Good Entropy

This American Life | WORKLIFEDESIGN

Ira Glass, recounts how upon watching the 1937 Disney classic Snow White recently, he noticed how it has almost an operatic feeling with each of the main characters entering the story with a song. When he mentions this to his sister (who works for Disney) she informs him that what he’s seeing is the “I Wish” song in action. It’s a common storytelling technique that’s used in musicals where the character declares exactly what they want in that first song.

As Ira lists through all the musicals (classic and contemporary) that have I Wish Songs, I’m gobsmacked to hear how common it is. Think, “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” starts off The Wizard of Oz, or, the Britney Spears’ film Crossroads which begins with her singing Madonna’s “Open Your Heart”. The Little Mermaid. Fiddler on the Roof. Funny Girl. All begin with the main character’s I Wish song.

A Photon In The Darkness » Blog Archive » Three Popular Anti-vaccine Myths Deconstructed

The key to this myth is the use of mortality data rather than incidence data. Although the myth is that the incidence of the disease was waning prior to the vaccine, the data show something very different: that the number of deaths attributed to the disease were declining.

The Political Economy of Health Care | The Unbroken Window

If people truly cared about the poor and the permanently infirm being taken care of, I would not be as ascerbic as I am. I don’t believe for a second that the majority of people who argue for health reform really give a damn about the poor or infirm – it just makes them feel good to say it, or be more acceptable in the company of others. Why do I say this so strongly? Because providing even a very generous level of support to the poor and the infirm is so easily within our reach that it is laughable to suggest otherwise. Instead, “we” use the poor and infirm as pawns in a corporatist game, in a middle-class entitlement game, special-interest game, political-nanny-statism game, and no one is willing to admit it.

George F. Will – A recoil against liberalism

The progressive agenda is actually legitimated by the incomprehension and anger it elicits: If the people do not resent and resist what is being done on their behalf, what is being done is not properly ambitious. If it is comprehensible to its intended beneficiaries, it is the work of insufficiently advanced thinkers.