After a disappointing third place finish in the Florida primary yesterday, Rudy Giuliani has officially dropped out of the presidential race, leaving just four candidates left: John McCain, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, and Ron Paul. I’m almost positive that McCain will end up being the nominee, and I’ve started reconciling myself to the idea, but [...]
Archive for November, 2011
Today’s Washington Post carried the obituary of one of the most remarkable men I’ve never heard of: Viktor Schreckengost. As the Post tells it, Viktor Schreckengost, 101, a celebrated industrial designer whose products included mass-produced dinnerware, riding lawn mowers, bicycles and coffins, and who revolutionized trucking by putting the cab over the engine, died Jan. [...]
In a little more than ten minutes, President Bush will give his final State of the Union address. I’ll give you a preview: “Blah, blah, blah, the state of the Union is strong! [standing ovation] Blah, blah, economic stimulus. [bi-partisan applause] Blah, blah, blah, defeating terrorism in Iraq. [Republican applause] Blah, blah, blah, several [...]
I’ve criticized Naomi Klein before–mainly for her nearly complete misunderstanding of the American Right–but since it’s such fertile ground, I thought I’d go there again. Klein’s thesis is that American foreign and domestic policy over the last thirty plus years has been to exploit crises to implement radically free markets. Furthermore, Milton Friedman was the [...]
I’ve frequently argued that Americans are far too afraid of a great many things, terrorism in particular, and now there is even more evidence to back up that position as New York Times science columnist John Tierney has discovered that Americans may be more likely to die from worrying about terrorism than actual terrorism: But [...]
I don’t like Ezra Klein. I’m not really sure why, but I think he’s just always struck me as arrogant and condescending, and being arrogant myself, I can’t help being rubbed the wrong way by people like myself. But, if you follow blogs, Klein’s is one that you have to read from time to time, [...]
I finally got around to seeing There Will Be Blood last night, and it certainly deserves all the accolades it’s receiving. However, I do have one kind of bizarre criticism: without Daniel Day Lewis’ performance, which definitely deserves the Oscar, the whole movie would fall flat. But that is not to say that any of [...]
Looking for your daily recommended allowance of crazy? This list of insane rantings on evangelical Christian message boards should keep you supplied through the spring. If I were this kid’s father, he would totally get beaten. I have nightmare about girls like this. If this video is any indication, Chris Farley was almost equally good [...]
A few days ago, I wrote a post arguing that it’s important for us to understand the motivations behind terrorism if we are ever to stop it at the root. Unfortunately, that doesn’t do us a lot of good with the overwhelming majority of domestic policy because even if a politician has the noblest motives [...]
As you’re probably well aware by now Heath Ledger is dead, and it really sucks. Of all the big actors of this generation, he was probably the best and just starting to hit his stride. He only started getting serious, big time roles after Brokeback Mountain–which he would have won the Oscar for in any [...]
