This 2005 piece, from David "Spengler" Goldman, is as succinct of an explanation of the importance of blood in spiritual life as I've seen: All religion is about life, that is, about life eternal. Humankind cannot bear mortality without the hope of immortality, and for this men will sacrifice their physical existence without hesitation. That …
More Elitist Snob Advice: Make the Blue Beast Work for the People
Walter Russell Mead hits the problem squarely on the head: Back before the global warming mess blew up, I wrote a post about the breakup of the ‘blue social model‘. Not to regurgitate the whole post, but the mid-twentieth century saw the US (like most advanced countries at the time) develop an economic and political …
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Liberals and Libertarians Can't Get It Together
A couple of weeks ago, in my article Strange Bedfellows: Liberals and Muslims I made the following statement: The left, by and large, is a statist movement. Their goals are ultimately achieved through supra-national organisations, the EU currently being the most successful. (The UN is somewhat more complicated because of the presence of Third World …
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It's Dump Time in Beijing
As one commenter noted, wonder what took so long: Dollar-denominated risk assets, including asset-backed securities and corporates, are no longer wanted at the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), nor at China’s large commercial banks. The Chinese government has ordered its reserve managers to divest itself of riskier securities and hold only Treasuries and US …
Read This, Skip That. No, Maybe Read Both!
My fellow South Floridian Gerald Posner has gotten himself into quite a pickle at the Daily Beast after accusations of plagiarism: Last Friday, Jack Shafer in Slate ran an article pinpointing five sentences from one of my stories in The Daily Beast, which I admitted met the definition of plagiarism and I accepted full responsibility …
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Hubris and Coastal Development
As sort of a follow-up to my post on climate change and sea level rise, I'd like to present this from another U.S. military document, in this case Coastal Geology. From the first chapter: a. Since man has ventured to the sea, he has been fascinated by the endless variety of geomorphic landforms and biological …
Washington Gets Small Business, It Just Doesn't Like It
Caroline Baum at Bloomberg tries to put on a "rational" face on this problem: “Washington doesn’t get it.” That generic statement is tripping off the tongues of populists and Tea Partiers, business groups and bankers alike. In short, the public is peeved at the politicians. I heard it this week from William Dunkelberg, chief economist …
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Climate Change and Sea Level Rise
This interesting discussion from the Coastal Engineering Manual, which pre-dates the blow-up over "Climategate," "Glaciergate," and all of the other "gates" that the science has experienced lately: Before engineering and management can be considered, a fundamental question must be asked: Is sea level still rising? During the last decade, the media has “discovered” global warming, …
Forcing the Church of England's Hand on Homosexuals
Back in March 2007 I noted the following: The best practical argument for disestablishment, however, is that it would give more freedom to the church to set its own agenda. We’ve already noted that there has been talk about Parliament forcing the CofE to admit women bishops. In the gay-crazy mood the UK is in …
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Putting Deeds Behind Words: ASCE's Response to Barack Obama's Call for More Infrastructure Investment
Seems to be about all our President hears these days: In response to President Obama's comments on infrastructure in his Jan. 27 State of the Union address, ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers) has issued this statement by 2010 President Blaine D. Leonard, P.E., D.GE, F.ASCE: We appreciate that the president mentioned in his address …
Positive Infinity 