Made in China

In an about turn of U.S. trade policy and friendly international hugs, the Bush administration has decided to raise tariffs on Chinese goods exported to the United States. However, this appears to be a test run to experiment on the ways that such tariffs will affect U.S.-China relations and the market. A protective tariff-an artificial [...]

Why can’t we all just live in one time zone?

The esteemed Mr. Thursday, in the glowing introduction provided me, pointed out that I am “viciously opinionated.” This is true, but only because I am always right. One of the things I am always right about is this: North America is horribly lame, with Canada being the marginally less lame of the two… [...]

We Just Keep Growing

The Curious Mechanism is adding yet another fine young person to come and write in this space. Be nice.
Andy is tall and thin and viciously opinionated. He’s a half-Canadian film wizard and, given his specialty, will grace us with a weekly movie post. No, he’s not going to write about new movies. [...]

Blogroll

There are a lot of  great blogs out there, and frankly, we haven’t been too good about adding them to our blogroll.  That said, we’ve updated and added a bunch more, and we’re always on the lookout for new stuff to read. 
If you’ve got a site, please, leave a comment, and we’d love to add [...]

Quantifying Intangibles

I love Fire Joe Morgan.  They like rational, reasonable argument based upon measurable facts.  I also like this.  They cannot stand “intangibles”, and frankly, I don’t think too much of them, either. 
Naturally, then, I’ve been asked to come and help quantify intangibles (Here comes the links).  The Extrapolater is running the show, and helping out [...]

Refused – The Shape of Punk to Come

When I was about 16, music had to be one of two things to catch my ear: screaming, or jazz. My tastes have expanded quite a bit since then, but I still love both of those categories. Refused’s The Shape of Punk to Come: A Chimerical Bombination in 12 Bursts has, for me, been a [...]

Chabon Pulls a Dickens, But Nobody Told Me

I was introduced to Michael Chabon during my senior year of high school, I think. Mrs. Diamondstone, my beloved English teacher during 11th and 12th grade, had our class read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, which has become one of my favorite books, and one of the few Pulitzer Prize winners I’ve [...]

WHY IS THIS WOMAN STILL IN THE NEWS?

The worst part about that headline is that it doesn’t give you any insight into who I’m talking about, does it?
It could be:
Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, Nicole Ritchie, Jessica or Ashlee Simpson, Mary Kate or Ashley Olson (though they’ve retreated back a little bit, thank God)…the list could continue.
But we’re not going to [...]