The FTC is making a move to halt the planned assimilation of Wild Oats markets by the Whole Foods collective, on the grounds that it would raise prices for consumers. This seems unlikely for precisely the reason cited in the article linked above: Whole Foods isn’t just competing with other organic food stores, it’s competing […]

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Glenn Greenwald is rounding up examples of conservatives who are now protesting that the president isn’t one of them, but who took just the opposite view back when Bush-43 was a moniker rather than an unrealistic goal for his approval ratings. Fair enough, especially when it comes to the people now carping about the immigration […]

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Even by the prolix standards of Unfogged, there’s a huuuuuge comment thread at this post on the news that bookies have stopped taking bets on whether teen wizard Harry Potter will live or die in the final book of his series, as the bets are all but unanimously against his survival. (Opinion is so dramatically […]

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Ezra links to philosopher Slavoj Zizek’s critical review of the excellent movie The Lives of Others, drawing special attention to this passage: Like so many other films depicting the harshness of Communist regimes, The Lives of Others misses their true horror. How so? First, what sets the film’s plot in motion is the corrupt minister […]

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Via Radley. I thought he acquitted himself pretty well (in part because Stewart was clearly a friendly interviewer) but I did think there was room for improvement in his reply to the old saw about libertarians having to “trust corporations” even as they’re highly skeptical of government. Paul defrayed this with a joke about not […]

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Kevin Drum links Spencer Ackerman’s recent Washington Monthly feature, arguing against the use of “support the troops by bringing them home” rhetoric: Haunted by Vietnam, Democrats are determined to express support for the troops. This is admirable. The truth of the matter, however, is this: many troops in Iraq, perhaps even most of them, want […]

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Jesse Walker and Laure both flag a New York Times story reporting (apropos of last week’s post) on how amateur porn is doing to the porn industry what folks have long predicted (whether inaccurately or prematurely remains to be seen) blogs would do to punditry: Displacing the professional product with vast amounts of amateur substitutes […]

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In A Study in Scarlet, Arthur Conan Doyle has John Watson describe one of his earliest conversations with Sherlock Holmes: His ignorance was as remarkable as his knowledge. Of contemporary literature, philosophy and politics he appeared to know next to nothing. Upon my quoting Thomas Carlyle, he inquired in the naivest way who he might […]

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A public service announcement: Meme is an extremely useful word/concept, and its mainstreaming is all to the good. However, if you’re not specifically calling attention to how some idea, belief, or behavior spreads in the population as an abstract replicator, or discussing the selection processes to which they’re subject, there’s an excellent chance you just […]

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Andrew Sullivan finds more disturbingly apt analogues.

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