The Closet Moderate

Merge!

2012-01-13T12:38:00.000-05:00

One of my goals when we started this blog was to give credit where credit's due, even when a good idea comes from someone who I otherwise almost always disagree with. When Obama was elected, I (perhaps alone among my fellow bloggards) was disappointed, but there were two things I hoped he might accomplish that I would support: expanding rail infrastructure and normalizing relations with Cuba.

Re-election

2011-12-21T11:04:00.002-05:00

There's a plague of neologisms and clichés every election season, and this one is no different. What's sticking in your humble bloggard's grammatical craw this year: the re-elect. No, it's not because I'm a closet Whig who doesn't believe Presidents should ever be re-elected (true?), nor is it because I don't find this particular President worthy of re-election (true!). It's more basic than

The Opening Salvo

2011-11-09T19:50:00.005-05:00

Is it the War on Christmas season again? The bells and the sleigh, the fife and the drum! Oh joy!I consider myself a seasoned veteran of the Christmas wars, but I must admit even I find this new front that has opened up nothing less than confounding. Here's the most recent savage attack from those who wish to destroy Christmas and all that is holy. A Christmas Tree TaxThat's right—the holiday

Re-runs

2011-10-15T16:18:00.001-04:00

In lieu of writing new posts, let's revisit the old ones and see if they're still good ideas. Two years ago, I wrote a post calling for using stimulus funds to build a second capital city instead of throwing it away on more welfare. Is this still a good idea? Would this spending be better than the stimulus spending of 2009-2010? *looks the country up and down* Yup, that shit didn't work.

OTBNW: Noodles Hahn

2011-10-15T15:40:00.000-04:00

The Old-Timey Baseball Name of the Week this week -- --what? Yes, this blog still exists. -- --belongs to Frank George "Noodles" Hahn of the Cincinnati Reds. Ol' Noodles was a turn-of-the-century pitcher who finished his career with 130 wins. Because pitchers pitched constantly in those days, he did this in just eight years. Hahn's biography at SABR will explain his life story better than I

Old-Timey Baseball Name of the Week

2011-03-25T15:47:00.001-04:00

Johnny Oscar "Ugly" Dickshot.Ugly Dickshot.

The End of Pax Americana?

2011-03-17T18:41:00.000-04:00

Winds of change are blowing across the deserts of North Africa. First Tunisians, then Egyptians, and now Libyans crowded the streets in protest and insurrection against their respective despots. In 1989, when a similar wave of freedom swept the former Warsaw Pact, America's voice joined the voices of the oppressed as they cried out for freedom from their socialist masters. Now, in Africa,

Gorge Yourselves at the Trough of Freedom!

2011-03-10T19:00:00.000-05:00

The former writer of this blog would have surely enjoyed this Slate piece in which Daniel Engber finally cries "hold enough" to all of the anti-obesity hatred going around (h/t Megan McArdle). All of this hand-wringing over fatness disturbs me for a lot of reasons. Much of it is fueled by bigotry, for one thing. Skinny people talk about health, but what they really mean is that it disgusts

More Slate inanity

2011-03-09T18:15:00.000-05:00

This article on Slate caught my eye. It's about an obscure country, Mauritius, which is always interesting, and it says how much America sucks, which always generates a lot of comments. As expected, it was stupid and shallow. It is basically an article about how to succeed by being a free rider. Finance your government by letting other countries' citizens avoid tax, and reduce military

Swears

2011-01-05T19:10:00.001-05:00

Fuck! Cock! Shit! On a blog, these words are unremarkable, but consider this: today is the first day my fellow Pennsylvanians and I can say these profanities without fear of being cited by the police. It's a great day for free speech in Pennsylvania. Surely, this is what James Madison and his Congressional colleagues foresaw when they wrote the First Amendment.

Google better back up off me!

2010-12-17T17:39:00.001-05:00

Slate is reporting that Google's new prototype laptop keyboard lacks the internet's favorite key: CAPS LOCK. Don't get me wrong: it's an idea whose time has come. Caps Lock hasn't been useful in most internet users' lifetimes. So good riddance. But click through to that Slate article, and see what they've replaced it with: a search key. I have one of these keys on my Android phone and, let

You wanted bi-partisanship? Here is is:

2010-12-06T21:03:00.000-05:00

I don't claim to speak for all of by co-bloggards here, but I think we'll all agree that this bi-partisan compromise out of Washington is a dumbfuck idea. Alone among the Closet Moderates, I thought there would never be a tax cut I didn't like, but I was wrong. Listen to the details of this purposed compromise: Extend all Bush-era tax cuts for all income levels for two years, Extend

