Last week I read a David Gelertner profile of Benjamin Disraeli in the Weekly Standard that brought up the point that conservatives are driven by pride whereas leftists are driven by shame. He makes the point that American liberals are more like conservatives in that they tend to focus on pride rather than shame (unlike Marxists), but I’m not sure that’s true. I think that I, and most liberals I know, are much more likely to be driven by shame in their political thinking than they are by pride. Asked to name 10 things about America I’m ashamed of, I could dash them off in less than 60 seconds. Asked to name 10 things about America I’m proud of would take a bit longer, I think, and indeed the list would almost certainly include qualifiers.

I don’t need to explain the dangers of pride to anyone of a liberal persuasion. But I do think there are dangers in excess shame as well, mainly in the sense that if your view is that everything we do is wrong or insufficient, you tend to lose credibility. Progress has been made, and many things are better than they once were, and it’s OK to feel proud about that.

What I find particularly interesting is that I don’t feel like I hold myself to the same standards that I hold my country, or the human race. I’m generally forgiving of my own mistakes, and indeed do not look back on my past and feel shame or self loathing. I haven’t drawn any real conclusions yet, I just found the article to be food for thought. And I do think that this shame/pride divide may be the biggest reason why liberals have a hard time communicating with conservatives.

I’ve been harping on the issue of extraordinary rendition, where the US government sends its prisoners to other countries so that they can be tortured by foreigners under our supervision, for a really long time. The ACLU’s recent court victory may compel the CIA to make public the details of this practice. If you’re unfamiliar with extraordinary rendition, the story of Maher Arar is a good place to start.

Did you know that only 1% of US bankruptcies are brought on by credit card debt? On the other hand, half are due to medical bills. Via Rebecca Blood.

Alberto Gonzales was confirmed today, as I’m sure you know. Not a proud day for America.

Looks like Gmail is going to be open to the public soon. I hear that lots of people have been given 50 invitations to hand out, and that seems to be reflected in the fact that currently there are 21,000 invitations available from the Gmail invitation spooler.

William Saletan has written the one recap of the State of the Union that you need to read.

If you liked my sardonic little list of things I remember about Iraq, you’ll love Eliot Weinberger’s What I Heard About Iraq, which is much longer and consists entirely of direct quotations.

Jeanne over at Body and Soul has written just about the best post you’ll ever read explaining what being a liberal is all about, or should be anyway.

Tony Judt has an interesting piece about the differences between Americans an Europeans at the New York Review of Books. Some of the statistics cited will certainly surprise you.

The more I learn, the more I realize every day just how poorly understood the brain is. And not just our brains. In the past couple of weeks, I’ve read about chimpanzees that understand fairness and chimpanzees that will literally pay for pornography. Now I read about a man who has been blind from birth but can paint realistic images. Fascinating stuff.