Sobering Thoughts |
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Comments on politics, the culture, economics, and sports by Paul Tuns.
I am editor-in-chief of "The Interim," Canada's life and family newspaper, and author of "Jean Chretien: A Legacy of Scandal" (2004) and "The Dauphin: The Truth about Justin Trudeau" (2015).
I am some combination of conservative/libertarian, standing athwart history yelling "bullshit!"
You can follow me on Twitter (@ptuns).
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Friday, July 31, 2009
Weekend blogging I hope to have my two cents on some of the July 31 trade deadline deals sometime over the next few days, but otherwise hope not to be blogging. So comeback if you care about baseball and if you don't see y'all next week. Stuff 1. There are 35,000 iPhone applications (and over one billion sold) so this must not have been easy to come up with: Five questionable iPhone apps from HowStuffWorks.com, including Baby Shaker and iVoodoo. 2. The Potato Gatling Gun with pictures and video. 3. The Daily Telegraph reports on Casper, a 12-year-old cat in England that for the past four years taken the same bus route on his own. Casper "boards the No3 service at 10.55am from outside his home in Plymouth, Devon, and travels the entire 11-mile route before returning home about an hour later." The same paper reported the day before on Bertie, a dog with nine golf balls in its stomach; the vet also removed a bullet which the owners of which the owners had not known. 4. Japanese astronaut wore the same underwear for a month. 5. Most. Amazing. List. Ever. "The 6 Most Badass Murder Weapons in the Animal Kingdom." It begins with the "The Mantis Shrimp's Fists of Death" and includes "The Giant Amazonian Centipede's Ninja Skills" (which includes catching bats mid-flight). 13 million Chinese killed But no one cares because the 13 million in China were killed by abortion. As LifeSiteNews.com points out, "13 million deaths a year would, within one year, entirely depopulate Greece, Portugal, Belgium, Hungary or Sweden." There were 20 million live births and an unknown number of pregnancies ended by the morning-after pill and RU-486. The most important thing to know about politics Bryan Caplan: Successful politicians - totalitarian, authoritarian, or democratic - can be quite irrational about the effects of policies as long as they are rational about how to win and hold power.Or put another way, winning is the thing. Thursday, July 30, 2009
Three and out 3. The New York Times reports that Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz, then both with the Boston Red Sox, were among the 100 major leaguers who tested positively for performance-enhancing drugs in 2003. The source of the Times story are several "lawyers with knowledge of the results." The "news" (assuming it is true -- according to MLB.com, Ortiz said he was surprised to find out he ever tested positive for PEDs) no doubt sullies (for some) the success of the BoSox from the last few years. As Tony Massarotti notes at the Boston Globe: "From June 1, 2003 through July 31, 2008 -- the time Ortiz effectively became a starter to the time Ramirez was traded -- the Red Sox scored more runs (4,723) than any team in baseball but the New York Yankees (4,766)." To remind readers, during that time the Red Sox won a pair of World Series (2004 and 2007). Still, the biggest issue for me about this story is that MLB's supposedly confidential PED testing regime becoming public. It needs to stop. The MLB Player's Association needs to defend its members, MLB needs to ensure that its agreement with the players is respected, and baseball fans need to understand the severity of these repeated leaks. 2. Consider this fact in the FanHouse Power Rankings: "Somehow, Fernando Tatis -- with 108 career home runs -- has hit more grand slams (eight) than 500-homer guys Mel Ott, Mike Schmidt and Frank Robinson, and as many as Eddie Mathews and Willie Mays." Quite incredible. 1. The Los Angeles Dodgers gave up a pair of prospects (3B Josh Bell and RHP Steve Johnson, both at Double-A Chattanooga) to the Baltimore Orioles for inexpensive closer George Sherrill (he is owed about a million for the rest of the season). Sherrill deepens the bullpen and will be a setup pitcher. Both Baseball Prospectus and Baseball America rated Bell the 8th best prospect in the Dodgers organization; Johnson is doing nicely (9-5 record and 3.61 ERA at two levels of ball this year and is averaging a strikeout per inning over several seasons in the minors). Both will probably need another season or two in the minors but Orioles president Andy MacPhail is doing a nice job building an impressive farm system. The Dodgers are trying to build a roster that can win in October and that's fair. But I have to agree with Rob Neyer that the Orioles did a great job in this trade: "[The single best thing any rebuilding manager can do, ever, is trade a relief pitcher in late July for a couple of solid prospects." At some point you can't tax the rich any more The IRS released data on the distribution of income taxes today. Curtis Dubay of the Heritage Foundation summarizes the IRS data at The Foundry: According to the IRS, the top 1 percent of taxpayers paid over 40 percent of all federal income taxes in 2007. That is a higher share than the bottom 95 percent of taxpayers combined! They paid just over 39 percent.Repeat: the top 1% of income earners are paying more than the bottom 95% combined. Scott A. Hodge of the Tax Foundation created the chart below that, like the IRS data released today, "clearly debunks the conventional Beltway rhetoric that the 'rich' are not paying their fair share of taxes":  Stuff 1. The Wall Street Journal examines the question, "Are Americans becoming soccer fans?" BusinessWeek.com reports that ESPN is covering more British soccer as part of its long-term growth plans. 2. "6 Things That Shouldn't Explode (But Did Anyway)," from Cracked.com. Frogs? 3. "How 9 Cuts of Meat Got Their Names," from the Mental Floss blog. Canadian bacon isn't Canadian and Boston butt isn't what you might think it is. 4. AskMen.com has the 10 worst sports logos. Adam Jacobi's comments on some of the logos at The Sports Blog are more biting (emo pony, the Tennessee "Flaming Thumbtacks" and the Care Bear Stare) although I disagree that the New England Patriots' logo deserved to be on the list, too. 5. Great golf shot. Great satire Iowahawk on the "Skip" Gates arrest in a satirical column entitled, "Cambridge Police Profiling Still A Grim Reality for Harvard Faculty Assholes," by Professor John Evans Evans-John of the Harvard School of Harvard Faculty Asshole Studies. A taste: Our table exchanged knowing glances, for we knew immediately that Skip was only the latest victim of a system that singles out the Harvard faculty asshole for stigmatization and unequal justice. It is a system that all of us knew too well, and provided an opportunity for an open conversation about our shared experiences as Harvard faculty assholes in America while waiting for Sergio to bring the dessert cart. One of the greatest days in history 150 years ago, the baseball box score was invented by Henry Chadwick. I have spent many hours with box scores over the past 30 years, usually in newspapers but more recently online. It has provided me great pleasure and sometimes disappointment. It is a work of art, beautiful in its simplicity. NPR has a report: Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Government mandated euthanasia The Washington Times notes in an editorial: Presidential health care adviser Ezekiel Emanuel, brother of White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and