Via Boing Boing, a Planned Parenthood Spider-Man comic from the 70s!

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Eugene Volokh defends his right to use the word “homosexual” against a reader who regards it as a shibboleth for bigotry, which leads him to repost an interesting analysis originally prompted by an argument over the relative merits of “handicapped” and “disabled.” A commenter links to John Aravosis’ recent brief against the term, characterizing it […]

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Mediabistro’s doing it’s annual Hot-DC-Media-Types survey, and I’m pleased (if not exactly surprised) to see quite a number of friends and acquaintances in contention for the hottest off-air female title, among them roomie and co-Reasonite Kerry Howley and neighbor Catherine Andrews. Among the guys, pals Ezra Klein and Kriston Capps are in the running. (Whereas […]

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Via Boing Boing, Afrobeat star Femi Kuti on trade, development, and high-profile benefit concerts in LA Weekly: Q: What’s your take on Bono and concerts like Live 8 that campaign on behalf of Africa? A: Bono doesn’t need to tell us that we are poor. We know we are poor. All these concerts come and […]

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The Economist uses the word “kitteh” in a headline.

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I’ve got two new posts up as we enter the home stretch of discussion at Cato Unbound: “Escape from Freedom” and “The Libertine Center.”

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As we learned last night, posing a question coupled with an injunction to really answer the question is not any more effective than appending “and it’s true” to a factual assertion. If we want candidates to be more responsive in debates, though, here’s a form of interactivity that might be more helpful than soliciting dippy […]

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There were many good spots in the Kirov’s Ring, but I can only explain the third act of last night’s Götterdämmerung as some kind of delayed revenge for the Great Patriotic War. Hagen’s amnesia potion was so effective that the Siegfried forgot not only his wife but his lines. And as for the eponymous climax… […]

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Brink, Jonah, Yglesias, and I are continuing the conversation about mass affluence and the “libertarian center” at Cato Unbound. The others have all done a round of responses; I should have something ready a little later today.

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I’m always interested in seeing novel takes on the staging of the Ring operas, but while I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the National Opera’s “American Ring” so far, I’m not yet convinced the Kirov’s Egyptian version works. All through the final act of Die Walküre, between the skulls, the wriggling spermatozoa, and lighting that occasionally painted the […]

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