So John Derbyshire, in his continuing quest to convince us all he’s a pervert*, is back with a defense for his argument that women become saggy old bags after age 20. 15-20, he believes, are their “salad days,” assumedly the period when they go best with cherry tomatoes and a light vinaigrette. That was a […]
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Widow Maker
Advocacy and art — how does a filmmaker fuse the two? How to deliver a clear argument without sacrificing the ambiguity, the authorial humility that thought-provoking art demands? Indian-Canadian director Deepa Mehta relies on a triad of techniques — an embrace of mythic scope, finely wrought personal detail, and political clarity. It’s a difficult balancing […]
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Working Makes You Healthy
Traditional family values make you fat and sick. Or so says a new study that tracked the health outcomes of full-time homemakers and working mothers for over 45 years: Epidemiologist Anne McMunn of University College London drew more than 1,400 female participants from a study of 5,362 Britons born during the first week of March […]
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PELOSI GOES SOFT….
PELOSI GOES SOFT. I agree with Ezra�s take on the Conyers plan and what it says about Pelosi�s possible tenure as Speaker. Perhaps this wouldn�t be the approach taken for all committee investigations, but Pelosi does seem intent on reinstating bipartisan cooperation. This morning�s CongressDaily (subscription only) reports that Pelosi says she will continue to […]
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YOU DON’T HATE…
YOU DON’T HATE WHAT YOU DO KNOW. Bryan Caplan offers data showing that the more immigration in your state, the likelier you are to be pro-immigrant. “The simplest interpretation of this result,” he writes, “is that people who rarely see an immigrant can easily scapegoat them for everything wrong in the world. Personal experience doesn’t […]
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DON’T MERELY MOCK…
DON’T MERELY MOCK THE MUSTACHE. It’s lovely to see some bipartisan scorn heaped on Tom Friedman in the form of enthusiastic plugs for this hilarious round-up of “the next six months are key” pronouncements on Iraq made over the last 30 months. (As FAIR puts it in the subhead to the list, “Iraq’s ‘decisive’ six […]
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A PLUG. I�ve…
A PLUG. I�ve been meaning to plug Foreign Policy�s excellent new blog, Passport. It is a great aggregator of international news replete with thoughtful commentary from FP�s excellent staff. My only complaint is that I wish their Supreme Leader would contribute more posts. But seriously, it�s an excellent read. Bookmark it today. –Mark Leon Goldberg
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You Don’t Fear What You Do Know
Bryan Caplan offers data showing that the more immigration in your state, the likelier you are to be pro-immigrant. “The simplest interpretation of this result,” he writes, “is that people who rarely see an immigrant can easily scapegoat them for everything wrong in the world. Personal experience doesn’t get in the way of fantasy. But […]
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NEW RULE. …
NEW RULE. To follow up on Matt‘s spat with David Frum, I think a rule needs to be adopted: If you don’t care about income inequality normally, you’re not allowed to make it your central argument against immigration. Frum is a guy who, throughout his career, has argued that income inequality has simply been a […]
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DUBLIN DISPATCH. This…
DUBLIN DISPATCH. This is the way politics should be. On a visit to Dublin this week, I happened to be in Grogan’s public house at 11 a.m. The occasion — as though one needs an occasion to be in Grogan’s — was a press event to celebrate a month-long tribute by the city to At […]