Archive for January, 2008
Thursday, January 31st, 2008
Why not Ron Paul?
After watching the Reagan Library Debate, I’m wondering, why are people (on WSO) so against Ron Paul?
No Comments » - Posted in 1 by Gary Jin
Thursday, January 31st, 2008
Even better
I admit it. I have once again been proven wrong. I thought my old espresso machine could not be replaced, let alone surpassed. The new one is getting a lot of use, much more than the old one. After nearly four decaffeinated years, I am soooo looking forward to what this baby can do with high-test.
Mobile post sent by clumberkim using Utterz. Replies.
No Comments » - Posted in 1 by Kim
Thursday, January 31st, 2008
Live-blogging the Democratic debate
Because I feel compelled to do one of these….. 7:58 PM: Yep, even two minutes of Lou Dobbs Tonight is painful. 8:02 PM: Wow, Clinton dominated the walking-out-on-stage part of the debate!! 8:06 PM: Jesus, there have been seventeen debates?!! 8:07 PM: From the opening statements, a clear advantage that Clinton has over Obama in these formats is the latter’s hesitancy in his voice — which plays into the belief that he’s inexperienced. Hillary, on the other hand, does not lack in confidence. This will impress the commentariat, at least. 8:12 PM: Clinton just gave the GOP one guaranteed YouTube clip to use if Obama wins the nomination — about how their policies are really so similar. This is not a new thought, but to have Hillary say it right next to Obama will make for a great ad. 8:17 PM: I like Obama’s reply on the mortgage crisis…. and he’s definitely winning the “kiss John Edwards’ ass” contest. 8:24 PM: Clinton’s response on the political realities of health care makes her sound like George W. Bush: neither of them will negotiate with themselves. 8:27 PM: Obama’s “broadcast health care dialogue on C-SPAN” seemed like a deft comparison to Clinton’s 1994 health care fiasco… until Wolf Blitzer made it overt. 8:28 PM: K-Lo on the debate: “Barack Obama vs. Mitt Romney makes you feel good about America. McCain vs. Hillary makes you stressed.” 8:30 PM: Andrew Sullivan: “They are not disabusing me of the notion that discussing the details of healthcare policy is really boring.” 8:34 PM: GEORGE!!!!! Jason Alexander is in the house! 8:36 PM: As a former employee, it’s worth pointing out that Hillary Clinton’s claim that the RAND Corporation is “far from liberal” is a bit rich. If memory serves, they’re actually pretty liberal on health care . 8:40 PM: I don’t know if it will win him any votes, but Obama’s refusal to blame immigration on inner-city unemployment was the right answer 8:48 PM: Clinton gets a point for bringing up the fact that she was co-sponsoring immigration legislation in 2004 8:50 PM: Is there any issue Clinton does not feel personally? 8:53 PM: We’re almost at the halfway point… and my card-carrying Democratic Party life partner wife gives the edge to Clinton. 9:03 PM: A Bradley Whitford sighting… our long national nightmare is over. 9:06 PM: Wow, Hillary’s wants to let me use my own crieria to evaluate my choice for president?!!! That’s the most libertarian thing she’s ever said. 9:11 PM: Pierce Brosnan in the house… is he an American citizen? 9:13 PM: And now I see Diane Keaton and Rob Reiner… thank God this audience is truly representative of America. 9:19 PM: One of the problems with watching too many of these debates is that many of these lines have been repeated seventeen times. 9:20 PM: America Ferrara and Alfre Woodard in attendance…. it’s good to see Hollywood looking more like America. 9:23 PM: Hillary is proud to have Maxine Waters endorse her? Man, that’s sad…. 9:27 PM: Topher Grace looks intense. 9:32 PM: Official Blog Wife on Hillary’s answer on her Iraq vote: “Is this her ‘I did not inhale’ moment?” 9:33 PM: Hillary claims that no one could forsee that President Bush was bound and determined to go to war in Iraq? Um, really? That was pretty obvious to the entire blogosphere in the fall of 2002. UPDATE: And Obama makes exactly this point. 9:39 PM: Lou Gossett Jr. sighting. The first Oscar winner. UPDATE: And Spielberg as well… Garry Shandling did not win an Oscar. 9:46 PM: Good Lord, Hillary Clinton has the worst, most annoying laugh ever. 9:52 PM: Maybe they’re good actors, but there seemed to be genuine affection between the two of them at the end of the debate. 9:53 PM: From the Blog Wife — she gives a thumbs up to the earth-tones of Hillary’s brown suit with the turquoise jewelry, but Obama’s tie exuded cool. FINAL ASSESSMENT: I thought Clinton did marginally better on the nitty-gritty of policy, but Obama did better on everything else. More importantly, given his past debate performances, Obama did much better than expected. Thumbs up to Doyle McManus as well… and thumbs down to Wolf Blitzer….
