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photos by Lara Shipley

Entries from March 2008

Staunchly Pro-Pony

March 31st, 2008 · Comments Off on Staunchly Pro-Pony

Mother Jones links to the Sunlight Foundation’s Transparency in Government Act 2008, explicitly linking it to Larry Lessig’s Change Congress campaign, but noting that the proposed legislation “goes beyond” Lessig’s platform.  This is actually one of my reasons for skepticism about the project.  CC asks candidates to pledge to, among other things, “support reform to […]

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Tags: Law

OMG, Sbpna!

March 31st, 2008 · Comments Off on OMG, Sbpna!

When I covered the Republican National Convention in 2004, I kept tabs on the protest actions surrounding the convention via a handy-dandy Twitter-like text blasting service called TXTmob. Now those text messages are being subpoenaed by lawyers for New York City.  The messages themselves were relatively public—I was on the list, after all—and I’d be […]

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Tags: Privacy and Surveillance

The Virtues of Lowballing

March 31st, 2008 · 1 Comment

In light of DNI Mike  Mukasey’s recent weepy plea for more surveillance power, invoking phantom difficulties acquiring Iraqi communications, I find myself wondering about his real audience.  Many of us have made the assumption, perhaps uncharitable, that Mukasey and company are overstating the obstacles they face in hopes of getting still broader statutory authority.  But […]

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Tags: Privacy and Surveillance

Scenes from a Bookstore

March 31st, 2008 · 5 Comments

This weekend, I wandered into a local bookstore to browse a bit and ended up grabbing a copy of John Rawls’ posthumously-published Lectures in the History of Political Philosophy. (I note with some satisfaction that this volume boasts a nicely-designed cover, a feature normally reserved for trendy texts consumed by Comp Lit majors and ignored […]

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Tags: General Philosophy · Washington, DC

Label Inflation Hits Tween Fiction

March 27th, 2008 · 6 Comments

Jessica Valenti is pissed that a relaunch of the Sweet Valley High series has retconned the twin protagonists from a “perfect size 6” to a “perfect size 4.”  I’m sympathetic to the idea that kids literature probably shouldn’t be compounding young girls’ body image issues by stipulating a “perfect” size, whatever it might be.  But […]

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Tags: Language and Literature · Sociology

Ezra Klein Champions the Laffer Curve

March 26th, 2008 · 3 Comments

Well, sorta.

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Tags: Economics

Nifty Thing of the Day

March 26th, 2008 · Comments Off on Nifty Thing of the Day

Muxtape.

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Tags: Random Cool Link

Conservatives and Surveillance

March 25th, 2008 · Comments Off on Conservatives and Surveillance

Over at The American Spectator, I wonder when conservatives learned to stop worrying and love executive wiretaps.

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Tags: Privacy and Surveillance

Popewear

March 24th, 2008 · Comments Off on Popewear

I used to joke that it was cosmically unjust that my old Manhattan neighbor Paul Pope not only won wide, persistent acclaim for his excellent comics artwork, but looks like a runway model to boot.  Well, now I see he’s actually dressing runway models.  If Paul ever starts writing about FISA, I’m becoming an accountant.

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Tags: Art & Culture

The Ten Cent Plague

March 24th, 2008 · Comments Off on The Ten Cent Plague

I’ve just asked for a review copy, but in the meantime I’ll have to content myself with reviews by Laura Miller and Jeet Heer.

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Tags: Art & Culture