Monk's News Reel

"One time we were having sex, and I was looking up at the ceiling, thinking about, 'What am I going to buy at the grocery store tomorrow? What am I going to do with my kids tomorrow?'"

-- Ginger White on sex with Herman Cain, former Republican candidate


Huntsman a conservative? As governor, he massively cut income and sales taxes — instituting a 5 percent flat income tax — while expanding the state’s “rainy day” reserve fund. His approach to healthcare reform relied on markets rather than mandates. As the Club for Growth describes it, “Utah’s main health reform contained no individual mandate, no employer mandate, and has very limited regulatory authority. … It empowers individuals to take ownership of their own health insurance and to choose coverage that works for them.” If elected president, Huntsman says he would like to slash tax rates to their lowest levels since before America entered World War One and eliminate taxes on capital gains and dividends. ... He’s also pro-life, a dedicated free trader and – at least as evidenced by his sweeping bank reform plan — an ardent anti-crony capitalist.

-- Jim Pethokoukis


If in a sex scene (like a high school), there is only one girl who is willing to have sex for every 10 boys who are willing to have sex, then if one person in that scene contracts an STI, everyone else will become infected as well. This is because all the boys are having sex with the same few girls who are willing to be promiscuous. Increase the number of girls willing to having sex, however, and according to the theory the risk of contracting an STI decreases. This is because now each girl is now having sex with fewer men.

-- Marina Adshade on lowering teenage STD-rate


The larger point, however, is that whoever finally gets the Republican nomination will be a deeply flawed candidate. And these flaws won’t be an accident, the result of bad luck regarding who chose to make a run this time around; the fact that the party is committed to demonstrably false beliefs means that only fakers or the befuddled can get through the selection process.

Of course, given the terrible economic picture and the tendency of voters to blame whoever holds the White House for bad times, even a deeply flawed G.O.P. nominee might very well win the presidency. But then what?

-- Paul Krugman at NYT


“If Newt Gingrich becomes president, we all deserve to die in a purifying fire.”

-- Will Wilkinson

Monk's News Reel

"One time we were having sex, and I was looking up at the ceiling, thinking about, 'What am I going to buy at the grocery store tomorrow? What am I going to do with my kids tomorrow?'"

-- Ginger White on sex with Herman Cain, former Republican candidate


Huntsman a conservative? As governor, he massively cut income and sales taxes — instituting a 5 percent flat income tax — while expanding the state’s “rainy day” reserve fund. His approach to healthcare reform relied on markets rather than mandates. As the Club for Growth describes it, “Utah’s main health reform contained no individual mandate, no employer mandate, and has very limited regulatory authority. … It empowers individuals to take ownership of their own health insurance and to choose coverage that works for them.” If elected president, Huntsman says he would like to slash tax rates to their lowest levels since before America entered World War One and eliminate taxes on capital gains and dividends. ... He’s also pro-life, a dedicated free trader and – at least as evidenced by his sweeping bank reform plan — an ardent anti-crony capitalist.

-- Jim Pethokoukis


If in a sex scene (like a high school), there is only one girl who is willing to have sex for every 10 boys who are willing to have sex, then if one person in that scene contracts an STI, everyone else will become infected as well. This is because all the boys are having sex with the same few girls who are willing to be promiscuous. Increase the number of girls willing to having sex, however, and according to the theory the risk of contracting an STI decreases. This is because now each girl is now having sex with fewer men.

-- Marina Adshade on lowering teenage STD-rate


The larger point, however, is that whoever finally gets the Republican nomination will be a deeply flawed candidate. And these flaws won’t be an accident, the result of bad luck regarding who chose to make a run this time around; the fact that the party is committed to demonstrably false beliefs means that only fakers or the befuddled can get through the selection process.

Of course, given the terrible economic picture and the tendency of voters to blame whoever holds the White House for bad times, even a deeply flawed G.O.P. nominee might very well win the presidency. But then what?

-- Paul Krugman at NYT


“If Newt Gingrich becomes president, we all deserve to die in a purifying fire.”

-- Will Wilkinson

1984 (2,3) Break the Rules and Stay Alive

Winston learns a little about Julia’s past sex life, as well as about the more pragmatic attitude that the younger people may have toward the Party, those who were born after the Party had consolidated their political power, and hence taking Big Brother as a given fact of life, more true than God, and consequently making revolt and revolution that much more unlikely.

_ _ _

She had had her first love-affair when she was sixteen, with a Party member of sixty who later committed suicide to avoid arrest. 'And a good job too,' said Julia, 'otherwise they'd have had my name out of him when he confessed.' Since then there had been various others. Life as she saw it was quite simple. You wanted a good time; 'they', meaning the Party, wanted to stop you having it; you broke the rules as best you couId. She seemed to think it just as natural that 'they' should want to rob you of your pleasures as that you should want to avoid being caught. She hated the Party, and said so in the crudest words, but she made no general criticism of it. Except where it touched upon her own life she had no interest in Party doctrine. He noticed that she never used Newspeak words except the ones that had passed into everyday use. She had never heard of the Brotherhood, and refused to believe in its existence. Any kind of organized revolt against the Party, which was bound to be a failure, struck her as stupid. The clever thing was to break the rules and stay alive all the same. He wondered vaguely how many others like her there might be in the younger generation people who had grown up in the world of the Revolution, knowing nothing else, accepting the Party as something unalterable, like the sky, not rebelling against its authority but simply evading it, as a rabbit dodges a dog.

-- 1984

1984 (2,3) Break the Rules and Stay Alive

Winston learns a little about Julia’s past sex life, as well as about the more pragmatic attitude that the younger people may have toward the Party, those who were born after the Party had consolidated their political power, and hence taking Big Brother as a given fact of life, more true than God, and consequently making revolt and revolution that much more unlikely.

_ _ _

She had had her first love-affair when she was sixteen, with a Party member of sixty who later committed suicide to avoid arrest. 'And a good job too,' said Julia, 'otherwise they'd have had my name out of him when he confessed.' Since then there had been various others. Life as she saw it was quite simple. You wanted a good time; 'they', meaning the Party, wanted to stop you having it; you broke the rules as best you couId. She seemed to think it just as natural that 'they' should want to rob you of your pleasures as that you should want to avoid being caught. She hated the Party, and said so in the crudest words, but she made no general criticism of it. Except where it touched upon her own life she had no interest in Party doctrine. He noticed that she never used Newspeak words except the ones that had passed into everyday use. She had never heard of the Brotherhood, and refused to believe in its existence. Any kind of organized revolt against the Party, which was bound to be a failure, struck her as stupid. The clever thing was to break the rules and stay alive all the same. He wondered vaguely how many others like her there might be in the younger generation people who had grown up in the world of the Revolution, knowing nothing else, accepting the Party as something unalterable, like the sky, not rebelling against its authority but simply evading it, as a rabbit dodges a dog.

-- 1984

Angelina Jolie

"...I woke up one day realizing, God, I'm an actor. I don't think I intended to be an actor. I think my mother wanted it for me. I loved telling stories, and I enjoyed the profession, but is it too late to be something else?"

-- Angelina Jolie

Some things just cannot wait until Saturday night.

( Read more... )

Angelina Jolie

"...I woke up one day realizing, God, I'm an actor. I don't think I intended to be an actor. I think my mother wanted it for me. I loved telling stories, and I enjoyed the profession, but is it too late to be something else?"

-- Angelina Jolie

Some things just cannot wait until Saturday night.

( Read more... )