Professor Bainbridge...on law, politics, religion, culture & food

Does Joe Biden Have Plugs?

Dunlap seems to think so:

Joe Biden

He’s “not joking” about Indian immigrants:

Biden’s Biggest Problem?

According to Richard Cohen (no conservative he), it’s Biden’s mouth:

The only thing standing between Joe Biden and the presidency is his mouth. That, though, is no small matter. It is a Himalayan barrier, a Sahara of a handicap, a summer’s day in Death Valley, a winter’s night at the pole (either one)—an endless list of metaphors intended to show you both the immensity of the problem and to illustrate it with the op-ed version of excess. This, alas, is Joe Biden.

... his tendency, his compulsion, his manic-obsessive running of the mouth has become the functional equivalent of womanizing or some other character weakness that disqualifies a man for the presidency. It is his version of corruption, of alcoholism, of a fierce temper or vile views—all the sorts of things that have crippled candidates in the past. It is, though, an innocent thing, as good-humored as the man and of no real policy consequence. It will merely stunt him politically.

All of which is why I hope the rumor that Biden will be Barack Obama’s VP choice turn out to be true.

Zoe on the Loose

John Scalzi’s latest novel, Zoe’s Tale, is officially released today. Here’s what John thinks of it:

I’m really proud of Zoë as a character; I think she’s one of the best I’ve ever written. I also think that that in many ways Zoe’s Tale is the best book in the entire Old Man’s War sequence, which is saying something, considering it’s the fourth book in the universe, and two of them have got Hugo nods. But there it is: The amount of work I had to do to get Zoë right is also reflected in the rest of the book as well. It’s good.

I’m also happy to say that the goal of making this a standalone novel seems to have been achieved: I’ve heard back from folks who have read the book cold, without having read the other books in the sequence, and it’s worked for them. This is good news because, as most of you know, Zoe’s Tale was written with an eye toward opening up this universe to younger readers who might have missed the other books; it’s the book I can point to when someone asks if they can give a book of mine to their daughter or nephew or whomever.

Adults aren’t going to feel excluded (everyone who I’ve heard from about the book is an adult; they all liked it just fine), it’s that I wanted to put another door into the world for a new group of folks. Hopefully they’ll walk through and explore. I have some hope that some of the folks who have been along for the ride so far will do some proselytizing, and that’s as far down the avenue of openly begging all y’all to drop the book into the hands of the teens you know as I’m going to go.

Don’t break your arm patting yourself on the back, dude. 

Seriously, Scalzi’s getting better and better book by book (practice does seem to make better), and Zoe Tale more than meets his usual high standards. It’s a great read and, as per my review of an advance copy, I highly recommend it.

Trouble for Obama’s Pro-Life Supporters

Ross Douthat tackles Barack Obama’s answer to Rick Warren’s question about the beginning of life:

Warren, to his credit, didn’t pose a metaphysical question, or a biological one. He asked a legal question: “At what point does a baby get human rights, in your view?” Obama tried to dodge by saying that from a “theological perspective” or a “scientific perspective” the issue is “above his pay grade.” But Warren asked a more narrow question, and one that any politician who votes on abortion laws should be able to answer. And of course, as a supporter of Roe and Casey, Obama does have an answer: He thinks that a baby acquires rights when it’s born - well, perhaps depending on how and why it happens to be born - and lacks them at every juncture before birth. He just didn’t want to come out and say it.

Exactly.

Add to the Warren forum issue, the continuing debate over the draft Democratic platform. As one pro-abortion rights commentator recently observed:

On Tuesday, August 12, a loose coalition of anti-abortion progressive evangelicals and Catholics held a press event to toot their own horn. The new Democratic Party Platform, they claimed, took a big step in their direction. The Platform’s explicit support for a woman’s decision “to have a child,” they argued, represents a common ground position. But the fact that pro-choice advocates have always supported both the right to choose an abortion and the right to choose a child immediately undercuts any illusion that anti-abortion progressives either understand what choice means or have any sincere desire to stand on common ground with pro-choice progressives. Rather than standing on “common ground,” these self proclaimed pro-lifers are hanging on the edge of cliff by their finger tips.

Not only is the new platform stronger in its support for the right to choose abortion, it embraces the concept of reproductive justice including not only family planning but comprehensive sexuality education. If, in fact, these folks had anything to do with this new plank, they did those of us who are pro-choice a big favor.

