Intrepid Middle East traveler and reporter extraordinaire Michael Totten has a new post up about radical Islamists in Tunisia.
What passes for legal analysis in Slate
Soon the Supreme Court will be facing the question of whether the federal health care individual mandate is constitutional, but Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick thinks the legal questions are laughable and not even worth considering. Of course it’s constitutional, dummyheads, she writes.
Why? Well, first of all, because until recently, the Obama administration “expended almost no energy defending it.” Now, there’s a convincing argument.
And then there’s Lithwick’s second argument, the argument from Pelosi authority, “Back when the bill passed Nancy Pelosi famously reacted to questions about its constitutionality with the words, ‘Are you serious?'” Touché, Dahlia!
And her third argument is that “the fact that the Obama administration rushed the case to the Supreme Court in an election year is all the evidence you need to understand that they remain confident in their prospects.”
And that’s all Lithwick seems to need to declare it Q.E.D. that the law is constitutional and that no reasonable man (or woman) could ever find otherwise. The rest of her article is devoted to wondering whether those backwards and completely-politically-motivated conservative Justices will find it unconstitutional anyway.
And lest you think Lithwick is just a legal know-nothing, she’s got a law degree from Stanford. So she can’t use ignorance of the law as an excuse.
[ADDENDUM: I just read Ed Whelan’s piece in National Review, which is in agreement with what I’ve said here but goes into it at greater length.]
The candidates and those gotcha gaffes
I was going to write a long long piece on the Romney “etch-a-sketch” thing and the Santorum “vote for Obama instead” thing.
I did all the research. Looked at the original quotes in context (see this and this). Read the disclaimers, where Romney said his views would be consistent and conservative, and Santorum said he wouldn’t ever be voting for Obama over any Republican.
And I finally decided I didn’t want to write that big long piece about it. So I’m writing this smaller shorter piece to say that I really hate all the “gotcha” moments, and consider them nowhere near as important as the candidates themselves, their stated positions, their records, their histories, their personalities, and how they perform in the debates.
I’ve hated those moments from way way back. I hated it when Romney’s father got excoriated for his “brainwashed” remark. I hated it when Muskie’s tears (or perceived tears) did him in. I hated George Allen’s macaca fracas (although I do like to say “macaca fracas.” Does the make me a racist?) You may even notice that, compared to other bloggers, I don’t tend to write much about Obama’s many gaffes.
But despite all that, I do think that with gaffes there’s a hierarchy of importance that goes like this, from least important to most:
(1) errors of pronunciation or word usage or number (“57 states”) that could easily be the result of exhaustion or a momentary brain stutter.
(2) remarks made by surrogates (“advisors,” “supporters”) rather than by the candidate him/herself.
(3) off-the-cuff remarks rather than written ones (although both are important)
Using these rules, I’d say Santorum’s remarks were worse. He made them himself, and they were in a scripted speech. His retraction also didn’t sit well with me (worse than his original remarks, actually), because as he tried to correct what he considered the misperceptions about what he’d meant, he blamed his own error and the furor that followed on Romney, and to a certain extent doubled down in indicating once again that Romney and Obama are pretty much the same:
“I would never vote for Barack Obama over any Republican and to suggest otherwise is preposterous,” Santorum said. “This is just another attempt by the Romney Campaign to distort and distract the media and voters from the unshakeable fact that many of Romney’s policies mirror Barack Obama’s.”
Apologies and retractions are better done without the “yes, buts.” It’s hardly “preposterous” to have understood Santorum’s original remarks as suggesting that people (including Santorum himself) might just as well vote for Obama if Romney ends up the Republican nominee:
You win by giving people the opportunity to see a different vision for our country, not someone who’s just going to be a little different than the person in there. If you’re going to be a little different, we might as well stay with what we have instead of taking a risk with what may be the Etch A Sketch candidate of the future.
I’ve never been impressed by Santorum as a candidate, and that hasn’t changed. But I’ve also noticed in the last few days a sort of weariness in comments around the blogosphere about him, as though some of the air has gone out of the Santorum balloon. He’ll almost certainly win Louisiana, and maybe even by double digits. But has his campaign passed its peak?
Best restaurants?
Here’s a list of the 20 best restaurants in America—according to the folks at something I’ve never heard of before called The Daily Meal. If you take a look, you’ll notice there’s a trend, which is for restaurants that are elegant and (I’m fairly sure) expensive.
