Like now: President Obama spoke today at a campaign rally in Durham, New Hampshire. "You know, it's fashionable right now for people to be cynical. We go in cycles like this and right now a lot of people are saying "Oh, America is doing terribly" and "What are we going to do?"... Being cynical, however, …
The EU is Really Good at Undermining Certain Things
The head of the Global Forum on Migration and Development thinks they should be undermining their national identities: The EU should "do its best to undermine" the "homogeneity" of its member states, the UN's special representative for migration has said. Peter Sutherland told peers the future prosperity of many EU states depended on them becoming …
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Same-Sex Civil Marriage: The End of the Marital Estate and Gift Tax Exemption?
Most on the "religious right" aren't paying attention to rulings like this, but like Charles Rubin they should be: The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York has ruled that same-sex couples can take advantage of the estate tax marital deduction provisions of the Internal Revenue Code. This ruling has far-reaching federal …
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Generation Y Answers the Question from the Last Presidential Cycle
Pollster John Zogby finds young people disillusioned these days: Nearly four years after enthusiastic younger voters poured into polling booths to help push Barack Obama over the finish line and into the Oval Office, their hope has turned to fear and pollster John Zogby says that they are ready to give up on politics. “I …
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Chicago: The City of Big Shoulders Slumps
Things are not pretty in the Windy City these days: But despite the chorus of praise, it’s becoming evident that the city took a serious turn for the worse during the first decade of the new century. The gleaming towers, swank restaurants, and smart shops remain, but Chicago is experiencing a steep decline quite different …
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Abortion, Infanticide and the "War on Women": A Lesson From China
There has been a great deal of discussion these days about gender selective abortions, which, when done, usually go against girls. We've been presented stories of nations where the ratio of men to women in the population is rising to "unprecedented" proportions because families are doing away with their baby girls through abortion. And, of …
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Book Review: Barbara Tuchman's Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911-45
When we think of China today, we think of a nation growing very fast economically and taking its place as one of the great powers of the world. Getting to that point--or getting to that point again, if one takes a long view of history--took a course of great suffering and several unexpected turns (how …
Yes, it Can be Proven Whether Elizabeth Warren is Cherokee or Not
Michael Tomsky of the Guardian is simply wrong about this: So if Warren’s mother told her there was Cherokee blood, and if one little rivulet of Cherokee blood going back generations makes one a Cherokee, which legally it does, then she’s Cherokee, at least as far she knows. Now she has to prove this? You …
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The Unabomber Only Did What The Rest Wish They Had
Old Ivy is a little chagrined over the career accomplishments of this Class of '62 member: Harvard University alumni attending their 50th class reunion this week are getting updates on classmates, but one person stands out among those sharing news about career moves, retirements and grandkids — Unabomber Ted Kaczynski. Kaczynski graduated in 1962 and …
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If We Had Been a German Colony, We Would Have Been Further Down the Road
I've mentioned on occasion that, where I teach, the full-time faculty in my discipline is entirely African. We recently had a faculty retreat and, before we got underway with the matters at hand, we discussed various items. One of them was the subject of Americans keeping lions as pets, which the Africans found understandably unbelievable. …
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Positive Infinity 