Stats Don’t Tell the Story
Matt Yglesias passes on an argument that Memphis may have won the Pau Gasol trade because Marc Gasol’s statistics are comparable to his older brother’s. Allow me to add a couple others: League Championships Since Trade: Lakers 1 Grizzlies 0 Playoff Wins Since Trade: Lakers 30 Grizzlies 0 This is what drives me absolutely nuts about the stat-driven analysis crowd. They’ll analyze the stats, see that it comes to a conclusion that conflicts with conventional wisdom, and rather than double-checking their assumptions, they will ju

The RNC’s “hypocrisy”
There has been much guffawing in the last couple days about the RNC having a health insurance policy for its employees that covers abortion. Indeed, who can forget John McCain wagging his finger at companies that purchase insurance with abortion coverage for their employees? Or Sarah Palin’s intimation that Barack Obama palled around with abortionists by having insurance coverage that covered abortion. What’s that? That didn’t happen. Hmmmm, perhaps something else besides

Anti-Stupak And Poor Women
Matt Yglesias voices a sentiment that has been replayed in various forms over the past week: The big losers here, however, will be the set of poor women who really may not be able to get together the few hundred dollars that would be needed. Emphasis mine. Oh, if only it were legal for all these people who care so much about these poor women who are being shut out of the abortion clinic to somehow pull together some funds to pay for them! Darn that Stupak and the bishops, and Nancy Pelosi for buckling to them.

I don’t like abortion, and I’m not paying for one.
“If you don’t like abortion, don’t have one!” We’ve all heard that slogan before. Pro-lifers know that it elides the question that abortion and society’s acceptance of it is an injustice that must be confronted, but it is impossible to deny the slogan’s appeal. You don’t like abortion. Bully for you. But why should that impact my behavior? But as the Stupak amendment debate has shown, the abortion lobby is not content with those who dislike abortion simply refraining from it. No, we must all be implicated in it — we must support those who have abortions, and our tax dollars must go to pay for it. It’s a

If you don’t want the government involved, you can’t try to change what it does…
At least, that seems to be the logic of Meredith Simons at the XX blog: Remember those conservatives who don’t want the government interfering in health care plans? Right, well, it turns out what they meant was they don’t want the government interfering in health care plans, except when it comes to abortion. At that point, the government can interfere to its heart’s content. Now, this doesn’t describe me, since I wasn’t dead-set against health-care refrom. But it seems like the following represent a perfectly coherent position: