Thursday Linkorama

  • Barbara Ehrenreich became famous for her book Nickeled and Dimed, a story of year she spent as a poor person. It had some huge flaws, mainly her insistence on changing jobs and refusal to avail herself of private assistance. Nevertheless, the book was very popular in academic circles for reinforcing liberal beliefs about poverty. Seems like she’s still at it, ignorantly attacking recent research indicating women’s happiness is beginning to fall off.
  • The New Paternalism: Old Paternalism with a little more condescension.
  • Two more horror stories from the UK NHS.
  • If the GOP can’t even run a website, how they can run the country. Oh, yeah.
  • What does Eliot Spitzers warrant a column on Slate? Ignore the man’s private behavior; he’s a puritanical totalitarian twerp.
  • Fascinating stuff on the Soviet doomsday machine.
  • Another interesting article on Obama’s love of language, both in speeches and writing.
  • Um. What?.
  • If we cut oil consumption, the Saudis want compensation. I knew there was a good side to this global warming stuff: it pisses off the oil sheiks something fierce.
  • Looks like the school that wanted to suspend a 6-year-old over his utensils has come to their senses. Now we can make zero tolerance policies work — so long as every wronged child gets an internet uproar.