chairman of the Department of Bioethics at the Clinical Center at the National Institutes of Health, has argued that independent government boards should decide policy on end-of-life care. He also has defended rationing care more strictly for older people because "allocation [of medical care] by age is not invidious discrimination."Do Americans want to contain costs by deeming some patients too old to care for? Jeff Emanuel writes in today's Washington Times about what is happening on the state level where governments are lethally rationing care: If government is permitted to continue expanding its control over health care, what simply appears to be an issue of who pays for a few extra hours of in-home care today will grow quickly into an environment in which bureaucratic rationing of care is commonplace.Every system rations and some people come out on the short end of the stick, but better that those most affected by the choice of the level care -- patients and their families -- are making the decision than impersonal, uncaring bureaucrats. Three and out 3. The San Francisco Giants traded minor league pitcher Tim Alderson to the Pittsburgh Pirates for 2B Freddy Sanchez. Sanchez has a line of 296/334/442 and he will replace the combination of Juan Uribe (284/314/431), Eugenio Velez (261/306/370) and Matt Downs (170/250/264). Sanchez's 18.6 VORP would represent a two-win difference over the players he is replacing so far this season. Alderson was ranked the #2 Giants prospect by Baseball America before the season started, but only #4 by Baseball Prospectus. His 3.47 ERA in 13 starts at Class AA Altoona Curve is fine, but his 46 Ks in 72.2 IP is a sign that he might be nothing more than a decent back-of-the-rotation starter. That isn't bad and it seems like the right price for renting Sanchez for the stretch run. With the acquisition earlier this week of Ryan Garko, the Giants have a whole new right-side of the infield and while they aren't Matt Holliday calibre, it is an improvement from what they had. 2. The Pittsburgh Pirates also dealt SS Jack Wilson and pitcher Ian Snell to the Seattle Mariners for a bag full of young players: SS Ronny Cedeno, 1B Jeff Clement, and three pitching prospects Aaron Pribanic, Brett Lorin and Nathan Adcock. Snell has been dominant at Class AAA Indianapolis (ERA under one in six starts), but he was sent there because of an ERA of 5.36 in 12 starts for Pittsburgh. I don't know what Snell will do at the major league level or in the better American League where he'll have to face the DH, and I don't like Wilson (269/311/376) who barely breaks the 300 OBP and doesn't have power. Still, Wilson is an upgrade over Cedeno, who won the full-time shortstop job when the Mariners traded Yuniesky Betancourt to the Kansas City Royals a few weeks ago and is batting a terrible (167/213/290). Clement is having a nifty season in Triple A ball but the former catcher hasn't been able to catch on with the Mariners. None of the pitcher prospects were rated as one of Baseball Prospectus's top 11 Seattle Mariners prospects before the season started. It seems less like a trade to address needs than moving a bunch of bodies around. I'm also not sure what Seattle is doing; they are 53-48, 7.5 games behind the AL West leading Los Angeles Angels and 4 games behind the second place Texas Rangers. Most teams thought Seattle would be sellers, so this move is a surprise. A puzzling surprise. 1. The Philadelphia Phillies acquired Cliff Lee and OF Ben Francisco from the Cleveland Indians. To acquire the 2008 Cy Young award winner, the Phillies gave up four minor leaguers: pitchers Carlos Carrasco and Jason Knapp, C Lou Marson and SS Jason Donald. All four were the BP top 11 Phillies prospects; Marson looks like he will be a future starting backstop (bats close to 300 in Class AAA Columbus, gets on base about 38% of the time, but has no power) but the Phillies also have catcher Travis D'Arnaud in Class A who also has the look of a future starter at the major league level. No big loss for the Phillies. Carrasco started the year off as the top pitching prospect in the organization but might not have the upside many expected/hoped. On the plus side, the Phillies kept their top two prospects (RHP Kyle Drabek and RF Michael Taylor). Francisco, who plays all three outfield positions, is a useful bench bat (250/336/422), but the centerpiece of this deal is Lee. Philly got one of the better pitchers of the last season and a half and at just $9 million next year, he is affordable for the next 18 months. The Indians get a nice collection of prospects, most of whom could make the majors eventually and no doubt the Tribe is hoping that trading Lee ends up like their Bartolo Colon 2002 deal with the Montreal Expos in which Cleveland got Lee Stevens, Brandon Phillips, Grady Sizemore and ... Cliff Lee. Four and down 4. Last week Jim Johnson officially resigned as Philadelphia Eagles defensive co-ordinator after a six-month battle with cancer; he hoped to return to the team this Fall but obviously he knew that he was losing his fight. Today he died at the age of 68. New York Giants head coach has the best short but sweet comment on Johnson's passing: "His players loved to play for him and his coaches loved to coach with him. It is a sad day for the National Football League to lose somebody the quality of Jim Johnson. It is a sad note on which to start the season." 3. I was trying to think of something to say about the announcement from Brett Favre that he will not return in 2009. As Minnesota Vikings TE Visanthe Shiancoe told the Minneapolis Star Tribune, at least the circus is over. More from Eric Edolm at Pro Football Weekly, Clifton Brown at The Sporting News, Jay Glazer at FoxSports (although I dislike his ending that Favre "may have played his final game"), and Don Banks at Sports Illustrated. I have a lot to say, but will keep it simple. It must not be an easy decision to walk away from a job that is so much more than a job; for professional players, it becomes their life. Favre is just 39 and probably has half of his life in front of him. It must be daunting to think about what the future holds when the only thing you have done for so long is throw a football. Speaking of his future, it undoubtedly includes the Hall of Fame. His retirement, unretirement, retirement II and flirting with unretirement II, doesn't change the fact he was a great, if perhaps over-rated, quarterback. I hope the football world forgives him the agonizing and agonizingly public back-and-forth on his future that he has gone through and put fans (and some teams) through. 2. Now the Minnesota Vikings can figure out their own future. It reportedly does not include Michael Vick. As an admirer of the Green Bay Packers, I hope they pick Tarvaris Jackson. As a fan of quality football, I hope it is Sage Rosenfels. The latter is a competent game manager and solid enough passer. The Vikes only need a guy who can hand the ball off to Adrian Peterson and let their superior defense stop opposing offenses. I think Peter King sets the marks a little high for Rosenfels' success to get over the "Favre hangover." Winning will make the Vikes forget Favre, although it should be noted that the reason #4 is not wearing purple doesn't appear to have anything to do with what Minny did or didn't do, but rather where Favre is mentally and physically at this point in his life. 1. I haven't completed my pre-season analysis for 2009 but after my preliminary look at the teams, I have to agree with Jeff Kaplan at 49ersWebZone.com that Football Outsiders isnt' giving the respect to the San Francisco 49ers that the team deserves. FO has them at 5.7 wins; I think they should approach 500 (eight wins) and a chance to challenge for the NFC West if Arizona slips badly (they shouldn't but you never know). The Niners were strong down the stretch and unless Mike Singletary's high-octane coaching wears out the team quickly, I think the addition of receiver Michael Crabtree makes the 49ers a formidable if flawed team -- If they sign Crabtree. Jack Layton says Alberta is winnable (eventually) The Canadian Press reports: Alberta has historically been somewhat infertile ground for the federal NDP, but leader Jack Layton is hoping that "perseverance and determination" will lead the party to improve on its one-seat standing in the next federal election.If by "perseverance and determination" Layton means "cold day in Hell" he might be correct. Stuff 1. The "well-paid flirt," in which the New York Times explores Japanese hostesses. And Slate advice columnist Dear Prudence handles a question from a couple that ordered a masseuse and ended up with a prostitute. 