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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Monday Evening Open Thread: Blood Moons & Seder Plates

Monday Evening Open Thread: Blood Moons & Seder Plates

by Anne Laurie|  April 14, 20147:06 pm| 80 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Religion, Science & Technology

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The "Blood Moon" is upon us: 5 things to know about tonight's freaky lunar eclipse http://t.co/gOG8ftGI6j pic.twitter.com/aC4neIspLH

— Salon.com (@Salon) April 14, 2014

From the link:

… A blood moon is so-called, due to the moon’s red hue during a total lunar eclipse. The United States will be in prime orbital position to witness a blood moon in the wee hours of tomorrow morning. “Depending on local weather conditions, the public will get a spectacular view looking into the sky as the moon’s appearance will change from bright orange to blood red to dark brown and perhaps gray,” explains NASA. “The eclipse is a phenomenon that occurs when the Earth, moon and sun are in perfect alignment, blanketing the moon in the Earth’s shadow.” The next time the U.S. will be in this position to witness a lunar eclipse is in 2019…

Much fear has been stirred up over this particular blood moon, since it coincides with the Jewish holiday of Passover, and comes soon before the Christian holiday, Easter. However, despite the fears of Pastor John Hagee — who wrote a book called “Four Blood Moons: Something is About to Change” — the rapture is not upon us.

Eclipses are rooted in science and the moon’s tilted orbit. Also, tetrads themselves are not extraordinarily rare. According to Fred Espenak, a NASA astrophysicist, there are nine sets in the 21st century. What makes this tetrad so special is that all four can be totally or partially viewed in the U.S…

It is also (thank you, commentor Gene108) the Tamil New Year:

The Tamil New Year in 2014 will be called Jaya, the 28th year in the 60-year Tamil calendar…

“Jaya will bring all-round prosperity to the people of the country,” forecasts astrologer R Swaminathan. “There will be good rain and good harvest. People will be generally happy, but there is bound to be some hindrances during happy occasions,” he said…

Of course, Passover, the Tamil New Year, and Easter are all calculated in relation to the first full moon after the spring equinox, so it’s no coincidence, but why pass up an excuse for a celebration?
***********
Apart from religious or moon-watching parties, what’s on the agenda for the evening?

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Reader Interactions

80Comments

  1. 1.

    Litlebritdiftrnt

    April 14, 2014 at 7:11 pm

    There is no sound on that video. And no my speakers are not muted, the video is, and it won’t let you unmute.

  2. 2.

    ranchandsyrup

    April 14, 2014 at 7:14 pm

    Random music post about an Ambulance LTD song that turns into a mini-rant about long intros to songs. I am not a fan of those.

  3. 3.

    Anne Laurie

    April 14, 2014 at 7:17 pm

    @Litlebritdiftrnt: It’s playing just fine for me (Pale Moon/FireFox 20-something)…

    Anybody got an idea what the problem is?

  4. 4.

    JPL

    April 14, 2014 at 7:17 pm

    @Litlebritdiftrnt: Try it again because my sound worked. I love Les Mis and they do a wonderful job.

  5. 5.

    DaveInOz

    April 14, 2014 at 7:17 pm

    Here in Melbourne the moon will rise in full eclipse which I understand is fairly unusual. Hopefully, the sky will be clear this evening so we can see it.

  6. 6.

    scav

    April 14, 2014 at 7:18 pm

    Aaahhhhh, the traditionally startled look of daffodils as they get snowed upon. Can it get more springlike than that?

  7. 7.

    Violet

    April 14, 2014 at 7:20 pm

    @Litlebritdiftrnt: Sounds works for me. I had that happen once and had to restart my browser and/or reboot my computer. Maybe something is hung up on your computer.

  8. 8.

    OzarkHillbilly

    April 14, 2014 at 7:20 pm

    Sadly, I will be asleep (if I am lucky) thru this one. I still contend that the Blood moon of January 2000 was a setup (Pope Gregory’s astrologers adjusted the calenders for that specific purpose), but we still had a HELL of a good time celebrating the first Lunar eclipse of the Millenium.

  9. 9.

    Linnaeus

    April 14, 2014 at 7:22 pm

    Probably going to be too cloudy here in the Great Northwest to see it. Darn.

  10. 10.

    WereBear

    April 14, 2014 at 7:23 pm

    Figures. 99% of the interesting astronomical events takes place on a cloudy night where I am. Thank goodness for the Net.

