Reminds me of something

D.T. Max:

The problem for Wallace, as he reflected after its publication, was that “Broom” offered an analysis but derided even the idea of a solution. In a 1989 letter to the novelist Jonathan Franzen, a friend, Wallace said that “Broom” felt as if it had been written by “a very smart fourteen-year-old.”

Quite a compliment

Time:

The White House was prepared for the ruling, in part because after six years in Washington, Bush had finally found himself a White House counsel who was up to the job. Fred Fielding, a genial, white-haired, slightly stooped figure in his late 60s, had cut his teeth as an assistant to John Dean in Richard Nixon's counsel's office and served as Ronald Reagan's top lawyer as well. He had unrivaled experience managing allegations of White House misconduct.

Obviously

There's nothing to see here. As you know, prominent white academics are arrested in their own homes all the time. After showing ID. By cops responding to reports of a possible burglary. Why wouldn't the cops arrest a prominent white member of the community in such circumstances? They'd practically have to!

And let's be clear. Gates wasn't arrested for burglary. It was for disorderly conduct. If Gates had been able to control himself, he wouldn't be in any trouble at all! And what did he have to be upset about? Nothing. Of course the cops assumed he was robbing his own house. Gates would have assumed the same thing if he'd only taken the time to look in the mirror.

Frankly, I resent Gates for taking umbrage. The cops were there to protect him. They're on his side. How could he not know that?

Oversensitivity, that's the story here. If there is one, I mean. Which there isn't. Nothing to see here. Nothing at all.

Good turn update

Contrary to expectations, TCF Bank fixed the problem in about a day, and even refunded the overdraft fees without making me go through the process that they outlined yesterday. So, good work TCF.

There is one problem. They credited too much money back to my account. This time I've learned my lesson, and will keep my mouth shut.

Read the whole thing

The coda of an excellent post from Ta-Nehisi Coates:

Perhaps if you are white, Barack Obama represents the end of the idea that your next door neighbor could be president. But you should consider that just because Barack Obama isn't your next door neighbor, doesn't mean he isn't mine.

Do a good turn daily

The other day I notified my bank -- TCF Bank, if you're wondering -- that they had erroneously credited $1300 to my account. In order to correct the error, they deducted $2600.

Since it was a heavy spending weekend (wedding = suit + gift, I spent about $300 to-be-reimbursed bucks at work, and I paid off my credit cards) this resulted in an overdraft, for which TCF Bank charged me $105. They say that I'll get my $1300 back on Monday (please note that today is Wednesday), at which time I'll once again be able to withdraw cash and do debit card transactions.

As for the $105 overdraft fee, I have the right to protest it. The person I talked to thought I had a better than even chance of getting it refunded if I really stick to it and fill out all of the forms correctly and in a timely manner.

The cluelessness of white people

I sometimes listen to the Dan Patrick Show podcast, and generally like it alright as those things go, but man should they steer clear of talking about race. Because they fuck it up.

For example, today he and his buddies were talking about the Michael Jackson tribute or whatever it as that was on TV yesterday and they decided to take issue with Magic Johnson thanking Michael Jackson for "all the doors he had opened."

DP and the crew just didn't get it. Was Magic somehow positing that Michael Jackson's world wide fame made it possible for an African American to sell jerseys overseas? What could be the connection? They were flummoxed.

Here's a clue. Michael Jackson was the first African American artist whose videos were allowed on MTV. Billie Jean was the first one, and his record label had to threaten to pull videos from its white artists in order to get MTV to rescind the all white policy that it had followed during its first two years of existence.

Adding: For the record, I'm a cracker. I apologize to my white brothers and sisters for my lack of cluelessness on this point, and understand that us white folk should only talk about race when we have an opportunity to point out how much it doesn't matter.

Dorf:

If the fire dep't did bow to pressure from Reverend Kimber, it was pressure that was itself due to the disparate impact of the firefighter promotion test results. Kimber was not exerting pressure based on some unrelated concern. He did not, for example, threaten a riot unless government jobs were given to political cronies. Rather, Kimber wanted to see some African-American firefighters promoted to lieutenant and captain, and was concerned that the combination of the 'rule of three' and the test results would block that. This was exactly the same concern stated--albeit less flamboyantly--by other critics of the test.

Quiggen:

Finally, game theory is much more problematic than is commonly realised. To derive a Nash equilibrium, it is necessary to define the strategy space. In real games this is not a problem. In social, economic and political operations, however, it requires that the participants have shared understandings of the problem, accessible to the modeller. In practice this is hardly ever true, and game theoretic analyses typically proceed with an essentially arbitrary assignment of strategies to players.