Well done, alma mater!

It appears UVA has finally picked a replacement for the adored Ayers: A&S Online says that "Meredith Jung-En Woo, a nationally known expert on international political economy and East Asian politics, will become dean of the University of Virginia’s College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences on June 1."

Hopefully her temperment is as well-suited to the job as her resume - she she sounds like a fantastic pick to lead a more globally-focused College.

I'll eagerly await feedback from my Class of '09 friends at all the "greet-the-dean" events that I'm sure will be transpiring in the fall...

"Obama has no authority in the Scranton School District."

Sweet human interest story of the day, courtesy Jordan:

"On Wednesday, at Scranton High School, there was the business of what to do about seniors Colin Saltry and Joey Daniel, who skipped a couple of classes to see Barack Obama eat waffles at the Glider Diner Monday morning and were promptly suspended upon their return. This spontaneous act of truancy turned them into minor media celebs and Topic B at Irish bars and ballfields across this city. The fact that they are student leaders -- Saltry is class president, Daniel is VP -- made the infraction even more buzzworthy."

These kids are great, and endearing in their willingness to take responsibility ("[The principal] was just doing his job," Saltry said of McGraw. "I'd hate to see him painted as a tyrant.") - what a terrific counterexample to the stereotype of the unthinking, Kool-Aid drinking young Obama supporter.

"Are you eating glass?"

The GoFugYourself Girls try on "Heidiwood." For real.
And then award Montag the dubious title of "Paris 2.0"


At least John McCain is still a fan.

Libertarian Paternalism

An interesting movement manifesto from Cass Sunstein and fellow UChicago professor/author in today's LA Times: in praise of "libertarian paternalism," a seemingly oxymoronic socioeconomic orientation that relies on good choice design to marry the appealing bits of libertarianism ("the straightforward insistence that, in general, people should be free to do what they like") and paternalism ("influenc[ing] people's behavior in order to make their lives longer, healthier and better").

They give compelling examples of what "gentle nudges" policy might look like. I'm in.

"Over here on E Street..."

I'm just saying. If I happened to be undecided, I'd need look no further.

"Yes, I'm bitter"

Apparently Fox News hit the streets to find offended industrial-area Pennsylvania voters re: Obama's "bitter" quote (I like how they picked an old white guy in sunglasses, since that demographic's got to be guaranteed umbrage-takers, right?), and discovered that voters agree with Obama.

My thinking on this flap is that his comment isn't nearly as foot-in-mouth as the pundits have been making it out to be. Obama, much more than most politicians, is pretty intimately acquainted with communities that have gotten the short end of the American-prosperity stick (perhaps you've heard of his pastor, a little-known fellow by the name of Wright who gives sermons to this effect?). It seems to (sheltered) me, at least, that bitterness is almost a matter of pride, a hardened cynicsm that one earns by weathering and surviving an unfair lot in life.

I do think the "clinging to their guns or religion or antipathy" was something of a Kinsley gaffe, but I'm heartened by this reaction. I'm encouraged by the idea that these self-described bitter voters, having struggled through eight years of "trickle down" economics, might turn a cynical eye to McCain's bluster and ask what he's going to do to make their hard lives easier.

Stuff Nobody Likes

The proliferation of kinda-lame Stuff White People Like knock-offs, as well as race-based critiques of Stuff White People Like seems to be reaching fever pitch these days...

I personally remain a Stuff White People Like fan, and admittedly still struggle to understand how the good-natured needling of bicycle-riding yuppies represents an appropriation of black culture (pace Gary Dauphin).

And yet, perhaps we can all come together in mutual distaste for The Dog from Duck Hunt, A Tattletale, and Meetings. Because seriously. Nobody likes that stuff.

"Did you know an Iraqi made this chart?"

If you have a job/school, you may not have found yourself with the expendable downtime to read or view Gen. Petraeus' testimony this week. If only there were Cliff's Notes..

Fear not! Cameron Fredman has got you covered with the Annotated Petraeus.

"Let's talk about the fat ones"

Karl Lagerfield is glorious in an interview excerpted on Jezebel:

http://jezebel.com/378030/10-things-karl-lagerfeld-could-do-without

"Soothing like a blender"

The NYT Magazine is previewing its Sunday story on Hardball's Chris Matthews. Mark Liebovich's profile is insightful and (oh, holy grail of long-form journalism!) relevant, situating the MSNBC grandstander in a larger context:

"... the broader issue involves whether Matthews is a man trapped in a tired caricature. And it touches on the future of his archetype in general — in other words, whither the cable blowhard? The “What happens to Chris” question — a hot topic at NBC these days — infuses the Matthews story with a kind of “lion in winter” urgency, if not poignancy. It also goes to the core of how Matthews sees himself, how cable news is changing and how Americans perceive of and consume their politics."

