Maybe one of the reasons that the
Maybe one of the reasons that the US hasn’t embraced global warming as a national priority is because the country is so large that it never experiences collective weather extremes the way Europe does.
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kottke.org posts about usa
America the Overfull, Paul Theroux’s New Year’s
America the Overfull, Paul Theroux’s New Year’s musing on an America with twice as many people as when he grew up. “We are passing through a confused period of aggression and fear, characterized by our confrontational government, the decline of diplomacy, a pugnacious foreign policy and a settled belief that the surest way to get people to tell the truth is to torture them. It is no wonder we have begun to squint at strangers. This is a corrosive situation in a country where more and more people, most of them strangers, are a feature of daily life. Americans as a people I believe to be easygoing, compassionate, not looking for a fight. But surely I am not the only one who has noticed that we are ruder, more offhand, readier to take offense, a nation of shouters and blamers.” (thx, youngna)
How one man (and his multimillion dollar
How one man (and his multimillion dollar business) went up against the entrenched system of US milk price controls and lost. Yay, American politics!
$2 bills are growing in popularity in the
$2 bills are growing in popularity in the US…$1 bills just don’t cut it for bartender’s tips and lapdance gratuities anymore. Peter Morici, professor of business at some long-named school, says that the $1 coin is taking off as well, but when my wife tried to pay at a store using one of them the other day, the cashier looked at her like she was trying to use Monopoly money.
From Strange Maps, a great new blog
From Strange Maps, a great new blog I stumbled across the other day, comes a map originally done by the Boston Globe of the 10 regions of American politics.
Snowclone watch watch: Anil discovers the multivalent story of America.
Snowclone watch watch: Anil discovers the multivalent story of America.
Letters to George W. Bush from German
Letters to George W. Bush from German citizens attempting to affirm their rights to moon land they have purchased for $19.99 an acre. “If you intend to use my area within the bounds of your intention, to build a moon base or something else on, over, or under the surface of this moon area, you have to contact me personally. This must be absolutely, to clear up under which special conditions I will leave the rights of use to you or the United States of America.”
A recent study concludes that in terms
A recent study concludes that in terms of life expectancy, there are eight different Americas, all with differing levels of health. “In 2001, 15-year-old blacks in high-risk city areas were three to four times more likely than Asians to die before age 60, and four to five times more likely before age 45. In fact, young black men living in poor, high-crime urban America have death risks similar to people living in Russia or sub-Saharan Africa.” If I’m reading this right, it’s interesting that geography or income doesn’t have that big of an impact on the life expectancy of Asians; it’s their Asian-ness (either cultural, genetic, or both) that’s the key factor. Here’s the study itself. (via 3qd)
Lewis and Clark: What Else Happened is
Lewis and Clark: What Else Happened is a contemporary reblogging of Lewis and Clark’s expedition of the Louisiana Purchase. The blog finishes up this Saturday, on the 200 year anniversary of the end of their trip.
Sources cited by The Independent say that
Sources cited by The Independent say that George W. Bush is planning “astonishing U-turn” on his global warming policies, which, as Elizabeth Kolbert notes in this week’s New Yorker, have been anything but helpful. Those who oppose Bush will give him a lot of crap for doing this just so he can salvage something from his shoddy Presidency, but if something genuinely gets done on the issue, I’ll be happy…who gets credit for what and when needs to take a backseat here.
Fascinating charts of how the US Senate
Fascinating charts of how the US Senate votes on issues from a liberal-conservative perspective and a social issues perspective. More charts here. You’ll notice that the lines on the graphs are mostly straight up and down which means “it’s all economic; all the noise about social issues never actually flows thru into the legislative agenda.” That is, the Senate decides issues, even social issues, based mostly on economics.
Thought-provoking essay on hating America. “I find
Thought-provoking essay on hating America. “I find that my cultural observations about Guatemala are usually really about me. ‘These people are mean’ means ‘I am lonely.’ ‘Those people are loud’ means ‘I feel excluded.’ ‘This country is great’ means ‘I love being unemployed and drunk.’ When I start talking about AMERICA on the return, I’m usually still just talking about myself.”
Allen Iverson, greatest soccer player ever?
Buried in this extensive listing of the most valuable players in the NBA by Bill Simmons, is a little muse about NBA stars playing soccer, which I will reproduce here in its entirety so you don’t have to go searching for it:
By the way, I’ve been watching the World Cup for four weeks trying to decide which NBA players could have been dominant soccer players, eventually coming to three conclusions. First, Allen Iverson would have been the greatest soccer player ever — better than Pele, better than Ronaldo, better than everyone. I think this is indisputable, actually. Second, it’s a shame that someone like Chris Andersen couldn’t have been pushed toward soccer, because he would have been absolutely unstoppable soaring above the middle of the pack on corner kicks. And third, can you imagine anyone being a better goalie than Shawn Marion? It would be like having a 6-foot-9 human octopus in the net. How could anyone score on him? He’d have every inch of the goal covered. Just as a sports experiment, couldn’t we have someone teach Marion the rudimentary aspects of playing goal, then throw him in a couple of MLS games? Like you would turn the channel if this happened?
