What small shops?

By Alec Brandon / August 14, 2006

One of the stupidest arguments in favor of the Big-Box ordinance in Chicago is that keeping Wal-Mart

Should Democrats become more conservative economically?

By Alec Brandon / August 14, 2006

Should the Democratic party move to the center on economic issues? Well ideologically that is an easy

So glad I am not a DC intern

By Alec Brandon / August 14, 2006

This W

Immigration and labor

By Alec Brandon / August 11, 2006

A Pew

Obrador’s case for a recount

By Alec Brandon / August 11, 2006

I'm back in service today. Wow does moving suck. Anyways, I found

Video of the day16

By Alec Brandon / August 9, 2006

Sorry for the blogging absence today, I've been busy helping my family move into a new house. I shoul

Markets in everything: Mummified bodies

By Alec Brandon / August 8, 2006

I'm sure that

Douche bag update

By Alec Brandon / August 8, 2006

I've read a couple of people's favorite bits of the Joe Francis (creator of "Girls Gone Wild")

Stupid welfare policies

By Alec Brandon / August 7, 2006

The Washington Post had

How Colbert gets his guests, part deux

By Alec Brandon / August 7, 2006

As part of my

Talladega Nights and the evolution of Will Ferrel’s career

By Alec Brandon / August 7, 2006

I saw Will Ferrel's newest movie, Talladega Nights ove

Why I’m voting for Lieberman

By Alec Brandon / August 5, 2006

Why I am voting for Lieberman on August

Douche bag alert

By Alec Brandon / August 5, 2006

This probably doesn't come as a surprise to anyone, but the creator of Girls Gone Wild--Joe Francis--

More mass slaughter of dogs in China

By Alec Brandon / August 4, 2006

In regards to my ear

Senior political science professors at the U of C

By Alec Brandon / August 4, 2006

Via Greg Mankiw, I found this piece by Dan Drezner f

France takes on Google??

By Alec Brandon / August 4, 2006

Apparently the French government is spending millions in an attempt to develop a French alternative t

Arrested Development quote of the day

By Alec Brandon / August 4, 2006

Buster finds his mother sleeping with hi

Cool factoid of the day

By Alec Brandon / August 4, 2006

How fast does the eye t

Minimum wage hike rejected

By Alec Brandon / August 4, 2006

Hammond must be sad, the minimum wage hike

Headline choices don’t prove much

By Alec Brandon / August 4, 2006

I have another gripe with Sullivan today,

Trust me, Hollywood is liberal

By Alec Brandon / August 4, 2006

Andrew Sullivan had a very la

Bizzare class-action lawsuit ad

By Alec Brandon / August 4, 2006

You might have noticed this weird ad all over the blogosphere, the WSJ ran a story on it today:But the ad campaign may be too clever for its own good: Some bloggers have refused to carry the ads about...

The deterrent effect of terrible prison conditions

By Alec Brandon / August 3, 2006

Ezra Klein has a post on the

Uh oh

By Alec Brandon / August 3, 2006

Lieberman is losing even more

China’s doggy death squads

By Alec Brandon / August 3, 2006

I'm not much of an animal rights activist (like Cass Sunstein

The legitimate (but offensive) questions of the day

By Alec Brandon / August 3, 2006

1) What biological differences might

Just as I worried

By Alec Brandon / August 3, 2006

I was concerned about this as I wrote

Professional certification

By Alec Brandon / August 3, 2006

My old economics professor, John List (whose research I discussed

Arrested Development quote of the day1

By Alec Brandon / August 3, 2006

Buster to Michael:That's what you do when life hands you a chance to be with someone spec

Voters reject intelligent design

By Alec Brandon / August 2, 2006

Kansas will learn science, not religion, in biology classes again:Kansas voters on Tuesday handed power back to moderates on the State Board of Education, setting the stage for a return of science teaching...

Castro’s illness is no reason to celebrate

By Alec Brandon / August 2, 2006

I wonder if Castro was ever really all that sick. I mean, does this strike you as the type of guy who

Ad of the day1

By Alec Brandon / August 2, 2006

South Park ran

Video of the day17

By Alec Brandon / August 2, 2006

This is a sad, but very poignant look at what the gay marriage "debate" is really like.(Via AS)

The most absurd stories of the day

By Alec Brandon / August 2, 2006

The Plank had two very amusing stories today:1. Larry Kudlow

EITC3

By Alec Brandon / August 2, 2006

So, a commenter (and soon-to-be UChicago applicant)

The spread of extreme Islamist government

By Alec Brandon / August 1, 2006

The NYTimes had a scary article about the rise of Shariah law in Indonesia. It has become most pronounced in Aceh, the region hit hardest by the Tsunami:Across this most religious of Indonesia’s provinces,...