No Comments » - Posted in 1 by ddrezner@uchicago.edu
Thursday, January 31st, 2008
Hegemonic decline, revisited
I see that both Kevin Drum and Matthew Yglesias liked Parag Khanna’s “Waving Goodbye to Hegemony” argument a lot more than I did. Both Kevin and Matt like the fact that, “it’s a useful article if only because it’s so rare to see foreign policy pieces in the mainstream media that aren’t almost completely America-centric.” Fair enough. But if that’s their interest, I would recommend “A World Without the West,” by Naazneen Barma, Ely Ratner and Steve Weber in May/June 2007 issue of The National Interest — which was followed up by a lively debate on TNI online. Furthermore, as an adjunct to Khanna’s essay, it would be good to read Michael Lind’s cover story in the February issue of Prospect magazine. Lind’s argument: America does, of course, have many problems, such as spiralling healthcare costs and a decline in social mobility. Yet the truth is that apart from the temporary frictions caused by current immigration from Latin America, the US is more integrated than ever. Racial and cultural diversity is in long-term decline, as a result of the success of the melting pot in merging groups through assimilation and intermarriageand many of the country’s infamous social pathologies, from violent crime to teenage drug use, are also seeing improvements. Americans are far more religious than Europeans, but the “religious right” is concentrated among white southern Protestants. And there is no genuine long-term entitlement problem in the US. The US suffers from healthcare cost inflation, a problem that will be solved one way or another in the near future, long before it cripples the economy as a whole. And the long-term costs of social security, America’s public pension programme, could be met by moderate benefit cuts or a moderate growth in the US government share of GDP. With a linguistically united, increasingly racially mixed supermajority and a solvent system of middle-class entitlements, the US will remain first among equals for generations to come, even in a multipolar world with several great powers.Another, small cavilabout Matt’s post. He writes: [T]he big thing to keep in mind when considering any particular “declinist” thesis about American hegemony is that we’ve actually been on the decline for a good long while. In 1945-46 the U.S. economy completely dominated the world, contributing some absurdly high share of total output. Every other significant country on earth had been completely destroyed by war, and we had a monopoly on nuclear weapons. Over time, this dominant position unraveled and Robert Keohane’s After Hegemony, a study of America’s efforts to forge a diplomatic system to continue to get bye in this new world actually came out decades ago. The collapse of the Soviet Union created a kind of illusion of a return to hegemony since international politics had been organized as “USA or USSR” for so long, but all along throughout the postwar period other countries have been gaining in importance. What happens, I think, is that whenever the United States makes policy blunders such as Vietnam or Iraq, the fact that hegemony has been slowly slipping through our fingertips for decades suddenly becomes apparent. Well, sort of. Yglesias is completely correct that the U.S. had nowhere to go but down after 1945 — a year in which we had the nuclear monopoly and were responsible for 50% of global economic output. Nevertheless, the U.S. resurgence in the nineties was not an illusion. The simple fact is that all of the potential peer competitors to the United States — Germany, Japan and the USSR — either stagnated or broke apart. At the same time, U.S. GDP and productivity growth surged. The revival of U.S. relative power was not a mirage….