Nanny-Statism We Can Believe In

2010-12-06T13:20:00.003-05:00

The Denver Post Reports:Schaetzle and a number of his similarly shocked patrons pointed out that both waistlines and blood-alcohol levels could suffer as a result of banning low-alcohol — read, low-calorie — beers from taverns and restaurants.The Celtic could carry another stout—Guinness teeters right at the cutoff point between the low- and high-alcohol label—but Schaetzle won't be happy about

Keep Your Government Hands Off My Medicare Testicles

2010-11-22T01:16:00.004-05:00

If you want a vision of the future, imagine a latex glove gently palpitating a pair of human testicles – forever.I think the greatest indictment of this program is that the federal government now employs a cadre of people whose full-time job is to grope the genitals of their fellow citizens. That fact amounts to another example of liberals allowing conservatives to have it both ways. These

Whose nutz? Deez nutz! An ode to TSA.

2010-11-15T20:37:00.007-05:00

This bloggard looks on in glee as the Transportation Security Agency faces a backlash over their growing use of millimeter wave and x-ray backscatter imaging machines. As our readers all know, the machines waylay airline passengers as they try to enter the "secure" area of an airport, forcing them to empty their pockets of every receipt, coin, and piece of lint in their possession while low-dose

They call it peace

2010-10-20T10:42:00.004-04:00

In the past few years, the Nobel Prize folks gave out a number of peace prizes that were justly held up to ridicule: Jimmy Carter, Al Gore, Barack Obama -- WE GET IT, YOU HATE GEORGE BUSH. But in 2010, Bush is gone and the Scandinavians can get down to business again. This year's Peace Prize winner, Liu Xiaobo, is someone whom ordinary folks can look to as a role model. As an advocate for

A Movement in No Direction

2010-10-19T20:38:00.005-04:00

Over at Slate, Timothy Noah makes a case to avoid the upcoming Stewart/Colbert yak-a-thon in DC. Noah seems to think the March/Rally is part of a political movement aimed at countering the Tea Party and/or Glenn Beck... or at least a political movement of over-educated elitists. It's an odd point though, as I think the rallies are better viewed as an indictment of "movements". These are satirists

It's electric!

2010-10-16T10:19:00.002-04:00

In Europe, the Chevy Volt is called the Ampera. If I knew more about electrical engineering, I'd make a joke about what that says about the Old World versus the New. Any takers?

It's His Job

2010-10-16T09:52:00.005-04:00

How sad is it that it's considered newsworthy when the nation's chief law enforcement officer says that he'll enforce and defend the law? Of course the Attorney General says that the Feds will enforce federal statutes regardless of what the hippies in California decide on Prop 19. And of course DOJ will appeal the decision overturning DADT. It's his job. Its immaterial whether or not he agrees

Selection bias is FUNdamental!

2010-10-15T11:22:00.004-04:00

As usual, I have been stirred from my usual state of slothful non-bloggitude by the statistical illiteracy of someone at Slate. Only this time, its worse, because its a write-up of a study by some legitimate economists, and they're really the ones to blame. The study is a randomized control trial of management consulting. The authors went to a bunch (66) of midsize textile companies around

"If it saves even one life then it's a good law."

2010-09-30T13:08:00.004-04:00

This post's title is a quote from Bostonist, that sets a high bar for idiotic oversimplification or terrible use of sarcasm. I mean, really... any law? Despite what mommy told us, human life is not priceless. [+]MoreIf it were, we certainly would not be allowed to banter about over-the-top assertions like this using a toxic material filled computer sucking up electricity produced from mined coal

Throw clichés under the bus

2010-09-29T09:30:00.003-04:00

Back in '08, it seemed like every politics article contain that vulgar formulation "throw [x] under the bus." Lately, "teachable moment" has gotten nearly as common. "Under the bus" had, at least in its infancy, the pleasure of sounding novel and interesting. "Teachable moment" was always a politicians' nonsense phrase, but lately I've even heard normal people say it. The problem with clichés

Causation and Journalism

2010-09-23T21:51:00.003-04:00

This is who we are now:Newser's Michael Wolff notes that the more a candidate seems to lack "gravity," "probity," and "confidence," the better he or she seems to do this cycle. (I'd add: when the media points out their lack of such qualities, the reaction from people who support these candidates is to say to themselves, "See? The media is attacking US. Let's spit in their eye.") "Can anybody be

On scales and competition

2010-09-20T21:58:00.004-04:00

Not only will we be bringing you reprocessed and irrelevant bloggy news, but also half-formed musings that may or may not be of any interest! That, dear reader, is our commitment to you. Enjoy!One question we scientists like to ask is: why can't you think more like us? What are you, stupid? But seriously, I've been wondering what is it about the scientific way of

