Kevin Drum

QUOTE OF THE DAY….From mild-mannered sociology professor Kieran Healy, commenting on whether or not it’s worth it to confront someone who’s jumped to the front of a queue: “How does it hurt you?” That, my friends, is the coolly rational voice of homo economicus. While H.E. has his virtues, and can often help you think […]

CLIMATE CHANGE FOR RUBES….Jonah Goldberg chortles a bit over at The Corner: The same day that Al Gore does his man-to-the-moon spiel on global warming, the American Physical Society — the second largest professional association of physicists — rescinds its total support for the global warming. I await the usual chorus to sing us a […]

ARE THEY EQUIPPED WITH FLYING GEISHAS?….Hmmm. “Comfort capsules” for senior Air Force officers? That’s sort of an unfortunate choice of phrasing, isn’t it?

YET MORE IRAN BLOGGING….OK, I get it. There just aren’t very many people who are interested in the fact that George Bush is planning to open an interests section in Tehran. But just in case you’re one of the enlightened few, the New York Times confirmed the Guardian’s original account today and added a few […]

SCIENCE BLOGGING!….I feel like I should write something about Netroots Nation, but the truth is that I’ve only been to a single session so far, a (surprisingly) well attended caucus of science bloggers. There was nothing especially bloggable about the session, but I will say that I was a little surprised about how besieged people […]

FINANCIAL REPORTING FOLLIES….The New York Times reports today that the stock market is up. Here’s the story they invented to explain it: (a) there’s a widespread belief that the global economy is tanking, thus (b) reducing the demand for oil and (c) driving down oil prices. Wall Street, (d) seeing plummeting oil prices, (e) is […]

WHAT’S GOING ON WITH IRAN?….Am I off base, or is it sort of weird that there’s been so little followup to the news that the Bush administration plans to open an “interests section” in Tehran? None of the big U.S. newspapers has so much as mentioned this story yet, which either means they don’t think […]

BARBECUE ROUNDUP….It’s not quite as hot in Austin as I expected, but still plenty hot. On the bright side, at least I don’t work at Smitty’s Market in Lockhart, where, they told us, “we go outside when we want to cool down.” There were five of us on today’s barbecue pilgrimage, including Blue Girl, who […]

QUOTE OF THE DAY….From Brendan Nyhan, commenting on yesterday’s hyperbolic New York Times story about continuing racial divisions in the United States: Shorter New York Times: Barack Obama hasn’t magically healed racial divide in the US. He’s been the Democratic nominee for more than a month. What is he waiting for? There’s no question that […]

McCAIN WALKS THE PLANK….First John McCain was against gay adoption, and he got hammered for it. So now he’s for it — sort of. Turns out evangelicals aren’t amused. Steve Benen has the details.