It’s A Tear Down

That would be any culture that could produce a video/mobile game like this. Before you click that link, be aware that it takes you to the beta site of an Android game called Dog Wars.  From that link (all typography in the original): Raise your Dog to Beat the Best! A GAME THAT WILL NEVER [...]

Savaged By A Dead Sheep

That would be James Fallows, suffering the blistering assault of one Megan McArdle over this piece, the one John lauded here. The reference to the deceased quadraped is one I’ve had occasion to return to more than once — it comes from the ferocious Labour Party debater and then-Chancellor of the Exchequer Dennis Healey, describing [...]

The McArdle Chronicles redux: How to Argue in Bad Faith: An Example

Again, I’m the messenger.  My MIT colleague Jim Bales has taken up my slack in covering the gift that keeps on giving, Megan McArdle. Enjoy — it’s a good one TL Jim Bales here – my thanks to Tom for letting me borrow his soap box. The words that follow are mine, and not his. [...]

“That’s funny, because I happen to have Mr. McLuhan right here…” Benjamin Franklin edition

I’m working on another volume in my Pequod-like pursuit of Megan McArdle* (see, after what went on here earlier today, I’ve got a Melville mindworm going), but just to show that I’m not dead yet, I thought I’d toss in a little lagniappe to a discussion begun here in John’s post of a day or [...]

Mr. President! We Must Not Allow a Gemeinschaft Gap!* (David Brooks Agonistes.)

Plenty of ink has been spilled on David Brooks channeling of poor little Paulie Ryan’s bruises. All of the scorn and ridicule is fair.  David Brooks is an innumerate hack propelled by some actual skill, but lots more good luck and well timed sychophancy into a position of influence in which he can do real [...]

Albert Einstein was a Friend of Mine, and I Can Tell You, Representative: You Are No Albert Einstein*

From Think Progress (h/t Daily Kos) we learn that in the midst of yet another creationist eructation, a Tennessee state representative invokes the ghost of the good Dr. Einstein to defend the teaching of woo to the unwary: Rep. FRANK NICELEY (R-Strawberry Fields): I think that if there’s one thing that everyone in this room [...]

Give The Man One White Chip*

Via the NYT we learn what constitutes “big” to a Republican congressman.  (No, children…don’t go there.) (Hell.  This is the internet.  Go there if the spirit moves you.) By now, just about everyone with a pulse and an interest in politics knows that the budget debate produced much more kabuki than actual cuts.  Rather the [...]

Next Up: Who Gets To Wear The Yellow Stars Today?

Not to (a) step on the contemplation of Obama’s awesomely clear nailing of the GOP to their current platform: we-hate-America/lets-let-the-Chinese-eat-our-lunch, nor (b) to trespass on Dennis G.’s turf too much, but this, via TPM is in its way even more astounding than the Charleston objectively pro-treason story we enjoyed earlier in the day: A fourth [...]

Via TPM: “It doesn’t address in any serious or courageous way the issue of the near and medium-term deficit,” David Stockman told [Brian Beutler] in a Thursday phone interview. “I think the biggest problem is revenues. It is simply unrealistic to say that raising revenue isn’t part of the solution. It’s a measure of how [...]

Because It’s Not Their Fault You Don’t Own Your Own Gulfstream

Take a look at the GOP ‘s vision of Galt’s heaven, air travel division: PASSENGERS fainted when a 5-foot hole opened in the roof of a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 flying from Phoenix to Sacramento last week. The most frightening moment may have been when, as one passenger said, “You could look out and see [...]