Inglourious Basterds (spoiler alert)
[updated again] (Read on only if you’ve seen the film or don’t intend to see it. The post assumes the reader has also seen the movie.) Tyler Cowen didn’t like Tarantino’s latest: Tarantino made...
Monthly Archive: September 2009
Two good articles on rationing and end-of-life care
Evan Thomas and Will Wilkinson have some interesting things to say on the subject of healthcare. The genius at Newsweek who decided on “The Case for Killing Granny” as a title needs a crash...
quote of the day
“So we’ve got beliefs P and Q. Let’s say Q is “obviously unreasonable” by virtue of beliefs R(1), R(2), R(3), and so forth, when taken as a set. Let’s leave aside considerations of individual...
no laughing matter
Christopher Hitchens takes a shot at Jon Stewart, Al Franken, and Stephen Colbert. Too much of his piece relies on cherry-picking, if you ask me.
Wall of Shame – the September 14, 2008 edition
The moral of the story is that if you’re going to get it wrong, get it ALL wrong. Does anyone remember reading this and wondering what planet he was on? Not only was he...
School reform in DC
Merit pay’s out, but teacher job security may still take a hit. Here’s The Washington Post on the final round of contract negotiations between DC and the teachers union (via):
I think the best part about the Bears-Packers game . . .
. . . is listening to a thoroughly befuddled Chris Collinsworth try to explain the awful offensive play from both teams. That third-and-one play action call from Green Bay was pretty awesome, though.
Seriously?
Paul Bettany’s best role to date was as a 19th century naturalist. Now he’s playing Charles Darwin in Creation, which can’t find a US distributor because – wait for it – the Theory of...
from the archives
Not to pick old wounds, but I was digging around and found this interview with Jonah Goldberg from Salon. I think it’s the best refutation of Liberal Fascism, as it’s both eminently fair, subject...
Sunday Poem Series
Nefarious War by Li Po Translated from the Chinese by Shigeyoshi Obata Last year we fought by the head-stream of the So-Kan, This year we are fighting on the Tsung-ho road. We have washed...
more anthropology
I could go on a harangue about this, but really, the thing that kept popping into my head again and again was, “this is the soft bigotry of low expectations.” Sometimes, an inaccurate compliment...
Teleology, evolution, imagination.
I’ve been following Jim Manzi’s series* on evolution and teleology with some interest. In his most recent post, Manzi states the proposition he wants to defend: The findings of the modern synthesis of evolutionary...
Jordan in the Hall of Fame
Apparently, Michael Jordan’s acceptance speech was pretty awful, and I think it points to the fact that he’s not a very nice guy. That said, this remains one of my favorite sports-related commercials:
Let’s all go back to Geocities
Here’s an interesting Prospect article on Geocities and online memory that also discusses the Myspace-Facebook class divide:
9/11
Matt Zeitlin’s post on 9/11 is top notch, and I recommend that you read it. Here’s an excerpt: One would hope that America’s size, strength and influence would breed a certain sense of responsibility...
9/11
After eight years, the best sentiment remains the one immortalized by a classmate’s homemade t-shirt the day after the attacks: “Fuck Terrorism.”
ThinkProgress can’t distinguish between “death panels” and euthanasia
This is pretty dumb: Apparently, if you’re against irresponsible rumor-mongering about death panels you’re also not allowed to raise legitimate concerns about euthanasia.
I agree with him…
Barry Ritholtz has an interesting post suggesting that the Democrats made a significant tactical error in pursuing health care reform before pursuing financial regulatory reform:
Pathetic (Ab)uses of 9/11: Fouad Ajami Edition
Fouad Ajami uses the anniversary of the attacks on NYC and Washington DC as a launching pad to argue that the Iraq War was all along the right war and that President Obama is...
Joe Wilson the Thief Part II
Okay, so just check out Memeorandum today. I think my thesis still holds.
