Mark Thoma has posted a imaginary dialog between a moderate pro-trade economist and a worker negatively affected by globalization. One segment of the exchange covers the familiar suggestion that, since trade creates more net winners than losers, it should be possible to compensate the losers with a portion of the winners’ gains—and equally familiar riposte […]

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My friend Todd Seavey, who recently launched his own blog, has a post up rehearsing some oldie-but-goodie atheist arguments, and while they’re all pretty familiar, something stuck me on this read-through about the phrasing, the specific assertion that belief without evidence (faith) is “irrational.” Maybe this sounds less than compelling to lots of people because, […]

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Before the somber beatification begins in earnest, let’s look back at some of the rev’s “greatest hits” as compiled by Voices of American Sexuality: * “AIDS is not just God’s punishment for homosexuals; it is God’s punishment for the society that tolerates homosexuals” * “It appears that America’s anti-Biblical feminist movement is at last dying, […]

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In response to last week’s gay-incest anti-pot ad, a friend reminds me of this classic PSA, which proves that drug warriors are becoming more savvy, overtly gearing their “Just Say No” messages to people who are already stoned out of their fucking gourds:

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…or is $2 per mixed drink actually the baseline tip now? (Outside Manhattan, I mean—they have their own weird rules.) I’d been under the impression that $1/drink was more or less standard; now I’m wondering whether I’ve been gradually accumulating the seething hatred of all the booze-slingers at my local bars.

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The first single off Spoon‘s forthcoming album is out. (Thanks Laure!) It’s good stuff, though also feels like a clear departure from their last few albums, sounding a bit like a B-side from a New Wave band fronted by Steve Reich. (I actually had to go check Wikipedia to make sure drummer Jim Eno wasn’t […]

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I enjoy the occasional popcorn novel as much as the next guy, but am I the only one who cringes slightly at the number of candidates for the presidency who are reading crap?

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I used to both relish and dread the occasions when Tim Cavanaugh would come to DC for a few nights of carousing with Reason honcho Nick Gillespie: It was invariably, by turns, bewildering, intimidating, and hilarious. Imagine sitting between Waldorf and Stadler from the old Muppet Show, cranked up on amyls and early Spy slinging […]

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I was scanning Paul Krugman’s column on trade today (evil TimesSelect firewall) and got to wondering: Is there a looming battle between populist opponents of free trade and natalists? Any successful natalist policy, after all, is going to generate a certain number of Surplus Americans relative to the next generation that would have existed absent […]

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This ThinkProgress post is just odd. It asserts that Bob Novak wants to distract our attention from how it’s “a failing on President Bush’s part to have staffed his administration with “subpar people he brought up from Texas” to positions far above their competence levels. His crafty means of diverting attention from this fact? Going […]

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