Way back in the day, in 1997, to be precise, the New Yorker ran an article by James Traub on the University of Phoenix, not too kindly entitled “Drive-Thru U.: Higher Education for People Who Mean Business (The Next University).” Well, what a difference a decade (and a half) makes. Earlier this year, Harold Ross’…
Literature R Us Retitled
I’m thinking, “Journal of the Plague Year” might be apropos. Jacob Weisberg dissects the slow-motion tragedy of our times here. These days, the Republican Party can be divided into three groups: those who want to destroy the American economy in order to destroy President Obama (see Cantor, Eric); those who want to destroy President Obama…
“Why isn’t he on ‘The View?’”
That’s what Jon “Pretty Boy” Huntsman’s wife has been asking Big Jon’s campaign staff, according to this long, long article in Politico, which probably just destroyed what’s left of Huntsman’s campaign. Newt Gingrich must be thrilled to know that there’s someone out there more dysfunctional than he is, while Mitt Romney, if he doesn’t die…
Economic disaster, followed by wine
Felix Salmon, back in my good graces, has a nice August wrap-up, leading off with Larry Summers’ persuasive take on the debt ceiling disaster—worst deal evah!—and segueing naturally to the price of Bordeaux. Are those crafty chateaux manipulating prices? How French of them! The kicker, according to Felix, is that you can’t short Bordeaux. Better…
Ragin’ heathens, north and south
Michael Lind has a nice piece over at Salon, pointing out that the Tea Party nation has a distinctly southern tinge. Yet it was the Tea Party in Massachusetts—Scott Brown’s election to the Senate to replace massively flawed liberal icon Teddy Kennedy—not the Tea Party in Texas, that has the Obama Administration dazed and confused….
Tim Geithner, irritating me again
I’ve been bitching about Tim Geithner more or less for the life of this blog.* Somehow, the guy always rubs me the wrong way. Well, he’s at it again, as described in this post by Politico’s Anna Palmer: Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner called together top officials from U.S. business groups Monday for a last minute…
Obama-nation: Why do the heathen rage?
The budget deal, whatever it is, has four legs, a collar, and lots of fleas. How did we fall so far so fast? Democrats have to be asking ourselves why each of the last three Democratic presidencies have followed such a similar pattern—high expectations, followed by a severe drop-off in public support. Jimmy Carter infuriated…
Live drunker longer!
The current dead tree issue of Popular Science tells us 1) how to live to 150 and 2) how to brew beer in a week! The PopSci website is here, and the beer article is here, but the live to be 150 piece doesn’t seem to be online, so if you want to spend the…
Avram Fefer and Bobby Few—“Ask Me Now”
Andrew Sullivan, easily satisfied
One of the things that I haven’t been worrying about too much is why employment has been increasing among men since the recession ended but still decreasing among women. Andy Sullivan, whose sympathies, and resources, are wider than mine, has been worrying about it, and posts this item. So why is it happening? Andy refers…