Good morning, folks. Campbell Brown is leaving CNN; could Eliot Spitzer take her spot? Now, your morning constitutional: Results in yesterday’s primaries and the one special election were pretty much as expected: Paul won, Specter lost, Lincoln goes to a run-off. In Thailand, four leaders of the anti-government protesters have surrendered to police after troops surrounded the protesters’ fortified encampment in Bangkok. BBC asks: How did it come to this? The Senate Judiciary Committee has posted Elena Kagan’s entire written record—from her undergraduate thesis to briefs from her Solicitor General office—online. U.S. consumer prices lowered in April...
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Geometry teacher really bad at coming up with original examples
From the “Obvious Things Teachers Shouldn’t Do That Don’t Involve Anything Sexual” Files: A Jefferson County teacher picked the wrong example when he used assassinating President Barack Obama as a way to teach angles to his geometry students. … The teacher was apparently teaching his geometry students about parallel lines and angles, officials said. He used the example of where to stand and aim if shooting Obama. Um. Okay. Superintendent Phil Hammonds said the teacher remains at work, and there are no plans for termination. “We are going to have a long conversation with him about what\’s...
Continue reading...Ta-Nehisi Coates on affirmative action and victimhood
We made mention of it this morning in the Morning Constitutional, but there is a significant amount of grumbling in some circles over how Miss Michigan, Rima Fakih, an Arab-American, won the Miss America pageant last night. We did note Adam Serwer’s excellent comments, but Ta-Nehisi Coates over at the Atlantic goes further and uses this example to unveil the racism behind those who immediately think she must have won because of affirmative action, and affirmative action critics in general: That aside, I think it’s obviously fine to have a debate about the effectiveness and justice of...
Continue reading...New York Time Columnist Line of the Day – 18 May 2010
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 Ain’t Free” Friedman, Gail “The Colander” Collins, Nicholas “The Dark Crystal” Kristof, &c. Well, I’ve decided to devote a daily feature to these folks, by daily pointing out one line that is either awesome, funny, insightful, intelligent, ridiculous, or utterly divorced from reality. I hope you enjoy. Today’s is from David “Yawny-Pants” Brooks, who in his column “Children of the ’70s,” blames hippies: The...
Continue reading...Morning Constitutional – Tuesday, 18 May 2010
Good morning, everybody. Charlie Sheen has signed on for two more years of Two and a Half Men, and at a salary of nearly $2M an episode, becomes the highest paid actor on television. Now, your morning constitutional: Democrats and Republicans go to polls today in primaries and special elections in Pennsylvania, Arkansas, Kentucky and Oregon. As Congress looks this week at how the government and industry responded to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, it is likely that regulations on oil extraction will be tightened. Sausages are worse for you than unprocessed red meat....
Continue reading...New York Times Columnist Line of the Day – 17 May 2010
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 Ain’t Free” Friedman, Gail “The Colander” Collins, Nicholas “The Dark Crystal” Kristof, &c. Well, I’ve decided to devote a daily feature to these folks, by daily pointing out 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 “Going to Extreme,” explains how...
Continue reading...Dale Peterson, candidate for Alabama Agriculture Commissioner, hates thugs and criminals, loves guns and horses
As may be becoming pretty obvious, we have a thing for brilliant campaign ads. And Alabama seems to be producing a good number of them. This one, from Dale Peterson, a candidate for the Republican nomination for Agriculture Commissioner in Alabama, is yet another. It features a good dose of aggression (both in editing and in acting), a horse, a sweet rifle, and plenty of hostility to “thugs and criminals” who keep the citizenry in the dark, those who steal lawn signs, illegals bussed in by the thousands, and his opponent who brags about taking money from...
Continue reading...Morning Constitutional – Monday, 17 May 2010
Good morning, folks. After 20 years, NBC cancels Law & Order, but orders Law & Order: Los Angeles. Now, your morning constitutional: General Motors on Monday reported it earned $865M in the first quarter of 2010, its first profit since 2007. BP announced that they are successfully capturing around 1,000 barrels a day from a pipe they connected to the leaking oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. Scientists have discovered massive oil plumes in the Gulf, further evidence that the oil spill is massively worse than BP predicts. Iran on Monday announced an agreement to ship...
Continue reading...New York Times Columnist Line of the Day – 14 May 2010
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 Fries” Friedman, Gail “The Colander” Collins, Nicholas “The Dark Crystal” Kristof, &c. Well, I’ve decided to devote a daily feature to these folks, by daily pointing out 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 “We’re Not Greece,” notes: This tells...
Continue reading...Jobs
Ronald Brownstein at the National Journal: If the economy produces jobs over the next eight months at the same pace as it did over the past four months, the nation will have created more jobs in 2010 alone than it did over the entire eight years of George W. Bush’s presidency. That comparison comes with many footnotes and asterisks. But it shows how the economic debate between the parties could look very different over time — perhaps by November, more likely by 2012. More important, the comparison underscores the urgency of repairing an American job-creation machine that...
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