July 2008
56 posts
From helping tear down walls to putting them up:... →
And don’t forget to add this.
Is there such a thing as deregulatory capture?
Or reverse regulatory capture. I know it doesn’t make much sense, but that looks like the appropriate phrase to describe what’s going on these days.
Sporting News II or How I Stopped Worrying and... →
In my continuing attempts to debunk sporting myths about all Asians, I point everyone to this really sweet article. While there are some things with which I take issue, on the whole it’s decent.
This paragraph struck me:
At 14, I was given a Chang poster and put it up in my room, thinking I’d give him a chance. But whenever I looked at it, I saw everything I thought Chinese...
Banksy Panksy?
Time reports that the identity of Banksy, world renowed graffiti artist, has been revealed! OK, well that isn’t true, but at least we know what he kind of looks like because there is this blurry photo to (sort of) prove it! Maybe that isn’t true either, but we know that there is some person out there painting witty-type murals all over the world.
“The first three decades after 1945 were governed by the Bretton Woods...”
– Dani Rodrik (obviously not one to say such things lightly) in Policy Innovations
Sporting News
1. Who cares about Brett Farve? He should stay retired or at least not take Aaron Rodger’s job. If I were Aaron Rodgers, I would hate Farve.
2. I’m really divided as to Team USA’s (the basketball team) chances of bringing home the gold. While the international competition has certainly gotten much better since the Barcelona games, I would have to say this is probably the best...
Do I look like a guy with a plan?
It’s true that I’ve been posting about the “Dark Knight” with inordinate frequency. I apologize. My exposure to the outside world these days is extremely limited. Be patient. I shall return to normal levels of Batman-related posting later next week - same Bat-place, different Bat-time.
WatchHeh.
This is exactly what I've been asking!!! →
My cousins in Ahmedabad said it was the near perpetual heat, but I’m pretty sure this paper provides a more accurate, insightful analysis.
Hopefully in a few years India will pushing out medal winners like nobody’s business. Then young brown folk will be able to look up to those world athletic champions who weren’t around when I was a wee youngin. Although I’m not sure...
Slow Food Sequentialist
Any one (or two or three) of the 6 people who read this going to Slow Food Nation? I bought tickets to some events and plan to attend some of the free things. Drop me a line if you’re interested in meeting up.
Been Reading Too Many Comics? →
I reserve all comment.
More on this front.
UPDATE: Even more on this front.
WatchCharlie Rose speaks to David Chang (always a great interview). (courtesy of smalter)
Sloppy John? →
The criticism I hear from inside and outside the campaign is that McCain lacks a line that tells people where he’s going to take them if he’s president.
It’s hard to tell people where you are going to take them, when where you are going to take them is where you already are. And it’s not that Obama is necessarily any different in that respect, but at least he...
Cash Money
Everyone in the media keeps talking about how Obama, though crushing McCain in terms of money raised, isn’t actually competing with McCain on that front, but rather with the RNC, which is planning to spend gobs of cash on McCain’s campaign.
I haven’t seen anyone point out (though someone surely has) that all that the RNC money going to McCain is effectively not going to...
“I think it’s serious… . It’s a serious situation, but...”
– John McCain on “Good Morning America”
I Ain't Afraid of No Merchanidising
While eating dinner I caught the first 20 minutes or so of “Ghostbusters”. I hadn’t seen it in at least 10 years. As I watched I realized how much of my childhood revolved around “Ghostbusters” and Tennage Mutant Ninja Turtle products - video games, NERF toys, soft drinks, amongst other things. The situation must have been pretty bad because I remember my father...
The Dark Knight - Movie - Review - The New York... →
smalter:
In its grim intensity, “The Dark Knight” can feel closer to David Fincher’s “Zodiac” than Tim Burton’s playfully gothic “Batman,” which means it’s also closer to Bob Kane’s original comic and Frank Miller’s 1986 reinterpretation. That makes it heavy, at times almost pop-Wagnerian, but Mr. Ledger’s performance and the film’s visual beauty are transporting. (In Imax, it’s even more...
So here's what happened pt. 2
deepalc:
Ok, to recap. There’s a crazy ass skunk in our car.