It's also an uncomfortably close look at the neuroses, insecurities, and shortcomings of one of the most ubiquitous faces in cable television. In other words, a voyeuristic pleasure.

E.Edwards to join the Center for American Progress

Fantastic news. Yet another reason to love CAP (beyond Campus Progress, the proverbial well of inspiration for my collegiate lefty-ism, and their DC braintrust of liberal brilliance.)

And to love Elizabeth Edwards- how encouraging to see a campaign figure put her time/energy/legal experience where her mouth is. I'm on kind of an Elizabeth-kick after meeting her in the office a couple weeks ago (yes. she is just as badass in person, judging from our 1.5 minute exchange), but I think that the choice to advocate for health care in from a platform of wonkery demonstrates an admirable strength of commitment beyond scoring campaign points.

Fun with new media

Apparently I'm a latecomer to this, but WashingtonPost.com has been running video versions of Ann Telnaes cartoons since earlier this year. I think the 3/28 and 3/26 animated cartoons in particular demonstrate the value of marrying these mediums. The "Fun with Real Audio" quality of Bush and Cheney's dubbed over-audio heightens the impact of Telnaes' characteristically pointed pen.

To my mind, this sort of multimedia creativity - and the savviness of using new technology to an actual purpose, rather than for ridiculous "look what crack team of Mac-users designed!" visual gag reasons (I'm looking at you, Anderson Cooper floating pie chart) - truly could be the future of new media. Especially since the Washington Post is now a subsidary of a "diversified media and education company" kept afloat by Kaplan, and will have the luxury of taking innovative risks in the online space denied to its fellow extinction-bound ink-and-paper dailies.

Glamour/Horror

The always-A-game cultural critic Virginia Postrel, musing on the fraught "glamour" of Barack Obama on TheAtlantic.com:

"His glamour makes it easy to imagine that a President Obama would dissolve differences, abolish hard choices, and achieve political consensus—or that he’s a stealth candidate who will translate his vague platform into a mandate for whatever policies you the voter happen to support."

I am generally dismissive of this sort of Obama critique, mostly finding them to be thinly veiled rephrasings of the "shallow" or "inexperienced" trope, but Postrel seems a little closer to the bone, if slightly overreaching - I'd be more than a little surprised if, as she predicts, the failure of Obama's face to "make America’s worries disappear, and... eliminate political disagreements" will lead to his supporters to "feel disappointed, even betrayed."

More compelling, however, is her elegant assessment that glamour beats at the heart of the Obama candidacy, and it spurs on both its supporters and dectractors alike.

Because it's Friday

The Lyrics to the Billy Joel Song "We Didn't Start the Fire" If They Were Written By a Muskrat Instead of Billy Joel.

Absurd statement of the day

Howard Dean to USA Today re: the Phil Bresden plan for a superdelegate primary:

"We can't have a convention of super delegates because it would look like 330 delegates are overriding the wishes of 30 million voters."

And having the super-delegates overriding the wishes of millions of voters in August at the convention would look like, what, exactly? Besides, say, Chicago 1968?

I wonder if French also share my pedicure-related unease?

Courtesy Sina's tip, a pithy summary of the political economies Western European and American from Roger Cohen:

"The shoe-shine rule goes something like this: if you can’t find one, you are probably in a society with a developed sense of egalitarianism and social solidarity, high taxation, a broad safety net, universal health care, extensive entitlements and high unemployment.... if you can, you’re probably in a place with low unemployment and little of the above social security, a place where capitalism is crueler and more vital, a place not unlike America."

And a nice conclusion about how our shoe-shine society might benefit from a touch of French egalité, even as their shine-free welfare state transforms to more closely resemble ours.

A quick crack tutorial

An eye-opening post on Slate affiliate The Root this week, regarding Congressional reconsideration of our ridiculous sentencing guidelines for crack-vs-cocaine: Five Things You Should Know About Crack.

I wonder if other well-intentioned surburban liberals would be equally suprised to learn that the epidemic of "crack babies" used as a justification for draconian sentencing policies is actually completely spurious:

"Little black babies born "craving" cocaine and with lifelong defects formed a central, and lasting, image justifying today's drug laws .... but neither powder nor crack cocaine creates a physical dependence—in the way heroin and nicotine do, for instance—because the body metabolizes them so fast ... Nonetheless, news outlets jumped on studies in which pregnant rats got dosages 25 times the size a human would take and ran with them. The supposedly crack-damaged babies that filled the airwaves were more likely hurt by factors we've long known to plague poor black women, and never cared about—poor pre and post-natal care, awful diets, the male violence directed at their bodies, and more."