    Enjoying the heck out of my Oyster app. Netflix for books. It’s just that it has one of the dumbest logos I’ve ever seen.

  11. 11.

    Roger Moore

    April 14, 2014 at 7:23 pm

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Sadly, I will be asleep (if I am lucky) thru this one.

    They’re worth getting up for if you’ve never seen one.

  12. 12.

    OzarkHillbilly

    April 14, 2014 at 7:23 pm

    @Litlebritdiftrnt: Works for me, and I am the most computer incompetent person here, so I have no advice or even a clue.

  13. 13.

    Cermet

    April 14, 2014 at 7:25 pm

    Oh no! We are are all gonna die … of course, I didn’t say when … .

  14. 14.

    OzarkHillbilly

    April 14, 2014 at 7:27 pm

    @Roger Moore: Apparently you missed the part about naked drunken dancing at 3 am on January 12, 2000. Oh, wait a minute, I didn’t brag about that part. Oh well, now I did. ;-)

  15. 15.

    mainmata

    April 14, 2014 at 7:27 pm

    Jaya means victory in Sanskrit (also Indonesian) so I guess that can be extended to prosperity by implication. The Incans thought blood moons were caused by a jaguar eating the moon. Now that’s a serious jaguar.

  16. 16.

    JGabriel

    April 14, 2014 at 7:30 pm

    Shit. I just checked the weather, and while it’s clear now in NYC, we’re supposed to get clouds and rain later tonight.

    So … probably no visibility for the eclipse here. Very disappointing.

  17. 17.

    NotMax

    April 14, 2014 at 7:32 pm

    There’s A Moon Out Tonight

    Eclipse

    And, for mucho grins, the literal Total Eclipse of the Heart

  18. 18.

    John Cole

    April 14, 2014 at 7:34 pm

    Can someone tell me when to look for it, or is it all night?

  19. 19.

    ranchandsyrup

    April 14, 2014 at 7:37 pm

    @John Cole: around 3 a.m. EST for totality

  20. 20.

    NotMax

    April 14, 2014 at 7:37 pm

    @John Cole

    East Coast: begins at 1:58 a.m., totality at 3:06.

  21. 21.

    eric

    April 14, 2014 at 7:38 pm

    @John Cole: it is at night.

  22. 22.

    Roger Moore

    April 14, 2014 at 7:39 pm

    @John Cole:
    You need to look for details for your area. Different areas see the parts of the eclipse at different times.

  23. 23.

    SiubhanDuinne

    April 14, 2014 at 7:39 pm

    @John Cole:

    Not ALL night. Here’s your best guide.

    http://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/lunar/2014-april-15

  24. 24.

    OzarkHillbilly

    April 14, 2014 at 7:39 pm

    @JGabriel:

    Shit. I just checked the weather,

    So did I. It’s snowing. Fwck me.

  25. 25.

    J.Ty

    April 14, 2014 at 7:41 pm

    @DaveInOz: Oh man, this one time in college I was, um, having consumed various cactus-based alkaloids, and there was a lunar eclipse moonrise, complete, as I recall, with a nice late-fall magnification effect. ’twas magnificent.

    Looking forward to staying up tonight and challenging the fog demons to a battle of wits.

  26. 26.

    dmsilev

    April 14, 2014 at 7:42 pm

    It’s fucking snowing in here in Chicago right now.

    Not fair.

  27. 27.

    SiubhanDuinne

    April 14, 2014 at 7:42 pm

    Looks like I won’t be able to see it, thanks to cloud cover and possibly rain. I miss more damned eclipses* because of overcast conditions. Pisses me off.

    *(Both solar and lunar.)

  28. 28.

    OzarkHillbilly

    April 14, 2014 at 7:43 pm

    Sh!t, no big deal, my wife sees a total eclipse of the moon every night when I go to bed and cover up.

  29. 29.

    Elizabelle

    April 14, 2014 at 7:44 pm

    Temp in DC area may drop 30+ degrees by tomorrow night. Rain expected; hope we can see eclipse. Last night’s moon and temp were spectacular.

  30. 30.

    Russ

    April 14, 2014 at 7:45 pm

    some guy, actually a preacher, said that the blood moon means the rapture is upon us and I put an ad on Craigslist to those blessed with being pure enough to be those that will go up to leave their worldly house to me since they won’t need it anymore. I’m convinced that…………

    we’ll see.

  31. 31.

