Linkfest:
http://www.tylercowensethnicdiningguide.com/
http://www.creativeclass.com
http://www.marginalrevolution.com
Scott Burns
Clay Bennett
Tom Toles
http://youngprofessionalandbored.blogspot.com/
http://employerslawyer.blogspot.com/
http://thedashingfellows.com/
"And if an epitaph be my story, I'd have a short one ready for my own: I had a lover's quarrel with the world." -- Robert Frost
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Friday, August 21, 2009
Kitchen Confidential
I recently read half of Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential. Some food tips: avoid mussels; do NOT order fish on Monday; and go out to eat on Tuesdays and Thursdays, when the chefs are rested from the weekend.
Warren Buffett: the Greenback Effect
Warren Buffett had an op-ed piece in the NYT this week. See here. Mr. Buffett is concerned about our deficit:
This fiscal year, though, the deficit will rise to about 13 percent of G.D.P., more than twice the non-wartime record. In dollars, that equates to a staggering $1.8 trillion. Fiscally, we are in uncharted territory.
Interesting to see Krugman and Buffett at odds.
This fiscal year, though, the deficit will rise to about 13 percent of G.D.P., more than twice the non-wartime record. In dollars, that equates to a staggering $1.8 trillion. Fiscally, we are in uncharted territory.
Interesting to see Krugman and Buffett at odds.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Dept of Labor Consumer Spending Chart
Predictably, housing is the main expense, following by transportation, food, and insurance/pensions. How much does the average American spend on reading? Just $118 a year.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Supreme Court Justices: Bobblehead Doll Edition
Thanks to some friends in D.C. and the George Mason School of Law, I am now the proud owner of Justice David Souter, Fidel Castro, and Justice Louis Brandeis bobblehead dolls. (Bet you never thought you'd see those three names in the same sentence.) I am not materialistic, but I love collecting things that are associated with good memories. Justice Brandeis and Justice Souter are two of my favorite Justices. I don't have any good memories relating to Castro, but it's the GTMO version, and I received it from a former law school classmate who is representing GTMO detainees. To me, it represents due process of law, or at least a reminder that America owes all its detainees some form of a fair trial.
Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficial. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasions of their liberty--by evil-minded rulers. The greater dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding. -- Justice Louis Brandeis
JUSTICE BREYER: On that question, suppose that you are from Bosnia, and you are held for six years in Guantanamo, and the charge is that you helped Al-Qaeda, and you had your hearing before the CSRT [Combatant Status Review Tribunal].
And now you go to the D.C. Circuit, and here is what you say: The CSRT is all wrong. Their procedures are terrible. But just for purposes of argument, I concede those procedures are wonderful, and I also conclude it reached a perfectly good result.
Okay? So you concede it for argument's sake. But what you want to say is: Judge, I don't care how good those procedures are. I'm from Bosnia. I've been here six years. The Constitution of the United States does not give anyone the right to hold me six years in Guantanamo without either charging me or releasing me, in the absence of some special procedure in Congress for preventive detention.
That's the argument I want to make. I don't see anything in this CSRT provision that permits me to make that argument. So I'm asking you: Where can you make that argument?
GENERAL CLEMENT: I'm not sure that he could make that argument.
JUSTICE BREYER: Exactly.
Parents are known to overreact to protect their children from danger, and a school official with responsibility for safety may tend to do the same. The difference is that the Fourth Amendment places limits on the official, even with the high degree of deference that courts must pay to the educator’s professional judgment. -- Justice David Souter
Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficial. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasions of their liberty--by evil-minded rulers. The greater dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding. -- Justice Louis Brandeis
JUSTICE BREYER: On that question, suppose that you are from Bosnia, and you are held for six years in Guantanamo, and the charge is that you helped Al-Qaeda, and you had your hearing before the CSRT [Combatant Status Review Tribunal].And now you go to the D.C. Circuit, and here is what you say: The CSRT is all wrong. Their procedures are terrible. But just for purposes of argument, I concede those procedures are wonderful, and I also conclude it reached a perfectly good result.
Okay? So you concede it for argument's sake. But what you want to say is: Judge, I don't care how good those procedures are. I'm from Bosnia. I've been here six years. The Constitution of the United States does not give anyone the right to hold me six years in Guantanamo without either charging me or releasing me, in the absence of some special procedure in Congress for preventive detention.
That's the argument I want to make. I don't see anything in this CSRT provision that permits me to make that argument. So I'm asking you: Where can you make that argument?