2. Paul Graham on the difference between a manager's schedule and a maker's schedule. This brief piece is worth reading and I hope managers get the hint. I have both schedules and too much of my day is spent in meetings and interrupted to fit into other managers' schedules. That's why I do most of my writing and editing at home in large, interrupted chunks of time without phone calls, drop-ins or whatever. Meetings, whether formal office meetings or a coffee with a client, fit nicely into 30 or 60 minute increments, which often disrupt the maker's schedule. I'd also add that meetings are sometimes important but 1) rarely need to be as long as they are and 2) are too often a substitute for real work because it feels like people are doing something. 3. The Mental Floss blog has a video of politically incorrect cartoons. 4. A German man dies in a cherry stone spitting contest. 5. Green camping -- don't people vacation for a reason, like, you know, forgetting about the worries of every day life. Shouldn't that include environmentalism? Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Free advice for the new Harper DirCom Gerry Nicholls has advice for whoever replaces Kory Teneycke as Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Director of Communications: • Be real. Don’t try to make the Prime Minister into someone he isn’t. He isn’t a cuddly guy who wears vest sweaters and plays the piano. He is a tough-minded, determined, unsentimental individual. Don’t try to disguise these traits. You won’t fool the Canadian voter. Besides lots of people would see those traits as the hallmark of a strong leader. So let Stephen, be Stephen. Born in the USA National Review Online says in an editorial it is wrong to worry about Barry Obama's birth certificate: The attention paid to President Obama’s place of birth is not unprecedented. In fact, it may be the only thing President Obama has in common with Pres. Chester Arthur, whose opponents whispered that he had been born in Canada. A number of unsuccessful presidential candidates—George Romney, Barry Goldwater, and Lowell Weicker among them—actually were born outside of the United States (in Mexico, the Arizona Territory, and Paris, respectively) to American parents and thereby into American citizenship. If the conspiracy theorists have evidence that President Obama went through the naturalization process, let them show it. But there is no such evidence, because this theory is based on unreality, as two minutes’ examining the claims of its proponents reveals. The hallmark of a conspiracy theory is that a lack of evidence for the theory is taken as yet more evidence for the theory. Indeed, the maddening thing about dealing with conspiracy hobbyists of this or any sort is the ever-shifting nature of their argument and their alleged evidence: Never mind the birth certificate, his step-grandmother said he was born in Kenya! (No, she didn’t.)After noting several bad, foreign-inspired policies Obama supports, NRO concludes: "Like Bruce Springsteen, he has a lot of bad political ideas; but he was born in the U.S.A." Four and down 4. NFL.com has "Top 10 things that changed the game." It would have been more fun if they had ranked them. That said, I would have probably ranked them in descending order in which NFL.com presents them, so perhaps subtlety they did. 3. Weekly betting lines are ready, at least at the Lucky's Race and Sports Book (they manage race and sportsbooks in 11 Nevada hotels). Wagering (not betting or gambling, but wagering) is on now for all 256 regular season games through to Week 17 (January 3, 2010). That seems a long way away and a little difficult to create odds for in July; how is the spread determined for a game more than five months away? ProFootballWeekly.com says the lines are set this early because (according to Lucky's PR director) the early initial lines both give Lucky's some publicity and they provide the sportsbook a chance to assess how the market (bettors) view each team. Wisdom of the crowd and all that. 2. In an update to something I posted last week, Football Outsiders reports, "Just three days after signing with the Ravens to ostensibly replace the recently retired Derrick Mason, former Titans and Rams receiver Drew Bennett has himself retired due to a persistent knee injury." I don't think that Bennett is the answer to Baltimore's problems, but this isn't helping them either. 1. FoxSports.com has a slide show of the top 10 NFL cities. Green Bay should be and is number one, but how isn't Pittsburgh number two? And it should be noted that this is NFL cities, not top fans. I'm not sure Cleveland deserves number four. If it was fans, Buffalo would deserve mention in the top 10. Three and out 3. Sometimes a team doesn't need to make a trade to have an in-season improvement. Case in point is that Tim Hudson could soon return to the Atlanta Braves rotation. Not that pitching reinforcements is what the Braves most needed (Hudson himself says: "As of right now I don't think they need me too much"; a bat to add some pop would be nice and isn't out of the question, although Atlanta might concede that their odds are too great to make mortgaging the future worthwhile (see #1). Hudson's return might make a pitcher expendable, although I doubt that. More likely, a starter (even Hudson initially) will spend some time in the bullpen. 2. Nice little deal for both teams. The San Francisco Giants acquired 1B/corner outfielder Ryan Garko from the Cleveland Indians for Class A southpaw Scott Barnes. The Indians should collect pitching prospects because their farms system doesn't have much in that department and Garko was eligible for an arbitration deal in the vicinity of $2-2.5 million next year. Corner infielder Andy Marte, whom the Tribe has given up on before, has won a job on the major league roster after a big minor league campaign (327/369/593 in Class AAA Columbus). Garko might not be Adrian Gonzalez or Nick Johnson, but he is a definitely an upgrade at first for the Giants who desperately need someone who can swing the bat. Garko's line this year of 285/362/464 is right in line with his five-year career averages. The Giants have an embarrassment of pitching riches in the minors so they won't miss Barnes. Giving up a low level pitching prospect for a player who might improve a team that is 15th in the National League in runs and dead last in Equivalent Average (a Baseball Prospectus measure of complete offense) is a no-brainer. 