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Similarities
I think I’m the only one to see the similarities between Barack Obama and Paris Hilton, namely they’re famous solely because commentators and not reporters talk about them.
This is a correlation of no significance mind you, it is odd though. I think I’ll create the term “Media Famous” to describe it.
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Well put from Landsburg
I finally get around to reading his New Orleans column, and he makes a very good point in favor of cash payouts. Money quote:
The specific flood-related policy question is this: Given the population of poor people, do we make them, on net, better or worse off when we give them disaster relief (which is good) and simultaneously raise their housing costs (which is bad)? The refusal to engage that question is, it seems to me, nothing short of a declaration of indifference to what actually benefits the poor.
You might say that what we really owe the poor is disaster assistance and affordable housing. You might as well say that we owe them all magical pink unicorns that produce an unlimited supply of milk. It is quite simply impossible to guarantee assistance to people living on a flood plain without affecting their housing costs. And it is quite simply unserious to declare your commitment to poor people without pausing to ask whether your pet program does poor people more harm than good.
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Good analysis from Barone
In his latest column in US News, Barone has some interesting thoughts on the current state of the Republican and Democratic parties, to wit, there are more conservatives than liberals, but the Dems have been effectively captured by the left (in primaries) which does not bode well for them, or American really.
It’s well worth reading.
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That odd president of ours
Via the Agitator, this was in the Bush-Myers papers
Bush responded to her birthday wish in kind, and included a humorous, if baffling, postscript.“I appreciate your friendship and candor. Never hold back your sage advice,” he wrote. “P.S. No more public scatology.” Whether Bush was referring to Miers’ rough-and-tumble time as chairwoman of the Texas Lottery Commission or something else isn’t clear. Scatology refers to “the study of or preoccupation with excrement or obscenity,” according to Webster’s dictionary. -
More Ajax links
- Sortable Lists
- HoverSmack!
- Suggest Drop Downs
- Code Samples
- The Ajax Weblog
- Google Suggest, alas, in ASP 2.0
- AjaxInfo.com
- Ajax.net
- From 15 seconds
- CodeProject Ajax
Update: Fixed the link to Ajax Info after a reader alerted me to an error in the URL. Thanks Alexei!
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The DARPA challenge
Multiple winners this year. As PJ O’Rourke put it, this is the proper way to waste taxpayer’s money.
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Schelling gets the Nobel!
Tyler Cowen says it much better than I can. For an example of what his work is like, see this article on nuclear war.
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Zing
Bush, it seems ever more obvious, is the Third Wayer Clinton only pretended to be.
The Slicker reckoned that, to be electable, a Democrat had to genuflect rhetorically to some kind of sensible soccer-mom-ish center, and he was right, at least insofar as without him the Dems have been el stinko floppo three elections in a row. But Bush, for good or ill, believes in himself as the real Third Way deal: It’s a remarkable achievement to get damned day in and day out as the new Hitler when 90 percent of the time you’re Tony Blair with a ranch. The president is a religio-cultural conservative who believes in big government and big spending and paternalistic federal intervention in areas where few conservatives have ever previously thought it wise.
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The first podcast
Well, I just got done with the first podcast. It took me quite a while and isn’t very good, but it’s a decent first effort I suppose.
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Testing the condenser mic
I just recorded the old warhorse “Whiskey Before Breakfast” with myself on the lead and rhythm. On the whole I’m liking the new mic. It seems to do a fine job. I need to educate myself a bit on the whole recording process, but I do like it.