This is the first I've heard of this.
Straight Talk Express Off Rails...Again
This time re: cigarettes and taxes. Matthew Yglesias, take it away:
So first McCain wants us to believe that he's so fanatically opposed to making public services more generous, that this is why he's opposed to raising cigarette taxes. Smoking is bad, says McCain, and it's important to promote public health by reducing its incidence. But it's even more important that we starve the government of funds for things like police and courts and infrastructure and health care and education and parks and the military than that we reduce the rate of smoking. Then, perhaps realizing that this is crazy, he turns around and asserts without evidence that higher cigarette taxes increase the rate of smoking.
Read the full post for context.
Good thing the media isn't paying him any attention.
Why I Hate Weddings
No offense to all you lovely married people or those who hope to walk down the aisle someday soon, but our Bridezilla-pandering culture needs to be cut off. This NYT fashion piece about Botox for bridesmaids makes me want to place these brides-to-be on a time-out until they can tell me who their wedding is really for - their loved ones or all the girls they hated in high school.
True Love
Thanks to Adam Istas for emailing this (he should have put it on the blog).
Given the fact that we live in such a whacked-out world, it's nice to watch something so full of love.
No Nukes Are Good Nukes
Apparently the Nuclear Regulatory Commission takes issue with the world's new found favor for nuclear energy. I, for one, am glad that someone is bursting this hysterical bubble. I had to rope and gag myself to deal with that article in PM Network!
Gay Penguins? Gay Penguins! Nooooo!
Link.
For the second year running “And Tango Makes Three”, a children's book, has topped the American Library Association’s list of “Ten Most Challenged Books”. The tale of two male penguins adopting an orphaned egg provoked more written complaints to libraries and schools in 2007 than any other book.
Man, I suck. Take 2
Last night, rather reluctantly, I took my new, super sleek, Trek 7.2 into the shop. It needs a tune-up and I thought I’d jazz it up with a water bottle cage, some toe clips and maybe a new light.
This morning, I rode my old, 1970s vintage Schwinn to the train. The ride was only 3 miles but I bitched and moaned the entire time. It’s slow. I barely fit on it. And it’s hardly anything to look at.
When I got to work, I even emailed my friends to complain about “my janky old bike.”
Then I read this article. And now I feel like a major ass.
Both Ways Barack
MTV aired its first ever political ad last night. Surprisingly, it was an attack ad against Obama. Less surprisingly, the ad looks like its aimed at 15 year olds. Least surprisingly, the ad comes off as mildly condescending. The ad is clearly a 40-year-old's idea about what a 20-year-old would find intriguing. Sigh.
Farm Subsidies
Freakonomics has a good Q&A up about the benefits (none) of farm subsidies.
I want to use this opportunity to vent quickly on American sugar cartel. Did you know that Americans pay roughly three times the price for sugar as the rest of the world? Seriously. We pay that much because the government restricts sugar imports. Right now the sugar lobby (it does exist) is trying to persuade Congress to buy sugar imports from Mexico just so that American consumers can't buy them. This is disgusting not only because restriction on trade is almost always a terrible idea, but also because it has a terrible effect on Americans: death.
Since sugar costs so much soft drink manufacturers (to take but one example) opt to substitute sweeteners for sugar because it's more cost effective. Their choice: high fructose corn syrup. This makes farmers and the corn lobby happy, but makes the rest of us miserable. Not only does high fructose corn syrup taste worse than sugar, but it's much more unhealthy. Fructose reduces two enzymes critical to heart health. The fructose in fruits isn't likely to cause this problem, but high levels of fructose -- like high fructose corn syrup -- is.
So thanks, Government, for policies that are both unhelpful and harmful to the average American.
McCain Makes Own Journey
From the Borowitz Report:
In a daring bid to wrench attention from his Democratic rival in the 2008 presidential race, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) today embarked on an historic first-ever visit to the Internet.Unasked question: Until now, where has McCain gotten his porn?
Given that the Arizona Republican had never logged onto the Internet before, advisors acknowledged that his first visit to the World Wide Web was fraught with risk.
But with his Democratic rival Barack Obama making headlines with his tour of the Middle East and Europe, the McCain campaign felt that they needed to "come up with something equally bold for John to do," according to one advisor.
Alberto Gonzales Might Need a Lawyer
Interactive diagram of potential crimes committed by members of the GWB White House.
Hertzberg Eviscerates RI Governor
Hendrik Hertzberg, writer for the New Yorker and champion of the National Popular Vote movement, takes Rhode Island Governor Donald L. Carcieri's argument against a national popular and essentially shoves it back up Carcieri's ass. It's a strong argument and a history lesson all in one.
