Florida Judge Voids Affordable Care Act
Brian Beutler has the scoop: A federal district court judge in Florida ruled today that a key provision in the new health care law is unconstitutional, and that the entire law must be voided....
Monthly Archive: January 2011
Wealth Transfer
Here’s Atrios: Just because I’m petty and George Bush was very proud of the increase the home ownership rate under his presidency, latest census figures out today have the home ownership rate at 66.5%....
Launch
After the jump, the sculpture ‘oversikt’ by the artist Jone Kvie from the “launch” series at the Kunstnerforbundet Gallery in Norway (try saying that three times fast!):
Egypt Open Thread
What the hello are those damn protesters thinking vindicating the neocons and Bush like this? (I kid, of course.) Also, is the military just holding off, letting chaos do its thing, before swooping in...
Science in Sci-Fi film
John Holbo has a veryy good post up trying to classify the various types of science-fiction films by their approach and attitudes toward science. He lists quite a few – 1) pro-science/pro-rationality 2) anti-science...
Ayn Rand, welfare queen
I have to confess: I’ve never read Ayn Rand. Not once. But I still think this is pretty amusing.
Re-Wiring the Kill Switch
I have no clue about the accuracy of this, and I have no idea how to feel about what’s going on in Egypt (except my usual revulsion at violence), but I see no reason...
Insiders/Outsiders
On the subject of my musings on sports and journalism, here’s a telling excerpt about the media’s treatment of football-related concussions from The New Yorker:
Oh the times! Oh the customs!
Here’s BlaiseP in a post-worthy comment: Traditions aren’t dying out… says the man who just bought a new Online calligraphy pen. Harking back to Sam Smith’s ur-screed, bemoaning the Liberal instinct to concentrate and...
Flogging the Canon
Over at Inside Higher Ed, Stephen Brockmann apologizes for the culture war having politicized the humanities in the 80s: “What on earth were we thinking? Exactly why was it considered progressive in the 1980s to get...
“East End”
After the jump, an oil painting by Toronto artist Ryan Dineen, from a series opening today at the Show and Tell Gallery in Toronto.
“Disunion”
That’s the title of The New York Times’ series on The Civil War, which is highly recommended. Here’s a great entry on Virginia, the (relatively) urbanized and cosmopolitan “North of the South” during the...
Speaking of The Oscars . . .
You can hold the screenwriter of The Fighter responsible for the Air Bud franchise.
The new old ways are the best
I was struck by this line in E.D.’s fine recent post on centralization: I think there is profound tragedy in the loss of tradition, of folkways and local practices. I suppose I do too. However,...
What would an Internet “Kill Switch” Look Like?
Probably nothing. Until it looked like Egypt, at which point it could be too late: For those trying to follow events in Egypt, Wednesday was a chaotic experience. Unlike the close of Tuesday, when...
Another Open Thread
Okay, this one is for people who want to talk about what video games they’re playing right now so that I can enjoy them by proxy. Or any good books people might be reading...
Texas, Welfare Queen
Says Kevin D. Williamson at NRO’s Corner: Texas has no income tax, a part-time legislature, an enviable economic record — and Senate Republicans there have just introduced a budget that limits the level of...
The Bush Revival
Inspired by this incredibly silly post, I thought I’d recommend an old but prescient article from Ross Douthat on the all-but-inevitable recovery of Bush’s foreign policy reputation. It is staggering to think that a...
Obama’s pep talk
From the SOTU: Many people watching tonight can probably remember a time when finding a good job meant showing up at a nearby factory or a business downtown. You didn’t always need a degree,...
What’s your Sputnik moment?
I think I’m too young to have had a real ‘Sputnik moment’, but this post and the subsequent comments are pretty great. Best response so far: “Drake, the rapper, was a year behind me...
