It’s not a war, and I am not a warrior.
Andrew Sullivan, in 2006, failing to give credit where credit is due: First, they came for the homos, then the near-dead, then the pregnant women. But you know who their ultimate target will...
Monthly Archive: April 2012
Gaming the Police
The UC-Davis pepper spray incident has come back into the news lately. Far be it from me to ignore. Back in November I left this comment on a post here at The League. I think it...
Jurisprudence blogging 2: Hart
In my previous post in this series, I gave a rough outline of Austin’s views and a number of criticism levelled against it. Now, I’ll reveal my hand: All those criticisms were levelled by...
“Girls be making HBO shows, am I right?”
This gives a brief (if overly patronizing and insensitive) summary of what bothered me about HBO’s new show: Girls. I didn’t know much about it going in, other than I was pretty excited. Anyone...
Why is that UC Davis Cop Still on the Job?
Radley Balko explains. The short answer? Public sector unions. Occupiers, be careful what you wish for.
The Medicine Show Man: A remembrance of Levon Helm.
Levon Helm was a musician’s musician. Raised near Helena, Arkansas, home of the King Biscuit Time, the longest-running radio show, he was raised in the very heart of what would become rock and roll....
Obama: Man Bites Dog
Mitt Romney’s a vanilla fella. There isn’t much earthshaking to say about him for good or ill; it’s his virtue, it’s his flaw. Democrats have been keeping their powder mostly dry about a rather...
It’s The Base, Stupid
Mark Kleiman thinks the recently announced decision by Gov. Romney to give the commencement address at Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University is a mistake: [Romney] needs to convince moderate swing voters that he’s not in...
On Faith After the Holocaust
(I promised myself I would attempt to respond to this article on Yom HaShoah. The latter fell sooner than I thought, and no complete response, I suspect, is possible. So with my caveat aside…)...
Tax Credits and Subsidies
My former colleague Will Wilkinson offers some insightful comments on our intuitions regarding taxes, subsidies, and fiscal policy. To wit: I think the assumption on the right is that first we work to make...
Intellectual Art, Popular Media, and Getting Away from Aesthetic Subjectivity
In the May 2012 issue of the Atlantic, writer Taylor Clark has an excellent profile of videogame developer Jonathan Blow. He’s misanthropic, severely thoughtful, and somewhat abrasive. But he’s also a brilliant creator and a near...
Back to the Salt Mines
The Infamous Brad distills the independent report of the UC Davis pepper-spray affair.
Barack Obama And The Supertanker Of State
In response to my recent post on what I called Obama 2012’s rather limited ambitions, valued reader CK MacLeod wrote the following. My emphasis: …look at “the Reagan Era” from the perspective of a...
You’re so vain, you probably think this post is about you.
From a note that I sent to Alan Jacobs, a few days after Steve Jobs died: My cousin was a reader at Paramount. This was back before FinalCutPro and Sony PD150. This was...
Depicting Christians
Over at the Atlantic, Eleanor Barkhorn complains that the closeted young Christian characters of Blue Like Jazz depict rather than shatter stereotypes about evangelical Christians in the movies. For her, the promise of the movie...
Under the banner of Romney
At some point, the question of Mitt Romney’s faith will come up and loom much larger than any of his business past. It will come up not just in circles of evangelical conservatives, but...
Troubleshooting Inequality
In the past quarter-year or so, the economic news for the United States has been unpredictable. The end of 2011 and the very beginning of 2012 brought reports of sustained if not extraordinary growth,...
At James B Franks’ Request, a MON TIKI Update!
January 1, 2012: If there’s a phrase from this passage that feels like it hits a little too close to home, it’s “schemer and narcissist”. It’s an occupational hazard for anyone trying to...
Winnowing The Long List
About three weeks ago, we came up with twelve names for the “long list” for choices for Mitt Romney’s running mate, finding thirteen names which each had at least something reasonable going for them....
