the west wing

Why Farhad Manjoo still watches The West Wing: The show is a fiction, certainly. There isn’t a politician in the world like Jed Bartlet, an exceedingly smart, (mostly) honest man with principles, who doesn’t govern by politics, who takes counsel from the cooler, calmer heads on his staff, and even from his opponents. Today in …

great speeches of the 21st century

Robert F. Kennedy at the Sierra Club, September 10, 2005 [via Wil]: I do 40 speeches a year in red states, and there is no difference between how Republican audiences and Democratic audiences react when they hear what this White House and this Congress are doing. There is no difference except that the Republicans come …

saying no to diamonds

A couple of months ago, Sarah got engaged. She declined to get an engagement ring (she doesn’t elaborate on her reasons). This, in my opinion, was an excellent decision. Why? Since then, I came across an Econ-Atrocity Bulletin “Ten reasons why you should never accept a diamond ring from anyone, under any circumstances, even if …

where the money went

Florida university discovers misplaced $275,000: Three University of South Florida officials were fired after the school discovered $275,000 in misplaced checks and cash scattered throughout an office. Nearly half the money at the school’s English Language Institute — $133,647 — was in checks up to 10 years old and could not be deposited, said university spokeswoman …