Maybe he wants to be Arnold. Texas Governor Rick Perry has taken up acting. From the Dallas Morning News report:
Tuesday, production trucks lined up outside the white antebellum mansion where Mr. Perry pretended to be the governor for the cameras in a place where, any other day, he actually is the governor.
Perry, who looks sort of like an even-more-pretty-boy version of actor Chris Noth, has a few lines in a Tommy Lee Jones movie set in Texas. "With his Hollywood looks, he was typecast to play the governor of the great state of Texas," a spokeswoman told the News.
My take on politicians' looks: Male politicians have to be good looking. Female politicians just have to be polished--in control of their appearance. I can't think of any female politicians as classically pretty as Perry is handsome. Nobody would take them seriously.
Posted by Virginia Postrel on October 15, 2003 • Comments
Dan Weintraub reports that The Washington Times has caught up with Rick Henderson and is speculating that David Dreier might challenge Barbara Boxer.
But, asked several readers when I first blogged this, why would he leave a secure House seat and the chairmanship of the Rules Committee for an uncertain Senate run? One possible answer: If he loses, he can always run for Congress again, and the party would remember that he'd done Republicans a big favor.
The Times piece speculates about several alternative Dreier futures, including as successor to Jack Valenti.
Posted by Virginia Postrel on October 15, 2003 • Comments
After a book tour hiatus, I've resumed contributing to D Magazine's blog. Check it out, especially if you live in the Dallas area and admire Milton Friedman.
Posted by Virginia Postrel on October 15, 2003 • Comments
It's pledge week at KERA, our local NPR affiliate, which reminds me to remind readers to support this site. The easiest and cheapest way is to place Amazon orders through any of the links to the right. I receive at least 5% of the purchase price for anything you order if you start from this site, more if you buy something directly from a link to that item. If you're feeling particularly generous, there's always the Amazon or PayPal tip jar. Unlike KERA, I won't be repeating this message day after day. Thanks for reading, and for your support.
Posted by Virginia Postrel on October 15, 2003 • Comments
Germany is losing its best young biologists, reports The Scientist:
Like elsewhere in Europe, many of Germany's brightest science graduates in all disciplines seek their fortunes abroad—but the stream flows fastest in the life sciences. Biotechnology companies badly need these well qualified researchers, Christoph Anz from the Confederation of German Employers'; Associations told The Scientist.
"The trouble is that we are losing our highest achievers," Anz said. "We have reached the point where we will no longer be able to compete in the booming biotechnology sector."
Every seventh person with a doctorate in science leaves Germany for the United States. And three of the four Germans who have won a Nobel Prize are currently working in the United States, noted Markus Albers in Die Welt am Sonntag.
"The top scientists know their own value, and they rightly insist on excellent working conditions and an appropriate level of pay. These two together can hardly ever be found in Germany," said Helmut Schwarz, vice president of the German Research Foundation, a body that promotes research at universities and other publicly financed research institutions in Germany.
"We don't have proper career paths, people are paid according to set bands and not according to their performance. In America, scientists can earn three times as much," Schwarz said. He added that money was not the only problem; young German researchers are hampered by government regulations.
"A passion for science and a stimulating international campus atmosphere" are also missing in Germany, he said.
You can read the whole article here, with free registration.
Posted by Virginia Postrel on October 15, 2003 • Comments
On the excellent econoblog Marginal Revolution, Tyler Cowen suggests some answers to one of life's enduring questions: Why are Persian rugs always "on sale" and the stores that sell them always "going out of business" or "liquidating inventory"?
Posted by Virginia Postrel on October 15, 2003 • Comments
NRO has quietly fixed the spelling of misanthrope in its ad for Florence King's book.
Posted by Virginia Postrel on October 14, 2003 • Comments
I'll be on CNN tomorrow (Tuesday) morning around 9:30 Eastern, debating the latest anti-commercial publicity stunt--a campaign against McDonald's sponsorship of Sesame Street. Download the McDonald's "ad" to see just how innocuous this supposed horror is.
Posted by Virginia Postrel on October 13, 2003 • Comments
This algorithm thinks a man wrote The Substance of Style--or at least the preface and the first sections of chapters one and five. Apparently I use the word the too often.
Posted by Virginia Postrel on October 13, 2003 • Comments
Rush Limbaugh's drug habit may have caused him some personal problems, but it didn't ruin his life. Indeed, he flourished professionally, and in a demanding, public job. His public problems all stem from prohibition, not pills.
I thought about making this point myself but was hoping that Jacob Sullum, who wrote the book on the drug user next door, would do so first. Now he has in a Hit & Run posting. An excerpt:
Just as there are "functional alcoholics," who continue to meet their professional responsibilities and even excel at their work, there are functional narcotic addicts whose habits may take a personal toll but do not interfere with their careers. The difference is that opioid users like Limbaugh are breaking the law simply by obtaining their drugs, so their habits may become public scandals even if they never affect their public performance.
Posted by Virginia Postrel on October 13, 2003 • Comments