The Brunch Table

I accidentally started this BBC documentary on the history of Al Qaeda:

at the same time as this adorable Spanish kids’ cartoon:

“…could corrode the very bonds that hold society [quack! quack! quack!] together…” Both, by the way, are pretty good.

Louis and the Nazis: in which British journalist Louis Theroux travels around California, knocks on the doors of self-professed Nazis, and asks permission to hang out with them for the day. Quietly squirmy and brilliant.

(direct link)

From today’s New York Times:

“A city-financed report by Ms. Rice released Friday said Los Angeles needed a ‘Marshall plan’ to address gang violence in light of a growth in gang membership and a lack of a comprehensive strategy to curb the problem.”

and, in a second unrelated article:

“A coalition of community groups is calling for the city Department of Education to develop a ‘Marshall Plan for middle-grade schools,’ saying that all too often, the sixth through eighth grades become ‘pathways to failure.’”

Heck, maybe what we really need is a plain old Marshall Plan.

I’m used to reading Malcolm Gladwell’s intelligent, impassioned attacks on American private health insurance, like this one, from 2005, and this one, from 2006.

“A country that displays an almost ruthless commitment to efficiency and performance in every aspect of its economy—a country that switched to Japanese cars the moment they were more reliable, and to Chinese T-shirts the moment they were five cents cheaper—has loyally stuck with a health-care system that leaves its citizenry pulling out their teeth with pliers.”

So I’m not sure what to make of this one, from 2000, in which he’s just as enthusiastic, but his position seems to be exactly reversed.

“I don’t think that the case against the American health-care system stands or falls on the treatment of some women who happen not to have adequate insurance for their highly premature babies. And I would also point out that if we examine closely the history of care for premature babies that all of it came from America. This is a classic condition for which the American health-care system pioneers treatment.”

I wonder what on earth happened in the intervening years to change his mind so dramatically?

…I seem to be sort of learning how to cook.

This is a beautiful thing, sort of like a cross between The Perry Bible Fellowship and the boiled-down, super-concentrated essence of every Saturday-morning cartoon produced over the entire Reagan Administration:

(direct link)

Seriously, take a look.

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(The caption was Celeste’s idea.)