Ezra Klein has a new blog, and it is eminently more readable than his last digs.
Ezra Klein
This post is in: Previous Site Maintenance
This post is in: Previous Site Maintenance
Ezra Klein has a new blog, and it is eminently more readable than his last digs.
This post is in: Humorous
I guess all those studies are right- a drink or two can extend your life:
A Slovak man trapped in his car under an avalanche freed himself by drinking 60 bottles of beer and urinating on the snow to melt it.
Rescue teams found Richard Kral drunk and staggering along a mountain path four days after his Audi car was buried in the Slovak Tatra mountains.
He told them that after the avalanche, he had opened his car window and tried to dig his way out.
But as he dug with his hands, he realised the snow would fill his car before he managed to break through.
He had 60 half-litre bottles of beer in his car as he was going on holiday, and after cracking one open to think about the problem he realised he could urinate on the snow to melt it, local media reported.
He said: “I was scooping the snow from above me and packing it down below the window, and then I peed on it to melt it. It was hard and now my kidneys and liver hurt. But I’m glad the beer I took on holiday turned out to be useful and I managed to get out of there.”
Brilliant!
(via Drudge)
by John Cole| 23 Comments
This post is in: Foreign Affairs
If you wonder why things are so bitter between the left and the right, you need look no farther than this statement from Max Sawicky:
“If you had your way, Saddam would still be in power.” Yes, if I had my way, Saddam would probably still be in power. And ten thousand American families would not be suffering. That’s an easy call.
When you disagree so completely about the way the world works and our role in it, arguments and disagreements are not a result of partisan politics- we simply disagree, and there is little that will gulf that chasm. Anything that happens in Iraq is going to upset one of us, and with such widely divergent viewpoints, it is near impossible to find a middle ground.
And no flaming of Max- he is one of the few members of the left who I believe has survived the last 5-6 years with his integrity intact- he just has a fundamentally different viewpoint on most issues than I do. While I think he is wrong, I respect his opinion and the fact that he rarely ventures into the absurd nastiness you see every day on Oliver Willis’s or Atrios’s sites.
by John Cole| 15 Comments
This post is in: Foreign Affairs
Amidst an orgy of self-righteousness and defensiveness, Coy Andy does manage to blurt out a worthwhile question:
How do we tell if the Iraqi elections are a success? That they happen at all? Surely we should have a higher standard than that. Here are my criteria: over 50 percent turnout among the Shia and Kurds, and over 30 percent turnout for the Sunnis. No massive disruption of voting places; no theft of ballots. Fewer than 500 murdered. Any other suggestions for relevant criteria? Am I asking too much? I’m just thinking out loud. But it makes sense to have some guidelines before Sunday so we don’t just fit what happens to our pre-existing hopes or rationalizations.
How do we determine if they were a success? First, I would argue that we not turn the perception of success into a binary construct, in that they are either a success or a failure. I would argue that they happen at all would be a small success in and of itself.
Certainly, the levels of violence are going to be weighed into the equation, but I suggest not to heavily. Deaths associated with the election will be a short-term loss (and I am not casually dismissing human lives- but looking at the big picture), and what should be considered more important are the perceptions of legitimacy regarding the outcome of the election.
If a majority of the Kurds and the Shia population vote, and the results are accepted as legitimate, I think it would be a clear-cut success. No outcome is going to please the American left and the Sunni population, so I am not even going to weigh their concerns. What really matters are they perceptions of legitimacy for those who particpated in good faith. And as always, when good faith and intellectual honesty are concerned, we can rule out the partisan left and the NY Times.
Your thoughts?
by John Cole| 5 Comments
This post is in: General Stupidity
Apparently the Democrats have some heady issues to tackle with this administration and Republicans in general.
What is the word I am looking for? Oh, yes- ankle-biter.
by John Cole| 5 Comments
This post is in: Foreign Affairs
I, like most people, am well aware that things are not going 100% in the direction that we want them to in Iraq. However, one thing I do not understand is why many in the media and in the left-wing of the blogosphere feel the need to be so overtly pessimistic about the elections being held this week-end.
I understand the need not to whitewash what is going on over there, yet at the same time, I am not sure what weeks worth of pessimism accomplishes. If the elections go badly, we can be sure there will be a self-serving orgy of Bush-bashing. But can’t they at least be optimistic or neutral until something actually happens? Or is this just premature framing, so that no matter what the outcome is, the elections can be portrayed in a negative light?
by John Cole| 55 Comments
This post is in: Democratic Stupidity
What happens in the MSM when a former Klansmen is the leading attack dog of a black nominee for Secretary of State? Why, nothing- if he is a Democrat.