Sifting through the debris

A-ha’s Take On Me Covered by North Korean Accordion-Playing...

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 20:54:31 -0500

A-ha’s Take On Me Covered by North Korean Accordion-Playing Students via laughingsquid

THE SNOW CHILD by Eowyn Ivey (by HachetteBookGroup)

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 22:09:39 -0500

THE SNOW CHILD by Eowyn Ivey (by HachetteBookGroup)

"The true conservative knows that the economic problem blends into the political problem, and the..."

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:00:06 -0500

“The true conservative knows that the economic problem blends into the political problem, and the political problem into the ethical problem, and the ethical problem into the religious problem.”

- Russell Kirk

"Possibly the greatest irony in American political culture is that conservatism — even today — is..."

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 12:00:05 -0500

“Possibly the greatest irony in American political culture is that conservatism — even today — is stigmatized as oppressive to minorities when, in fact, it is literally our only road ahead. We already have equality under the law. Only contemporary conservatism — which simply wants fairness by individuals rather than by groups — offers us the chance for true dignity, for freedom from both bigotry and paternalism.”

- Shelby Steele

"The truth is that most of the dysfunctions in our health-care system are the result of gravely..."

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 10:00:05 -0500

“The truth is that most of the dysfunctions in our health-care system are the result of gravely flawed federal policies, and so long as those policies remain in place, no amount of experimentation by state governments can create a transparent, efficient, or patient-centered system. Federal policy strongly encourages third-party provision of health insurance, and penalizes its purchase by individuals, in two ways: It subsidizes employer-provided coverage through the tax code; and it grants states the authority to establish regulatory fiefdoms over individually purchased insurance, thus preventing the emergence of a national market. Thanks to these policies, individuals rarely own their insurance policies and rarely even know their true cost; nor do they often know the costs of medical services, or have much incentive to choose lower-cost options. Thus, costs spiral out of control.”

- Romney vs. Obamacare - Yuval Levin & Ramesh Ponnuru

To be fair, I never used the term guru … tbridge: This is...

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 20:31:07 -0500

To be fair, I never used the term guru …

tbridge:

This is too close to home today.

mandyjenkins:

Don’t call me a “guru”, cause this is all true

laughingsquid:

Social Media Gurus

"In other words, contemporary liberalism offers religious groups a choice. They can try to serve the..."

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:02:05 -0500

“In other words, contemporary liberalism offers religious groups a choice. They can try to serve the widest possible population, in which case a liberal administration will set rules that force them to violate their conscience. Or they can serve a narrower one, in which case liberal journalists will sneer at them (and their most generous benefactors) for only caring about their co-religionists.”

- Ross Douthat, Religious Giving and Its Critics

True. Great Tolkien quote combined with great visual.

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 19:03:05 -0500

True. Great Tolkien quote combined with great visual.

Take a few minutes to breathe deeply and enjoy this beautiful...

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 18:02:06 -0500

Take a few minutes to breathe deeply and enjoy this beautiful video, it’s worth it (by Project Yosemite) via @bdomenech

Mitch Daniels as Obiwan

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 16:03:05 -0500

Mitch Daniels as Obiwan

‘Blue Marble 2012’: NASA’s ‘Most...

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 18:00:05 -0500

‘Blue Marble 2012’: NASA’s ‘Most Amazing’ High Def Image Of Earth So Far

"After flirting with the role of the reasonable centrist after his party’s defeat in 2010, President..."

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:00:05 -0500

“

After flirting with the role of the reasonable centrist after his party’s defeat in 2010, President Obama has decided to run for re-election as a full-throated liberal populist. There were rhetorical nods to deficit reduction, sensible regulatory reform and the Lincolnian idea that “government should do for people only what they cannot do better by themselves, and no more.” But the substance of the speech could be summed up in one word: More.

More spending on education. More spending on infrastructure. More money for green energy projects. More assistance for homeowners who are underwater on their mortgages. More tax breaks for manufacturers – for high-tech manufacturers, for manufacturers who relocate to poor areas, for manufacturers who retrain workers, for manufacturers who don’t outsource jobs, for manufacturers who upgrade their buildings … O.K., I lost count. And all of it to be paid for, inevitably, by more taxes on the wealthy.

”

- Ross Douthat

Federalism Death Watch: State Dependency on Federal Dollars

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 17:48:06 -0500

Federalism Death Watch: State Dependency on Federal Dollars

Clicker Universal Remote with Bottle Opener

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:00:05 -0500

Clicker Universal Remote with Bottle Opener

For my daughter Ella: Little Pandas drinking milk (by satopyong)

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 09:59:51 -0500

For my daughter Ella: Little Pandas drinking milk (by satopyong)

"Go to a man in poverty who attends a beautiful church and offer to tear down the beauty that..."

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 19:00:05 -0500

“Go to a man in poverty who attends a beautiful church and offer to tear down the beauty that surrounds him, to melt down the gold so he can buy more food. You will never see a man more insulted.”

- Marc Barnes

So cool … bookshelfporn: Submitted by Rupert Kay.

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 18:00:05 -0500

So cool …

bookshelfporn: Submitted by Rupert Kay.

A marriage proposal, Lego style

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 16:00:05 -0500

A marriage proposal, Lego style

"When there began to be such a thing as books written for children, in the mid-19th century, fiction..."

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 11:10:12 -0500

“

When there began to be such a thing as books written for children, in the mid-19th century, fiction was dominated by the realistic novel. Romance and satire were acceptable to it, but overt fantasy was not. So, for a while, fantasy found a refuge in children’s books. There it flourished so brilliantly that people began to perceive imaginative fiction as being “for children”.

The modernists extended this misconception by declaring fantastic narrative to be intrinsically childish. Though modernism is behind us and postmodernism may be joining it, still many critics and reviewers approach fantasy determined to keep Caliban permanently confined in the cage of Kiddie Lit. The voice of Edmund Wilson reviewing J R R Tolkien is still heard, bleating: “Oo, those awful Orcs!” There should be a word — “maturismo”, like “machismo”? — for the anxious savagery of the intellectual who thinks his adulthood has been impugned.

”

- Ursula K. LeGuin (via ayjay)

"When the sword is once drawn, the passions of men observe no bounds of moderation."

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 12:07:14 -0500

“When the sword is once drawn, the passions of men observe no bounds of moderation.”

- Alexander Hamilton (via @bdomenech’s invaluable The Transom)