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photos by Lara Shipley

Entries from October 2008

More on NSA Whistleblowing

October 17th, 2008 · 2 Comments

…at Ars.  Basically a quick rundown over why civil libertarians shouldn’t get their hopes up about this being a legal game changer in the surveillance fight.  I’m still holding out hopes that it may be significant as a matter of public perception.

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Tags: Law · Privacy and Surveillance

Ominous Parallels

October 17th, 2008 · 6 Comments

The comments section at RedState is starting to look an awful lot like the old Ron Paul Forums around the time a few sober Paulistas began suggesting that it looked like maybe, possibly, Ron wouldn’t actually be the Republican nominee, and that it might be wise to think about the next step for those who […]

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Tags: Horse Race Politics · Sociology

Small Moments of Joy

October 17th, 2008 · 5 Comments

Earlier today, I was out poking around a DC vintage clothing shop, where I found a jacket I really liked—tuxedo style with satiny black lapels and covered in dark blue floral print.  I picked it up, and the shortly thereafter realized I was late to an event for which (having forgotten about it) I was […]

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Tags: Uncategorized

Taking Bets

October 15th, 2008 · 6 Comments

It strikes me that, as a good libertarian, I ought to be exploiting information asymmetries for private profit more aggressively. There appear to be a substantial number of people out there who are swallowing the obviously-bogus story about Michelle Obama calling up the African Press International (hosted at WordPress!) to deliver an insane, self-destructive rant.  […]

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Tags: Horse Race Politics

Knowing Stuff Is Elitist

October 15th, 2008 · 5 Comments

Things like this, from one of Ross’ readers, make me want to tear my hair out: The problem is that I really do think the George Wills and the Brooks and even (a little) David Frum, would exclude such people [as Sarah Palin] from high office because they have never seen a copy of Foreign […]

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Tags: Horse Race Politics · Sociology

I Know This Phone Call May Come as a Surprise to You…

October 15th, 2008 · 1 Comment

So, maybe you’ve seen the insane thing buzzing around the nuttier corners of the right-wing blogosphere about how Michelle Obama decided to phone up the proprietors of an obscure wordpress blog, then deliver an insane rant during which she attempts to bribe the bloggers with inauguration tickets, suggest that Barack Obama can’t really “deny” Islam, […]

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Tags: Horse Race Politics

Organizing the Non-Chess-Players Club

October 15th, 2008 · 26 Comments

Yglesias, as is his infuriating gift, makes one of those points that seems glaringly obvious only after he’s said it. To wit: If you assume their goal is to persuade people to agree with them, the “New Atheist” strategy of being an enormous douchebag seems counterproductive. Since folks like Richard Dawkins and Dan Dennett, even […]

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Tags: Religion · Sociology

MasterCard Got Nothing on This

October 14th, 2008 · 2 Comments

Market value of an unopened copy of the Rauschenberg limited edition LP of Talking Heads’ Speaking in Tongues: ~$200 Price I found it for on eBay: $75 Sliding off the cellophane and blasting “Burning Down the House”: Priceless

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Tags: Art & Culture · Economics

Straight from the Source

October 14th, 2008 · Comments Off on Straight from the Source

While I can’t verify his identity for certain, a commenter at Radley Balko’s site claims to have some firsthand knowledge of how those bogus piracy stats came about: Nice article. The writer is closer than he knows about those numbers. How do I know? I wrote that 1988 ITC report. I was required to put […]

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Tags: Economics · Tech and Tech Policy

Slave to the Cocktail Circuit

October 14th, 2008 · 44 Comments

I notice James Joyner and, via him, David Frum complaining about a certain attack that gets leveled against conservatives who are insufficiently infatuated with Sarah Palin or John McCain these days: That they’re effectively selling out their principles to win the approval of elite Beltway media types, who will henceforth invite them to posh cocktail […]

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Tags: Journalism & the Media