Where we read the following: I am the Good Shepherd; and I know my sheep, and my sheep know me-- Just as the Father knows me and I know the Father--and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep besides, which do not belong to this fold; I must lead them …
Book Review: The Fifty Year Wound: The True Price of America's Cold War Victory
It's hard for some of us to contemplate, but any "traditional" student wandering around today's college campus--to say nothing of those coming up behind them--has no living memory of the Cold War. For Boomers, it's a different story: the Cold War, and its hot portions such as Vietnam, basically framed the world view of an …
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Obama Not Daddy? Oh, Yes, He Is
Tina Brown thinks that Barack Obama should move from father figure to raw politics: Tomorrow he’s announcing something concrete—an escrow account out of BP to get the cash to all the Gulf workers whose livelihoods have been trashed. But will this be deemed leaderly enough to assuage the angst among his supporters that the oil …
What Palestine Would Look Like Under Turkish Rule
Or, more accurately, what it did look like... I've posted this before, but in view of recent events (i.e., the sea fight between the Israelis and the Turks/Palestinians) it bears repeating. I think it's fair to say that the recent changes in Turkey have as their long-term objective the recapturing of Ottoman glory, caliphate included. …
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A Nation Behind Bars
While going through a few things, I stumbled upon this graph showing the growth in the Federal prison population from 1950 to 2005. That's just to 2005. And it doesn't include the state and local prisoners either. Irrespective of the causes--breakdown of society, too many laws, whatever--the incarceration rate in this country is (or at …
Mexico: The Tax Haven for Those Who Survive the Lead Rain
No kidding, this, from Rubin on Tax: A theme we have often mentioned is that capital flows to where it is best treated. Obviously, the level of tax imposed on businesses is a key element of how capital is treated in any given jurisdiction. A 2010 KPMG guide analyses the current tax competitiveness of 10 …
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Trading One Elite for Another: Why We Need More Than Ivy Leaguers on the Supreme Court (and Elsewhere)
Someone has finally put forth the case that only Ivy Leaguers should really be on the Supreme Court: The gatekeeper power of such institutions is why it was so important to desegregate them (using affirmative action, among other tools) and why virtually all leaders of great universities talk about diversity and access. For about 40 …
Does the Obama Administration Think Being Lesbian is Wrong?
That's exactly what they're implying in their defence of Elena Kagan: The White House declared publicly, even before President Obama nominated Elena Kagan, that she is not a lesbian. "False charges," White House spokesman Ben LaBolt said after a conservative blogger wrote last month on a CBS News Web site that Kagan would be the …
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Elena Kagan's Most Principled–and Idiotic–Position
Yet Peter Beinart at the Daily Beast wants her to apologise for it: The day after the story appeared, I received an email from a prominent Democratic lawyer offering me the same kind of assistance that the Obama administration seems to have provided the Times. In a previous Beast column, I had criticized Kagan’s action …
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Obama Shouldn't Bemoan the Diversions of the Technological World
He did anyway, in his address to Hampton University: US President Barack Obama lamented Sunday that in the iPad and Xbox era, information had become a diversion that was imposing new strains on democracy, in his latest critique of modern media. Obama, who often chides journalists and cable news outlets for obsessing with political horse …
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Positive Infinity 