Subscribe to Excerpts
Subscribe by Email
An essay on moral and painterly perspective, round a great paintind by Piero della Francesca
Archive for December, 2011
December 24th, 2011
December 23rd, 2011
Category: Watching Conservatives
Ron Paul’s “investment letter” illustrates an important source money source for wingnut pundits and websites.
December 23rd, 2011
Category: Film
Some mediocre films earn a reputation as “American Classics” entirely because the producers and marketers (or the critics and other members of the chattering class) have so declared them, and the rest of us are cowed into submission. But sometimes a movie attains this status honestly by slowly and steadily building a following because it [...]
December 22nd, 2011
Category: Democratic Party, Elections 2010 and 2012, History, Political Science, Politics and Leadership, Republican Party
That’s what pundits would have you believe, that we’re a “center-right” nation, that Reaganism is deep in the electorate’s bones, yadda yadda yadda. But does the data bear it out? Well, no. James A. Stimson is a political scientist at the UNC-Chapel Hill, and one of the most well-respected public opinion researchers in the [...]
December 22nd, 2011
Mark Kleiman and I go Bloggingheads on drugs and HIV in the Russian Federation, poppy eradication in Afghanistan, Mexican drug violence, dealing with drug users and drug sellers in United States.
December 22nd, 2011
Category: Campaign 2012, Humor
Matt Glassman has diagrammed Michele Bachmann’s affiliations: This is perfect. The only things I have to add: —Glassman has done the same with Newt Gingrich, Jon Huntsman, and Mitt Romney. —In case you’ve forgotten who Zacchaeus was… …via The Monkey Cage. Update: A revised diagram has been posted to correct a misspelling (in the original).
December 22nd, 2011
Category: Personal moment
This is a good time to reach out and touch someone, to renew a friendship, to lend a helping hand, to share a cup of coffee with someone who doesn’t quite as blessed this holiday season.
December 21st, 2011
Category: Mitt Romney, Terrorism and its control
Back in 2008, Romney denounced Barack Obama for saying he would do what he later did: strike terrorist targets in Pakistan without playing “Mother, may I?” with the ISI. He should be reminded of that, often.
December 21st, 2011
Category: Watching Conservatives
Michael Walzer once said that there is neither profit nor honor in doing evil badly. How he foresaw the current leadership of the Republican Party must remain one of life’s mysteries.