end of how the Rolling Stone articleabout Gen. McChrystal came to be written. I could share everything Iknow immediately, thus satisfying the transparency and anti-opacityprinciples, but in order to figure out who ought to...

Faisal Shahzad, Criminal

Adam Serwer on Shahzad's guilty plea:

Unlike those individuals who will be tried by military
Shahzad can make no credible claim to being a soldier. He is a
an attempted murderer, and a hapless terrorist whose fragile ego
clinging to a warrior narrative because it's the only way he knows
hold on to the last shred of dignity he has. With the sharp knock of a
judge's gavel, that meager comfort was denied. That's exactly how
should be. 

The question now...

Face Of The Day

 

Rudy Alfaro, aka 'Smurf', a member of the 'Mara 18' gang, remains at a court room in Guatemala City on June 22, 2010. The gang are accused of violating several women in the prison where they are kept for other crimes. By Johan Ordonez/AFP/Getty Images.

18th Street gang - Prison - Guatemala City - Central America - Crime

McChrystal Must Go? Ctd

Kristol writes that McChrystal probably has to go. Kori Schake wants him to stay:

McChrystal's commentsare not particularly wide of the norm -- this is what war-fighters sound likewhen they're talking to each other. It's not polite, and it certainlyisn't politically correct, but these are people doing deadly work. Theydevelop cynical attitudes about civilians and our often impracticalideas. They do not feel understood, much less appreciated, by thepolitical wheelers and dealers in Washington...

Will The Courts Overturn Prop 8?

Chris Beam surveys gay rights activists:

"If this case is decided on the strength of the arguments, our sidewins, hands-down, all the way up to the US Supreme Court. However, weknow that on our issues, a win can be tenuous and the legal process cantake years," Marc Solomon, marriage director for Equality California,one of the state's most prominent membership groups for gay rights,wrote over e-mail. "So we are working extremely hard right now tochange hearts and minds in the direction of...

The Rise Of The Kid Flick? Ctd

A reader writes:

As a movie critic, I end up seeing most new releases and two of the biggest grossing films of the year, "How to Train Your Dragon" and "Toy Story 3," were not only family films, but also two of the year's best. They exceeded in quality and sophistication most of the movies aimed at adult audiences. (I'm just talking multiplex here. The art house continues to offer challenging films for adults.) "How to Train Your Dragon" was genuinely thrilling and the 3D animation was...

The News Is Broken

Well, here's an idea:

It's trite to say it, but the news business is biased toward
news. There are plenty of outlets that tell you what
yesterday, but virtually no organizations that simply tell you
going on. Keeping up on the news is easy, but getting a handle on
ongoing situation that you've not really been following is hard...

If I edited a major publication -- or even a medium-sized one -- Iwould begin each major legislative battle by detailing a few of...

Von Hoffman Award Nominee

Robert Zemeckis, director of Back to the Future Part II, was "way off."

Back to the Future Part II - Robert Zemeckis - Film director - art - Future

Dancing To Cancer

Classical Indian dancer Ananda Shankar Jayant shares:

At the minute I was diagnosed with cancer, I decided not to focus onthe whole thing. The only way I could escape focusing on the cancer wasto focus on something that animated me and moved me and touched me.And, I found that in my dance. Dance is really who I am. Dance isreally my life's breath, in that sense of the word. I -- consciously,with a whole lot of visual and mental cues -- pulled myself out of thethought processes that send you...

Can't Debate, Busy Pummeling Strawmen

Friedersdorf enjoyed Matthew Continetti's article on the tea parties and Glenn Beck. He adds:

Mr. Continetti focuses on the political cost associated with this kindof rhetoric. I submit that it also exacts a cost in the world of ideas.Insofar as the conservative rank-and-file confronts an imagined cabalof leftists intent on destroying America from within, it'll remainutterly unequipped to argue with, persuade, or even intelligentlyoppose the actual liberals and progressives who compose the...