So far as I had known, the only multi-lingual deliberative body was the United Nations’ General Assembly. But it turns out that the Senate in Spain is a forum in which legislators desire to speak not only the primary language… Continue Reading
Sometimes I wonder why exactly I can’t find it in my heart to condemn Islam so starkly, clearly, and powerfully as Pat Condell: Then I remember the answer: what Condell is describing here isn’t congruent with my own personal experience… Continue Reading
I guess maybe to some people in Europe, it’s not so silly to have laws that exclude the descendents of the former royal and noble families from becoming heads of state, but it seems rather silly to me that someone… Continue Reading
High speed rail between Milwaukee and Madison is projected to reach speeds in excess of 79 miles an hour. Ooh. Aah. Your tax dollars at work. $810 million of it, or about one-tenth of the total high-speed rail dollars in… Continue Reading
As a colleague put it to me yesterday, it’s amazing the amount of nothing that is happening in the world. It seems that there is a lot of fruitless effort to do something about the oil spill in the Gulf… Continue Reading
Speaking as a citizen of the state of California, I look up to the political leaders running the show in Sacramento, and wish, longingly and wistfully, for the comparative financial wisdom, fiscal restraint, and prudent monetary policies that are the… Continue Reading
A random thought from a psychologist: If it seems that our country’s political discourse has grown increasingly polarized, intractable, and hostile, blame the Soviet Union for it. Specifically, blame the Soviets for collapsing and depriving us of a meaningful enemy. … Continue Reading
A volcano in Iceland, which last erupted for fourteen months straight and bears the utterly unpronounceable name Eyjafjallajokull, has begun erupting again, and scattered ash over most of Europe. Because this volcano’s ash contains a high silica compound, if it… Continue Reading
One of the countries I keep a close eye on internationally is Turkey. It’s not just that there are plenty of predictions that Turkey will rise to global prominence over the course of this century, or that as one of… Continue Reading
LOLCats — annoying the hell out of you since 1929! After Japanese stereoscopic photography was rediscovered, so was the lost art of stop-motion photography, this time by disaffected Spanish college students. Living on a cliff: probably not a good idea… Continue Reading