Subscribe to RSS
Subscribe by Email
Oklahoma is an oil state. Oklahomans vote for people like senators Inhofe and Coburn, who rail at the ‘myth’ of climate change. After all, there are millions and millions of dollars still to earn selling oil to burn: what more evidence does a reasonable Sooner need? People who think science is more than a political [...]
Archive for the ‘Post-disaster reflections’ Category
May 20th, 2013
December 16th, 2012
Category: Education policy, Firearms, Politics and Leadership, Post-disaster reflections, Terrorism and its control
Let’s reflect on the two real lessons of the Battle of Newtown. First, the Second Amendment is not about hunting animals and punching paper, it’s about winning a war against the government, and here we have a man who didn’t whine about tyranny, or run and hide: he took up arms like a Real American, [...]
August 28th, 2011
Category: Policy briefs, Post-disaster reflections
Lots of people evacuated who could just as well have stayed home. Irene was not the apocalypse for which Bloomberg, Christie, and the other elected officials who pulled out all the stops prepared. Were they wrong? In a world without the second law of thermodynamics, in which time can be run back and forth, obviously [...]
May 20th, 2011
Category: Post-disaster reflections, Woolgathering
Obviously, we should be blogging furiously in the remaining day. On the other hand, there’s other stuff I really want to do while I can, like learn Arabic and change the oil in my car, so I will have to be brief. Here are some useful updates of the sort for which you naturally turn [...]
April 4th, 2011
When most people hear the word “trauma” they understandably think about combat veterans and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. But traumatic events are not confined to the battle field. They include being involved in an accident, being the victim of crime, surviving an earthquake or other disaster, or even witnessing others go through terrible things (e.g., some [...]
January 11th, 2011
The “Second Amendment remedy” discourse of the last few years is a near-monopoly of the far right, “crosshairs map” and all. And Arizona does have extremely permissive firearms laws, and it’s full of people who really, really, want to be able to play with guns and take them everywhere. I would love to hang the [...]
November 20th, 2010
Ian Ayres to indebted graduates: buy stocks on margin!
October 5th, 2010
Obion County, Tennessee is a rural patch with eight towns in it, each of which has a fire department supported by local taxes. If you live in one of these towns, and your house catches fire, your neighbors put out the fire through the agency of the fire department. Some people prefer to live out [...]
June 26th, 2010
Once upon a time, writers and pols gathered in physical places nominally devoted to consumption of ethanol and chemicals with names ending in -ine, including but not limited to caff- and nicot- , and engaged in social capital formation, sharpening of wits, and exchange of information that made them all smarter and happier. Some of [...]