bloggingheads.tv

The title of this diavlog was inspired by the effect that a radical change in lighting conditions (combined with our failure to adjust webcam settings accordingly) has on blogginghead Ross Douthat as the diavlog unfolds: He goes from looking like a normal human being to looking like a space alien to looking like a divine apparition. By the way, though we at bloggingheads.tv have never been sold on Jung’s notion of synchronicity, it’s hard not to notice the correspondence between the subjects under discussion and Ross’s visual metamorphosis. It is when Ross embraces John McCain—best known lately for his compassionate stance toward legal and illegal aliens—that the transformation to “alien” status seems complete. And it is when diavlog partner Matt Yglesias starts discussing Star Trek that the transition from alien to divinity is clearly underway; Ross’s eyes are now only faintly visible, and, as they keep blinking on and off, they are spending more time off than on. Finally, it is when Ross mentions “The Passion of the Christ” that his status as divinity has been clearly attained. With all facial features vanished and his figure bathed in light, he has moved beyond the realm of the incarnate. And note that, less than 20 seconds after this point, Ross says “there aren’t aliens”—as if to signal that the transformation is indeed complete. What does it all mean? Ross is a conservative. Is President Bush—who is said to have connections at the highest levels of the universe’s administration—using Ross to send some kind of message to “the base”? Don’t ask us. At bloggingheads.tv, we retort, you decide.

Added May 6 by Mickey Kaus re: Bush vs. Roosevelt Smackdown!

Regarding Bush's excess loyalty to the virtue of loyalty, Peggy Noonan wrote: "Loyalty can be a nice word for self-indulgence." If, as Alter says, Bush is inflexible in part because, as a recovering alcoholic, he values routine and discipline, Noonan's phrase is more than a good line--by equating "loyalty" with indiscipline it's well-calculated to actually get Bush to think about firing some loyalists and hiring some not-so-loyalists.

Added May 6 by Mickey Kaus re: Bush vs. Roosevelt Smackdown!
Ginia Bellafante writes a very kind piece about bloggingheads.tv in the New York Times.

Added May 2 by Robert Wright re: Nuestro TV Show
As of 7 a.m. EST on Tuesday, May 2, we're having problems with Windows Media Player. Realplayer is still working, so if you have Real software, just click the "Real" button below the video screen. (To download Real software, go here and click "Free Download".) The WMP problem should be straightened out by noon.

Added Apr 22 by Robert Wright re: Bloggingheads at the Crossroads
This diavlog is a change of pace for bh.tv. Whereas usually we feature two generalist pundits spouting off about a range of subjects, here we feature someone with substantive expertise (international relations in this case) in a format that is a bit like an interview—though not, we hope, exactly like traditional TV or radio interviews. We’ll be experimenting with this format in coming weeks, but the experiments won't come at the expense of our usual weekly offerings. Rather, we'll post these "actual information" diavlogs in addition to the usual complement of two "spouting off” diavlogs, and generally we’ll post them on weekends. Feedback on this idea is welcome. (The April 6 diavlog with Jacqueline Shire, which got a lot of positive feedback, was a foreshadowing of the new format.)

Added Mar 16 by Robert Wright re: Family Feud
In the family values discussion, I may have left the impression that I agreed with Matt's characterization of my recommended strategy for Democrats as a mere "ploy". But I think its value goes beyond that. I think it would be good for our culture if more liberals, including presidential candidates, strongly condemned such things as the Janet Jackson/Justin Timberlake super bowl stunt--which was, after all, a glorification of male sexual aggression. And, on an unrelated matter: About 20 seconds into the diavlog, when I talk about "bloggingheads... who disagree about a lot," I obviously meant to say "agree," not "disagree".

Added Mar 13 by Robert Wright re: More Male Bonding
I said Ann Coulter was getting $24,000 to speak at Loyola. Turns out that's wrong. The correct number, according to the Loyola student newspaper, is $18,000. (A bargain!)

Added Feb 28 by Robert Wright re: Men Fight Over Woman
My wife is unhappy with me for saying of Ann Coulter “I don’t even think she’s good looking.” It isn’t that she wanted me to say Ann Coulter is good looking—but, rather, that I sounded sexist in referring to Coulter’s looks at all. Let me elaborate, in case my point wasn’t clear. The context of my remark was the overarching question of why Mickey chooses to associate with a woman who practices McCarthyism and, more generally, makes a living by saying vile, indefensible things. (See this Arianna Huffington post for a partial list.) Since one possible motivation is that he finds her attractive, I decided, in the heat of the moment, to note that even that motivation I found puzzling. So to my wife’s implied question—Would I have commented on Coulter’s looks if she were a man?—the answer is: Possibly, yes, if I was arguing with someone who mysteriously befriended Coulter and was either a heterosexual female or a homosexual male (and whom I knew as well as I know Mickey, so that the line between public-talk and private-talk was easy to cross without giving it much thought).

