Why I love the English Language: Proper British Snark edition

From Peter Robins, wondering what fictional art might have anticipated the surreal reality of the British election, comes an economy of scorn I wish I could master: I hadn’t read First Among Equals, but it’s a Jeffrey Archer and therefore seems unlikely to be true even by coincidence. Yes indeedy. Heh. (h/t Sullivan) Image:  François Lemoyne [...]

A Shande für de Goyim* — Ben Shapiro edition

DougJ has a stronger stomach than I do.  I won’t link to the offending column — go ahead through Balloon Juice if you want all the gory details.  But if you want to see epistemic closure in action, this could be a type specimen. (As an aside, I must say I have had the good [...]

Brain Bon Bons, because it’s been too damn crazed today to finish any of the posts in waiting — Sade Diva/Goddess edition

Reminded via a spectacularly off-topic comment on this Balloon Juice thread, please, enjoy with me this grand blast from the past: Beyond all the obvious awesomeness of this, my get-off-my-lawn media maker’s heart leapt at the glorious grain and feel of an image shot on real film. There’s bite to these pictures, even in this [...]

Megan McArdle, Lawyer, Ethicist, Historian.

She’s not even trying anymore. (And thankfully that means I don’t need to haul out my 5,000 word howitzer to shoot this bit of ephemera down.) Here’s Ms. McArdle  on the Goldman hearings — uncut, not cherry-picked: Now Levin is grilling a Goldman employee as to why they continued to sell a deal that the [...]

A Tale of Two Financial Stories, or Why it Helps to Pay Attention to the Man Behind The Curtain — Paul Krugman and NPR edition

Two stories caught ear and eye this morning. First, in terms of my attention, this one from NPR, heard while driving in to work.  Then, this one from K-thug, pulled up via my usual quick check of Daily Kos’s pundit round-up.* Very short form:  the NPR story, of a type that I generally regard with [...]

Andrew Sullivan and the Anatomy of False Equivalence

Here’s one more attempt to learn how to blog short, made glorious summer by that son of Surrey (not quite the same ring, is it?), Andrew Sullivan. Instead of doing the full John Foster Dulles at every opportunity, I want to try picking on the one moment that illustrates the larger problem. Here it is [...]

Adventures in Diplomacy: UK-Vatican edition

Actually, there were some useful suggestions here. Though on reflection, the memo in quesiton may be better read as the fastest “I think I may be more suited to a different line of work” composition since Kurt Vonnegut delivered his resignation note to his bosses at Sports Illustrated. Image:  The sacrificial death of Marcus Curtius [...]

“The Lupus of News” — Jon Stewart diagnoses Fox News

Bernie Goldman is a supperating boil on body of the punditocracy. Jon Stewart accurately diagnoses the underlying pathology that allows the expression of such a symptom. Via Balloon Juice — which means that posting here is kind of duplicative, but still, more funny than this is hard to imagine. Smart too. more about ““The Lupus [...]

GOP Health Care Cost Innovation: Poultry for PET Scans, Video Dance Edition

(h/t TPM)

Eye Candy

Even lighter blogging than usual to come over the next couple of weeks as I actually produce a piece on deadline. (See, kids:  I used to be a real free-lancer.  Honest.) In the meantime, expect some stuff like the message from this daffodil: Now, as the photographer, my brother Richard, put it:  that’s stick-to-it-iveness. More [...]