The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

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Michael Wolraich's picture

Premium New Year's resolutions for every occasion - now on Ebay

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Michael Wolraich's picture

New Year's Resolution Generator ™

New Year's Eve is over. Visit the THE VALENTINE GENERATOR™.

It's that time of year again. Resolution time. We're all supposed to come up with some great goals for 2009. But worthwhile goals aren't easy to come by. Sure, you could promise to quit smoking or abusing pigeons or getting naked in public or whatever boring resolution you make every year and violate three days later, but you've been there and done that.

Michael Wolraich's picture

Chanukkah For Goyim - The True Story of Chanukkah + Bonus Pronunciation Tips

Gather round, children, and I will tell you the story of Chanukkah (which I brazenly lifted from the internet).

Long ago in the land of Judea there was a Syrian king, Antiochus. The king ordered the Jewish people to reject their God, their religion, their customs and their beliefs and to worship the Greek gods. There were some who did as they were told, but many refused. One who refused was Judah Maccabee.

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Michael Wolraich's picture

George Bush on the mortgage crisis: "How did we get here?"

It was Sept. 18. Lehman Brothers had just gone belly-up, overwhelmed by toxic mortgages. Bank of America had swallowed Merrill Lynch in a hastily arranged sale. Two days earlier, Mr. Bush had agreed to pump $85 billion into the failing insurance giant American International Group. The president listened as Ben S. Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, laid out the latest terrifying news: The credit markets, gripped by panic, had frozen overnight, and banks were refusing to lend money. Then his Treasury secretary, Henry M.

Michael Wolraich's picture

Moral Dilemma: Working for Republicans

I'm a freelance website developer. So far, I haven't been affected by the downturn, and I have some decent leads for next year. One of the leads is a project to build political fundraising software. The client is a private startup company, and the owners seem like decent guys, but they market their services to Republican candidates. I've been a liberal my whole life and except for Mayor Bloomberg in '05 have never voted Republican, but I'm not partisan by nature. I believe robust political competition is healthy, and I'm moderate on some issues.

Michael Wolraich's picture

Sledgehammer Politics in South Korea

Ah Democracy...freely elected legislators dutifully fulfilling the will of the people by blockading themselves in a locked room while the honorable opposition attempts to dutifully fulfill the will of the rest of the people by breaking down the door with a sledgehammer and other sundry power tools. Full video after the jump.

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Michael Wolraich's picture

Vote for dagblog

Dear dagreaders, we love ya. Thanks for reading and writing in and being cool people (which I know is a particular challenge for you Canadians).

It's tough to make a name a for yourself in the blogosphere, but the good word is getting out, and our audience is growing. In a fit of wild (yet completely unbiased) enthusiasm, I recently nominated dagblog for the blogger's choice awards. You may have noticed the badge in the right panel. If you can spare us a little love, I hope that you'll see fit to vote for us for 2009 by clicking the badge or this here link. We're nominated for politics, humor, and stuff. I think that you get 3 votes. It does require you to enter an email, but they won't spam you.

If you're feeling especially magnanimous, you can rate us and add us to your favorites at blogcatalog.com. You can also follow us on Facebook's NetworkBlogs.

Thanks so much for your help. Dag.

PS Personally, I've been stupidly busy this month, so I haven't been writing in much, but I promise to pick it up in the new year.

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Personal Information

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http://michaelwolraich.com
Biography

Michael Wolraich is a non-fiction writer in New York City. He co-founded dagblog and has contributed  to the Atlantic, the Daily Beast, New York Magazine, CNN.com, TalkingPointsMemo.com, Reuters, and Pando Daily.

Books:

Wolraich is also the computer genius who maintains dagblog's state-of-the-art software, but he denies responsibility for technical glitches and advises users to "quit sniveling." In his spare time, Wolraich raises peach mold and performs live impressions of the law of gravity.

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