April 2013
1 post
10 tags
Associated Press: Praise Chavez, Grouse About...
When it comes to praising free market champions like Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, the Associated Press still has trouble giving them their due. In their obituary this morning, the AP leads with, and continues to harp upon, the controversy stoked during her tenure as England’s Prime Minister, instead of her actual achievements. Take the first sentence from this morning’s...
November 2012
1 post
No, Patronage Politics Isn't The Explanation
Part of why I’ve been holding back from the conversation about What The Republican Party Can Do Better Next Time is limited data. I mean, sure, we now have all the exit poll information, the voter data, and most of the results, but that can only be so helpful. I guess if Republicans want to beat Barack Obama again in 2012, they have all the information they need. But we don’t have a...
July 2012
2 posts
Apparently, Obama flies out his barber too
Over a year ago, I reported that Obama flew his trainer back and forth from Chicago. I had missed the news that he also flies his barber from Chicago, but it came up when Obama was explaining to a local Ohio barber that he couldn’t violate the trust between himself and his barber to get cut by another set of shears.
According to the Daily Mail, the barber flies over every two weeks.
For...
June 2012
2 posts
9 tags
An essay by E.B. White: "Here is New York"
I’m struck a bit dumb by E.B. White’s essay “Here is New York,” found amidst my general pile of books that I’ve yet to read but always wanted to. It starts a bit clinical, and then adds layers to comfort. I was glad to see that he too was a fan of Don Marquis, a collection of whose fell into my hands purely by accident during a poetry reading in high school.
I...
8 tags
How to trifle with the market: Participate in it
GOOD magazine, which I’ve enjoyed from time to time, is now defunct. When reading Poynter’s summary about it, I noticed this line:
Sharon Waxman profiled the magazine when it launched in 2006. Founders Ben Goldhirsh and Max Schorr, Waxman wrote, are “idealists who believe that that capitalist demigod, the market, is not to be trifled with. A life in investment banking or a dot-com...
February 2012
1 post
“I’ve seen several versions of Kevin’s complaint on the interwebs,...”
– Should the Church Have to Dispense Birth Control? - Megan McArdle - National - The Atlantic
January 2012
6 posts
“Joseph E. Brooks, the retailing legend who was the chairman of Lord & Taylor...”
– A Star-Spangled Banner Yet Waves at Lord and Taylor - NYTimes.com
Don't go straight to college after high school
Attending college is an expensive decision, particularly given that its initial pitch to 18-year olds is as a four year sleepover. Why, yes, it’s a very educational four-year sleepover, one where you will “eventually figure things out.” But college is a very expensive place to “eventually figure things out.” You can’t blame an 18-year old for showing up, picking...
7 tags
Inbox Zero for Journalists
I’ve tweeted a few times about my love for Gmail and the inbox zero concept, and a fellow journalist asked me how she can do that when she has so many emails she didn’t want to lose. I realized I should probably post the process I explained in my reply in case other journos don’t want to be Russell Crowe’s slob of a character in State of Play:
(That is one hell of a...
“In Europe, the economic crisis continues to worsen, especially in Greece, which...”
– Dave Barry’s 2011 Year in Review - Dave Barry - MiamiHerald.com
December 2011
1 post
Mean girls
Libby answers the important question: Why do guys date mean girls.
She pins a lot of it on social awkwardness and men being idiots, which mostly works, but I have two more reasons:
1. Some women (some! EVERYBODY CALM DOWN.) were raised to believe that if you’re not constantly asserting yourself, you’re submitting to the patriarchy. And there are men who have likewise been taught to...
November 2011
3 posts
“One would think that agreements could be signed on a more abbreviated schedule...”
– Eric Holder’s Caribbean Trip an Ill-Advised Junket, Critics Say - The Daily Beast
“Ignore loose talk about “draconian” spending cuts. Veronique de Rugy of George...”
– Spending’s ascending — with or without a budget sequester - George Will
OWS, protests, and politics
“To imagine protest not as prologue to politics, but as a substitute for it, suggests a denial of the reality of pluralism, and an unwillingness to find out what democracy actually looks like.” -Julian Sanchez
This isn’t a slam on the OWS protesters as it might be on activists *in general* but there are plenty of people in the Tea Party, in conservatism, in libertarianism, in...
October 2011
1 post
When will romantic comedies drop the "tutor"...
Alyssa Rosenberg’s post about the stunted development of guys in romantic comedies points to one of the worst cliches in the genre: The Matrix-like training sequence in which the relationship-clueless man-child turns to some wise female (or guy, as in “Hitch”) to become the once and future Casanova. It’s recycled, it’s trite, it also completely misunderstands...