Good managers and bad teams

2010-09-20T17:54:00.012-04:00

As a part of our commitment to you, the reader of The Closet Moderate, we plan to blog more around here. As a result, the posts will likely be more bloggy -- i.e., ill-informed and amateurish. In that vein, here's a thought that's been rattling around in my head the past few months: Jerry Manuel of the New York Mets is a good manager.[+]MoreNow, this is hard for a Phillies fan to admit, but

The Role of Lifetime

2010-09-20T02:09:00.006-04:00

A rare look behind the scenes of a new film, directed by David Mamet, starring Danny Devito:Inside The Actor's Workshop with Danny DeVito from David Mamet

51Park

2010-08-16T23:08:00.004-04:00

Ok, I'm going to wade into this morass because I have had it up to here with the so-called Ground-Zero Mosque debate. There are a lot of reasons for me to hate this. Obviously, the ridiculous bigotry and hypocrisy should top the list. You want to restrict the religious freedom of people to build near Ground Zero, a place where people attacked us because they don't

Bob and George

2010-07-14T07:53:00.003-04:00

Not for nothing were Bob Sheppard and George Steinbrenner known as “the Voice of God” and “the Boss,” respectively.Sheppard’s authority came from the magisterial tones that rang out across the gathered faithful in The House that Ruth Built. His was a voice that came from everywhere, in tune with both the sorrows and joys of his flock. From his perch in the

Fixing the leak; or, how I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb

2010-06-30T17:19:00.003-04:00

Since the beginning of this oil well mess in the Gulf of Mexico, many pundits (including your humble bloggard) have proposed closing the well by detonating a nuclear weapon. Actually, my exact drunken words were more akin to "drop a fucking A-bomb on the sumbitch." At first, even I thought this a fringe theory, but now even ex-Presidents are suggesting it. And, as you will see after the jump,

En garde!

2010-06-02T15:51:00.006-04:00

We hear a lot about gun control nowadays. It always makes me wonder: if there were no guns, wouldn't some crazy bastard go around killing people with a sword? Now, from Indianapolis, we have the answer: swords indeed do kill people.[+]MoreThis story (h/t Deadspin) tells us of just such a murder, albeit of the drunken, accidental sort. Will people find drunken ways to kill each other even in a

OTBNW -- Dummy Hoy

2010-05-14T10:28:00.002-04:00

William Ellsworth "Dummy" Hoy was a turn-of-the-century center fielder for several teams in the American and National Leagues. Hoy is best known today for being the most successful deaf baseball player in Major League history. And successful he was, racking up more than 2,000 hits in his fifteen-year career. His nickname, a reference to his deafness, sounds cruel by today's standards, but was

OTBNW -- Cupid Childs

2010-05-11T18:34:00.008-04:00

A little late, here's this week's Old-Time Baseball name of the Week: Cupid Childs.Clarence Lemuel "Cupid" Childs was a second-baseman who played with a variety of teams, but mostly with the Cleveland Spiders, a team most noted for once posting the major leagues' worst record: 20 wins and 134 losses in 1899.[+]MoreChilds was born in Calvert County, Maryland just after the Civil War and later

Brits!

2010-05-06T19:13:00.004-04:00

Interested in the U.K. elections? Nate Silver is live-blogging here, and the Times has some great maps here.

Old Time Baseball Name of the Week (2)

2010-04-28T18:05:00.004-04:00

Oyster Burns.Thomas "Oyster" Burns was an outfielder (and sometimes shortstop) who played from 1884 to 1895. Most of his playing career is with the Brooklyn Bridegrooms (later the Dodgers) and the original Baltimore Orioles (later moved to New York and became the Yankees), but he began his career with the Wilmington Quicksteps, a team that should also qualify as a good old-time baseball name.Ol'

Old-time Baseball Name of the Week

2010-04-23T16:54:00.004-04:00

Cannonball Titcomb.Old-time ballplayers had the best nicknames, but this one was clearly worthy of blogging.Ledell "Cannonball" Titcomb was a left-handed pitcher from 1886 to 1890. He put up a lifetime record of 30 wins, 29 losses, with an ERA of 3.47. Not terrible, anyway. In Titcomb's final season, while pitching for the now-defunct Rochester Broncos, he threw a no-hitter against the equally

Openness v. Progress

2010-02-25T12:30:00.002-05:00

When President Obama campaigned for a more open government, it was one of the few things I agreed with him about (to be fair, McCain said a lot of the same things). But as this health-care "summit" approached, it occurred to me that having it on television was the worst possible idea. It's unlikely anything would have been accomplished anyway, given that Obama already released his proposal and

