A New Politics Blog
So I’m expanding the American Times Empire. My blog at Forbes has gradually morphed into a tech blog. I write about all sorts of tech stuff there now – from social media to video...
Monthly Archive: January 2012
Occasional Notes: Temptations
Leitmotif: Savants have much disputed and are in no agreement about whether Moses predates Bacchus or vice versa. Both were great men; but when Moses struck the rock with his staff he drew forth...
On Envy
In 2003 I went to Kenya to work on a promotional documentary for a faith-based NGO. As I remember it, Kenya is a very poor country, one of the 10 poorest countries in the...
More on abortion, and liberalism (and for that matter liberaltarianism)
One of the key questions of political philosophy is about when it is ever appropriate for a state to use its coercive power. People have often had various answers to his question. The ancients...
Huntsman’s Appeal & The Politics of Personality
In a post about Huntsman’s Perplexing Appeal, Elias wrote: Another way of saying the same thing is that, for a politician, Huntsman seems semi-normal and almost kind of cool. We — Lefties and Righties...
How Much Better is the United States?
A week or so ago, Tom Van Dyke linked to this NYT piece exploring Europe’s economic troubles. The article, by Adam Davidson, posited that the Eurozone suffers from economic woes that go deeper than...
Oklahoma Anti-Sharia Law Struck Down
Yesterday, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed an injunction against Oklahoma’s anti-Sharia law. I guest-blogged about this issue more than a year ago on the front page, even before I was anointed a...
The Habits of the Poor
My post on what creates success generated a good conversation so I wanted to follow-up by expanding on the topic. Megan McArdle again provides a nice jumping off point (I love that chick). I’ve chopped...
Bain Capital Occupies Wall Street
Via Jim Garrity: Gordon Gekko: [at the Teldar Paper stockholder’s meeting] Well, I appreciate the opportunity you’re giving me Mr. Cromwell as the single largest shareholder in Teldar Paper, to speak. Well, ladies and...
The 10 Commandments of Tod
Transcribed from the Book of Jereniah: Lo, for I am your Tod – and so that you shall have no other Tod above me I give unto thee the following 10 commandments that are...
Hobbes and Language
Much of Part I of Leviathan — “Of Man” — is not really about man at all, but about words and ideas: how they came to be, how they are expressed, how they are...
Progressive Auto Registration
I got my auto registration for my car, Nader, and was in for a shock: It’s $325! Now, that won’t impress you Californians out there, but considering we just recently paid less than a...
Note on “The Day After”
In November, 1983, the ABC network aired the television movie The Day After, depicting the effects of a nuclear war on the Midwestern United States. Viewed by an estimated 100 million people, the film...
Dante Occupies Wall Street
~by Arthur Emlen In the Fall of 1947 at the University for Foreigners in Perugia, I took a course in Dante Alighieri’s Inferno. Dante completed this epic poem in 1321 just before he died. It...
What the Evidence Says about Strategic Voting in Open Primaries
~by James Hanley There’s been some interesting discussion here lately about the potential for, and legitimacy of, strategic voting in open primaries, in response to two posts by the surprisingly controversial Tod Kelly Although...
When the Fourth Estate Fails
Reading the article by Eric Schmitt that ran in last Sunday’s New York Times under the headline, “Lull in Strikes by U.S. Drones Aids Militants in Pakistan,” one gets a sense of just how...
At My Real Job: Drone Warfare
Over at Cato Unbound this month, David Cortright of the University of Notre Dame makes the case for caution in drone warfare: [T]he availability of a particular class of weaponry can influence judgments on...
