Am I the only one who doesn’t think the History Channel’s Satan looks like Obama? When I saw it, it looked like one of the Sith Lords from SWTOR.
Archives for March 2013
Open thread
Tell it like it is, don’t be ashamed to let your conscience be your guide.
I never did believe in the ways of magic
Brad DeLong has an interesting review of a biography of Milton Friedman. He writes:
Part of what made Friedman a worthy adversary for American liberals was that he had a fully formed worldview, one that started with a bedrock commitment to people, to their ability to make judgments for themselves and to decide what they like best. Out of this commitment grew an imperative to maximize individual freedom. On top of that came the judgment that free markets are almost always the silver bullet to solve all of society’s problems, as well as a powerful conviction that the facts, if honestly examined, will always be on his side. And on top of that was layered a fear and suspicion of government as an easily captured tool for the enrichment of the cynical and powerful, who grab what they can.
[…]But, perhaps more seriously, Friedman ducked the big questions regarding the relationship between economic freedom and political liberty, and he was completely incapable of seeing that political liberty is both a negative and a positive liberty: freedom from tyranny and oppression but also the freedom and power to decide on and accomplish our common purposes. These are the master questions of history and moral philosophy, and for all his brilliance and hard work, Friedman is of absolutely no help in answering them. As Posner says, Friedrich Hayek’s Road to Serfdom “flunks the test of accuracy of prediction ” [The] view that socialism of the sort that Britain embraced under the old Labour Party was incompatible with democracy [is] extreme and inaccurate.” Yet Friedman bought into that Hayekian view. And in so doing, he ultimately led his followers, and tried to lead the rest of us, down a false path.
DeLong also mentions that he himself agrees with Friedman’s monetarist explanation (novel at the time) of what caused the Great Depression and that he regards Friedman as a mostly reality-based “first class” intellect.
I can’t help but think that the problem with Friedman’s intellectual legacy (I think it’s fair to say that the Chicago school of economics has been an unmitigated disaster during the last decade, at least) has more to do with the underlying nature of contemporary conservatism than with Friedman himself. Contemporary conservatives, too often, have a mystic belief in certain texts, gurus, and ideas. American exceptionalism, THE CONSTITUTION, Hayek, Friedman, the bible, free markets, magic dolphins…once upon a time the genius George W. Bush.
They’re almost all like this, whether they couch it in terms of religion (Ross Douthat) or even some kind of neuropseudoscientific marshmallow test mumbo jumbo (Bobo). There’s always a magic bullet right around the corner, or buried just beneath the sands of time.
There are plenty of important far-left writers who I enjoy reading and who have influenced how I see things, Marx and Chomsky, for example. But I don’t see them as infallible and while I find their analysis often brilliant, I probably disagree with their prescriptions at least as much as I agree with Friedman’s.
Like a lot of liberals, I see the future as a hard slog that can hopefully be ameliorated by smart liberal policies, but I don’t think that if everyone went back and read this or that book, we’ll have paradise on earth or that understanding neuropathways better will move us all that far towards a utopia.
And, to me, that’s a crucial difference between the right and the left right now.
I never did believe in the ways of magicPost + Comments (111)
“Promising”
The Superficial is a site that specializes in bikini pictures of B-,C-,D- and E-list celebrities, so you’ve been warned that it’s NSFW, but he got this one right:
In case you haven’t seen this video goddamn everywhere, where it should be, above is CNN’s Poppy Harlow literally telling Candy Crowley that it was “emotional” watching two “promising” young men like Steubenville football players Adam Mays and Ma’lik Richmond have their lives ruined because they happened to be convicted of taking photos of themselves raping a 16-year-old girl and brazenly putting them all over Facebook. God, just all that promise of being good at football wasted because everyone had to make a big deal about a rape they clearly felt safe and comfortable advertising without fear of prosecution […]
What’s even more amazing is that Poppy Harlow made those comments after hearing Trent Mays’ “apology” to the victim’s family when common sense and decency would’ve suggested she go a different angle like, oh I dunno, saying, “Fuck the little shits.” Via CNN:
“No pictures should have been sent out, let alone been taken,” he said.
“So, listen, sorry we took pictures of us raping your daughter, that was way over the line. We’ll totally skip that part next time.” – America’s promising future
The two boys were tried as juveniles, Mays got two years and Richmond got one (though both could be in jail until the are 21). Here’s a more SFW version of the CNN video.
Happier than a dog with three balls
Hello, dears. Just popping my head up above the water to say hello and bring you a quick dump and run of delights.
First, I’m popping out the oldies with Lenny Bernstein’s slick version of Exultate Jubilate. The recording is very Lenny – a big church filled bombastically to the formerets with an orchestra consisting of every single fucking person in Bavaria who can play an instrument (cute violinist alert at 5.04) and a deathly silent audience, stunned into submission by the music and the stark staring terror that they might cough and Lenny would gut them with his baton. However, Arleen Auger’s voice is lovely, and this recording is the one I hear in my head if I happen to think of Lenny. It was playing one night at one of his parties, and he was serving drinks and bopping around like he usually did when he got to hear his own performances, like a drunk bullfrog that has been connected to the mains, and at the height of one particularly spastic conniption he managed to tip an entire jug of margaritas over Nancy Reagan, so it always makes me laugh. The recording of the Great Mass in C minor that goes with this on CD is a cracker, by the way.
Next, following on from Cole’s mustard abduction, a charming little story by Theodore Sturgeon called “Yesterday Was Monday” which was pointed out by KBS, and which explains everything.
Random food blogness: Fat Yu, who apparently IS FAT YU! (and also a tiny little bit racist on the Japanese), but who writes otherwise entertainingly of his eating exploits around Shanghai.
If you like a bit of tentacle in your tale and can “Ïa! ïa! Shub niggurath!” with the best of them, you might enjoy Innsmouth Mazazine. I have been working my way through them very happily, even if they do give me odd dreams.
Last, and then I am off to bed in my upside-down down-under bed, I suggest you go and see the website of sculptor Thomas Doyle to see the coolest things ever.
Goodnight my dears. Sleep well and dream of Ted Cruz slowly slipping down a slavering and drool-bespattered maw. Ïa! ïa! Cthulhu fhtagn!
It’s Nice to See Some Consistency
“Rob is a great friend and a long-time ally,” Boehner, the top Republican in Congress, told ABC’s “This Week.”
“I believe that marriage is the union of one man and one woman. It’s what I grew up with. It’s what I believe. It’s what my church teaches me. And I can’t imagine that position would ever change,” added Boehner, who is a Roman Catholic.
Boehner has two daughters. If he hasn’t changed any of his positions based on that, why would anyone think he’d give a shit about what Rob Portman did?
Monday Morning Open Thread
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Yes, there is stuff on the internet that doesn’t suck.
In other quirky entertainment news, from io9:
Super Clyde, the CBS comedy pilot in which Rupert Grint gets rich and decides to become a superhero, is getting an actor worthy of its Batman-spoofing concept. Stephen Fry will be playing the butler who helps Grint’s Clyde with his crimefighting quest.
Deadline reports that Fry will be playing Randolph, the butler and sidekick to young Clyde. Clyde is a meek fast-food worker who comes into a fortune and decides, taking his cues from Batman, to become a superhero. But given the comedic nature of the show and Fry’s prior butler experience, their relationship may be less Alfred-and-Bruce than Jeeves-and-Wooster….
What else is on the agenda for the start of another week?