Added Feb 28 by Mickey Kaus re: Men Fight Over Woman

1) In the diavlog I said that Bob's NYT op-ed made "one very good point" but "went astray in a couple of places." Yet I never said what I thought the good and bad points were. I try to fill in those blanks here. ... 2) Blatant Media Bias! "Ann Coulter: Dishonest, dumb, or what?" Obviously, Bob had headline-writing duty for this episode. ...

Added Feb 24 by Mickey Kaus re: Iraqi Entropy Edition
Due to a technical snafu, the diavlog Matt Yglesias and I recorded was mostly lost. The Dubai ports discussion gets cut off just when it's getting started., you'll notice. The discussion of Iraq is intact, though. It's been subdivided into chunks of unprecedented brevity. Bite-sized or right-sized? If you like these (accidentally) shorter bits better, let us know. Thanks. We apologize for the convenience. ...

Added Feb 22 by Mickey Kaus re: Is That a WMD in Your Pocket?
When I said (at about 29:05 of this diavlog) that I was "shocked" that Leon Wieseltier signed the September 20 letter of the Project for a New American Century, I was genuinely surprised, not mock-shocked. I'd have pegged Leon as less of a neocon on Iraq. ... Update: Investor's Business Daily tries to make the most of the anti-Saddam evidence presented at that "Intelligence Summit." ...

Added Feb 16 by Mickey Kaus re: Cheney Fools?
Correction: That conference to which I referred in this segment is scheduled to release its Saddam/WMD evidence on Friday 2/17. But ABC News has broadcast part of one Saddam tape and posted a partial transcript--and it is not exactly a smoking gun (as to the existence of Saddam's WMDs). Also the conference has occcasioned controversy over some of its backers. See New York Sun and NRO's The Corner.

Added Feb 10 by Robert Wright re: The Battle of Britney!
[Update, Friday 1:20 p.m. EST: The problem is solved for the Windows Media 300 kbps format, and the other formats will follow suit within a few hours.] At the moment (Friday 10 a.m. EST) there's a glitch in the synchronization of the second half of this video that leaves Mickey seeming very slow to hear and grasp things and me seeming not just quick but prescient--sometimes answering questions before they're asked! We're working on the problem, and there will probably be a somewhat more realistic depiction of us up sometime this afternoon.

Added Feb 8 by Robert Wright re: Special Male Bonding Edition
Video of Bush kissing Lieberman was gratefully stolen from Crooks and Liars. (If you can't steal from crooks and liars, who can you steal from?)

Added Feb 1 by Robert Wright re: The Bloggingheads.tv Candor Initiative

An alert viewer questions one of my two indictments of Bush--the one alleging that Bush was wrong to claim that Saddam Hussein precipitated war by defying an ultimatum. The ultimatum I had in mind was the demand that Saddam let weapons inspectors into Iraq (Saddam's compliance with which Bush had once before demonstrated no recollection of). The viewer notes that, right before the war, Bush said Saddam could avoid war by surrendering power, leaving the country, etc. Well, if that's the ultimatum Bush had in mind, then he's technically off the hook. But if that's the ultimatum he had in mind, he didn't exactly go out of his way to make that clear. Here is what he said: "It is true that Saddam Hussein had a history of pursuing and using weapons of mass destruction. It is true that he systematically concealed those programs, and blocked the work of U.N. weapons inspectors. It is true that many nations believed that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. But much of the intelligence turned out to be wrong. As your President, I am responsible for the decision to go into Iraq. Yet it was right to remove Saddam Hussein from power. He was given an ultimatum -- and he made his choice for war." My interpretation of Bush's meaning continues to strike me as the more plausible of the two.

Added Jan 27 by Robert Wright re: The Hamas Victory
[Note: This dialogue ends abruptly, without the customary goodbyes, because of a technical glitch.] In sorting through the reasons that the Hamas victory might and might not prove productive, we left out at least one factor on each side of the ledger. On the positive side is the fact that the voters who propelled Hamas to power are on balance more moderate than Hamas on the question of goals and tactics in dealing with Israel. Assuming Hamas wants to position itself to prevail in future elections, this fact could exert a benign influence. On the negative side is the fact that Israeli elections are only weeks away. So Israel's leadership, which (as Matt noted) might in any event be inclined to use the Hamas victory as grounds to intensify its hawkishness and unilateralism, will have that inclination reinforced by competition from the right, in the form of, e.g., Benjamin Netanyahu.

