So you won’t have to read the article (by Roger Simon for Politico), Mitt did not beat an Iowa citizen’s face into mummy with his flint-like hooves. Too bad!
Skipping Friday, pretty much
It’s Saturday in Samoa. The country, which pretended it was east* of the International Date Line to appease pushy Americans finds that its economy is now more Asian than American, and decided to skip Friday entirely this year to get in sync with the people who make the Pacific happen these days. The NYT has…
Ron Paul: I’m not a bigot, I just pretended to be one to manipulate the masses and cash in on their stupidity
No, that’s not Ron talking, but, from all accounts, if he bothered to tell the truth about the Ron Paul Freedom Report, that’s what he’d say. I refer you to knowledgeable libertarian blogging heads like Shikha Dalmia, Steve Horwitz, and David Wiegel. Dalmia summarizes Horwitz as follows: “Horwitz recounts chapter and verse demonstrating that comments…
Harvard Hush-Up: A little veritas goes a long way
Over at the Nation, Charles Gross has a fascinating article on disgraced Harvard professor Marc Hauser, who was found guilty of “eight counts of scientific misconduct” by a “secret investigating committee” at Harvard and who resigned from Harvard earlier this year. Gross is a a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Princeton University and does…
Dude, he’s always been your grandmother!
Young Russian kid plays “Dizzy Atmosphere”
Not bad at all, but I didn’t really get the introductory riffs. The old guy with the violin, who plays near the end, sounds like a reincarnation of Slam Stewart.* Posted by “kzorty”. (This seems to be his only offering.) *Not a compliment, though Slam turns up on some of the earliest bop recordings, with…
SNTNY!
If you can’t handle intense, one-of-a-kind humor, go here. “Yes, we are having guests for dinner. But you won’t be dining with us.” “You’re the ones who should be worried. I hear that, these days, they’re all gay.” “If you won’t help me find Flossie, I know people who will. Cat people, just like me.”…
Another blemish
I’m still working my way through David* MacCullough’s quasi-magisterial Christianity, the First Three Thousand Years, and I’ve gotten to the Black Death, not a good time to be alive in Europe. Christians responded to the horrors of the bubonic plague first by beating themselves (which McCullough calls the “flagellant movement,” generally more appropriate for paramecia…
The passion, and the stupidity, of Ryan Avent
Are you ready for some bullshit? Over at the Economist, Ryan Avent feels that the Apocalypse is well upon us: The coastal, urban corridor along which I live now is horribly changed from its condition a century ago. Those of us who live along it spend the vast majority of our time indoors and only…
Fred Kaplan, getting scared again
Unlike the rest of us, Fred Kaplan—Cap’n Fred, as we like to call him—is always on the alert for new dangers. Fred’s latest worry? North Korea! As Fred accurately (for once) notes, we know practically nothing about the new leader, Kim Jong-un, although “meet the new boss, just like the old boss,” wouldn’t be a…