Educating Ezra Klein
A left whippersnapper tutored by his readers about teachers' unions.
Crankiest blogginghead of the week award goes to Matt Stoller of OpenLeft, who gets snip-snippy toward the end of this exchange with Conn Carroll. Some blame all the coffee. But Stoller seemed to be in a discernably pissy mood from the beginning, even though he struggles manfully to be cordial, which leads me to suspect a deeper external cause. ... 12:18 A.M.
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Friday, August 3, 2007
Bedless Blogger in Topless Hara: Luke Ford really doesn't have a bed. ... Note to Luke: Don't get one now! It's your trademark. ... P.S.: Also, now know how Ford broke the L.A. mayoral marital scandal--he got the story from L.A. Daily News reporter Tony Castro, whose editors had wimped out and spiked his report. ("They didn't think the story qualified as much more than glorified gossip. ... ") I thought only L.A. Times editors did that. ... 2:33 P.M.
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Arianna--Dramatic Before & After Photos: Getting glammer. Was it the move to the West or the move to the left? You make the call. ... 11:11 A.M.
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Thursday, August 2, 2007
Unless his veto is overridden, embattled New York Gov. Elliot Spitzer has seemingly saved his state's welfare reform from the Good Jobs Fallacy--the idea that it makes sense to tell welfare recipients to hold out for high-paying jobs ("aerospace engineers" and "chemists" are two of the professions mentioned)--before they have to go to work. Keeping recipients on the dole while they "train" for jobs they never get is a time-tested way of ... well, keeping recipients on the dole. ... New York Daily News' Bill Hammond makes the arguments against the bill; the New York Sun points out that under the current take-any-old-job philosophy, child poverty rates have dropped along with welfare caseloads. ... 3:54 P.M.
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To get the real anti-Laurie side of the Laurie David/Larry David story--not the sex part, but hypocrisy angle-- you have to go to the web site of the Martha's Vineyard Times and read the posts from "Jackie." ... There is a heartfelt haiku:
Oxford Town, Red Hook, and Every Other Place Bob Dylan’s Ever Sung About, Mapped
New Study Tries, Fails to Show Marijuana Use Is Linked to Crime
Gorgeous Pic of the Ring Nebula Reveals Details of a Star’s Death
Photograph of Ann Coulter on Slate's home page by Brad Barket/Getty. Photograph of a wedding cake with two grooms on Slate's home page by Hector Mata/AFP Photo. Photograph of Princess Diana on Slate's home page by Georges De Keerle/Getty Images.