And now for something completely different
‘Shampoo’ by Elvis Perkins It’s not exactly Bach or whatever, but damn I love the music being made these days…
Monthly Archive: August 2011
Our monument won’t be a hole in the ground
Conor Friedersdorf posts this video of radical conservative Bryan Fischer: Conor writes: In the clip above, Bryan Fisher of the American Family Association reminds us that until very recently, many U.S. jurisdictions imposed unconscionable...
Climate Change is Real, and it’s Heating Up
Despite what many GOP contenders for the 2012 presidential nomination say, the Earth really is heating up, and the costs of global warming may be drastically higher than previous estimates suggested. Meanwhile, investigators in...
The economic hurdles of a left-libertarian alliance
~by Shawn Gude We’re in rather unpropitious times for left-libertarian bridge-building. I don’t take glee in making this assertion; I’m more crestfallen than content. Indeed, I’ve spilled a fair amount of ink arguing that...
What’s Really Wrong with ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’
~by Ryan B. Lots of spoilers for the whole series, up to and including A Dance with Dragons. Reader beware. Now that we’re past our contretemps of the last few days, maybe it’s time...
Misguided Attack on Libertarians (Prompts Some Reasonable Discussion)
This time it’s Michael Lind, and the charge is that libertarians are really just fascists in disguise. He stumbles out of the gate claiming that none other than Ludwig von Mises was a fascist...
David Brooks, Expertise, and the Fetishization of Happiness
People have been giving attention to David Brooks’ latest column. This is good, because I have a soft spot for the incorporation of Yiddish into daily life, particularly the word “bagel,” and especially on...
Unions and Corporations
So I support unions, even government unions, because in the system we have there is no reason not to support unions. We accept all sorts of economic distortions. Corporations are legal entities, sanctioned by...
Glenn Greenwald, Michael Tomasky, and why punditry is an amnesiac’s game
Glenn Greenwald’s at it again, needling liberal pundits for their, shall we say, dexterity in defending the Obama Administration. A little less than a week ago, it was Michael Tomasky, with his Daily Beast...
Liberalism, Centrism, and Libertarianism
Since I have been called a “fake liberal” recently, I thought I’d delve into the subject once again. I am a liberal mainly because the rather short arc of liberalism traces pretty well alongside...
Fantasy Utopias
This old Sady Doyle post at The Awl helps me understand better where I think she’s coming from in regards to Martin’s work. After pointing out the many flaws with female-oriented fantasy, she writes:...
Plotinus and Evil
How does evil get into the world? Where does it come from? Why is it here? For religions that attribute a fallen nature to man, this isn’t such a problem; after all, it was...
Lucky Number Seven
From Michael Shermer’s new book The Believing Brain: During the run-up to the 2004 presidential election, while undergoing a brain scan, thirty men — half self-described “strong” Republicans and half “strong” Democrats — were...
A bit more about racism and Daily Kos
Just to keep everyone in the loop on the latest controversy surrounding yours truly, I have a much longer post up on the Daily Kos accusations of racism, including side by side screen shots...
As if being anti-woman isn’t enough…
…I am also, apparently, a terrible racist. Lessons in reading comprehension 101 notwithstanding. (P.S. in case any of this is lost in translation I am neither anti-woman or racist.)
The Polis in Post-Modernity III: Constitutions Written and Oral, Living and Dead
(Note: This post began as a comment to Tim’s post this morning, grew into a full-fledged response, then developed into a sort of continuation of this series. But elements of all three are mingled....
The joys of blogging
I am Professor Feminism. Hear me roar. (Seriously, I feel like a goddamned super villain. How’s them apples?)
Alyssa Rosenberg on ‘A Game of Thrones’ and that Sady Doyle piece
Alyssa has the best response up yet to Sady Doyle’s critique of George R. R. Martin. I realize that we’ve done this to death over the past few days, but I do highly recommend...
What’s the big idea?
Neal Gabler has a piece just brimming over with nostalgia in the New York Times. Here’s his takeaway: Ideas just aren’t what they used to be. Once upon a time, they could ignite fires...
