Monday, October 18, 2004

TODAY'S TOP FIVE: A Pox On "The Reality-Based Community"!

Anglican Slap Fight! The Anglican Church just released its report on the consecration of Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire. Robinson is gay, and his election caused huge problems in the worldwide Anglican Communion, particularly in the African and Asian churches. Surprisingly, the British Anglicans who compiled the report sided with the traditionalists, urging the American bishops to apologize, consider stepping down, and not promote anyone else living in a gay relationship.

The Daily Mayhem: Israel Edition A series of rocket attacks have pushed the death toll from Israel's attack on Gaza, dubbed "Operation: Days of Penitence," to 100, the worst count for a single operation during the round of fighting that began just under four years ago.

Facts Are Stupid Things The must-read article of the week is Ron Suskind's New York Times Magazine account of Bush's "faith," which, in Suskind's telling, bears less resemblance to what we understand of Christianity than to Schopenhauer's concept of the Will. Here's what a senior Bush aide told Suskind: "That's not the way the world really works anymore. We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors... and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do." Well, at least we get to study! You also may take some grim pleasure out of the passage in which Bush insists to U.S. Rep. Tom Lantos that it's Sweden, rather than Switzerland, which is historically neutral and has "no army."

A Voice From the Grown-ups' Table Former Bush I National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft has come out swinging against Ariel Sharon and George W. Bush, saying Sharon is "nothing but trouble" and has Bush "wrapped around his little finger." He also said Iraq is a failure and Bush doesn't understand the way the world works. Man, I remember when I thought guys like Brent Scowcroft were the problem...

What Does It Say About Your Political Party When You Only Succeed If Fewer People Show Up? Here's a good Krugman column detailing some of the most egregious recent examples of Republican efforts to suppress the right to vote this year, from Sproul's dirty tricks in Oregon and Arizona to the astonishing, shameful mess that is the Florida election system. Remember: this is not Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe. This is the United States, and we're quickly slipping toward an unprecedented outbreak of lawlessness and fraud.

-Consider Arms