No Comments » - Posted in 1 by ddrezner@uchicago.edu
Thursday, January 31st, 2008
I fully expect all my friends to be living here within the year
A new Philly bar/restaurant is in the works, via the City Paper…
Ladies and gentlemutants, behold the concept to end all concepts: Isaac McCrimmon, the chef at Jose Pistola’s (263 S. 15th St.), is currently seeking investors for Heroes, a comic-book-themed restaurant he hopes to open in the giant South Philly space that once housed Engine 46 Steakhouse. “[It'll be] Dave and Buster’s fused with the theme of what was once Marvel Mania [at] Universal Studios,” says McCrimmon of the idea, which’ll combine arcade gaming, live music and space for “team role-playing events.” Even the food will be designed to mimic comic characters. (Gambit po’boy?!) Also, they will have Belgian beers. The location is not set in stone yet, but if this sounds like something you want to sink your adamantium claws into, e-mail McCrimmon at blacknostalgic@aol.com.
No Comments » - Posted in 1 by Emily
Thursday, January 31st, 2008
1988 Yearbook: Page 8
Click below for full image: a pretty snow-clad hillside. But where was the photographer standing?
1 Comment » - Posted in 1988 Yearbook, Class of 1988 by Gulielmensian
Thursday, January 31st, 2008
Fight The Man
Is Dean Merrill stocking up on the tear gas?
Tonight (THURSDAY), we’re staying in Paresky after hours. The administration thinks that we, the students, don’t care about having our student center open 24/7 for our use. If you want to be able to sit in Paresky late into the night during the semester, come [...]4 Comments » - Posted in 1 by David Kane
Thursday, January 31st, 2008
Undergraduates Everywhere Ignoring David Kane’s Advice
The WSJ reports that, in spite of EphBlog’s tireless efforts, love is, in fact, dead:
Remember the movie “Love Story” and its star-crossed student lovers? Such torrid campus romances may be becoming a thing of the past. College life has become so competitive, and students so focused on careers, that many aren’t looking for spouses anymore.
Replacing [...]11 Comments » - Posted in Advice to Undergraduates by ronit
Thursday, January 31st, 2008
Bowling Club?!
So I heard there’s a bowling club, but that the guy who ran it last term is abroad. Anyone know who runs it now? the cost? how often they go bowling? I want to get my fix, and also top 200 for the …
No Comments » - Posted in 1 by Jason Ren
Thursday, January 31st, 2008
Largest Teach-in in History
Focus the Nation is happening on 1750 campuses, high schools, churches and businesses in all 50 states, TODAY.
www.focusthenationorg
We decided the first day of spring semester wasn’t the best …
No Comments » - Posted in 1 by Morgan Goodwin
Thursday, January 31st, 2008
Help, I’m surrounded by librarians. :-)
Have you seen that wonderful video that reports on the American Library Association’s annual conference as a nature video? The one that narrates the gathering of librarians as you might describe herds of bison or flocks of penguins?
Yeah - watch that first.
Okay, so I’m at Canada’s largest gathering of librarians. There are likely 4500 [...]No Comments » - Posted in 1 by Ethan
Thursday, January 31st, 2008
My spring semester begins!
Because of the vagaries of rabbinic school scheduling (so many students and teachers have pulpit commitments that we didn’t begin our fall semester until after the Days of Awe were over), I just this morning had my last fall class….
No Comments » - Posted in 1 by Rachel Barenblat
Thursday, January 31st, 2008
Tracking My Frontrunners
It’s overload time for fans of sports and politics, with the Patriots preparing for their rendezvous with history in Glendale on Sunday and the leading presidential candidates facing their own meeting with fate on Tuesday. A couple of stories involving…
No Comments » - Posted in 1 by dcat
Thursday, January 31st, 2008
Mencian Child-Rearing
Jeremiah, over at the new and improved Granite Studio, calls me out on the question of child-rearing in Mencius. Glad to be of service… He is discussing the “household instructions” left by a scholar-official long about the seventh century or…
No Comments » - Posted in 1 by Sam Crane
Thursday, January 31st, 2008
1988 Yearbook: Page 7
Click below for full image:
4 Comments » - Posted in 1988 Yearbook, Class of 1988 by Gulielmensian
Wednesday, January 30th, 2008
if you just can’t get enough…
of the Disney photos, CD has more up on our family site. My flickr set is here. I’m still adding tags and labels.
