I think it’s safe to say that 2008 was a very good year in film. Just look at how many quality Oscar films there were (and some that were completely snubbed *cough* Gran Torino *cough*). However, in a post claiming that Eyes Wide Shut is horribly underrated movie, Jason Kottke reminds us that 1999 was [...]
Archive for November, 2011
So I haven’t posted anything for like two weeks. Sorry, but I was in New Orleans for Mardi Gras for five days (about which more later) and before that had to get everything squared away so I could leave. You understand. A better title for this article might have been “Douchebag Hipsters Can’t Stop Whining [...]
My friend Randall McElroy at the Distributed Republic bemoans the over emphasis on the president in non-specialist histories of the United States. At the end of his post, he invited historians (specifically, me) to comment. Here is what I wrote: No doubt Randall is correct about this problem, but I would suggest it’s far worse [...]
Somehow I doubt this guy has a date tonight. Jose Feliciano will help you beat those winter blues. Undisputed event of the week: Joaquin Phoenix’s disasterific interview with David Letterman. In case you were wondering, this (and this) is what his hip hop career will look like. I think someone just made a huge mistake. [...]
With Alex Rodriguez’s admission that he used steroids, we now have the possibility that Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and A-Rod will all never make it to the Hall of Fame. Major League Baseball has already banned the all time hits leader for life, and if the sports writers decide to exile [...]
This video is pretty cool, but it is outrageously French. (Also, does the lead singer have the Hamburger on her dress?) Apparently Nutri-grain bars are like cocaine now. The decline of the stock market (among other things) set to music! Seven-year-old kid doped up dentist drugs. Twenty-plus minute video on people who are romantically attracted [...]
This is a pitch for the relatively new organization Young Americans for Liberty (YAL). YAL grew out of Students for Ron Paul and has been endorsed by Paul. The organization’s goals are to spread the ideas of liberty across the country and turn liberty minded young people into effective activists. So if you’re a libertarian [...]
Tyler Cowen points to a short but excellent post by Felix Salmon at Portfolio.com that makes this important point: ….if Harry Markopolos had taken all of his evidence about Bernie Madoff and put it on a blog, instead of submitting it to the SEC, there’s a good chance that would have been the end of [...]
And he shouldn’t have to apologize for smoking weed–it’s not his fault our country’s laws are retarded. Over at Reason, Radley Balko wrote what Phelps should have told (and probably wanted to tell) all the prudes who want his head for hitting a bong. It’s worth quoting extensively: Because you know what? It’s none of [...]
In last Saturday’s Wall Street Journal, Lee Siegel made the case that “New Jersey is America’s secret treasure-house of culture.” He actually manages to produce some decent evidence for that assertion: ….consider a sampling of the gifted figures who have either come from Jersey or made a home there: Bruce Springsteen (N.J.’s state songbird); Frank [...]