1. Brian Joseph at Baseball Digest Daily looks at each division's "window" and "target" win-loss record for making the post-season and determines the necessary winning percentage for each team from now to the end of the season to reach the target (American League and National League). The targets are realistic, although the NL Central might require a few more wins than 87, especially with the way the Chicago Cubs are playing. If you want to know the likelihood of a team making the post-season, check out the winning percentage it would need, as well as what the teams in front of it need to do. It is possible for the Houston Astros to win 57.8% of their games, but are the St. Louis Cardinals going to do worse than 52.5% and the Cubs slip to a pace of winning less than 53% of their games? Not likely. Jumping two teams is difficult. Or a team like the Atlanta Braves or Florida Marlins; sure they could win 63.5% of their games, but the Philadelphia Phillies would need to drop more than 50 points of their current pace. The Tampa Bay Rays would need to do better than win 70% of their games to reach the 98 wins projected to win the division and that's assuming that either the New York Yankees or Boston Red Sox begin to do worse than they have. Interestingly, the Detroit Lions need to maintain their pace exactly (53.1%) to reach the 86 wins projected to be necessary to take the AL Central crown. AP gets pissy with bloggers & Google The New York Times reports that the Associated Press wants to be paid by news aggregators, search engines and bloggers who use their content: Tom Curley, The A.P.’s president and chief executive, said the company’s position was that even minimal use of a news article online required a licensing agreement with the news organization that produced it. In an interview, he specifically cited references that include a headline and a link to an article, a standard practice of search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo, news aggregators and blogs.In principle AP is right, but they are ignoring the reality of media in 2009. As Ed Morrissey at Hot Air explains: Let’s just call it the Fast Track to AP Irrelevance. Without a doubt, the new policy will have a chilling effect on blogs and aggregators who normally link to their content. Unfortunately for the AP, that won’t result in an increase of revenues, but in having the entire online world ignore the AP. The Times itself discovered this dynamic when it put its columnists behind the $50 dollar Firewall of Sanity. Not only did the world fail to beat down their door to regain access to Maureen Dowd, Frank Rich, and Bob Herbert, they also discovered that their columnists became all but invisible in the rapidly-growing and influential New Media. Offered without comment In a story about several South Carolina politicians (mostly Senator Jim DeMint) and health care, the Washington Post reports this vignette: At a recent town-hall meeting in suburban Simpsonville, a man stood up and told Rep. Robert Inglis (R-S.C.) to "keep your government hands off my Medicare." Stuff 1. Dancing bird is amusing for about 30 seconds. 2. Bryan Caplan explains why profit-maximizing insurance companies are not going to scam sick customers. Hint: reputations matter. 3. This is incredible footage of a multi-species sardine hunt from BBC's Blue Planet. Watch the full seven minutes. 4. There's a bee in Mark's light fixture. Well, more than a bee. 5. This, from Indexed, is probably why I don't like talking about the weather. (In fact, I find weather so boring, I typically don't learn about the weather and just take a chance that what I'm wearing is appropriate for whatever God/Mother Nature throws at me each day):  Monday, July 27, 2009
Three and out 3. All the trade speculation -- John Heyman, Joel Sherman, Jayson Stark, Morgan Campbell, too many others to name -- right now is BS because almost every word of it is speculative. It isn't reporting, it is a combination rumour-mongering, guess-work, wishful thinking and make-believe. 2. The New York Yankees have won 22 of their last 28 games. As I type this, the Yanks are leading the Tampa Bay Rays, in the the first game of nine straight they'll play on the road. The Yankees play 19 of their next 26 on the road. It is a month that will really test them. 1. And it won't get any easier on the road trip with Brett Gardner going on the 15-day disabled list with an avulsion fracture of his left thumb after he slid into second trying to break up a double play. He finished the game because he didn't know his injury was that big of a deal. Gardner adds great defense and speed and a good on-base percentage and while the Yankees have three good outfielders, they no longer have any depth. Four and down 4. Roger Goodell will let Michael Vick play but not until week six which means he will be suspended for four or five games (and penalizes teams that are interested in Vick that have a bye-week before week seven). I think this means he is playing 2009 in the United Football League. Shame that Goodell is so punitive on this file. Vick said (through his agent) the only thing he could: "I fully understand that playing football in the NFL is a privilege, not a right, and I am truly thankful for the opportunity I have been given." Jason Cole of Yahoo!Sports said, "In short, how many people could commit a crime punishable by prison or jail time, lie to their boss and the owner of the business repeatedly, continue to embarrass the employer and somehow think they could return to their job as soon as the sentence ends?" That depends: has the employer already punished the person? Why are people forgetting that Vick has already served a lengthy suspension and that he was suspended from pre-season play before he was convicted by a court of law. I also have some problem with considering Goodell Vick's employer; teams, not the commissioner employ players. 3. ColdHardFootballFacts.com counts down and has detailed analysis of the top eight quarterbacks in the NFL today. Some might argue with listing Chad Pennington ahead of Donovan McNabb or Ben Roethlisberger and Kurt Manning ahead of Peyton Manning. But it is well-argued, very good list. One thing to think about: two minutes left and behind by a score, who do you want leading your team? For me its Big Ben or Manning, not Tom Brady (#1), but that isn't what CHFF is rating. (Although Roethislberger is listed as a clutch playmaker.) This is a great football read. 2. ProFootballWeekly.com quotes an unnamed scout who says that Brett Favre might not be happy with the Minnesota Vikings if all he gets to do is hand the ball off to Adrian Peterson. The scout said, "I've never known Brett Favre to want to hand the ball off." But putting the ball into Peterson's hands -- one of the best running backs in football today -- is the Vikes game plan. But as the scout concluded, "John Elway never won a Super Bowl until he learned to hand it off." 1. How do you say "Terrible Towel" in Spanish? The Pittsburgh Steelers become the third NFL team to sign an exclusive broadcast deal in Mexico. I didn't know Steeler Nation went south of the Rio Grande. Abortion and eugencs The Boston Globe's Jeff Jacoby on the topic in regard to recent comments about Richard Nixon and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. We wrote about something similar in the August Interim. Here is the lead editorial from the forthcoming issue: Offensive abortion viewsJacoby notes that 70 years after Margaret Sanger and 20 years after Richard Nixon and Ruth Bader Ginsburg: "[T]he eugenicist mindset lives on. Ron Weddington, co-counsel for the appellants in Roe, wrote an impassioned letter to President-elect Bill Clinton in January 1993, challenging him to "start immediately to eliminate the barely educated, unhealthy and poor segment of our country" - not through "some sort of mass extinction," but with massive birth control and abortion. "Condoms alone won’t do it ... Government is also going to have to provide vasectomies, tubal ligations, and abortion ... We don’t need more poor babies."It should be noted that the founder of Planned Parenthood, the then president, the future Supreme Court Justice, and lawyer were all progressives, liberals, or Republican moderates. Stuff 1. Amazon apologizes for its bone-headedness. 