February 2012
30 posts
Amazon.com: The Rent Is Too Damn High eBook:... →
YOU WANT TO BUY THIS BOOK!!
Rational Irrationality: Romney’s New Tax Plan:... →
“Gallego’s humor has been refined since he got to Phoenix. A year ago, as a very...”
– The Arizona GOP may be vulnerable to Democrats who are popular with the growing Latino community. - Slate Magazine
“Perhaps it’s a monetary policy issue. We send dollars abroad in exchange...”
– Moneybox
“The sermons, all protected under the First Amendment to the Constitution, were...”
– The Associated Press: With cameras, informants, NYPD eyed mosques
Betsy Rothstein is History's Greatest Monster →
Seriously?
“I’ve been known to drink Champagne in the shower at 8 a.m.,” Mr. Griffith said....”
– The Freedom, and Perils, of Living Alone - NYTimes.com
““The commission received credible and consistent evidence identifying high- and...”
– Syrian Forces Continue Shelling of Homs for 20th Day - NYTimes.com
Calling Your Girlfriend: A Dialogue | The Hairpin →
Funny, but a scandalous misrepresentation of “Call Your Girlfriend.”
Who Is IOZ?: Diving into the Dreck →
This is aimed at libertarians, but is of broad import: Feminist analysis matters.
President's Day
Is obviously a lame holiday. At the same time, the country badly needs a three-day weekend to facilitate the playing of the Super Bowl. The NFL should tweak its schedule to bring the playing of the Big Game into mid-February and the day should be renamed Get As Drunk As You Want While Watching Football Day.
Lin Restaurants - New York City, Menus, Ratings,... →
Lucky Chinese restaurants.
The World's Most Confusing Conversation
lazybookreviews:
…is what occurs when it gradually becomes clear, over the course of a Dadaist five minutes, that your husband has Kate Upton and Kate Middleton mixed up.
For future reference: Kate Middleton is certainly not dating Mark Sanchez. No one from Victoria’s Secret has been talking trash about her. Kate Upton does not have a balding husband. No one has airbrushed the top of Kate...
Drawing the Line at Power Lines - NYTimes.com →
Nobody wants to build anything ever.
NBER Reporter 2011 Number 4: Research Summary →
Wonky!
Grant The Great
This President’s Day Weekend there’s no question in my mind that U.S. Grant is the most underrated American president. I highly recommend Jean Edward Smith’s biography.
The Tools Of The Trade
Rajiv Chandrasekaran memorializes the late Anthony Shadid: “What made him unique was his gift with both languages. He could speak to the Iraqis like a native, and he could pen his stories like few others in American journalism.”
I will for obvious reasons always be the first to defend the practice of not reporting. But I’m slightly baffled that among the group of American...
The Growth Of Party Discipline
An aside from James Fallows that’s worth an essay all its own:
Compared with the last two times a Democrat was in the White House—during Jimmy Carter’s administration in the late 1970s and Bill Clinton’s in the 1990s—I found Democrats much more careful about criticizing their own party’s president during an election year. It’s not that Democrats have become so much more disciplined, nor,...
Talking About War
Here’s one question I have about the idea of starting a war with the government of Syria to halt their repression: Would military action be likely to, on net, increase or decrease the number of civilians who end up getting killed?
A second question: Would a new post-Assad regime be likely to have a better general human rights record than Assad’s?
If the answer to those questions are...
The Geography Of A Blog
I was in the Starbucks near the Astor Place cube yesterday and suddenly struck with an overwhelming sort of Proustian feeling. That was the location where the old Matthew Yglesias blog really put its reps in during the summer of 2002. One of the key locations in its life.
The real start, of course, was at 20 De Wolfe Street in Cambridge, MA. Lots of early hours also put in down in the Harvard...
On "Ladyblogs" →
Josh Foust on Libya →
“Q: I think that in all fairness if you are going to have an all football mailbag...”
– http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7536111/the-half-bag-super-bag