Archive for November, 2011

November 15th, 2011

And yeah, maybe “czar” isn’t the best nomenclature here….

November 15th, 2011

Soccer fans do not idolize mere team managers like Paterno.

November 15th, 2011

Herman Cain isn’t stupid. But he’s trying to pretend to have basic knowledge he lacks, like someone who isn’t a basketball fan interviewing for the job of NBA Commissioner.

November 14th, 2011

We are so eager, as a body politic, to eliminate the possibility that public servants will do anything wrong that we make it virtually impossible for them to do anything right. –Lisbeth Shorr When people in the private sector complain of federal government-imposed red tape, they should count themselves lucky: Nothing the government does to [...]

November 14th, 2011

I was surprised and very pleased to find that Tantor Audio has recently released the Jefferson Bible on audio.  More Americans — and particularly more Jewish Americans — should get to know this work much better. What is the Jefferson Bible?  Recall the 3rd President of the United States. Thomas Jefferson loved Jesus.  He told [...]

November 13th, 2011

Really!  TIME’s Amy Sullivan notes how Michigan’s Republican-controlled legislature agreed to allow anti-bullying legislation only if it contained an exemption for “a sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction”.  (h/t Cohn) It’s obvious where this is coming from: Republicans wanted to empower evangelical bullies to harass gay and lesbian children on campus.  It’s an ugly — and in [...]

November 13th, 2011

Family members have an increasing capacity to spy on each other using hidden cameras, GPS trackers and the like. Common applications of these ever-developing technologies include sussing out an unfaithful spouse and detecting when a teenager has driven the family car over the speed limit. Robert Mendick’s article largely follows the usual line of media [...]

November 12th, 2011

To review: as everyone has observed, a list of individuals (not yet complete, certainly) acted and passived criminally and/or despicably.  And it is equally true that not all of Paterno’s or even Spanier’s career behavior has been despicable or even mediocre; indeed, adding to the dimensions of the tragedy, they did a lot of good [...]

November 12th, 2011

Lessons from Britain in 1815, with a debt burden twice as high as Italy´s.

November 11th, 2011

Yesterday an OWS-affiliated (whatever that actually means) crowd tried to occupy what functions as a quad at Berkeley, with tents in which to stay a while.  Campus police and Alameda County Sheriff’s deputies arrived in armor looking like Darth Vaders, cleared the tents away by force, pulled down signs, and brutalized a bunch of students [...]