Archive for December, 2010

December 19th, 2010

Two first-responder stories highlight the need for health reform.

December 19th, 2010

Prolonged isolation is torture. Barack Obama should be ashamed of himself.

December 18th, 2010

Andrew Sullivan acknowledges the success of what he calls “Obama’s long game.”

December 18th, 2010

No particular news today, but I happened to see Blue Chips on TV this week and it motivated some reflections. The Intercollegiate Athletics Program at Berkeley is probably having an office party around now for its 220 full-time staff, and I hope they are able to gin up some sort of cheer, because it’s been [...]

December 18th, 2010

Cloture carries.

December 18th, 2010

Professor John Kelly of Harvard Medical School, an addiction expert and an occasional commenter on RBC, has just published a new study of Alcoholics Anonymous. The key finding of his quite sophisticated longitudinal research is that many AA members undergo spiritual changes that in turn lead to subsequent reductions in their drinking. This finding has [...]

December 18th, 2010

And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him. But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers.

December 18th, 2010

Commenter Mobius Klein, in response to Mike O’Hare’s post about the placebo effect in wine-tasting, notes that even people who can distinguish between higher-quality and lower-quality alcoholic beverages at the beginning of the evening quickly lose that ability as the alcohol goes to work. That’s an acute observation, but when I read it I had [...]

December 17th, 2010

Sell out gays and immigrants, or we’ll blow up the planet.

December 17th, 2010

The NY Times has quite appropriately taken note of a major change in Washington. For the first time in more than 60 years, there will be no Kennedys in Congress or the White House. When I look at the Kennedy family through the lens of my profession, nothing stands out more than their service to [...]