Added Jan 24 by Mickey Kaus re: Bloggingheads Under Pressure!

Bob challenged me to name a "romance that is not a comic romance that has done more than $50 million." OK. Here are a few (figures unadjusted for inflation):

An Officer and a Gentleman (1982)--$129 Million

Cold Mountain (2003)--$95 Million

Out of Africa (1985)--$92 Million

The Notebook (2004)--$81 Million

The Horse Whisperer (1998)--$75 Million

The Bridges of Madison County (1995) $71 Million

There are more--complete list here. Was "The Notebook" a "runaway phenomenon"? I don't think so!

Added Jan 24 by Mickey Kaus re: Bloggingheads Under Pressure!
Here, again, is the car Bob doesn't think looks like a woman.

Added Jan 24 by Mickey Kaus re: Bloggingheads Under Pressure!

What I Should Have Said: The killing of the Branch Davidians in Waco was not formally intentional but a) it was reckless and callous (and maybe motivated on some level by a need to avenge the killing of four government agents) and b) think how much more callous and reckless the law enforcement bureaucracies might be if they were surrounding a major post-9/11 Al Qaeda terrorist like Zarqawi instead of David Koresh.

Added Jan 17 by Mickey Kaus re: Bloggingheads Strike High-Value Targets!
My Gore mask didn't look like Gore when I bought it in 2000. But it does now!

Added Jan 13 by Mickey Kaus re: Bob and Mickey on the Verge of War
My discussion of Alito's view of executive power in the January 12 diavlog is wrong, I think, on the issue of whether a President can disobey a law--citing his inherent authority--after he himself has signed the law. I called this idea "crazy" and said Alito had disavowed it. That's not quite right, it turns out. Alito cited Justice Jackson's concurrence (not dissent) in the Youngstown case, which only says the President's power "is at its lowest ebb" when it contravenes the expressed "will of Congress." As Sen. Feingold pointed out in Thursday's hearing, this leaves open the possibility that sometimes the President, despite his low ebb, can defy even a statute--especially, John Hinderaker notes, in the foreign policy area. This still seems crazy to me! Laws don't just reflect the "will of Congress"--they typically reflect the joint will of both the Congress that passes them and the President who signs them. The "equilibrium" between the two democratic branches is supposed to be set in the statute itself, no? But I never understood Youngstown, even in law school. In any case, Alito's endorsement of the Jackson approach, while it leaves a loophole, doesn't appear to be an atypically pro-executive position.

Added Jan 9 by Mickey Kaus re: Bloggingheads Go Viral

What Leon Wieseltier actually said about Spielberg's film is:

There are two kinds of Israelis in Munich: cruel Israelis with remorse and cruel Israelis without remorse.

He wasn't saying that Israelis are portrayed as not wrestling with their consciences.

Added Jan 9 by Mickey Kaus re: Bloggingheads Go Viral

More links: Glenn Reynolds on the avian flu threat ... Dr Henry Miller thinks the idea of creating a prophylactic "ring" around Third World bird flu outbreaks is basically a liberal fantasy. Presumably he'd say that goes double for my idea of squelching the regular flu worldwide. Miller favors a "moat" strategy. ... Elizabeth Snead talks to George Jonas, author of the book on which Spielberg's "Munich" is based:

“'Munich' follows the letter of my book closely enough,” he writes. “The spirit is almost the opposite. 'Vengeance' holds there is a difference between terrorism and counterterrorism; 'Munich' suggests there isn't. The book has no trouble telling an act of war from a war crime; the film finds it difficult. Spielberg 's movie worries about the moral trap of resisting terror; my book worries about the moral trap of not resisting it.”

There's a good Jonas kicker quote. ... Jonas' article in Maclean's is available here [$]. ...

Added Jan 4 by Mickey Kaus re: Bloggingheads Return to Earth!
That damning LAT article on Doris Kearns Goodwin mentioned in the diavlog has been moved to the paper's non-free archive. It was written by Peter King and ran on August 4, 2002. This History News Network page recounts the entire Goodwin controversy.

