conservatism and society
CONSERVATIVE, n. A statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from the Liberal, who wishes to replace them with others. ~ Ambrose Bierce People prefer simple explanations to complicated ones which is...
Monthly Archive: November 2009
Public Service Announcement
League co-blogger Jamelle is kicking it over at The American Prospect’s group blog this week.
Podcast: The Golden Age of Television
I sat down with Freddie and Sonny Bunch, film critic for the Washington Times and a blogger at Conventional Folly, to talk about the A.V. Club’s much-discussed list of the decade’s best television shows....
healthcare reform and the appeal to emotion
“There are actual sick people with actual families feeling actual pain and facing actual tragedy because of this grotesque, wasteful, perverse, immoral, evil system that we labor under. Health care reform is a necessity...
love and blogging
William’s post reminds me of love, or of the process of falling in and out of love – or at least of the way that process has been mythologized in popular culture. Disenchantment is...
can’t win by not losing
In shocking news, a conservative thinks that America’s political future is conservative. Honestly, sometimes I think that the best thing going for liberalism is that conservatives are so busy declaring victory that they’ll have...
Did the Tar Heels invent the forward pass?
My Tar Heels had a rough day in football this weekend, losing to NC State by a point. But it was some small consolation to come across the suggestion that the Tar Heels invented...
one casualty
Read this important and heartbreaking column from Nicholas Kristof. I have said before and continue to say that opponents of health care reform simply have nothing to say in the face of the real,...
6 steps to disenchantment.
There are several bloggers and writers I used to love, but now I find them dry or irritating. I’ve gone through the same cycle with each of them. If you want to go through...
Gawker media’s commenting system
I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating: this is untrammeled bullshit. Gawker media’s tiered commenting system, bannings and faux-exclusivity have nothing to do with maintaining decorum, or keeping the quality of the blogs...
More on Hate Crimes Statistics
Jim Burroway at Box Turtle Bulletin has an excellent follow-up to my piece on the ways in which the FBI’s annual hate crimes report is misused. Check it out here. Burroway adds quite a...
How North Carolina got its reputation for moderation in the civil rights era.
I’ve been reading Rob Christensen’s The Paradox of Tar Heel Politics, a book that I started a while back but didn’t pick up again until recently. I’ve just finished the section on North Carolina’s...
Happy Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is undoubtedly America’s best indigenous tradition, and I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday. Even bloggers must rest, however, so things will be a little slow around here for the next...
Standard Operating Procedure
Michael Crowley ruins an otherwise good post on the Obama administration’s engagement with Russia over the Iranian nuclear program with this aside:
Yeah, another reason to raise taxes on the rich
Via Meteor Blades at Daily Kos is Sam Pizzigati explaining that the top 1 percent of income earners have a ridiculously low state and local tax burden relative to their low and middle-income fellow...
The Golden Age
I know the League’s commentariat already went a few rounds over The A.V. Club’s “decade in television” rankings, but The Hollywood Reporter has just released another top ten compilation with more than a few...
Today’s Must Read
Philip Caputo writing on the Mexican drug wars in The Atlantic. Brilliant (and horrifying) stuff. There’s no good guys and bad guys. It’s not entirely clear what the motivations of any of a number...
climate change is off the charts
Remember that big chart Al Gore used in his documentary? If not, here it is: This chart shows the correlation of high global temperatures and high CO2 levels (though some have argued that if...
China Revisionism
James Fallows has an interesting post on the media’s reaction to Obama’s recent China visit.