2. An "An Economic Analysis of the Somali Pirate Business Model," by Scott Carney at Wired.com. 3. Mark Steyn on "Climatology vs demography" in The Corner: "[A] demographic decline is a compound phenomenon, unlike the climate." 4. Cracked.com has "5 Amazing Buildings of the Future (And How They'll Kill You)." 5. Megan McArdle looks at the economics of wedding planning. Debunks some misconceptions and misunderstandings to find that wedding-related costs are not as outrageous as the price tag might suggest. When everything is taken into account, the margins of caterers are "pitifully thin." E.J. Dionne proves that he is an idiot (again) Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne begins today's column thusly: Isn't it time to dismantle the metal detectors, send the guards at the doors away and allow Americans to exercise their Second Amendment rights by being free to carry their firearms into the nation's Capitol?The column is not gimmicky in the smart way that counter-intuitive or even smark-alecky columns can be. It is dishonest or, worse, stupid. Dionne says of John Thune, a Republican senator who recently authored a bill that would have expanded gun ownership rights: "Law-abiding individuals have the right to self-defense, especially because the Supreme Court has consistently found that police have no constitutional obligation to protect individuals from other individuals," he said. I guess that Thune doesn't think those guards and the Capitol Police have any obligation to protect him.Dionne knows -- or at least should know -- this is intellectually dishonest. The guards and Capitol Police are hired, in part, to protect Congressmen. The rest of the column is equally disingenuous (or dumb, depending on how charitable you are feeling toward Dionne), so I won't rehearse every "outrageous" quote he selects from pro-gun senators to set up as a straw man, but the column in its entirety is a red herring; his actual purpose is to argue against less restrictive gun laws, not to argue that Congress should make it easier for members of the House and Senate to carry concealed weapons. Imagine the complaints from the same corner if they did. Sunday, July 26, 2009
Stuff 1. Steve Horwitz at Austrian Economists looks at how society is better today than it was 30 years ago from the vantage point of car trips. Consider this under-appreciated point: "The very fact that we had quite good Chinese food in the small town of Hazleton, PA reflects the expanding division of labor and growth in choices." 2. School lunches from around the world. 3. The Boston Globe has an article on the changing zoo -- zoological gardens without "charismatic megafauna." The Globe says what "zoo-goers really wanted was what they have always wanted: animals, up close, and ideally, doing something interesting." But as Jeffrey Hyson, author of a forth-coming book on zoos says, "On the one hand, zoos want to be about conservation and education." 4. BBC reports on the "Indian school for rogue monkeys," because monkeys in towns close to India's border with Pakistan terrorize children, steal food and destroy property. According to the Beeb, "The proposed new monkey school will take in the "worst offenders" and put them through a crash course in good manners." (HT: BoingBoing) 5. "Top 10 Bizarre Restaurants," from Listverse. Dinner In the Sky was in Toronto a few years ago and Dans Le Noir (I think) has just opened in TO. Three and out (Rickey HOF edition)  3. Rickey Henderson is one of my favourite baseball players and there is no player I've watched in my life that deserves to be in the Hall of Fame -- more so than Nolan Ryan, Steve Carlton, Cal Ripken, Tony Gwynn -- other than Barry Bonds. If you are a fan, you know why I say that: career run and stolen base leader (and second in career walks), very good average and great on-base percentage (401), power (297 career HRs, four seasons with 20+), best lead-off hitter of all time, incredible character (is probably the only person to slide into home on an out-of-the-park homerun), part of winning teams, etc... Yet 28 HoF voters did not vote for Rickey Henderson. As ESPN's Jayson Stark said at the time, "Stupefying. Embarrassing. Inexcusable." Yahoo!Sports blog has a neat collection of pictures and quotes from Rickey's career. David Whitely at FanHouse has a great tribute, as well. 2) I would have liked him anyway, but he spent most of his career with my two favourite American League teams, the New York Yankees and the pre-Billy Beane Oakland A's. As Cliff Corcoran said at Bronx Banter, "It’s fitting that the Yankees and A’s are playing today as Rickey Henderson, who spent four and a half of his prime years as a New York Yankee, enters the Hall of Fame wearing an A’s cap. Having come of age as a fan during Rickey’s Yankee heyday, Rickey holds a special place in my baseball heart, and seeing the green and gold flash against those midnight blue pinstripes will keep those memories flooding back." If you click on the BaseballReference.com page for Henderson you'll see how many incredible years he had with those two teams including leading in SBs in 9 of his first 11 seasons with three 100 SB seasons. His 1990 MVP season in midst of the A's dynasty was phenomenal. 1. Ted Keith does a nice job covering the induction of Rickey and Jim Rice (also inducted today). In the AP's coverage of the two making the HoF, I learned something about Rickey Henderson: "Henderson said a high school counselor who needed players for the baseball team provided even more spark. 'She would pay me a quarter every time I would get a hit, when I would score or stole a base,' he said. 'After my first 10 games, I had 30 hits, 25 runs scored and 33 steals. Not bad money for a kid'." Rickey didn't give his speech in the third person and he ended it reminiscent of his speech when he passed Lou Brock as the all-time base stealing leader, but with tremendous humility: "My journey as a player is complete. I am now in the class of the greatest players of all time. And at this moment, I am very, very humbled."  This is not an easy read Adam Hochschild writes about the problems in the Congo in the New York Review of Books, and it is much more compelling and detailed than Delphine Schrank's piece in the June Atlantic (about the Second Congo War's effect on the local habitat and indigenous species). The NYRB article is called "Rape of the Congo" and not surprisingly it relates in horrifying detail the use of rape as a weapon in war: No one has been harder hit than Congo's women, for almost all the warring factions have used rape as a calculated method of sowing terror. An hour and a half southwest of Goma on bone-jolting roads stand several low buildings of planks and adobe; small bleating goats wander about and a cooking fire burns on one dirt floor. There is no electricity. A sign reads Maison d'Écoute (Listening House). The office of the forty-two-year-old director, whom I will call Rebecca Kamate, extends from the side of one of the buildings; its other three walls are of thin green tarpaulin with a UNICEF emblem, through which daylight filters. The floor is gravel. Kamate pulls out a hand-written ledger to show to Anneke, her colleague Ida Sawyer, and me. Ruled columns