@Procopius I am of the same opinion, that Obama could be considered a conservative. I'm unsure whether Brooks considers "conservative" as centrist though. Yet I think it is likely that Brooks would repudiate the policy agenda of a centrist-verging-on-conservative Democrat, even if there were significant overlap with his own moderate though GOP-allied view. That is sad in two ways, the first being that Republican-Democrat "antipathy-on-principal" has grown so vehement now. Second, it is sad, to me, that a moderate Republican might be no more conservative than President Obama, who was nominally (I thought) a liberal Democrat. Sigh...

@Adam, Yes, Brooks' position is to be The Moderate Republican at the Times. That's a good point. Yet I am trying to understand your comment, which is not transparent to me. In particular, why you remarked that the situation is: "sad as an indictment of the quality of our commentary" As The Moderate Republican, Brooks shouldn't agree with Democrat President Obama, not consistently. However, in a healthy two-party system, there should be some overlap between a moderate Republican and a Democrat centrist president. That is why I qualified my prior sentence with "not consistently". Is the indictment sad because the current GOP is opposed to nearly anything that is a Democrat policy or goal, by virtue of its being a Democrat policy or goal, and only that? If so, then I understand your meaning.

@Jonathan Coleman :: You said, "Discourse is 'comment' software... not forum software". Is it? PaidContent (GigaOm) http://paidcontent.org/2013/02/06/fixing-online-comments-how-do-you-automate-trust/ thinks so. Yet Jeff refers to it as a forum platform. No, that's not entirely true. He also refers to Discourse as a discussion platform. Is it intended for both? @lacunae :: I would like VC funding for some of my ideas too. You should try asking, you might be surprised. Then you can tell us about it, and maybe I'll be brave enough to follow in your footsteps. Also: I just read the first Discourse blog post. One item in your wish list (last paragraph) is possible with Discourse, specifically, a centralized directory of forums. @Jeff :: OpenID is worth considering, no? I'd suggest the same with threading. Everyone likes threading. Continuous scrolling will be balky at first. I don't like it, but given time, I'm certain you can make it work. Congratulations on your new endeavor!

Noah's right about this. (I have been reading his blog recently, and found him to be sensible, and patient): If Bayesian methods were clearly superior to frequentist, the former would dominate. There's been sufficient time for that to have occurred. I learned about Bayes Law and Bayesian methods in Sheldon Ross's probability texts maybe ummm 20 years ago, and it was nothing new even then. I'm not implying that they lack value of course. Sheldon Ross is no slouch, and this was at Stanford, in graduate school. In response to Professor J. Bradford DeLong: I like to think of myself as a good frequentist! Most humorous comment via Paul G. Brown: Q. What's a Bayesian? A. Someone who expects a beaver, sees a duck, and concludes a platypus. Truth, and humorous though sad too: "Every day that goes by the Bayesians update the probability that they are correct, struggle to keep track of the zero after the decimal point, and in the end the climate deniers and Austrians will not recant." I find it so soothing to read that, and realize that I am not a hopelessly-alone outlier.

Genauer, I am gratified to read that someone, somewhere, appreciates UHT milk products in cartons. I live in Arizona, and have lived in Manhattan and Tallahassee (Florida), and happily consumed 1.5 L cartons of skim, 1%, 2% and 4% (fully fatted?) Parmalat brand boxed UHT milk. I enjoyed the way it tasted chilled, and my fussy elderly father would even drink it at room temperature. Why is there such animosity expressed toward fine, hygienic, delicious and convenient UHT milk, do you think? In Arizona, Manhattan and Tallahassee, we have milk in cardboard cartons of various dimensions, clear gallon jugs which are difficult to pour when full, and plastic bottles that are shaped like glass milk bottles were in the past. Institutional and restaurant settings use large 5 or 10 gallon milk in bags, just as Chris S. described. They are inverted and dispensed via tubing that resembles an udder. Milk is still frozen! Someone mentioned that earlier. Said individual was correct: It is done in order to prevent spoilage e.g. for a month or so, in the situation where there is a milk sale. Milk defrosts well, as far as taste. It would be very nice to be able to freeze bags of milk rather than plastic bottles/ jugs. Milk bags sound like a sensible idea. I wish we had them in these parts.

First and foremost, I do not cry for the WSJ taxpayer-afflicted foursome, not even for the exhausted looking mother with two careworn children. If I read correctly, $55,000 of Mom of Two's annual income is from investments, and $40,000 is from tax deductions. Scott: In the U.S.A., alimony is exceedingly uncommon. My ex-boyfriend's ex-wife was granted alimony ONLY because her leg was amputated at age 40, and her ill health so severe that she would not work again, ever. While spousal maintenance is rare (the other exception being celebrities), child support is a different matter. Child support provides for the child, not the mother. But when mother and children live together, the distinction blurs. WSJ should have included an entry for child support received annually by Mom of Two. It is possible but rather unlikely that Mom of Two did not know the identity of the father(s) of her two children, thus no child support. I wouldn't assume that the majority of Mom of Two's income was from child support alone. However, 50% or more of her income might have been unearned as wages, due to child support + investment income + tax deduction.