No Comments » - Posted in 1 by Kim
Wednesday, January 30th, 2008
Dust Off Your A. N. Whitehead
UPDATED: see below…. The new semester is upon us! Posting has fallen off a bit because I am working on my syllabuses (syllabi?) for my classes (one on Chinese politics and a tutorial on ancient Chinese philosophy). But I will…
No Comments » - Posted in 1 by Sam Crane
Wednesday, January 30th, 2008
Oprah
There really isn’t that much to discuss here, but check out the Oprah Sarcophagus, by American sculptor Daniel Edwards. No …
No Comments » - Posted in 1 by Timothy Geoffrion
Wednesday, January 30th, 2008
1988 Yearbook: Page 6
Click below for full image:
No Comments » - Posted in 1988 Yearbook, Class of 1988 by Gulielmensian
Wednesday, January 30th, 2008
10 types of people
http://chainfactor.com/
This game will put you into two groups of people:
1) those who are addicted and play way too much of it
2) those who refuse to read instructionsNo Comments » - Posted in 1 by cardboardutopia
Wednesday, January 30th, 2008
We Support You, Lenny!
Last week’s San Francisco Chronicle excerpted an article from Spin.com where singer Lenny Kravitz reveals that he’s been celibate for the last three years as he’s decided to save sex for marriage. Kravitz explains: “(It’s) just a promise I made…
No Comments » - Posted in 1 by Allison Shapiro
Wednesday, January 30th, 2008
stuff and things
I played squash for the first this past weekend with
ethicsgradient. I do believe he might be either the nicest guy on the planet, or simply excellent at hiding his desire to strangle me when I nearly hit him countless times due to being new (and awful).
Here’s to hoping that I start getting better, as I quite enjoyed it. Even when not nearly beaning others.
I used to play guitar for 3+ hours a day in high school and part of college, before I basically spent all free time on the net.In an attempt to reduce stress, I have been trying to find outlets at home to get me off of the computer. (as a result, I get less work done, but also don’t suffer from bizarre, apparently stress related, health issues)
The first was getting an Xbox, which was great, but I am pretty awful at most games. Now I am looking to get back into playing guitar, and I got a multi-effects unit used off of Ebay (Zoom G7.1ut).Last night I had the device, but didn’t have an up-converter for my 1/8″ headphones to 1/4″. Thankfully I got one today at RadioShack, so tonight I should be able to play.
I used to be able to play a lot of songs, and now can’t remember much of them, let alone even have the dexterity.
My first few songs that I will shoot for that I used to be able to play are:
The Audience is Listening (Vai)
Sisters (Vai)
The Thrill is Gone (B.B. King)
Amazing Grace (Jeff Beck’s version)
And then pretty much any/all Zeppelin (specifically Since I’ve Been Loving You and No Quarter, at first)
I can’t stop laughing at this.I want more isolated tracks out of the studio - although I imagine those could get someone in trouble.
On the guitar note, the band Dragonforce is on Guitar Hero II (I think, I don’t have it) and they are notorious for having guitarists who play very fast. I downloaded a few of their songs and they all sound exactly the same - I honestly cannot tell the difference between any of them.
I sort of like them, but in the same way that I like The Darkness - they seem like a joke. Although I actually really like the Darkness, and with Dragonforce I simply listen to it wondering how the lead singer lives with himself, and how the guitarists are doing various effects (largely sweep picked arpeggios and whammy pedals).
On the XBox 360 front, I am selling 6 games on Ebay right now: Bioshock (loved it!), Call of Duty 2 (got to a certain point and could not get past it - FAIL), Forza 2 (cannot drive for shit - FAIL), Call of Duty 4 (beat it on single player - WIN, and it is so awesome, but I am so bad at the multiplayer that I spend the entire time wondering how I got killed and never killing anyone - then in the kill replay screen I see some guy stabbed me in the head - great - FAIL), Rainbow Six: Vegas (I LOVE this game, but the long checkpoints combined with the realistic instadeath headshots on you make for huge frustration - FAIL -they supposedly are shortening the checkpoints in the second version of the game due out later this year), and Madden 08 (for the life of me, even reading the manual and guides online, cannot figure this game out - I just flail on the controller and pretty much always get intercepted - FAIL).If you are interested in any of those and it is within 7 days of now, let me know and I will give you a link to the auction.
