Sailing the Last Voyage with Newton and Pascal
In his interesting analysis about The Collapse of Political Trust, Jonah Lehrer makes the following observation: And this returns us to the present dysfunction in Washington. If trust is about the distribution of rewards – about learning to expect bonuses from others – then it’s going to be a lot harder to share those rewards …
Continue reading "The Collapse of Political Trust = The Collapse of Expectations"
This Saturday Texas Gov. Rick Perry is sponsoring a prayer rally called "The Response." In a country whose elites are sensitive to any serious demonstration of faith, the reactions have been predictable. But in view of the buzz regarding Rick's plans after The Response, I think we need to look at this another way. Ags, …
Continue reading "Rick Perry's Prayer Rally: It's Really Midnight Yell Practice"
That, according to "Spengler" is what's going on with the Tea Party's stubbornness in the recent debt ceiling debacle: The trouble is that both the Tea Party and President Barack Obama have existential reasons to force a crisis. Obama, as I wrote two weeks ago, faces probable defeat with a becalmed economy, and may benefit …
Sounds like he'd like to: "The idea of doing things on my own is very tempting. I promise you, not just on immigration reform. But that's not how our system works. That's not how our democracy functions. That's not how our Constitution is written," Obama said at the National Council of La Raza's annual conference. …
Continue reading "Barack Obama: Will the Caudillo Rise to the Occasion?"
The current theatre riveting Washington these days is the debt ceiling "negotiation" between Barack Obama and the opposite of progress (otherwise known as Congress). But, as Felix Salmon (and others) point out, it may all be for nothing: Realistically, then, the government is likely to breach the current debt ceiling no matter what Congress agrees. …
Orin Kerr is proud of himself that Judge Jeffrey Sutton agrees with him on the individual mandate rulig: I think Judge Sutton’s separate opinion is excellent, but then it’s easy for me to say: Judge Sutton’s views closely match what I’ve been saying here and elsewhere for a long time, so maybe this just proves …
Continue reading "Legalising Legislative Deception: Judge Sutton and the Individual Mandate"
Now that New York, financially struggling and seeing its people bail to avoid its high taxes, has legalised same sex civil marriage, they need to do one more thing to complete the act. When Governor Cuomo signs this bill, he should issue an apology to everyone--heterosexual and homosexual alike--who are cohabiting without civil marriage, especially …
Rep. Shelia Jackson-Lee misses the point: In an exchange with witness Patrick Dunleavy, the former deputy inspector of the criminal intelligence unit, New York Department of Correctional Services, Rep. Jackson Lee mentioned the case of a man who blew up an abortion clinic and proposed that this perhaps was an attempt to undermine U.S. law …
Continue reading "Christian Militants Don't Need to Bring Down the Country"
It took long enough: "Shovel-ready was not as shovel-ready as we expected," Obama said. In both the jobs council meeting and in his speech later to employees at a Durham lighting company, Obama said regulatory change is a major part of his new jobs push. "How do we deal with making sure our regulations make …
Continue reading "Reality on "Shovel Ready" Finally Sinks In For Our President"
Chris Mathews protesteth too much: "This is not a funny thing. There is a weird thing about your political party [Republican]. It's nativist. It is weird. Obama -- you still have a big bloc of Republicans that say he wasn't born in this country, in Africa or somewhere," Chris Matthews said on his show. Chris …
Continue reading "Whether Obama's "European" Orientation is a Slur Depends Upon Your Point of View"
Positive Infinity 