Good morning, folks. It\’s primary day in Alaska, Arizona, Florida, Oklahoma and Vermont. But now, your morning constitutional: Chief Judge Royce C. Lamberth of Federal District Court for the District of Columbia has blocked President Obama\’s executive order that expanded embryonic stem cell research. At least 33 were killed after Somali insurgents disguised themselves as police officers and stormed a Mogadishu hotel. According to an American aid worker and a Congolese doctor, Rwandan and Congolese rebels gang-raped nearly 200 women and some baby boys over four days within miles of a U.N. peacekeepers\’ base near remote eastern Congo...
Continue reading...Poplicola
New York Times Columnist Line of the Day
If you’re one of the four-or-so frequent readers of this here blog, chances are you also occasionally check out the New York Times op-ed page. You may even know the names: Thomas “Friedman’s Just Another Word For Nothing Left to Lose” Friedman, Gail “The Colander” Collins, Nicholas “The Dark Crystal” Kristof, &c. This is a daily feature dedicated to these folks: one line that is either awesome, funny, insightful, intelligent, ridiculous, or utterly divorced from reality. I hope you enjoy. Today\’s is from Paul \”The Little Professor\” Krugman, who in his column \”Now That\’s Rich,\” writes: [I]t’s...
Continue reading...Why didn't the stimulus work as expected?
With 500,000 new people applying for unemployment last week, the most number since November, it appears that the economy, propped up by temporary census workers and last year’s stimulus package, is falling again. The Right is saying that the stimulus was a waste of money, the Left is saying it wasn’t big enough. The truth is, even if it helped a little, it’s not doing enough. Eric Martin at Obsidian Wings does a great job of pointing out one of the most important reasons: Further weakening the effort, a self-styled group of “moderates” in the Senate pared...
Continue reading...Mea Culpas
There were two interesting confessions yesterday. First, Jon Stewart admitted that he was wrong in criticizing the National Rifle Association for keeping to their plans to have a conference in Denver immediately following the Columbine massacre in 1999. Additionally, Matt Yglesias wrote an admirable post admitting he was wrong in 2003 when he supported the invasion of Iraq and explaining how his thinking has changed since then. Yglesias does worry that by admitting error and explaining why he could sound like he’s making excuses: “I’m not a huge fan of this kind of exercise because I think...
Continue reading...Morning Constitutional – Friday, 20 August 2010
Good morning, everybody. Steven Tyler will be a judge on American Idol. Now, your morning constitutional: Israelis and Palestinians are expected to resume direct negotiations for the first time in 20 months. More donors are pledging money for Pakistan, which has suffered devastating flooding, after an emergency meeting of the UN General Assembly. The election season in Australia comes to an end today with the two rivals in a virtual tie. Conservative leader Tony Abbott is challenging Labor\’s Julia Gillard, the first female prime minister. Labor lost its very close lead in polls in recent days. Now...
Continue reading...Poem of the Week
On Saturday, I\’m leaving for vacation! On the beach! I\’m rather excited. In this week\’s poem, Ogden Nash celebrates the joys of doing nothing. On the beach. Thanks to my friend K., who introduced me to this very pleasant piece. Pretty Halcyon Days by Ogden Nash How pleasant to sit on the beach, On the beach, on the sand, in the sun, With ocean galore within reach, And nothing at all to be done! No letters to answer, No bills to be burned, No work to be shirked, No cash to be earned, It is pleasant to...
Continue reading...Private buses and the government as a business
Yglesias suggests that the future maybe should involve privately-owned intracity bus lines: Bus lines don’t have the power to transform neighborhoods that rail construction possesses. But buses are by far the cheapest and simplest way of adding mass transit, and municipal leaders should always have their eyes on potential ways to improve things. One possibility that naturally suggests itself is to let entrepreneurs start private intracity bus lines just as we have inter-city buses running from New York to DC, Philadelphia, Boston, etc. Unlike the barbering field I would want to see regulation of this kind of activity...
Continue reading...Why Muslims
Mark Silk knocks it out of the park: In recent years, the wise guys in the Republican Party have cottoned to the fact that the U.S. of A. has become a good deal more Latino than it used to be, and that it might not be such a good idea for the future of the GOP if it embraced (at least publicly) such anti-Latino-immigrant laws as Arizona passed a few months ago. Why not find a less politically potent body of Americans on which to vent one’s nativist animosity? I give you: The Muslims. Unlike the Latinos,...
Continue reading...New York Times Columnist Line of the Day
If you’re one of the four-or-so frequent readers of this here blog, chances are you also occasionally check out the New York Times op-ed page. You may even know the names: Thomas “Friedman’s Just Another Word For Nothing Left to Lose” Friedman, Gail “The Colander” Collins, Nicholas “The Dark Crystal” Kristof, &c. This is a daily feature dedicated to these folks: one line that is either awesome, funny, insightful, intelligent, ridiculous, or utterly divorced from reality. I hope you enjoy. Today\’s is from Maureen \”The Refrigerator\” Dowd who, in her column \”Our Mosque Madness,\” writes: Some critics...
Continue reading...Morning Constitutional – Wednesday, 18 August 2010
Good morning, folks. Marilyn Manson and Evan Rachel Wood have called off their engagement. Now, your morning constitutional: Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was found guilty of one charge, making false statements to the FBI, but the jury was hung on the other 23 charges facing Blagojevich. Despite the fact that congress rushed to get aid to states to prevent them from having to fire teachers, many large school districts are holding off rehiring and saving the money to offset future budget deficits. President Obama\’s incredible winning streak. How Democrats are having trouble celebrating their historic achievements....
Continue reading...
Recent Comments