The 2004 Platform on choice was 59 words; this year’s Platform devotes 127 words to the issue and sounds like a lot more than lip service to women’s reproductive health. Support for Roe in the old Platform was justified on the basis of privacy and women’s equality. The new Platform makes no mention of privacy; instead, it derives its moral authority from a “woman’s right to choose safe and legal abortion” and talks about empowering people to make informed choices. A notable omission is the Clintonian phrase “safe, legal and rare,” replaced by a more honest and modest goal of reducing unintended pregnancy through better health care, family planning and comprehensive sex education. Sex education was not even mentioned in the old Platform.

The progressive pro-life desire to see the Platform commit to reducing abortions was subtly undercut; this year, the Platform merely “recognizes” that sex ed, family planning and good health care will have the effect of reducing the need for abortion. In all other areas, the Platform uses strong language of commitment: the Party “strongly and unequivocally supports Roe” and “strongly supports access to affordable family planning services.” Even the Platform’s support for pre and post natal care and income support for women who have children is properly framed as a right on its own and not as a means to reducing the need for abortion.

All in all, the Platform comes very close to embracing the full reproductive health agenda that has been consistently advocated by the pro-choice, progressive women’s movement.

And then there’s this from that same commentator:

Doug Kmiec, an antiabortion Republican Catholic who has endorsed Obama, noted that “The Platform still falls short of the Catholic ideal.” Falls short! It is a slap in the face to Kmiec’s Catholic ideal, which includes not only no abortion but no birth control even for married couples, and abstinence-only sexuality curricula. The Platform also makes an oblique reference to condoms as a means of preventing the transmission of HIV and AIDS, which the Catholic Church still rejects.

It’ll be interesting how the Obamacon pro-lifers try spinning these developments. Personally, I think they’re going to have to punt on abortion and try making a double effect argument.

Working for the Man

Ted Frank updates his analyses of Obama’s tax plans. Money quote:

My colleagues Alex Brill and Alan Viard have calculated the marginal tax rates under Obama’s various promises of phased-out credits, and find that he will raise effective marginal federal income tax rates to as high as 45%—which is well over 60% for people living in high-tax states like New York or California or the District of Columbia. (Even people making $45,000 will face a marginal income tax rate of 39%, which is 51.4% including social security taxes.)

Sixty percent!?!

Cool Maps

Strange Maps has three very cool new posts:

A map of the USA by county showing whether coke, soda, or pop is the most commonly used term for soda pop.

The Olympic Medals Map for 2004.

Perhaps the most interesting of all, however, is the genetic map of Europe:

Genetically speaking, Finns and Italians are the most atypical Europeans. There is a large degree of overlap between other European ethnicities, but not up to the point where they would be indistinguishable from each other. Which means that forensic scientists now can use DNA to predict the region of origin of otherwise unknown persons (provided they are of European heritage). ... The discovery that autosomal (i.e. non-gender-related) aspects of DNA may be used to predict regional European provenance of unkown individuals was made by prof. dr. Manfred Kayser’s team of forensic molecular biologists. In a press release, the Erasmus UMC stated that this might potentially be helpful in resolving so-called ‘cold cases’.

The genetic map of Europe was compiled by comparing DNA samples from 23 populations in Europe (pictured on the right-hand side map).  Those populations were then placed on the ‘genetic’ map according to their similarity, with the vertical axis denoting differences from south to north, and the horizontal one from west to east. The larger the area assigned to a population, the larger the genetic variation within that population.

Interestingly, “the Irish population almost doesn’t show any characteristics that would distinguish it from the British one.” Tell that to Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams.

Did Hillary “Refresh”?

NY Daily News:

Has Hillary Clinton added volume and smoothness to her skin? A source tells us Clinton visited a New York plastic surgeon early this month and received injections of a “dermafiller” in her face. The senator had appeared tired and wrinkly on a June 23 New York mag cover, but when she made her first solo campaign stop beside Barack Obama in Nevada on Aug. 8, she looked refreshed. After seeing a recent photo of Hillary, Dr. Tahl Humes of Vitahl Medical told us, “It appears that she has restored a youthful look with a combination of injectables.”

Or maybe she’s just finally caught up on all the sleep she lost during the capmpaign.