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Archive for October 2010

This week’s articles of note

“‘Stranger Danger’ and the decline of Halloween,” Wall Street Journal, by Lenore Skenazy “Nudge the vote,” The New York Times Magazine, by Sasha Issenberg “Obama and the mid-terms: how did it come to this?” The Economist “Lunch with the FT: Bill Gates”, Financial Times, by Gideon Rachman “Overdrive: who really rescued General Motors?” The New Yorker, […]

Democrats’ comfortable self-delusions

In today’s New York Times, David Brooks argues that the Democrats are self-worhsipping and self-deluding, and “have done a maginificent job in maintaining their own self-esteem”. Brooks is right on point, and it’s worth quoting him at length: For example, Democrats and their media enablers have paid lavish attention to Christine O’Donnell and Carl Paladino, […]

Juan Williams and illiberal liberalism

National Public Radio’s firing of its reporter and pundit Juan Williams is disturbing for advocates of free expression and debate. NPR is, of course, free to hire and fire whoever they want; Williams did not have a job for life. And, in my opinion, he’s not a particularly insightful commentator. But the circumstances of his firing are problematic. […]

Water on the moon – yes!

In November of last year, NASA announced an amazing discovery – water on the moon. Last week, six scientists announced in Science magazine that in fact there is much more water than originally thought – about twice the concentrations that are found in the Sahara.  The Wall Street Journal outlines the important implications: The large quantity boosts the case for a manned […]

This week’s articles of note

“How to restore the American Dream,” Time, by Fareed Zakaria “Handoff, or fumble: how consumer psychology will determine the fate of our economic recovery,”  The New Republic, by Noam Scheiber “Desert storm,” The New Yorker, by Nicholas Lemann [on Harry Reid’s battle to retain his Senate seat] “The empathy deficit,” The Boston Globe, by Keith […]

Excessive credit leads to crash… so expand credit again?

Martin Wolf in today’s Financial Times puts the Federal Reserve’s “quantitative easing”, as well as other countries’ monetary expansions, into perspective: Monetary policy has worked, in practice, via credit expansion. It is, as a result, at least partly responsible for the debt crisis of today. Who can now confidently state that reliance on a policy which […]

The rent is too damn high

At a seven-candidate debate for governor of New York, Jimmy McMillan of the Rent Is Too Damn High Party stole the show. Here is a video clip of his performance. His catchphrase was remixed into a dance-beat tune, which is catching on quickly. 

Free speech not allowed on campus

Campus speech codes have not gone away, says George Lukianoff, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), in this video interview with Reason.tv. Lukianoff says that 71 per cent of campuses still impose highly restrictive codes. These codes stifle free speech, and treat students like children.

Obama blames “scared” voters

Mickey Kaus says that Obama has returned to blaming voters for not agreeing with him, just like when he spoke of people in Pennsylvania that “cling to guns and God” during the 2008 election campaign. At a recent fund-raising event in Massachusetts, Obama said: “Part of the reason that our politics seems so tough right now and […]

This week’s articles of note

“The education of a President,” The New York Times Magazine, by Peter Baker “Confounding fathers: the Tea Party’s Cold War roots,” The New Yorker, by Sean Wilentz “Think again: global aging,” Foreign Policy, by Phillip Longman “No more arcs: is the West officially over?” The New Republic, by Rochelle Gurstein “How marriage survives,” Brookings, by […]

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