Alleged science

There is no truth to the rumor that religion is a disease caused by obesity. Oh, did I get that backwards?

Thanx to Body Impolitic

Math is hard

Now we're supposed to pay to watch Ross Douthat get the numbers wrong.

Thanx to Oliver Willis

The perjury trap fails to snap shut

Jon Carroll on the Barry Bonds farce.

If you're so rich, why aren't you smart?

If the Communists were as diabolically clever as we used to believe, they would have schemed to make a mockery of capitalism by faking up a successful money-making career for an obvious buffoon who would then make a public fool of himself by proclaiming in the teeth of the evidence that the president of the United States was not born in the United States and maintaining that a good snowstorm disproves global warming. They might further discredit their exemplar by taking advantage of our culture's rigid view of gender appropriateness. For instance, their clown could go to grotesquely obvious cosmetic means to pretend he wasn't going bald. (We shall overcomb.)

I wonder how they would actually make the money. My first guess is that they'd have the smart people in a windowless room somewhere while the figurehead was never allowed to decide anything meaningful. That might be overly subtle, though. Consider how few people noticed George W. Bush's path to the presidency, on which every time he tried to make money by his own abilities, his father's rich friends had to bail him out.

The state as bully

Want a birth certificate for your child? Answer these questions that are none of our business

Thanx to eatsoylentgreen