Lots of good stuff floating around the tubes today and I’m lazy and have a bottle of wine to finish so I’ll let everyone else speak for themselves.
Yglesias kicks off with the myth of the bond vigilantes!
You can imagine a kind of cult in the ancient Middle East in which the villagers are expected to make regular sacrifices to the gods in order to stave off their wrath. Well one year the proper sacrifices aren’t made and yet no suffering seems to be imminent. The priestly caste now has a problem, since their livelihoods depend on the perpetuation of the cult. So they sneak out of the temple at night, burn a bunch of crops, and the next morning warn that even worse is to come if the sacrifices aren’t renewed. Not because the priests are bad people, mind you, they very sincerely believe that the gods are just lying in wait to destroy the village so they’re actually doing everyone a favor.
Next, Paul Campos exposes Antonin Scalia’s entirely unprincipled hackery. I love it.
Scalia’s theory of constitutional precedent could be summarized as, “Supreme Court decisions should be followed in future cases, except when they shouldn’t be.” Indeed in recent years Scalia’s opinions have come to reflect no discernible legal theory, unless “outcomes that Antonin Scalia likes” counts as a legal theory.
And finally, Atrios perfectly encapsulates the last two years of media narrative surrounding fiscal / budget issues.
After telling us for years that what we need is Austerity Now, austerity is somehow a bad thing, except it’s also good because unicorns.
What’d I miss?
520 Chestnut 
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