The Vagaries of Medicare Reform
A weird article from The New York Times purports to reveal a growing consensus among lawmakers, born from the failed Super Committee, in favor of eliminating Medicare as we know it in favor of...
Monthly Archive: November 2011
From the comments: Doctors and Bankers
Jesse Ewiak writes: If I go to a doctor and he tells me I need this procedure and it turns it out it ruins my life, it’s perfectly reasonable to blame the doctor. Yet,...
A Thanksgiving prayer for an Atheist
Dear Global Economy, we thank thee for thy economies of scale, thy professional specialization, and thy international networks of trade under Ricardo’s Law of Comparative Advantage, without which we would all starve to death...
Thanksgiving long weekend long song jukebox and open thread
This is the time of year when it’s awesome to have a song that takes 10 minutes to give you time to think about all the things you’re thankful for and then list them...
A Song fer Thanksgivin’
I just spent six and a half hours driving — the sun somehow in my face while heading south — with a vacuum cleaner in the trunk, a sick tortoise in the backseat, and...
Everything happens for a reason?
In the comments threads of some of my earlier post, various argument have been forwarded for why Intellectual Property should be treated as a special case under legal and moral theories of private property...
“We Got Sold Out”
Once thought the great liberal hope, captivating progressive audiences everywhere with promises of change, Obama has fallen largely out of favor with his left of center supporters. There are lots of reasons for this,...
Copyright isn’t just for music and movies.
As noted earlier, I am in the midst of a career change. I started my life as a professional photographer mostly creating commissioned works under various licensing agreements and for the last decade have been...
Theocratic Quips Less Scary Than Advertised
I’m enjoying the process of deflagging quotes. Today, I came across an article on Slate describing what are portrayed as theocratic tendencies among Republican Presidential candidates. So without referencing the original Slate article with...
Pray That All Their Pain Be Champagne
Well I do, anyway. The economist Justin Wolfers tweeted an interesting poll result yesterday, from Kaiser (though I’m having trouble finding it at the moment): As far as you are concerned, do we have...
Murali’s Democratic Impossibility Theorem
Ladies and Gentlemen this being the latest in a round of posts on democracy, is going to be long. I also promise that it will be bizarre. I would like to talk about two...
Who Occupies the Occupiers?
I’m glad Mike Drew wrote a guest post. Mike’s comments are consistently the ones I meditate over most (which explains why I rarely respond to them while the thread is still active.), and Mike’s...
Help Wanted
Following on to Ethan’s post from earlier today about the dire job market, and Tod Kelly’s about asking the right hiring questions, I thought I’d let you all know that The Montauk Catamaran Company...
Unsatisfied: Why Liberals Are Never Happy with Democratic Presidents
Jonathan Chait’s debut (I think) long-read for New York Magazine is on liberal discontent with President Obama, something Chait has grappled with, argued against, and endeavored to understand throughout the Obama Presidency — or...
Visualizations
Today’s XKCD puts the infographic magic on Money. Since people are really bad, generally, at wrapping their heads around really big numbers, I recommend.
The short and sweet life of Community
A funny thing happened with Community last week. Someone noticed that NBC hadn’t listed it on its midseason lineup. In its spot was 30 Rock, finally coming back from hiatus. Panic among Community fans...
On Student Debt and Youth Unemployment
Derek Thompson of The Atlantic has written extensively about the current recession. As he notes, young people are having an especially rough time making ground in the workforce right now. Students are graduating “$23,000 in...
To Whom?
Andrew Sullivan has a neat little post that brings up the topic of Intragalactic Ethics. There is a link to a Josh Rothman column that points out: There’s a long pro-terraforming tradition (especially among...
We’re Asking the Wrong Hiring Questions
(photo: Random people of different genders and ethnic backgrounds take time to do board-of-directory things.) Good news! My company has just invited you to have a seat on its Board of Directors. Congratulations!...
Romney’s Going Big in Iowa
One wonders how much the rise of Newtmentum influenced this decision: The answer to one of the great lingering questions about the Republican presidential race has suddenly turned up here along Ingersoll Avenue, where...