Even if I had the money, these wouldn’t be my choices. Mine would probably all be ethnic restaurants, and reasonable ones at that: Greek, Lebanese, Spanish, Chinese. Slightly down the list for me, but still way up there, would come French (not haute, but rustic) and of course Italian. Who doesn’t like Italian food?
When I was a kid there weren’t many ethnic restaurants in most of the US. Pizza places and spaghetti joints, yes. Chinese food was wonton soup, spare ribs, and chow mein with those little crunchy things on it, which we considered very exotic indeed.
And that was about it until I was eight, when my uncle took us to a Manhattan eating establishment that was ever-afterward known in my mind as “the Armenian restaurant.”
I no longer remember the occasion we were celebrating. And I certainly don’t know why my uncle—a man not otherwise known for culinary adventurousness, to say the least—decided to lead us to such an odd and foreign choice.
But I remember the meal; oh, how I remember the meal! From the very first bite of the very first course, which was a soup with barley, yogurt, and mint, I was hooked. It was as though previously I’d been eating in black-and-white and now the food was Technicolor. And wide-screen.
From then on, I became a pest to my parents. Every time we went to Manhattan, which was usually to see a play on Broadway, I would beg them to take me to the Armenian restaurant. We never did, mostly because it was in the east 20s, as I recall, nowhere near where we ever were headed. But I never stopped trying until I finally grew up, when I went there one evening myself with some friends.
And you know what? It was just as good as ever.
So of course right now, salivating with the memory, I tried Googling it. Since I still don’t know the name, it was a bit of a challenge. But I found this query indicating there’s someone else with the same yearning:
Years ago, there were a couple old-school Armenian joints in Manhattan. One of them was down on Lexington in the 20’s. Can any lister tell me any Armenian restaurants remain in the city and where they might be? Thanks!
No one could come up with the name, so I guess it’s probably disappeared.
Was this restaurant really the “best”? I don’t know. But they say you always remember your first. And I sure do.
Turnout in the Illinois primary
I keep reading it, over and over: the Republican turnout in Tuesday’s Illinois primary was low. Sometimes the report is “record low.” That would be a problem for Romney or the eventual nominee, whomever it might be, and would indicate a lack of voter enthusiasm on the part of the base.
This sort of thing has been written in the comments of this blog. Here’s one example:
As Alifa pointed out above, turnout was low. Indeed, I heard the IL Sec of State or whoever heads up the election squad quoted that this was a record low turnout.
Romney started the campaign of Repub personal destruction, and this is likely the result”¦.why bother to vote in the primary, since they’re all bums?
We are becoming Venezuelans. Discouragement leads to apathy.
Here’s another example, from the blog Gateway Pundit. There are many, many others.
It’s the meme du jour (that is, the meme du last Tuesday). Only problem is, it’s not true.
So how did this rumor begin? Some of the perception seems to be based on articles such as this one from CBS. It makes it sound as though turnout in general, as well as on the Republican side, was very low. But notice an interesting detail: the article only talks about the city of Chicago.
This one, written yesterday, seems to be saying that turnout was very low not just in Chicago, but at the state level:
Illinois voters, at least the ones who bothered to show up, did the math and wound up backing Mitt Romney, a candidate they see as less than thrilling but still the Republican Party’s best chance of capturing the White House this fall.
Turnout seems likely to be among the lowest in decades ”” perhaps the lowest, period. The record low in state records dating back to 1960 is 23 percent, which happened two years ago. Officials in several election districts said Tuesday’s turnout was hovering around 20 percent.
But later on the article drops a first hint of what’s really going on, although its significance could easily be missed [emphasis mine]:
The city of Chicago, overwhelmingly Democratic, might end up with its lowest turnout since World War II. Officials said turnout was 22.8 percent, with just 1 percent of precincts left to count as of early Wednesday morning.
The lack of statewide races beyond the presidential contest likely played a role in holding down turnout, particularly among Democrats. It was the first Illinois primary since 2000 that didn’t include a race for U.S. Senate or governor.
Aha! So now we learn more explicitly that it is total turnout they’re talking about, and that there’s a special reason why the Democratic turnout would be so depressed: not only is Obama a shoe-in for the Democratic nomination, but there are no statewide contests, unlike in previous years.
