Matthew Yglesias

EVERYONE A FASCIST. Spencer Ackerman makes the case against “Islamofascism,” with a heavy emphasis on the pragmatic value of not infuriating vast swathes of Muslim opinion for no good reason. Bolstering that is the basic point that this is analytically daft — we’re talking about some bad dudes but there’s nothing especially fascist about them […]

CAN YOU BLOW UP A PLANE WITH LIQUIDS? According to these seemingly knowledgeable fellows (via Tim Lee), it’s not really feasible to blow a plane up with a binary liquid explosive: Once the plane is over the ocean, very discreetly bring all of your gear into the toilet. You might need to make several trips […]

THE GUITAR TAB MENACE. Dean Baker has a good post on Big Sheet Music’s efforts to shut down websites that publish freely accessible guitar tab sheets for users’ perusal. –Matthew Yglesias

BLAME THE BLING? Juan Williams takes up the “controversial” line that the real source of contemporary African-American poverty is not racism, but rap music — specifically, “a culture steeped in bitterness and nihilism” which is “facing African American young people today.” I always feel like claims of this sort don’t get subjected to any of […]

COUNTING WHITES ONLY. Back to orthodoxy: Corner bashing! Be amazed as Kate O’Beirne tries to demonstrate that women usually vote Republicans and shows you can, in fact, demonstrate just that, as long as you . . . don’t count African-American and Latina women. –Matthew Yglesias

DON’T CRY FOR MOM AND POP. The other day Jon Chait paid us a backhanded compliment, suggesting we’re unduly predictable here at the Prospect. Then I see civil-rights-leader-turned-Wal-Mart-flack Andrew Young getting the sack (with Jason Zengerle‘s apparent approval) for the following off-message take on why black people shouldn’t care if big box stores drive out […]

CHANGING THE SUBJECT. Mercifully, TNR‘s third editorial hinting we should start a war with Iran but not quite saying so spares us the “ruthless” or “ruthlessly serious” talk. Instead: At this moment, therefore, it is important to remember that Iran is not only Israel’s problem. It is also America’s problem. Indeed, it is the West’s […]

ALWAYS MORE SHOES TO DROP. Most of what’s gone wrong in Iraq was fairly widely predicted by invasion-skeptics before the event. Still, the doubters have hardly been clairvoyant. One of the most widespread predictions — that Kurdish separatists would get embroiled in fighting with Turkey — has really been the dog that didn’t bark for […]

LEE SIEGEL, CALL YOUR OFFICE. At the nexus of blogofascism and Islamofascism lies Mahmoun Ahmadenijad�s new blog. Really. So far there’s only one post up and its length indicates that he hasn’t yet quite grasped the format. He does, however, promise that “From now onwards, I will try to make it shorter and simpler.” The […]