She's Back!

And true to form.

Lebanon, Libya, Liberia, Lichtenstein, Luxembourg. Embassy, consulate. What. Ever.

Perhaps her atlas (or Google Maps) has gastritis.

Back on the Horse

Hey, check it out! Uninformed musings from a delusional idiot with a following about the uniformed musings of a delusional idiot with a following! It's like looking at a mirror in a mirror in a mirror in a....

Ann Althouse suggests that liberal magazine sales are down now that Obama is in office. From what I understand, that's not exactly surprising; the conventional wisdom around here is that political magazines do best when their party is out of power. On the other hand, there is this recession on, and I don't know that conservative magazines have seen their circulation rise. Personally, I just decided not to renew our subscription to Harper's, not because it's run out of anti-Bush hate, but because I've been reading it less and less. On the other hand, I guess you could argue that Bush hatred infused the magazine with an energy that it's now lost.

So, Megan, tell us about the magazines you read!

And -- so as to save brad the trouble of making the note -- as far as we know, neither Megan McArdle, nor myself, nor brad, nor M. Bouffant, nor Connor Friedersdorf, nor Ann Althouse is, in fact, Ann Althouse.

Update: She doesn't even read her own links (like me!)! From the Vanity Fair article Ann Althouse links:

The year 2009 was a tough one for magazines in general, with circulation down 2.23 percent overall, according to ABC (the decline in advertising revenue was far greater and more detrimental, but that’s another story). The three leading liberal political magazines, however, fared particularly badly. The Nation’s circulation in 2009 was down 7.4 percent from 2008, Mother Jones was down 6.7 percent, and Harper’s was down 5 percent.

(...)

What about the conservative magazines? The most prominent and biggest-selling, The National Review, definitely seemed to experience an Obama-hatred bump in 2009. Paid circulation was up a solid 4.8 percent from 2008, and was 16 percent greater than the magazine’s 2003-2008 average. The Weekly Standard rose by 8.4 percent, with an especially big spike in the second half of the year. As for relative newcomer Newsmax, which has less name recognition than the Standard but a higher circulation (an average of 101,370 copies in 2009 versus 77,470), its circulation held steady.

Oh Lord

The Majesty of the Law:

I've read a lot about prohibition, but I never read about the government's deliberate effort to make industrial alcohol undrinkably poisonous. Thousands of people seem to have died as a result.

Thousands of people die from drinking an industrial solvent and it's the government's fault.

It's called denaturing, Megan. We still do it!

BONUS FUN: From the article:

Poisonous alcohol still kills—16 people died just this month after drinking lethal booze in Indonesia, where bootleggers make their own brews to avoid steep taxes—but that's due to unscrupulous businessmen rather than government order.

So, in Indonesia, selling industrial solvents for human consumption is the sellers fault. In America, it's the government's.

God bless the reasoned discourse at Slate.

Another Holy Crap

UPDATE:Whoops, I'm retarded. I've been doing that a lot lately. I never thought it was possible to get lazy enough to fail at this job, but I guess we all sink to low expectations. America had malaria and got rid of it, so her point still stands. None the less, I'll leave this up merely because Megan is simultaneously saying we can't afford to help those not well off while touting how lucky we are to be able to help ourselves so thoroughly. It's still a case of healthcare for me and not thee, even if it is a case of "Toast is being a bit of a knee jerk idiot, lately" as well.

HOLY CRAP!

Scientists now think that King Tut may have died of malaria. As the fellow who sent me the link dryly noted, King Tut did not have good comprehensive health insurance.

All kidding aside, this is a good excuse to meditate on just how rich we are. King Tut was probably the wealthiest man in the world during his time. He died of something that wouldn't kill the most abjectly immiserated welfare mother in the United States today, because of a combination of public health efforts, and cheap antimalarial drugs.

You always need to factor in things like this when you talk about changes in living standards over time. All the positive changes in society mean that the absolute difference between the income of Bill Gates and the man who valets his car is larger than it has ever been in history. But the actual difference in comfort between the two of them is probably much smaller than the difference between JP Morgan and his stableboy. And both Gates and the valet are almost immeasurably better off than their predecessors.

How many people die from malaria each year, Megan? Only a million!

How much malaria is there in America?

NONE!
For someone who recently traveled to Vietnam, she sure has the knowledge of someone who's never left America.

I Know I Am But What Are You?

Shorter "The Benefits of Health Benefits"

Ezra Klein says "If you hate health insurance so much why don't you divorce it?" Hah! Joke's on him! If I could, I'd get rid of my health insurance and get a different kind of health insurance, proving my hatred of health insurance isn't hypocritical. Also, I'd only do this because I'm an upper class white person, and all those studies that show lower class brown people dying from lack of insurance are therefor flawed.

And because I like things I like more than I like things I hate (What?!?!! I DO?!?!?!):

BONUS FUN!

Ha Ha?

Blah:

Apparently, I'm not the only one who thinks that Google Docs might be very useful for managing wedding planning tasks. The Official Google Blog notes all the ways in which they're trying to help you plan for that very special day.

