September 2010

So, we’ve learned that Christine believes in abstinence, and definitely thinks that masturbation is immoral, so, it’s of no surprise, then, I guess, that she’s also no big fan of birth control. In fact, she calls condoms “anti-human.” What? In a 2006 interview on Fox News’s “The O’Reilly Factor,” the devout Catholic contended that condom use is “anti-human.” “And what … if the population is increasing, so what?” O’Donnell said. “People aren’t bad. When did humans become a bad thing? Why is it that we have to, you know, stop people from getting pregnant?” Priceless. Wait, there’s...

Jason Zengerle from GQ recently had a sit-down with Senate candidate Rand Paul, who has said some crazy stuff so far in this campaign cycle, and, well, Paul didn’t disappoint: Just fifteen minutes earlier the candidate whom Paul came out to support was likening the current Speaker of the House to a former Soviet dictator, so I ask if he thinks that’s what the press might be referring to when they say the Tea Party is extreme. He leans forward and smiles. “Well, I think whether or not your analogies are over the top, whether you might...

Jonathan Bernstein wonders if Sarah Palin, with a national profile and an enthusiastic base, could run for the presidential nomination successfully without playing by the normal rules: Of course, Sarah Palin sits at this point of the campaign with total name recognition and terrific enthusiasm from a not insignificant number of GOP primary and caucus votes.  Those assets may mean that she can wait until longer than usual to start following the normal rules of how one runs for president.  Or, perhaps, she\’ll try to capture the nomination without doing those things.  Is it possible?  Well, we...

Bob Woodward has a new book about the Obama administration, and it seems that the “big reveal” of it is that there have been some big disagreements among the top-level staffers and military leaders. This barely deserves comment, but it appears to be the “story of the day,” so I’ll let Andrew take take this one: I have only read the excerpts, but I have to say that the notion that there was serious debate, some rancor, plenty of disagreements, occasional bursts of temper (have you ever met Holbrooke, arguably the most arrogant asshole in DC?), an...

Well, David Boaz at Cato and I may share very few opinions, but I always appreciate a good smack-down: Social conservatives talk about real problems but offer irrelevant solutions. They act like the man who searched for his keys under the streetlight because the light was better there. Social conservatives tend to talk about issues like abortion and gay rights, stem-cell research and the role of religion “in the public square”: “Those who would have us ignore the battle being fought over life, marriage and religious liberty have forgotten the lessons of history,”said Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.)...

So, we’ve been paying a lot of attention lately to Christine O’Donnell and Sharron Angle, the Neo-Palinists (a cursory Google search leads me to hope that I coined that term), but Michael Gross at Vanity Fair brings us something pretty spectacular from the Original Gangster herself that is pretty incredible. It comes in the form of an e-mail sent by pastor and right-wing political activist (pre-tea party) Lou Engle (no relation to Friedrich Engels) to Sarah right before her vice presidential debate with then-Sen. Joe Biden:* The e-mail was written by Lou Engle, a right-wing pastor and...