Electing the President by popular vote wouldn’t be the first great democratizing change to have bubbled up from the state level. That’s how we got two others, the popular election of senators and woman suffrage. Oregon found a way to have its senators picked by its people in 1907; by 1913, when the 17th Amendment was finally added to the Constitution, popular election was already a reality in twenty-nine states. Wyoming enfranchised its female citizens as early as 1869; by 1912 eight other states had followed suit. The 19th Amendment was ratified in 1920, by which time the women of Wyoming had been voting in local, state, and federal elections for half a century. The National Popular Vote plan is in this venerable tradition.
Leave It Alone, John
Senator McCain's opening remarks from last night's speech in Columbus, Ohio:
"You have billed this event as a Presidential Town Hall, and I sincerely hope that the next president is here today. My opponent, of course, is traveling in Europe, and tomorrow his tour takes him to France. In a scene Lance would recognize, a throng of adoring fans awaits Senator Obama in Paris -- and that's just the American press."Keep whining about the press genuflecting to Obama. We'll keep watching the station of Murrow edit out your blunders while no one seems to notice, probably because they're all covering Obama.
At this point shouldn't McCain be grateful that the press is paying him no mind?
Favorite Projections Site
Fivethirtyeight is an outstanding place to get your polling information and analysis. The author was anonymous for a long time but recently stepped out from behind the curtain -- Nate Silver, the advanced baseball statistics guru. Worth a read each day.
Really?
I just heard a kid walking by my window. He was probably about 10.
This is what he said:
'Wow! That's a Dodge Viper! That gets 40 mpg on the highway!'
I don't get kids these days.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Veggie Sperm
This has nothing to do with politics, but being a vegetarian, I found it pretty interesting. And Tegan, I'm sure you'll agree.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25833435/
McCain hates birth control... but he can't remember why
I really hate it when politicians want to limit women's rights just for kicks. At least real misogynists like Pat Buchanan have street cred.
Check out Katha Pollitt as she reams McCain a new one.
PEW on NYer Obama cover
Link.
Among those who actually saw the Obama cover – roughly half of the public (51%) – the verdict was decidedly mixed. While 50% say it was okay for the New Yorker to publish the cover, 45% say it was not okay.
Attitudes about the cover differ sharply by party. Nearly two-thirds of Republicans who saw the cover say it was okay for the magazine to publish it, 65% of Democrats disagree. Independents are much closer to Republicans in their views on this issue: 59% say what the New Yorker did was okay 36% say it was not.
I think I wrote one of these last year
Maxim Articles Rewritten As Sociology Papers:
"The Presentation of Self in Ultimate Fighting"
"Gender Stratification: Ranking the TV Hotties"
"Perceptions and Quantitative Analysis of 10 Badass Cities"
"Kid Rock: Conventionality and Freedom"
"Conformity, Status, and Rejection of the Deviant in Movie Villains"
"Feminist Critical Theory of Hollywood Starlets (With Pictures)"
Excellent Response to NYer Cover
From an insightful article in the Chronicle of Higher Education.
If the argument is that The New Yorker cover was meant to depict the radical right's ludicrous portrayal of Obama as an apologist for Islam and its fundamentalists, then the question we might pose is this: Would Blitt consider it good satirical strategy to condemn child sexual abuse by depicting a young adolescent boy and an older man, obviously just having had sex, fist-bumping with knowing pleasure? In what world would that constitute satire rather than a failed imagination? Ultimately, all the lame responses by Blitt and Remnick don't persuade because of the sharp limits of their morning-after reasoning.
Good intentions are always present, even in the naïve, and so it must be that Blitt's artistic endeavor, Remnick's printing of it, and the responses of both can most parsimoniously be explained as ignorance about the mind and how it learns. But as our worlds get more complex, as we know more about what the outside does to our inside, it is the moral responsibility of the artist to know about how art is received by its intended audience.
Conservitive Obama, Progressive McCain
Obama is dead against school vouchers and dead for public schools. McCain supports expanding school voucher programs, as he should since this is in the best interest of the country. Pouring more money into public schools is championed by the left but as a tax payer I'm not exactly thrilled with how the money I'm already giving to public schooling is being spent. Throwing good money after bad doesn't seem like a good idea, even if that money is earmarked for teacher salaries and the like.
Instead of increasing teacher salaries in urban school districts why not give urban youth the option of attending better schools? Not every state has open enrollment. Often one's school is determined by their address. If a student is in a crummy school district -- which are more common in poorer neighborhoods -- and if that student does not have the choice of attending another school then we're basically setting the kid up for failure.
Instead of giving $1400 per student to each school (or however much schools get per student) why not give that money to the student in the form of a voucher to be used on the school of his or her choice? The market will quickly sort out which schools are best, teachers will be compensated in turn, and the worst schools, public or otherwise, will be forced to either a) improve or b) shut down. Eliminate bad schools, replacing them with better schools, giving every student the option of attending the best schools -- this sounds pretty nice. As Steve Chapman points out, it's essentially the same model of the US university system, considered by all to be the best in the world.
