Drew Westen: “What Happened to Obama?”
I’ve always been a big fan of Dr. Drew Westen’s work — in fact, it baffles me that his fundamental message, to tell a story, and tell it with emotion, is news enough to...
Monthly Archive: August 2011
The king doesn’t know what his hand is doing
As I make my way through rereading the A Song of Ice and Fire books it’s becoming increasingly clear that the role of the King’s Hand is not what it was intended to be....
Against Perrymania
The tide has been rising steadily for weeks if not months now, but with this latest love note from MSNBC, it seems that we’re about to hit the zenith of hype for Perry 2012:...
Friday Jukebox
I haven’t done one of these in a while and this one is certainly not a new recording by any means (Domino Records, 1960 and available on the “Domino Records Story” CD). I’m a...
Fine Art for Dorks
See more like this one, here. The Dark Crystal was a seriously freaky movie. They should remake it. Consider this an open thread.
We are all neoliberals now
Karl Smith on the conservative movement: The thing to remember is this outpouring of insanity is not the result of a conservative movement that is losing. It is the case that the long run...
Nostalgia and film
As a brief follow up to my post on upper-middle-class families in modern television and film, I’d like to respond to this comment by Sam MacDonald: Yes. If we could only go back to...
Google+ is better for the web than Facebook
I’ve always been a bit of a outsider. I’m partially naturally inclined that way and partially fond of being interested in things that a minority is, which is why I’ve been questioning whether I...
Normalizing the Upper-Middle-Class in Movies and Television
Alyssa Rosenberg worries that the introduction of characters like Ashton Kutcher’s Walden Schmidt – the replacement for Charlie Sheen’s character on Two and a Half Men – could ‘normalize’ the very wealthy: The thing...
Is Our Democrats Learning? Or: Fighting Fire with Fire / Burning Down the House
~by Ryan B Somewhat lost amidst the debt ceiling kerfluffle, the Federal Aviation Administration is about to end its second week of a partial shutdown, a shutdown that appears almost certain to extend into...
“Yuck” a Duck
~by RTod On Wednesday Erik posted a picture of two (presumably) married costumed lesbians, kissing while holding a sign saying Liberty, a sign saying Justice, and a child that is either from the Village...
Meanwhile, at Forbes
I pitch the creators of NBC’s “Parks and Recreation” on what I think is a pretty damn good idea for an episode in Season 4. This would be the subject matter for the episode....
Charity, Religion, Immigration, and Federalism
The state of Alabama has enacted a new law which would restrict the flow of various benefits to people not legally present in the country. You can read the entire text of the new...
The wheel of fantasy
Riffing off of my Atlantic piece, fantasy author R. Scott Bakker writes: According to common wisdom, genre fiction is culturally cyclical: It ebbs and flows in popularity as time alternately burns out various tropes...
Picture of the day
People use these words to justify a lot of things. Oftentimes, I think they’re misused, or warped in a fundamental, definitional way to mean exactly the opposite of what they actually mean. At a...
Bedtime Story
~by RTod Once upon a time, there was a Kingdom where the people were troubled. The kings and nobles that ruled them were vane, corrupt and cared little for those they were charged with protecting. While...
Eddard Stark’s Ethics of Honor
~by Kyle Cupp “Have you no shred of honor?” Ned Stark asks this question to the ever-plotting Lord Petyr Baelish toward the end of A Game of Thrones. The question exposes the Lord of...
My first piece in ‘The Atlantic’
Hey everyone…big shameless self-promotion for yours truly. I’ve published my first-ever piece in The Atlantic. It’s about fantasy literature and film. I ask whether we’re in a ‘fantasy bubble’. Take a gander, if you’re...
Rawlsekianism Reloaded Part IIb: The Principles of Justice
~ by Murali [This is an ongoing series by guest author, Murali. Read Part I here. Read Part IIa here.] After a long hiatus where I was working on some other stuff, I am...
Market liberals
Matt Yglesias makes tons of sense with his latest foray into an ongoing debate between him and John Quiggin and others. I think Matt operates in that awkward position of being not-progressive-enough for much...
