Kieran Healy’s Weblog Sociology and other distractions

Posts from February 2005

Life Imitating Art

Rep Sam Johnson , the other day:

Speaking at a veterans’ celebration at Suncreek United Methodist Church in Allen, Texas….Johnson said he told the president that night, “Syria is the problem. Syria is where those weapons of mass destruction are, in my view. You know, I can fly an F-15, put two […]


Not the kind of bottle I need

Inside the top of the Jones Soda I just opened it says “Take Charge of Your Life and Decisions.” I’m wondering whether doing this is compatible with accepting advice from a soft-drink bottle.


Numa Numa New York Times

The NYT has an article about Gary Brolsma, the Numa Numa guy. If you haven’t seen the video, go watch it and come back in a minute.

Now tell me what you think of the article’s summary of the story:

There was a time when embarrassing talents were a purely private matter … But with the Internet, […]


Followup on Tal Afar

More correspondence, this time from a soldier stationed in Iraq who saw my recent post about the terrible shooting in Tal Afar. I should say that I can’t verify the identify of my correspondent, but I have no reason to doubt what he says about himself.

Before I even start to explain my motives for writing […]


Minding the Kids, Again

Now that Larry Summers has begun to live up to his putative commitment to open, freewheeling inquiry by finally releasing a transcript of his infamous remarks, various people are commenting on it. Matt Yglesias says

I don’t think you can reasonably expect any given university (or corporation, or person) to singlehandedly shoulder the burden of changing […]


Beat the Market

My friend Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas has co-authored a very interesting paper with Hélène Rey called “International Financial Adjustment.” (Here’s the PDF version.) You might think that’s not a title to set the world on fire, but don’t be fooled. A more appealing—though perhaps less responsible—alternative would be something like “Dude! We can predict exchange rates!” Here’s […]


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