Faber Author Blogs
Because You Can’t/Can Have Too Much of a Good Thing
Posted on February 5, 2012 at 6:58 PM
on The Inverse Square Blog blog 
I have to admit that I laughed at this from Gail Collins’ Friday column: Everybody hates cancer and everybody likes breasts — infants, adults, women, men. Really, it’s America’s most popular body part. Collins is actually making the same point as DougJ’s in this post — though, as befits a proper New York Timeswoman, (or [...]
None Dare Call It Murder
Posted on February 1, 2012 at 7:56 PM
on The Inverse Square Blog blog
I’ve got just one quick note to add to the discussion of the Komen Foundation’s surrender to Greater Wingnuttia and the Global War on Women. That would be that this decision is not just about the dollars. It’s genuinely a matter of life and death — of murder, really, with only the anonymity of the [...]
An Exaltation of Larks, A Surfeit of Targets
Posted on February 1, 2012 at 5:13 AM
on The Inverse Square Blog blog
Maybe it really is too late. Classical empires lasted centuries: the Han Dynasty held sway for 400 years, barring that brief unpleasantness with Wang Mang. The Romans had a similar run, depending on how you choose to bracket the rise and fall. The Mongols were a little less permanent, but for all their brutal kin-slaughter [...]
Over There
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 2:55 PM
on The Inverse Square Blog blog
While I have so recently been reminded by our friends in the 101st Chairborne that I’m some arugula-chomping, word-chopping, bubble-bound faux-American, it happens that even folks from my particular corner of Alinskystan talk to people whose daily life is as real as it gets. Which is to say that one of my friends most often [...]
The Evil That Men Do
Posted on January 28, 2012 at 7:07 PM
on The Inverse Square Blog blog
Charles Murray is pimping a new book, alas. TBogg and Roy have already taken a couple of whacks at the most risible bits of his latest attempt to promote the natural order of things. It’s hard to see this one making much of a splash, outside the usual quarters. In it, Murray looks specifically at [...]
Posted on January 25, 2012 at 7:29 PM
on The Inverse Square Blog blog
A bit more self-aggrandizement, for which I apologize, but I thought (hoped) y’all might want to know about the conversation I’m going to have with Alan Lightman this afternoon. It will be on the occasion of the publication (yesterday!) of Alan’s latest book, Mr. g: A Novel About The Creation. This is my monthly Virtually [...]
Well Yes. Nancy Pelosi Is Indeed The Bees Knees…
Posted on January 17, 2012 at 9:12 PM
on The Inverse Square Blog blog
…for being able to uncork lines like these: “This crowd that they have there, it’s not exactly what you would call the first string of the Republican Party,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said during an interview hosted by Politico. “I think that they can do better than that.” (h/t GOS) Testify! The once and [...]
The Uses of the Past: Science/Science Writing Talk
Posted on January 17, 2012 at 3:38 PM
on The Inverse Square Blog blog
I’ve always found that the best way to tackle a complicated story – in science or anything else, for that matter – is to think historically. But even if I’m right in seeing a historical approach as an essential tool for writers, that’s not obviously true, however well (or not) it may work for me. [...]
Required Reading, MLK Day edition
Posted on January 16, 2012 at 12:51 PM
on The Inverse Square Blog blog
I’m ashamed to say, that until Charlie Pierce in his own, powerful essay on MLK day pointed me to it, I had never actually read Lyndon B. Johnson’s speech to Congress urging — almost ordering — the legislators before him to pass the Voting Rights Act. Here’s a sample: But even if we pass this bill, [...]
Just In Case Anyone Was Worried About A Sudden Shortage…
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 11:10 PM
on The Inverse Square Blog blog
…one more thought on Truth-Vigilante-gate. I certainly agree with what seems like every front pager at my other bloggy home Balloon Juice (some more than once!)* feels about the ludicrousness of anyone even having to ask whether or not it might make sense to call out lies in print. But it still seems to me that [...]