URLs du Jour

2006-11-17

  • There are many, many people honoring Milton Friedman today; pick and choose. I've certainly missed a lot of good ones, but: Virginia Postrel; Andrew J. Coulson; Greg Mankiw Pejman Yousefzadeh (with a video and many more links); Donald O. Luskin; Radley Balko; Andrew Roth; and Iain Murray. If you're in the mood for something unconventional, Ralph Kinney Bennett recalls his tennis match, with Dr. Friedman. And there's always the Milton Friedman Choir, with an intro by the man himself.

    A few quotes. From Steven "Freakonomics" Leavitt:

    He was truly a revolutionary thinker. People do not realize how revolutionary because so many of his ideas that were thought to be crazy when he suggested them eventually came to be seen as obvious: school choice, a volunteer army, etc.

    Luke Sheahan:

    Freedom of speech, freedom of the press, legal equality, due process, religious liberty, and sanctity of conscience… are safer today because of the work of Milton Friedman.

    And David Friedman, his son:

    Cattle die, kindred die,
    Every man is mortal:
    But the good name never dies
    Of one who has done well.

  • And, continuing the Freidmanesque theme, compare and contrast:

    This week's "heh" award, via Cato.

  • Reihan makes a good case for not rushing out to see Borat, by quoting David Brooks out from behind Times Select:
    The genius of Sacha Baron Cohen's performance is his sycophantic reverence for his audience, his refusal to challenge the sacred cows of the educated bourgeoisie. During the movie, Borat ridicules Pentecostals, gun owners, car dealers, hicks, humorless feminists, the Southern gentry, Southern frat boys, and rodeo cowboys. A safer list it is impossible to imagine.

    Reihan then moves on to an appreciation of Anna Faris, which is just icing on the cake.

  • If you're a geek, and a movie fan, you'll want to check out Scott Willoughby's list of the Top 20 Hackers in Film History. Unfortunately, a large fraction of those good hackers have been stuck in pretty bad movies. (And I think that Dave Bowman deserves an honorable mention, don't you?) Via BBSpot.

  • And, in our occasional Aieeee! We're all gonna die! category, you'll want to know about NASA's plans for killer asteroids. No, the plans are to deal with them, not create them.