One would think, since it’s really only the Republican battle that anyone’s paying much attention to, that an article about turnout would focus on Republican turnout. But I’ve seen very few that mention that separately. It’s hard to avoid coming to the conclusion that this is purposeful, because it’s such a glaring omission when you finally spot it. The goal? My guess is that it’s to have the reader think turnout on the Republican side was low, which is a demoralizing message to the Republican Party. Perhaps the hope is that it will even become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Of course, it could also be mere stupidity, but I don’t think so.
And that especially low turnout in Chicago? Probably because Chicago is so overwhelmingly Democratic.
So, what was the level of Republican turnout in Illinois on Tuesday? Pretty darn high:
Romney actually won more votes in Illinois than John McCain did in 2008 and the number of Republican voters who went to the polls also exceeded turnout four years ago…While turnout in Chicago apparently was extremely low, that wasn’t the case for the entire state. Republican turnout was about 2.5% higher compared to four years ago, based on the latest state returns.
The Republican vote also surpassed the primary totals in 2004 and 2000.
In 2004, President George W. Bush won 583,575 votes in an uncontested primary. And in 2000, the Republican vote totaled 736,921 in a contested election that pitted Bush vs. McCain and several other candidates.
The increase in the Illinois vote cannot be attributed to population growth. The Democratic-leaning state’s population has grown less than 4% in the past 12 years, according to U.S. Census data.
The upshot is, Republicans are turning out to vote at similar levels to 2008 regardless of whether they are enthusiastic about their choice of candidates. Vote totals are generally higher in the Midwest while participation is mixed in the South.
Turnout in Illinois, Ohio and Michigan , for example, was higher in 2012. It was also higher in Alabama and Mississippi but lower in Florida and Tennessee.
The article goes on to say that higher turnout in the primaries isn’t necessarily correlated with winning the general. Of course not. But let’s get our facts straight about what the turnout actually was before we talk about what it means or doesn’t mean. And don’t count on most of the MSM to help us out in that endeavor.
[NOTE: Don’t misconstrue this post to mean I think the Republican electorate is exceptionally excited and inspired by the current slate of candidates. But I like to deal in facts, and the fact is that Republican turnout in Illinois was just fine. Perhaps the inspiration for Republican voters comes from the prospect of unseating Obama in 2012.]
Toulouse killer dead after police standoff
As soon as I heard about the police standoff involving the Toulouse killer Mohammed Merah, I suspected it would end more or less like this: with his death, either in a firefight or by his own hand. I thought it more likely to be the latter, but it turned out to be the former, with Merah emerging from the building, guns blazing, after police had stormed it.
His death destroys whatever chance police would have had to learn more facts from the horse’s mouth, as it were. But it also has the benefit of denying Merah the propaganda platform of a trial. My guess is that authorities have already learned quite a bit from his computer, and perhaps his brother, anyway. And although Merah claimed to be al Qaeda trained and might have indeed have some affiliation with various terror groups, it also seems as though the murders he committed were a case of improvisation on his part.
Earlier, Merah had told about his motives [emphasis mine]:
He made a series of disclosures, officials said, claiming the killings of three paratroopers last week and an attack on a Jewish school that left a rabbi and three children dead, and saying he had planned more killings to avenge the killings of Palestinian children and to protest French intervention abroad and the banning of the full Islamic veil in France.
Got any idea whom one of those “Palestinian children” might be? I would wager a lot of money that it was Mohammad al Durah, whose death (or possible death; see this) in 2000 was falsely exploited by French TV to give the impression he was killed by Israelis when he was not, and whose image became a rallying cry for avenging Muslims all over the world. Merah, who was raised in France but was the son of Algerian immigrants, would have been close to 12 years old at the time. A very impressionable age, and the same age as al Durah.
The Times article about Merah’s death and crimes goes on to quote various Muslims in France as saying that they condemn his acts, and that they worry that this incident will increase the anger and fear against them as a group. I would guess that’s true. I wonder whether it was also one of Merah’s aims, unconscious or not. His first three victims—before he killed the rabbi and three children at a religious school—were French paratroopers of Arab Muslim origin.
The Times article quotes French Interior Minister Guéant as saying that the murders of these three military men were not related to their ethnic backgrounds. Oh, really? Why not? Merah’s other murders certainly were, and my best guess is that Merah choose the paratroopers because they were of similar background to him but collaborators with the hated enemy, France and the West. So there’s no reason to believe he wouldn’t have considered any backlash against cooperative Muslims in France to be a feature of his crimes, and not a bug.
