A new series, where we try to give a short, easy, way-oversimplified background and history to a story that could use at least a hint of explanation, but really needs like a massive book or several. So, what the hell is going on in Ukraine? There’s these protests, people are mad, it’s gotten violent, and at least 25 people have died just between yesterday and today. Let’s start at the beginning: Ukraine lies at the intersection of Russia’s and the European Union’s interests. It also lies at the intersection of the Russian world and the European world....
Continue reading...New York Times Columnist Line of the Day
If you’re one of the three people who remembers this here blog from its hay-day, you have once in a blue moon checked out the New York Times op-ed page. You probably recognize the names of the columnists, who every day spout the most conventionally wise of the conventional wisdom. This is a feature that is dedicated to these folks, highlighting one line that is either funny, ridiculous, strange, or actually intelligent or well-written. Oh, man, do I love it when I see the David Brooks byline, and he\’s writing about values? Terrific. Oh, and arguing with/for...
Continue reading...Surprise, Wendy Davis isn’t the progressive hero she’s made out to be
It was just a of couple days ago that we learned that Texas gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis thinks Texas’s gun controls are too strict. Now we’ve got this: Wendy Davis said Tuesday that she would have supported a ban on abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, if the law adequately deferred to a woman and her doctor. First, what in the hell is that even? What does “if the law adequately deferred to a woman and her doctor” mean? Okay, explain yourself: “My concern, even in the way the 20-week ban was written in this particular bill,...
Continue reading...Majority of Americans want better relations with Cuba, and so do I
A poll by the Atlantic Council found that 56% of Americans favor a more direct engagement, or even normalized relations with our neighbors off the coast of Florida. What’s more: The poll offered even greater evidence that a political tide has turned with its finding that two critical domestic political constituencies favor renewed ties to Cuba by even larger majorities than the nation at large. Survey respondents from the US Hispanic community supported broader Cuban relations by 62 to 30 percent. And voting-age residents of Florida, a decisive swing state in recent presidential elections, back a policy...
Continue reading...New York Times Columnist Line of the Day, Part Deux
My god this David Brooks column is SO David Brooks it hurts. First (I mean second), this line: Fertility rates, a good marker of confidence, are down. Is there a machine that pumps out David Brooks weird columns about how all economic and social ills are actually because confidence or values or emotions? Now, let\’s unpack this paragraph. I\’m just gonna go ahead and edit it for, well, correctness: No, a big factor here is a loss in self-confidencemoney. It takes faithmoney to move. You are putting yourself through temporary expense and hardship because you have faithmoneyso...
Continue reading...New York Times Columnist Line of the Day
If you’re one of the three people who remembers this here blog from its hay-day, you have once in a blue moon checked out the New York Times op-ed page. You probably recognize the names of the columnists, who every day spout the most conventionally wise of the conventional wisdom. This is a feature that is dedicated to these folks, highlighting one line that is either funny, ridiculous, strange, or actually intelligent or well-written. Today\’s is from David \”I Seriously Can\’t Believe They Pay Me\” Brooks, who in his column today drops the David Brooks beat right...
Continue reading...Why those Beatles tickets were reasonably priced
Yglesias notes that when The Beatles came to town in 1964, tickets to see them were actually pretty reasonable, if not downright cheap: Adjusting for inflation, those tickets ranged in price from $15 to $30. These days $30 will get you in to see St. Vincent at the 9:30 Club but prices to see Kings of Leon at the Verizon Center start at about $60. There are a number of concomitant reasons why, despite it being the hottest show in the world, it was so much cheaper than any popular concert would be in 2014. First is the simplest of...
Continue reading...New York Times Columnist Line of the Day
If you’re one of the three people who remembers this here blog from its hay-day, you have once in a blue moon checked out the New York Times op-ed page. You probably recognize the names of the columnists, who every day spout the most conventionally wise of the conventional wisdom. This is a feature that is dedicated to these folks, highlighting one line that is either funny, ridiculous, strange, or actually intelligent or well-written. Today\’s is from Paul \”The Little Professor\” Krugman, who in his column today \”Writing Off the Unemployed,\” writes: Indeed, one often gets the...
Continue reading...New York Times Columnist Line of the Day
If you’re one of the three people who remembers this here blog from its hay-day, you have once in a blue moon checked out the New York Times op-ed page. You probably recognize the names of the columnists, who every day spout the most conventionally wise of the conventional wisdom. This is a feature that is dedicated to these folks, highlighting one line that is either funny, ridiculous, strange, or actually intelligent or well-written. Today\’s is from David \”Good God You Have A Job Doing This?\” Brooks, who in his column today \”Other People\’s Views,\” writes: We...
Continue reading...Poems for the Cruelest Month
T.S. Eliot was wrong. February is the worst. February by Bill Christophersen The cold grows colder, even as the days grow longer, February\’s mercury vapor light buffing but not defrosting the bone-white ground, crusty and treacherous underfoot. This is the time of year that\’s apt to put a hammerlock on a healthy appetite, old anxieties back into the night, insomnia and nightmares into play; when things in need of doing go undone and things that can\’t be undone come to call, muttering recriminations at the door, and buried ambitions rise up through the floor and pin your...
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