Jack Conway, who previously I had known for his prominent fight to make for-profit colleges more accountable in Kentucky, explained to Sahil Kapur his reasoning in refusing to defend the state’s anti-gay law: “I thought long and hard. I thought about the arc of history.”
I’ve read a number of articles and posts over the last twenty-four hours which have crystallized and also shaped my view that we should be approaching the crisis in Ukraine with more caution and deliberation than we currently are. As I wrote at the outset, you have to really squint hard to see Putin and Russia’s current position as one of strength or one in which he’s improved his position over what it was a month ago, a year ago or even five years ago.
One of the big questions so far in this crisis has been the stance of Germany, which was at first oddly silent in its response and then more leaning toward constructive dialog than confrontation. I was struck by a reader email to Andrew Sullivan’s site in which the reader notes the striking contrast not just between German and US press reaction but the different historical metaphors they’re employing. Here, as we know, everything is World War II, appeasement and containment, if not necessarily explicitly reference to the Nazis and Hitler. In Germany, however, they’re focused on 1914 and the onset of the World War I, a relatively minor crisis pushing the great powers of the day to stumble into a cataclysmic war that destroyed virtually all the losing states and debilitated the survivors.
The Leading Indicators author Zachary Karabell takes on consumer sentiment surveys, and casts doubt on their usefulness. “Yet after decades of these surveys, the link between them and actual behavior remains tenuous at best. … People seem quite capable of being anxious about the world and spending money at the same time, and equally capable of feeling confident and saving.”
Join Karabell for a live author chat (sub. req.) tomorrow at noon Eastern.
Seth D. Michaels: Congress seems to be taking climate change less seriously than Chipotle is, which views it as a real economic risk.
For those of you who find Fox News too mainstream and factual, this is for you. Newsmax TV is coming soon.
Top Arizona legislator, readying a jump to Congress, decides it time to come out after Arizona ‘hate the gays’ bill drama. We spoke to him.
Woman says she accidentally shot her boyfriend while moving out after a fight.
Army’s top prosecutor on sexual assault cases suspended after allegedly groping female lawyer. Gets better: allegedly tried to kiss and grope her at 2011 sex assault legal conference!