Added Dec 29 by Robert Wright re: Nostrablogus Speaks
For the record: After announcing near the outset of this video that in it Mickey and I were experimenting with a format "we call the diavlog" I got around to actually googling "diavlog" and got two hits. One was actually for "dia-vlog" (hyphenated)--a kind of interactive video-editing game that has something in common with our `diavlog' but is a very different kind of thing. (Seems cool, btw.) The other hit led to a discussion in which someone threw out "diavlog" as one of several possible names for some new conversational video genre that was only vaguely described and that, so far as I could tell, hasn't been realized--and that, in any event, seems not to have taken up "diavlog" as its name. I guess we could spell it "diavlogue" and be completely original. ("Did you mean: dialogue," asks Google.)...[12/30/05 Etymological update: bh.TV viewer Jason Kiernan e-mails that, shortly before this video was posted, he had applied the term "dia-vlog" to bh.tv's regular dialogues in amendments he made to the wikipedia entries for me and for kausfiles. He, too, googled only after the fact and discovered that his coinage wasn't entirely new, even if its application was..]

Added Dec 24 by Mickey Kaus re: Happy Holy Days

Here (again!) is proof that back in 2002 Dr. Weevil, a blogger, had the idea of drawing district lines by a pre-programmed computer game.

Added Dec 21 by Mickey Kaus re: The Bloggingheads.tv Candor Initiative
Correction: It was Tony Perkins, not Tony Curtis, who controlled the world from a flat in Brooklyn in Winter Kills.

Added Dec 18 by Mickey Kaus re: Special Corner-Turning Edition
Instapundit on the Bush eavesdropping.

Added Dec 15 by Robert Wright re: Love me like Iraq
During that brief (but lively!) debate between me and Mickey over whether there's still a good chance that the Iraq war will turn out to have been a good idea [click on the topic "Mickey defends war"], Mickey said, in defense of the war, that there's still a chance that the "democracy meme" will catch on in the Middle East. I'd say there's an excellent chance--but not because of the Iraq war. Rather, information technology is what's significantly boosting the prospects for democracy in the Middle East, in China, and elsewhere. You could see this happening in the Middle East before we invaded, and you will see it continue to happen (if fitfully) for years to come. You will also see people like Mickey misattributing this ongoing global trend to Bush's invasion of Iraq. (Later in the dialogue, Mickey agrees with me that infotech is eroding the power of authoritarians in China. Well, the same infotech that's infiltrating China is infiltrating the Middle East, and I don't see why its effects should be fundamentally different there.) Has the war hastened the trend toward pluralism and, ultimately, toward democracy? Conceivably--and conceivably it will in the long run retard the trend. But I don't see any way it could hasten the trend enough to compensate for all the blowback it's generated, blowback that will be coming home to roost for years if not decades.

Added Dec 12 by Mickey Kaus re: No Kissinger in Public!
Here's a Business Week piece on the Chinese riot drill.

Added Dec 7 by Robert Wright re: A Bell for Obama
In retrospect, the most notable thing about that Pajamas Media blog's depiction of Howard Dean as Hitler isn't what I stressed during the dialogue--the sleaziness of it. It's the vapidity and incoherence of it. If you're accusing Dean of defeatism or appeasement, wouldn't Neville Chamberlin be a more apt icon than Hitler, who wasn't exactly known for withdrawing from occupied territory? Am I missing something? And while I'm on the subject of Dean: I should have been more precise about the source of my dismay at his saying we can't win in Iraq. It isn't just his being a politician that makes this so impolitic but, more specifically, his being chairman of the Democratic Party.

Added Nov 22 by Mickey Kaus re: Ancient grievances haunt Mickey

Correction! The fully-disclosed conflict of interest that Howard Kurtz zinged me for was not $1.83, as I reported in the 11/21 video. I misremembered. It was $1.92 (i.e., one dollar, 92 cents). See the last paragraph of this post for more details.

Added Nov 18 by Robert Wright re: Apocalypse Pretty Soon
Serial theft: The title for this dialogue is stolen from the wonderful book by comic genius Alex Heard. The footage of the Dalai Lama is stolen from The Charlie Rose Show. (A downloadable audio version of Rose's interview with the Dalai Lama can be purchased at audible.com.) The insights into Alito's views on executive power are stolen from Dahlia Lithwick.

Added Nov 14 by Mickey Kaus re: McCain vs. Rahm Emanuel
Serial enthusiast Joe Klein tries to get excited by Rep. Rahm Emanuel's five-idea Democratic "Contract with America."

Added Nov 11 by Robert Wright re: Schwarzenegger gets sand kicked in face
Fissure on the right! David Brooks, in a column available only to Times Select subscribers, echoes the Olivier Roy argument we discussed in this dialogue, emphasizing the non-Islamic roots of the French riots. Daniel Pipes, though, sees failure to emphasize the riots' Muslim roots as some sort of left-wing media conspiracy--and is taken to task for this by Mark Leon Goldberg at TAPPED.