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Monthly Archives: July 2008
Bush and fantasy
There’s a(n unintentionally) hilarious op-ed in the WSJ that argues that The Dark Knight is a conservative message film because, like Bush, Batman is willing to bend the rules in order to fuck up the bad guys. Here is an … Continue reading
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Pole-dancing
I love this story (NYT link). And not just because of the pretty, fit women moving provocatively.
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Equality-enhancing case for money politics
Money politics are desirable insofar as they balance out the political advantages of people who have disproportionate shares of time and interest to devote to politics (e.g. old people).
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Alan and I on inequality and redistribution
Alan and I are having a somewhat amorphous discussion about how society should respond to inequality, and what kinds of inequalities justify “redistributivist” policies. The whole morass is over on his blog. I had no idea he would also go … Continue reading
Read: 50 Degrees Below, 60 Days And Counting
Last Saturday I finished Kim Stanley Robinson’s 60 Days And Counting; the previous week I read his 50 Degrees Below. With 40 Signs of Rain, they form a near-future sci-fi trilogy about dealing with global warming catastrophe. Robinson is most … Continue reading
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Read: The Skull Cage Key
This morning I finished The Skull Cage Key by Michel Marriott. In a bookstore of infinite size, the book would be shelved in African-American Sci-Fi. I’m not sure where it would sit in a bookstore of finite size cuz I … Continue reading
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AskMe: my boyfriend sez dogs should not be pets
There’s a pretty interesting, tough question on Ask Metafilter about how a dog owner should negotiate a relationship with a man who not only doesn’t especially like dogs, but thinks the entire phenomenon of dogs-as-pets is absurd and decadent. I’m … Continue reading
Heart-breaking story of Iranian dissident’s escape
Via the Economist “Democracy in America” blog. Batebi, the dissident, was featured on an Economist cover in 1999. Holding up a copy of our magazine, a judge told him, “With this you have signed your death warrant.”
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Teacher hiring is essentially random
Interesting Slate piece quotes evidence to suggest that schools are no better than random at hiring good classroom teachers. For instance, in 1997, Los Angeles tripled its hiring of elementary-school teachers following a state-mandated reduction in class size. If L.A. … Continue reading
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