December 08, 2009
NYT Magazine on Texas Republicans - "Hutchison, like Perry, gets high"
November 13, 2009
Confusion over where money lent on Kiva goes - I'm sure you all remember the micropayment service which allows you to pay small lone amounts to individuals in countries that need investment. What a lot of people (apparently) didn't know is...well...that's not really how it works. When you see the picture of that person on the site they've already gotten their money from a local microloan agency; your money just backstops that agency. Soooooo, if you're basically just lending money to a bank...what do you need Kiva for?
November 08, 2009
Comparison of all the major Health Insurance Reform proposals - This kind of backgrounder is the most valuable thing a newspaper should provide, yet is all too rare. I'd rather read an 'importancepaper' than a 'newspaper', if only they'd publish one.
October 16, 2009
Obama to visit Texas A&M - an enjoyable piece of cognitive dissonance for all, I'm sure.
August 10, 2009
In the midst of this editorial from a conservative attacking health care reform, there is this gem:
One year in perfect health gets you one point. Deductions are taken for blindness, for being in a wheelchair and so on.
The more points you have, the more your life is considered worth saving, and the likelier you are to get care.
People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn't have a chance in the U.K., where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless.
Great fact-checking there, guys!
July 16, 2009
When did they decide to do this? So, I've been collecting the state quarters. I thought I had the complete collection. I was proud. And then five days ago, Taco Bell gave me the Guam quarter in my change. Guam? I thought it was counterfeit. I didn't argue, though. I was afraid of reading about me on Fark starring in a $2 bill/ Taco Bell style feud where I was made to look like a chump. It is only now that I have researched things... I can understand D.C. getting one, but the Northern Mariana Islands?
July 03, 2009
NOOOOOOO!!!!!!
I just found out I'm related to the Bush's, Sarah Palin, and the Romney's. My mother's maiden name was Arnold, and we're direct descendants of Benedict Arnold. The shame of that name is nothing compared to being kinfolk with the former.
Apparently there's some 80,000 of us in the US alone. You may be in our growing number...
June 22, 2009
Iran's Voice Here's where I'd usually put some snippet from the article, and maybe a link as well. Instead, I'll just say: go read Roger Cohen's lastest article on Iran.
June 14, 2009
Disputed Iran election leads to protests and crackdown
- As we await Valatan's backgrounder on the Iran elections, some help to understand what's going down:
* Things to Keep an Eye on in Iran
* Wikipedia, of course
* Hopefully the servers at BigSoccer.com can withstand being linked to by the NYTimes.
April 28, 2009
March 02, 2009
What if you sued a big corporation and won, but before the appeal they spent millions of dollars to help elect a sympathetic justice to the state Supreme Court? Let's say the verdict is then overturned with that judge's help. Would that be fair? Would it be fair for a judge that was endorsed by a newspaper to sit in judgment of that paper in some case? Looks like the US Supremes might be gearing up to decide what role big money elections should play in the judiciary.
January 14, 2009
It was nice to know ya, exclusionary rule. Special congratulations to the Reid Democrats for refusing to filibuster Alito. This Roberts, Scalia, Thomas, Alito block is kind of an impossible hurdle to beat.
January 02, 2009
Muslim Family removed from airline flight - AirTran overreacts, leaves them stranded, refuses to reimburse them for rebooked travel.
The grievous solecism under question: "Where is the safest place to sit on an airplane?"
December 10, 2008
Obama chooses Steven Chu as Secretary of Energy - Nobel Prize in Physics in 1997 for laser cooling and trapping of atoms. Longtime supporter of alternative energy. Seems like a step in the right direction.
Also, he personally responded to my email when I was applying for graduate school at Stanford. It was to say that he wouldn't interfere with the usual vetting process and good luck and I ended up getting mega-rejected anyway but it was nice.
December 08, 2008
Good Monday morning read: I'm Really Gonna Miss Systematically Destroying This Place.
December 01, 2008
So this is interesting. Canada is about to have it's first ever (at least in recent memory) coalition shakedown in their government, as Prime Minister Stephen Harper is about to get ousted by Parliament, as the Liberals and the NDP are planning a coalition.
If you read that, said 'huh' and would like to know more, a brief primer on Parliamentary government and the Canadian party system follows in the extended. [more inside]
November 20, 2008
Go inside the MN recount and vote on what you think the fate of some actual disputed ballots should be. The ballots (and the campaigns' arguments) range from the reasonable, to the possibly understandable, to "what the hell is wrong with these people? It's a damn optical scan ballot for fuck's sake!"
November 16, 2008
I read an article somewhere that Clinton and W both sent less than 10 email messages while in the White House and I thought that was just insane. I didn't think about why that might be and the reason is very simple: it could be subpoenaed and become public record (or be hacked). As much as Obama loves his Blackberry and laptops, he's probably going to have to give them up. Imagine dropping out of the information society for 4-8 years!
November 12, 2008
Required reading on the bailout. Naomi Klein keeps on impressing me.
November 08, 2008
From the Nov 1997 issue of Might Magazine, Donnell Alexander on race.
November 06, 2008
October 25, 2008
Timeline of Presidential races. Lets hope that this year is similar to 1932 politically, since it already seems to be economically.
October 23, 2008
Huge Obama lead in Early Voting returns and things that keep me up at night:
The overwhelming force of the Dem's early voting success could mean that exit polls on election day swing lightly McCain. Say one third of voters go early, by a margin of 66-34 to Obama, and two-thirds vote on the fourth, 48-52. Obama therefore carries the state by an overwhelming 54-46 margin, but what the media will see on election day is: "Election day shocker! Voters leaving the polls went for McCain by a 4-point margin." They will then be told by election officials that after counting in the fairly small fraction of early and absentee ballots, the final tally is an eight-point *Obama* victory.
Is the media numerate enough to understand this situation? I doubt it. If nothing else, this seems fraught with post-election accusations of voter fraud. [more inside]