They're All Bad

One of the most irritating things about our stupid political discourse in this country is the elevation of "centrism" above all else, as if having deeply held beliefs about certain issues is a character flaw.

One of the favorite tools of these purveyors of moderation above all else is to draw moronic, often false equivalencies between both sides of a debate. Charles Lane of the Washington Post brings this art to its apotheosis with his comparison of shouting abolitionists with confederate slave-owners. They were both bad because they were both rude!!!!

Islamic Culture Is So Strange

Apparently when a Muslim woman's husband is killed by a foreign country's army she becomes desperate and seeks revenge on said country. Crazy culture!

Yurp

Generally I'm in favor of greater international cooperation, but I still maintain the Eurozone was a bad idea. It's great that Greece is getting bailed out but it's not great that they are having a series of austerity measures shoved down their throat that threaten political stability as prerequisite.

Greece and Spain and Italy are very different than Germany and Sweden and the Netherlands. The former set are bad with money but have great food and beautiful languages and culture. The latter are very judicious about fiscal policy but are filled with boring people living atop barren hellscapes of countries. Greece and Spain need their own currency so they can devalue the hell out of it and pump up exports.

Maybe this whole conditioned bailout process is exactly what the EU founding fathers envisioned, but it doesn't seem worth it.

Plus the Euro is the most boring-looking currency on earth.

Romanticism

I'll admit that back in my undergrad days I had my own fantasies of running off somewhere to pick fruit with migrant workers. That was until I saw video of how quickly migrant workers have to pick fruit.

I'm aware that this arrangement makes it so the oranges in my grocery store are affordable, but it's still depressing.