Afternoon Whip, May 11, 2010

NYT Tells Greece to Abandon Socialized Medicine? [*1]

Obama Works the Refs [*2]

The GOP’s poor understanding of blogs [*3]

The Dark Side of Engagement with Governments [*4]

Halliburton: work on oil rig finished before blast[*5]

Federalization of Disasters Bankrupting FEMA [*6]

Animals Talk, Sing and Act Like Humans? Young Children’s Reasoning About Biological World Is Influenced by Cultural Beliefs [*7] — Personally, I think we think more like animals (well, mammals, anyway) than most scientists want to admit . . . of course, that’s not what this article is about. Oh well . . .

while young urban children revealed a human-centered pattern of reasoning, the rural European-American and Native American children did not. Children’s experience, including the extent of their day-to-day interactions with the natural world and their sensitivity to the belief systems of their communities, influences their reasoning about the natural world.

NYT: Greece’s Economic Salvation Can Only Come By Privatizing Health Care and Laying Off Thousands Of Unneeded Government Workers [*8]

Rater Haters Finally Find a Reason to Turn On Moody’s, and It’s a Bad Reason [*9]

Report: Big Ten Extends Offer to Missouri, Nebraska [*10]

Arutz Sheva: Obama has Lost Almost Half of his US Jewish Support and Palin Wooing Them to Her Camp [*11]

Rasmussen: Sestak Tops Specter, 47-42 [*12]

MU Reaffirms Big 12 Relationship [*13]

Side Effects: Get Ready to Lose Your Doctor[*14] — “CNN reports that AT&T, Verizon, John Deere and others may well drop the health care coverage they now offer their employees. Obamacare makes it much cheaper for these companies to dump their workers into the government-controlled health exchanges and pay a penalty for NOT insuring them.”

Nuts’ anti-cholesterol effects stronger for some [*15] — “. . .the benefits seem to be greatest for thinner people, those eating less healthy diets, and people with higher levels of “bad” LDL cholesterol and triglycerides, according to a new analysis. . .”

Guess Who ‘Sploded Your Ship? [*16] — I’ll take “North Korea” for $200, Alex . . .

When Did the American Flag Become Disrespectful to (Some) Americans? [*17]

Going Postal [*18] — I think eventually we’re going to have to go back to a system where each person who wants to vote has to appear, in person, with valid identification at a polling place. Anything less is an invitation to corruption.

Watching the Storm Roll In [*19]

as we’ve said many times here, this is about us ordinary barbarians vs. the elite—and I don’t think the GOP establishment (or at least most of them) get this. I don’t think they get it because I don’t think they want to. Let’s be blunt here: the Republican Party absolutely deserved the electoral repudiation it got in 2006 and 2008, and maybe even worse than it got. It deserved it because it had abandoned its principles, its philosophy, its ethics, and its commitments, in favor of enjoying power and the fruits that attend thereunto; the hard slap in the face from the voters was well-earned, and should have come as a real wakeup call. I’m not at all convinced it has.

MU officials discuss Big Ten, but no offers have been made [*20]

Mellinger | Hillman is failing [*21] — “The calls for Hillman’s job as Royals manager are building steam, a justifiably frustrated fan base wanting something — anything — to save what looks like another lost season.”

Royals head into a stretch that could revive the team — or bury it [*22]

Lufthansa’s Beer Garden Should Inspire Others [*23]

How to Craft a Great Voice [*24] — “You could drop randomly into a David Sedaris story or an Ernest Hemingway novel and probably guess the author within a few paragraphs because they have strong, unique voices. ”

The Future of Genre Fiction (an interview by Marc Marion) Part 1 [*25]

Libertarians Respond to the Elena Kagan Nomination [*26]

The Flight of the Intellectuals [*27] — “(Quote from Paul Berman:) I think a lot of people without Muslim backgrounds have a hard time imagining how vast and complex and huge and finally ordinary the Muslim world is. There are a billion and a half Muslims, and they do have more than one opinion.”

Eugene Volokh on Elena Kagan’s First Amendment Academic Articles: “I think they’re excellent. I disagree with them in significant ways….But I like them a lot.” [*28] — I’d personally be a lot happier of Eugene Volokh was the nominee to the Supreme Court, given what I’ve read from him . . .

You’ve Got Mail: America’s Broken Immigration Agency at Work [*29] — Read it, and weep . . .

The Fiercely Independent Partisan Hackmanship of Ezra Klein [*30] –“At some point, “progressive” becomes just another synonym for “whatever Democrats want”” — and that point seems to me be about when thoughts get transformed into words by a Democrat’s mouth . . .