View image | gettyimages.com Republicans are, naturally, united in their opposition to the preliminary deal the Obama administration struck with Iran to restrain its nuclear program. And now, the presidential candidates in particular are going to compete with each other to see who can make their opposition more categorical. They’re all criticizing it, of course, […]
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Posted inPaul Waldman
Photo of the Day, Colorful British Ferry Edition
View image | gettyimages.com Why? Does it really matter? No, it doesn’t. It’s a ferry, and it’s colorful.
Posted inLaw and Justice
Why Republicans Are Getting So Spooked On Gay Rights
As I wrote yesterday on some other magazine’s web site, the conservative argument on gay rights has gone from “It’s not you, it’s me” to “It’s not me, it’s them.” After abandoning moral condemnation of gayness, the opponents of gay rights insisted that the problem wasn’t gay people themselves, it was that straight people, confronted […]
Posted inLaw and Justice
Why the Newly Amended Indiana RFRA Is a Real—But Only Partial—Victory
View image | gettyimages.com Indiana Senate President Pro Tem David Long speaks as House Speaker Brian Bosma (R) looks on during a press conference about anti-discrimination safeguards added to the controversial Religious Freedom Restoration Act at the State Capitol April 2, 2015, in Indianapolis, Indiana. They look pretty psyched, don’t they? The Republican leadership in […]
Posted inPaul Waldman
Photo of the Day, Drought Porn Edition
View image | gettyimages.com BIG WATER, UT – MARCH 29: People walk on a beach that used to be the bottom of Lake Powell at Lone Rock Camp on March 29, 2015 near Big Water, Utah. As severe drought grips parts of the Western United States, a below average flow of water is expected to […]
Posted inCivil Rights in America
Are America’s Corporations Now Pro-Gay?
View image | gettyimages.com Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson announced today that he won’t be signing the “religious freedom” bill passed by the state legislature, and it sure isn’t because of his deep concern for the welfare of gay Arkansans. You can reduce it to two factors: first, he surely wanted to avoid the PR disaster […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Get Ready For the Munich Analogies
Wikimedia Commons If the negotiators from the U.S. and other nations succeed in getting an agreement to restrain Iran’s nuclear program, Republicans will of course object that the deal is terrible and gives away the store to the Ayatollahs. We know this because they’ve been saying that for months, even though they don’t actually know […]
Posted inPaul Waldman
Photo of the Day, Enormous Man Edition
View image | gettyimages.com A tot is understandably distressed at being hauled up to participate in the opening ceremonies of a sumo tournament in Himeji, Japan. Equally distressed is the guy on the right, who is appalled at this blatant violation of sumo tournament rule 62.a.(1), which reads in its entirety, “No babies.”
Posted inLaw and Justice
Marco Rubio Gets Surprisingly Specific on Indiana
View image | gettyimages.com If you’ve been watching Indiana Governor Mike Pence over the last few days as the “religious freedom” law he passed has been getting so much attention, you’ve noticed that there are many questions he really, really does not want to answer. He doesn’t want to get into specifics or hypotheticals, even […]
Posted inLaw and Justice
The Self-Contradictory Argument All Republicans Are Making on the Indiana Discrimination Law
View image | gettyimages.com Now that it’s becoming a national story, all the Republican candidates are going to have to take a position on the new Indiana law that for all intents and purposes legalizes discrimination against gay people. (If you’re in the market for a lengthy explanation of what the law does and doesn’t […]
