Sailing the Last Voyage with Newton and Pascal
Last week I posted a piece on why it's important not to get too trimphalistic on the French rejection of same sex civil marriage. That brought a long series of comments from "MichaelPS" who is obviously very familiar with French jurisprudence on this subject. One of his observations was as follows: It is significant that, …
Continue reading "Civil Marriage: When the State Becomes God"
After yesterday's boffo performance by James Clapper and Leon Panetta, conservatives are justifiably upset at our intelligence community. But there's nothing new about this, as this wrap on the CIA's (in particular) uninspiring performance in the Cold War, from Derek Leebaert’s The Fifty Year Wound: The True Price of America’s Cold War Victory should remind …
Bill Muehlenberg is absolutely beside himself at the French Court of Cassation's (their plus ou moins equivalent of our SCOTUS) rejection of same sex civil marriage: But the real story here is about all those places which have not legalised it, and/or have fought against it. The media tends not to play up these stories. …
Continue reading "Clarifying the French Rejection of Same Sex Civil Marriage"
The right is very pleased with British PM David Cameron's attack on multiculturalism: 'Multiculturalism has failed," said British Prime Minister David Cameron last weekend in Munich. If anybody thought they had read those words before, it is because they have. Many times. Last October German Chancellor Angela Merkel (sitting onstage with Mr. Cameron when he …
Continue reading "The Downside to David Cameron's Attack on Multiculturism"
Liberals didn't like the idea of reading the Constitution in the House. What they didn't realise is that the wrong "branch of government" did the reading: No wonder people don't like civics classes...if our legislators don't understand how this system works, why should they?
In the UK, we have this: And when that Independent article was written, just two Muslims had been charged with stirring up 'hatred' for handing out leaflets outside a mosque suggesting that gay people should be executed. Razwan Javed, 30, and Kabir Ahmed, 27, were accused of handing out a leaflet entitled 'The Death Penalty?', …
Continue reading "Gays and Muslims: The Collision Course Finally Collides"
Barack Obama is, to some extent, correct on this: This is our generation’s Sputnik moment. Two years ago, I said that we needed to reach a level of research and development we haven’t seen since the height of the Space Race. In a few weeks, I will be sending a budget to Congress that helps …
Continue reading "The Difference Between Then and Now on the "Sputnik Moment""
In the middle of an excellent article on the nature of the "best and brightest" of American students, Heather Wilson makes this observation: When asked what are the important things for a leader to be able to do, one young applicant described some techniques and personal characteristics to manage a group and get a job …
Continue reading "Leaders Don't Set Agendas. Bureaucrats and Lawyers Do."
You know you're in trouble when Abraham Foxman of the ADL goes after you on something like this: Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen apologized for remarks that linked Republican attacks on President Obama's health care law to Nazi propaganda, saying he didn't intend to offend anyone. "I want to be clear that I never called Republicans …
Continue reading "Steve Cohen Gets Blowback on Nazi Comments"
Rich Jaroslovsky's assessment that Steve Jobs is another Edison or Ford is right: Lacking information about Jobs’s latest illness, questions have focused on what his absence will mean for Apple. How deep is the management team that will run things while he’s on medical leave? What will the impact be on a stock price that’s …
Positive Infinity 