Unqualified Offerings

Looking Sideways at Your World Since October 2001

Archive for June 20th, 2007

Wednesday, June 20th, 2007

Panel? How About “Plywood?”

I just watched the website version of Frontline’s new Iraq episode, “Endgame.” It’s well put together in its way, but it’s one more big(gish)-media Iraq piece which draws its commentary from a narrow class of official expert. Frontline interviews two of the best American reporters to cover Iraq – Dexter Filkins and Thomas Ricks – [...]

Wednesday, June 20th, 2007

Scalia’s New Fictionalism

Antonin Scalia reveals that bad stories make hard law.
Senior judges from North America and Europe were in the midst of a panel discussion about torture and terrorism law, when a Canadian judge’s passing remark – “Thankfully, security agencies in all our countries do not subscribe to the mantra ‘What would Jack Bauer do?’ ” – [...]

Wednesday, June 20th, 2007

Sopranos finale discussion made me dig out my Journey albums, and after some repeated listening I’ve decided…

By BruceB
…that “Don’t Stop Believin’” is misunderstood by a lot of Sopranos fans who see themselves as qualitatively above anthem rock and pop in the same way and for the same reason that Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” was misunderstood by a lot of Reaganites: people get improperly confident that they know what sort [...]

Wednesday, June 20th, 2007

(Update)The Vagina Monomanias

By Mona
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What is it with right-wing bloggers and their fixation on the female fun part? They simply cannot shut up about vaginas, and are seeing them and ranting about them everywhere. Sadly,No is the go-to site for the Ace of Spades’ fixation on we wimmins’ icky nether parts. And now, they find [...]

Wednesday, June 20th, 2007

A microcosm of unchecked power

By Thoreau
Here’s a disgusting story of police abusing an innocent citizen and making false accusations.  Granted, leaving the scene without explicit permission was not the best idea, but there was no excuse for the taser.  One more reason why nobody should have uncheckd power.
The really surprising part is that they never used the words “terrorist” [...]

Wednesday, June 20th, 2007

Democracy is for Dummies?

By Mona
Well, this interview with George Mason University economist Bryan Caplan, about his recent book, The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose bad Polices, has enough provocative points in it to render indignant folks across the political spectrum. For example, sayeth Caplan, “I’d definitely rather be governed by the [...]