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Republicans have told the Big Lie for 30 years, and are finding it hard now to say, “Sorry folks: just kidding.”
Archive for November, 2010
November 18th, 2010
November 18th, 2010
Category: Language and usage
Mark has written of the tendency in language to make “ness” words such as presumptiousness instead of presumption and vacuousness instead of vacuity. He wants the needless “nesses” dropped, and I am generally sympathetic. But with one word, I am having the opposite impulse. In the U.K. a few weeks ago, a speaker at a [...]
November 17th, 2010
Category: Uncategorized
The American Family Association’s policy director is worried that our latest Medal of Honor winner was honored for saving the lives of fellow soldiers rather than slaughtering infidels. He thinks life-saving is “feminine.” No, really.
November 17th, 2010
Category: Watching Conservatives
Someone has to pay for the health care that must, by law, be provided: Either the individual pays or the taxpayers pay. A free ride on the taxpayers is not libertarian.
November 17th, 2010
Category: Drug Policy, Health and Medicine
The Food and Drug Administration just issued warning letters to the makers of pre-mixed caffeine and alcohol beverages (e.g., “Four Loko”). I describe some of the health concerns about these beverages at Stanford Medical School’s SCOPE blog. The FDA action is another step in a long regulatory process. The State Attorneys General successfully pressured major [...]
November 17th, 2010
Category: Drug Policy, Religion and Politics
The Justice Department won’t prosecute a traditional Colombian healer caught bringing ayahuasca into the country. A reasonable decision. But isn’t it time to set up some formal rules?
November 17th, 2010
Category: Journalism (Online and Otherwise), Liberalism
I was in London when the Keith Olbermann “scandal” broke, and I struggled to explain it to puzzled Brit friends. They wondered why a liberal newscaster on a liberal channel could get in trouble for being “caught out” making liberal campaign donations. The British media does not share their American counterparts’ squeamishness about announcing a [...]