Politics thread
I’m not writing about politics, just for today. But you can.
Real…
Rescue 911
After I re-made the acquaintance of the show “Rescue 911” via YouTube and posted this episode, I thought I’d go back and post some others from time to time.
I’m not sure why I loved that show so much back in the late 80s and 90s, but I did. I got a lot of mockery for singing its praises, but I thought (and still think) it was one of the very finest, if not the finest, re-enactment shows on TV. The editors are to be commended; I don’t know how they managed it, but for the most part the acting was wonderful, all the more surprising because the show often featured the original protagonists rather than professionals. It seemed to provide them with a sort of psychodrama experience. And the staging of the accidents was remarkably realistic.
The rescue stories they chose to tell were universally terrifying and inspiring, with a few funny ones thrown in for comic relief. I almost invariably ended up crying. These tales really were a testament to the human spirit. See if you don’t agree:
The case of Sugar v. Corn Syrup
It’s a real lawsuit, not a fake one, and hearings begin in Los Angeles today. Sugar is suing high-fructose corn syrup for falsely claiming an equivalence to the time-honored sweetener that we all know and love:
In a lawsuit that goes before a Los Angeles federal judge Wednesday, sugar producers accuse their corn industry rivals of false advertising in a campaign that casts the liquid sweetener as “nutritionally the same as table sugar” and claims “your body can’t tell the difference.”
Sugar forces argue that high fructose corn syrup is far less healthy than their product and are demanding that the ads run by the Corn Refiners Assn. be halted and that the corn association pay unspecified monetary damages.
The corn industry promoters “characterize high fructose corn syrup as a natural product. It is not ”” it is man-made,” said Adam Fox, an attorney for the sugar industry plaintiffs, led by Western Sugar Corp. “Yet they are advertising it as identical to sugar cane and sugar beets.”
I’d like to sue not just high-fructose corn syrup but corn syrup in general, for making sweet foods less tasty. Whether or not my entire body can tell the difference, my mouth certainly can. In my youth, sugar was the dominant sweetener in commercially-made foods, but over the years corn syrup of all kinds has become ubiquitous for a number of good reasons (none of them, however, relating to improved taste):
First, it is cheaper than sugar because of huge corn subsidies and sugar tariffs. Second, the liquid syrup lends itself to ready transportation in those enormous storage vats within 18-wheelers, similar to how gasoline is hauled. Third, fructose is incredibly sweet and does not crystallize or turn grainy when cold, as sugar can do. Fourth, because HFCS is very soluble and retains moisture, it makes for softer and moister processed baked goods. Fifth, it acts as a preservative that extends the shelf life of processed foods and helps to prevent freezer burn.
As for the health issues, I think concentrated sugars in general are probably something best shied away from, except in very small amounts. But I also have deep respect for how difficult that is to do, because let’s face it—for most of us, concentrated sugars are incredibly difficult to resist. And that’s not because we’re greedy, or weak, or bad; it’s because our biology led us to seek out sweet things in the wild. Our bodies just never encountered a Mounds bar in the jungle or on the savanna.
Romney wins Illinois primary
It’s not a surprise at all, but Mitt Romney has won in Illinois. With 61% of precincts reporting, he’s got about 48% of the vote to Santorum’s 34%, Paul’s 9%, and Gingrich’s unimpressive 8%.
For some reason (maybe because Romney has led consistently in the polls by a substantial margin?) the Illinois race hasn’t drawn all that much interest compared to a lot of others. But you can talk about it here, if you care to—or anything else you want.
How to get along with the opposite sex
Women, pay attention.
And men, listen up.
It’s all pretty tongue-in-cheek, but there are a few kernels of wisdom there. And we all need all the help we can get.
This made me laugh (and it’s certainly not describing me; oh no, couldn’t possibly be!):
If you ask a woman a question, don’t interrupt her response by saying, as you impatiently tap your fingertips on the nearest table, “Get to the point.” The point you don’t get is that our intricate narratives ”” interlaced as they are with our multi-layered interpretations, embroidered with the richness of our subtle observations, and enhanced by our exquisite cascades of details that might well have entirely escaped your notice, and without which your understanding of life would be the poorer ”” are what an answer is to us. As Walter Cronkite used to say, “And that’s the way it is.”