Author: Freddie

I was thinking about the loss of my home state’s only major league sports team, the Whalers, and it occurred to me how odd it is when people talk about a team’s fanbase or...

Julian Sanchez, a libertarian, recently wrote a smart post about “weak manning,” a fallacious kind of reasoning where one responds only to the weakest argument of one’s opponent. There’s a worse fallacy, I think....

Conor flagged a piece in the Times by Walter Kirn, author of Lost in the Meritocracy: The Undereducation of an Overachiever that needs some attending to. I haven’t read Kirn’s book yet, so I...

In his latest column, Ross Douthat repeats an old canard from the campaign trail: That last statistic is a crucial one. Palin’s popularity has as much to do with class as it does with...

Leda and the Swan by William Butler Yeats A SUDDEN blow: the great wings beating still Above the staggering girl, her thighs caressed By the dark webs, her nape caught in his bill, He...

that this Sarah Palin resignation was made under duress, because of some very negative information that’ll come out sooner or later. Some sort of a lie, or scandal. Time will tell.

I’m really intrigued by and happy about this Infinite Jest project, and A Supposedly Fun Blog, a group blog for people who are reading IJ this summer and reacting to it in print. It’s...

the imagined genesis of an article *ring*ring*ring* “Hello, this is Troy Patterson.” “TP! David Plotz here!” “David! What’s up.” “Ah, not much. Little down lately. I think I’ve finally wrung every last ounce I...

Ever write something in haste and quickly regret it? Yeah. Mistakes were made, the least of which misidentifying Seth Grodin and misspelling Chris Andersen. Good thing I don’t do this for a living.

There are many tics of contemporary debate that bother me, but none more so than the enforcement of optimism. To participate in our webby conversation is to be buffeted, over and over again, with...

Malcolm Gladwell can be very frustrating to read when he isn’t on his game, but I think people sometimes lose track of how fantastic he can be when he’s on. (Particularly when he agrees...

In light of the decision by the Supreme Court in the now-famous New Haven firefighters case– or, rather, the decision by our country’s ruling philosopher king, Anthony Kennedy– I think we need to pause...

Kentucky River Junction by Wendell Berry to Ken Kesey & Ken Babbs Clumsy at first, fitting together the years we have been apart, and the ways. But as the night passed and the day...

If you read my post from earlier today, please read this one by Reihan over at the Scene, where he (with characteristic good humor) responds to some criticism from Matt Frost, Daniel Larison and...

Digsby, the IM client I use, has added a Twitter feed, so I’ve created a dummy Twitter account just so I can follow people. But I’ve tried to follow people– clicked the follow button,...

Erik pronounces Reihan’s latest column a disappointment. I’m not sure why. Oh, the column is very wrong-headed, but it isn’t disappointing, because disappointment suggests that you’d be expecting something different. I don’t know how...

This story is making the rounds. I think it has a lot of troubling race-baiting going on in it. Check it out. Now, setting aside the fact that there is almost nothing more annoying...

…the stones Who, though they cannot answer my distress, Yet in some sort they are better than the tribunes, For that they will not intercept my tale: When I do weep, they humbly at...

read and consider James’s response to my earlier post.