URLs du Jour

2006-12-14

  • Blogspotters Bill Gnade and David Friedman have had it with applying invidious labels to people. Good advice.

  • Meanwhile, David Henderson starts what looks to be an interesting series at TCS Daily confronting fallacies and misstatements about the US economy. About time someone took on those liberal statists and morons … oops, sorry, Bill and David … um, those fallacies and misstatements.

  • Speaking of confounding conventional wisdom, Jerry Taylor at Cato@Liberty debunks yet another call for "energy independence."

    The authors of the report are convinced that America's reliance on foreign oil is a dangerous thing. But why? Panicky narratives abound, but none of them are particularly well informed.

    Being against "energy independence" is kind of like being against motherhood, but maybe Jerry will convince you that it's all a lot of hooey.

  • Every weekday, a visit to Lileks.com reminds me that there is nobody like the Bleater. Today's entry, in the middle of nowhere, breaks into a solliloquy on the Pillsbury Doughboy:

    … an ingeniously conceived icon whose implications are best not considered. (What separates him from the other dough? Self-awareness, upright stance, a modicum of shame [he clothes his head and neck] and an easy, ingratiating rapport with the meat-giants who feast on his kin. What was his goal, exactly? Perhaps he wanted to shape our conceptions of dough — not what it was, but what it could be. Perhaps— and more likely, really — he had found himself come to life, realized that a horrible life of experimentation and confinement awaited, and deftly disarmed the Meat Giants by tempting them with delicious biscuits and sugar-drenched rolls. We can only imagine him alone at night, his day's work done, trying to shape dough into the form of a companion, and breathing into its mouth. Failure; every time, failure. He wept small clear perfect tears, and they tasted like beer.)

    This is the kind of thing he does frequently, and seemingly effortlessly: conceiving and executing a beautiful miniature 150-word prose stunt as an aside. You think it's easy? Ha, try it. Then go vote for him.

  • Also, in my humble opinion, there can be no such thing as "too much Kristen Wiig". Video below, link here. (Both Linux-hostile, as near as I can tell, sorry.)

    [There used to be a comedy video here, one of a VH1 series titled "Home Purchasing Club". VH1 yanked it at some point. You suck, VH1.]


Last Modified 2012-10-21 7:35 AM EDT