In praise of the Olympics

2010-02-21T00:13:00.007-05:00

This blog does not only represent those from the left and the right, but also those from the sports-watching world and those from without. While I may pin down a middling-left political stance, I can say with honor that I am the far end of the sports-ignoring spectrum, with the possible exception of Waldorf.And, in light of this, I wish to praise the Olympics.[+]MoreLeon Wieseltier has a charming ability to let it all hang out, as he does in his latest screed against Andrew Sullivan. As Matt Yglesias notes, the two have some history that may inform this exchange. It's a long article, so a brief summary is in order:Part I: Christian theology and Jewish theology are differentPart II: Stereotypes bad, Charles Krauthammer OK to

Speculative Politics: Narrative [2 of 2]

2010-02-04T14:57:00.006-05:00

A recent poll found that Fox News is the most trusted name in news. You should've already filled your britches, and not because Fox News is partisan, or chockablock with shallow megalomaniacs. You could say that about many TV news outlets. The reason you should be scared is that Fox News--and the GOP generally--has figured out how to make storytelling the dominant

Speculative Politics: Narrative [1 of 2]

2010-02-03T12:22:00.012-05:00

When a reporter starts talking about narrative, reach for your wiffle bat. Talking heads, political commentators, reporters, the whole D.C. media establishment (the "filter" or "village" for short) are paid to write and talk. In short, they're paid to fill space. People who fill space shouldn't get to weigh in on the character of the space they're filling.There

On Bernanke

2010-01-28T15:27:00.008-05:00

The CM roundtable on reconfirming Bennie B., executive summary:Silent Cal:I think he's well-qualified, but more important is that re-confirming him strengthens the Fed's independence. If Obama were to bow to extremists' demands in Congress, it would result in a Fed that was less bank and more an arm of the government. Take a look at Venezuala if you want to know what that would be like.Waldorf:

What Condition Our Condition Is In

2010-01-27T09:13:00.005-05:00

In tonight's State of the Union address, Barack Obama will:Admit that Evan Bayh is his least favorite Senator, with a saucy wink at Joe Lieberman.Admonish the GOP for their unfair besmirching of America's oldest sport: the pie-eating contest.Announce a three year brain freeze, and then demonstrate his ability to lead the country by eating an entire crate of Flavor Ice.Stand around awkwardly

Human Capital Is Made of People!

2010-01-05T13:45:00.007-05:00

I wanted to talk a little bit about Maxine Udall's post on the financial meltdown. I'm not an economist, so I can't speak to the post itself, but I wanted to highlight a dimension that I think hasn't been discussed, in part because it's a matter of intuition rather than data: the political consequences.Cont'd.[+]MoreWe can discern

Hot air

2009-12-08T20:52:00.007-05:00

I don't normally involve myself in the fine points of reducing carbon dioxide output -- asking me what carbon tax I prefer is like asking me which rope I'd prefer to be hanged with (sisal, for the record) -- but I'm intrigued by this week's tête-à-tête between Paul Krugman and James Hansen. It seems to illustrate the difference between social scientists and science scientists fairly well.[+]More

Advertising Disaster

2009-12-07T15:12:00.006-05:00

Tim Fernholz's article about the AfPak escalation reminded me of a soda I used to drink when I was a lad. Commercial below:Text: Wanna tour the planet? Grab a 20 oz. Surge (SUUUUURGE!) Play "Surge Around the World" and you and your buds can win four days with a fully-loaded jet to go to Athens, Rome, Tokyo, or almost anywhere you like!That advertisement could be a recruiting ad if you just fuck

THIS FUCKING GUY OH MY GOD

2009-12-07T10:54:00.007-05:00

I don't like Thomas Friedman, and I'm pretty up front about that. I don't know the guy personally, but he strikes me as one of those folks who had a moment of excellence a while back, and since then has become some sort of human alchemical process through which information is transformed into idiocy. I wouldn't consider it a problem if the NYT didn't afford him a mechanism for turning his

On Language (II)

2009-12-03T11:37:00.007-05:00

Low-hanging fruit1. Goals that are easily achievable and don't require a lot of effort.I don't know about you, but whenever I hear this phrase it seems to carry a mild stigma. It's as if reaching for ripe, succulent fruits within easy reach is some how a demeaning activity for modern humans. I think it's worth noting that when no less a pantheon than the Gods of Olympus wanted to punish Tantalus

Mysteries of Modern Medicine

2009-12-03T10:55:00.006-05:00

I'm a bit amazed that we haven't managed to cure breast cancer yet. Off the top of my head, I can't think of a single anti-breast group out there. Simply put, the entire human race, independent of color, creed or sexual orientation, is objectively pro-boob. Maybe, maybe there's some troglodyte fashionista out there who objects to breasts because they ruin the waifish silhouette he's trying to