    NotMax

    April 14, 2014 at 7:45 pm

    Dibs on calling tonight the night Betty Cracker does not wrangle with insomnia.

  32. 32.

    eric

    April 14, 2014 at 7:48 pm

    @dmsilev: that is not snow. i refuse to believe it. i dont want to leave my office but it does not look like it is stopping soon

  33. 33.

    ranchandsyrup

    April 14, 2014 at 7:48 pm

    Mixed feelings about this family that had to be rescued at sea. Cost the San Diego taxpayers $600K plus to rescue them and they’re intent on playing the victim to the internet meanies. They’re mostly getting a pass locally because they’re white, attractive, and have a hard luck-ish story. The mom blogged about it today http://www.therebelheart.com/charlottes-blog/2014/4/13/overwhelmed-shocked-saddened.html

  34. 34.

    Roger Moore

    April 14, 2014 at 7:50 pm

    @Russ:

    I’m convinced that…………

    we’ll see.

    The people who are raptured won’t see. Other than that, it seems like a very safe prediction.

  35. 35.

    ruemara

    April 14, 2014 at 7:55 pm

    Hmm, I think I’ll set up the camera and tripod for it. And the alarm. If you see a floating white shirt, i’m outside in my vic secrets poet night shirt, trying to get a shot.

  36. 36.

    Schlemizel

    April 14, 2014 at 7:55 pm

    I have seen pictures of Saturn all my life. Even saw color photos when I was older. But the first time I looked though a telescope and actually saw the actual rings of Saturn in real time I was dumb struck. SOmething about knowing I was actually looking at the real planet floating in space was so much more real. If it were not cloudy I would be up to actually see the actual moon because it is so much better, even if it is not as clear as a photo. I hope one of the next 3 happen on a night clear enough for me to see.

  37. 37.

    Roger Moore

    April 14, 2014 at 8:00 pm

    @ruemara:
    It’s trickier than it sounds. The moon is normally pretty easy to photograph because it’s so bright, but during a total eclipse it’s dim enough that you need to use a longer exposure and it can move enough to make your shot blurry unless you use a higher ISO than you might expect.

    ETA: I wonder if they’re having a viewing at Griffith Park Observatory. That could be a lot of fun.

  38. 38.

    geg6

    April 14, 2014 at 8:00 pm

    As usual, too cloudy here to see spectacular space shit. Damn it.

    Quiet night. Probably eat some wings and salad and veg out. Rough Monday.

  39. 39.

    JGabriel

    April 14, 2014 at 8:01 pm

    John Cole:

    Can someone tell me when to look for it, or is it all night?

    These are NYC times, but W. Va. (and anywhere near the East Coast) should be similar:

    Penumbral Eclipse begins: 12:55 AM
    Partial Eclipse begins: 1:59 AM
    Full Eclipse begins: 3:08 AM
    Maximum Eclipse: 3:46 AM
    Full Eclipse ends: 4:23 AM
    Partial Eclipse ends: 5:32 AM
    Penumbral Eclipse ends: 6:36 AM

  40. 40.

    lamh36

    April 14, 2014 at 8:05 pm

    ugh. why do I always have a problem loading Chrome? It seems like every so often when I access Chrome the pages dont’ load and the explanation is that it’s taking too long to load!

  41. 41.

    Scamp Dog

    April 14, 2014 at 8:14 pm

    So for me right now, the ad at the top is for a grammar checker…and all the errors shown corrected in its headline are in fact spelling errors. Fail!

  42. 42.

    Betty Cracker

    April 14, 2014 at 8:17 pm

    Hoping to see it, but clouds are building. Damn.

  43. 43.

    thruppence

    April 14, 2014 at 8:22 pm

    Trying to save my marriage. I don’t believe in omens, but still… (shudder)

  44. 44.

    max

    April 14, 2014 at 8:22 pm

    @NotMax: And, for mucho grins, the literal Total Eclipse of the Heart

    You guys.

    Boomtown Rats – Up All Night (1982) (complete with eMpTyV trailer!)

    Also, Peaches Geldof passed away, so Boomtown Rats – I Don’t Like Mondays is weird, but appropriate.

    max
    [‘Hopefully some of the clouds will clear out and I can get a shot. My tripod is gone though. ;/ ‘]

  45. 45.

    MomSense

    April 14, 2014 at 8:25 pm

    Huge gust of wind just blew the storm door off the hinges! So sick of bad weather.

  46. 46.

    Frankensteinbeck

    April 14, 2014 at 8:29 pm

    Passover, the Tamil New Year, and Easter are all calculated in relation to the first full moon after the spring equinox

    I know nothing about Tamil, but Easter is deliberately calculated to be the Sunday after the Passover seders – as best can be done linking a solar calendar to a lunar calendar. God Man’s first born son (the God Wonder) was not passed over. Maybe he didn’t listen to the part of the story about the shank bone?

    EDIT – There’s a God Cave in the story and everything.

  47. 47.

    Anne Laurie

    April 14, 2014 at 8:35 pm

    @John Cole: Boston weatherguy says it’ll start around 2am, peaking at 3:45am — shouldn’t be too different for WV. Of course, because this is New England, odds are the cloudy front will get here before then!

  48. 48.

    ruemara

    April 14, 2014 at 8:45 pm

    Anyone been to Amsterdam? I’ve been looking up coffeeshops in Amsterdam for the past 3 hours. I need to find one that will allow us to shoot a segment in there.

  49. 49.

    Belafon

    April 14, 2014 at 8:49 pm

    A twitter picture to lighten the mood.

  50. 50.

    Kristine

    April 14, 2014 at 8:54 pm

    @dmsilev: According to Mike Hamernik/WGN, we could see clearing by 1-3 am. Might be able to see something.

  51. 51.

    Applejinx

    April 14, 2014 at 9:06 pm

    I builded a minecraft mod http://gfycat.com/EachClutteredGrassspider
    It’s running on a server and you can come raise hell if you want :) http://ash.mc.cubedhost.com/index.php?r=status/858.png
    Vanilla (or optifine) 1.7.2 clients and I’m trying to let people know what we done
    http://www.reddit.com/r/homesoil/

  52. 52.

    MikeJ

    April 14, 2014 at 9:10 pm

    @Applejinx: Cool! I’ve just been playing again after a long time away.

    Unrelated, here’s a red lunar eclipse I shot a few years ago.

  53. 53.

    WaterGirl

    April 14, 2014 at 9:13 pm

    @MikeJ: That photo is amazing.

  54. 54.

    PurpleGirl

    April 14, 2014 at 9:17 pm

    @ranchandsyrup: It is supposed to start around 2 am and the total eclipse process from start to finish should take around 3.5 hours.

  55. 55.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    April 14, 2014 at 9:18 pm

    @ranchandsyrup: I got no mixed feelings. They were reckless, and were rescued at great expense.

    @MikeJ: Spectacular shot. Thanks for sharing.

  56. 56.

    gbear

    April 14, 2014 at 9:20 pm

    Moon turns red, Moon turns white. Never a miscommunication. You can’t explain that.

  57. 57.

    Pee Cee

    April 14, 2014 at 9:25 pm

    Since it’ll be cloudy and rainy for this lunar eclipse, I think I’ll just look at the one from 2008 instead.

  58. 58.

    lamh36

    April 14, 2014 at 9:29 pm

    It’s almost blockbuster movie time. Anyone else seen the new trailer for the upcoming X-Men First Class movie? It looks good, or maybe it’s just me…lol.

    So glad Bryan Singer is back in the Directors chair. He did the first 2 X-Men films and they were the best of the trilogy! Will it be in your neck of the woods before the US?

    X-Men: Days of Future Past | “Opening Battle” Clip [HD] | 20th Century

  59. 59.

    PurpleGirl

    April 14, 2014 at 9:33 pm

    I stayed up one time to see a lunar eclipse and ended up having to go outside my building to see it. I may stay up for tonight’s eclipse — hope I can see it from the terrace, though.

  60. 60.

    Steeplejack

    April 14, 2014 at 9:35 pm

    Nate Silver is scheduled to be on The Daily Show tonight

  61. 61.

    Roger Moore

    April 14, 2014 at 9:37 pm

    @ranchandsyrup:
    Are these the same idiots who tried to earn a Darwin Award while emigrating to the South Pacific, or are these a different batch of idiots?

  62. 62.

    Hill Dweller

    April 14, 2014 at 9:37 pm

    @Steeplejack: It’s a re-run.

  63. 63.

    PurpleGirl

    April 14, 2014 at 9:40 pm

    @ranchandsyrup: Weren’t they in the news once before after having trouble at sea and they were supposed to move to Arizona (New Mexico??) to stay with relatives until they attempted the sailing trip again? There were rude comments at that time, too.

  64. 64.

    PaulW

    April 14, 2014 at 10:02 pm

    It’s National Library Week. Support your local libraries! CHECK OUT MY BOOKS! Tweet #NLW and make sure it’s not about baseball’s NL West!

  65. 65.

    phantomist

    April 14, 2014 at 10:02 pm

    @Steeplejack:

    Maybe he will let know the odds a web site currently has three links to:

    1)Like Bush, Many Republicans Are Moderate on Immigration

    2)Jeb Bush’s Stance on Education May Not Be That Controversial

    3)Jeb Bush Has as Good a Shot as Anybody

  66. 66.

    Steeplejack

    April 14, 2014 at 10:39 pm

    @Hill Dweller:

    D’oh!

  67. 67.

    JCJ

    April 14, 2014 at 10:43 pm

    @Anne Laurie:

    April 13 was the new year in Thailand. It is called Songkran. In Thailand people throw water in each other as part of the “celebration.”

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songkran_(Thailand)

  68. 68.

    NotMax

    April 14, 2014 at 10:48 pm

    @ruemara

    Why not call up the Dutch embassy? Couldn’t hurt.

  69. 69.

    ranchandsyrup

    April 14, 2014 at 10:51 pm

    @a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): I get that. I’m glad they’re ok and it’s the internet so some people went too far. But I totally agree re recklessness.

    @Roger Moore: different idiots. Their backstory is that dad lost his job so they took to their 30 ft boat to sail around the world. Which must be nice to fall back on.

    @PurpleGirl: different people. They’re white and attractive and it’s funny to see the local media tie thrash about to give them every benefit of every doubt.

  70. 70.

    Mnemosyne

    April 14, 2014 at 11:44 pm

    @ruemara:
    @NotMax:

    Also, Amsterdam has its own film commission, so that wouldn’t be a bad place to email.

  71. 71.

    Steeplejack

    April 15, 2014 at 12:06 am

    @phantomist:

    Okay, those titles prompted me to go over to FiveThirtyEight, halfway in a “You’re kidding, right?” way. Unfortunately not. The piece that caught my eye was this one: “Losing Benefits Isn’t Prodding Unemployed Back to Work,” by Chief Economics Writer Ben Casselman. The lead:

    The cutoff of federal unemployment benefits doesn’t seem to be helping the long-term unemployed get back to work.

    “Helping”? Seriously? Why would you even phrase it like that?!

    And it gets worse:

    Some economists had argued that the program was doing more harm than good by discouraging recipients from looking for work or taking jobs. They said that because the job market was improving, the time had come to cut off benefits. That would prod the unemployed to get back to work, perhaps leading them to accept offers that seem less than ideal.

    The “some economists” quoted are at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative—nay, flamingly conservative—think tank founded by Reagan’s 1980 campaign manager and head spook William J. Casey. And when I say “flamingly conservative,” I mean: for fracking, in favor of “school choice” and welfare reform (Charles Murray of Losing Ground and Bell Curve fame was a fellow from 1981 to 1990) and opposed to allowing the government to negotiate drug prices in Medicare Part D. And funded by the Kochs, Richard Mellon Scaife and other right-wing billionaires.

    Then Casselman arrives at his analysis:

    So far, however, the evidence doesn’t seem to support that theory. Rather than finding jobs, the long-term unemployed continue to be out of luck.

    We now have three months’ worth of job market data since the benefits program expired. The chart below shows job-finding rates for the long-term and short-term unemployed. Notice three things: First, the short-term unemployed have a much better chance of finding a job than the long-term unemployed and always have. Second, the short-term unemployed are seeing a steady improvement in their prospects, but the long-term jobless are not. And third, there’s been no major shift since the benefits program expired at the end of last year.

    Then, after the chart, this bombshell:

    Three months is too small a sample to draw firm conclusions. These calculations are based on the Current Population Survey, which only includes about 1,400 long-term unemployed workers in its sample each month and which doesn’t distinguish between those receiving benefits and those who, for whatever reason, don’t qualify.

    The very first commenter (Scott Atha) says:

    3 months of data presented on a graph of 11 years of historical data with all kinds of statistical noise built in . . . seriously, nothing can be meaningfully concluded from this except [. . .]: “Three months is too small a sample to draw firm conclusions.”

    Thus, my question is the following, how are you honestly able to use this misleading headline without losing any integrity as a website who purports to let the data drive the message?

    Casselman responds:

    One of the ideas for our blog (as opposed to our features) is that it’s a place to kick around ideas before all the evidence is in. This is an important and hotly debated public policy issue, so I thought it would be worth checking in on what the data show so far. I take your point about the chart; I wanted to give a long enough time series to show the longer-run trend, but you’re right that it makes it hard to see the month-to-month movement (which is substantial).

    In any case. this is far from a final answer, as I made sure to point out; I’ll be keeping a close eye on this issue and plan to write more once we have more evidence.

    I have been trying to maintain a “wait and see” attitude about Nate Silver’s site, but it’s getting to the point that every new thing I see makes me more pessimistic. The piece above combines bleedingly obvious facts (if you follow, say, Krugman’s blog) buried in a thicket of weirdly rightish, libertarian framing. I mean, who defines the current unemployment crisis as people declining to “accept offers that seem less than ideal”?

  72. 72.

    Omnes Omnibus

    April 15, 2014 at 12:16 am

    @Steeplejack:

    I mean, who defines the current unemployment crisis as people declining to “accept offers that seem less than ideal”?

    Rhetorical, yes?

  73. 73.

    Groucho48

    April 15, 2014 at 12:29 am

    I mean, who defines the current unemployment crisis as people declining to “accept offers that seem less than ideal”?

    Why, Republicans do, of course. That was one of their major arguments in refusing to extend unemployment insurance. I remember some of them saying that if the several million unemployed were serious about working, they would just move to N. Dakota, where the unemployment rate was really low. Seriously, that was their argument. So was the argument that the unemployed will have no incentive to look for a job with that sweet, sweet hundred dollars a week of unemployment benefits.

    I assume this article was aimed at those talking points. It’s a shame that it sounds like they jumped the gun on releasing the figures before there were enough of them to come to a solid conclusion.

  74. 74.

    Steeplejack

    April 15, 2014 at 12:35 am

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Fer shure.

  75. 75.

    Steeplejack

    April 15, 2014 at 12:43 am

    @Groucho48:

    It’s a shame that it sounds like they jumped the gun on releasing the figures before there were enough of them to come to a solid conclusion.

    Even the (factual) parts of the piece that I quoted above pretty much refute the spin he is trying to impart. And there’s less solid information in the whole piece than in Krugman’s short blog post a few months ago in which he got across the salient points: stopping benefits doesn’t help; there aren’t any jobs, ideal or otherwise; the long-term unemployed are screwed; and the short-term unemployed are unscrewed only in comparison to the long-term unemployed.

  76. 76.

    Steeplejack

    April 15, 2014 at 12:44 am

    @Omnes Omnibus, @Groucho48:

    And thanks for reading. I feared I had gone full mclaren‌—epically long post at the end of a seemingly dead thread.

  77. 77.

    JGabriel

    April 15, 2014 at 2:03 am

    @Steeplejack:

    I have been trying to maintain a “wait and see” attitude about Nate Silver’s site, but it’s getting to the point that every new thing I see makes me more pessimistic. The piece above combines bleedingly obvious facts (if you follow, say, Krugman’s blog) buried in a thicket of weirdly rightish, libertarian framing.

    I remember thinking, way the hell back when Nate was still posting on DKos as Poblano, that the rhetoric of his commentary seemed vaguely contrarian. But his numbers were good, so, at the time, I just wrote it off as a stats guy maybe confusing cause and effect, or, ironically in retrospect, signal and noise.

    So I’m not too surprised by the contrarian bent 538 seems to be taking. A little disappointed, but not surprised.

  78. 78.

    Steeplejack

    April 15, 2014 at 2:41 am

    @JGabriel:

    Ah, contrarian is a good word to get across the vibe there. It’s not Slate-y contrarian, but it’s in the same ball park.

  79. 79.

    Bobby Thomson

    April 16, 2014 at 2:57 pm

    @Steeplejack: You’ve completely misread the article. It snarkily sets up the strawman that unemployment benefits discourage unemployment, quoting conservatives. Then it knocks it down, and shows that unemployment benefits don’t dampen employment, and that cutting them off doesn’t boost it, either.

  80. 80.

    Bobby Thomson

    April 16, 2014 at 2:59 pm

    @Steeplejack:

    Even the (factual) parts of the piece that I quoted above pretty much refute the spin he is trying to impart.

    No, the factual parts of the article refute the spin of conservatives. Which is the point of the article. Your reading comprehension sucks.

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