GENERAL CLEMENT: I'm not sure that he could make that argument.
JUSTICE BREYER: Exactly.
Parents are known to overreact to protect their children from danger, and a school official with responsibility for safety may tend to do the same. The difference is that the Fourth Amendment places limits on the official, even with the high degree of deference that courts must pay to the educator’s professional judgment. -- Justice David Souter
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Movie Quote
"Stop talking about love. Every a**hole in the world says he loves somebody. It means nothing. What you feel only matters to you. It's what you do to the people you say you love--that's what matters. [Indeed] It's the only thing that counts."
-- from The Last Kiss, the best part from an otherwise terrible film
-- from The Last Kiss, the best part from an otherwise terrible film
Best Non-Famous Movies
I love movies. Anyone who knows me knows I do three things with my free time: watch movies, play basketball, and read. Here is a list of incredible films--in no particular order--you've probably never heard of:
1. Elling (2001, Norway)
2. La Haine (1995, French)
3. A Peck on the Cheek (2002, Indian)
4. Street Fight (2005, American)
5. Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974, German)
6. Kiki's Delivery Service (1989, Japanese)
7. Farewell My Concubine (1993, Chinese)
8. Swimming to Cambodia (1987)
9. The Orphanage (2007, Spanish)
10. Shower (1999, Chinese)
11. The Lives of Others (2006, German)
12. Pelle the Conqueror (1987, Danish)
13. Sweet Land (2005)
14. Gallipoli (1981, Australian)
15. Children of Heaven (Persian)
16. Color of Paradise (Persian)
17. Misfits (1961, American)
18. Two for the Road (1967, American)
19. The Message (1976)
20. Muhammad Ali - The Whole Story (1996)
21. Night of the Hunter (1955)
22. No Man's Land (2001)
23. Coraline (2009)
24. A Taxing Woman (1987, Japan)
25. American Teen (2008)
26. Lilies of the Field (1963)
27. The Lion in Winter (1968)
28. Battle of Algiers (1966)
29. Winter Light (1963)
30. Jim Thorpe, All American (1961) [In memory of Westmont High School Wrestling Coach Patrick "Terry" Vierra]
31. Taxi to the Dark Side (2007) [This documentary is not for the squeamish. Also, I recommend watching The Oath (2010), before watching Taxi to the Dark Side.]
32. Through Deaf Eyes (PBS 2007)
33. Gideon's Trumpet (starring Henry Fonda)
34. McCarthy Years (hosted by Walter Cronkite) (1991) [not scintillating, but included because of its high American historical significance]
35. The Good, the Bad, the Weird (2008, Korea)
36. Lars and the Real Girl (2007)
37. The Wrestler (2008)
38. Splendor in the Grass (1961)
39. Persepolis (2007) [dedicated to my grandmother, Mamani]
40. The Garden (2008) (documentary)
41. Deliver Us from Evil (2006) [difficult documentary to watch, but included, because one rarely sees the banality and cluelessness of evil so vividly]
42. Source Code (2011). One of the best modern movies I've ever seen. Jake Gyllenhaal is part of a new military program designed to prevent future attacks. Is he merely part of a simulation or something more? Similar to Spielberg's Minority Report, but with two love stories--one romantic, one familial--as its foundation.
43. A Separation (2011) (Persian)
44. City Lights (1934) (Charlie Chaplin film)
45. The Edge of Heaven (Auf der anderen Seite) (2007)
46. Ken Burns' Unforgivable Blackness: Jack Johnson (2005). Jack Johnson, a boxer in the early 1900s, was Muhammad Ali before Muhammad Ali.
47. White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (2007)
48. Somewhere Between (2011)
49. About Time (2013), a love story.
50. Coal Miner's Daughter (1980)
51. La La Land (2016) (this movie absolutely broke my heart, which leads me to my next suggestion...)
52. Southside with You (2016) (excellent dialogue from the beginning of a love story for the ages)
53. The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers (2009)
54. My Son the Fanatic (1999)
55. The Time that Remains (2009)
56. A Man Called Ove (2015, Sweden)
57. Shoplifters (2018, Japanese 万引き家族)
58. Aftershock (2010) (唐山大地震, Chinese)
59. The Fifth Element (1997) [perhaps the least defensible choice on this list, but I loved everything about it.]
60. Cities of Last Things (2018) by Wi Ding Ho (featuring the songs Drone (Omnibus) and Omnibus One)
61. Harold and Maude (1971) [this is a famous movie, but I decided to include it when I realized non-Western audiences may not have heard of it.]