A Speech of Necessity

2009-12-01T18:59:00.009-05:00

After a lengthy review process, President Obama has authorized an additional 30,000 troops for the Afghanistan war. I harp on this constantly, but there are two countervailing pressures affecting this decision. Hamid Karzai is famously corrupt, and the obvious method to coerce him into shaping up is to threaten to leave him to the Taliban's tender mercies. That said, to get Afghans to buy into

Essential Reading

2009-11-24T15:03:00.005-05:00

I write a lot about war, but every now and then someone writes something that makes me feel bad for even trying to talk about that subject. On particularly bad days, I find two examples of that sort of writing:Paul Staniland on COIN doctrineProf. Stephen Walt on the hazards of occupationPaul and Prof. Walt lay out, in stark detail, the problems with our approach to the AfPak muddle. Even if you

100 jobs saved in East Dakota's 10th district!

2009-11-18T22:17:00.006-05:00

Recovery.gov, your clearing house for made up statistics, has been listing thousands of jobs saved in places that do not exist. I know the conspiracy-minded among you will instantly leap to the facile conclusion that the government has secret Congressional districts it is hiding from us. Some others of you may believe the government was just making up jobs data and wasn't even smart enough to

This Week in Stupid

2009-11-09T10:28:00.012-05:00

I usually stick to political idiocy for this section, but today's winner is a Joe Posnanski article about the New York Yankees. Mr. Posnanski is a Kansas City Royals fan and Zach Greinke booster. He's a fabulous writer and his eloquent case for Greinke as Cy Young recipient sold me completely. That said, he nurses a peculiar resentment toward the Bronx Bombers.[+]

Insert Additional COIN(s)

2009-11-06T12:48:00.008-05:00

On a fundamental level, what bothers me about the wars we're embroiled in are the echoes of the "civilizing mission" that surround them. In Iraq, that tone was explicit. We were attempting to transform the country into a modern democracy by force of arms. That idea was rank hubris, but at the time it sounded appealing to a country habituated to the idea of a

COIN-Operated War(s)

2009-11-06T11:57:00.005-05:00

Post-WWII, the US military has been, by and large, an organization built to deter and defeat potential "peer competitors." That's a fancy term IR/FoPo folks throw around that means, basically, "nations that think they might be able to take us." Specifically, it refers to nations that are both wealthy and populous enough to sustain a war effort against a great

Wanna Hear My Master Plan / Here Is My Master Plan

2009-11-05T16:59:00.010-05:00

I'm a big nerd, and, as a result many of my childhood friends are nerds. Actually, I think the causation flows the other way, but you get the point. My co-bloggard, Waldorf, famously pioneered an expression that he uses whenever he's in the process of fucking you over in some nerdy contest: I'm doing you a favor.Of course, it's enraging. When confronting a major

It's Something Wrong With The Way I Think

2009-11-05T15:49:00.006-05:00

There's an infuriating tendency in American politics to read ourselves into the national narratives of other countries. In the wake of the Russian invasion of Georgia, Sen. McCain told us that "we are all Georgians." The entire fucking Vietnam War owes its sorry history to the fact that we wrote ourselves into a struggle for national unification. Yeah, Ho Chi Minh

How We Do

2009-11-05T01:30:00.003-05:00

“You can call us anything you want,” Cashman said. “You also have to call us world champions."

The Rocket/Condom Convergance

2009-10-28T14:53:00.004-04:00

The Future of Rocket Technology:The Future of Condom Technology:Potential for Deep-Impact-based porn flick, featuring giant space vulva that threatens Earth? Off the charts. Tagline: "Seriously, Capt. Spurgeon*, use a rubber."*Actual name of Robert Duvall's role in Deep Impact.

Fuck Joe Lieberman 2: This Time, For Real

2009-10-27T14:26:00.005-04:00

In the wake of Joe Lieberman's latest knives-out-in-the-Senate moment, I'd like to take a moment to link to a classic Statler rant from late '08, "Fuck Joe Lieberman."If you haven't heard, Joe, ably voiced by the insurance lobby in this episode, said today that he'd join a GOP filibuster on the healthcare bill if it included any sort of public option. In other

On Language

2009-10-21T11:19:00.002-04:00

to screw the pooch (v)1. to screw up; to fail in dramatic and ignominious fashionI'm kind of fascinated by this phrase, because it's both so evocative and almost completely without stigma. The motivating idea is that you've gone so wrong while executing a fairly basic human activity that you're earnestly humping away at the family dog. You'd think a casual mention of bestiality in public would

