Andrew Sullivan's Blog, page 2860

Towards A Hundred Hong Kongs

Sebastian Mallaby's article on economist Paul Romer and charter cities is worth a read:

When you listen carefully, you realize that much of what Romer issaying should not be controversial. A few development economists arguethat geography is destiny, but most share Romer's conviction thatdecent rules are paramount. After all, Asia accounted for fully 56percent of world income in 1820, only 16 percent in 1950, and asubstantial 39 percent in 2008; what changed over this period wasrules, not...

Antigay Is The New Gay

Dan Savage picks up on this Charles Blow column from a couple days back:

Virulent homophobes are increasingly being exposed for engaging in homosexuality...there is a growing body of research that supports the notion that homophobia in some men could be a reaction to their own homosexual impulses. Many heterosexual men see this, and they don't want to be associated with it. It's like being antigay is becoming the old gay. Not cool.

Dan adds:

So straight men are telling pollsters that they're...

Slander At The Atlantic

And an apology:

So while Rand Paul has other issues to concern himself with right now,
and while I probably rank far below Rachel Maddow and others on the list
of people he might not be fond of, I want to apologize to him and say
that I feel like a total shitheel for bringing this all down on him.
There are certain things that are simply out of bounds in national
politics, and messing with somebody's favorite band is definitely among
them.

Rachel Maddow - Politics - Rand...

The Use Of A Child

Newsweek's story about the cult of Saint Sarah grasps the key import of the Trig pregnancy for Palin's political appeal:

Let's face it: the Trig story is a women's story, the kind girlfriends share over coffee or in church. It has all the familiar elements of evangelical testimony: tribulation and dread; trust in God; and, finally, great blessings. Many Christian women loathe Palin, of course, and many men love her, but a certain kind of conservative, Bible-believing woman worships her. And...

When Bloggers Wed

Friends of the blog Megan McArdle and Peter Suderman got married over the weekend. Timothy Lee was in attendance:

I thought I'd mention another notable thing about the wedding: the promiscuous use of Twitter by the assembled guests. As you might expect at a marriage of two bloggers, we used Twitter for everything. Peter used it to announce that the deed was done. We used it to share blurry, realtime pictures with the world. And we used it for many more frivolous purposes, such as settling...

The World Cup's Money Machine

In one handy graphic. Courtney Knapp looks at the other side of the equation:

With more than 80 percent of the world's population expected to watch
the World Cup, the month long tournament is a(nother) distraction to
workers, an excuse for soccer-related absenteeism, and a strain on
office resources as fans use network bandwidth to live-stream the
matches at work.

World Cup - Sport - FIFA World Cup - Soccer - Competitions

The Pernicious Lies Of Sarah Palin IV: They Victimize Me For Looking Hot

Hard to beat this reader's take on boob-gate:

"What am I going to wear so that nobody will look in an area that I
don't need them to look at?"

Nicely played. But then everyone should have expected this. A woman who does her bogus Q&A sessions sitting in a skirt so short that she can't even shift in the chair without threatening to show her "political credentials" and one half expects her to simulate the leg cross scene from "Basic Instinct"....Who shows up for a rally for special needs...

England 1, USA 1

The tragedy ... in Lego.
















Lego - Toys - Recreation - Collecting - Warner Bros

The View From Your Window

Bab Az-Zahra, East Jerusalem, 12 pm

East Jerusalem - Israel - Middle East - Jerusalem - Travel and Tourism

Most Terrorists Are Nitwits, Ctd

Andrew Exum sizes up Daniel Byman and Christine Fair's argument:

I think the ineptitudeis just one side of a wider trend. Keeping the argument to Britain fornow; before 9/11, to become an extremist, you had to be fairlycommitted. There was none of the reflected glamour of being associatedwith people capable of scaring polite society. In those days,extremists were overzealous, a bit nerdy, waay too into religion andgenerally uncool. As Chris and Daniel's example of 9/11 lead attackerMohammed...