62. Mike Birbiglia: My Girlfriend's Boyfriend (2013)
1. Elling (2001, Norway)
2. La Haine (1995, French)
3. A Peck on the Cheek (2002, Indian)
4. Street Fight (2005, American)
5. Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974, German)
6. Kiki's Delivery Service (1989, Japanese)
7. Farewell My Concubine (1993, Chinese)
8. Swimming to Cambodia (1987)
9. The Orphanage (2007, Spanish)
10. Shower (1999, Chinese)
11. The Lives of Others (2006, German)
12. Pelle the Conqueror (1987, Danish)
13. Sweet Land (2005)
14. Gallipoli (1981, Australian)
15. Children of Heaven (Persian)
16. Color of Paradise (Persian)
17. Misfits (1961, American)
18. Two for the Road (1967, American)
19. The Message (1976)
20. Muhammad Ali - The Whole Story (1996)
21. Night of the Hunter (1955)
22. No Man's Land (2001)
23. Coraline (2009)
24. A Taxing Woman (1987, Japan)
25. American Teen (2008)
26. Lilies of the Field (1963)
27. The Lion in Winter (1968)
28. Battle of Algiers (1966)
29. Winter Light (1963)
30. Jim Thorpe, All American (1961) [In memory of Westmont High School Wrestling Coach Patrick "Terry" Vierra]
31. Taxi to the Dark Side (2007) [This documentary is not for the squeamish. Also, I recommend watching The Oath (2010), before watching Taxi to the Dark Side.]
32. Through Deaf Eyes (PBS 2007)
33. Gideon's Trumpet (starring Henry Fonda)
34. McCarthy Years (hosted by Walter Cronkite) (1991) [not scintillating, but included because of its high American historical significance]
35. The Good, the Bad, the Weird (2008, Korea)
36. Lars and the Real Girl (2007)
37. The Wrestler (2008)
38. Splendor in the Grass (1961)
39. Persepolis (2007) [dedicated to my grandmother, Mamani]
40. The Garden (2008) (documentary)
41. Deliver Us from Evil (2006) [difficult documentary to watch, but included, because one rarely sees the banality and cluelessness of evil so vividly]
42. Source Code (2011). One of the best modern movies I've ever seen. Jake Gyllenhaal is part of a new military program designed to prevent future attacks. Is he merely part of a simulation or something more? Similar to Spielberg's Minority Report, but with two love stories--one romantic, one familial--as its foundation.
43. A Separation (2011) (Persian)
44. City Lights (1934) (Charlie Chaplin film)
45. The Edge of Heaven (Auf der anderen Seite) (2007)
46. Ken Burns' Unforgivable Blackness: Jack Johnson (2005). Jack Johnson, a boxer in the early 1900s, was Muhammad Ali before Muhammad Ali.
47. White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (2007)
48. Somewhere Between (2011)
49. About Time (2013), a love story.
50. Coal Miner's Daughter (1980)
51. La La Land (2016) (this movie absolutely broke my heart, which leads me to my next suggestion...)
52. Southside with You (2016) (excellent dialogue from the beginning of a love story for the ages)
53. The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers (2009)
54. My Son the Fanatic (1999)
55. The Time that Remains (2009)
56. A Man Called Ove (2015, Sweden)
57. Shoplifters (2018, Japanese 万引き家族)
58. Aftershock (2010) (唐山大地震, Chinese)
59. The Fifth Element (1997) [perhaps the least defensible choice on this list, but I loved everything about it.]
60. Cities of Last Things (2018) by Wi Ding Ho (featuring the songs Drone (Omnibus) and Omnibus One)
61. Harold and Maude (1971) [this is a famous movie, but I decided to include it when I realized non-Western audiences may not have heard of it.]
62. Mike Birbiglia: My Girlfriend's Boyfriend (2013)
63. Star Trek: Insurrection (1994)
64. Once Upon a Time in China (1991) (Hong Kong)
65. Queen's Gambit (Netflix, 2020)
66. Past Life (2016, Israel, החטאים)
67. Star Trek: Prodigy (2021, American series)
68. Undone (2019, Amazon series)
69. Zana (2019, Kosovo)
70. Slumberland (2022)
71. Russian Doll (2019), Season One only
72. Maniac (2018)
73. The Magician's Elephant (2023), excellent for children
74. Australia (2008), Faraway Downs (2023)
75. Heat (1995)
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