Klosterman Revisited

2009-09-08T15:24:00.006-04:00

A long time ago, I wrote something critical about Chuck Klosterman. You can't slag on soccer like this without agitating the blogosphere:To say you love soccer is to say you believe in enforced equality more than you believe in the value of competition and the capacity of the human spirit. I would sooner have my kid deal crystal meth than play soccer.Today, while

Robert Gates Regulates

2009-08-15T18:31:00.014-04:00

So, before I use the termination of the F-22 program to talk about larger issues related to defense procurement, I'd like to ask our readership how many F-15s they think have been shot down, in total.Zero.That's right, nobody has ever managed to so much as shoot the wing off a F-15 jet. Our air superiority is so complete that referring to it as "superiority" seems

This Week In Stupid

2009-08-06T16:04:00.008-04:00

Michael Gerson, "Death of a Doctrine," The Washington PostIn the linked article, Michael Gerson, a G. W. Bush speechwriter, opens with a shameless generalization about a new generation of Americans and proceeds to misunderstand diplomacy, foreign policy, and history.[+]More...[T]he administration does have a doctrine. The defining

The Hazards of Vice-Presidential Time Travel

2009-07-27T15:05:00.009-04:00

Vice President Joe Biden on the need for the U.S. not to overplay its hand with Moscow:It is never smart to embarrass an individual or a country when they're dealing with significant loss of face. My dad used to put it another way: Never put another man in a corner where the only way out is over you. It just is not smart.Vice President Joe Biden on domestic difficulties that are affecting Russian

The Code of the Schoolyard

2009-07-23T17:08:00.010-04:00

I had a college professor who explained the specific way IR scholars use the terms "anarchy" and "hierarchy" as follows:I went to Catholic school, and we had a nun who would watch over us as recess, Sister Mary--she would twist your ear good and hard if she caught you up to no good. When Sister Mary was on the playground we had hierarchy. If a bully acted up, you

Expanding waste

2009-07-15T17:40:00.007-04:00

My latest gripe about American governance concerns the stimulus. No, not that it's too big -- that's a lost cause -- nor that it's taking too long -- the only thing government can do quickly is tax you or jail you -- but rather the quality of the spending. Look at the stuff they're spending money on: job retraining, which we now know is worthless; plugging holes in states' budgets, which only

Jay-Z and the New American Century

2009-07-14T13:29:00.006-04:00

I bet you guys didn't think there was any overlap between IR and hip-hop. You were wrong. Below, two great posts on the feud between Jay-Z and the Game, and its implications for American foreign policy:Marc Lynch, Jay-Z vs. The Game, Lessons for the American Primacy DebateSpencer Ackerman, The Only Blogger To Rewrite History Without A PenAnd Lynch rounds up the reactions here.

Currency rebels

2009-07-13T18:44:00.009-04:00

Matthew Yglesias's blog brought this news item to my attention:SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — State vendors and contractors could use their government-issued IOUs to pay state taxes, fees and liens under a bill approved by an Assembly committee.The Business and Professions Committee unanimously passed the bill by Assemblyman Joel Anderson during its first legislative hearing Tuesday. The bill requires

Content-free

2009-07-12T02:20:00.005-04:00

This column by Daniel Gross is completetely useless. Summary: forecasts are inaccurate, please write me a check for doing nothing. Die in a fire.Edit: Okay, that was a little harsh. Second-degree burns in a fire.

Been Away

2009-07-06T17:51:00.007-04:00

A short roundup of what's happened while I was not attached to the internet:Sarah Palin resigned, inscrutablyJoe Biden said some astonishingly stupid thingsA subset of the Iranian clergy called for tossing out the election resultsRoger Federer > Andy RoddickRobert McNamara was unable to triumph over Vietnamese, Grim Reaper

Relegation

2009-06-27T13:44:00.006-04:00

Michael Jackson is dead, so by order of our mainstream media headmasters, we've all forgotten about the rebellion in Iran for a few days. While we wait for the return of actual news, I thought I'd write about something else for us to argue about: professional sports.Specifically, I've been thinking about the system of promotion and relegation used in leagues in other countries. In, for example,

News Feed

2009-06-24T18:08:00.002-04:00

I'm not sure our reader(s) have noticed it, but for a little while now, the Closet Moderate has featured a news feed, consisting of the last three blog posts on other blogs that each of us has chosen to highlight for your further edification. So far, only three of us bloggards are actually doing this, but we hope to expand particiaption in the future. Meanwhile, enjoy the Closet Moderate

Re: Two Questions on Iran

2009-06-22T18:46:00.001-04:00

As concerns the first question on my earlier post, it seems pretty clear that the answer is yes.

