Ezra Klein

This post of Kathryn-Jean Lopez’s has been nagging at me for the last few days. It’s a response to a New York Times op-ed by Peter Bergen, which argues, in short, that the widespread worry over madrassas is really misplaced — those who’ve attacked us haven’t been poorly educated automatons with no skills save massive […]

Ricky West is usually one of the good guys. Republican, but one of the good guys. So what’s he talking about here? “I don’t hate America, I hate what the right-wing/Bush has done to America” – two words: Shut. Up. If you hate what your political opponents have done to America, then that means that […]

I agree with just about every word in Tim Noah’s argument to end the editorial page. Take the damn thing out back and shoot it, it’s utterly useless. As a rhetorical form, editorials are dull, cautious, plodding, poorly-written, and choking on their own perceived authority. They rarely add anything to the paper, instead stealing space […]

EJ Dionne’s column today strikes me as pretty silly. A McCain/Jeb ticket, though probably attractive to a few folks out there, isn’t really worth 800 words gaming it out. Not in a world where, you know, there are real things that are actually happening. And conceptual critique aside, Jeb Bush doesn’t lift McCain’s overriding weakness: […]

Kevin’s post on the economic appeal of Democrats makes some points that should get wider play. Responding to the current argument that the South votes against their economic self-interest when pulling the lever for Republicans, Kevin asks what, exactly, we’re giving them that makes voting right such a flagrant contradiction to their self-interest. Good point. […]

The Medium Lobster does global warming: Yesterday the New York Times revealed that a former lobbyist for the American Petroleum Institute and current chief of staff for the White House Council on Environmental Quality had made substantial edits to a series of reports on climate change in order to play down links between greenhouse gases […]

Mukhtaran Bibi is under arrest. You remember her, in a world of Jackos and Rumsfelds and celebrity relationships and deified presidents, Bibi is an actual hero, a Mandela-esque story of courage and forgiveness. She’s a Pakistani women whose brother committed a crime and, under the barbaric codes sometimes enforced in rural Pakistan, was condemned to […]

Interesting numbers in this Survey USA poll of ever Senator in the country. Of the top 10 most popular, a full eight are Democrats. Of the 10 least popular, eight are Republicans. If you restrict it to only Senators up for reelection next year, seven of the 10 most popular are Democrats (I’m counting Jeffords […]

Need a reason to reject the parental consent law that’ll be on the California ballot this Fall? Here you go. Via Neil.

The New York Times clocks in this morning with a superb article on the Heritage Foundation’s attitude towards its Summer interns. Rather than the wageless servitude ambitious, affluent kids generally go through, Heritage offers a $2,500 stipend, palatial living quarters (at least by intern standards), intellectually rigorous work, and a lunch series where interns trudge […]