Open Threads

There’s been an interesting back-and-forth discussion about the political efficacy of protests involving Matt Yglesias and others. The focus has been on what might be called liberal protests (those orgaznied by Gandhi and Martin Luther King, for example) that had important purposes, but nevertheless, it got me to wondering: do protests with no serious purpose (like the tea-baggers) still serve some psychological purpose in terms of connecting the protest-goers to a larger community and alleviating their feelings of isolation?

I’m beginning to think that maybe, in light of what happened in Pittsburgh, the Tea Parties might be a way for disgruntled Glenn Beck watchers to blow off steam without hurting anyone. Maybe I’m wrong, and this probably argues against it.

Party on, tea-baggersPost + Comments (55)

The highlight of my night is using my new water pick before soaking my feet and watching Frontline.

I might as well pick up bowling. It is so over.

*** Update ***

I’m going to go for broke and break out the nose hair trimmer.

Game Over, Man. Game Over.Post + Comments (128)

What does Michelle think will happen on the tenth day?

Open ThreadPost + Comments (73)

David Brooks has another of his patented “science explains social things but I won’t tell you how or cite any actual articles” pieces today. This one is about the “science of morality.” It’s hard for me to read neocons talk about morality without thinking about torture. Brooks:

Many of our moral emotions and intuitions reflect that history. We don’t just care about our individual rights, or even the rights of other individuals. We also care about loyalty, respect, traditions, religions. We are all the descendents of successful cooperators.

The first nice thing about this evolutionary approach to morality is that it emphasizes the social nature of moral intuition. People are not discrete units coolly formulating moral arguments. They link themselves together into communities and networks of mutual influence.

[….]

It challenges the new atheists, who see themselves involved in a war of reason against faith and who have an unwarranted faith in the power of pure reason and in the purity of their own reasoning.

Oh, the morality of those religions and traditions (from Steve Waldman via Sully)!

When George W. Bush was running for President, Christians hoped that having a devout man in the White House would lead to more a more moral government.. traditions and religions!

[….]

But Bush wasn’t the most interesting test of the theory. Though his faith was important to him, it never had nearly the depth of another member of the team — John Ashcroft…

[….]

In Never Again, his book about his years as Attorney General, Ashcroft doesn’t mention torture or “enhanced interrogation” at all. He doesn’t ackowledge wrestling with the ethical issues, even by way of justifying the decisions. The closest he comes is a phrase defending the right to “ask probing questions” of suspected terrorist detainees.

On one of the greatest moral questions of the administration — and arguably one of the greatest challenges to Christian ethics of the last decade — he has nothing to say.

And thank God for cooperation as well.

Medical personnel were deeply involved in the abusive interrogation of terrorist suspects held overseas by the Central Intelligence Agency, including torture, and their participation was a “gross breach of medical ethics,” a long-secret report by the International Committee of the Red Cross concluded.

I hope I don’t sound hysterical here, but hearing a war-supporter who has been silent about torture tell the world it’s wonder how morality works is just a bit too much for me this morning.

Update. It took me a while to understand what Brooks was driving at here, but I think I get it now: it’s a defense of doing as you’re told, of not questioning things, of living the life of the “Organization Kid“, to use of his own phrases. It’s a message that runs through all his works from the “shut up and drive your Audi” message of “Bobos in Paradise” to the “shut up and eat at Applebee’s” message of “On Paradise Drive.”

When I lived in Athens, Georgia, the excellent free weekly The Flagpole did an article contrasting the Brooks “Organization Kid” piece with some book that had a title like “How To Get Through College”, which gave advice on things like how to avoid doing laundry, how to show up for class hung-over, and so on. I still remember how it closed: “The student who has read `How To Get Through College’ may stagger when he walks, but at least he doesn’t goosestep.”

MoralityPost + Comments (113)

I don’t know if any of you have ever gone through this, but I went through a nasty health scare the past week or so. I had had a sore throat for about the past two -three weeks, and it would go away, come back, go away, etc., so finally last week I went to the doctor to get it checked out. I had no fever, just flu symptoms and a recurring sore throat.

At any rate, while there, my doctor mumbled something about leukoplakia over a molar, and as a former smoker, that sent me into near panic (for obvious reasons), and then after a battery of tests confirmed I did not have strep or mono or anything else, it was off to the CT scan. I’m not exaggerating when I state that the past week, until I got the results, has been one of near constant cancer panic. Maybe it was silly and I shouldn’t have been concerned, but I think all former smokers know what I am saying in that we all are waiting for the axe to fall at any given moment.

At any rate, I got the call a little bit ago, and I am clean. Today is a good day.

BTW, this is sort of related, but have any of you been reading the weekly Dana Jennings pieces at the NY Times? When people talk about the arrogance of newspapers and almost sneeringly want the papers to fail, I think of stuff like this and the NY Times magazine and all the good work they do and wonder if maybe people just don’t appreciate how good some of our newspapers really are.

Some Good NewsPost + Comments (56)

If you’re like me, you can’t get enough of Glenn Beck. This description (via) of the end of the taping of one of his shows really reminded me of Colbert:

After the broadcast, a clutch of young, blonde producers gathers to praise Beck’s handling of Blumenthal as the host wipes off makeup; bits of towelette cling to his astringent-reddened cheeks. Then we’re off to the basement garage, where his hulking black Escalade idles. Every day, Beck’s driver-bodyguard delivers him from his lakefront mansion in Connecticut (his PR reps beg me not to reveal the exact town, as if Glenn Beck were a military installation) to Manhattan, where he tapes his radio and TV shows, and back. He bought the mansion in 2005, “right at the top [of the market],” he guffaws. “Look, if I lose my home because I bought too much of a home—it was my choice. My wife said to me at the time, ‘Maybe we should buy a smaller house.’ I said, ‘No, let’s buy one we can grow into.’ ” (The couple has four children.) “I’ve lost everything before. In 2000, I could barely afford my $695 rent, and I was happy.”

Colbert’s take on Beck is an instant classic, IHMO.

Your Glenn Beck fixPost + Comments (58)