It takes a lot to make Pauline Kael talk like Yoda, but these are parlous times. Over at the Weekly Standard, poor Bill Kristol is at such a loss for words, and sense, that he’s asking the American people to choose a President based on his taste in film! It’s true! Here’s the deal: Katie…
Parerga and Paralipomena, Updated
Paul Krugman fulfills his self-deprecation quota for the decade by linking to this Onionesque squib from Andy Borowitz: Krugman Could Turn into a Massive Douchebag, Colleagues Fear. Greg Mankiw may have already achieved massive douchebag status, but at least he’s keeping an eye what’s really important: his new book! Okay, Principles of Economics, by N….
Revolt of the Janeites—Bailin’ on Palin
That retching sound you may have noticed over the past few weeks may go down in history as “The Revolt of the Janeites”—the announcement by Jane Austen-reading Republicans that they are not, goddamnit, going to vote for the likes of Sarah Palin, not as long as it looks like she’s going to lose, anyway. So…
Blog in haste, repent in leisure. Or not.
Last Friday, I wrote a short entry, “Economics: Dismal Science or Jive-Ass Trade?”, gratuitous in tone if not in substance, that took an unkind look at, among other things, an article in the Wall Street Journal by Andrew G. Biggs And Kent Smetters, which included the following statements: “According to the Tax Policy Center, a…
Paolo Fresu, flugelhorn & Franco Ambrosetti, trumpet, 2007—”My Funny Valentine”
https://youtu.be/C99coGU1Jhk When Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart teamed up to write “My Funny Valentine,” they created a tune just too fey to go away, le creme de la cafe society kitsch. Here Paolo Fresu and Franco Ambrosetti, a pair of European brassmen, rework Dick and Larry’s salute to all the little broken-hearted little boys on…
Economics: Dismal Science or Jive-Ass Trade?
Writing about the current economic crisis is rather like writing on water, but as the poet Keats liked to say, “What the fuck?” Since I’ve been linking to Greg Mankiw’s site in the past, mostly with praise, I’d like to bitch a little about what I haven’t liked from Greg. Last week Greg labeled as…
So I guess we lied
You may recall my complaints here and here about the U.S military’s footdragging and evasions regarding the question of whether American air strikes on August 22 on an Afghan village killed “5-7” civilians, as the U.S. said, or 90, as the civilians themselves said. Well, now U.S. Air Force investigators have concluded that the civilian…
JJ Johnson, Howard McGhee, and Sonny Stitt play Charlie Parker’s “Now’s the Time”
Market Collapse Due To Rich White Guys, Says Times
Various conservative windbags have been blaming the current financial crisis on damn hippie legislation that forced honest, hard-working white banks to give money to lazy black people. But now the New York Times reports that it was a banker-friendly Securities and Exchange Commission that gave the big Wall Street firms the rope they needed to…
Further thoughts on the current discontents
If we can take Barack Obama at his word—and I fear we have to—we are in all likelihood entering a new era of regulation. Whatever Wall Street Pacification Package emerges from the current confusion, it certainly won’t turn things around before election day, which is looking more and more like a blowout win for the…