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Archive for March 2011

US and West declare war on Libya: it just got much, much worse

I came home tonight and found that the US and the other Western powers had just launched another war in the Middle East. Add Libya to Afghanistan and Iraq. A few hours ago the United Nations Security Council voted to authorize military action against the Libya regime led by Colonel Muammar el-Gaddafi. The authorization extends beyond the much-discussed “no-fly zone” to […]

Japan and the world economy

Stock markets around the world tumbled again today, roiled by the continuing crisis in Japan, as well as other factors, such as the uprisings in the Middle East. Does this mean that Japan’s disaster will have a hugely negative impact on the world economy, as well as its own? No. The stock market investors are over-reacting: […]

Greens are against nuclear – and all other forms of energy

Thumbnail : Greens are against nuclear – and all other forms of energy

In the wake of the Japan disaster, environmentalists are rolling out their anti-nuclear arguments again. But as Alex Berezow, editor of Real Clear Science, points out, greens are “trying to eliminate all the other alternatives as well”. Oil drilling is risky and destructive . Coal is hazardous to extract, and burning it contributes to global […]

Narcissistic Americans scare-monger about nuclear power at home

We all watch as the disaster in Japan continues to unfold. The loss of life and destruction caused by the earthquake and tsunami are terrible, while the stories of the Japanese people coping are both heartbreaking and impressive. Now there is the threat of a substantial release of radiation, with each day bringing news of […]

This week’s articles of note

“The case for a no-fly zone,” The New York Times, by Nicholas Kristof “Oil and unrest,” Foreign Affairs, by Edward L. Morse “Is China next?” The Wall Street Journal, by Francis Fukuyama “Freaks, geeks and GDP: why hasn’t the Internet helped the American economy grow as much as economists thought it would?” Slate, by Annie […]

NPR: talk of “uneducated” Americans is the real outrage

An embarrassing video has led the Chief Executive of NPR (National Public Radio) to resign. Vivian Schiller offered her resignation a day after a conservative film-maker released a video that captured an NPR fund-raiser talking to people pretending to be donors from a Muslim Brotherhood front organization. NPR – the publicly-funded and listener-supporter radio network that many people […]

Debate how to hire, not fire, teachers

With thousands of teachers’ jobs on the chopping block across the country, there is a vigorous debate over how to implement layoffs in a “fair” way. At issue in New York and other states is the policy of LIFO, “last in, first out”. Seniority is the determining factor. There are calls from across the political spectrum […]

This week’s articles of note

“Are America’s best days behind us?” Time, by Fareed Zakaria “Are Americans ready for democracy?” Big Think, by Firouz Folani  “How Rumsfeld misleads and ducks responsibility in his new book,” Foreign Policy, by Bob Woodward “Broke town, USA,” The New York Times Magazine, by Roger Lowenstein “Twitter was Act One,” Vanity Fair, by David Kirkpatrick […]

Are state pensions in crisis?

Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin and other Republicans have said that the cost of pensions to state employees is unaffordable, and a central reason why collective bargaining needs to be virtually eliminated. However, as I noted in my article on Wisconsin, it is understandable why the pensions appear under-funded today: This situation is due to the decline […]

Republicans make Wisconsin their battle ground

My op-ed on Wisconsin has been published in The Australian, the country’s biggest-selling national newspaper. You can read it here.

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