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Even if Libya turns into a quagmire, here are three reasons why a Qaddafist insurgency would pale in comparison to Iraq.
Archive for March, 2011
March 21st, 2011
March 21st, 2011
Category: Uncategorized
Economists continue to debate the determinants of crime trends. Donohue and Levitt sparked an exciting debate about the role of legalized abortion. An alternative theory is the role of listening to heavy metal music. A third theory points to pregnant women’s smoking habits and the consequences of their heavy smoking for later life outcomes for their children. “Researchers [...]
March 21st, 2011
Civil marriage should worry about other things more than bigamy.
March 20th, 2011
Category: Sports
Some time back, Mark Kleiman had a post here highlighting how AIG’s alleged high value was established by the willingness of other companies to invest in it, loan it money, and to reinsure the risks. But all those “other companies” turned out to be in some way a part of AIG, so everything came crashing [...]
March 19th, 2011
Category: Politics and Leadership
Among his many other distinctions, the late Mr. Christopher remains a great Jeopardy game show answer. The question for Mr. Trebek to read, for $600 in the “things actually have changed a lot” category: “Last white guy to be U.S. Secretary of State”
March 19th, 2011
Category: Uncategorized
When the NY Times soon starts its “pay per click” system, will bloggers actually be forced to write something interesting rather than merely being lazy and linking to another story? The OP-ED I just linked to reviews the recent history of how Japan has used engineering investments to counteract Mother Nature. It hints that Japan [...]
March 19th, 2011
Category: Popular Culture
I watched Harry Brown on DVD, which the great Michael Caine personally lifts from forgettable to above-average. It does though feature a common movie trope, namely that a bullet can thrown a grown adult across a room (Presuming a powerful enough gun). Mass and Speed are roughly interchangeble forces in comic books and in many [...]
March 18th, 2011
Category: Uncategorized
UCLA is a great school with big plans. During a time of tight budgets, we are investing in basketball and perhaps even a luxury hotel. While I would focus our investments on hiring new faculty and increasing Ph.D. graduate student stipends, I don’t have much political clout. With this in mind, I will focus my [...]
March 18th, 2011
Category: Britain, Politics and Leadership
The current Tory leadership of the U.K. government genuinely differs from that of prior eras. Whereas Margaret Thatcher cut the top income tax rate by more than half, Cameron has left income taxes alone and indeed one tax (VAT) has gone up. Their coalition with the LibDems gives the socially liberal wing of the party [...]