Sailing the Last Voyage with Newton and Pascal
An old high school classmate pointed me to this, at the Huffington Post of all places: Administration officials were greeted with sarcasm and laughter Monday night when they briefed lawmakers and congressional staff on Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner's new financial-sector bailout project, according to people who were in the room. The laughter was at its …
Continue reading "Just Think of the Reception If the Republicans Had Been in Control"
David Brooks' piece on Ward Three Morality has me thinking: The essence of the problem is this: Rich people used to set their own norms. For example, if one rich person wanted to use the company helicopter to aerate the ponds on his properties, and the other rich people on his board of directors thought …
Continue reading "Ward Three Morality: Too Poor to Paint, and Too Proud to Whitewash"
Those of us who were confronted back in the 1960's and 1970's with books like Paul Erlich's The Population Bomb have heard this whining before: Jonathon Porritt, who chairs the government’s Sustainable Development Commission, says curbing population growth through contraception and abortion must be at the heart of policies to fight global warming. He says …
Continue reading "It’s Not How Many Children We’re Having, But Who’s Having Them"
Or at least that's the way it looks: On the heels of Treasury Secretary Geithner's apparent designation of China as a currency manipulator at his confirmation hearing last week, President Obama called President Hu over the weekend to try and calm the waters. We at this time have no more information beyond confirmation of the …
Which is, more or less, what Barack Obama told Sen Jon Kyl (R-AR) yesterday: The top congressional leaders from both parties gathered at the White House for a working discussion over the shape and size of President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus plan. The meeting was designed to promote bipartisanship. But Obama showed that in an …
Continue reading "If I Had Wanted Your Opinion, I Would Have Asked for It"
It pays to have a little (actually, a lot of) humility, and such is the case with the nomination of Kirsten Gillibrand to replace Hillary Clinton in the Senate. Earlier this week, I predicted that "it’s a given that New York Gov. David Patterson isn’t going to appoint a Republican, or a conservative Democrat for …
Continue reading "Sometimes, Even a Liberal Will Surprise You"
I was afraid that this was going to happen: When President-elect Barack Obama announced last month that he would revive the economy with the largest public works program since the dawn of the Interstate System of highways, advocates for the nation's long-neglected infrastructure were euphoric. Some hoped that the time had finally come to bring …
Continue reading "Transportation and Infrastructure Upgrades Already Slow Out of the Gate"
It's hard to believe, but... With every step taken by the Government as it tries frantically to prop up the British banking system, this central truth becomes ever more obvious. Yesterday marked a new low for all involved, even by the standards of this crisis. Britons woke to news of the enormity of the fresh …
Continue reading "Thick as a Brick: Britain Approaches Bankruptcy"
It looks like the fix is in on this: DESPITE claims that he's still undecided, Gov. Paterson is "certain" to pick Caroline Kennedy to replace Hillary Rodham Clinton in the US Senate, several unhappy contenders for the job have told friends and associates in recent days. The contenders based their conclusion on the view that …
Baby Blue's nice little article on the role of the local church vis à vis the beginnings of the Episcopal Church in Virginia are interesting for the current history of TEC, but they have a broader application: James Madison and Thomas Jefferson did not think so highly of the former established church's assertions either. And …
Continue reading "A Reminder of the Real Meaning of “Separation of Church and State”"
Positive Infinity 