England are out of the World Cup. In one of the most atrocious displays of defensive ineptitude that I can remember, they were torn apart by a young, vibrant German team. Yes, there was a disallowed goal in the first half, but I doubt the result would have been any different had it been allowed to stand. England were …
Interesting Contribution to the Health Care Debate
Sign seen on the back of a car in downtown Columbia on Wednesday night: JESUS WOULD HAVE VOTED FOR UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE. JUST SAYIN’.
Patriotic?
Just my opinion, obviously, but I thought the right-wing jubilation that met Chicago’s failure to bring the Olympics to America in 2016 was pretty disgusting. The rabid, frothing pundits of Fox News and AM talk radio hate President Obama so much that the failure of anything he’s associated with – like, you know, the whole country – is now something worthy …
Modern Jazz for Beginners
There’s been much chatter in the jazz blogosphere of late about why young people (apparently) don’t go to see live jazz any more. One of the more interesting consequences of all the hand-wringing is an interesting project by Patrick Jarenwattananon, who is the editor of NPR’s jazz blog, A Blog Supreme. He has asked all sorts of hip young cats …
A grumpy bastard writes
I’m sorry, but I really don’t give a damn about Kanye West. And while I’m always sorry to hear of someone who dies too soon from cancer, I’m not going to grieve for Patrick Swayze, either, just because he had nice hair in a few crappy movies more than twenty years ago. All of which means that I am going to …
Sweet Chilli Sauce and Economic Theory
Still reading Matt Crawford’s book, and still thinking. One of the unexpected pleasures of this summer has been our garden. For the first time we tried to grow some stuff, and, rather to my surprise, it worked. We have more chillis than we can ever use. We harvest our little plant every couple of days and still they just keep …
This Isn’t Free Speech. It’s Just Cheap.
Enough with the vasectomies already. Allow me to vent. The First Amendment does not give an absolute right to say what you want. Freedom of speech has its limits. You may not exercise your freedom of speech to the detriment of other people’s freedoms by, for example, inciting racial hatred or encouraging others to commit crimes. The question, of …