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Mini-hiatus hopefully over
Just when it seemed like I was back in business, I suddenly disappeared again. Sorry about that. My final parting gift from Costa Rica was a bug that ended up putting me in the hospital for four days. But I’m back on the road to recovery and will again be revving this blog up in
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Who will be the John Paul Vann of Iraq?
While I was in Costa Rica, I picked up Neil Sheehan’s extraordinary book A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam, the best book I’ve read about the Vietnam War. The book centers on Vann, a lieutenant colonel who believed the war could be won, but became increasingly disillusioned with the way
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Go Arnold go
Arnold Schwarzenegger has joined the redistricting reform movement. From
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Why I hate elite journalism
In a short jab at Paul Krugman last month, ABC’s The Note encapsulates everything I hate about the DC insider journalist perspective: Paul “Pauly One-Note” Krugman of the New York Times looks at international examples of privatizing retirement funds and says he isn’t buying the Administration’s arguments, saying that privatization cuts benefits and leaves more
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Deficit nonsense
We compiled a long list of tax and budget whoppers from the Bush administration in All the President’s Spin, but the progression of spin over the last month is shocking even to me. Up is down! Economic Policy Institute, 12/8/04: The Bush budget released in February 2004 projects a deficit in fiscal 2009 of 1.6%
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The end of “Crossfire” and a defense of Tucker Carlson
In the wake of the cancellation of “Crossfire,” there’s been a lot of piling on. As you might guess, I will shed no tears at the demise of a show that helped pioneer the food-fight style of political debate. But the show was on in the afternoon for the last couple of years after being
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The latest from the science spin wars
Chris Mooney, who’s writing a book on the politics of science, flags the newest development in the spin war over global warming. The New York Times reported last month on disagreement at a UN conference on the issue: Those sharply different perceptions led to a clash even over what language should be used in
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More dissent-silencing agitprop
The ugly synergy between attacks on dissent and direct mail fundraising lives on. The Nyhan mailbag recently included a letter from Oliver North’s Freedom Alliance suggesting that the media is encouraging the enemy in Iraq. The most blatant accusation comes in the the enclosed reply letter, which says “Dear Ollie… I want to help you
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What is waterboarding?
In an editorial Thursday (free registration required), the Wall Street Journal describes waterboarding as “the most coercive interrogation technique that was ever actually authorized” against Al Qaeda. According to the Journal, “it involves strapping a detainee down, wrapping his face in a wet towel and dripping water on it to produce the sensation of drowning.”
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Back from paradise
Well, I can report that Costa Rica is a wonderful country for all your honeymoon needs. After spending ten days before the trip on the couch wishing for death, my immune system finally put the flu down for the count a couple days into the trip. Then my wife got sick for a few days,