Legal humor here. “He says that five pounds of a decent Roquefort will make him go away.” “I can’t find a cab that will go to Rat Town at this time of night.” “You’d better make him a hot toddy while I talk to Helen. This is going to take a while.” “I’m getting nowhere with…
Hatin’ on Keynes
Niall Ferguson’s “Johnnie was a homo” assault on the economics of John Maynard Keynes, which, as Jonah Goldberg helpfully points out, has been made many times before (so there’s nothing wrong with it, I guess), suggests just how much the neo-con right hates Keynes, hates him for being right. Keynes’ monumental crime was not buggery…
Karl Marx: Yes, I am a Nazi. Why do you ask?
Karl Marx on Ferdinand Lassalle, a German revolutionary who, like Marx himself, was a spiritual child of the failed Revolution of 1848: It is now completely clear to me, that, as proven by the shape of his head and the growth of his hair, he [Lassalle] stems from the Negroes who joined the march of…
Mea Culpa, I guess
In the past I’ve cast a semi-skeptical eye on Republican howls re Benghazi. I’ve never felt the Obama Administration has come clean on the matter, but I’ve also thought that the Republicans’ particular obsession, most notably Susan Rice’s talk show testimony on the matter, was thoroughly partisan and devoid of substance. Well, thanks to some…
Joe Lovano— “Ask Me Now and “Think of One”
Joe Lovano, sax, Danilo Pérez, piano, Richard Bona, bass, and Jack DeJohnette, drums. Posted by a7dana7
Three Bullets
Another post pushing Three Bullets, three FREE Nero Wolfe novellas, written by myself and whipped into shape by the remarkable labors of Alex Avenarius, who not only edited Three Bullets, but put them in coherent electronic form for the web, for downloading for Kindle, and for iPad/iPhone/Android. In addition, another individual, “rogue ronin,” contributed the…
Pseudo-New Yorker
Legal humor here. “This is not being discreet, big boy. This is being on a budget, and I am resenting the hell out of it.” “Yes, the voice of the Delaware River Estuary and Environs Environmental Awareness Council is small, but we do intend to be heard, at whatever cost.” “Well, if we’re not allowed…
New at Bright Lights
I have a tri-parte review up at Bright Lights, “Heavy TV,” trying to shed some light on the multiple phenomena of Breaking Bad, Girls, and Mad Men. The issue itself, NSFW as always, here. A list of my reviews of all of Fred Astaire’s dancing films is here. A list of my reviews of all…
The Education of Fred Kaplan
You’ve got to hand it to Fred: he’s not turning his back on Afghanistan, no matter how crappy it gets. Long ago, I used to ridicule Fred for his Pollyanna reports on our cool weaponry, including a 15-ton “Guided Multiple-Launch Rocket System” that, Fred insisted, people called the “70-kilometer sniper round,” which, coupled with our…
Data Manipulation 101: Matt Yglesias Edition
I agree with Matt Yglesias about 60% of the time, which, for me, is pretty high. But Matt, like so many liberals, is particularly hot on the issue of global warming, which is one place where we part company. In a recent post, “Natural Resource Scarcity Is a Real Thing,” Matt posts the following graph…