- Blog
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What if it All Goes Horribly Pear-Shaped?
In 2004, though I had high hopes, it was not really a surprise that George W. Bush was “re”-elected. Oh, there was despair. I remember the sharp feeling of disappointment at the majority of the electorate — how could they be fooled by this numbnut? — but I knew we’d all kind of muddle on.…
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Kindle Paperwhite
I’ve had the Kindle Paperwhite for only a few hours, but I want to get down a few quick first impressions. As far as the object itself, it’s a big win. None-more-black, grippy, heavier than the vanilla Kindle 4 I just sold, but not enough to matter. The screen has a kind of matte finish…
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They just hate computers
This is a sentiment you often hear from people: casual users only need «entry-level» performance. Even casual users themselves perpetuate it: «Oh, I’m not doing much on my computer, so I always just go with the cheapest option.» And then they buy a horrid, underpowered netbook, find out that it has a tiny screen, is…
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The Attack, Ctd?
Last year, the anniversary of my assault carried great weight with me. I dreaded the coming of the date October 27, and worried that I would relapse into a spiral of terror and despair all over again. (I didn’t.) This year, I completely forgot about it. The day came and went, and I didn’t notice.…
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The belligerent South
Anthropologists have long noted that societies that herd livestock in rugged terrain tend to develop a “culture of honor.” Since their wealth has feet and can be stolen in an eye blink, they are forced to deter rustlers by cultivating a hair-trigger for violent retaliation against any trespass or insult that probes their resolve. Farmers…
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Fired from the polity
Private equity is concerned with rewarding winners and punishing losers. But a democracy cannot lay off its failing citizens. It cannot be content to leave any of its citizens behind—and certainly not the forty-seven per cent whom Romney wishes to fire from the polity. The New Yorker’s Endorsement of Barack Obama : The New Yorker
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Reading Shakespeare is like going to church
While I’m very much interested in Shakespeare’s life, I’m more interested in my own. What I extrapolate from The Winter’s Tale is that if Leontes deserves a break, so do I. There came a time in my life when I needed to be forgiven. I wasn’t. If I must take my consolation from a play…
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But America Didn’t Listen
Connor Friedersdorf on how we should have listened to George McGovern, now nearing death: Over the course of his career, McGovern made a lot of arguments that I personally find unpersuasive. But he sure did get the most important issue of his time right. Think of all the Americans who’d be alive today if the…
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269
This horror scenario of an Electoral College tie is completely plausible. I have an unprovable hunch that this scenario is far more likely than almost anyone is thinking.
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Break the seal of shame
… should Obama fail, the people who will suffer under a triumphant Republican administration will not be abstract to him; they will be down the street. The poor black women who will doubtlessly find their access to contraception troubled will be degrees closer to Obama than to any other presidential aspirant. That 47 percent whom…
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Invisible hand
Maybe a couple of magazines will survive in print as status symbols at the high end, or as supermarket check-out tabloids at the lower stratosphere. But I doubt even that. Tablet subscriptions seem to me the only viable way forward. The good news is that the savings from this can be plowed back into journalism…
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But not even I expected Romney to let his entitled, Lord-of-the-Manor freak flag fly as proudly as he did on Tuesday night. He got in the president’s face. He got in Crowley’s face. That moment when he was hectoring the president about the president’s pension made him look like someone to whom the valet has…
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… many a BlackBerry owner will not mince words about how they feel about their phone. “I want to take a bat to it,” Ms. Crosby said, after waiting for her phone’s browser to load for the third minute, only to watch the battery die. “You can’t do anything with it. You’re supposed to, but…
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That’s the trouble when you run against a shape-shifter. He has no shame in jettisoning every position he took in the primaries. That was a different market to sell to. Now he has a new market, so he has new policies and a new persona. In office, he will find a new market to sell…
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THE ROMANTIC PORTRAIT of the blasphemer that I have just painted does not apply to us, not least owing to the success of blasphemy in the West, where it was also called Enlightenment. Diderot needed courage; Monty Python did not. We are beyond shock. The giving and taking of offense is the very structure of…
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