Ross makes the necessary point vis a vis the furor over Reid’s acknowledgment that we have, in fact, lost the war in Iraq: Unless you want to take the insane position that it’s just impossible for the U.S. to ever lose a war As Long As Our Faith Is Strong, then at some point it […]

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A recent Spectator article making the rounds claims that we found WMD sites in Iraq after all, but a bipartisan conspiracy has worked to hide this fact, since it vindicates the original case for war, but also makes the administration look even more inept, as it turns out we failed to secure said sites in […]

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Ron Bailey’s latest Reason column focuses on a study in Nature I’d meant to link a couple weeks back purporting to find a “Robin Hood” impulse in a series of behavior experiments: Subjects randomly allotted varying sums of money, without any prospect of reciprocation or retaliation, were willing to spend their own money to raise […]

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Just in case you need to find the feared and respected blogger clique next time you’re in prison, memorize this helpful hand-signal. Thanks Kriston!

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A great book review in New Statesman finds that the artists most revered for their authenticity are the ones who’ve best perfected their artifice. The book under review, Faking It, looks to be worth reading in its entirety.

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AmSpec Blog strikes me as excessively charitable toward Alberto Gonzales even in the midst of a call for his resignation: I kept an ear on his testimony most of the day yesterday, and noted that he seemed clueless but honest. Reading further accounts in sources from across the political spectrum this morning leads me to […]

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There’s been a fair amount of handwringing over news stations’ decisions to broadcast America’s Craziest Home Videos, and my first impulse is to regard it as largely moot: Cho could just as easily have uploaded his rambling screed to a dozen video-hosting sites the morning of his planned massacre, tagged only with a keyword like […]

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So I assume this is self-evident to anyone who routinely avails themeselves of the Internets, which is, by definition, pretty much everyone reading this, but: One of the reasons the Net is so lethal to productivity seems to be the way it facilitates modular procrastination. That is, it used to be that if you were […]

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D’Souza (v.): To make an argument so patently vulgar, obtuse, and offensive that even people generally disposed to agree with you are collectively revulsed. Megan notices that the guy who brought us the insight that Britney Spears caused 9/11 is welcoming the opportunity afforded by the VA Tech shooting to attack… atheists. Atheists? Yep: Notice […]

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Continuing his long-running attack on free trade, William Greider has a new piece in The Nation touting a seven-year-old book by Ralph Gomory and William Baumol, which Greider claims had “languished in academic obscurity”until “recently,” which seems like a slight stretch given that Chuck Schumer and Paul Craig Roberts were essentially touting Baumol & Gomory’s […]

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