Unqualified Offerings

Unless it’s an editing error in the job listing, the American Bar Association’s new Middle East Advisor for Iraq will be headquartered in – Jordan. It certainly seems safer that way, but not such an obvious sign that we’re winning the war.

This Drum question is astonishingly easy for our kind to answer, no?

In one phase, neos deny the United States is an empire. In the next phase, neos hold a symposium celebrating Empire’s essential goodness and urge the US to be mindful of its imperial burden.
The fact that it’s Event ID 1066 is perfect, apt without being too on-the-nose.

Heated as I may sound below, Matthew Yglesias is still a swell writer and nice guy who buys me drinks. And his attempt to find a Democratic Party tag line is interesting. From outside the tent here, I may or may not have anything useful or appropriate to say on the matter. Actually, I offered [...]

Right Wing News has included me in a survey of “more than 125 left-of-center bloggers” on favorite columnists. You know what? I’m done fighting. If people want to think of me as a left wing blogger, let them. I’d like to flip the old Reagan quip and say, “I didn’t leave the Republican Party; the [...]

There was a move afoot in the Texas legislature to name a stretch of road after native-son and country music legend Willie Nelson. Local members of the state’s Christian Democratic Party put a stop to that, though:
[Republican] State Sens. Steve Ogden of Bryan and Jeff Wentworth of San Antonio pointed out that Nelson has hosted [...]

The big song lyric repository sites are full of popups and have the reputation of being spyware sources too. Avoid them this way:
Want to know the lyrics of a song? If you know the band, do a google search for the artist by name and add the words “fan site.” It’s almost certain that you’ll [...]

Can we agree that when consequences fall on corporate radio weasels, that that’s a good thing? From a New York Times article by Jeff Reed, on the decline of “alternative rock” radio:
Some radio executives said that they made a fateful choice in the last few years to jettison the pop-rock side of their genre to [...]

Matt wants to explain why liberals and conservatives accept paternalism and libertarians don’t, and chooses drug prohibition as his example. In the process he gets libertarian thinking on the issue more wrong than he usually does. (With Matt the problem is typically acceptance more than understanding.) He also gives paternalism more shine than it merits
Brief [...]

Today’s Democratic blogger line is that President Bush and the Republicans have cooked up a fiendish plan to destroy social security by turning it into a “welfare program,” so it can be stigmatized and then eliminated. (See Atrios, Max Sawicky.) I realize this worry is just the flip side of what I understand to be [...]