Many of the men who call themselves Socialists to-day are in reality merely radical social reformers, with whom on many points good citizens can and ought to work in hearty general agreement.
All Else
Hot Air Over Climategate
Oklahoma Senator and chronic denier James Inhoffe claims the Climatic Research Unit e-mails show that the science behind climate change “has been pretty well debunked.” He’s wrong.
Nimby, Nimbyism and Nimbyists
Nimbyism is a particularly American reflection of the material value ascribed to real estate. The materialism is expressed through the more high-minded lens of property rights or the idealistic, if often opportunistic, lens of environmental stewardship.
Limbaugh’s Oxycontin Math
Rush Limbaugh claims the November drop in the unemployment rate is questionable because it was calculated “over two days of the Thanksgiving week.” He’s wrong.
Obama’s Nobel Lecture: “Bend History”
In his Nobel peace prize lecture, Barack Obama evoked the notions of just wars to counter the irony of being “the Commander-in-Chief of the military of a nation in the midst of two wars.”
Initial Unemployment Claims Up 17,000
Weekly unemployment claims are up 17,000 from the previous week’s unrevised figure of 457,000. The 4-week moving average was 473,750, a decrease of 7,750 from the previous week.
Best of the Rest: December 9, 2009
Copenhagen’s A-to-Z guide, how to know when you’re being an absolute bore, mucking up Alaska (again) and more.
Gerrymandering
Gerrymandering’s origins had plenty to do with the wily efforts of Elbridge Gerry, governor of Massachusetts in 1812, whose redistricting scheme ensured that Democrats would clobber Federalists in elections.
Paige Dalporto’s Latest Disillusions
To describe himself, West Virginia’s T. Paige Dalporto evokes a hollow tunnel carving his veins somewhere around the dirty tracks of his disillusions. Here he is singing his latest.
Milton Berle’s “Anaconda”
Alan Zweibel was among the original writers on Saturday Night Live, back when Gerald Ford was still president. Here’s his story of coming face to face with Milton Berle’s legendary penis.
Atop a Decapitated Peak with Hoot
Mountain-top removal coal mining in West Virginia: the grinding tragedy of Kayford Mountain, where Massey Energy has been removing mountaintops to dig out coal.
Immigration’s Tale from New York’s #7 Subway Train
In New York, the story of immigration’s present and foreseeable future is on the “Immigrant Express,” the No. 7 subway line that crosses Queens, the country’s single-most diverse county (46.1 percent of its residents were born abroad).