Month: November 2011

Steven Hayward wants to reform the GOP. Among his ideas:

Requiring the American people to actually pay for all of the government they receive is, as [William] Niskanen and others have convincingly argued, the most effective way to limit its growth. Right now the anti-tax bias of the Right results in shifting costs onto future generations who do not vote in today's elections, and enables liberals to defend against spending restraints very cheaply. Instead of starving the beast, conservatives should serve the check.

(Hat tip: The Browser.)

Ellen Campesinos, bassist for the band Los Campesinos!, explains why she's given up on it:

The first problem is who you sleep with. The most obvious candidate is the fan, or, as he's traditionally known, "the groupie." This is a really unappealing prospect. There's something about the power imbalance of that situation that makes me feel sad. I wouldn't want to sleep with someone whose lust is solely driven by the fact I'm in a band they like. In that scenario, I'm up on a pedestal; there's no room for me to impress them. Where's the fun in that? I like the chase. If I don't need to put any effort into seducing someone, there's no tension. They don't like me for my witty quips and knowledge of Sweet Valley High books; they like me for being in a band. (And frankly, when it comes to meaningless sex, I couldn't possibly enjoy myself wondering if they had my band's songs mentally soundtracking our foreplay.)

From Chris Cillizza:

Susan Newman defends having only one child and dismisses the stereotypes:

Hundreds of studies conducted over the last three decades have disproven the stigmas attached to only children. For instance, research done at the University of Ohio and ironically titled, “Good for Nothing: Number of Siblings and Friendship Nominations among Adolescents,” showed that only children were just as popular as their peers with siblings. Furthermore, the authors noted, “These results contribute to the view that there is little risk to growing up without siblings — or alternatively, that siblings really may be ‘good for nothing.’”

In 1985 Cambridge banned new parking spots. Felix Salmon connects this decision to the city's revival: 

Parking lots are — with only a handful of exceptions — the best possible way of destroying a city’s soul. They’re gruesome, lifeless places, and I’m constantly astonished by the way in which governments and developers are convinced that they’re a great idea. Instead, local government should act as a brake on private developers’ desires to build out new parking: while that might (or might not) be good for an individual commercial operation, it can at the same time be bad for the city as a whole.

Zak Stone finds some evidence that the common drink will soon become a luxury good:

At the exact moment that rare beans are becoming all the rage, all beans are becoming rarer. The price of a cup of coffee—whether it be a $6 pour-over, a $2.50 dark roast at Starbucks, or a $1.50 mug of diner swill—is being driven up by a complex combination of weather events, pest and fungus outbreaks, speculation on commodities exchanges, an unstable labor market in the developing world, and an unprecedented thirst for good coffee among a growing global middle class. The problem, in simple economic terms, is that supply has gone down and demand has gone up.

(Photo by Flickr user Mike DeWolfe.)

Alex Gourevitch makes the case:

We have been living in a society where debts, rather than rights, have been the major means for accessing basic social goods like housing, education, and health care. That social model was built around the assumption that while real incomes stagnated and the state did not directly provide many basic goods through universal entitlements, cheap credit would do the trick instead. High finance was inextricably intertwined with the privileges of citizenship. This was not a very good social model. With any luck, and a serious amount of political action, current resistance could lead to alternative ways of thinking about how we make these goods available to all.

Mike Konczal extends the analysis.

Today on the Dish, Andrew confronted the new reality of income inequality, and conservatives in Britain actually engaged with the modern world. Rick Perry's funds dried up, Drew Westen emanated nonsense, and grand jury investigations are often unreliable. The Old Boys' Network breeds cowards, and the case against Prop 8 caught a second wind.

In our AAA video, Andrew discussed whether Bush deserved any credit for Iraq, and Frum issued a cost-benefit analysis of the invasion. Netanyahu is not the living embodiment of Israel, a fixation with atrocity drives our policies toward a nuclear Iran, and Israel is prepared to go it alone. Republicans dismissed the UN, the Chinese struggled to find love, and we checked in on the uprising in Syria, which is intensifying. Intellectuals make for irresponsible policymakers, Qatar is richer and fatter than the US, and war is not inherently male. Andrew clarifed his assessment of Obama's foreign policy, and beauty endured in Afghanistan. 

We pushed back against Internet censorship, readers complicated the productivity paradox, and the White House came under assault. Smart kids are more curious about drugs, fiction intervened in death penalty cases, and scientists explored sex differences. Jonathan Cohn delved into the science of early adversity, vegetarians struggled with tattoo ethics, and marijuana softens PTSD. Christians resisted Christianism in Michigan, democracy is about ineradicable disagreement, and gold gave the other elements a run for their money.  Mark Warren profiled a "revolutionary American," Andrew fortuitously encountered some intellectual foes, and he delivered a speech at his alma mater. 

VFYW here, FOTD here, and MHB here. 

— M.A.

A stunning film showcases a country not always plagued by violence:

Afghanistan – touch down in flight from Augustin Pictures on Vimeo.

A new British study found that children with high IQs are more likely to use drugs as adults:

Researchers discovered men with high childhood IQs were up to two times more likely to use illegal drugs than their lower-scoring counterparts. Girls with high IQs were up to three times more likely to use drugs as adults.

Scott Morgan isn't surprised:

It ought to be intuitive that the curiosity which comes along with above-average intelligence would also be correlated with a heightened interest in experiencing altered states of consciousness. No doubt, a little extra brain-power also serves to inoculate against believing a lot of the BS we’re fed about how certain substances will turn your brain into a turnip.