Sailing the Last Voyage with Newton and Pascal
...things were different, as Le Salon Beige reminds us, in this quote which appeared in a French gay magazine in 2001: In France, homosexuality comes from a pedophile culture with André Gide. In 1968, there was even a pederast revolutionary action committee. In the speech of GLH at the start of 1975, there is a …
Continue reading "Homosexuals and Paedophiles Not in League? Back in the Old Days…"
Now we have the spectacle of Repbulicans battling it out over Social Security, in Florida of all places: Marco Rubio appeared on a Sunday talk show this month to say something remarkable. The Republican running for Florida's Senate seat suggested we reform Social Security by raising the retirement age for younger workers. Florida is home …
Continue reading "Rubio and Crist: The Reality of the Retirement Age in Social Security"
Environmentalism is certainly a new religion: America's leading environmental historian, William Cronon of the University of Wisconsin, calls environmentalism a new religion because it offers "a complex series of moral imperatives for ethical action, and judges human conduct accordingly." In other words, issues such as climate change are now much more than about "science." And …
Continue reading "Environmentalism: You Think the New Atheists Will Take On This New Religion?"
As usual, a big deal is made of this: But this is simply the obeisance that any hopeless debtor would give its largest creditor. It reminds me of a quip by a local county commissioner: if you walk into a bank as a large depositor, they tell you "yes, sir" or "yes, m'am," but if …
Towards the end of David Savage's piece on John Paul Stevens, this: Stevens' early life had more than its share of grand moments and deep tragedies. He was born in 1920, the youngest of four boys in a wealthy family. When he was 7, his father opened the 28-story Stevens Hotel on Michigan Avenue (now …
Continue reading "The Legacy of John Paul Stevens: Illinois, the Hardest Place to Run a Corporation"
Not a moment too soon either: Democratic Rep. Bart Stupak, targeted for defeat by Tea Party activists for his crucial role in securing House approval of the health care overhaul, said today he would retire from Congress this year. The nine-term congressman told the Associated Press he could have won re-election and insisted he wasn't …
That's the opinion of former British diplomat (to Uzbekistan) Craig Murray: So, there we have British elections today: an unfair electoral system, censorship of candidates' electoral addresses, little real political choice for voters, widespread postal ballot-rigging and elections administered by partisan council officials in a corrupt political climate. Some of the "on the ground issues" …
Continue reading "British democracy is no better than Uzbekistan's. Is the US's?"
As we in the US slog through another tedious (but very important) election cycle, the British accelerate the process with Gordon Brown calling an election on 6 May 2010. There's a lot to say about this but let's start with the fun observation. The Times has a way cool interactive election chart which is a …
Continue reading "Brits Place Their Bets on a General Election"
More worried about tax cheats than prosperity: Capital, and all of its blessings, flows to where it is treated best. The recently passed Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act of 2010 (the "HIRE" Act) imposes new obstacles to the flow of capital into and out of the U.S. While ostensibly limited to "reporting" requirements to …
Continue reading "Boorishly Provincial: Penalising Capital Flow In and Out of the U.S."
It's a story I've brought up on this blog (and elsewhere) but Kristof finally puts it in front of the "right" people: Some 2,400 years ago, a Chinese king invited a legendary military strategist named Sun Tzu to give a demonstration in military training — using women from the palace. Sun Tzu agreed, organizing 180 …
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