Monthly Archive: December 2009

Holiday Movie Recommendation

Our end-of-year movie podcast featured plenty of spirited argument, but one point of unanimous agreement was the excellence of “The Hurt Locker,” which manages to do justice to the Iraq War without lapsing into...

No Condescending Voyeurism Here!

Seriously, read The New York Times on Jersey Shore. Do you think the paper’s audience is on the verge of imitating the show’s participants? Or are they tuning in for cheap mockery?

Why I’m supporting the Senate HCR bill

The Senate bill isn’t perfect.  It builds upon many things in our system that we’d do better simply doing away with.  It isn’t as fiscally sound as many would like, and I’m not at...

Podcast: Holiday Movie Edition

Blogging is going to be pretty slow around these parts for the next few days, but before everyone disconnects for Christmas, we’ve got a year-in-review movie podcast for your enjoyment. I’m joined by Freddie...

More on ressentiment.

E.D. mentioned Julian Sanchez’s “ressentiment” rant from Coldcocked the other day. Don’t miss Julian fleshing out his thesis.

A Constitutionality Argument With Teeth?

Richard Epstein, a far greater legal mind than I, takes a dramatically different approach to the issue of whether the proposed Senate health care reform bill is constitutional.  Rather than focusing on the interstate...

Soundtracks

The Polian Connection

After a decade of success relying on Peyton Manning, Marvin Harrison, and for awhile Tony Dungy, the Indianapolis Colts are sitting undefeated through 14 games.  Manning is still there, but Dungy and Harrison are...

Smack!

Mark Kleiman smacks Jane Hamsher over the head and then does a little dance.  You should read it.

Fanfarlo

I hadn’t heard these guys before now but I like this NPR Tiny Desk concert:

Blame the (Senatorial) System, Man

I don’t always (often?) agree with Paul Krugman, but his column today hits the hammer on the head.  Instead of progressives railing against Obama and his failure to get the public option in the...

Community as safety-net

One of the most common arguments against my call for better, more effective state-provided safety nets is that these safety nets somehow replace those provided by families and close-knit communities.  Apparently if people are...

The Top Ten Covers of All Time

A  blizzard-induced Internet outage and various snow-related activities forced the cover selection committee (read: me) to delay its final decision over the weekend. Now, however, we’re back on track. Thanks to everyone for their...

Matchmaker, Matchmaker…

So, I don’t have the time or the philosophical chops to comment on the (to me, at least) fascinating exchange between William B. (also here) and Jason Kuznicki.  But, I wanted to point our readers...

neo-liberal-tarian-ism

Okay – so for our neoliberal and liberaltarian readers and contributors – I’d be curious to know what you think the distinction between these two political positions might be?  Is there a substantive difference...

Question for readers: financial regulation edition

Yglesias has a post today arguing basically that financial regulation is where liberals and Democrats should be uncompromising.  And while that’s not exactly what the post amounts to – since it essentially admits to...

A little more on the principle of rectification.

Jason Kuznicki responds to my Nozick review, arguing that people who think some large-scale rectification of previous injustices is required before we can do anything practical about making government minimal are wrong. I don’t...