June 2010
3 posts
“Oh dear. The need to know the news every day is a nervous disorder.”
– Michael Oakeshott
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WatchCan Batman get a little love?
May 2010
22 posts
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Best Review Ever →
Roger Ebert tears apart the self-indulgent, vapid and materialistic “Sex and the City” franchise while enjoying every written word in the process. The man knows life is too short for his readers to waste their time sitting through such a film. Thanks to Ebert for doing it for us.
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The Cluelessness of the Catholic Church Knows No... →
Nickolas Kristof writes in Thursday’s New York Times about the cold hearted, bureaucratic and out of touch Catholic Church as another voice of compassion is silenced in the name of rigid dogmatic lunacy.
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The Failure of the American Jewish Establishment →
I finally got around to reading Peter Beinart’s piece on the failure of the modern Zionist movement to appeal to a younger generation of liberal American Jews. I recommend it to anyone interested in the future of the Israeli State, regardless of your politics. The devolution of the Isreali State into one more conservative, less concerned with minority rights, and ultimately less democratic...
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Elena Kagan, Millennials and Risk Aversion →
Cameron Joseph of The Atlantic responds to David Brooks’ criticism of Elena Kagan by addressing the risk adverse nature of the millennial generation.
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“That’s the conservative line: not a penny of higher taxes, even in return...”
– Jonathan Chait, The New Republic
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The Song Remains the Same →
Al Gore has written a densely packed and well researched article, “The Crisis Comes Ashore”, about the choices we face on fixing our environment or plunging further into the abyss of environmental disaster. Like much of Gore’s advocacy over the last few years, his article warns that we may already be looking the other way as the Gulf of Mexico drowns in oil.
“But the Internet puts a premium on speed. To blog is to blurt. Quick, you got...”
– Rabbi David Wolpe, courtesy of Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic
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Worlds Collide →
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“Can someone explain to me—hopefully using graphs, and small...”
– Megan McArdle
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Asking the Wrong Question →
Daniel Indiviglio of The Atlantic asks if we should be worried about too complex to regulate and not too big too fail?
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WatchI am Conan’s inner rage!
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Paging Dan Savage →
Douchebag co-founder of the Family Research Council discovered to have hired young male escort for a European sex romp.
My favorite quote from the piece: “According to Penn and Thorp, the slender, 20-year-old escort’s profile advertises his “smooth, sweet, tight ass” and “perfectly built 8 inch cock.” RentBoy.com’s profiles are not indexed by...
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Cheney & Co. Trash the Gulf Coast and the... →
Robert F. Kenedy Jr. writes a scathing article in today’s Huffington Post taking the Bush administration, Dick Cheney and Big Oil to task for lax regulation and a culture of corruption and greed. Think you cannot get any angrier with the situation in the Gulf of Mexico? Think again.
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“Today’s reality is that Nevada is a highly urbanized state — almost...”
– Eugene Robinson
(From Robinson’s latest column in The Washington Post, discussing Harry Reid’s Republican challenger Sue Lowden and her crazed notions of how to address this nation’s health-care problems.)
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Why I Blog
I have never attempted to put into words why I choose to blog. (Maybe some day I will.) Some decisions you make without fully articulating, let alone understanding why you make them. Sometimes you act and nothing more need be said.
However, were I to explain why I blog, I think it might sound something like this recent post from Roger Ebert. In addressing the nexus between writing and the...
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Deficit Reduction: Kicking the Can Down the Road →
David Ignatius has a column on why the current political climate makes instituting a VAT along with broad deficit reduction nearly impossible. Translation: as a nation we refuse to address our problems until it is already too late.
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Sadness That David Cross Will Not Attend the White... →
After claiming to have snorted cocaine during last year’s event, David Cross will not attend the 2010 White House Correspondents Dinner.
April 2010
50 posts
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Hope That Sarah Palin Will Not Run for President →
The antidote to Andrew Sullivan’s doom and gloom on the topic.
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Ezra Klein Destroys All in His Path →
Ezra Klein demolishes conservative attempts to paint health-care reform as massive spending gone wild with health-care costs spiraling out of control. You lost. Get over it.
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Sullivan Beat Me to It
So I got up this morning and read David Brooks’ latest column. This morning was yet another one where David and I were not on the same page. I had planned to write about it this evening, but Andrew Sullivan beat me to it. And he should, it is his job. Unfortunately, I have a day job and have to leave it to the professionals some times.
Nevertheless, here are some of David’s passages...
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Have Conservatives Gone Mad? →
Ambinder said it, not me. More on the epistemic closure problem within the Republican Party. For those of you not following the debate, this should do a good job catching you up to speed.
You May Want to Stand for This One →
New ways to move around when you are tied to your desk all day.
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Did the Drug Companies Pay for This Article or Is...
Former congressman and former head of the Drug Enforcement Administration has an article on CNBC’s website so biased Pfizer must have written it for him. In the article Hutchinson argues against the legalization of marijuana. Advocating for the prohibition of mind altering substance is a viable position. But Hutchinson’s argument embraces the worst lies and mis-characterizations of...
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“Never before in the history of the known universe has there been so much...”
– David Corn, What I Read
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You Call This Art?
Roger Ebert’s most recent blog post entitled “Video games can neve be art” responds to a TED talk given at USC by Kellee Santiago about whether a video game could ever be considered art. Ebert faults Santiago for failing to deliver a good definition of art on which to base her argument that video games can be art. Ebert later admits that settling on any definition of art is...
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Seven Things Conan Can Do on Cable That He... →
gawkertv:
(via New York Mag)
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The Party's Over: China's Endgame →
givemesomethingtoread:
How did this notion of Chinese supremacy gain hold? The answer is nothing more profound than statistical extrapolation. China was destitute when Deng Xiaoping grabbed power in December 1978. Since then, the country has averaged, according to official statistics, a spectacular annual growth of 9.9 percent. This rate, if carried forward, gives China the world’s largest...
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Bad Omens In Iraq →
Incidents of sectarian conflict continue.
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Another Sign Congress Is Not Interested In Deficit... →
Led by Jon McCain the Senate votes overwhelmingly against the idea of a value added tax (VAT).
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Building a Green Economy
For anyone who has not read Paul Krugman’s extended piece from the New York Times two weeks ago on climate change and green economics, I would highly recommend checking it out. Even for those well versed in climate change, cap and trade, and carbon taxes I recommend it for the following two elements. First, on debunking conservative opposition to climate change legislation, Krugman weighs...
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Gamers Tell George Lucas They Know Best →
Nominee for the greatest/worst idea ever.
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Who To Blame In 2010
While George W. Bush, the economy and the Tea Partiers all deserve their fair share, Andrew Sullivan reminds Democrats of one thing:
When there is no internal pushback against crafted FNC propaganda, and when the Democrats seem unable to craft any coherent political message below the presidential level, you do indeed create a self-perpetuating fantasy that can indeed rally and roil people.
That...
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Embracing a Life of Solitude →
“time did not matter — sometimes I would lose track of the year,” he said. “It was so magical, millions of birds, turtles. When I’d go out with the dinghy, manta ray would escort me, dolphins.”
“We live in a world where everything is so specialized, now people don’t know how to make anything, they don’t know how to survive,” he said, speaking by cellphone from the forest. “I’m not completely...