Here, for the record, is my one and only Deathly Hallows prediction:
Draco Malfoy will redeem himself.
This seems necessary. Whatever else the odious little snot may be, he is also one of Dumbledore’s students. Dumbledore is now Dumbledead, sacrificing himself not to save Harry, but to save Draco — or, rather, to save for Draco the possibility of choosing to redeem himself.
That’s a pretty huge wager on young Mr. Malfoy’s prospects, one I’m guessing neither Dumbledore nor Rowling would have made unless they knew something we didn’t.
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“Wal-Mart to sell religious toys:
Early next month, 425 Wal-Mart stores nationwide will begin carrying faith-based toys from One2believe that target parents who would rather that their kids play with a Samson action figure than a Spider-Man action figure. …
Because a costumed crime-fighter just isn’t as much fun as an ancient terrorist and the inventor of the suicide bomb. Plus the Spidey figure doesn’t come with gouge-able eyesockets.
The toys, including a 12-inch talking Jesus doll and 14-inch Samson or Goliath action figures — target pre-schoolers to 12-year-olds. …
Hmm. Goliath was said to be nine feet tall. If Jesus is 6/7 as tall, that would put him at, let’s see, about 7′ 7″. That seems a bit off.
On the plus side, I was worried when I saw that the talking Jesus doll was endorsed by James Dobson’s Focus on the Family, but it turns out it says mainly things like “Love your neighbor as yourself” and not “Spare the rod and spoil the child” (or “Kill all the bad people and keep your family safe”).
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Ezra Klein and Matthew Yglesias on vacation. That is to say on the subject of vacation, and how little of it Americans take, and how the U.S. is the only advanced economy nation in which paid vacation is not guaranteed.
My two cents: Whatever the public policy, the option of vacation buy-backs (which would account for the questions Matt raises) makes sense as company policy. My employer has a strict use-it-or-lose-it policy. This works out well for me, because it means I rack up tons of overtime every December when half the office is desperately trying to squeeze in their time off before the year ends. It doesn’t work out quite so well for the company, since the year-end staffing squeeze tends to cost them far more than buy-backs would.
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Mitt Romney’s new TV ad warns against “inhaling too deeply of the ocean.” Probably good advice.
His message of moral ecology might be easier to swallow, as it were, if he weren’t also calling for the doubling of Guantanamo Bay. Cleaning up the moral waters “in which our kids and our grandkids are swimming” isn’t really possible when you’re also doubling the toxic industrial waste, dumping a steady stream of lawlessness, detention without trial and “enhanced interrogation” into the moral environment.
In other Romney news, though, I think I’ve found his ideal running mate: Romney/Vick in ’08!
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Tyler Cowen wishes Jonathan Kozol would just shut up.
A lot of people have that reaction to Kozol. It’s just intolerable the way he complains that schooling for poor children is intolerable.
You want Jonathan Kozol to shut up and go away? Fix the schools. Get poor kids the same education and health care that rich kids enjoy. That’ll shut him up good.
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Oh deer. Over at Entertainment Weakly there reporting that actor Isaiah Washington left Grey’s Anatomy after using a “homophonic slur.” That’s just not write.
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