The New Republic

Damon Linker's piece is simply not that good, and I write that as a Linker fan. His takedown of the New Atheists a few years back at TNR was superb. I myself am a nonbeliever but Hitch and R. Dawkins, S. Harris, and D. Dennett, all whose books on religion I have read, are far too Manichaean on this topic. Here, though, Linker writes about how believers think that humans are at their truest (whatever that might mean) when they are down. And people are motivated by fear, no question, their beliefs are colored by it, but this says nothing about whether a divinity really does exist. At The Daily Palin, Andrew predictably was excited by this mediocre effort. In other Sullivan news, in a post late this afternoon, he seems not to understand that disaffection with Barack Obama among the Democratic base might not be the best for Obama and for the Democratic Party. AS sees this disaffection as pressure, but I see it merely as undifferentiated disaffection, for the most part. He mistakes conviction for tactics. It is one thing if you yell and scream as loudly as you can for, say, the public option during the debate on the health care bill, but then you pull back. There simply is quite a bit of frustration on the left among people who do not understand that presidents aren't omnipotent. It always amazes me when someone like Andrew can write so brilliantly on political philosophy but elementary practical politics just plain eludes him.

- liberal reformer

August 11, 2010 at 9:21pm

Regarding the Ezra Klein post, interesting lessons here: The savings figure seemed too high to me. So I did some checking: The Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) site says 2.6 billion one dollar bills were printed in 2009, and During FY 2009 the BEP delivered 6.2 billion notes at an average cost of 7.5 cents per note. The one dollar bill should be cheaper than the average to print because it has, and needs, a lot less high tech security, so 7.5 cents is a high estimate, but even at that cost you only get, 2.6 billion x 0.075 = $195 million, but then there are transportation and handling costs, and perhaps other costs, so $500 million looks like it's at least in the ballpark. Now to the interesting lessons: In a big country, not only do dreams stay with you like a lover's voice fires the mountainside, but things really add up. It's not that hard to get to millions and billions. But at the same time, big costs can actually be really small per person. There are about 250 million Americans over age 15, so that $500 million per year is just $2 per person per year. I don't know about everyone else, but I'd gladly pay $2 per year to not have the inconvenience of carrying around bulky one dollar coins in my pocket all the time (and I'd pay another $2 per year to offset costs to the environment). This shows that Republicans can blow up something as really big and costly, but it may be small and well worth it in tax cost per person for what you get in return, unless you think all taxes and government spending are always bad no matter what; see: http://www.maxineudall.com/2010/08/the-road-to-serfdom-isnt-paved.html and http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/09/opinion/09krugman.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

- RHSerlin

August 12, 2010 at 7:44am