I appreciate your comment. Lately, I feel only sorrow and despair. There was hope, but it seems truly pwn3d now. I don't think anyone cares. Can we do anything about it? I am scared and afraid for all of us; so sad that it has come to this. Thank you for visiting.

Me too. Egg Cosma Shalizi's house, that is. Regardless of what Professor DeLong assigns his students to read, or what the other half of the economics profession, discipline, what-have-you, believes, at least Professor DeLong contributes to the public good by teaching freshman at a state university. That's in contrast to the cabal over at George Mason and the soi-disant "Marginal Revolution University", where they advocate economics education for the masses via 100,000:1 student to professor ratios by way of MOOC! In the November issue of "Cato Unleashed" (okay, maybe it is "Cato Unbound") Alex Taberrok actually said that the wonders of technology will soon allow all knowledge to be video-taped, so teaching will be rendered entirely unnecessary. Now THAT is a technocrat, or pseudo-technocrat: He forgot to include the scenario where there is additional knowledge gained, future progress beyond where we are now. I think that parallels the viewpoint of fin-de-sciecle, pre-quantum physicists. Professor Shalizi (I have been avidly reading your notebook feed via LiveJournal for years), with all due respect, when writing in your field of expertise, you are erudite, versatile, brilliant. You are correct here, too. Half of the economists, or those who call themselves such, are really politicians or philosophers-lite. Even some of the PhD's go down that path. There are others, though, that are like Professor DeLong: They have a deep knowledge of political history, business history and public policy, and can write and speak well. And impart knowledge and compassion to others, including college freshman. I'm hazarding a guess, but it is probably a fine line to walk. Alienating the technocrats isn't advisable. First, they will become disaffected and won't be likely to help with funding. Second, they will have that much more reason to turn to those who have forgotten that "the Public is necessary for the Private... the truth that our freedom depends on a robust Public, and that the economy is for all of us." Or so says another Berkeley professor, but not in the economics department, despite this title (!!!) "Economics and Morality: Paul Krugman’s Framing" http://georgelakoff.com/2012/09/16/economics-and-morality-paul-krugmans-framing/

That is, in a word, appalling. WHY are they doing that to the beautiful seal of The University of California? Dilbert Dogbert is correct, on all three points. The NASA seal change was not as egregious as this. Dilbert is doubly correct regarding the plumbing reference. I am reminded of flushing and coriollis (spelling?) effects by the new logo in particular, though I am certain that some clever physics type is going to tell me that the water runs in the other direction in the Northern Hemisphere. Nevertheless, the new logo is unsightly. The DeLong proposed logo at least retains the beauty of the seal. No change whatsoever to a perfectly adequate seal would be best. In my opinion. P.S. Professor DeLong: Did you remove my favorite section of your website, the commenting guidelines? I have posted that to Reddit and to Quora and I don't know where else. It is a gem, on par with Charles Stross's comment guidelines on his Anti-Pope website. I would be sorry to see it go. At the moment, it is a dead link in your header, on the far right. Since it was adjacent, I casually tried to hack into your restricted area as user Cthulhu, password bradforddelong. No joy though.

@Anderson You set a good example, from which I should learn, and learn well. Professor DeLong is INDEED formidable, which I never doubted. To wit: I am viewing your comment in its full glory, along with the "do follow!" to your home. Nice winter attire, and shapely calves too http://thusbloggedanderson.wordpress.com/2012/12/08/december-attire/ Slightly odd anecdote: My first encounter as an editor on Wikipedia involved Thomas Nagle. This was a year or two ago. I did not know who he was, though the name sounded familiar. Nagle was fond of a particular icon used to indicate malicious links. I was too. Wikipedia powers-that-be said that using it was a possible copy vio (the origin was SpamHaus, I think). Nagle posted documentation that SpamHaus had released the icon into the public domain. I seconded, that the icon should be retained. It was cute. Wikipedia deleted it anyway, saying that there were enough malware warnings on Wikipedia already. Sigh...

I love his grey wool herringbone jacket. Look at those nice knotted leather buttons! And such a gorgeous belt buckle. I live in Arizona, grew up in New Mexico, and have seen many native American designs. The belt buckle is so fine: Coral, turquoise and hammered silver. Unsure if it is Navajo, Zuni is possible, but only the gentleman wearing it would know for certain (silversmith's mark should be on the reverse side). Can't go wrong with an immaculate, unpressed, light blue, long-sleeved, button down shirt. Mr. Mort: I like how you dress best of all! Well, I like what I can see in that profile photo. You can blame this article hxxp://www.refinery29.com/yarmulkes for leading me and my impertinence here. I see no signs of whether HTML tags are permitted for style. My guess is that the answer is "No". I would like to see more photos of you. You look Jewish, handsome and dashing, like a brilliant young doctor or rabbinical student, in need of a wife.

Very sweet look! It would be perfect if she were to lose the red Doc Maartens. If there were snow on the ground, perhaps in New York City instead of San Francisco, it might just work. Otherwise, I'd recommend matte rather patent leather, and a dark color rather than red, and probably something else besides Doc Maartens footwear. But I'm not certain as to what. Otherwise, what a pretty, feminine beautiful young woman! Practical too.