Andrew Sullivan's Blog, page 2858

Coupon Clippers

Meet your king:

My sister challenged me to try and eat well for a month spending only $1 a day for food.It probably would have been wise if I had thought about how much I hateshopping and cooking before I took on the challenge, but once Icommitted, nothing could stop me (not even a trip to the emergency room — two times— in the first week) I began May 1 with absolutely no food and managedto stay under my $31 budget for the month (I bought $597.96 worth offood and other stuff for $27.08 during...

If We Bomb Iran

Bill Kristol and Jamie Fly argue that Iran will not counter-attack. Greg Scoblete and Kevin Sullivan scratch their heads:

If the Iranian regime is so concerned about their survival that theywon't hit the U.S. after a military strike against their country, thanthey obviously aren't going to be using their nuclear weapons againstanyone lest they invite a far more devastating attack. The sameargument, in other words, that leads Kristol and Fly to conclude we cansafely attack Iran can be flipped...

The True Cost Of Oil: $4.60

Ezra Klein does the math:

For all the complexity of calculating the truecost of oil...it's unclear that it matters as much as somemight think. I assumed that a world in which gasoline's total costswere present at the pump would be a world in which our consumption wasradically different. But almost all of the experts I spoke to said thatwasn't true. If an energy source as dirty as coal had to pay its truecost, we'd likely stop using it. But, disasters aside, that's not thecase with oil.

Years ...

The Daily Wrap

Today on the Dish, bloggers reacted to Afghanistan's new bounty, Andrew offered a snap analysis, and Thomas Barnett's focused on the China connection. In Israel coverage, Schumer admitted his desire to punish Gazans, the Globe and Mail profiled the Knesset member present on the flotilla, Victor Davis Hanson suggested that Obama is anti-Semitic, and Andrew went another round with Chait.

In Palin coverage, she defended her wardrobe and told a pernicious lie about her hotness. Andrew challenged

Clouds, Not Clocks, Ctd

A reader writes:

I have to disagree with Jonah Lehrer's recommendation that "scientists should learn to expect this cycle -- to anticipate that the universe is always more networked and complicated than reductionist approaches can reveal." That is the basic definition of the scientific profession - to expect that cycle. Newton knew that he had only reached his own incomplete understanding by "standing on the shoulders" of giants and the scientific community has not forgotten the lesson. They...

Face Of The Day

A lion cub yawns at the Lion Park in Johannesburg, during a visit of
the Slovenian national football team on June 14, 2010. By Mustafa Ozer/AFP/Getty Images. No, Mr Colbert, this is not a response to soccer.

Johannesburg - Association football - Lion Park - Sport - Soccer

Borrowing For What?

Noah Millman makes a compelling case:

The opposition [to the stimulus:]...is usually described in terms of austerity,that we should be trying to cut the debt and have government tightenits belt just as private citizens have had to tighten theirs. Andausterity makes absolutely no sense in the current economicenvironment. Precisely because interest rates are low, this is a goodtime to borrow. But the question is: borrow for what? Every dollar weborrow today has to be repaid or refinanced – and...

The Office Of The Repealer

Balko is on-board:

England 1, USA 1, Ctd

A reader writes:

Regarding the NY
Post headline, as a Harvard man, I am sure you would agree that the Post
was
consciously alluding to the Crimson headline from 1968,
recently brought back into public consciousness by the documentary
with the same title.

To wit: "Harvard Beats Yale 29-29." And I would agree.

Harvard University - United States - New York Post - Harvard Beats Yale 29-29 - Education

How Not To Respond To New Media

An example:

The congressman has apologized. Carlos Miller captions:

There is speculation that the "students" were actually republican plants. It doesn't make a difference if they were the Watergate burglars, they had every right to film him walking down the street and ask him a [political:] question.While Etheridge did have the right to demand to know who they were, the videographers had every right not only to videotape him but to not tell them who they were.What Etheridge didn't have the...