by Henry Farrell on June 2, 2010
Via “Jonathan Chait”:http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-chait/75247/the-conservative-beauty-paradox-explained, _Right Wing News_ is “running a competition”:http://rightwingnews.com/2010/06/the-20-hottest-conservative-women-in-the-new-media-2010-edition/
bq. One of the most popular articles at RWN last year was, The 15 Hottest Conservative Women In The New Media. So, when you have a big hit, what could make more sense than doing a sequel?
It seems to me a wee bit unfair that all them healthy heterosexual Republican gals (and, for that matter, the five or six Log Cabin Republicans who have stuck it out despite all) can’t get in on the fun. So let me propose an alternative competition to find the Hottest Conservative Man In The New Media. And by one of those funny coincidences, the eight finalists for this much coveted award are the members of the “distinguished panel of judges” that _Right Wing News_ has chosen to adjudicate which of the laydeez is the smokingest.1 Ladies and gentlemen, I give you:
Glenn Reynolds
Jonah Goldberg
Andrew Malcolm
Dan Gainor
‘Van Helsing’ from Moonbattery (artist’s depiction)
Alfonzo Rachel
James Joyner (who is actually a good bloke imo who really ought to have known better)
And remember! You can only pick _one._
1 It occurs to me that ditch-hurlers might want to point out in comments that I myself am not possessed of what used to be called matinee-idol good looks. This would be a wonderful way of missing the point, reinforcing it, or both.
A conference announcement that will be interesting to some of our ethics and political philosophy readers here, with more details here (pdf). Submission deadline is November 1, 2010, so plenty of time.
by John Q on June 2, 2010
I’m working on a longish piece on how to pay for the global financial crisis, and it seems like a good idea to deal with some side issues separately. One of the standard post-crisis responses of governments, i has been to increase the age at which people become eligible for public old age pensions. This change is likely to flow through to other policies, for example by shaping the presumptions around the tax treatment of private retirement income.
I want to step away from these financial questions and ask the question: does it make sense, in general, for people to retire at older ages than in the past? For those who want the “shorter” version, my answer, on balance, is “Yes, at least in Australia”.
Update The qualification “at least in Australia” is more important than I initially thought. In particular (and surprisingly to me), the US has not had anything like the increase in conditional life expectancy seen in Oz – a gain of about 2 years since 1980 for the US compared to 6 for Oz (US source here, Oz here). Also, the Australian old age pension is flat rate (subject to a means test) and essentially the same as the disability support pension, which is the main source of support for people who are too old to work in physically demanding jobs. Again, it seems worth pointing out that the best solution here is to make the jobs better, by reducing working hours and improving conditions.
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