April 2010
5 posts
Rhymes With Fuchsia: Pigeon Religion →
I was looking for a the band, Pigeon Religion, and found this interesting blog entry by a lady named Lucia.
“Overall these results suggest that God is a blank slate onto which we project...”
– Predictably Irrational » Blog Archive » Creating God in Our Own Image
YES!
“Dylan’s planned tour of east Asia later this month has been called off...”
– China blocks Bob Dylan gigs | Music | The Guardian
“You have to build an immunity toward assholes. If you can dish out bad-assness,...”
– STREET BONERS and TV CARNAGE » DEAR BARF: HOW CAN I BE AWESOME?
March 2010
12 posts
Serena Maneesh - I Just Want to See Your Face
...
“What is “Missing Persons” about?
Alessandro Keegan, frontman:...”
– Ridgewood Produces Noise Bands, Too: Download Twin Stumps’ Killer “Missing Persons” - New York Music - Sound of the City
Watch
Watch Locating Ourselves Historically: Why We Are Not Living in Western Civilization | Mercatus
Watch
WatchBuzz Osborne - Soft Focus at ATP | VBS.TV
February 2010
8 posts
blah, blah, blahg: an apology for the ages →
“I’m sorry.
“I’m sorry all of you dumb bastards were deluded enough to think that any professional athlete, ever, was a suitable role model for yourself or your kids. I’m sorry that our nation’s priorities are so screwed up that any newspaper in country, never mind all of them, devoted more than an inch of print to this story when there are only twenty people it actually matters to: me, my wife,...
In Heaven, There Are No Litter Boxes at Steven... →
There are roughly 30 million self-professed fundamentalist Christians in the United States. How many of them really believe what they say they do? New evidence suggests that the number is somewhere around 100.
“7. Do you have fat friends? Plus one
Fat people are not generally maximizers....”
– Test: Is your life happy or interesting? | Penelope Trunk’s Brazen Careerist
“I trust those who earn their living lying on their back more than those who do...”
– Nassim N Taleb (nntaleb) on Twitter
Worked Up at Steven Landsburg | The Big Questions:... →
As any historian could tell you, no society has every pulled itself out of poverty without putting its children to work. Back in the early 19th century, when Americans were as poor as Bangladeshis are now, we were sending out children to work at about the same rate as the Bangladeshis are today. Having had the good fortune to get rich first, Americans can afford to give Bangladeshis a helping...
Marginal Revolution: Naughty Bits in the Bible →
From a review of The Uncensored Bible:
In court we swear to tell the truth with a hand placed on the Bible. But in the book itself, Jacob, nearing death in Egypt, asks Joseph to swear an oath not to bury him there by “put[ting] your hand under my thigh” (Gen. 47:29). Earlier in Genesis, Jacob wrestles with God, who touches “the hollow of his [Jacob’s] thigh” (32:25). “Thigh” happens to be a...
January 2010
9 posts
I Loved Free-Range Kids, Bryan Caplan | EconLog... →
Skenazy makes many of the same points that I do: Despite what you see in the media, kids today are amazingly safe. Parents are creating needless misery for themselves and their children by fighting against trivial risks.
Marginal Revolution: Not From The Onion →
Not From The Onion
The 9,000-student K-8 district this week pulled all copies of Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary after an Oak Meadows Elementary School parent complained about a child stumbling across definitions for “oral sex.”
The decision was made without consultation with the district’s school board and has raised concerns among First Amendment experts and some...
Dictatorship Denim: The Real Story Behind North... →
They were three young, hung-over Swedish men who had been out drinking the night before to drown their sorrows — and they had an idea. They sent an e-mail to North Korea. The subject line read: “Investing in the Democratic People’s Republic.” More than two years later, a shipment of 1,100 designer jeans arrived in Stockholm. There were two models — “Kara,”...
FT.com / Reportage - Moscow’s stray dogs →
I moved to Moscow with my family last year and was startled to see so many stray dogs. Watching them over time, I realised that, despite some variation in colour – some were black, others yellowish white or russet – they all shared a certain look. They were medium-sized with thick fur, wedge-shaped heads and almond eyes. Their tails were long and their ears erect.
They also acted differently....
December 2009
1 post
How Wise Is Repugnance?, Bryan Caplan | EconLog... →
“My point is not that repugnance is less than 100% reliable. 100% reliability is a silly standard. My point is that repugnance is habitually unreliable.”
November 2009
7 posts
Rosenberg: This Isn't A Recession, It's A... →
Currently, we have a situation that is not consistent with a plain-vanilla recession but with a depression because depressions are associated with credit contraction and asset deflation. It is more than just about a mathematical contraction in GDP. In recessions, social change does not occur. In depressions, they do. Hence the fact that in Halloween, the reason why sales-related items were...
Edge: 36 ARGUMENTS FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD — By... →
…and their flaws.
I kind of skipped everything and went straight to the arguments.
via A&L
Lead Us Not Into Debt - The Atlantic
(December... →
Ramsey offers some investment advice (much of which would have struck horror in my business-school professors), but for most of his followers, the main attraction is a simple program: give 10 percent of your income to charity, save 15 percent for retirement, build up a sizable emergency stash and a college fund for your kids, and above all, stop borrowing money. Ramsey devotees pay cash for...
“Norway” by Beach House, off their...
STREET BONERS and TV CARNAGE » SOCIALIZED BLOWJOBS →
Socialism: it’s great in theory, but goddamn if anyone can get it to work.
Tim Harford — Article — How a celebrity chef... →
I do not count myself as one of Jamie Oliver’s army of fans, but after looking at the chirpy chef’s antics through the eyes of an economist, I am starting to acquire a grudging respect for him. Yes, the recipe books are all but unreadable, but his “school dinners” campaign has been surprisingly successful.
interesting.
via mr
October 2009
8 posts
“ehf is Icelandic for private limited company. Do you think Icelanders chuckle in...”
– Marginal Revolution: Exit decisions: no more Big Mac for Iceland
Chauffered America, Strip Mall America, Arnold... →
The “regulatory overhaul” promised by the Obama Administration is still the same-old, same-old. Chauffered America will be restored to its exalted status, with a few new rules and regulations thrown in.
Instead, somebody should be asking the deeper question about Chauffered America. If Chauffered America were to disappear, would the rest of us miss it? Or could Strip Mall America get...
“Peace is that brief glorious moment in history when everybody stands around...”
– Our Moments of Peace… | LILA RAJIVA: The Mind-Body Politic
“Because I despise politics in general, and the two major parties in this country...”
– Partisan Politics—A Fool’s Game for the Masses | The Beacon
“Based on her work, Ms. Ostrom proposed several rules for managing common-pool...”
– David R. Henderson: A Nobel for Practical Economics - WSJ.com
STREET BONERS and TV CARNAGE » INTERVIEW WITH A... →
Do you ever get shit from your friends for being a Marine?
I ended up getting a lot of shit from my friends. I get everything from people giving me a condescending talk about why I shouldn’t join the military to people who outright refuse to talk to me ever again. I grew up with that whole punk and proto-”hip” scenes where most people have very center-of-Michael-Moore type of views. I always...
Obama Wins Nobel for Bankster Bail-Outs and... →
Considering that Henry Kissinger has a Nobel prize, this is quite in tradition for the misnamed Nobel prize - a highly political award. Maybe some of the Swedish banks that got into trouble in Latvia are greatful for the Obama team’s globalization of QE (Quantitative Easing), after their lending spree in Latvia.
And nuclear disarmament? After two weeks in office?
Even the report displays...