Monthly Archive: October 2012

A Word About Eric Hobsbawm…

Age of Revolution, Age of Capital and Age of Empire are three of the greatest books ever written about the 19th century. I think Brad DeLong has it right when he says: Even though he was...

Violenceacrez, Reddit and Abuse of Power

[Updated: It appears that I misread David’s post – and the responses of some of his commenters.  My bad.  Huge apologies to all involved, especially David.]   I’m just going to fess up right...

Governor Romney’s Mediscam

Daniel Hatcher, a professor of law at the University of Baltimore, recently authored an op-ed for the Boston Globe on how Romney, as governor, was a deft practitioner of what’s been called “Mediscam.” The practice,...

Undecided No More!

This was a fun quiz.  I particularly liked that it offered a variety of responses, including the ability to input your own.  It seems to give a far more nuanced portrayal and includes folks...

Treme, Season 3, Episode 4, “The Greatest Love”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iQeWTP3L6c Sitting on the couch after last night’s episode ended, a friend said, “What made that episode so good?” We sat and thought about it, and then realized the answer was obvious: Sonny was...

Failing Out of Love with Hate, Part 1

From the prologue: There are a handful of pundits whom I avoid reading. I avoid reading them because I find them so reliably infuriating that I end up saying regrettable things; or at the...

FDR On The Modern Republican Party

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook The whole segment with Stewart is great, but the clip of FDR is prime,...

Politics and Empathy

Tom Bissell is one of my favorite writers. In his recent career he’s written a lot about video games, but for the election Yahoo! News has given him some space to pontificate about politics.

The Real Generation War

…Is the one proposed by Ryan and Romney. Not, as David Brooks’ pop psychology analysis would have us believe, one between folksy emotionalism and new wave wonks. I would normally try not to waste...

Paul Ryan Was Right (I’m Serious)

As much as I’d love to revel in Ryan’s tax-evasion during last night’s Vice Presidential Debate, I have to—oh it hurts!—agree with him. I’ve written in the past about why exactly I loathe Paul...

Health Care Is Not About Numbers

Romney made news today, at least in the left-of-center blogosphere, with the claim that, “[N]o one in this country dies because they don’t have health insurance” (an assertion I’d argue the former Governor of...

On Liberal Media Bias

A few years ago, there was a mini-uproar about a supposedly “racist” computer webcam that failed to detect the faces of black folks and others with darker skin tones.  As the video below demonstrates,...