Ayatollah Ali "All In" Khamenei Speaks

2009-06-19T15:43:00.004-04:00

Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei gave an ominous sermon as part of Friday prayers, which marks an escalation of tensions between the Supreme Leader and the protesters. In the speech, Khamenei makes a case for the integrity of the electoral process, arguing that there are mechanisms in place to assure the validity of results. The problem? It's about, oh, five days too

Two questions on Iran

2009-06-17T18:09:00.004-04:00

My fellow bloggards have already written on the Iran situation, so I'll try not to duplicate their work. Instead, I have two questions to think about: (1) was the election result falsified, and (2) how should that question affect America's response to the protesters.[+]MoreFirst: Was it rigged? Did Mahmoud Ahmadinejad actually win, as the Iranian government claims, or did one of his opponents

Ahmadinejad as an actor

2009-06-17T01:16:00.002-04:00

Following up on my blogmate's posts on Iran, I'd like to throw in that we shouldn't be automatically assuming that Ahmadinejad's destiny is stuck to Khamenei's. Not only is there an outcome where Khamenei retains power but Ahmadinejad doesn't, I think there's also a plausible outcome where Ahmadinejad retains power but Khamenei doesn't. As Statler pointed out,

“Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force.”

2009-06-16T09:24:00.008-04:00

If you're still interested in the unfolding Iranian situation, I wanted to recommend this Noah Millman article. Noah points out the relevant question, which is, essentially, "whither the Iranian military?"So far, we've seen some violence perpetrated against civilians by the Basij, a pro-government militia. Depending on the level of coordination between the Basij

Dateline Iran: Shit => Fan

2009-06-15T15:05:00.013-04:00

So, this weekend some serious shenanigans went down in Iran. Before I get into the "literature" review, I'll try to lay out the timeline as I understand it:June 12th Mousavi is informed by the interior ministry that he is the winner of the election and that he needs to prepare a victory speech. He is urged to refrain from bragging or otherwise alienating conservative elements within the Iranian

Tsar of all the Bureaucrats

2009-06-12T22:19:00.006-04:00

When I was in law school, I worked one summer for Peter Swire, a former official in the Clinton administration. Apparently, Clinton offered Swire the job of "privacy czar," but Swire declined to use that informal title, using instead the full title of Chief Counselor for Privacy. Until recently, I thought he and I were the only people with an aversion to the term "czar" for an American

Scurvy greens

2009-06-08T20:52:00.005-04:00

The scene: the frosty waters of the North Pacific.The players: Two sailorsFIRST SAILOR: By Neptune's beard, I truly hate those environmentalist land-lubbers.SECOND SAILOR: Aye, so do we all, but what's to be done about it?FIRST: I've a plan to drive those scurvy hippies mad.SECOND: Well, we already work on an oil tanker.FIRST: Ar, 'tis true,but we can do better. SECOND: Shall we sink one of

Sotomayor, part dos

2009-06-03T20:57:00.009-04:00

As the only lawyer-bloggard among us, I feel embarrassed that FSH was quicker to post on the new Supreme Court nominee than I was. The problem is, I don't much care. The President is from the left, so he appoints a leftist judge to the Court. She wouldn't have been my first pick, even from the left, but he's the President, and unless there's something obviously wrong with her, she'll likely be

2009-06-02T11:51:00.002-04:00

As a (sort of) proud (sort of) Rhodey, I feel compelled to share with you fair bloggees the story of Rhode Island's legalization of prostitution.What surprises me about this situation is that, as far as I can tell, prostitution still remains pretty underground in RI. I have never seen an advertisement for a prostitute here, or a place that explicitly called

The Obligatory Sotomayor Post

2009-05-30T23:51:00.002-04:00

Since we are a blog on the internet in May of 2009, we are obliged by the world internet treaty to have a piece on Sonia Sotomayor, Obama's nominee for the Supreme Court. Many of the political aspects of nomination have been discussed by people far more learned and savvy on the topic than I, so I will not try to add to the wisdom in that arena. Instead, I'm going to focus my attention somewhere

Judging the election

2009-05-20T20:25:00.006-04:00

Yesterday, Pennsylvania had its primary election. Most of the slots available were for judgeships, and most of the names on the ballot were unknown, even to people who pay attention to politics. In Philadelphia, the Democrats chose among thirty-three candidates for eleven positions. Each election cycle, would-be judges must go through a system that is onerous at best, and corrupt at worst, in

FOQ or be FOQD

2009-05-18T20:10:00.005-04:00

Libertarians -- even small-l libertarians like me -- are required once yearly to compare our government to that dystopia described in Kurt Vonnegut's Harrison Bergeron. And so, here we go: today I came across a story in the Houston Chronicle (h/t The Legal Satyricon) about a strip club in Texas being sued for age discrimination.[+]MoreWhen foreign policy makes its way into the popular consciousness, it tends to do so in the form of imperatives and inflammatory rhetoric. On the one hand, that's totally understandable. Americans are generally less concerned with the politics among nations than they are about tax rates, and other issues of domestic policy. In that environment, the natural way to

