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Tom Knapp has a cool, dispassionate analysis of why it would be batshit fucking insane for us to attack Iran. Shithouse rat crazy doesn’t even begin to cover the state of mind required to entertain this kind of thing. Throw in the trial balloons about preemptive nuclear strikes — on a country bordering Russia —…

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Jonathan Rauch has an excellent article at Reason that clarifies who and what we’re really fighting in the “War on Terror.” Jihadism is not a tactic, like terrorism, or a temperament, like radicalism or extremism. It is not a political pathology like Stalinism, a mental pathology like paranoia, or a social pathology like poverty. Rather,…

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Fueled by coffee and the sweet electronica of Deep Dish, I’m implementing Merlin Mann’s Inbox Zero today at work. Because 271 messages in my Inbox is 271 too many. Yours truly,Mr. X …clearing the decks…

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This divorce petition is a shining example of…umm…creative legal writing. Don’t miss the special guest appearance of General Relief on pp. 8. Hat tip: De Novo Yours truly,Mr. X …aspiring to greatness…

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Via Boing Boing, Choose Math. Choose math because you will make more money. Winners of American Idol and other “celebrities” may make money, but only a tiny number of people have enough celebrity to make money, and most of them get stale after a few years. Then it is back to school, or to less…

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The New Yorker has an excellent review of “The Playmate Book: Six Decades of Centerfolds“. Like most New Yorker reviews, there is a brief discussion of the book and then a long and winding road into the context from which it comes. Joan Acocella examines the background and later works of the various centerfolds, the…

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Via Hit & Run, I give you the creepiest safety video ever. Watch the rat-tailed ape-children get hit by cars for failing to use proper bike safety. Warning: Do not watch under the influence of hallucinogens. Yours truly,Mr. X …mourning Tinkerbell McDillingfiddy…

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Professor Eugene Volokh has a good analysis of the cartoon controversy, complete with illustrations. Yours truly,Mr. X …instablogging…

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I haven’t been playing much poker lately, but in preparation for getting back into it, I read Tommy angelo’s article, Folding. After my first taste of big-time folding, I felt that if I could get really good at it, I could quit my job. So I made folding my holy grail, my quest, my mountain…

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While wading through a very bad argument on The Volokh Conspiracy, I (and other critics) were dressed-down in the comment thread by Clayton Cramer. His critiques were of tone, rather than substance, which I take as evidence for the rightness of my opinion. I clicked on his website, to get a sense of where he…

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