My sympathy to a media outlet’s struggle is inversely proportional to the amount of coverage they give to Donald Trump.
In case it isn’t obvious at this point, we’re declining to make the asked-for retraction.
– Joe Mullin, on IMAX’s absurd attempt to censor Ars Technica
Tiniest violin for Wisconsin Republicans who are having a hard time holding the line on taxes and fees while making good on their promises to cronies who build roads and own basketball teams, even while they’ve already gutted public education for funds.
We’ve now learned to really love those Brussels sprouts, good for us, but we still may be in deep doo-doo.
If public opinion on higher education in Wisconsin hasn’t fully polarized along partisan lines, this will probably do the trick:
Wisconsin Democrats in Congress Introduce Resolution to Protect Wisconsin Idea
As Republican Debates Near, Candidates Vie to Make Cut →
If only tungle.me had gone the distance.
I love this single purpose website a little bit too hard.
… the future of technology has always looked like a pretty toy to people comfortable with the past.
The problem with the G.O.P. isn’t callousness, greed, or even self-righteous asshattery. It’s all of the magical thinking:
Take the new Republican Senator from North Carolina Thom Tillis, who must have thought this annecdote would help strengthen an argument about role of government as reported in the Washington Post:
Tillis said he was at a Starbucks in 2010 talking to a woman about regulations and where businesses should be allowed to opt out. His coffee companion challenged him, asking whether employees there should be required to wash their hands.
As a matter of fact I think this is one where I think I can illustrate the point,” he recalled telling her. “I don’t have any problem with Starbucks if they choose to opt out of this policy as long as they post a sign that says we don’t require our employees to wash their hands after leaving the restroom. The market will take care of that. It’s one example.”
As Colby Itkowitz points out in a parantetical: ”Is requiring a sign not a regulation?” Putting logic asside, how much do you have to love liberty to be against public health policies like hand-washing? Or is this just a costly signal? And if so, is the demand to signal to the base creating a one-upmanship which has forced some of those seeking the 2016 Republican presidential nomination to come out against mandated vaccination? I want to beleive that they are smarter than this and that they just assume their voters aren’t.
The Republican Party circa 2015: pro-guns, no shots, and very dirty hands.
[The recent measles] outbreak has fueled a backlash against the anti-vaccine movement that is likely to be counterproductive. Dr. James Cherry, an infectious disease specialist at U.C.L.A., for instance, labeled parents of unvaccinated children “selfish” and “dumb,” while a Los Angeles Times columnist, Michael Hiltzik, called for treating “the anti-vaccination crowd” as “public enemies.” If we’ve learned anything in politics over the last few decades, it’s that this kind of language is likely to be polarizing, driving people away rather than persuading them.
– Brendan Nyhan, Spreading Along With Measles: Polarization on a Hot-Button Issue