Julian Sanchez header image 4

photos by Lara Shipley

Entries from August 2007

A Farce That Gives Us Moaning

August 21st, 2007 · Comments Off on A Farce That Gives Us Moaning

Since an earlier post of mine seems to have prompted this dead-on and entertaining polemic from Gene Healy, I should probably clarify that I’m in full agreement with his take on the sort of ludicrous warrior pose that seems to animate so much war boosterism. My point wasn’t that we should welcome the opportunity to […]

[Read more →]

Tags: War

The Best Bands Never

August 21st, 2007 · 1 Comment

Earvolution has released their list of the greatest fictional rock bands, and I’m delighted to see the nefarious American Medical Association from the cult-classic Illuminatus! Trilogy make the cut. On largely contrarian grounds, I’m sort of tickled to see the obvious choice for the top slot, Spinal Tap, bumped to second by Dr. Teeth and […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Art & Culture

“Irrational” Values

August 21st, 2007 · 8 Comments

Liz at Yellow is the Color opens an interesting discussion of emotion and politics with this vaguely What’s the Matter With Kansas-flavored anecdote: My professor told us this story (which I am now going to promptly butcher) about his time on the campaign trail. In 2004, he was going door-to-door campaigning deep in the backwoods […]

[Read more →]

Tags: General Philosophy

Small Worlds

August 21st, 2007 · Comments Off on Small Worlds

So, I’ve now become accustomed to running into alums of the American Parliamentary Debate Association in the wacky, wonky world of political journalism and punditry, but I just became aware, via a chance reference from a film-buff friend, that someone I knew very slightly from the old college circuit is now some sort of indie […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Random Cool Link

My Head, Blogging

August 20th, 2007 · 1 Comment

In a special Panopticon Edition of BloggingHeads TV, I chat with Spencer Ackerman about FISA, satellite surveillance, and the NSA lawsuits making their way through the Ninth Circuit.

[Read more →]

Tags: Self Promotion

FISA Amendment Follies: Shit Sandwich Surprisingly Tasty Edition

August 20th, 2007 · Comments Off on FISA Amendment Follies: Shit Sandwich Surprisingly Tasty Edition

Nota bene, New Republic: the whole “counterintuitive” shtick has its merits, but it’s sort of cheating when the argument is counterintuitive because obviously wrong. The trick is to run pieces with premises as superficially implausible as Ben Wittes’ lukewarm endorsement of the Protect America Act, but which actually turn out to be at least somewhat […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Privacy and Surveillance

Austerism

August 20th, 2007 · 5 Comments

“You know my methods in such cases, Watson. I put myself in the man’s place and, having first gauged his intelligence, I try to imagine how I should myself have proceeded under the same circumstances. In this case the matter was simplified by Brunton’s intelligence being quite first-rate, so that it was unnecessary to make […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Language and Literature

The Atlantic: Now With 100% More McArdle

August 20th, 2007 · 3 Comments

Megan starts blogging at her new digs today.

[Read more →]

Tags: Journalism & the Media

Twinkle Twinkle, Little Spy, How I Wonder What You Classify

August 17th, 2007 · 1 Comment

Wired‘s invaluable Threat Level blog has a detailed account of hearings earlier this week to determine whether a pair of lawsuits challenging alleged government wiretapping can continue. Slate‘s Dahlia Lithwick has a good short summary of the tortuous logic that prompted one judge to announce he felt like a character in Alice in Wonderland. The […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Privacy and Surveillance

The FISA Amendment: Totally Defensible If You Lie About It

August 17th, 2007 · Comments Off on The FISA Amendment: Totally Defensible If You Lie About It

I started noticing this last week, but the level of bald-faced mendacity indulged in by defenders of the recent FISA amendment is sort of gobsmacking, which is saying quite a bit given how little I expect of GOP dead-enders at this point. Consider this, from the Weekly Standard‘s blog: One of the last things Congress […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Privacy and Surveillance