Educated class failure?

Noemie Emery has an interesting column this morning in The Washington Examiner, arguing that Obama's failures as president epitomize the failures of a certain kind of educated class. Emery is of course writing about the failures of people like me, which naturally gets my attention. (Some of my best friends write for magazines for a living.) Also, I have a German father and a Ukrainian mother, so I suppose I'm hard-wired for self-loathing and thus inclined to read articles about why I should hate myself sympathetically. (See also David Brooks's tea party movement column, which made a substantively similar point.

Except a problem jumps out at me when I read this paragraph:

It [the public] has also moved strongly against his [Obama's] -- and the educated classes' -- ideas. It is more pro-life, more anti-climate change, more free market, less statist, more inclined to favor "harsh" measures against terrorism suspects, more in favor of "waterboarding" the terrorist caught in the brief-bombing effort, more opposed to the closing of Guantanamo Bay.

Actually, I'm not so sure this is right. I do not study political ignorance, but I live with someone who does. My understanding is that, contra Emery, voters with more education are more pro-free-market than those who are not. Similarly, I'm not sure what set of public policies she's referring to when she says "less statist," but I do recall that more educated voters favor fewer restrictions on immigration and trade, which would make more educated voters less statist than less educated ones. Leave aside for a moment that I'm not sure what being anti-climate change means. Presumably everyone is against the idea of climate change; it's just that some people think that it is happening, and others are skeptical. Also, others disagree about whether the issue can best be addressed through market-based or top-down approaches.

None of this is to say that today's educated class is perfect or without real flaws. Nor is it to say that the public policies Obama has chosen to pursue in office are right on the merits. In fact, I do think my own class has plenty of flaws, and I also disagree with nearly all of Obama's policy agenda. I'm merely skeptical that conservative intellectuals' navel-gazing about what is wrong with our class is the best means of coming up with an effective opposition strategy, narcissitically satisfying though it may be.

Time is tight at the moment, but if anyone has a link to some nice and short piece covering correlations between education and political views, please comment. I looked around briefly on both Bryan Caplan's blog and Volokh, but couldn't find one.

ETA: My Artist Formerly Known as Ilya notes that he discusses these issues in a Volokh post. He adds that "Knowledge and education are not the same thing, but they are highly intercorrelated. In general, more educated people tend to be more pro-free market, and also more socially liberal." I suspect that the latter would also displease Emery, though elite social liberalism doesn't displease me.

But Obama's most ambitious -- and most problematic -- policy initiatives haven't invoked social issues like gay marriage or abortion. Rather, it's the stimulus package and proposed health care bill that have really gotten conservatives, libertarians, and tea partiers screaming. If his popularity has taken a hit, it's more likely because of his fiscal or regulatory stances.

Optometrists/opthamologists in the D.C. area?

There is probably a heavy overlap between the people who read this thing and the people who read my Facebook page, but I'll ask here again anyway.

I am nearly out of contact lenses. As in, have one pair that I am wearing now. I've been getting them from my doctor in my hometown in Pennsylvania. But it is impractical to keep going to see doctors who are based there, especially since I intend to stay in D.C. unless Pnin gets some kind of lavish lateral offer.

I found an optometrist based in D.C. by internet search. Various factors -- my realizing I'd left my glasses case on my desk five minutes into my walk to the Metro, the slowest train ever being in front of mine, and the office not being easy to find -- conspired to make me about ten minutes late. I was raised by a German father and spent five years in a German Moravian high school, so I do understand well that yes, this is deeply obnoxious and perhaps even unforgivable.

When I got there, the doctor informed me rather curtly that he did not have time to see me. He informed me that he blocks out only 20 minutes per patient, and he would have to rush too much because of my lateness. The receptionist apologized rather profusely for this, which led me to think "abrasive." Perhaps I am being unfair, though -- it's hard to tell.

I now have to wait until a week from tomorrow to see him again. I would prefer to be able to order new contacts before then, if possible. Though first guy does have a policy that he can charge me $50 for the missed appointment. So perhaps I should just gut it out and deal with him.

The relevant questions:

1)Was this unduly obnoxious of him?
2)Can anyone recommend an optometrist/opthamologist who is easier to see?

Oh, and before anyone asks: no, I can't just order contacts online. I've tried this before. Under some sort of Pennsylvania consumer protection law, my doctor there can't or won't release the prescription unless I have seen someone in his office within the last 12 months. It's been about 13.5 since I've seen him, so that won't work.

Welcome to the Dark Side.

It's always sort of heartwarming when Matt Yglesias, left-leaning though he is, says something that shows that he understands economics and markets. See also his occupational licensing posts.

Another very good sentence

"The fact was, I was not nearly as distressed as the adults around me seemed to suppose."

-- Kazuo Ishiguro, When We Were Orphans.

I am not quite halfway through this novel, so perhaps I should reserve judgment until I finish. But it is quite lovely and is perhaps the best metro book that I have picked up in a while. It is accessible enough for Metro reading, but not so lowbrow as to be stupid. It's about a young British gentleman whose parents disappear mysteriously while living in Shanghai. He grows up to become a detective to the British aristocracy, and one senses that his next battle is to resolve his parents' disappearance. It's the same mix of lush writing and gripping mystery that I loved about Remains Over The Day.

Why I need to learn to use e-mail labels

Facebook friends of mine may remember that I posted a sarcastic Facebook message the other week about a Virginia-bar sponsored CLE (Continuing Legal Education) titled "Taking Control of Your Inbox." Perhaps, however, the joke was on me.

I was doing a natural language search through G-mail for old messages containing a citation to a particular book. Let's say that's the author's name was Mr. Smith (which it isn't really). Instead, I draw up an e-mail message from a close friend, dating back to 2006, which contained the following sentence:

"Then Smith and Mary yelled about will and Kant and Augustine, and how this all translated into why he won't have sex with her."

It made me immediately nostalgic for undergrad.

Following up on the plastic bag tax post...

...Ilya's intrepid co-blogger Orin Kerr has his take up at the VC.

Short ribs recipe endorsement

If The Atlantic Monthly (or one of its bloggers) told me to jump off a bridge, I might do it. I'm... that susceptible to the influence of some of my favorite writers there.

Nonetheless, sometimes this weakness has let to good results in my life. See, e.g., this delicious recipe for braised short ribs, lemony mashed potatoes, and broccoli. It is one of the more delectable meals that the Archer-Pnin household has had in months. Even Pnin, who is not as prone to annoying gourmandness as I am, said several times that I had to make this dish more often.

One modification: my local Whole Foods was out of tamarind paste. My dear friend M. from undergrad, who has forgotten more about cooking than I'll ever know, advised me over my cell phone to use lime juice instead. It worked beautifully, as far as we two could tell.