The Quadrennial Conundrum
Last week, I did the dirty deed. I voted for Barack Obama. Begrudgingly wouldn’t begin to describe the manner in which I exercised the franchise. A recent Iowa transplant, I’d received my absentee ballot...
Monthly Archive: November 2012
Nate Silver Himself Is the Entity to Be Analyzed
I love Nate Silver. I love his steady analysis of staggering reams of data. I love his measured treatment of complicated electoral possibilities. I love that he talks in terms of probabilities instead of...
Why has Conservatism inexplicably become our generation’s Hollywood Squares?
“On Monday morning, Romney’s local team in Dayton was eagerly preparing to host the candidate the following day. A high school gym had been reserved, a stage had been rented, and a pair of...
Reserved Buoyancy, Down-Flooding, and Living Off the Grid
In my introductory post I promised I would be writing about my Grand Unifying Theory of Slack, but so far have only hinted at my notions around its importance. I wrote the below last...
Jacques Barzun: the Cheerful Pessimist
With the death of Jacques Barzun passes away a paragon of human intellect and a great friend of America. His oft-quoted line “Whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America had better...
Everybody does this when they get a webcam
Or so it is that I am saying to myself. (Youtube video behind the cut.)
Angry for Paradise
“This is the kind of thing New Jerseyans are built for – we’re plenty tough and now we have a little more reason to be angry after this. Just what we need in New...
Friday Afternoon Jukebox: Amiga!
For you youngsters, this will be a look at computer graphics from an antiquated era. Sort of an “awww, cute, old computer graphics!” But in the mid-90’s? On a personal desktop? This stuff was...
Trade Sequence Part 1 – Introductions and Definitions
So, I thought it might be interesting to do a post on trade theory, to give an economist’s perspective on international trade. Yesterday I realised I’d hit 4 pages and I wasn’t even finished yet. Since...
Four More Years, With Head Held High
Four years ago, between the summer of 2008 and the spring of 2009, about 30% of my clients went out of business. Most of these clients were directly or indirectly related to the commercial...
An Emerging Staten Island Narrative
Staten Island is getting upset. Staten Island is a borough that has an uneasy relationship with the rest of New York City’s boroughs under the best of circumstances. It has felt treated like a...
Mystery on the Bounty
From the Star Tribune: The tall ship began to die early Monday morning in the hurricane-ravaged waters off the North Carolina coast. One of the HMS Bounty’s generators failed. Water flooded everywhere. The 180-foot-long,...
Falling out of Love with Hate, Part 3: Mending Fences
(Preamble, Part 1, Part 2) Well now, quite a bit of excitement here in Montauk recently; a near fist-fight, a boat launched and christened, a terrible storm with loss of life; all in one...
About Facebook’s new Promoted Posts for for Businesses
I detect rising butthurt on the twitters and internets over Facebook’s heavy-handed attempts to monetize the various plots that Facebooks share-croppers have worked hard to clear, plant, cultivate. I think this means I’m a...
Happy All Saints Day!
I know I post this every year but the poem is *JUST THAT GOOD*. Here is Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.’s “The Deacon’s Masterpiece”.
If you happen to live in Maine (or Washington, Maryland or Minnesota)
A little over a week ago, we went to visit the Better Half’s family. It was one of our niece’s birthday, and all of the various cousins were assembled. As is his wont, the...
Voting on a Prayer
Dave Weigel boldly travels into a realm I’d dare not go — the minds of those newspaper editorial boards that endorsed Obama in 2008 but went for Romney in 2012. It’s a land of magical...
