Nice one, Paul

Krugman.

Beautiful

Thanks, TNC.

Lou Reed, RIP

The noisy experimental stuff, the artsy Warhol scene, that was all lost on me. The jangly guitars and edgy songcraft never get old.

Obamacare woes

"Hopefully in the long run it won't matter, but there's a reason some of us expect our liberalism to be competent, especially when it's really just technocratic centrism advertised as liberalism."

Atrios is right... not the end of the world, but we expected better. After all, the guy in charge is the guy who used the web to build a coalition that elected our first African-American president... if you can do that, a health insurance exchange shouldn't be all that difficult.

Offspring report

My violin-playing offspring had a good week. Watch for him at a venue near you. Or listen to some samples here.

Immersive movie experience

I thought Captain Phillips was just about as good as the critics said. Barkhad Abdi, as the Somali pirate "captain," is even better than advertised. When I go out to the movies, I like to sit well into the front half of the theatre to get the full big-screen experience. But being out at sea with Paul Greengrass's restless camera and claustrophobic action sequences, I might have preferred sitting back a few rows.

Yep, that's me...

... looking grim... feeling glum... about recent events at my University...

Our model California government

I voted for the nonpartisan redistricting commission, and I'm very happy if it is doing its job to reduce polarization and gridlock. Easing of term limits was a good idea too. But let's face it: California state government is working right now because we have one-party rule, and the one party consists of Democrats, led by the most grown-up Democrat of them all, Jerry Brown. Jerry is a sensible man who can get shit done because the idiot Republicans can't do a damn thing to stop him. Jerry can veto Dem stuff he thinks is too radical, or bad for the economy. Those of us to his left will shrug our shoulders and live with it, because frankly we love our Jerry!

The rest of the country could have this too. Grow up, kids.