December 2008
53 posts
Getting a shoe thrown at him is the best thing... →
Because Bush brushed it off with such grace and no one will remember that al-Zaidi said he insulted Bush on behalf of “the widows, the orphans, and those who were killed in Iraq.”
Will I Get Rich Quicker With a Ponzi Scheme or a... →
Probably a pyramid. In a Ponzi scheme, all the money goes to one person. But since a pyramid scheme starting with six people would need the whole world to participate after level 13, neither’s a good bet.
Investigating John Yoo. →
…is a good idea. Bush’s Justice Department lawyers are as accountable as soldiers tried at Nuremberg.
Slate readers name the Blagojevich scandal. →
“The winner is ‘Blagola.’”
How the recession is good for Barack Obama's green... →
Green spending is the new New Deal.
A shopper's guide to robot pets. →
Get Pleo, the $349 robot dinosaur, the only one that’s not “annoying, disturbing, offensive, pathetic nor scary.”
Fed ushers in a new era and cuts key interest to... →
“For the foreseeable future, interest rates are nearly meaningless as a tool of economic policy.”
The XX Factor : Yes, Caroline →
Caroline Kennedy should get a Senate seat because that sounds like fun.
Bernard Madoff's massive fraud will cripple... →
By eroding trust and thus making investors more cautious.
How to decorate your Christmas tree without... →
Switch to LED lights now.
The pervert's grand tour of Europe. (3) →
The Marquis de Sade was a dick.
Are journalists too obsessed with the decline of... →
Yes.
How Amazon's cell phone app can save you money at... →
“Just take a photo of any item you come across in a store—a book, a CD, a cereal box, an oven thermometer, tennis shoes, anything. The app sends the picture to Mechanical Turk, Amazon’s freelance service, where anonymous hordes stand ready to identify the item. (Amazon pays people 10 cents for each ID; the service is free for you to use.) A few minutes later, your phone displays...
Jonathan Brent's Inside the Stalin Archives. →
“What Brent’s book provides is some sense of that strange moment of transition, the few years between the crumbling Soviet Union of Gorbachev and glasnost and the resurgent Russian nationalism of the present.”
Why Caroline Kennedy shouldn't be New York's next... →
“Unlike Clinton and Schumer, Kennedy has always seemed more interested in avoiding public issues than engaging them.”
Walesa's mustache, the Dalai Lama's smile, and... →
People like charismatic leaders.
Why is it so hard to give every American free... →
The FCC hates the telecoms hate the FCC.
After losing at the Supreme Court, Obama... →
“‘There aren’t a lot of people out here today.’”
A blueprint for the closure of Guantanamo Bay. →
“Who must be released?” Dunno.
“Where to release the detainees?” Dunno.
“Where should the remaining detainees be held?” Military bases? Dunno.
“How many of the remaining detainees can face trial?” Dunno.
“What form of trial should be used?” Civilian? Military commission? Court martial? Dunno.
“Under what theory can detainees...
How the Illuminati influenced Beethoven. →
His Illuminati (just the “activist left wing of the Freemasons”) teacher, friends, and patrons helped him form Enlightenment humanist views.
Why Sam Zell's Tribune deal went so bad, so fast. →
He used a dumb-money strategy just as the dumb money ran out: Pumped Tribune full of debt that he couldn’t pay after the credit crunch.
Why is Chicago so corrupt? →
“Because the city never had the benefit of a reformist mayor like New York City’s Fiorello LaGuardia. Instead, Chicago moved towards a one-party system that made it even more vulnerable to corruption. Today, not even the Democratic primaries are competitive. The weak campaign finance laws in Illinois probably helped to stave off competition in recent years. The star power of Chicago...
Obama looks great in Gov. Rod Blagojevich's... →
“Obama comes off as good as he could possibly have hoped for: He’s behaving well even when you don’t think anyone is watching.”
[REMEDIAL VERSION: Ill. Gov. Blagojevich demanded a sweet administration appointment in return for appointing a good senator to replace Obama. Obama said hell no.]
Is a $1 salary paid all at once or in 4-cent... →
“It’s paid in a lump sum.”
How to influence what cases the Supreme Court... →
“Amicus briefs tend to pile up on both sides of a case once the court takes it, all competing for the justices’ attention. But the amicus briefs filed before the court grants cert are much rarer, and, accordingly, more influential. Yet this is a tool that liberal groups often fail to use.”
The fringe movement to keep Barack Obama from... →
“Who are these people? They’re engaging in a new American political tradition: the quadrennial early-winter attempt to overturn presidential results by any means necessary.”
Help! I am a hip, young New Yorker. I am not... →
“I’m a Republican.”
Do amnesiacs realize they have amnesia? →
“Yes, usually.”
Can white men jump? →
Yes.
How to survive your corporate holiday... →
Try not to have fun.
Why do we protect the moral convictions of only... →
Because Christians want you to have that damn baby.
Google Wants *My* Help Ranking Pages? →
Sure looks like it, stupid.
Christmas carnage at FAO Schwarz and Bergdorf... →
“The stalwart customers of New York’s luxury retailers have been falling along with the hedge funds. Why should we care where and how the well-off are spending? Well, the top 20 percent of households account for about 40 percent of discretionary spending, and the top 40 percent account for 74 percent of all discretionary spending.”
Defense Secretary Gates' two brilliant ideas for... →
1. Make fewer useless weapons.
2. Make more useful weapons.
The media's disingenuous failure to state the... →
Syria and Pakistan are fucking shit up.
What happens when an unelected royal official... →
It buys the conservative prime minister a month and a half before Parliament’s coalition of minority parties tries to depose him again.
My boss "jokes" about suicide. What can I do? →
“She needs to get a suicide risk assessment from a qualified mental health professional. You need to enlist her family. If they won’t take action, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.”
Pakistan was also a target of the Mumbai attacks. →
Because the terrorists wanted to make Pakistan look bad.
Lori Drew's conviction in the MySpace suicide... →
You can’t really convict someone of cyber-bullying. Good.
A new advice column about how to make the world... →
My mom ran the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Ask me how you can do good things.
The enormous gap between the Big Three's... →
Investors are treating GM, Ford, and Chrysler as all but bankrupt. The CEOs aren’t. And Slate’s solution is to fuck over the employees they laid off.
Inside the world's most annoying economic crisis. →
Argentina is running out of coins, so people treat them as more valuable than bills for larger amounts.
Can restoring Paul Rudolph's signature building... →
Not as much as this article tries to.
Why you should take reports from the scene of a... →
The first news reports on any major event are always rough drafts.
Can Obama give the press more of what it wants by... →
Yeah kinda.
Why Kanye West named his new album, 808s &... →
Because he uses it in the album.
Should you run your laptop off battery power or... →
Plug it in, change your energy settings, use it, then turn it off and unplug.
What were Orthodox Jews doing in Mumbai? Making... →
They’re just putting them in the subheads now. My work here is done.
J/K.