spread across the page: date, name, age of the victim, and details—almost all are gang rapes, by three to five armed men. Since the center started, it has registered 5,973 cases of rape. The ages of the victims just since January range from two to sixty-five. On the ledger's most recent page, the perpetrators listed include three different armed rebel groups—plus the Congolese national army. Racial preferences in 2009 Shelby Steele has a must-read column in the Washington Post on racial discrimination, racial preferences and black underdevelopment. The bottom line: Racial preferences only extend the misguided logic of disparate impact. They, too, presume discrimination without evidence. All blacks, even President Obama's children, are eligible for the redress of a racial preference. We must presume that, even in the Sidwell Friends School by day and the White House by night, the president's daughters -- as blacks -- encounter a racial animus that so predictably disadvantages them that the automatic redress of a racial preference is required. Obama himself has pointed out the absurdity of this, and yet privileged blacks such as his daughters remain the most sought-after minorities by admissions officers seeking "diversity."What black America needs is honesty: Today's "black" problem is underdevelopment, not discrimination. Success in modernity will demand profound cultural changes -- changes in child-rearing, a restoration of marriage and family, a focus on academic rigor, a greater appreciation of entrepreneurialism and an embrace of individual development as the best road to group development.And everyone and no one is happy. It doesn't help solve the problem of black underdevelopment, but liberal politicians get to feel good and race hucksters get to stay in business. Peter Pan Syndrome and declining birth rates Ottawa Citizen editorial page editor Leonard Stern examines the role of the new "Not the Marrying Kind" of man when it comes to falling birth rates. Some guys remain children themselves and women find such men unappealing as potential fathers to their own kids. Other men find that children or even a serious (monogamous) relationship with a woman to cramp their style. It is an interesting idea, although I think Peter Pan Syndrome (a sociological term used to criticize the phenomenon of males who appear not to grow up and which shouldn't be confused with the psychological concept of puer aeternus) is vastly over-exaggerated. There is nothing wrong with playing video games as an adult, nor is it incompatible with raising children as long as it doesn't lead to neglecting one's fatherly duties. Of course, Stern is correct to lay the blame not squarely on the shoulders of women. Saturday, July 25, 2009
Stuff 1. Kelly Jane Torrance writes in the Washington Times about not finishing books that aren't very good. It is advice that Tyler Cowen gives in Discover Your Economist (he also suggests walking out of movies that you don't like). It is based on the idea of sunk costs, of both time and treasure. I followed the advice, even leaving good books if a better book beckoned. I have enjoyed my reading that much more for it. 2. Slate answers "Does Soda Taste Different in a Bottle Than a Can?" 3. Eco-comics looks at whether there are too many comic super heroes. 4. Cracked.com has "10 Species of Angry Commenter You Encounter on the Web." 5. A slender-billed vulture was hatched in India, giving hope to saving the species. If the future of a species is in the hands of a single bird, the species is in trouble. Anyway, the dying off vulture populations have led to an increase in feral dogs which has led to an increase in rabies so this type of thing matters.  Isotopes are really sexy now that Americans have noticed The New York Times has a story on the global isotopes shortage. Unlike Canadian stories on the issue which were designed to play gotcha with the Conservative government, the Times piece explains how they are used in medicine. Friday, July 24, 2009
Four and down 4. It is sad to hear that Philadelphia Eagles defensive co-ordinator Jim Johnson will be replaced by Sean McDermott, the team's secondary coach. Johnson has been defensive co-ordinator for ten years and is one of the three best in the business; last year the Eagles were third in total defense and fourth in points allowed, not unusual for this Eagles team. It was every bit as much Johnson's blitzing, aggressive defense as Andy Reid's coaching that had Philly in five NFC championships the past decade, including last year. And as a result of that aggressiveness, the Eagles were always in games and always a thrill to watch. But Johnson, 68, was diagnosed with metastatic melanoma in January. He attempted to remain with the team to return to full-time duty this Fall despite intense chemo treatments but it has proven too much for him. The Eagles organization isn't thinking about how this will affect the team on the field (at least right now), but as BleedingGreenNation notes, "As sad as it is to see JJ go, there's a lot to be excited about McDermott who was rumored to be in the running for several coordinator and even head coaching jobs this summer." According to Eagles coach Andy Reid, McDermott has handled the interim defensive co-ordinator duties in the pre-season quite well. I'm not sure he'll be Jim Johnson-good and the Eagles will almost surely regress slightly because of the change, but the team has a great defensive unit. The difference will be noticeable during the games when Johnson's aggressive game-playing might be absent. In the meantime, my prayers go to Jim Johnson and his family -- including his football family. 3. This could be the wish being father to the thought (to use Anthony Powell's wonderful phrase): The AP reports, "Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh is 'optimistic and hopeful' that wide receiver Derrick Mason will come out of retirement and rejoin the team during training camp." Mason announced his surprise retirement earlier this month. But just in case, the Ravens have signed former Tennessee Titan and St. Louis Rams WR Drew Bennett. Bennett was signed for the veteran minimum salary after playing just one game last year. He was signed after participating in WR try outs for the team today. In his eight years, only once has Bennett caught had more than 738 yards or scored more than four TDs, and that was in 2004 with the Titans (1247 yards, 11 TDs). This screams "let's load up with wideouts and see if one of them catches on." Even if Mason returns, which seems unlikely, the Ravens would need receiving depth. I'm just dubious whether Bennett brings much. Former Seattle Seahawk D.J. Hackett, who also attended the try out, would have been preferable. 2. Nick Higgins at Football Outsiders examines the "Third Year Wide Receiver Rule," which is shorthand for the conventional wisdom that WRs typically breakout in their third season. The article is focused on fantasy drafting, but it usefully examines the trajectory of WR early careers. Higgins concludes: "The 'Third-Year WR Rule' has served as a fairly good rule of thumb over the years, but it doesn't tell the whole story. The 'Second- to Fourth-Year WR Depending On Their Draft Round and Stats From Previous Seasons Rule' isn't as catchy, but it is more predictive for identifying potential breakout stars." In other words, the CW is right up to a point. 