|
|
|
|
|
|
Jens 'n' Frens |
|
|
|
|
|
Kate Malcolm likes the Midwest and dislikes Korematsu (I believe she means the ruling, not the fellow). I like Kate. Anyone want to guess which members of Bush's cabinet? Please let it be Rumsfeld... ::: posted by Steven at 3:58 AM (0) comments Lileks has written a Christmas screed. ::: posted by Steven at 2:56 AM (0) comments Ann Coulter concludes her column (this really isn't a spoiler) as follows: Republicans should ask Lott to step down as leader, but only for all the nice things he's said about Teddy Kennedy. And for his new support for affirmative action. Incidentally, I rather like "The Bernie Mac Show". ::: posted by Steven at 1:46 AM (0) comments I disagree both with Pat Buchanan, who thinks Bush has interfered in the Senate Republicans' selection of their leader, and with Lincoln Chafee, who thinks that Bush should interfere. Come to think of it, I'm actually pretty comfortable with that. ::: posted by Steven at 1:14 AM (0) comments Larry Elder writes:
I wouldn't go out of my way to read the rest of the column, but I wouldn't avoid it either. ::: posted by Steven at 1:04 AM (0) comments Volokh the Elder has found a more finished head count on Lott votes. ::: posted by Steven at 12:48 AM (0) comments Wednesday, December 18, 2002 ::: Since the previous post sort of delved into finance, I figured I'd separate my second comment about Taranto into a second entry. I just wanted to vent publicly about the stick he has up his nether-regions over the Reuters "Oddly Enough" category. Taranto seems to speak a dialect in which "oddly enough" means "happy fun-fun stories of joy and mirth". Reuters -- which tends to speak English, at least when not discussing terrorism -- uses it to mean "the lunatic fringe begins here". Many of their stories are, hence, macabre. Even if he had a point when he first brought it up -- maybe we get more of a kick out of the weird than is healthy in a culture -- he's made it. This isn't one of the top ten problems facing the world today, but I do think Taranto could give it a rest. ::: posted by Steven at 11:40 PM (0) comments Taranto says:
Could we please not do this sort of thing? It might be nice to think there's some karma at work, causing McDonald's to sputter as it allows franchises in foreign countries to adhere to less pleasant aspects of those countries' cultures, but we don't really believe this, do we? McDonald's has seen its brand diluted, but that's not because Pakistanis don't find it sufficiently American. It's more a function of their "quantity over quality" mantra being taken too far over the last few years, combined (domestically, at least) with their price war with Burger King. It's my understanding that in the last quarter or so, they've started measuring performance by metrics other than "number of stores open". I'm not sure they've hit on "dollars in minus dollars out", but they have shut down some under-performing restaurants, and are focusing more on food quality and service than on sheer volume. Don't get me wrong -- the whole concept of "fast food" is one of higher volume and lower quality than you might find at Applebee's, but even we McDonald's types have some standards. Which is why Wendy's has been doing so much better than McDonald's (their six-month stock-chart doesn't reflect that unless you compare it with that of MCD, but I did mention a price war). I wouldn't fault you for buying either stock at current prices, though I think Wendy's is safer (and I'm not feeling compelled to buy either one just yet). ::: posted by Steven at 11:26 PM (0) comments Nobody who lives more than a few miles from here will care, but I've just been informed that Henry Middlezong, of the ward 1 (East Cambridge) comittee, became a father this morning. The boy is called William Francis. ::: posted by Steven at 11:01 PM (0) comments Here's the Chafee story. Link from Taranto, whom I might comment on shortly. "I believe it's time to make a change," Chafee, a liberal Republican senator, told reporters in his home state of Rhode Island. "I think the process is happening," he said, and encouraged the White House to step in to help ease Lott from power. ::: posted by Steven at 10:53 PM (0) comments Based on your quote, Steve, Orin Hatch seems to have this Lott thing pegged. ::: posted by dWj at 2:39 PM (0) comments Did some cookie baking (well, not baking) last night. First some shopping. Looking for vanilla, I wandered by an aisle marked "flavored beverages", but apparently not. Took me quite a while to find the chocolate chips; the fourth time past the aisle I noticed marshmallows, which I think of in the same breath, and a finally found that the chocolate chips had in fact been lurking there as well. I mixed up everything but the eggs and the chocolate chips; gives me something to munch on as I contemplate whether to acquire a cookie sheet.
::: posted by dWj at 2:39 PM (0) comments Regarding Lott, I heard on the radio that Chafee has called on him to step down. ::: posted by Steven at 2:03 PM (0) comments Fascinating the trouble certain classes have distinguishing morality from stupidity. ::: posted by dWj at 10:00 AM (0) comments If you're looking for a gift, the gang on CNBC is suggesting this product. ::: posted by Steven at 8:46 AM (0) comments Everyone's talking about counting Lott's votes, but nobody seems to be doing it. Some of these are going to be over-interpreting ambiguous statements. I've tried to provide links to at least some of my sources on each Senator listed, so you can decide how badly I've over-interpreted. In particular, I've assumed a comment that he will stay or go means he should stay or go, since I expect a pessimistic Senator to keep to him/herself. What it seems to amount to is that, well, we can't really count at this point. I'll try to include as many Senators as possible in the comments section, especially if I don't have them in the for/against sections, and let you make your own guesses. I've put more time into this than I originally meant to. Send in any pointers; I'll also probably run some more searches later. Apparently with Lott:
Apparently agin' Lott:
Quotes:
::: posted by Steven at 7:01 AM (0) comments Quoth Jonah Goldberg in The Corner: A while ago, someone from the University of Virginia invited me to come down and speak. I lost the email because I'm a moron. Now that's an apology. If Trent Lott had offered that apology, and quickly, this would all be behind us now. ::: posted by Steven at 4:28 AM (0) comments Justice Volokh offers a tale of idiocy. ::: posted by Steven at 3:19 AM (0) comments Tuesday, December 17, 2002 ::: Someone got here by searching for "Howie Carr Trent Lott". In case you come back here, Carr thinks Lott should go. ::: posted by Steven at 11:16 PM (0) comments I caught the Simpsons. The episode was Homerpalooza; I should have recorded it, but didn't. My favorite exchange comes after Homer is invited to join a freak show, and is discussing it with Marge.
