Racist? No. Stupid? Yes.

Considering the Wall Street Journal already posed the question, I might as well provide an answer. John McCain is stupid. Ok, he's not, but his campaign's "Celeb" ad is. But it's not racist. As a reader wrote to The Daily Dish:

All of those other individuals are famous for something - there is substance behind their celebrity. Britney and Paris are paper-thin and without any substance whatsoever. That's the comparison McCain was going for - trying to allege that Barack Obama is without substance, a celebrity for celebrity's sake.

The McCain campaign was saying Obama is like Paris and Britney, not that he was fucking them. Nonetheless, the concept of the ad is stupid for numerous reasons: Obama transparently has some substance, McCain is also a celebrity, it reeks of just a stupid, desperate attack.

Right now, the McCain campaign is just flailing about in the dark, it seems.

McCain deserves better surrogates

Really, he does. I don't think he's actually insane, but his surrogates might be.

I mean, computer illiteracy can't really be a good thing, can it?

Jon Voight? Really, that's the best you can do? Hollywood really must be as liberal as everyone says. But seriously, not even like the guy who created 24?

I can't even explain this.

Obscure Ethical Debates

Can Vegans eat honey?

Obama's charisma

You could do what Andrew Ferguson says:

Anyone who wants to understand Barack Obama would do well to stay away from the radio and the TV. Obama is a theatrical presence. That's what it means to be "charismatic": To an unnerving degree his appeal relies on sight and sound rather than sense. Better, in my opinion, to stick to the printed word. On paper (or the computer screen) his words can be thought about and chewed over. You can understand him at your own pace, undistracted by that rich baritone, the regal bearing, the excellent drape of his Burberry suits.

Or you could be like me and recreate Obama's voice in your mind whenever you read something he says in the paper. It makes it so much cooler.

Assorted Links

• Jon Chait indirectly calls McCain a 'sociopath.' Didn't he just saw he loved him last week? That was a quick breakup.
  
• Excellent article in the New Yorker about China's "Angry Youth." They want China to join the world stage as an equal to the United States, not as its morally deficient younger brother. This quote sort of sums it up:

  Boycotting the Beijing Games in the name of Tibet seemed as logical to him as shunning the Salt Lake City Olympics to protest America’s treatment of the Cherokee.

• The United States' "culture war" pales in comparison to Turkey's, as this WSJ article makes clear. I had always understood that Turkey was founded as a secular state, but never this clearly. The piece is just filled with interesting facts like this one:

  Just as Muslim activists mine the Quran for verses to boost their cause, Turkey's hard-line secularists and their foes delve into Ataturk's voluminous writings and speeches -- Turkey's secular scripture. The sheer volume of Ataturk's words gives plenty of scope for argument: a single speech he gave in 1927 lasted 36 hours, spread over six days.

• The Weekly Standard shoots down programs designed to scare kids sober.
• Bill James meet a Lemur. I bet Lemurs have good range ratings.
  

What made America strong?

Ezra attributes American economic power to geopolitics (natural resources, not getting beat up in World War II).

David Brooks attributes it to education and economic freedom.

Who's right? I think Ezra's argument enabled Brooks' argument. Relative peace made it easier for the United States to invest in education instead of in rebuilding broken bridges and buildings. But economic freedom and education played a role as well - the United States' smaller government and lower taxes did enable more economic success (if not more happiness for most of its people) and the United States was able to be a dues ex machina in the two World Wars partially because of technological advantages we had, which were at least indirectly attributable to public education.

Also worth nothing from Brooks' column is the following:

Third, it’s worth noting that both sides of this debate exist within the Democratic Party. The G.O.P. is largely irrelevant. If you look at Barack Obama’s education proposals — especially his emphasis on early childhood — you see that they flow naturally and persuasively from this research. (It probably helps that Obama and Heckman are nearly neighbors in Chicago). McCain’s policies seem largely oblivious to these findings. There’s some vague talk about school choice, but Republicans are inept when talking about human capital policies.

Unlike every other blogger on the planet, I have not read Grand New Party (What? I'm a poor college student and books are freaking expensive), but that seems a very GNP-ish argument to me.

Shit. You mean I have to write?

Via The American Scene, this depressing news from Will Wilkinson:

When I was a teenager, I had a fanstasy that I could get paid or famous simply from having interesting ideas. It turns out people won’t pay you for interesting ideas unless you show up at a certain place and at a certain time to express them verbally in an entertaining format, or unless you write them down. It’s hard for me and not at all as nice as doing the backstroke through Platonic heaven.

Unfortunately for this aspiring journalist/scholar/intellectual/guy who writes for a living, this is very true.

Discovering New Bloggers is Fun!

Although he'll probably make me smash my laptop against the wall at some point in the future, I've really been enjoying Daniel Larison's guest posts at The Daily Dish this week. He normally blogs at The American Conservative.

One nice post from him today:

At the TAC main blog, Clark Stooksbury points us to this gem from Limbaugh:

How does it make you feel that Zhang Linsen has a big Hummer with nine speakers blaring as he pulls out into a four-lane road with so much smog he basically can’t see the car in front of him, and you are trading in all of your cars and trying to go out and find basically a lawn mower?

Actually, it makes me feel relieved that I don't live in smog-infested cities where marathoners collapse and die because of the pollution.

Things people shouldn't write about

Metro columnists shouldn't write about baseball. Adrian Walker:

Right-thinking people in this town have finally had enough of Manny Ramírez.

What was once charming and eccentric is now self-centered and selfish. Ramírez suggested last weekend that he's had enough. Everyone, it seems, has had enough.

Honestly, I think most Red Sox fans would rather give up their right nut than Manny.

Mark Penn shouldn't write about, well, anything, really. Active grannies? Mark, can you share whatever is you're smoking?

I wonder if the stock moved ten points

Via Regret The Error, the ghost of Malcolm Gladwell strikes the New York Times:

An article on Friday about earnings at JPMorgan Chase misstated the bank’s income from investment banking in its second quarter. The division reported a net income of $394 million, not a loss of $785 million.