Andrew Sullivan's Blog, page 2837

Opposites Repel

That's David McRaney's reading of the literature.
















Arts - David McRaney - Religion and Spirituality - Apple - Religion

What The World Needs Now

TED debates nuclear power. The initial exchanges, which span the first 14 minutes or so, are better than the audience responses:

TED - Multimedia - Development Frameworks - Flash - Technology

As The Fourth Estate Crumbles

Friedersdorf praises journalists who have exposed local government corruption. He wants to know who will take over that role as print dies:

I am pessimistic about the ability of a lot of newspapers to survive.So I'd like to suggest that, however you feel about newspapers, it'simportant that we generate ideas for replacing the local watchdogfunctions discussed in this post. Are there any readers who've observedviable replacements for the beat reporter in your community? Doesanyone have ideas...

What Do Those Extra Pounds Cost?

While arguing for a soda tax, Leonhardt digs up a study:

Mr. Goldman and his U.S.C. colleagues have madean estimate that takes into account both higher short-term spending andreduced longevity (including the fact that the government does not haveto pay for as many years of Social Security when someone diesprematurely). In their work, they assume that obesity returns to its1978 level. If that happened, the federal government would save about$17 billion a year. That's equal to about 3 percent...

Now They've Done It

An Iranian fatwa against keeping dogs and pets. I'm guessing a blogging sodomite with two beagles wouldn't last very long in Qom.
















Iran - Beagle - Dog - Recreation - Pets

AIPAC's Latest Email

Josh Block continues the new campaign by the pro-Israel lobby to demonize Turkey and equate this critical bridge between West and East with Ahmadinejad and Assad. Why? Because Turkey has criticized Israel, of course. Here's the email:

From:

Sent: Friday, June 18, 2010 10:38 AM

To: xxx@xxx.com

Subject: Funny Video!! The Three Terrors
Ahmadinejad, Assad sing in a trio

OK, this is another video, but a really funny one:

The Three Terrors ...

Trying To Live Benedict's Dogma

And you end up with Ahmadinejad-style arguments like this one:

Multimedia - Development Frameworks - Flash - Backup - Iran

When Manhattan Sold For $24

Tony Perrottet checks out the housing market and land deals throughout the ages:

The colonial era is full of subversive deal-making, but the world'smost notorious real estate coup occurred in 1626, when the energeticDutch settler Peter Minuit, as an agent for the West India Company,purchased the unimproved woodland "island Manhattes," covering 15,000acres, for 60 guilders worth of goods (around $24 today). The 300resident Native Americans, referred to in documents as the Manhatesen,were not...

Mental Health Break

Some final glimpses of spring:

Springtime - A Journey Into Macro Space from Gunther Machu on Vimeo.

Multimedia - Development Frameworks - Flash - Vimeo - Health

Pessimism, The Key To Happiness?

Roger Scruton defends negative thinking:

In order to see human beings as they are, therefore, and to schooloneself in the art of loving them, it is necessary to apply a dose ofpessimism to all one's plans and aspirations. I don't go along withSchopenhauer's comprehensive gloom, or with the philosophy ofrenunciation that he derived from it. I have no doubt that St Paul wasright to recommend faith, hope and love (agape) as the virtues whichorder life to the greater good. But I have no doubt too...