Link via David, with whom I was chatting last week about Mr. Iverson’s excellent chances, soccer-wise.
Kim Dingle’s painting, Maps of the U.
Kim Dingle’s painting, Maps of the U.S. Drawn from Memory by Las Vegas Teenagers. (via mr)
Howard Zinn on the 4th of July: “
Howard Zinn on the 4th of July: “Is not nationalism — that devotion to a flag, an anthem, a boundary so fierce it engenders mass murder — one of the great evils of our time, along with racism, along with religious hatred?” (via eyeteeth)
Second string
Not to go on and on about it like the stupid announcers on American TV, but this passage from Jeffrey Toobin’s New Yorker piece (sadly not online), may explain why the American team did so poorly in the World Cup:
Every kid in the American suburbs, it seems, owns a pair of shin guards. Soccer accords nicely with baby-boomer parents’ notions about sports: every kid gets to play, no one stands out too much, there’s plenty of running and trophies for all. If [John Robert’s] children are typical, they will play neighborhood soccer for a few years, with enthusiastic but inexperienced parent coaches, and then wander away from the game by adolescence. Great high-school athletes tend to migrate to football and basketball, where they can play in front of big crowds and perhaps qualify for college scholarships. Soccer in the suburbs serves mostly as a bridge between Barney and Nintendo; it’s a pleasant diversion, not a means of developing brutes like Jan Koller, to say nothing of the magicians who stock the Brazilian team.
This dovetails nicely with what my friend David wrote during a discussion about the disappearance of the US from the World Cup:
Our best athletes go to basketball, football, and baseball, roughly in that order. Soccer gets the dregs, sadly. Don’t you think Terrell Owens would be a better striker than Landon Donovan? Even a 50-year-old Darrel Green might be faster than the fastest player on the US Soccer team, and so on.
We know these guys are smart players, and they may have the same instincts that even the Brazilians and Ecuadorians do. But they’re just not nearly as good. Watching Brazil decimate Japan yesterday, even briefly, it was obvious how much stronger they were than the US team.
Over IM just now, David and I were musing about Allen Iverson’s possible greatness as a soccer player; so creative, quick, and fearless. I bet if some the NBA’s best players grew up playing soccer the way they played basketball, the US would have a pretty great team.
Mexican president Vicente Fox didn’t sign the
Mexican president Vicente Fox didn’t sign the bill legalizing small quantities of drugs for personal use because of US pressure due to drug tourism fears. What I don’t understand is…why not just make it legal for Mexican citizens to allay US fears? Besides, anyone who goes to Mexico for drugs can get them if they want anyway, law or no.
Christopher Hitchens takes Garrison Keillor to task
Christopher Hitchens takes Garrison Keillor to task for slamming Bernard-Henri Levy’s take on the US, American Vertigo. I’m patiently waiting for someone to take on Hitchens on Keillor on Levy on America.
Well, Garrison Keillor sure didn’t like Bernard-Henri
Well, Garrison Keillor sure didn’t like Bernard-Henri Levy’s American Vertigo much. I’m about halfway through…review soon (hopefully).
As France becomes more like the US
As France becomes more like the US in eating habits, the famously thin French are getting fatter. “Some of the reasons for the increase in obesity are those that plague the United States and much of Europe: the lure of fast food and prepared foods, the ubiquity of unhealthy snacks and sedentary lives.”
The 50 most loathsome people in America, 2005. On
The 50 most loathsome people in America, 2005. On Paris Hilton: “Somehow, everybody in America knew that this completely pointless person had lost her dog, and we are all diminished by the experience.”
Interesting graph comparing the size of new
Interesting graph comparing the size of new homes and the obesity rate in America (which seem to track quite closely since 1995), prompting the question, are Americans growing to fit their environment? Relatedly, Bernard-Henri Levy on American obesity: “The obesity of the body is a metaphor of another obesity. There is a tendency in America to believe that the bigger the better for everything — for churches, cities, malls, companies and campaign budgets. There’s an idolatry of bigness.”
The 3% federal excise tax on your phone
The 3% federal excise tax on your phone bill “was imposed in 1898 to help pay for the Spanish-American War”.
The National Archives has a few of
The National Archives has a few of their documents available online, like the Emancipation Proclamation and the check for when the US bought Alaska. More in their online exhibits.
Surowiecki on the sorry state of the
Surowiecki on the sorry state of the US patent system. “Since the [USPTO] is funded by patent fees, as opposed to getting its budget from Washington, it has a financial incentive to process applications as quickly, rather than as diligently, as possible.”
Jim Holt ponders the US population’s ignorance
Jim Holt ponders the US population’s ignorance of (and hostility toward) science “at a moment when three of the nation’s most contentious political issues - global warming, stem-cell research and the teaching of intelligent design - are scientific in character”.
Why are rental cars American cars? Why
Why are rental cars American cars? Why don’t rental car companies use the superior Japanese product?
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