Grasping Reality on TypePad, by Brad DeLong

1. "'THEY told me'… Willard says to… Kurtz… at the end of a long journey up the river, 'that you had gone totally insane, and that your methods were unsound'…. Kurtz murmurs: 'Are my methods unsound?' And Willard--filthy, hollow-eyed, stunned by what he’s seen--replies: 'I don’t see any method at all, sir.' This is basically how reasonable people should feel about the recent conduct of the House Republicans": Ross Douthat: The Kurtz Republicans
2. "Supporters of health reform… are trying to make things go well. In states that are running their own marketplaces—or exchanges—governors, legislators, business and labor leaders, insurance executives and professional organizations are working to get the needed administrative apparatus in place…. Experience has shown that with good will, they will succeed. Massachusetts implemented health reform legislation much like the Affordable Care Act. In the early days, there were bugs. They got fixed. The program is now running smoothly": Henry Aaron: Commentary: Exchange glitches were expected, but ACA opponents' tactics are outrageous
3. "Even more audaciously, Boehner dismissed the notion of lifting the debt ceiling and then negotiating the budget as 'unconditional surrender'. How it could be unconditional surrender when he publicly favors lifting the debt ceiling, Boehner did not say": Jonathan Chait: Boehner Too Embarrassed to Defend Extortion
4. "Know More (a Wonkblog joint) is a site for people who like learning stuff. Not sitting-in-front-of-a-textbook-for-hours learning, but getting-sucked-into-a-Wikipedia-hole-for-hours learning": Welcome to Know More
5. "Daisy alleges that after she arrived, Barnett handed her a large glass filled with alcohol. The boys urged her drink it and then a second glass too, she related later to her mother. That, she would tell police, was the last thing she remembers": Dugan Arnett: Rape Culture in Maryville, MO

And:

• Lawrence Summers: The battle over the US budget is the wrong fight: Why We Should Be Focusing on Equitable Growth
• Ashok Rao Goes All Post-Colonial on Niall Ferguson