At this point, there are four of us smushed in the back seat of the car, so the skunk has nowhere to go but up. It jumps up in front of me, starts wigging out, my dukes go up, my father stops the car, and we all run out screaming. So at 2am, a car stops in the middle of a residential road and 6 people run out of it screaming,...
“I was writing a piece on John Singleton’s “Poetic Justice,” in L.A. Tupac and I...”
– Trish Deitch
“You’re known for some long songs. Have you ever written a song so epic,...”
– Stephen Colbert interviewing Rush, who performed on the Colbert Report last night - its first American TV performance in 33 years.
Royale With Cheese →
There are many who would argue (such as Walter) that a “true” hamburger is nothing more than a simple, well-cooked ground beef patty on a toasted sesame bun (with the requisite fixins’). While I do not fall into that camp of traditionalists, I do feel the need to do some line-drawing. My first line is this quote:
“It has the taste of the forbidden, the illicit — the subversive,...
No Justice, No Peace →
When an organization as highly respected as the International Crisis Group (ICG) says “that the international community should ‘acknowledge the tensions between peace and justice and to recognize that pragmatism and recent history indicate that justice cannot always claim primacy,’” the global community ought to listen. Listening, however, does not and should not mean total...
A Study In Contrasts
Summer of Fun (2007)/ Summer of The Exact Opposite of Fun (2008)
Oh what a difference a year makes.
Psych 101: Offshore Drilling
Both the President and Senator McCain admit that the purpose of ending the moratorium on offshore drilling is not to actually reduce current oil prices, but rather as a psychological buoy. Assuming that there is some kind of psychological impact (and I doubt there would be even a measurable one), I would venture to guess that the effect, if anything, would be quite the opposite - “We are so...
WatchJunot Diaz (Jersey!) rocks for so many reasons. And it’s true, he looks like my brother.
First thing: His idea that people are desirous of an “authoritarian” narrative seems right on point What I found most compelling is that he connected it to the political consequences, namely totalitarianism.
Second thing: I’m looking forward to both future books about psychics...
So here's what happened
deepalc:
We run over a skunk going about 30mph in Vancouver while we’re on vacation. The car smells disgusting and, suspiciously, continues to smell disgusting well past it should have, but gradually it seems to start going away. My sister starts talking all this crazy talk about how she feels like the skunk is still under our car. We drive some 5 - 10 miles more before turning into the...
2+2=5?
There seems to be some great prima facie incongruity between the justifications for the recent “to-big-to-fail” bailouts and those reasons that motivated the now three-year-old (and sardonically named?) Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005. I don’t know enough to speak on the matter with any certainty, but maybe there is someone else who can.
WHINERS →
This One's For You, Bud.
I find all the hubbub over InBev’s proposed first-hostile, now-friendly takeover of Anheuser-Busch to be downright absurd, considering the quarters from which those “This is an American Institution,” cries emanate. If we want America’s identity to be associated with crappy, watery-tasting beer then maybe it makes sense. In all other respects, it does not.
1. I do not, and...
Poisonberries
I ate some mulberries from the farmer’s market yesterday and my throat started to swell up. No one else who ate them seemed to have any problem. It’s really too bad because they seem so lovely and wholesome. Nothing like this, happened, so maybe I lucked out. I plan to try some again later today. If no further posts appear on this website, you’ll know what happened.
Really digging this song
Some words regularly used in politico-punditry...
“Elitism/Elitist”
“Flip-flopper”
“Values”
“Populist/Populist”
“Change”
“Islamofacist/Islamofacism”
“Maverick”
“Hope”
“Game-changer”
“Mainstream”
Fast Food
smalter:
elsalvadorexperience:
The day I arrived in El Salvador I noticed a ridiculous amount of fast food restaurants. Having visited several times in the past, I can remember when there was only one McDonald´s in San Salvador and I remember what a big deal it was when the first Pizza Hut was opened. Nowadays it´s uncommon to see a street corner without a fast food restaurant. In fact, pizza,...
What's wrong or how I started posting only...
It’s crunch time, boys and girls. That’s right, I’ve been exercising…my brain. The July administration of the New York State Bar Exam is T-minus three weeks away and I’m on that rocketship. Rocketship to hell, thus a journey to the center of my weary mind.
There shall be loads of pictures in the coming weeks, and unexciting ones at that, because if I attempted to...
Whoaz. →