1. The NFL is moving from a two-day, weekend draft to a three-day draft that will start Thursday evening. I like it because it provides more football coverage and crazy in-depth analysis in the middle of Spring. It also means that the first round, which began mid-afternoon on a Saturday this year, won't be competing with the the Fox game of the week (baseball). There will be the standard complaint of this change being "excessive and gluttonous" but that's football. And why not try to make more money for the NFL Network in having some premium material on it in the middle of the misnamed "off-season." Three and out 3. SI.com has a slide show on the last no-hitter for every team. Which team has not had a no-hitter in nearly three decades? The Cleveland Indians, who last had a no-hitter in 1981 (thrown by Len Barker). 2. ESPN.com's Jayson Stark on the two top pitchers supposedly on the trade market, Cleveland Indians southpaw Cliff Lee and Toronto Blue Jays ace Roy Halladay: "The Indians aren't anywhere near as motivated to trade their ace, but they'll do it if they're blown away. The Blue Jays, on the other hand, appear to be looking for ways to make the Halladay trade happen, because they know they can't re-sign him and this is as marketable as he'll ever be." Sounds exactly right. I think that the Jays put out the idea of Halladay being available to see what they could get and have found out it isn't nearly as much as they'd like. That said, it still makes sense to trade him now with a deal that doesn't quite "blow them away" (even if they claim it does for PR purposes) and get a top-notch prospect along with three or four other mid-level prospect or high-risk/high-ceiling minor leaguers. 1. My plan for this weekend was to write a longish piece about why the St. Louis Cardinals should acquire LF Matt Holliday from the Oakland A's. Today the Cards traded highly regarded prospect Brett Wallace and others to Oakland for Holliday. Wallace is a corner infielder who projects to hit 300 without much power and get on-base about 40% of the time. That mustn't been easy to give up, especially considering how quickly he is ascending through the minors. But no prospect is a sure thing and there is much to be said for the Cardinals doing what they can to win now. If Holliday can hit like he has recently, the Cards, already the best team in the NL Central but probably not one of the three best teams in the National League, become that much stronger for the stretch and more dangerous in a short playoff series. Most people think that Holliday has been a disappointment this year but his 286/378/454 mark 1) roughly matches his road numbers when he played for the Colorado Rockies (296/370/486) and 2) is what you would expect for a hitter like Holliday playing half his games in a pitcher's park like The Coliseum. He struggled early, but has hit better in the past month after adjusting his swing and batting stance. Holliday is a better hitter than any of the other players on the Cards outfield merry-go-round and he is an important defensive upgrade (see Cliff Corcoran at SI.com) and a decent baserunner. Perhaps most importantly, he provides protection for Albert Pujols in the lineup. On a personal level, I'm happy because the remaining three games for the Yankees against A's this weekend just got easier for the Bronx Bombers. Stuff 1. P.J. O'Rourke interview with A.V.Club.com. 2. Schargel Consulting Group has a list of "25 Things About To Become Extinct" in America: the Yellow Pages, dial-up internet, movie rental stores, VCRS, the milkman, mumps and measles, and analog TV. And as Andrew Roth says at the Club for Growth blog, "And most of them are going extinct because of two fantastic words: creative destruction." 3. "10 more utterly disgusting foods," from Listverse.com. I wouldn't eat it, but scorpion soup doesn't sound that bad to me -- no stranger than eating fish, which I won't eat, either. Most of foreign delicacies would not be to my taste -- fermented fish, rotten eggs, corn tumours, poultry blood -- but this takes the cake: "Casu Marzu is a traditional Sardinian sheep milk cheese, notable for being riddled with live insect larvae." 4. At Slate Jeremy Singer-Vine examines why, "Why doctors won't stop using an outdated measure [BMI] for obesity." 5. People getting stuck in tar walking across the street. 'To kill your own child, you must be crazy, or I don't know what' The Montreal Gazette quotes Abdul Mubian from the saying, "To kill your own child, you must be crazy, or I don't know what," about the so-called honour killings within the "Afghan community" that have rocked Canada. Well, not really rocked. This sort of thing is not surprising and most people don't care. Anyway, in response to Mubian's "or I don't know what" comment the answer is obvious: Muslim. On polls and Palin The Washington Post reports on the soon-to-be former governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin: Last year's Republican vice presidential nominee remains a deeply polarizing figure, and there are warning signs for her as she emerges as a possible contender for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination. While she is still widely popular among those in her party, she has lost ground among Republicans generally and among the white evangelicals who are so critical in the early presidential primaries.At this point, such a poll is fairly meaningless. It is probably even more meaningless to Palin who would find such numbers a badge of honour or a challenge rather than a giant stop sign to her ambitions. Getting past Vick's past A lesson on tolerance from a former NFL coach, no less. Fanhouse has this tidbit in a post on Michael Vick's return to professional football: "Obviously his values are a little different than mine or yours probably," [UFL Orlando coach Jim] Haslett told the Orlando Sentinel, "but as long as he does what he's supposed to do, I think he deserves a second chance. Out of the four cities in this league, this would be the city that would probably accept him.Players are paid to play, not be role models. It's nice that Haslett can acknowledge and get past the fact that his and Vick's values are different and that they can still work together to try to win football games. American health care works Last week, Investors Business Daily ran a great piece on health care reform, jam-packed full of important refutations of the arguments Big Government health care reformers make in an editorial entitled, "Reformers' Claims Just Don't Add Up." It is worth reading in its entirety, but this is especially important because it destroys a common myth about the current U.S. health care system: America has the best health care in the world, and most Americans know it. Yet we hear that many “go without care” while in nationalized systems it is “guaranteed.”Americans don't know this. Liberals lie and Republicans are so busy screaming that Barack Obama and Congressional Democrats are socialists that they won't stop and make an intelligent argument against those Democratic lies. This is extremely important information. Democrats might misdirect and say, "sure, now let's make this affordable," but the question for them is then, "Will the changes you propose threaten what works with the current health care system?" The system needs some reforms to make health care affordable to more consumers, but that does not necessitate an overhaul. (HT: David Gratzer at NewMajority.com) Thursday, July 23, 2009
