Jonathan V. Last's Blog, page 38

Yglesias Clip File–Updated

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Matt Yglesias (@mattyglesias)



11/27/13, 6:47 PM
Wait there’s a special Vatican Embassy separate from the Italian Embassy in Rome? Why?

 






[image error]
Matt Yglesias (@mattyglesias)



11/27/13, 6:50 PM
The US Embassy in Switzerland also handles Liechtenstein. Clearly no reason for a separate embassy for the Vatican.

This is so perfectly illustrative. It’s not the conflation of Liechtenstein with the Holy See in terms of geopolitical importance. It’s the pronouncement that there is “clearly” “no reason” for a separate embassy for the Vatican.

Mind you, he’s not saying that there’s “insufficient reason” for a separate embassy. Or that, on balance, prudence suggests that a separate embassy is wasteful, or risky, or mostly redundant. There’s simply “no reason” for it at all.

Because anything Matt Yglesias doesn’t understand must not exist.

Update: Over at the Federalist, C.J. Ciaramella discusses Yglesias’s writerly shortcomings. It leaves a mark. As does this other Federalist piece by Sean Davis. This may come as a shock, but Yglesias doesn’t know what he’s talking about with regards to banking in America, either.

Yglesias Clip File

[image error]
Matt Yglesias (@mattyglesias)



11/27/13, 6:47 PM
Wait there’s a special Vatican Embassy separate from the Italian Embassy in Rome? Why?

 






[image error]
Matt Yglesias (@mattyglesias)



11/27/13, 6:50 PM
The US Embassy in Switzerland also handles Liechtenstein. Clearly no reason for a separate embassy for the Vatican.

This is so perfectly illustrative. It’s not the conflation of Liechtenstein with the Holy See in terms of geopolitical importance. It’s the pronouncement that there is “clearly” “no reason” for a separate embassy for the Vatican.

Mind you, he’s not saying that there’s “insufficient reason” for a separate embassy. Or that, on balance, prudence suggests that a separate embassy is wasteful, or risky, or mostly redundant. There’s simply “no reason” for it at all.

Because anything Matt Yglesias doesn’t understand must not exist.

Backstage Shoots and Wrestling Talk

Galley Friend A.W. sends along this link to the ten best backstage wrestling fights of all time. To my mind, the best nugget is that the brawl between Arn Andersen and Sid Vicious started because Vicious was bagging on Ric Flair and the Enforcer stood up to defend the Nature Boy’s honor.

As Jimmy Garvin once say, that’s kayfabe. (Do yourself a favor: Click on the link, print that story out, and savor it.)

In a related note, I reviewed David Shoemaker’s excellent book The Squared Circle in the WSJ over the weekend.

RLeafIII

I’m kidding! Although after the way Washington anointed Robert Griffin last year with a rookie season that doubled as a Hall of Fame induction ceremony, it’s kind of awesome to watch the balloon burst.

Here’s a question, though: If the Skins were hell-bent on trading up to get Griffin at #2, based essentially on one great year, a very, very good set of workouts, and a host of physical talent, what would it have taken for them to move up to #1 to have gotten Andrew Luck?

I assume that Luck must have been gettable for some price. (Though maybe that assumption is faulty.) But remember that Luck came out of Stanford with the highest grade of any quarterback prospect since John Elway. Nothing in life is a sure thing, but Luck was as close to it as any quarterback really gets.

So the three questions are:

(1) What would the extra price have been to move from Griffin to Luck?

(2) Would that price have been worth it on draft day?

(3) With the benefit of hindsight, would it have been worth it today?

Obamacare: An Elseworld’s View

In this week’s edition of the Standard’s newsletter, I open by joking that now that Obamacare is imploding, Democrats have Republicans right where they want them. 

This morning, Salon’s Brian Buetler writes: ”The Right’s in a Box: Here’s how the GOP loses the Obamacare fight.”

Early Christmas Shopping

It’s a moon-phase calendar. From the great Tyler Stout. And the moons glow in the dark!

You’d be crazy not to buy it.

Can’t Stop the Signal

Galley Friend Mike Russell just reposted the old Firefly-Serenity comics short we did together a few year’s ago. His art and Bill Mudron’s awesome colors look better than ever.

Ocean Grove

I’ve been pretty AWOL while traveling and writing a bunch. One partial excuse: This long-ish piece on FEMA and Ocean Grove, NJ.

Great Moments in Law Enforcement

Sheriff’s deputies in New Mexico pull over a man for rolling through a stop sign on the way out of a Wal-Mart. They ask him to get out of the car and decide that he is “clenching his buttocks” and must be muling drug. Then it gets medieval:

While officers detained Eckert, they secured a search warrant from a judge that allowed for an anal cavity search.

The lawsuit claims that Deming Police tried taking Eckert to an emergency room in Deming, but a doctor there refused to perform the anal cavity search citing it was “unethical.”

But physicians at the Gila Regional Medical Center in Silver City agreed to perform the procedure and a few hours later, Eckert was admitted.

While there, Eckert was subjected to repeated and humiliating forced medical procedures.  A review of Eckert’s medical records, which he released to KOB, and details in the lawsuit show the following happened:

1. Eckert’s abdominal area was x-rayed; no narcotics were found.

2. Doctors then performed an exam of Eckert’s anus with their fingers; no narcotics were found.

3. Doctors performed a second exam of Eckert’s anus with their fingers; no narcotics were found.

4. Doctors penetrated Eckert’s anus to insert an enema.  Eckert was forced to defecate in front of doctors and police officers.  Eckert watched as doctors searched his stool.  No narcotics were found.

5. Doctors penetrated Eckert’s anus to insert an enema a second time.  Eckert was forced to defecate in front of doctors and police officers.  Eckert watched as doctors searched his stool.  No narcotics were found.

6. Doctors penetrated Eckert’s anus to insert an enema a third time.  Eckert was forced to defecate in front of doctors and police officers.  Eckert watched as doctors searched his stool.  No narcotics were found.

7. Doctors then x-rayed Eckert again; no narcotics were found.

8. Doctors prepared Eckert for surgery, sedated him, and then performed a colonoscopy where a scope with a camera was inserted into Eckert’s anus, rectum, colon, and large intestines.  No narcotics were found.

Throughout this ordeal, Eckert protested and never gave doctors at the Gila Regional Medical Center consent to perform any of these medical procedures.

I’m in love

With Kirsten Powers. Now, more than ever.

Run, don’t walk, to read it.

When she eventually goes the rest of the way to Rome–as she clearly will–it’s going to be awesome.