It will surprise no one to hear that Ross Douthat makes me mad. He makes me mad because his views are stupid, and because he doesn’t seem to believe in things like “data” or “facts,” and he also makes me real mad at the NYT Op-Ed page for hiring him in the first place. As Amanda Marcotte aptly points out in her takedown of Douthat’s column yesterday, his writing typically concludes with a take-home message “so factually incorrect that the newspaper ought to run the correction alongside it.” Marcotte and Rachael Larimore are currently hashing out the...
Continue reading...Archives
ConDems?
The insanity that has been the last week of British politics looks to be coming to an end. Somehow a coalition made up of the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives will be ruling Britain (at the pleasure of the Queen, of course.) The Tories did go further than I imagined they would to make this deal happen, a referendum on AV and several cabinet posts to name a few. It seems Nick Clegg will be deputy PM, with other Senior Lib-Dems, including Danny Alexander and Vince Cable, in important roles. Yet, I’m unclear as to how this...
Continue reading...First Thoughts on the Kagan Nom
I’m alarmed by the precedent that a Democratic nominee for Supreme Court cannot have a record on abortion. Elena Kagan doesn’t have a record on much in the way of any controversial issues, but neither she nor Justice Sotomayor had any obvious pro-choice skeletons in the closet. which is disturbing because — “skeletons in the closet”?? Abortion is still a legal medical procedure. The fact that Diane Wood voted consistently to uphold this constitutionally protected right should never have disqualified her, and yet it seems pretty clear that that’s what made her unpalatable. Plus, the nomination confirms...
Continue reading...Doctor Who, "The Time of Angels"
The Doctor: “The writing. The graffiti. Old High Gallifreyan! The lost language of the Time Lords. There were days—there were many days—these words could burn stars, and raise up empires, and topple gods.” Amy: “What does this say?” The Doctor: “‘Hello, Sweetie.’” Well, that was perhaps the best intro to a Doctor Who episode that I’ve ever seen. From the first moment she’s onscreen, River Song is clearly a brilliant, fearless woman who can hold her own against the Doctor. I’m sure even those who had never seen “Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead” were intrigued...
Continue reading...Wait, people can vote in a monarchy?
So, I’ll be out for the next several hours, but will leave thoughts later. Exit polls seem to indicate a drop in Lib-Dem seats. I don’t buy this, uniform swings, postal votes, etc… They may not be getting the gains many hoped for, but I can’t believe they’re not gonna pick up a few. Anyway, you should be following 538’s liveblog and listening to BBC Radio 4. Or just pick up a paper tomorrow. Either way.
Continue reading...Poem of the Week
Guys, I don’t know about you, but for me it has been a long week, in a number of ways, not all of them bad. Nevertheless, I have been ready since about Tuesday for this week to be over. Here’s what cheered me up today: a mid-afternoon break to walk over to a nearby farmers’ market with my friend from work. We ranted and soapboxed for a while about our various gripes, and then we made our way to the best of the three bakery stands, where the endearing and flirtatious Bakery Man (who recognized me from...
Continue reading..."Honestly, I’ve been having sex for a while now, and it took me a long time to be 'totally comfortable' with it."
(title quote from Amanda Hess, link to article below) So partly because I work in the women’s health world, and partly because I just find the subject fascinating, I think about sex education a fair amount. Mostly I think about how much the sex ed I had, freshman year of high school, sucked. It just sucked. I went to a public, suburban high school, and even at age fifteen I was completely dismayed at the overt religious overtones of the “education” we received in this area. Here are 3 highlights: Skit: Two volunteer students stand on a...
Continue reading...What happens tomorrow and Friday
Tomorrow, Britons will go to their polling locations and elect a new House of Commons. This much is certain. What happens next is anybody’s guess. Currently, there is no parliament, but as required by law, there is still a Prime Minister, Gordon Brown. And, until the votes are tallied, and the “winner” is summoned to the palace, Brown will remain the No10. As according to convention, Brown, as the P.M., will be the first asked by the Queen to form a government. It is widely expected that Labour will do terribly tomorrow, and that the Tories will...
Continue reading...Champions and Also-Rans
The British Parliament is holding elections on Thursday, with perennial majority Labour looking certain to lose 10 Downing St. to the Tories, or perhaps the Liberal Democrats. Today, Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City — the English football teams supported by Ghost of Hemingway’s Gun and Estes, respectively, square off in Manchester to potentially decide who finishes fourth in the English Premier League, reaping the financial windfall (and prestige bump) of appearing in the Champions League, in which neither has appeared for at least a decade. Estes and I are here to guide you through both of these...
Continue reading...Guns vs. Hammers
I read an article yesterday about a recent spate of violence at schools in China. In the latest attack, on Friday, a farmer attacked children at a kindergarten with a hammer before setting himself on fire. This story is horrific, as were the other two recent attacks, which took place with assailants with knives. It’s awful and scary when unhinged people (the MSNBC article says the attacks “have been blamed on people with personal grudges or suffering from mental illness”) seemingly randomly turn violent. I was struck, though, with the contrast between the recent attacks in Chinese...
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