The Surveillance State Jacob Sullum reviews Ross Clark's The Road to Big Brother: One Man’s Struggle Against the Surveillance State: Yet there is something to be said, fiscal concerns aside, for not having a cop on every corner. The sense of being constantly watched tends to put a damper on things, potentially affecting the topics people discuss, the way they dress, the businesses they visit, even the books they read while sitting on park benches.I haven't given the issues of privacy and public surveillance much thought, with my position on it being nothing more than a gut libertarian distaste of having the state watch people. Clark seems to provide pragmatic as well as principled reasons for being skeptical of the surveillance state. Four and down 4. ESPN is reporting that Michael Vick will be given a four-game suspension once he returns from his the indefinite suspension that began three months before the former Atlanta Falcon star went to jail and (technically) served concomitantly with his sentence. It appears he will be able to train and play pre-season games, so his suspension takes effect when the season begins on Labour Day weekend. I've already stated my opinion that he has been punished enough, but that he was likely to face additional sanction. My guess is that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell wanted to punish him even more (he's a real law and order type), but that anything more than four games would be seen as vindictive and disproportionate. Perhaps he will end up in Orlando, who has his United Football League rights, where he would demonstrate to NFL teams that he can still play professional-level football. In fact, with the four-game suspension, the chances that he ends up in the UFL have increased dramatically. 3. SportsBusinessJournal.com reports that new Buffalo Bills wideout Terrell Owens is getting his own line of cereal, from PLB Sports, maker of Flutie Flakes. 2. I'm not a fantasy football guy, but the player spotlights at FootballGuys.com are good even for fans of football that don't partake in football pools. I think FG's Chris Smith is right on the money about Carson Palmer of the Cincinnati Bengals and why he will reemerge as an elite (or near-elite) quarterback: "[T]hey added rookie offensive tackle Andre Smith from Alabama and he will immediately step into a starting spot and be an upgrade for the club. Kyle Cook should win the starting center position for the team and he should improve as the year goes on. A true reason for optimism is the addition of veteran WR Laveranues Coles who should complement Chad Ochocinco well this season with his strong, underneath presence. Coles brings a hard-working, veteran presence to the Bengals." 1. Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger has been accused of sexual assault. My guess is that this civil suit ends up going away. The fact that a criminal complaint has never been filed seems fishy to me. I hope it doesn't end up too much of a distraction for Big Ben and the Steelers. Three and out 3. Mark Buehrle needed just 105 pitches to complete a perfect game, 5-0 win over the Tampa Bay Rays. Any perfect game is impressive, but the Rays are a good hitting team which makes the feat that much better. Check out the catch Dewayne Wise needed to make to keep the perfect game going. 2. Bill James breaks his silence on steroids and the Hall of Fame. If you are at all interested in this issue, read it. Print it out, save it, read it again two, five and ten years from now. I generally agree with everything James says except this: "The discrimination against PED users in Hall of Fame voting rests upon the perception that this was cheating. But is it cheating if one violates a rule that nobody is enforcing, and which one may legitimately see as being widely ignored by those within the competition?" Yes, it is still cheating. The question is how we judge the cheaters if half of players were cheating (probably too high) as opposed to 5% of players (probably too low). 1. Mark Lamster's MetropolisMag.com's article on the new stadia for New York Yankees and New York Mets. Liked this, which he goes on to explain: "As built, the new parks fit the characters of the teams that call them home." Caplan on charity Bryan Caplan gives us something to think about regarding charity (think telemarketers, door-to-door fundraising, canvassers on the street, etc...) and by extension taxation: Whenever someone appeals to my charity, four questions pop into my head: Obama's health care press conference President Barack Obama insults doctors and insults the intelligence of the average American. Here is the official transcript; his speeches are never as impressive when they are read (compared to being watched). Here's one part that is quite offensive when you get right down to it: Right now, doctors a lot of times are forced to make decisions based on the fee payment schedule that’s out there ... The doctor may look at the reimbursement system and say to himself, ‘You know what? I make a lot more money if I take this kid’s tonsils out.'Wesley Smith comes to the defense of doctors: First, that’s an outrageous slander against all but the worst doctors. Second, if a physician recommends surgery instead of medical treatment, a different doctor generally does the procedure. Third, even assuming that unnecessary tonsillectomies or other surgeries are frequently performed–because the clear import of the statement is that this is a common occurrence–how would his reforms change anything? In fact, given that part of this is going to be paid by reducing physician payments, the impetus for unnecessary surgeries would increase.Asked whether "the American people are going to have to give anything up in order for this to happen?" the President replied: "If there’s a blue pill and a red pill, and the blue pill is half the price of the red pill and works just as well, why not pay half price for the thing that’s going to make you well?" Does he really think it is that simple? He goes on to explain: But the system right now doesn't incentivize that. Those are the changes that are going to be needed -- that we're going to need to make inside the system. It will require I think patients to -- as well as doctors, as well as hospitals -- to be more discriminating consumers. But I think that's a good thing, because ultimately we can't afford this. We just can't afford what we're doing right now.Interesting concept. How does nationalizing health care incentivize patients to be more discriminating consumers? Wednesday, July 22, 2009
What I'm listening to on YouTube Or, how the internet makes my life better Why listen to music on YouTube? Don't know, but here are the last five songs I listened to whilst reading until I decided to poke around and find useless videos: Stupid Girl by Garbage, Little Red Corvette by Prince, Black and White Town by The Doves, Renegades of Funk by Rage Against the Machine, and Flight of the Bumblebee by Stas Venglevski (on the accordion). That is what Tyler Cowen is referring to when he talks about the kind of cultural sampling that is so easy and inexpensive online (see Create Your Own Economy). And it's not just music clips of novelties, concerts, or old videos, but the other 'useless' videos (see my earlier Stuff post) and three-quarters of my life online. That is one way in which our lives have become so much richer with the internet with very little cost other than the initial cost of the computer and an internet connection. This is especially true if you accept that that there is nothing inherently superior in information relative to entertainment (as I do). Or, to be clear, that the consumption of useless information -- why should I care about California's budget situation or the U.S. health care debate -- is a form of entertainment. So, yes, I'm calling "news" useless information. The point is I get to dabble in it any time I want and I do so often. Or none of this makes sense because I'm blogging at 3:20 a.m. and putting off sleep because sleep is for losers. Which raises another issue: how many more hours of sleep would I have had in my life if it were not for the internet? |