Author: Mark of New Jersey

So, having heard for months that the Republicans really are serious about cutting government spending this time, and that they’d be able to do it without cutting Medicare, Social Security, or defense, even if...

In the comments to James’ post, Rufus writes about the city of my birth to suggest that perceptions on the death of American manufacturing writ large are at least partially the result of regional...

For some reason, I got thinking a little bit about antitrust law this afternoon, a subject on which I’m somewhat conflicted and about which my knowledge is definitely lacking.  What I’m wondering is whether...

“We’ve all met people who invoke Ayn Rand to justify behaving like a sociopath in their personal relationships. I’d still recommend that any adolescent suffering from Catholic guilt read the passages about Hank and...

With all due respect to Rufus’ list, when I think of Christmas at its most heartfelt and warm, there is only one version of one song that has popped into my head for the...

It’s largely becoming cliche to say this, but Ta-Nahesi Coates’ continued blogging on the Civil War justifies the existence of the blogosphere.  Today, seeking to reinforce his long-held argument that the aspects and persons...

[UPDATE: Two commenters take issue with my characterization and interpretation of this quote, suggesting that it should be interpreted as “freed from the speaker’s ceremonial duties and from the speaker’s duties in crafting a...

We haven’t done one of these in awhile. Patrick at Popehat takes a look at the latest frivolous-in-a-reasonable-world anti-McDonald’s lawsuit (a claim of emotional distress because the plaintiff’s daughter too-often asks her mother to...

In the Eugene Volokh post the other day which Jason so strongly criticized, Volokh approvingly quoted the following language from Jonathan Rauch: It would be a false comfort… to suppose that the gays-as-oppressors narrative...

I’m not in the mood to write about today’s Big Story right now (a federal District Judge ruled the individual mandate portion of the health care reform bill unconstitutional for those of you living...

Not that the expectations were high, but it’s been a pretty miserable season (to say nothing of the decade) for Bills fans.  But knowing that it’s likely that a truly magnificent hit by our...

I suppose I’ve been noticeable by my general absence on the Wikileaks brouhaha over the last week.  Much of that has had to do with real life priorities, but some of it has simply...

In response to some of the comments to his post on politics and economics yesterday as I briefly excerpted here, FLG has put together a detailed follow-up that makes some important clarifications.  I suspect...

I’ve been meaning to do a post on FLG’s liberal/conservative time horizons theory for awhile, but haven’t gotten around to it.  In the meantime, partly inspired by Jonathan’s post yesterday on the yuan, FLG...

I’ve been struggling to formulate a decent post in the broad arena covered by Ned this morning – ie, understanding apparent dishonesty and cognitive dissonance in others – for a couple of days, but...