It's the goal of @pbenedictii, the new Headmaster of my old Episcopal prep school, St. Andrew's in Boca Raton: Q. What would you say is your priority? A. We have to prepare our students to be global citizens and will change the curriculum to understand that citizenship. Meanwhile across town we have the blog of …
Applying the Ivy League Rule to the 2016 Republican Presidential Field
Ramesh Ponnuru attempts to sort things out about the potential field of viable Republicans for the 2016 Presidential race. But, as was the case at the start of the 2012 handicapping, the most important criterion is left out: is the person an Ivy Leaguer? Let me remind my readers that we have not elected a …
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They Really Do Hate the Suburbs After All
And have a plan to do something about them too: The most obvious new element of the president’s regionalist policy initiative is the July 19 publication of a Department of Housing and Urban Development regulation broadening the obligation of recipients of federal aid to “affirmatively further fair housing.” The apparent purpose of this rule change …
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Paul Krugman's Moronic Take on Sprawl and Upward Social Mobility
The Gnome of Princeton is at it again: So what’s the matter with Atlanta? A new study suggests that the city may just be too spread out, so that job opportunities are literally out of reach for people stranded in the wrong neighborhoods. Sprawl may be killing Horatio Alger. Let's start with the key observation: …
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The American Middle Class: Broke, Busted and Disgusted
Well, it's not quite down to my pastor's favourite mantra, but it's close: We are number 1 right? USA! USA! No one can beat our wealth creation machine, our economic dynamism, our level playing field and our bastions of higher education. We have a middle class that is the envy of the world, right? Well, …
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Forty Years Out, Watergate Still Matters–and Gets Repeated
Forty years ago this past summer, this country was riveted by the hearings of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, better known as the Watergate Hearings. Although they did not directly lead to Richard Nixon's exit from office, they were an important step in that process. I've discussed Watergate many times on …
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Barack Obama's Strange Visit to Chattanooga
Yes, he's coming to the epicentre of the bitter people with their Bibles and guns after all: President Obama plans a visit to Chattanooga next week. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said he will visit the Amazon fulfilment centre at the Enterprise South Industrial Park on Tuesday. He said President Obama will give the …
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The Most Sensible Response of the Churches to Same-Sex Civil Marriage
It is to pitch officiating civil marriages altogether, as the Sikhs in the UK are being advised: Sikh temples have been advised to halt all civil marriage ceremonies on their premises to protect them from possible legal challenges for refusing to conduct same-sex weddings. It is the first example of a religious group altering its …
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For Once, Jimmy Carter is Right
About time: Former president Jimmy Carter condemned the effect U.S. intelligence programs had on U.S. moral authority in the wake of NSA revelations brought to light by leaker Edward Snowden, Der Spiegel reports. “America has no functioning democracy,” Carter said at a meeting of The Atlantic Bridge in Atlanta, Georgia on Tuesday. I've never been …
Same Sex Civil Marriage: The Saddest "I Told You So" of Them All
It happened: SCOTUS has struck down the provision of the Defence of Marriage Act that denied federal recognition to same-sex civil marriages, and basically "punted" on Proposition 8 on a standing issue. The latter doubtless seals that provision's fate. One of the reasons I find myself getting away from blogging on political issues is that …
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Positive Infinity 