ILYA SOMIN ON libertarianism and the Civil War.
Even if you agree — as non-libertarian lefty Sandy Levinson does — that the southern states may have been right about the legality of secession, there’s nothing libertarian about a society built on slavery. That seems obvious to me, but it’s not obvious to everyone. Related thoughts here.
KATHERINE MANGU-WARD: Neil deGrasse Tyson Is Wrong About NASA.
A PRE-ELECTION assault on free speech. Battlespace preparation! Don’t let it work. Be Breitbart!
REMEMBERING SUPREME COURT OVERREACH at the Filburn Foundation.
OLDER WOMEN AND 17-YEAR-OLD BOYS: Double standard much? The commenters seem to have noticed.
21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: My Husband Likes To Watch Me Dance With Male Strippers.
HEH: Ran across what may have been the first Instapundit version of the “They told me if I voted for. . . .” meme.
TAKE THIS, SOUTH PARK FANS: Redheads Feel Pain Differently Than the Rest of Us. “If you think redheads are inherently different, well, you’d be right; they’re better than you. In fact, they have a higher pain threshold than most of us, and can handle spicier food, too. It turns out that gingers are less sensitive to stinging pain in the skin, according to researchers who injected capsicum, the active ingredient in chilies, into the arms of patients.”
AT AMAZON, markdowns in Patio, Lawn & Garden.
FIVE LEADERSHIP MISTAKES of the Galactic Empire. “Even beyond this one mistake, by adopting a management style of ‘failure leads to Force choking,’ Vader developed an organizational culture that was destined to be weak. People would be afraid to offer feedback or suggestions, choosing instead to follow orders to the letter. This ensures that decisions are made at a very high level, and anyone under those levels will lack initiative or the ability to act on their local knowledge. What’s more, by punishing failure so harshly, the Empire provides an incentive for people within the organization to actually lead their superiors to failure. After all, the quickest way to promotion in the Empire is for your boss to make a mistake, so it’s in your own best interests to ensure that he does.”
BLAST FROM THE PAST: Breitbart to Bill Maher: You know you’re not a libertarian anymore, right?
HOW MUCH DO YOU KNOW about your car? Less than I used to, because I no longer work on ’em beyond adding oil or charging batteries. Sad, but who has the time?
GOOD: Microneedle Vaccine Patch Boosts Flu Protection Through Robust Skin Cell Immune Response. “Recent research found that microneedle vaccine patches are more effective at delivering protection against influenza virus in mice than subcutaneous or intramuscular inoculation. A new, detailed analysis of the early immune responses by the Emory and Georgia Tech research team helps explain why the skin is such fertile ground for vaccination with these tiny, virtually painless microneedles.”
THE RISE OF “mommy porn.”
HEH: Mercedes slaps sheet of LEDs on the side of an F-Cell, turns car into a chameleon. It does make things much less conspicuous. I wonder if the effect is as good in real life as in the photo?
GOOD LORD, WHY? Will someone send me a PDF of Matt Yglesias’ new book?
Judging from the reviews, though, it’s overpriced. But you can’t always trust those. For example, this one: “I wasn’t expecting 20 pages filled with naked pictures of the author in various poses. I found the photos that included animals to be in extremely poor taste.” See, I don’t believe that for a second. I’m sure they’re tasteful.
ARE EMOTIONAL PREDICTIONS sometimes more accurate?
JORDAN WEISSMANN IN THE ATLANTIC: No, Democrats: Income Inequality Didn’t Cause the Financial Crisis.
SANDRA FLUKE REJECTS LIMBAUGH’S APOLOGY: What do you think?
UPDATE: Prof. Jacobson announces the Carbonite Accountability Project.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Andrew Klavan on what it all means.
MORE: My Live Chat with Carbonite. Plus a recommendation for Idrive.com. People also seem to like Mozy.com.
STILL MORE: Lectures on gender decorum from Jon Stewart.
EDWARD NIEDERMEYER: Blind Spot: The Twilight Of The Volt. “Now that GM is undeniably signaling that the Volt is a Corvette-style halo car, with similar production and sales levels, my long-standing skepticism about the Volt’s chances seems to be validated. . . . The basic problem with the Volt isn’t that it’s a bad car that nobody could ever want; it is, in fact, quite an engineering achievement and a rather impressive drive. And if GM had said all along that it would serve as an “anti-Corvette,” selling in low volumes at a high price, nobody could now accuse it of failure. Instead, GM fueled totally unrealistic expectations for Volt, equating it with a symbol of its rebirth even before collapsing into bailout. The Obama administration simply took GM’s hype at face value, and saw it as a way to protect against the (flawed) environmentalist argument that GM deserved to die because of “SUV addiction” alone. And in the transition from corporate sales/image hype to corporatist political hype, the Volt’s expectations were driven to ever more unrealistic heights, from which they are now tumbling.”
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