Does it seem that our generation—and I’m talking here about the skipped generation, the not-Boomers, not-Xers, the handful of us who dimly remember the Partridge Family, but got to watch Star Wars as kids, before there was anything like it—has…
OK, you have to understand, Gentle Readers, that I am culturally ignorant. Stuff just passes me by. I don’t watch much television, and I specifically don’t watch much football, and I really specifically don’t watch many television ads. I find…
I’m not altogether sure why this discussion over at the Chrononautic Log brought this question to mind, but here it is: Given that A Christmas Carol is clearly the most popular and most enduring time-travel story in our Anglophone culture,…
One of the things that still manages to surprise me on a regular basis is the way that the very rich are different from you and me. Last night I listened to an NPR story asking Does Wealth Imbalance Threaten…
I am sorry to report that when Punxsutawney Phil crept out of his burrow, he tripped an IED wire, and got blowed the fuck up. Six more years of war. Tolerabimus quod tolerare debemus,-Vardibidian….
So. Yesterday I was listening to NPR, as happens, when I heard a piece they are calling Iran’s Pollution Worries Come by Air and Water about the contamination in the Caspian Sea. So, they start with the sound of dredging…
See, here’s the thing. I’m one of them crazy technogreens who thinks that we will somehow manage to survive this whole global warming business—that it won’t be substantially worse than, let’s say, the Little Ice Age, the ensuing famine and…
Sometimes it’s a good idea, when debating policy, to go back and try to define, as best you can, the exact nature of the problem you are attempting to alleviate. In health care, it seems to me the problem is…
There was an odd minor foofaraw in Left Blogovia recently when Mark Schmitt suggested that we all refer to the junior senator from New York as Senator Clinton, “without exception”. The response, generally, is that as long as her campaign…
For Gentle Readers who don’t follow the Our Only President Outrages day to day, but like to have a small hissy fit in the privacy of Your Humble Blogger’s Tohu Bohu, may I pass along a juicy one? It seems…