(1) August Strindberg and Helium (2) Enron Voice Mail (3) So since my city and environs became a target gallery for the friendly neighborhood Tarot Sniper, I’ve been noticing white vans. I’m not freaking out or anything; it just registers now when a white van or box truck goes by. I had no idea there […]

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One element of the labor/management conflict on the West Coast piqued my interst. Recall that this wasn’t a straight-up strike: management ordered a lockout after longshoremen began a “work slowdown.” This makes it extra bizarre for management to have petitioned the administration to order their workers back on the job, but that’s not what’s most […]

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Back from the debate, and I must say, I think it went pretty well. I don’t know if either side changed anyone’s mind, but I do hope that it was, at the least, engaging. Thanks to all of you who gave up a perfectly good evening to listen to us chatter. Below are the notes […]

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I thought it was just Jim DeLong, but it looks like there’s a full blown trend of libertarians opposed to a government procurement policy favoring open source software [OSS]. The most recent instance is a TechCentralStation piece by Sonia Arrison rather hysterically entitled “Source Socialism.” (I’m sure that will come as a surprise to hardcore […]

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Just a reminder that this Wednesday, the inimitable Will Wilkinson and I will be championing the cause of creating mutant human/monkey-butler hybrids and other fine uses of genetic technologies at an Americas Future Foundation debate — part of their “issues that divide the right” series. Many conservatives will doubtless be there to cheer on Ramesh […]

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So Doug Martsch‘s first solo album is pretty damned good; I’m increasingly psyched to see him this Thursday. Not quite as good as a Built to Spill release, but then, almost nothing is; looking forward to more from the DM. Oh, yeah, speaking of indie rock, you absolutely must witness this. [Courtesy of Todd Seavey]

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The following open letter to Congress is part of a blogburst, a simultaneous, cross-linked posting of many blogs on a single theme. For a guide to other letters in this blogburst, go to The Open Letters BlogBurst Index. We all recall the tale of the Emperor’s New Clothes, in which the inhabitants of a town […]

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Glen attacks the idea that the preservation of old existing works can serve as a rationale for retroactive copyright extensions, one of the main points at issue in the forthcoming case of Eldred v. Ashcroft. Now, I’m pretty gung ho in favor of the Eldred side here — and not just because Ashcroft’s on the […]

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No, Jesse, you’re not alone. I don’t find Coulter especially attractive, and not just because she’s a vicious, foaming-at-the-mouth intellectual lightweight. Apparently, neocons are determined to attribute any criticism of their hotheaded hero to jealousy of Coulter’s looks. That’s the claim they’re making about Sara Rimensnyder in response to a recent article in Reason. Well, […]

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Prof. Douglas Glen Whitman, a razor sharp economist and, by the way, my ex-roommate, has finally gotten around to starting a blog: Agoraphilia.

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