How far has the Chicago city council really gone?

By Alec Brandon / August 1, 2006

Chicago has gotten a lot of attention lately for the actions of the city government. Earlier in the y

More reason to prefer the EITC to the minimum wage

By Alec Brandon / August 1, 2006

While the Senate debates raising the unproven and logically flawed minimum wage, I found

The record industry reaps what it sows

By Alec Brandon / August 1, 2006

Slate had this interesting discussion of the

Since when is this blog anti-Israel? Since Google decided we were.

By Alec Brandon / August 1, 2006

I wonder if the ADL knew what they were getting themselves into

Let the Swiftboating begin

By Alec Brandon / August 1, 2006

This really got me pissed off:

Tar baby and every other epithet you’re suppose to know, but never say

By Alec Brandon / August 1, 2006

On Saturday, Mitt Romney, the Governor of Massachusetts who is also widely considered to be a potenti

Rochester: Battle of the analogies

By Alec Brandon / July 31, 2006

Tim wondered why

Sticking it to Ashlee Simpson

By Alec Brandon / July 31, 2006

The NYTimes had an interesting story about the changing face of Marie Claire, which has come to embody the recent decadence of women's magazines:Ashlee Simpson appeared on the July cover of Marie Claire...

Documentarians gone awry

By Alec Brandon / July 31, 2006

Aaron Russo, who seems like a more radical version of Michael Moore, is coming out with a movie even

Video of the day18

By Alec Brandon / July 28, 2006

Andrew Sullivan is right about this Colbert interview, which

What do North Pole expeditions tell us about the private vs. public debate

By Alec Brandon / July 28, 2006

While working today I found this

Betting on everything

By Alec Brandon / July 28, 2006

Tyler Cowen links

Minimum wage hike might become policy, not just rhetoric anymore

By Alec Brandon / July 28, 2006

Republicans might give in and

How Colbert gets those big names on his show

By Alec Brandon / July 28, 2006

I've always been wondering how Steven Colbert gets so many high profile guests, well Neal Katyal, who

Brokeback Aquaman

By Alec Brandon / July 27, 2006

One of the most entertaining shows on this summer, Entourage, might have been onto something when the

The Brooks, Dowd, and Friedman editorial formula revealed

By Alec Brandon / July 27, 2006

As someone who has become increasing tired of the NYTimes op-ed page, I found

The Landis doping allegations: Why release the information before it’s certain?

By Alec Brandon / July 27, 2006

Is anyone else a little confused about why the doping allegations against Tour de France winner Floyd Landis went public before they were confirmed?First of all, Landis is now guaranteed to be guilty,...

Bush’s latest approval ratings

By Alec Brandon / July 27, 2006

I was wondering how Bush's polling numbers were a couple of days ago. You might remember how, in June

Levitt on the finer things in a celebrity economist’s life

By Alec Brandon / July 26, 2006

There's something extremly alluring about Steven Levitt--t

The playlists of British MPs

By Alec Brandon / July 26, 2006

The BBC had this entertaining story

I miss Ashcroft too, isn’t that sad?

By Alec Brandon / July 26, 2006

The Wa

Good and bad Chicago news

By Alec Brandon / July 26, 2006

Bad news first: The big box ordinance passed. It was not nearly as close as the Tribune made it out to be. It passed 35-14. The ordinance requires stores of with revenue over $1 billion (I'm not sure if...

Big boxes

By Alec Brandon / July 26, 2006

The big box proposal will come to a vote today (details of the proposal are in the link below).

Arrested Development movie?1

By Alec Brandon / July 26, 2006

Lots of people have been telling me about this, but the rumor seems to be just that, a rumor. All the stories are based on a quote by Will Arnett, the jist of it is that the idea of a movie has been discussed,...

Cubs news

By Alec Brandon / July 26, 2006

1. I don't know if I could root for a Cubs team owned by

Harper Theater1

By Alec Brandon / July 26, 2006

Something (link not stable) might

The new Razr

By Alec Brandon / July 25, 2006

The Razr was pretty cool, the new conception of it

Roland Fryer

By Alec Brandon / July 25, 2006

Damn,

This year’s Uncommon Application essay questions

By Alec Brandon / July 24, 2006

One of the U of C's most beloved institutions—if you could call it that—is the Uncommon Applicati

Quote of the day5

By Alec Brandon / July 24, 2006

Turns out that, for this White House, Karl Rove's opinion on the embryonic vs. adult stem cell debate

Price discrimination vs. lower sticker prices for college tuition

By Alec Brandon / July 24, 2006

While looking for papers at work today I stumbled on

I now have a homepage

By Alec Brandon / July 23, 2006

It isn't much, but it's better than nothing.

