Monthly Archive: December 2011

The war on drugs, I admit, is worrisome. The surveillance of American citizens without a warrant is troubling. Holding people not charged with any crime for an undetermined period of time is deeply disturbing....

From the same Reihan Salam post I quoted from in an earlier post: Recently, for example, I had an exchange with several friends on Twitter (which comes up a lot) over whether or not Harvard graduates...

Though I’m somewhat more moved by the loss of Paula Hyman, an historian with a different, but no less real type of bravery, and wonder whether we shouldn’t already be moving on to the...

“Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to eat for lunch.” Although Ben Franklin didn’t actually say that [it dates back only to the 1990s], it’s already a familiar American truism....

In Jason’s recent post on Waste and Abuse, Density Duck writes: Ask your husband to explain how SpaceX can build a rocket for half as much as NASA.  Then get back to me on how...

If you haven’t read Tod’s rumination on what Christopher Hitchens meant to him and how he will be remembered, I recommend you do so now. As is always the case with Tod’s front-page work,...

Today is the first day of Saturnalia. I nominate Jaybird to serve as our Lord of Misrule. Eat, drink, and be merry, fellow Ordinaries! Gamble in public, sing naked, and clap your hands in...

On Thursday we got our plywood, and yesterday we got our second delivery of dimensional lumber. That means the boat is in the barn — plywood, epoxy, lumber, glass — now it’s simply a...

I thought I’d share with you my Christmas present to myself.

I am in the men’s room of a trendy bar in Belgrade Serbia. In my ear I can hear the voice of the bartender. “Oooh Daaybid!” he is saying, his timbre conveys concern. On...

Both Idaho senators voted against the NDAA. We could chalk it up to partisanship (“They’d totally have signed on if McCain were president”) and maybe there’s something to that. It’s notable, however, that as...

I see that Elias has jumped on the study making the rounds that the net worth of America’s wealthiest family, the Walton’s, is greater than the combined net worth of the bottom 30% of...

As everyone everywhere knows by now Christopher Hitchens passed away last night, finally succumbing to the oesophageal cancer he has been battling with this past year. I have known this press release would be coming...

By this point you’ve probably already heard the most popular, latest eye-catching bit of agitprop trivia on economic inequality in America. In case you haven’t I’ll share what I think (could be wrong) was...

Joining what I hope will be a chorus of obituaries today: What’s important in life? Good Scotch, friends, laughter, and speaking your mind forcefully and gracefully. Requiescat in pace, Christopher Hitchens.

My goodness, the news on the radio this morning was grim.  Everything was Newt Gingrich this, Jerry Sandusky that, constant reminders that our economy is in the crapper, with wee reminders of how David...