Monthly Archive: May 2009

Corrugated Degree Factories

Over at the Daily Dish, Lane Wallace bravely defends the liberal arts (from whom, I wonder – colleges’ burgeoning admissions rolls?), arguing that a humanities degree is somehow necessary to grasp ambiguity and encourage...

a quote for a cloudy afternoon

“I gave up on post-theism in my 20’s. I worked through my post-post-theism in my early 30’s. I’m currently enjoying my post-post-post-theism too much to really contemplate post-post-post-post-theism, but, hey. Maybe someone will write...

Quote of the Day

“It’s a good thing I’m a paranoid son of a bitch.” Ethan Kanin (former Chief of Staff to President Allison Taylor on 24 in last night’s Season Finale)

The Diversity Racket

There are more than a few compelling reasons to avoid a completely homogeneous workforce, but Matt Labash’s look at sclerotic diversity industry is still pretty damning (and hilarious): Indeed, Peggy Norris, a private-sector contract...

Angels & Demons

I read Dan Brown’s Angels & Demons several years ago.  I liked some of the puzzles, and the mystery and suspense were gripping enough, but at the end of the day Brown’s prose makes...

The Taliban as Mafia

Here’s what I wrote the other day: Now they [The Taliban] are more like a mafia, in which case syndicate is a better term, but one that works against the grain of the US’...

Quote of the Day

To James Poulos: Having Terry [McAuliffe] around is like having the Geico gecko’s uncharismatic loan shark cousin around, and the Macker knows it. Speaking of the Geico Gecko, if you haven’t seen the Geckham...

faux serious introspection

Daniel Larison takes issue with Obama’s Notre Dame speech and especially Obama’s use of doubt, which Larison maintains is not a quality, but rather “a function of a mind clouded by the passions”.  Doubt,...

Notre Bama

The text of Obama’s commencement address is here. – Some thoughts on Obama’s speech starting with conspiracy theories and moving from there to Obama’s liberalism and from there to abortion as a test case...

reductio ad absurdum

This is just nonsense.  I swear, as hapless as the Democrats may be, every time John Boehner opens his mouth I realize just how much more pathetic the Republicans are.  In the midst of...

the disposition

Reihan quotes Jeffrey Toobin: In every major case since he became the nation’s seventeenth Chief Justice, Roberts has sided with the prosecution over the defendant, the state over the condemned, the executive branch over...

Sunday Poem Series

The Golf Links Sarah Norcliffe Leghorn The golf links lie so near the mill That almost every day The laboring children can look out And see the men at play.

Saturday Juke Joint

Back by popular demand positive comments from Dave and Will and the fact that with Scott gone we forget to do the Jukebox last night, the juke joint returns. Today’s featured artist is (early)...

George R.R. Martin is not your bitch.

Well, it looks like HBO will begin shooting the pilot episode for George R. R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones in October in Northern Ireland.  I am gripped with excitement and trepidation.  And at...

I was a teenage border patrol agent

This is, without a doubt, the creepiest thing you will read all week: The responding officers — eight teenage boys and girls, the youngest 14 — face tripwire, a thin cloud of poisonous gas...