A few thoughts prompted by this genuinely distressing thread on the draft over at Pandagon, where an unsettling number of people seem genuinely perplexed at the notion that there’s something objectionable about forced labor. Those who suggest that forcing people to serve as tools to some worthy end—military or civilian—”rubs them the wrong way” often […]

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The success of a spate of movies based on big-name comic books has had the pleasant side effect of getting studios re-interested in the possibility of putting more obscure (but more interesting) comics characters on the screen. Now, PJ Doland notes that the producers of Hellboy have announced that their next project will be Watchmen. […]

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Kevin Drum and Amy Sullivan are wagging their finger at hosts on Air America for making fun of religion. They may be right that it’s politically counterproductive (though, as Matt Yglesias points out, talk radio isn’t primarily about outreach—Rush Limbaugh isn’t out to persuade swing voters). But then Kevin adds this: My advice: the next […]

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So, most of you probably know that classic Velvet Underground song “Rock and Roll”: Jenny said when she was just five years old, There was nothing happening at all. Every time she puts on the radio, There was nothing goin’ down at all – not at all. Then one fine morning she puts on a […]

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Bounce Out. Level seven so far. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

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So I’m watching the second part of the Deep Space Nine pilot and notice that these aliens that they find in the wormhole: (1) Experience all time simultaneously, and are actually unable to comprehend concepts of linear time—past, future, change, loss. (2) Are worried that if they don’t kill Sisko, he (or creatures like him) […]

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Jim Henley’s blog is always fantastic, of course, but recently he’s been obnoxiously reminding us of the fact with prodigious force and regularity. If you haven’t checked in recently, it’s as good a time as any.

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The Slack Album is an intriguing looking mash-up of Pavement’s classic Slanted and Enchanted with Jay-Z’s Black Album. Actually, it sounds like a way to dilute a perfectly good Pavement album, but it might be worth a listen. (Hat tip: Unrequited Narcissism)

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There’s just no bottom to your belief in the civilizing effects of vice, is there? —My roommate Chuck, to me.

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I had forgotten how much fun these things are—I promise not to let another six months go by before the next one. Maybe then we’ll even pick a date far enough in advance to circulate notice among the lefty blogs so Matt doesn’t have to be surrounded by such a preponderance of us evil libertarians. […]

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