Month: February 2015

by liberal japonicus An open thread for Leonard Nimoy. I suspect we have a number of interesting takes and anecdotes in the hive mind.

by liberal japonicus It would be hard to overestimate my lack of understanding of economics. So when I read an article like this, I'm totally baffled. Some graphs from the article Takatoshi Ito, an economist at Columbia’s School of International & Public Affairs, argued at a panel discussion on Monday that unless the Japanese government … Read more

by Ugh This is a bit dated, but Jack Goldsmith, whose claim to fame is being less insane than John Yoo and Jay Bybee, and Jane Harman, former Democratic congresswoman and now President of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (NOT the one at Princeton, it seems), had an Op-Ed in the WaPo entitled "What should … Read more

by liberal japonicus There have been a number of wonderful pieces about David Carr, like this one by Jennifer Senior at NYMag that ends with this: There came a moment after September 11 when I told David how sad and afraid I was to be single. This was a risky confession: David wasn’t much for … Read more

by Doctor Science It’s been a long and very cold day for me. I woke up this morning to Mister Doctor saying the pipes were frozen and he had to be leaving right now. Fortunately it wasn’t a complete freeze — the hot water was still running. Running hot water for a while got us … Read more

by Doctor Science More evidence of the conservative grifter problem just came out, in a report from Right Wing News. They found that the bottom 10 performing PACs we researched spent $54,318,498 overall and only paid out $3,621,896 to candidates — less than 7%. My theory about why American conservativism has more of a problem … Read more

by liberal japonicus Depressing news. I've had Musicophilla on my to read stack for far too long and I see that he had a new memoir, On The Move coming out in May.

by russell I'm not sure what to even say about this.  Yes, there's a lot of money looking for a productive home.  Yes, interest rates are so low that lower risk investments just don't pay much.  What to do?  I know – securitize high-interest used car loans to high-risk borrowers. Didn't we just go through … Read more

by liberal japonicus In my newsfeed, I saw the passing of Steve Montador, a hockey defenseman, at the age of 35. Googling a bit, it says he had a 13 season career, but a series of concussions basically ended his career. LGM has a much more informed post and I don’t follow hockey at all, and … Read more

by liberal japonicus Interesting article about Justine Sacco which gets at why I like to hang out here and not go out too much.