Happy New Year
I hope everyone is enjoying a safe and happy holiday. At the risk of lapsing into blog-cliché, this site wouldn’t be nearly as fun without so many interesting (and vocal!) readers, and I hope...
Monthly Archive: December 2009
Against Techno-Utopianism
A necessary dose of reality from Evgeny Morozov on Twitter, technology, and authoritarianism.
Airline Security Redux
I’ve got a half-finished post on this in the queue that is going to have to wait until 2010 to achieve completion. Alas, there’s a good chance it’ll never see the light of day,...
Legalize It!
The perverse nature of our ‘War’ on Drugs was never more evident than in this Wall Street Journal article. A few choice quotes:
File this Under: Inappropriate Historical Analogies
(cross-posted from my blog) I know this shouldn’t come as a big surprise, but the Nuge is an idiot: “I think that Barack Hussein Obama should be put in jail. It is clear that Barack Hussein Obama...
The worst person of 2009
So far, Joe Lieberman is edging out Glenn Beck. If you’d like to vote for the worst person of 2009, head over to my True/Slant digs and cast your ballot….
The nation’s pulse and other nonsense
I know that columnists rarely write their own titles but this Maureen Dowd column lives up to the awfulness of its headline. I suppose I just don’t see the nation actually freaking out as...
Does is it pay to attend college?
Maybe – but it helps if you go into science and technology…graphic after the jump…
Quote for the Day
Marc Lynch, writing about the (non)coverage in the Arab press of the failed Detroit airplane bombing and its implications: The Arab media’s indifference to the story speaks to a vitally important trend. Al-Qaeda’s attempted...
The Art of Magic in Fiction: An Interview with Lev Grossman
Fantasy is a genre dominated by sword-and-sorcery epics, mysterious dragons, and tyrannical sorcerers. Few fantasy novels have joined the ranks of ‘great’ literature, and fewer still have crossed over into the contemporary literature aisle. The...
An(archy)-Qaeda
I’ve been largely out of the loop for the last week, so there’s quite a bit to catch up on. A quick word on the attempted terrorist attack on the airliner in Detroit–and then...
Why I didn’t see Avatar over the weekend
On Sunday my wife and I go to Avatar 3D. When we get into the theatre it turns out all the good stadium seats are taken (at least those in pairs) and the only...
In Praise of Jane Hamsher, et al: Redefining the Art of the Possible
Jane Hamsher has been taking a lot of flak in recent days for coming out against the Senate health care reform bill as well as for suggesting that “both the [progressive opponents] and the...
Shrewd Sarah Palin/Gullible Media
I’ve argued before, and I will continue to argue, that there is nothing terribly unique about Sarah Palin as a politician other than the way in which her opponents and the media play right...
The War on Xmas: A Military History
IOZ diagrams how the combined forces of the Protestants and Catholics lost the Battle for Christmas.
A united progressive/tea-party front
I can see where Jane Hamsher’s tea-party/populist left united front thing could seem appealing as a movement against something (the no-good politicians in Congress and their corporate special-interest shenanigans).
Formulating a Reliable Detainee Policy
Will asked me to comment on this op-ed by Jack Goldsmith and Benjamin Wittes pleading with Congress and the President to formulate clear rules regarding detention policy in the War on Terror. Although I...
A few more thoughts on why I support the healthcare bill
David Brooks has several good reasons why people should support the healthcare bill – and in true David Brooks fashion, he also offers some reasons why the bill is not good. Chief among these:...
