Favorite rejects 2021-11-18

Noah Smith 🐇 @Noahpinion

We need electric cars to make America stop caring about gas prices

Jake Anbinder @JakeAnbinder

Even if you are generally anti-car the fact that most Americans lose their minds if gas gets to 1/3 the price it is in Europe is main reason it pays to be extremely evangelical about EVs

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

That’s my point the AMA can and does walk (lobby for policies that make it hard for people to get medical care) and chew gum (embrace progressive language concepts) at the same time. But this is bad slowboring.com/p/the-amas-adv…

Brandon M Combs @bmcmybuddy

@mattyglesias This is a very odd critique. It seems to ignore the very real benefits of recognizing and speaking correctly to marginalized groups. And done so to make a political hit piece against the AMA? They may not be perfect, but they can walk and chew gum at the same time?

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

One of my non-contrarian views is that shortages of housing lead to people being homeless.

Clayton Aldern @compatibilism

We focus on cities, not individual people. And when you take a metropolitan lens, rents and vacancy rates arise as some of the only credible explanations for regional variation in rates of homelessness. Not poverty; not the generosity of public assistance; not drug use. https://t.co/BPEahIyw3V

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

Skin in the game yes, but also experience and skill at mass communication where I think a lot of folks with relevant technical advanced degrees have gotten in over their heads. https://t.co/z0N06B3QVZ

Matthew Zeitlin @MattZeitlin

non-covid-denialist elected officials seem to come around to more clear and sensible guidelines and policies than public health experts, almost like they have some skin in the game https://t.co/MSy9pqqiFu

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

But like “do you ‘need’ a booster” is obviously a fake question. There is no magic risk-reduction line at which boosters cross over from being “unneeded” to “needed” just a question of what policy generates the outcome we want. https://t.co/ZHN0KZrtvU

Nathaniel Weixel @NateWeixel

@mattyglesias Or the public health people wanted to limit the availability of boosters to just the people who really needed them, but then politics got in the way and made things more confusing

Noah Smith 🐇 @Noahpinion

I haven't seen anyone write the story about how America's public health establishment quietly discouraged booster shots because of the mistaken belief that this would boost vaccine supply to poor countries. Has anyone written that story yet?

Jeanna Trotman @JeannaTrotmanTV

This is a REAL post from the Neighborhood app that my husband sent me about sidewalks being overused in Berkley, MI. I’m out.

Robotbeat🗽 ➐ @Robotbeat

SpaceX is effectively subsidizing NASA’s Artemis program. They’re getting about $2.9B for a capability (2 lunar lander missions with with a lander more than 10 times the size of the Apollo lander), that NASA & traditional contractors would not be able to achieve for $100 billion.

The Hill @thehill

Sen. Bernie Sanders: "It is not acceptable that the two wealthiest people in this country, Mr. Musk and Mr. Bezos, take control of our space efforts to return to the Moon, [...]This is not something for two billionaires to be directing." https://t.co/Bi4VcXi08T