The new government in the United Kingdom has done what needed to be done. It cut spending. Some social welfare benefits are being frozen, others capped, some given conditions. It adjusted taxes, raising taxes in some places and easing the… Continue Reading
Everyone is blogging, talking, and tweeting about the profile of General Stanley McChrystal in the current edition of Rolling Stone, which hit the Internets today. What seems to be catching everyone’s attention is a combination of the dismissive to disrespectful… Continue Reading
This is such a flippant, ironic suggestion that — well, there’s actually a bit of truth in it. Because, of course, it’s the last thing Turkey really wants to have happen.
I’m not so sure I enjoy seeing tension involving Israel — particularly when it appears that the antagonists are trying to draw Turkey into a side adverse to Israel. This would be an excellent time for a diplomatic effort to… 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
I’m not entirely sure how I feel about the Arizona immigration law. On the one hand, I see no intrinsic policy problem with a state police officer referring someone reasonably suspected of being in the country without legal documentation to… Continue Reading
The results of today’s election in the UK may look a little bit funny and it calls to mind a myth I was taught in college – the myth is that multi-party parliamentary democracies better represent the will of 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
There is no such thing as ESP. There is no way for a human being to see into the future. The dead do not talk to the living (other than through books and writings they leave behind them). Psychics are… Continue Reading