Prospects for Economic Liberalization in Russia
Sounds like a term paper, no? Well, all you need to know about this particular subject can be found in one article about the abject failure of “The Apprentice” on Russian television:
Monthly Archive: February 2011
Do Democracies Fight?
Jason says that democratic peace theory is one of the better explanations for the decline of large-scale conflict around the globe. I remain unconvinced – here’s why: 1) This ain’t the Theory of Gravity...
This Month’s Cato Unbound
This month’s Cato Unbound is on one of those counterintuitive topics that I’ve taken a great deal of interest in lately. By the numbers, the world is increasingly at peace. Most people probably wouldn’t...
Faster, Rufus! Eulogize! Eulogize!
Over at Bust Magazine’s blog, I paid tribute to the voluptuous Tura Satana (recently departed) star of the cult classic Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (Hey, I can’t write about dead Greeks all the time!)
Categorical Imperatives
“If everyone in the world were homosexual, the human race would die out.” Or as Kenneth Minogue — not ordinarily a lazy thinker — recently put it: If one’s notion of responsibility includes a...
“A History Seminar: Obamacare Has Nothing to Do with Seamen Mandate of 1798”
A few liberal writers have suggested that the Seamen Mandate of 1798 provides some sort of constitutional precedent for the Affordable Care Act. Avik Roy helpfully demolishes that myth here.
Ordinary Blogs (re-posted)
[reposted from Sunday] If I could draw your attention to the top of the page for a moment you will see a number of pages listed in our navigation bar. Beginning with “Home” you...
The Ghost in the Square
This is an excellent speech by British writer Phillip Pullman, author of The Golden Compass (via): The greedy ghost understands profit all right. But that’s all he understands. What he doesn’t understand is enterprises that...
AOL buys the Huffington Post
The big news today – other than the Packer’s most excellent victory over the Steelers Sunday – is that AOL is buying the Huffington Post for $315 million dollars. No word from Arianna Huffington...
Ronald Reagan and Hosni Mubarak
Greetings to the League from “Jonny the Fiancé” (Think “Joe the Plumber” and “Tito the Builder”). While Lisa is at her mother’s I have self-motivated to organize some of my thoughts on today’s noteworthy...
Meister Eckhart on Disinterestedness
In a previous discussion, I used the awkward term “inner states” to describe the religious experience, attempting to distinguish internal from external events, such as “miracles”. Basically, I was trying to say that the...
Ordinary Blogs
If I could draw your attention to the top of the page for a moment you will see a number of pages listed in our navigation bar. Beginning with “Home” you will then progress...
Super Bowl Open Thread
I don’t have a real rooting interest, but I am anticipating a great game. My tentative pick: Steelers over Packers, 28-24. Feel free to throw out any predictions, gambling tips, or jokes at Ben...
Zeal of a Convert
I mentioned a month or so ago that since my engagement, I’ve sort of re-channeled the views I usually apply to politics into everyday living. “Re-channeled” might be a bit much – I can...
Open-Enrollment vs. the Mandate
Someone in the comments (forgive me, off the top of my head I can’t recall who) recently suggested that, instead of an individual mandate we could have yearly open-enrollment periods. Well, looks as though Senator...
Monkey
After the jump, a watercolor painting of a lion-tailed macaque by an unnamed Chinese artist (circa late 1820s) from the John Reeves Collection, featured in a current exhibition at the London Natural History Museum.
Bachmann, Burr, and Patriotism
How about a break from arguing over the mandate? I’m in the middle of Burr, Gore Vidal’s fictional account of the life of America’s most reviled duelist. Why am I reading it? Well, the...
Occasional Notes: Political-Aesthetic Musings
Leitmotif: Here we come to a turning of the season Witness to the arc towards the sun A neighbor’s blessed burden within reason Becomes a burden borne of all and one Decemberism: I’m enjoying...
The Most Interesting Blog Post in the World
Stop arguing about the health insurance mandate and go read this profile of Dos Equis’ ubiquitous pitchman:
