If someone is Islamic and describes himself as moderate, it goes without saying that he is immediately required to condemn each and every bad thing that any Muslim person has ever done. But even that is not enough in a way that I’ve had a hard describing. Larison nails it: As far as I can …
David Brooks Giving A Seminar At The Aspen Institute
In the year 2525
I’m struck by how long-term the projections are in Paul Ryan’s “Roadmap” balance the budget by 2063, and reduce Medicare’s expected share of the economy in 2080 from a projected 14.3 percent of GDP to a mere 4 percent. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for using CBO/JCT (I’m sure Megan McArdle would say I’m …
We are all Burlingtonians now
Reflecting on the twin horrors of gay marriage and the wholesale destruction of a Burlington Coat Factory outlet in lower Manhattan, I see a lot of similarity between the two issues. Frum Forum makes the point that all Obama said last night is that that “our laws grant people the right to do what they …
Replying to Erik
I spend a huge amount time of time bitching about how establishment media types go too easy on each other. So, without being too much of an asshole, I have to say that, while Erik made a lot of good points in his post (I agree that the gravel road stuff is more symbolic than …
Assymetrical idiocy
There are those who say that I spend too much time criticizing Megan McArdle and baiting others into defending her. To them, I say: I don’t think there’s anything wrong with Michelle Obama vacationing in Spain; they have the money, so why not? But I agree with Doug Mataconis that, while there’s nothing actually wrong …
Peg, it will come back to you
Peggy Noonan has awoken from a vodka coma to discover that the economy is bad and that leaders in Washington don’t seem to care very much about the fact that wages stink and millions of people are out of work. So far, so good. It’s not a particularly novel observation, but it’s better than magic …
The world is a vampire
We are ruled by sociopathic ‘tweens (via): A few days earlier I had been forwarded a memo written by the hedge fund chief Tom Barrack to his underlings at Colony Capital. In it, he described a “personal breakthrough” he had made as a result of reading the Twilight books. “I feel renewed and refreshed, having …