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Students of U.S. drug policy will mourn the passing of Professor David Musto, perhaps the greatest historian of the field. The American Disease is the best-known of his books and is justifiably called a classic. An even greater delight for drug history buffs is The Quest for Drug Control, co-authored by Pamela Korsmeyer. The latter [...]
Archive for October, 2010
October 13th, 2010
Category: Corruption in Washington
The skilled flacks of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce – no doubt the best that foreign money can buy – have largely succeeded in obfuscating the issue about the relationship between the Chamber’s $75 million smear campaign against Democrats and the Chamber’s overseas contributors. The Chamber says it gets only $100,000 per year in dues [...]
October 13th, 2010
There are two houses of Congress — and this year, that means that there are two different midterms.
October 13th, 2010
Category: Brazil, Latin America
Brazilian and Venezuelan electors behaving rationally, unlike American.
October 13th, 2010
The bee story has a back story, a little darker and less promising than it looked through the NYT story’s window. HT: Kevin Drum and an RBC commenter.
October 12th, 2010
Category: Woolgathering
(1) The Anglo-Saxon legal system, which allows Virginia Phillips to halt Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell in its tracks on constitutional grounds (whether her decision and stay hold up is another story, but a political one). (2) Judge Phillips, for doing the right thing. (3) Hardrock miners, who go deep underground in harm’s way every day, [...]
October 12th, 2010
In a long and thoughtful reflection on David Brooks’ bleat about public pensions, Jon admits that there is a public pension problem and maybe even a public employee salary issue. Here’s some more along those lines, too long for a comment. My main point is that the problem is structural: political arrangements, intentional and other, [...]
October 12th, 2010
Category: City of Angels, Liberalism, Prisons and penal policy, Public management, Unions and organizing, Watching Conservatives
Perhaps despite himself, David Brooks raises some good points about public sector sustainability in an otherwise-wretched column.