Why not try it with public schools and vouchers? If Obama is really the candidate of change, the bold candidate resistant to toeing the party line, why is he so resistant to trying a new idea to solve an old problem?
In Case Anyone Still Thought Katie Couric Was A Journalist...
Every reporter wants to keep a good rapport with their key sources, but editing an interview with a presidential candidate to make it sound like he knows what he's talking about - when he obviously doesn't - is a fraud of the worst kind. Considering his position as a 'war hero' and a supposed expert on all things related to the military, this is an error the American people need to see portrayed accurately. Covering up this blunder should really get her fired.
Running From the Devil
I've been a little out of the loop on the V.P. selection process, so I was quite surprised to read about this little exorcism scandal around McCain's possible choice. Apparently Bobby Jindal, the Louisiana Governor and potential candidate, believes that demons haunt our world. Doesn't McCain know that the Christian fundamentalists he needs on his side think that Catholics are crazy?
I can't WAIT to see the spin they try to put on this one...
IEM on Presedential Race
Get hip to the Iowa Electronic Markets. They're better than any talking head.
Link.
Idiot Congressmen: Gambling Addition
Link.
Money quote:
Speaking against the bill, Alabama Rep. Spencer Bachus, the committee's ranking Republican, explained that the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), the law that requires the regulations, is all about saving the youth of America from a potentially lethal addiction. "McGill University found that one-third of college students who gamble on the Internet ultimately attempted suicide," he averred. He added, "That is why the rate of suicide on our college campuses has doubled in the past 10 years."Problem is, there are no facts to support this claim.
Prop 8
The original title of Proposition 8, the California ballot initiative to ban gay marriage, was "Limit on Marriage. Constitutional Amendment.”
Now it's been changed to "Eliminates Right of Same-Sex Couples to Marry." As Jim Burroway observes:
Now when Californians go to the polls, they have to think about how their vote may actually take away something that already exists.I wouldn't underestimate the psychological difference the two ballot titles would have on the voters. The perception gap between Limit and Eliminate is a mile wide.
Bikers Beware ...
All you bike riders better stay off the streets if Robert Novak ever comes to town.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Obama in Germany
Ross Douthat on Obama's speech in Berlin:
Overall, the overseas tour has been good to Obama, both for the obvious reasons and because making joint appearances with foreign leaders is a solid-enough way to build up his credibility as a potential Commander-in-Chief. But photo ops are one thing, Beatlemania-style rallies are quite another - and having your candidate appear in front of tens of thousands of adoring European fans when your campaign's biggest problem, as John Judis puts it today, is that "Obama remains the 'mysterious stranger' rather than the 'American Adam' to too many voters who are put off rather than attracted by his race and exotic background" strikes me as the height of political folly. The Berlin rally probably won't hurt Obama - voters aren't really paying attention to anything election-related right about now, and it'll be forgotten by the time the fall campaign begins in earnest. But it could do some minor damage, and it certainly won't help him.I disagree. While I do think that Obama's otherness is a genuine concern for his campaign, one of his other prominent weaknesses is a lack of foreign policy experience. This is a legitimate concern for much of the electorate. And while his trip to Germany is largely ceremonial, it's part of a Middle East tour that is addressing that lack of experience. I don't see how, come the convention and later on into the election, a speech in Germany will be successfully spun against Obama. After all, Germany is one of our largest European allies and foreign policy experience need not be pigeonholed to foreign policy war experience. If that's the case Obama won that argument the day McCain cast his vote to authorize the Iraq war.
If physical theories were girlfriends
Link.
Adam's favorite:
5. Quantum field theory is from overseas, but she doesn't really have an accent. You fall deeply in love, but she treats you horribly. You are pretty sure she's fooling around with half of your friends, but you don't care. You know it will end badly.
Meet McCain's message strategist
Two colleagues say that when Mr. Schmidt gets really angry, his nose bleeds, though Mr. Schmidt denies it.
I Heart Stretch
But do lame-duck presidents create lame-duck White House correspondents?
http://www.observer.com/2008/media/david-gregory-nbc-s-lame-duck
More McCain
So his campaign and supporters
(a) complain that the media is disproportionately covering Obama,
and then CBS interviews McCain and posts the unedited footage on its website,
and now (b) McCain makes himself unavailable to the press.
Collapse of Bear Sterns
Fantastic article in the new Vanity Fair about the collapse of Bear Sterns.
The tease:
On Monday, March 10, the rumor started: Bear Stearns was having liquidity problems. In fact, the maverick investment bank had around $18 billion in cash reserves. But soon the speculation created its own reality, and the race was on to keep Bear’s crisis from ravaging Wall Street. With the blow-by-blow from insiders, Bryan Burrough follows the players—Bear’s stunned executives, trigger-happy reporters at CNBC, a nervous Fed, a shadowy group of short-sellers—in what some believe was the greatest financial scandal in history.
Another great read
David Carr's feature article in last weeks NYT Magazine, about his years as a drug addict.