links for 2009-06-13

"Be sure to use the King James Version when you bring up Luke 17:34 — "In that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left" — and then argue that a literal interpretation suggests that precisely 50 percent of homosexuals will be raptured."

"I think I’ve hit on a catchy structure for a modest reshuffling of my Honors seminar in Colonial Africa. Much of my reading list will remain the same, but this restructuring is designed to make the way I look at the historiography much more concrete and transparent to the students. Basically, I want to organize the syllabus in terms of what strike me as the Big Questions that sustain historical and anthropological study of the colonial and postcolonial periods."

"As I’ve noted before, there’s a Laffer Curve implicit here. If nobody ever egged [British National Party leader] Nick Griffin, then he’d never get egged, which I presume nobody wants. On the other hand, if he was egged every single time he went out, then he’d never leave his house – result, no eggings. But I really don’t believe that we’re on the right hand side of that Laffer Curve, not yet."

"The protagonists of the Senate coup are one Tom Golisano, a Rochester billionaire usually described as eccentric, Senator Eric Espada of the Bronx, and Hiram Monserrate, who represents a Hispanic part of Queens. Golisano runs an advocacy group, Responsible New York, that advocates for open government and lower deficits. Other than Golisano, their most prominent member was Lenora Fulani , at least until she got kicked out in 2005 for anti-Semitism.He ran for governor in 1994, 1998 and 2002 on the Independence Party line. Check his bio here. There’s much more, but suffice it to say that Golisano is as nutty as anything out of a Better Crocker cookbook."

"Soldiers here are all too aware of America’s attention span about this war, several of them at the taping said. So the visit of Mr. Colbert, postmodern or not, was an unexpectedly high-caliber event among the recent string of retired baseball managers (Tommy Lasorda actually), wrestlers, cheerleaders and actors whose names require a little Googling.

“I’m surprised that anybody comes here,” said 27-year-old Lt. Travis Klempan of the Navy, from Lafayette, Colo. “I mean we had the guy from the Allstate commercial. It’s like: that’s nice.”"

"For college students who manage to avoid scheduling class on Friday, the weekend often kicks off on "thirsty Thursdays." A new study confirms that those without early Friday classes are much more likely to heavily drink the night before." In related news, new research strongly suggests that the sun tends to rise in the east, though more study is needed.

"Memo to visitors: If you walk into someone’s office and see them eating lunch at their desk, this probably means they are busy. If you aren’t sure and ask "Are you busy?", this is more polite than not asking, but this question, however well intentioned, might elicit a glare, an incredulous laugh, sarcasm, or insincerity (just so you know)."

"While we were visiting my family back east a couple of weeks ago, one of our relatives gave my two-year old a present — a book featuring Elmo and a talking pen. Now, my wife and I are no fans of licensed merchandise, not to mention electronic toys that talk. But this book — which comes from an outfit called Follow the Reader — turned out to be a bit of a physics puzzle."