Monthly Archive: August 2011

A Ghastly Price For Success: Krokodil

The war in Afghanistan (remember that one?) clearly is resulting in, at long last, a decrease in the opium poppy trade, and the concomitant decrease in the global supply of recreational heroin. Apparently, heroin...

Poking My Head Up From Behind the Box-Fort

I know that this is not a problem limited to Commentary, or to today’s right-of-center magazines, but since Commentary is the establishment-conservative publication I read most regularly, it gets the blame.  The best part about writing this...

Poor people don’t call the shots

There’s an interesting back-and-forth going on between Charles Davis and Radley Balko (with E.D. also offering a few cents of his own) over whether or not it’s a wise idea to link income tax...

Open Thread: The Banks

Burt Likko notices that JP Morgan may be on the verge of buying up Bank of America – with lots of government help. Too big to fail gets even more entrenched. I think we...

The Catholic Church

The Flaws and Shortcomings of Ron Paul

Matt Yglesias on Ron Paul: After looking at his positions and statements, the most remarkable thing is that if it weren’t for his loud fanbase of self-proclaimed libertarians you wouldn’t really think this is...

Brienne of Tarth

League commenter Marianne is interested in Brienne of Tarth: Well…. for one thing I think a woman knight idolizing Renly that way is an interesting take on the conventions of chivalry and courtly love....

Taxation and Skin

I’ve been pondering Erik’s and Elias’s posts on taxation and spending, and I think both of them touched on an important point about fiscal responsibility. Erik’s point (following on from Radley Balko’s article) about...

Zack Beauchamp Digs Himself a Deeper Hole

This is a bizarre sort of rhetorical question: Will everyone who said that liberal interventionists “lost all credibility” after the Iraq War, and hence should never be listened to again, renounce their own credibility...

Skin in the game

Radley Balko wrote a post recently offering up some policy ideas basically geared toward getting as many peoples’ skin in the tax-and-spend game as possible. Other than payroll taxes, most people on the bottom...

Von Hoffman Awards

I had a little fun with this post by Zack Beauchamp championing the US as global police chief. Zack had a couple other posts yesterday – Von Hoffman awards – dished out to Matt...

Record Store Day

As someone who spends, and has always spent, a great deal of time in record stores, I have not been able to avoid hearing about the fast approaching “death of the record store” after...

Anarchy and Liberalism

Commenter Peter Munchen asks: Oh trying or anarchy now, eh ED? What, your flirtation with liberalism hasn’t worked out? Worked out ok to get you  a gig at Forbes after all. I’ve been fascinated...

Bloody Madness

Updated below. Over at The Dish, Zack Beauchamp writes: It’s better to think of the U.S. as the global police chief rather than sole policeman. We may be the strongest of our allies, but...

Big Beer

Mike Konczal points out that the market share for the big beer producers has actually grown since deregulation, with craft brews making up only about 4% of total market share, and the top four...

What John Cole Said

John asks if the fall of Gaddafi means he should change his initial opposition to the war: Does that change my opinion about the ludicrous notion that providing air cover, using smart bombs and...

Tripoli and the hawks

I’m concerned that any perceived “success” in Libya (i.e. the fall of Gaddafi as rebels even now storm the city, arrest his sons, and topple the regime – though this was never the stated goal of the mission)...

A Lost Opportunity In San Juan Capistrano

The government, and people acting on behalf of the government, may not endorse religion, and may not favor religion over non-religion. By the same token, they may not endorse atheism nor favor non-religion over...