I just won two auctions - one for The Orange Box, and one for Assassin’s Creed.
No Comments » - Posted in 1 by cardboardutopia
Wednesday, January 30th, 2008
Edwards is out
of the presidential race: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/01/30/edwards. Big news from someone who kept saying he was in it until the convention, but I guess at some point you have to be …
No Comments » - Posted in 1 by David Moore
Wednesday, January 30th, 2008
Awakenings Agonistes
There are more and more signs of the Awakenings strategy hitting turbulence, if not going off the rails. The drumbeat of assassinations of Awakenings leaders and attacks on their men continues. Joseph Galloway reported yesterday of the growing tension over…
No Comments » - Posted in 1 by abu aardvark
Wednesday, January 30th, 2008
Vampire Weekend video (Other Music)
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/download/48269-vampire-weekend-various-songs-live-at-other-music
No Comments » - Posted in 1 by Laura Specker
Wednesday, January 30th, 2008
Not likely to be repeated
No Comments » - Posted in 1 by Kim
Wednesday, January 30th, 2008
Behold the awesome power of undorsements!!!
In December I wrote: “[M]y two undorsements of candidates that could ostensibly win are…. John Edwards and Rudy Giuliani.” Today, both Edwards and Giuliani are dropping out. BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!! Many thanks to Minipundit for the shout-out….
No Comments » - Posted in 1 by ddrezner@uchicago.edu
Wednesday, January 30th, 2008
Another word for sky
Yes, I am checking you out on Simchas Torah. You are sweating, you are dancing, your breath stinks of vodka, Your white shirt is plastered to your chest, Its buttons are partly undone, You look like an entrant in a…
No Comments » - Posted in 1 by Rachel Barenblat
Wednesday, January 30th, 2008
Snowman Wednesday
It may be 25 degrees and windy but yesterday’s rain meant the end of our snowman. Even the carrot is gone.Mobile post sent by clumberkim using Utterz.
Replies.
No Comments » - Posted in 1 by Kim
Wednesday, January 30th, 2008
I won’t have Rudy Giuliani to kick around anymore
I know I’ve picked on Rudy Giuliani during his presidential campaign, and it seems a bit cruel to dogpile on him after he finished a distant third in his make-or-break state. That said, after reading Michael Powell and Michael Cooper’s dissection of the Giuliani campaign in the New York Times, I do have one final thought. Consider this passage: Mr. Giulianis campaign was stumbling, even if it was not immediately evident. He leaned on friendly executives who would let him speak to employees in company cafeterias. Mr. Romney and Mr. McCain, by contrast, compiled lists of undecided Republican voters and invited them sometimes weeks in advance to town-hall-style meetings. Rudy Giuliani had a tremendous opportunity in New Hampshire that his campaign never embraced, said Fergus Cullen, the state Republican chairman. They vacillated between being half committed and three-quarters committed, and that doesnt work up here. Mr. Giuliani also relied on a New York-style approach to photo-friendly crowds. Rudy went very heavy on Potemkin Village stops, working what I call hostage audiences, Mr. Cullen said. It looked like he was campaigning, but he didnt know who he was talking to.…. In the end, Mr. Giuliani and his advisers treated supporters as if they were so many serried lines of troops. If they tell a pollster in November that they are going to vote for you, this indicates they are forever in your camp, their thinking went. But politics does not march to a military beat; it is a business of shifting loyalties. By Tuesday night, even those voters who rated terrorism as the most important issue were as likely to vote for Mr. Romney or Mr. McCain as for Mr. Giuliani. From the way he organized his campaign, it seems like Giuliani would have been a complete failure at any kind of governance that would have required, you know, politics or legislation or wonky stuff like that….
No Comments » - Posted in 1 by ddrezner@uchicago.edu
