Phony: Gore takes train, his luggage takes a Mercedes. So does he really believe, or is he a poser?
Politics: The Oprah and Obama Show: Althouse. The show is making big waves.
CA diocese splits from the Episcopal Church. I doubt that it's all about homosexuality. The Episcopal Church has been an empty suit for years.
Do we need death? Bailey at Cato Unbound
Nowadays, even cranks get a hearing. Central Park horses
A quote about Krugman and health care at Just One Minute:
...Hillary and Bill made it clear in 1993 that their goal was use health care to create a huge new middle-class entitlement, thereby positioning the Democratic Party as the purveyor and protector of these middle-class benefits in the same way that (back in the day) the Democratic Party wooed the elderly by being generous with Social Security.
Biofoolishness at Blue Crab. I was about to comment that Rufus will have something to say about this, but I see he has already engaged Gaius in the comments.
"Should my wordless kid go to school with your normal kid?"
Another view on 9-11 and Afghanistan and Iraq at Overcoming Bias:
If the USA had completely ignored the 9/11 attack - just shrugged and rebuilt the building - it would have been better than the real course of history. But that wasn't a political option. Even if anyone privately guessed that the immune response would be more damaging than the disease, American politicians had no career-preserving choice but to walk straight into al Qaeda's trap. Whoever argues for a greater response is a patriot. Whoever dissects a patriotic claim is a traitor.
Initially, there were smarter responses to 9/11 than I had guessed. I saw a Congressperson - I forget who - say in front of the cameras, "We have forgotten that the first purpose of government is not the economy, it is not health care, it is defending the country from attack." That widened my eyes, not so much for agreement, as for that a politician could say something that wasn't an applause light. The emotional shock must have been very great for a Congressperson to say something that... real.
But within two days, the genuine shock faded, and concern-for-image regained total control of the political discourse. Then the spiral of escalation took over completely. Once restraint becomes unspeakable, no matter where the discourse starts out, the level of fury and folly can only rise with time.
