digamma.net - notes

I absolutely adore Tyler Cowen’s work on the cultural effects of globalization. For the Readers’ Digest version of his ideas, check out this Reason interview, or if you don’t hate PDF’s like me, this transcript of his debate with Rutgers expatriate Benjamin Barber.

At the end of an insightful Volokh Conspiracy post on French and French-Canadian attempts to defend their culture from outside forces, Cowen drops this gem:

I despair for the future of international cultural cooperation. America, France, and Canada have far more in common than their points of difference. We all need to drop our memes of symbolism and self-righteousness, and resume building the great project which is Western civilization.

Testify.

Please please please learn to use paragraphs.

Instapundit is apparently angry that Jose Padilla didn’t get his fair share of anti-Muslim prejudice.

I have to go to bed, but seriously, this is great news for the whole country.

The best thing about the Supreme Court’s campaign finance decision is that it completely ignores the First Amendment.

Which of the following is a more important goal:
a. Reconstructing Iraq as efficiently as possible.
b. Punishing businesses in countries that didn’t support the war.

If you chose b, you’re right! You win a job at the Pentagon.

(Via Hit & Run).

Atrios is mad at the Democratic presidential candidates for not raising their hands when Ted Koppel asked which of them thought Dean could beat Bush. Meanwhile, the Washington Post runs a piece optimistic about Howie’s chances by…. William Kristol?!

We’re through the looking glass here, people.

As of tonight, 24 has featured a woman removing her clothes on an airplane in three consecutive seasons. Thought you’d all like to know.

[in my best Jeff Foxworthy drawl….]

If your article on the creators of Dumb and Dumber contains the sentence:

The movie’s plot turns on the possibility of separation, but the value of individuality is questioned.

…. you might be the New York Times.

Back in high school, I used to collect Jack Chick tracts. I’d check the payphones in 30th Street and Suburban Stations whenever I passed through, because for some reason such payphones were targeted by Chick’s ground troops. Then all the tracts were put online, and collecting them wasn’t worth my time anymore.

At any rate, this is brilliant.

The two NBC affiliates near me, licensed for Hartford VT and Plattsburgh NY respectively, aired the first five seconds of last night’s Saturday Night Live, which featured Al Sharpton as host, and then cut it off for a “Best of Steve Martin” clip show. A scrolling message at the bottom of the screen simply stated that they would not be airing the live episode.

My first reaction was to assume the decision was based on dislike of Sharpton. Sure, Sharpton’s a jerk, but if our sensitive whitebread backwater can handle 2 feet of snow, we can handle some racially-tinged late-night humor.

(Just as I typed that, another avalanche of snow fell off my roof, shaking the whole house. Yikes.)

Then I found this CNN article, which informed me that for fear of “equal time” regulations, affiliates in states where Sharpton has managed to get on the Democratic presidential primary ballot aren’t showing the episode. New Hampshire is one such state. Hence, any NBC affiiliate that might get one pathetic flicker of reception in the Granite State couldn’t show SNL.

Thank you, campaign regulators. I look forward to the egalitarian utopia that will inevitably be brought about by preventing snowbound people from watching silly sketch comedy.

This Usenet post says it best.

Glenn Reynolds has officially pronounced bogus the fact that someone in the Bush Administration revealed to the press the identity of an undercover CIA agent.

Since Reynolds is a law professor, I can only assume that he knows more than I do when he asserts that since Valerie Plame would LATER appear in a magazine - with her face covered, mind you - the Bush Administration acted completely within the law when it outed her to the Washington Post.

There are too many sarcastic ways to respond, so I would just like to stress again that this this is an OFFICIAL PRONOUNCEMENT from Glenn Reynolds. Official. The matter is now closed.

Atrios links to this “helpful guide” to Mickey Kaus:

Kaus is not about consistent viewpoints, penetrative analysis, or dissecting facts. He isn’t even about partisan hackery. He writes about fashion. Who’s in? Arnold’s in! Who wore the ugly dress to the Democratic debate? Kerry did! How naughty should columnists try to sound when purveying snark? Very naughty!

I don’t know that I’ve ever read Kaus, but I’ll be damned if that isn’t the PERFECT description of Maureen Dowd.