September 2011
2 posts
Shouting into the meatloaf signifying nothing
It’s the worst-written article of the year. I think this one is it. Really. And this is how it begins:
I’ve spent a very long time considering meatloaf – where it came, from whence it came, and when it came (to American shores, that is). The results of my judicious research were just published on The Atlantic’s food site entitled, From Budget Fare to Culinary Inspiration, the History of...
“Had it not been for the advances of the Industrial Revolution, meatloaf as we...”
– It’s true! Same goes for a lot of foods. But hey, let’s call the meatloaf the flagship food of the industrial revolution anyway. Why the hell not?
From Budget Fare to Culinary Inspiration, the History of Meatloaf - Nadia Arumugam - Life - The Atlantic
August 2011
13 posts
Product Review: iHome Bluetooth Keyboard and...
iHome Bluetooth Keyboard and Leather Case for iPad 2 Rating: Don’t buy $69.99 Available at Amazon
There are a lot of things about living in the first world that are hard to complain about. I don’t have to carry a firearm from my living room to my kitchen to feel safe (but I can if I want!). Indoor plumbing. And access to great technology like the iPad 2.
But then come the first...
RT @guypbenson: RT @JoeTaxpayer: Seems odd that his entry on the #ames ballot is listed as “Newt & Callista Gingrich”
So i guess we are now in the endurance round, #rsg11. Where is everyone?
RT @ezraklein: The Fox moderators did a very good job with this debate.
Wow! Thx! MT @SteveForbesCEO: Prez attacking S&P, GOP when he should be attacking our economic problems. See @JPFreire: http://bit.ly/prGkE5
Wish I could! RT @LMurphyDC: Wooo! Who’s going? RT @DCeventjunkie: TOMORROW: DC Social Media Happy Hour http://bit.ly/ra1lTV #dcevents #dcsm
Obama approval ratings slip from AAA to AA+
Take the day, boss! RT @RyBitz: Hope it’s awesome! RT @NMSosphere Happy birthday to our fearless leader @PeteSnyder!
RT @2chambers: Lupe Tabasco #HipHopBBQActs
Is Debbie Wasserman-Schultz a secret muppet?
Because I think I just noticed for the first time ever that the Florida Democrat below:
…Is the spitting image of Janice from The Muppet Band (Better known as Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem):
Just. Saying.
Wordsmithery. RT @MattDeLuca: So @JPFreire intro’d ‘nincompoop’ to political lexicon http://youtu.be/KcF-bllaPww
According to Match.com, conservatives are more open to dating liberals than vice versa. http://bit.ly/raLpZm
Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver calls the deal “a sugar-coated Satan sandwich.” Maybe he meant “Seitan.”
RT @JimPethokoukis: GOP source: It will be “almost impossible” for new debt committee to raise taxes
July 2011
21 posts
Devising some kind of computer program that will alert me whenever @EzraKlein is on TV.
I HAVE TO PAY?! RT @daveweigel: RT @robertcostaNRO: Check out my Cantor profile in the new NR, out today (sub req’d) http://bit.ly/aqVQxr
Wow. #FloridaTweets RT @SaintPetersblog: I just ousted Don Z. as the mayor of Hooters on @foursquare! http://4sq.com/fh3DOm
RT @NMSosphere: Congratulations to @stephanie_cohen @whitleygaffney and @jillgurich for their winning #intern #projectnms presentation! …
It’s not the American people that haven’t called Congress enough — it’s the President.
MT @jamespoulos: Are we all living in a big-media world? @asymmetricinfo @michaelbd @JPFreire are your panel http://www.pjtv.com/s/GQ2TKMQ
Less tweeting more negotiation pls RT @ByronYork: Frm Cantor office. MT @bdayspring: 9 days b4 8/2. Rcmnd not stoking fear re: Asian markets
You must use your fork and rifle to eat them though. Rt @TimFernholz: Blueberry pancakes are the essence of New Hampshire vacation.
About to head outside to drink some milk in a phonebooth. Just because I can. #anchorman #milkisabadchoice
Dear policy scholars: If you feel a little bored about what you’re saying during a panel, imagine how the rest of us feel.
MT @AlyssaRosenberg: Or when Linka calls Wheeler her “sweet imperialist dog.” (I may have a post going up on this l8r) [Re: Capt. Planet]
RT @matthewhurtt: After scoring only a 37 while bowling in Altoona, PA in 2008, Obama said, “My economic plan is better than my bowling. …
My bus driver exercising a lit of discretion about what constitutes unlawful use of bike lanes.
Woo @DCExaminer alum! RT @kashhill: Being linked by @perezhilton makes the tabloid reporter inside me happy: http://bit.ly/naikv8
Interesting how my love of va cabbies over dc cabbies is rooted in incentives.
RT @pwixted: @Mike_Snead Congrats man! @NMSosphere Ass-Kicker
