Miracle of miracles: we have a health care reform bill.
The House bill's text here (all 1000+ pages of it).
Section-by-section summary here (shorter but not entirely helpful).
Slate's Timothy Noah approves, as does CAP's Matt Yglesias.
I haven't read it so I'll reserve my comments for later. Starting this Friday I'll have a good two months off, so it's not like I don't have time to read the damn thing.
As for what it actually looks like in the end...
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Why is Frank Ricci in the room?
He has no place in Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearing. Get him out of there!
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Shawty, same doubt!
Late, as usual. Thanks to Navs for the many minutes of hilarity this has given me tonight.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Pigeonholed
I just noticed that the last three posts were derived from the New York Times. Sorry 'bout the lack of variety, folks. I'll try to spice it up in the future. I'm really not a stooge of the liberal elite media, I swear.
Though I'll admit to being a judgmental asshole every now and then.
Exhibit A: my not-so-secret love of The Anti-Real World DC.
Though I'll admit to being a judgmental asshole every now and then.
Exhibit A: my not-so-secret love of The Anti-Real World DC.
Random bit of happiness
A couple days old, but this essay [and the neat little drawings that go with it] are worth a few minutes of your time.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Whales
I think I'm starting to get weepy in my old age. This article didn't help matters much.
"A female humpback was spotted in December 2005 east of the Farallon Islands, just off the coast of San Francisco. She was entangled in a web of crab-trap lines, hundreds of yards of nylon rope that had become wrapped around her mouth, torso and tail, the weight of the traps causing her to struggle to stay afloat. A rescue team arrived within a few hours and decided that the only way to save her was to dive in and cut her loose. For an hour they cut at the lines and rope with curved knives, all the while trying to steer clear of a tail they knew could kill them with one swipe. When the whale was finally freed, the divers said, she swam around them for a time in what appeared to be joyous circles. She then came back and visited with each one of them, nudging them all gently, as if in thanks. The divers said it was the most beautiful experience they ever had. As for the diver who cut free the rope that was entangled in the whale’s mouth, her huge eye was following him the entire time, and he said that he will never be the same."
"A female humpback was spotted in December 2005 east of the Farallon Islands, just off the coast of San Francisco. She was entangled in a web of crab-trap lines, hundreds of yards of nylon rope that had become wrapped around her mouth, torso and tail, the weight of the traps causing her to struggle to stay afloat. A rescue team arrived within a few hours and decided that the only way to save her was to dive in and cut her loose. For an hour they cut at the lines and rope with curved knives, all the while trying to steer clear of a tail they knew could kill them with one swipe. When the whale was finally freed, the divers said, she swam around them for a time in what appeared to be joyous circles. She then came back and visited with each one of them, nudging them all gently, as if in thanks. The divers said it was the most beautiful experience they ever had. As for the diver who cut free the rope that was entangled in the whale’s mouth, her huge eye was following him the entire time, and he said that he will never be the same."
Thursday, July 9, 2009
A woman on the Court
From this upcoming weekend's NYT Magazine.
"I think back to the days when — I don’t know who it was — when I think Truman suggested the possibility of a woman as a justice. Someone said we have these conferences and men are talking to men and sometimes we loosen our ties, sometimes even take off our shoes. The notion was that they would be inhibited from doing that if women were around. I don’t know how many times I’ve kicked off my shoes. Including the time some reporter said something like, it took me a long time to get up from the bench. They worried, was I frail? To be truthful I had kicked off my shoes, and I couldn’t find my right shoe; it traveled way underneath."
"I think back to the days when — I don’t know who it was — when I think Truman suggested the possibility of a woman as a justice. Someone said we have these conferences and men are talking to men and sometimes we loosen our ties, sometimes even take off our shoes. The notion was that they would be inhibited from doing that if women were around. I don’t know how many times I’ve kicked off my shoes. Including the time some reporter said something like, it took me a long time to get up from the bench. They worried, was I frail? To be truthful I had kicked off my shoes, and I couldn’t find my right shoe; it traveled way underneath."
Monday, July 6, 2009
Wimbledon
Yeah, I don't have too much to say. I'm surprised I didn't bust an artery what with all the hair-pulling tension I was feeling during that final match. I'm proud of our boy Andy Roddick, though his win over Murray did lose me my ice-cream bet. Oh well. This all should make the U.S. Open quite interesting. Maybe tickets to Flushing Meadows are in order? Can't wait!
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Andy Roddick
He's playing really well at Wimbledon this year (though I've got an ice cream cone riding on his losing to Andy Murray in tomorrow's semifinal). But Andy Roddick is at his very bestest after the match, in the interview room. Here, from the NYT, he talks about the pain of becoming a second-tier player:
“When you’ve seen the Rolling Stones from the front row, and then all of a sudden you’re like, you know, seven or eight rows back and there’s a really tall guy in front of you waving his hands and screaming, you can’t see much,” Roddick said then. “It’s not going to be as good as the other shows.”
So what row is he in now?
“Getting closer,” Roddick said. “I can see what Mick Jagger is wearing now.”
“When you’ve seen the Rolling Stones from the front row, and then all of a sudden you’re like, you know, seven or eight rows back and there’s a really tall guy in front of you waving his hands and screaming, you can’t see much,” Roddick said then. “It’s not going to be as good as the other shows.”
So what row is he in now?
“Getting closer,” Roddick said. “I can see what Mick Jagger is wearing now.”
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