Via Kevin Drum, a story about who’s on the no-fly list: Gary Smith, John Williams and Robert Johnson are some of those names. Kroft talked to 12 people with the name Robert Johnson, all of whom are detained almost every time they fly. The detentions can include strip searches and long delays in their travels.… Continue reading Al Qaeda Has All the Best Bluesmen
Category: Politics
My Sister Was Bitten By a Radioactive Reindeer Once
The Editors, in a stunning revelation, provide the innocent explanation for the Mark Foley instant-message transcripts: Foley’s lines were real, but he was actually IM’ing the Editors about non-sexual topics. Sample passage, with the real responses restored: Maf54 (7:46:01 PM): well I better let you go do oyur thing Editorz (7:46:11 PM): yes I have… Continue reading My Sister Was Bitten By a Radioactive Reindeer Once
Dating is Healthy
I’ve been trying hard to resist commenting on the spectacular meltdown of Mark Foley over inappropriate contacts with a Congressional page. The Editors pretty well have the schadenfreude angle covered (including a link to the deeply creepy IM transcripts), so I don’t have much to add there. Much has been made of the fact that… Continue reading Dating is Healthy
The Problem of Big Mike
We get the Sunday New York Times delivered every week (which accounts for the higher-than-usual number of stories from the Times that I link on Sundays…), and I read most of it, but I usually run out of steam before I get to the Magazine, unless the cover story really grabs me. This week was… Continue reading The Problem of Big Mike
No God Left Behind
Over at Inside Higher Ed, William Durden resorts to satire in response to the Spellings commission report: In the nation’s current zeal to account for all transfer of teaching and insight through quantitative, standardized testing, perhaps we should advance quantitative measurement into other areas of human meaning and definition. Why leave work undone? I suggest,… Continue reading No God Left Behind
Chris Mooney, The Republican War on Science
Back in May, the DAMOP keynote address was delivered by a DoE program officer who basically chided scientists for being politically active, in a “you have only yourselves to blame if your funding gets cut” sort of way. Obviously, she hasn’t read The Republican War on Science, or she’d understand why 48 Nobel laureates publically… Continue reading Chris Mooney, The Republican War on Science
Ah, the Power of Labor
It’s Labor Day today in the US, which means it’s a day off from work for everybody who isn’t in academia. Our fall classes start Wednesday, though, so I’m going to spend Labor Day, well, laboring. This is nothing new, but at least it’s better than my first year, when classes started on Labor Day.… Continue reading Ah, the Power of Labor
How to Find People to Talk To
So, you’re interested in discussing politics or religion or other Deep Issues with other people. What do you do? You could go on the Internet, but you end up talking to, like, freaky physics professors and stuff, so you’d prefer to talk to real people face to face. You could randomly approach strangers, ask their… Continue reading How to Find People to Talk To
Deep Thoughts from Pop Culture II
Here’s the other quote from Chuck Klosterman IV that I mentioned earlier, this one from an essay in Esquire on people who feel betrayed by pop culture: Do you want to be happy? I suspect that you do. Well, here’s the first step to happiness: don’t get pissed off that people who aren’t you happen… Continue reading Deep Thoughts from Pop Culture II
Deep Thoughts from Pop Culture
It feels a little silly to quote Chuck Klosterman as some sort of Deep Thinker– this is a guy whose whole claim to fame revolves around the expression of weirdly absolute opinions about pop culture ephemera, after all. Then again, the best political reporting being done these days is done by a pair of comedy… Continue reading Deep Thoughts from Pop Culture