Sunday Funnies & Arts

This one goes out to John Hayes at Robert Frost's Banjo:

As always, click to enlarge...

Walking a woodland path. Note the depth of field Roy achieves in this photo, almost as if it were monochrome...

Cajun Delights: Double header zydeco breakfast and spice cake with praline icing. Lessee...zydeco, Cajun breakfast, spice cake, praline icing...sounds like back-to-back double headers to me!...

Foxessa has the NOLA signings-and-readings schedule for Ned Sublette's new book The Year Before the Flood here. You know that T. and I wish we could be there for the big party on 9/24 at the Mother-in-Law...

What did he say? It turns out that President Obama didn't say it at all, that Glenn Beck and his minions got a bit free and easy with the editing button to mangle the President's analysis of the Constitution. Check it out...

The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University (Kevin Roose). In 2007, Brown University student Kevin Roose decided to forego a semester abroad in order to enroll at Liberty University, the Christian college originally founded by Jerry Falwell in the early 70's. In this engaging account of his time at Liberty, Roose discovered -- to his surprise -- that he had more in common with the students than he had imagined and eventually developed respect for what is known as the "Liberty Way." He even swung what became the last interview given by Falwell to a print journalist.

At the same time, Roose struggles with the content of Liberty's teaching, eventually concluding that its fundamental anti-intellectualism stifles the possibility of a solid college education based on skepticism and inquiry. Along the way, he joins the choir at Falwell's Fall Road Church, takes the core curriculum, learns not to curse, attempts to convert nonbelievers during Spring Break at Daytona Beach, and attends a session of the Every Man's Burden campus support group for chronic masturbators. Roose's closest friends at Liberty are the nonconformists, students whose brand of rebellion seems quaint by Brown standards but is all the more impressive for coming in an atmosphere that encourages and enforces conformity...

Paul Krugman explains why the Baucus health care bill won't work:

1. It "bungles" the employer mandate by tying employer fees to employee subsidies. As Krugman points out, this discourages employers from hiring low-income workers.
2. The financial aid portion is inadequate.
3. By eliminating a public option, the plan fails to create competition in the insurance market.

Nonetheless, Krugman argues that the bill is not as bad as it could be and that it serves as a realistic point from which to begin negotiations...