This political cycle has been especially frustrating: the general sense of hope from one candidate, the tired political machinations of another, and the wary realization that a once good politician hasn't made one too many compromises to finally win. Lately, too much of the discourse is all about how the candidates talk, not what they talk about. Fallows has an interesting post about this at his blog:
The more heartfelt and bitter complaint is about the way press coverage seems biased not against any particular candidate but against the entire process of politics, in the sense that politics includes the public effort to resolve difficult issues. (Medical care, climate change, banking crises, military priorities, etc.) For twenty ...
Hitchens Comments on Senator Craig
It was inevitable that Christopher Hitchens would comment on Senator Craig's resignation. It would not be Hitchens' style to be compassionate, but his article is gentle in its awareness of the self-hating that characterizes those like Craig. Discussing a relevant study by Laud Humphrey, Hitchens goes on to say: "The men interviewed by Humphreys wanted what many men want: a sexual encounter that was quick and easy and didn't involve any wining and dining. Some of the heterosexuals among them had also evolved a tactic for dealing with the cognitive dissonance that was involved. They compensated for their conduct by adopting extreme conservative postures in public. Humphreys, a former Episcopalian priest, came up with the phrase ...No End In Sight
Charles Ferguson’s new documentary on the war in Iraq, No End in Sight, manages to focus on an aspect of our misadventure which has recently become fashionable to discuss: whether a more intelligent handling of the time frame immediately after the toppling of Saddam Hussein’s invasion, would have prevented the chaos which has since unfolded. This has become a favorite argument of many conservative thinkers like Andrew Sullivan, who still believe that invading Iraq was the right thing to do, but that the aftermath was not properly managed. Even Bill Maher on last Friday’s show, invited Ambassador Barbara Bodine to participate on his panel, stated that after watching the film he found himself essentially saying “we ...Cheney on Why NOT to Invade Iraq
9/11 changed a lot of things, but absolutely none of the perfectly lucid reasons Cheney used in '94 defending why GWB the first did not drive into Iraq.Karl Rove - Master Tactician, Lousy Strategist
Today Andrew Sullivan linked to a David Frum Op-Ed in the NY Times which artfully discussed the conservative movement Rove leaves behind. Frum is a committed conservative as opposed to Rove, who Frum clearly believes is primarily a partisan. As a political strategist, Karl Rove offered a brilliant answer to the wrong question. The question he answered so successfully was a political one: How could Republicans win elections after Bill Clinton steered the Democrats to the center? The question he unfortunately ignored was a policy question: What does the nation need — and how can conservatives achieve it? Mr. Rove answered his chosen question by courting carefully selected constituencies with poll-tested promises: tax cuts for ...Rod Dreher & Political Faith
Rod Dreher, author of Crunchy Con, recently posted a list of five things he has learned from the trust he placed in the leadership which led us into Iraq. It is an honest and illuminating moment of insight into the mind of a counter-cultural evangelical (Dreher converted to Eastern Orthodoxy in 2006). His list and my analysis follows ...Frost-Nixon on Broadway
Two weekends ago, in the quid pro quo that happily married people euphemistically call “compromise”, my wife and I made our way to New York to celebrate our 11th Anniversary; Jen got the spa package at the W and I got tickets to the Frost-Nixon play on Broadway. It remains to be seen if forcing her to sit through a two hour play is made equal by her two hour massage. A brief review - more some random thoughts than rigorous analysis - about the play follow.Paulson Comments on the US-China SED
Apologies for lack of posting recently - I've been on vacation in Turkey (more on that later). Last Monday's Asia Times carried my analysis of how this summer might impact the US-China trade relationship, specifically after Paulson's comments at Heritage Institute on the second SED which recently was completed. From my article: As the US begins to flush out in detail how it will respond to what it believes are unfair trade practices on China's part, the Chinese government itself is going through similar calculations about what it considers unfair with its relationship with the US. China's leadership is not naive, and those in the US government who believe they can count on a subservient and clumsy political class ...Faux News On a Blind Date
Hannity & Colmes had Ralph Reed and Christopher Hitchens on to discuss Falwell's death. Hannity is his usual blathering self and Hitchens his traditional polemic personality. What Hitchens has always been willing to say is what is unconventional (here his tract on Mother Teresa is one recent example) and what many of us would like to say, but don't have the courage to. Hitchens treatment of Falwell and Reed as "religious businessman" and "religious entrepreneurs" is on-point. As Andrew Sullivan said, maybe the Christianists are finally on the run.Falwell Passes On
The progenitor of modern-day Christian fundamentalism, Jerry Falwell, passed away today. He was a complex man, driven by beliefs to preach, teach and advocate for the issues and changes to the American way of life that he believed were essential. He is hated for many things, and his mind-numbing distrust of extra-Biblical insights into modernity is the classic representation of what it means to be a fundamentalist. But he is also hated because he was successful - because he built a movement and touched on deeper frustrations and distrusts which others from opposing perspectives have struggled to as poignantly tap into. Jerry was many things - a bigot, hatemonger and racist; but his success was in ... « Previous EntriesAbout MysteriousFaith
“If anyone can show me, and prove to me, that I am wrong in thought or deed, I will gladly change. I seek the truth, which never yet hurt anybody. It is only persistence in self-delusion and ignorance which does harm.”
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