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Character and compassion
Categories: UncategorizedIt has been a horrifying week. On Monday, two bombs were set off at the Boston Marathon, killing three and injuring many more. Monday’s violence was followed by the murder of a young police officer…
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The Truth Shall Set You Free…
Categories: Uncategorized… or at least give you a lot more free time. P J Crowley, the State Department spokesman, resigned because he had called the treatment of PFC Bradley Manning “ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid.” If Manning has…
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Apocalypse now
Categories: UncategorizedJapan has been hit by a triple whammy: a staggering earthquake, a devastating tsunami, and a nuclear catastrophe. Japan is as well prepared to deal with the first two as any place could be —…
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Those cannot remember the past…
Categories: Uncategorized… seem to be running the Texas Board of Education. On Friday, March 12, 2010 this body decreed that some changes be made to the Texas curriculum. (The New York Times ran the story on Saturday.) This…
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Mad Money: Further reading
Categories: UncategorizedIf you’re curious about the cost of military spending — not just in dollars, but in tradeoffs for other things — schools, bridges, healthcare, and so forth — you could do worse than consult the National…
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Mad money
Categories: UncategorizedBack in November 2007, I noted that the United States had spent roughly $1550 per person — American man, woman, child — on the war in Iraq. It won’t come as surprise that we’ve spent a…
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Childish thoughts
Categories: UncategorizedA few days ago, my son, eyelids drooping after a long bedtime story, perked up so that he could ask a question. Background: he’s been telling us all — his mother, his sister, and me…
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Evolution speeds up
Categories: UncategorizedThere’s an interesting new study out on human evolution: apparently, driven by increasing population size and migration, it has speeded up in the past 50,000 years. (The New York Times coverage is here; Scientific American‘s…
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Benefit of the doubt? Enough.
Categories: UncategorizedWe’ve learned, thanks to the New York Times, that the CIA destroyed at least two videotapes of what the press–following the administration’s penchant for euphemism–keeps calling “harsh” or “severe” interrogation techniques. It’s time the press…
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Patriotism
Categories: UncategorizedThose shiny little enamel flags politicians ostentatiously wear on their lapels proclaim their wearer’s unwavering patriotism; their ubiquity suggests that politicians have calculated that patriotism sells. This is hardly surprising: American kids start their school…