Monday, January 31, 2011

Amazon.com: Theories of International Politics and Zombies (9780691147833): Daniel W. Drezner: Books

Amazon.com: Theories of International Politics and Zombies (9780691147833): Daniel W. Drezner: Books: "What would happen to international politics if the dead rose from the grave and started to eat the living? Daniel Drezner's groundbreaking book answers the question that other international relations scholars have been too scared to ask. Addressing timely issues with analytical bite, Drezner looks at how well-known theories from international relations might be applied to a war with zombies."

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Why Rush Limbaugh Rocks

Hollywood Crisis: No Oscar Nominees of Color This Year: "RUSH: Yeah, but I tell you something, other than Judge Napolitano, the adult Eddie Munster, there's never been anybody with a better head of hair than Glen Campbell. I mean that's something I think we can all agree on."

Friday, January 21, 2011

Greg Mankiw's Blog: Give me $1 billion to cut the budget deficit

Greg Mankiw's Blog: Give me $1 billion to cut the budget deficit: "I have a plan to reduce the budget deficit. The essence of the plan is the federal government writing me a check for $1 billion. The plan will be financed by $3 billion of tax increases. According to my back-of-the envelope calculations, giving me that $1 billion will reduce the budget deficit by $2 billion."

Charles Krauthammer - Everything starts with repeal

Charles Krauthammer - Everything starts with repeal: "As National Affairs editor Yuval Levin pointed out when mining this remarkable nugget, this is a hell of a way to do deficit reduction: a radical increase in spending, topped by an even more radical increase in taxes"

Thursday, January 20, 2011

This ‘new tone’ sounds suspiciously like the old tone | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment

This ‘new tone’ sounds suspiciously like the old tone | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment: "Emily Bazelon, Slate: “Good Riddance, Joe Lieberman. Why I loathe my Connecticut senator.” It’s not hate speech if you say “loathe” instead!"

The Corner - National Review Online

The Corner - National Review Online: "“Has anyone touched on the fact that the 2009 peace laureate is entertaining the jailer of the 2010 peace laureate?”"

Cafe Hayek — where orders emerge

Cafe Hayek — where orders emerge: "“Ask not what I can do for you – ask what you can do for me.”"

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Harsanyi: Obama isn't fooling anyone - The Denver Post

Harsanyi: Obama isn't fooling anyone - The Denver Post: "But, of course, there will be no tangible regulatory relief. The Federal Register is a codex of moral well-being, after all. Regulatory schemes are how we make life fairer, the sick healthy, the economy recession-proof and green energy a reality. It's how we stop the rich from acting selfish and weak from stuffing fat kids with Sno Balls."

Friday, January 14, 2011

Mark Feldstein - A half-century of political dirty tricks

Mark Feldstein - A half-century of political dirty tricks: "Indeed, the dirty tricks that helped defeat Nixon were more devious than merely the ballot-stuffing of political lore. In one of the least-known chapters of 20th-century political history, Kennedy operatives secretly paid off an informant and set in motion a Watergate-like burglary that sabotaged Nixon's campaign on the eve of the election."

Monday, January 10, 2011

United in Horror - NYTimes.com

United in Horror - NYTimes.com: "It’s possible that Jared Lee Loughner, the young man behind Saturday’s rampage in Tucson, will have a more direct connection to partisan politics than an earlier generation’s gunmen did. Indeed, many observers seem to be taking a kind of comfort from that possibility: there’s been a rush to declare this tragedy a teachable moment — an opportunity for people to cool their rhetoric, abandon their anger, and renounce the kind of martial imagery that inspired Sarah Palin’s PAC to place a target over Gabrielle Giffords’s district just months before Loughner gunned down the Arizona congresswoman."

I highlight this for its use of "teachable moment." Doesn't "teachable" describe the moment--as in the moment is able to "learn or be taught." Shouldn't it be "teaching moment" instead? I hate this phrase.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

The Corner - National Review Online

The Corner - National Review Online: "One of the depressing things about hanging out in journalism for a long time, or simply reading the newspapers for a long time, is that nothing changes. Stories repeat themselves. I have made that point before. So even that is a repetition, and depressing."

Saturday, January 8, 2011

The Inequality That Matters - Tyler Cowen - The American Interest Magazine

The Inequality That Matters - Tyler Cowen - The American Interest Magazine: "The funny thing is this: For years, many cultural critics in and of the United States have been telling us that Americans should behave more like threshold earners. We should be less harried, more interested in nurturing friendships, and more interested in the non-commercial sphere of life. That may well be good advice. Many studies suggest that above a certain level more money brings only marginal increments of happiness. What isn’t so widely advertised is that those same critics have basically been telling us, without realizing it, that we should be acting in such a manner as to increase measured income inequality. Not only is high inequality an inevitable concomitant of human diversity, but growing income inequality may be, too, if lots of us take the kind of advice that will make us happier."

The Inequality That Matters - Tyler Cowen - The American Interest Magazine

The Inequality That Matters - Tyler Cowen - The American Interest Magazine: "The broader change in income distribution, the one occurring beneath the very top earners, can be deconstructed in a manner that makes nearly all of it look harmless. For instance, there is usually greater inequality of income among both older people and the more highly educated, if only because there is more time and more room for fortunes to vary. Since America is becoming both older and more highly educated, our measured income inequality will increase pretty much by demographic fiat. Economist Thomas Lemieux at the University of British Columbia estimates that these demographic effects explain three-quarters of the observed rise in income inequality for men, and even more for women.2"

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

The Corner - National Review Online

The Corner - National Review Online: "Boehner knows that the power given to Republicans is the result of a great grass-root movement that rose up outside of the GOP, and has just seen the hubris of Nancy Pelosi swiftly and decisively punished. So modesty was the order of the day. He made a strange promise for a legislator: Congress would do less, rather than more. The bills will be smaller, the process will be slower, and there will be more open debate, even if it makes for less efficiency."

There's an agenda I can support!

Harsanyi: The Constitution is dead. Long live the Constitution. - The Denver Post

Harsanyi: The Constitution is dead. Long live the Constitution. - The Denver Post: "Every patriotic fiber of my body tells me that reading the Constitution aloud at the commencement of congressional sessions is a good idea. Heck, a pop quiz might even be in order. It is vital that members of Congress fully immerse themselves in the document if they're going to circumvent it effectively."

Monday, January 3, 2011

How Obama Can Work With Republicans - Economic View - NYTimes.com

How Obama Can Work With Republicans - Economic View - NYTimes.com: "SPREAD OPPORTUNITY INSTEAD Despite their rejection of spreading the wealth, Republicans recognize that times are hard for the less fortunate. Their solution is not to adjust the slices of the economic pie, as if they had been doled out by careless cutting, but to expand the pie by providing greater opportunity for all."

Took the words right out of my mouth.