::: posted by Steven at 8:05 PM (0) comments Instapundit quotes a critique of Michael Moore: Moore is not interested in exploring complexity. He likes to find scapegoats - generally some mix of corporations, America, and "stupid white males" - and hammer them. Well, yeah. There are a couple ways to do commentary -- you can go for a screed, to entertain those on your side and piss off the rest; or you can try reason. It's more of a range than a dichotomy, but Moore and -- on my side -- Ann Coulter are generally not going to convince anyone. When I'm up and at home for "This Week", George Will and Michel Martin always strike me as exceptionally reasonable -- even though I usually disagree with Martin, she challenges me to think about my views, rather than to yell "so's your mother" and leave the room. Incidentally, I've noticed that sometimes Justice Volokh appears to miss this -- he logically, reasonably argues against a Moore/Coulter piece. If anyone can pull it off, he can (I'll not dis my betters), but it always seems a little strange. ::: posted by Steven at 6:33 PM (0) comments Tom Finneran, the Speaker of the Massachusetts House, is going to be challenged for re-election by a guy who represents a precinct of Cambridge (the western half of MIT). I find myself cheering for the incumbent. ::: posted by Steven at 5:24 PM (0) comments There is no job of which no part could be done by a trained monkey. (Or a PERL script, which is similar.) ::: posted by dWj at 2:57 PM (0) comments It would seem sensible for the WNBA to have a team in Connecticut. They don't currently have any teams in non-NBA areas, but if there's one part of the country where women's basketball holds a comparative advantage over men's, it's Connecticut. ::: posted by Steven at 7:29 AM (0) comments Volokh the Younger has some comments on regulation via lawsuit. Every lawsuit should be considered a sign of a flaw in the legal system. Ideally, the law should be sufficiently unambiguous (and the courts sufficiently reliable) that the result is clearly predictable in advance. Back here in the real world, this is obviously an impossible standard to attain, but it's the ideal we should have in mind. Perhaps the House should have a committee assigned to look at split court decisions and decide whether there's a clarification they'd like to make in the law. On the other hand, something tells me that if Denny Hastert were the sort to give wedgies, this would be the sort of egg-headery that might earn one. Speaking of non-sequitors, I notice that Alcee Hastings is on the Rules Committee. ::: posted by Steven at 6:34 AM (0) comments Lily Malcolm discusses the importance in a democracy of spreading the costs across society. This applies to individual laws as well. We certainly need to have some laws that don't affect everyone -- or even a majority -- equally, but any law which applies to a small group needs to be considered with extra care. That's why my take on the estate tax is that, if we keep it, we should lower the exemption. The estate tax currently only impacts a small minority of the population, and I think much of the support that exists for keeping the tax is based on that reality -- i.e., people want to tax people who aren't them. ::: posted by Steven at 3:22 AM (0) comments George Will writes a very interesting piece about "disarmament-by-inspectors".
That's just the conclusion. Read the evidence. As an aside, the line "Months would be necessary to prepare a new war, and do you think the French would look on with their hands in their pockets?" reminds me of a joke I saw not long ago: How many Frenchmen does it take to defend Paris? Nobody knows. ::: posted by Steven at 1:23 AM (0) comments Jacob Sullum last Friday on smoking. Boston's health commission has, in fact, passed a pretty comprehensive smoking ban, effective next May. The Cambridge City Council, surprisingly, appears unlikely to do the same. ::: posted by Steven at 12:58 AM (0) comments Monday, December 16, 2002 ::: The city commity (er, committee) had a party Saturday night. It rained, so turnout was a little lower than we hoped -- maybe 25 -- but it was a good time. We have a lot of food left over. I spent much of Saturday shopping for the party with a committee member who had a somewhat different vision than I did -- Shana's vision included things like tablecloths and candles, while I hadn't planned to insist on shirts. I was going to just decorate the walls with yard signs, with a few Christmas lights and maybe some streamers. Recognizing that most of the committee is somewhat more refined than I am, and that I've already seen landlord Peter without a shirt more than enough for one lifetime, I conceded a lot of ground. We spent more money on decorations than I would have myself, but it looked nice. If anyone in the area wants some stale oreos, feel free to come over. ::: posted by Steven at 8:08 PM (0) comments Some of President Bush's union pandering (especially the steel tariffs) has been attributed to union votes in West Virginia and Pennsylvania. Well, it happens that West Virginia has a lower rate of union membership than the U.S. at large. This list correlates more closely with states that tend to vote Republican in Presidential elections than it does with my own guesses before seeing the list. ::: posted by dWj at 11:00 AM (0) comments My favorite source for China news and analysis — The Kitchen Cabinet, now back out from under its collective weather, being a close second — is John Derbyshire, who writes on, among other things, the assertion that we are "oblivious" to China's economic resurgence: Who's oblivious? You can't open a newspaper or magazine without seeing an article about China.I imagine he puts himself closer than most people to the newspapers and magazines that one can't open without seeing an article on China; I actually worry a great deal that Americans by and large are too complacent about China. (I've met many good Chinese people, and I wish the people of China well, which is to say I wish their leaders ill. I hope the nation is not culturally innoculated against such things as freedom and pluralistic democracy.) ::: posted by dWj at 10:41 AM (0) comments |
||
