Short Takes

Stuff to read —

Paul Starr, “Governing in the Age of Fox News

David Greenberg, “The Honeymooners

Paul Waldman writes about the chattering class’s fixation on “bipartisanship” over “results.”

Health care spending is growing faster than the economy.

Coming to textbooks at a school near you: creationism, global climate change denial, the denigration of the civil rights movement, and the rehabilitation of Joe McCarthy. Enjoy.

I want to make a brief comment on Hendrik Hertzberg’s “Um, Pathetic,” in which Hertzberg describes opposition to the health care reform bills in Congress coming from the Left as based in fallacy — read the article to appreciate which fallacy.

Hertzberg is saying much the same stuff I said in “Scorched Earth Politics.” Some on the Left are taking Hertzberg’s criticism as a call to STFU, but I don’t believe that’s true. It’s closer to “grow up,” or maybe “chill.” There is a huge middle ground between criticizing actions and policies — robust and snarky criticism, even — and resorting to over-the-top character assassination, and that’s a middle ground some on the Left need to find.