9/11 Exploitation

By Alec Brandon / July 21, 2006

In case you didn't already know that conservatives were drumming up the War on Terror and exploiting

Quick Hits7

By Alec Brandon / July 20, 2006

Because there is so much to mention and so much

The whole country vs. the WSJ and Kevin Federline

By Alec Brandon / July 20, 2006

The WSJ has allied itself with Kevin Federline in the battle over the fate of the penny. Today their editorial board likened giving up the penny to waving a, "white flag before the forces of inflation."...

Good and bad news for Lieberman

By Alec Brandon / July 20, 2006

Everyone in the blogosphere is talking about how

Maryland’s Wal-Mart healthcare law shot down

By Alec Brandon / July 20, 2006

More employment news today,

Haley Joel Osment drives what?

By Alec Brandon / July 20, 2006

The LA Times

Video of the day19

By Alec Brandon / July 20, 2006

This is one of the most offensive things I have seen in a long time. Elizabeth Smart, the Utah girl w

Barack is headed to Iowa

By Alec Brandon / July 20, 2006

Obama in '08?It certainly looks like he is

That’s it! It’s time to get these motha-fucking critics off this motha-fucking plane

By Alec Brandon / July 19, 2006

In a move that only makes me more intrigued, Snakes on a Plane won't be screened in advance for critics.I love how Samuel L. Jackson and the studio have actively promoted Snakes on a Plane as the best...

Re: Maximizing employment

By Alec Brandon / July 19, 2006

Will Baude rightfully takes me

While the world looks away, Iraq goes even further to hell

By Alec Brandon / July 19, 2006

While the whole world focuses on events in Israel,

A study tell us the obvious

By Alec Brandon / July 19, 2006

A new study has found that,

Towards a coherent employment policy

By Alec Brandon / July 19, 2006

To feed your hankering for top editorials of the day, I found

Doing something about U of C Law School’s “centerpiece”

By Alec Brandon / July 18, 2006

It was a relief to stumble upon this today. UChicago Law School is going to finally do something about its fountain that is the "centerpiece" of the entrance to the building. The biggest problem is that...

Only in Chicago

By Alec Brandon / July 18, 2006

Speakin

Save your breath

By Alec Brandon / July 18, 2006

David Bernstein at Volokh Conspiracy had

A good veto to be remembered for

By Alec Brandon / July 18, 2006

I hope that Bush is forced to use his first, and only veto,

The scoopees become the scoopers

By Alec Brandon / July 18, 2006

While George is

Vote or Lose out on big money

By Alec Brandon / July 18, 2006

As George notes (now h

Something to unite the world

By Alec Brandon / July 14, 2006

With the whole world exploding in a clash of cultures and religions, it is refreshing to see that there really is something the whole world can get behind: supressing women. The Washington Post has the...

Top Five: Albums3

By Alec Brandon / July 14, 2006

Alright, so here are my top five favorite albums. 1. "Layla" by Derek and the Dominos: It

The worst song on a near perfect album

By Alec Brandon / July 14, 2006

I don't mean to preview my best album list for tomorrow, but

Ted Stevens – Pipes (Remix)

By Alec Brandon / July 14, 2006

Senator Ted Stevens, the man who has come to define bringing home the bacon with his bridges to nowhe

I’d be happy too

By Alec Brandon / July 14, 2006

The widow of slain WSJ reporter Daniel Pearl will be played by Angelina Jolie. Upon hearing that,

Giuliani in ’08

By Alec Brandon / July 14, 2006

Apparentl

New feature1

By Alec Brandon / July 13, 2006

From now on, every Friday I am going to do a top five list.Why? Because, I want to and fo

Reasons to like soccer more than American football

By Alec Brandon / July 13, 2006

Euguene Volokh li

Chicago makes its Olympic bid

By Alec Brandon / July 13, 2006

While the idea of billions focusing their attention on Chicago sounds like a great proposition, I don

Weekly Standard drops the ball

By Alec Brandon / July 11, 2006

At the start of the World Cup, the Weekly Standard went off on soccer as

Interesting developments

By Alec Brandon / July 11, 2006

It is funny how, lately, my posts on

Why did Gaddafi give in to the US?

By Alec Brandon / July 11, 2006

You might remember that a couple of years ago, in a total change of face, Muammar Gaddafi

Battle of the libraries: What the Reg could learn from the Yale Law library

By Alec Brandon / July 11, 2006

Working at the Yale Law School library this summer has got me thinking a lot about libraries. I've fo