However, Google's entry into the wedding planning business is uncharacteristically, almost comically, inept. These tools are free. This is not how wedding planning services work. The way they work is, they charge you $50 for things that are normally free, escalating rapidly if there is actual work or materials involved.

So either she's making a stupid joke about how ridiculous weddings are while she talks endlessly about hers, or else she's too stupid to realize that just about everything Google does is free to individuals.

One thing is certain, it's retarded. And by retarded I mean FUCKING RETARDED. Baby Trig, I'm looking straight at you! Across the hypotenuse!

Wow, I seem to have spelled hypotenuse right on the first try. Go me.

Right....

Megan McArdle warns us to "Beware of Pundits Bearing Predictions" and I completely agree with her.

ACORN for Brains

UPDATE: Looks like I didn't have to wait that long. Ah well, she can be intellectually honest..... or can she?

James O'Keefe, the guy who did the ACORN sting, doesn't seem to understand the difference between a completely legal recording of an interview between you and someone else, and a completely illegal and reprehensible wiretapping of someone's phones.

Too lazy to look it up, but I think I heard someone mention that it could be considered illegal to video tape someone surreptitiously in the manner O'Keefe did. No need to check the facts, though, as Megan goes even further:

Like many 24-year olds, he may not have fully appreciated why what he was doing was wrong, but if the allegations are true, I hope that the judge explains it to him while handing down a stiff penalty.

Or 25 year olds, whatever, But yeah, I'm sure he didn't know you couldn't tap someone's phone. Also, he might have just been coincidentally in the lobby recording with his cell phone when three other libertarians came in and posed as phone company repairmen, asking to see the phone closet. Could be.
END UPDATE

UPDATE II: Oh, oops, turns out an FBI agent has sign an affidavit claiming O'Keefe confessed to him he was there illegally. WHOOPS-A-DAISY!

Hey, remember that guy who dressed like a caricature of a pimp and managed to a few ACORN employees to say some things they shouldn't have? Then lied about it to make it seem like they were even worse than they were?

Anyway, yeah, he got caught red-handed committing a felony. He was trying to tap a New Orleans Democrat's phone lines with 3 other people. I eagerly await Megan McArdle's missive about how awful this is and how it shows just how bad Mr. O'Keefe is and how corrupt libertarianism is. Just like she did with ACORN.

Fuck the links. My back hurts and that's what the search function is for.

Read the article, though. It's hilarious. Someone's been watching too much Burn Notice.

Compare & Contrast For Consistency, Or: Trying To Stir Up Some Shit Here

Conor Friedersdorf on his constructive InstaPundit criticism:

I am a writer. When I critique people or sites, it isn’t because I’ve got a personal grudge against them, or because I want them to fail, or because I want to divide and conquer them, whatever that means — it is because I think they are wrong on some matter of substance.

The very same Mr. Friedersdorf on something closer to my heart:

Perhaps that was just Mr. Friedersdorf on his own time, not something that he typed as "a writer." In which case he should use a different name, or add a clever disclaimer to his profile like: "Not the 'serious' me, expect no consistency w/ my claims of substance."

A Message for Conor Friedersdorf

I would just like to thank Conor Friedersdorf for the following:

Wow, I didn't realize that this site still exists. What a curious and cowardly species of person who labors on in obscurity for years on end ranting against a blogger who, FYI, no one is forcing you to read! The unwillingness to do so under your own name speaks volumes.

Sage advice, friend. Taken to heart. Perhaps we might reciprocate, Conor Friedersdorf?

For, let me advise you that no one forces you to google "Conor Friedersdorf" EVERY FRACKING DAY and then come to any blogs saying negative things and post your Conor Friedersdorf wisdom. We know, Conor Friedersdorf, that is hard to have unrequited love, but compensating by being overly defensive of the amores who'd not have you back (Conor Friedersdorf and Megan McArdle) on obscure blogs for years on end doesn't seem like the best way to go about life, Conor Friedersdorf.

So thanks for your visit, Conor Friedersdorf. We hope to see Conor Friedersdorf again sometime soon.

Sincerely,
Conor Friedersdorf

brad adds:

I'd like to apologize to the blogger/writer/renaissance man we have repeatedly misidentified here as Conor Friedersdorf. His name, of course, is actually Conor Freihofer. Not Conor Friedersdorf, Conor Freihofer. Ask him about his cookies.

And neither Conor Friedersdorf, Conor Freihofer, nor myself are Ann Althouse, at least to my knowledge.

The Assalt Continues

Oh my, do I appear to have struck a nerve. The I-still-talk-about-Sarah-Palin-but-am-otherwise-ok TBogg points out that Megan has followed up on some of my comments on her salt explanation.

We'll leave the snark aside, and just watch the huff and puff happen on its own:

The question is not whether I know how to use it or not--and as the daughter of a Manhattan foodie who grew up around caterers, restauranteurs, and associated types, you are seriously pushing down the wrong road if you think you can impress me with some foodie chest beating. That grew old and sad when I was about twelve.

No, the question is, how do I use it? I use it the way I described. I described it poorly. But there you are.

Oh, lordie, I'd hate to push down the wrong road. I'd also hate for anyone to ever call me a foodie again, but, thus is blogging Megan McArdle's reading skills.