BREAKING: Humans Have Ten Fingers, Toes

2009-04-29T19:50:00.005-04:00

This 100 days triumph has got me annoyed, but not for the reason you may suspect. It bothers me for the same reason that the news stories a few years ago bothered me when they when on and on about the n-thousandth soldier killed in Iraq: the genesis of the story was that something has occurred involving a certain number, that number being a power of ten (or a multiple of a power of ten). These

Swine time

2009-04-26T12:13:00.004-04:00

It's apparently time to get worked up about the flu again. Every few years, this seems to surface as one of the media-approved fears we're supposed to obsess about. This year, Mexican Swine Flu has joined the economies, global warming, the fate of Gitmo prisoners, and the injustice of male-only golf clubs on that list. Yes, it's not every flu epidemic that features the President as Patient

Next stop, Havana!

2009-04-22T20:18:00.008-04:00

Many of my earlier posts on this blog have been distinctly unfriendly to President Obama and to communists. But together, I kind of like them. That is to say, I like that Obama is being soft on communism. As this article in The Economist tells us, Obama is considering weakening the embargo against Cuba. The only problem, as I see it, is that his proposals don't go far enough.[+]MoreAnd it all meant this: that there are hardly any excesses of the most crazed psychopath that cannot be easily duplicated by a normal, kindly family man who just comes into work every day and has a job to do. Vorbis loved knowing that. A man who knew that, knew everything he needed to know about people.-Terry Pratchett, Small GodsIf I had to point to one thing

Mr. Yes

2009-04-14T20:41:00.009-04:00

Many of my friends on the right have been describing our current President's tenure as the second Carter administration. That's a bit unfair; while disorganized and pusillanimous at times, Obama will need years to get close to Carter's record of failure. The President he most resembles, to my mind, is Warren Harding.[+]MoreNewspaper and television reporters

Voiced By Gilbert Gottfried

2009-04-13T16:28:00.004-04:00

So, we have this problem in central asia that our foreign policy sexperts have taken to calling the AfPak muddle. The prevailing assumption is that this is the war we can't lose, because a defeat there will once again give the Taliban and OBL access to "safe havens" in the warlord-ized semi-state. The problem is that the consensus doesn't hold up in the face of

Cold hard cash

2009-04-02T06:34:00.008-04:00

There's been a lot of loose talk among the third-world countries that the world ought to adopt an alternate reserve currency to replace the American dollar. This reinforces my belief that government and commerce ought to be kept separate whenever possible. For one thing, this idea already happened in 1969 when the IMF created the "special drawing right" as an international currency. There are

Must Love Bombs

2009-03-30T15:45:00.015-04:00

An exciting new romantic comedy from the Council on Foreign Relations. You can get the plot synopsis at the Cato Institute. Starring:Elliot Abrams, Senior Fellow at CFRKarim SadjadpourMartin Indyk[+]MoreI don't know how we decided that people are okay with us bombing their country. I think my instinct is that the people pushing

The Substance, It Burns!

2009-03-26T16:12:00.007-04:00

We've had a little too much "real" talk on this blog lately, so I'm going to switch gears and talk about the Great American Pastime. That's baseball, for all you football-loving heathens out there. [+]MoreI'm a man of slightly conflicted baseball loyalties. I started life as a Mets fan, but was forced to switch teams as a young

Globalization... why spherical things scare me

2009-03-25T18:33:00.004-04:00

A fellow blogard shared this article via Google Reader today. And since the new Comment feature on Reader is crashing constantly, I'm going to try to goad the other folks on CM to discuss.In short, the article claims that the country must choose 2 of the following 3 things: globalization, small government, and social stability. The author takes British and

Am I Greedy?

2009-03-23T21:59:00.011-04:00

Well, it looks like those fat plutocrats at AIG are going to give back those sweet bonuses. Or, at least 18 of them are. As much fun as this populist news cycle has been, I'm kind of glad. I was not looking forward to the Supreme Court having to rule on how high a tax had to be before it constituted confiscation or a bill of attainder. There was no way that was going to turn out well.It still

West Britons

2009-03-14T17:40:00.008-04:00

If dead men's bodies really do spin in their graves when confronted with the misdeeds of their descendants, then one must imagine the corpse of Joseph P. Kennedy to be a kind of perpetual motion machine. Even so, those old Irish bones must have kicked into a new gear earlier this month month when Senator Edward Kennedy accepted a knighthood from the Queen of the United Kingdom. This is not to