May 2012
1 post
Jon Will’s gift →
The day after Jon was born, a doctor told Jon’s parents that the first question for them was whether they intended to take Jon home from the hospital. Nonplussed, they said they thought that is what parents do with newborns. Not doing so was, however, still considered an acceptable choice for parents who might prefer to institutionalize or put up for adoption children thought to have necessarily...
April 2012
2 posts
4 tags
Department of Justice admits judicial review is... →
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., bowing to an unusual demand of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in New Orleans, made official the backpedaling of the past few days over remarks by President Obama about the Supreme Court’s coming ruling on the constitutionality of his health care overhaul. Mr. Obama said on Monday that it “would be an unprecedented, extraordinary...
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The Kentucky-Yankee correlation →
For those who don’t know, every time the University of Kentucky Wildcats have won the NCA A Men’s Basketball Championship, the Yankees have also gone on to take the World Series.
March 2012
3 posts
2 tags
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It's no longer just Peter Singer →
Their answer, of course, is that the baby should not live—-he or she should be killed if his or her parents desire it because they feel his or her existence is a burden to them and will harm their well-being or the well-being of the family. It doesn’t matter to the authors whether the baby is physically and psychologically healthy. As a mere “potential person” (sound...
2 tags
Emerging economies to challenge U.S. hold on World... →
Emerging economies said it was time to break a decades-old tradition that has long shut out candidates from the developing world and kept an American at the head of the World Bank and a European leader at the International Monetary Fund.
The problem emerging economies face is finding a candidate willing to challenge the United States, which is the largest and most influential shareholder in the...
3 tags
February 2012
6 posts
6 tags
The ethics of Apple and Foxconn →
A Chinese immigrant whose aunt worked for Foxconn wrote David Pogue about Foxconn’s factory conditions:
If Americans truly care about Asian welfare, they would know that shutting down “sweat shops” would force many of us to return to rural regions and return to truly despicable “jobs.” And I fear that forcing factories to pay higher wages would mean they hire FEWER workers, not more.
Anyway,...
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White House budget director: Affordable Care Act... →
Which is problematic because, you know, the whole mandate issue is framed as a tax issue for constitutional purposes.
Mr. Zients: “Well, this is—” Mr. Garrett: “A moment ago you said there’s no tax increase.” Mr. Zients: “There aren’t.” Mr. Garrett: “So that’s not a tax?” Mr. Zients: “No.” Mr. Garrett:...
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NYC: Schools in churches, but no churches in... →
New York City does not want churches and other religious groups meeting in public schools because they are concerned that impressionable youth will be confused and wrongly think that the public school endorses the church meeting there on Sunday mornings.
So it greatly surprised me to learn that the NYC Department of Education rents Roman Catholic schools to hold public school classes. On Sunday...
4 tags
Jeremy Lin's non-recruitment →
Some coaches have wondered whether Lin, who is of Taiwanese descent, did not receive a closer look by recruiters because of his ethnicity. Coaches have said recruiters, in the age of who-does-he-remind-you-of evaluations, simply lacked a frame of reference for such an Asian-American talent.
3 tags
Why we have /bin and /usr/bin →
Late last week, I came across a link at HackerNews giving some intriguing insight into how /bin, /sbin, /usr/bin, and /usr/sbin came to be. Many of you will be surprised to learn that no, there is no divine plan behind all this separation.
January 2012
21 posts
3 tags
Drones and the "anxiety" of disincentives →
Anxiety is not a policy. It might be and, I think, in this case is an admirable sentiment, and a useful way of focusing on the basic question of the use of force. But ultimately, having anxieties about the implications of one’s weaponry and one’s political leaders who make decisions about how to use it is not the same as actually making a decision about what to do. When anxiety has to give way...
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Electoral College scenarios for Gingrich and... →
Romney, were he the nominee, could potentially make this generic map even better for Republicans. He has no obvious weaknesses in any of the swing states, at least as measured by head to head polling, which we fully grant is not necessarily all that predictive at this stage. Also, he could potentially make some of the competitive states harder for Obama: he could mobilize the not-insignificant...
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Discipleship vs. evangelism →
What’s more important? Reaching the lost or growing the reached? Over the past two weeks, the ongoing debate between discipleship and evangelism took center stage during one megachurch’s Code Orange Revival.
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Iowa caucus recount still has issues, doesn't... →
So apparently Santorum did win the Iowa caucus. Maybe. Eight precincts’ numbers can’t be certified.
…
getting the caucus vote margin right down to every last vote isn’t really necessary. After all, the caucus vote doesn’t directly determine the number of Iowa delegates that the candidates will receive. Even if the caucus vote did determine delegates, no voting technology is going to...
4 tags
Google, SOPA, and Citizens United →
Interested, unorthodox perspective.
Today, Google’s U.S. query page features an anti-Stop-Online-Piracy-Act statement from Google. Say that Congress concludes that it’s unfair for Google to be able to speak so broadly, in a way that ordinary Americans (including ordinary Congressmen) generally can’t. Congress therefore enacts a statute banning all corporations from spending their money — and...
3 tags
Flickr's creative SOPA protest →
For a 24-hour period, starting today, Flickr is letting its members darken their own photos in an effort to raise awareness about the proposed, highly damaging legislation. But that’s not all – Flickr is going a step further, and will allow users to darken other members’ photos, too. Now that’s what censorship really feels like.
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“These blocks are nothing. People adapt, as they’ve always done. They learn to...”
– Harri Kivistö
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Forbes: Startup incubators are better than... →
Let’s get this straight: If you want to work at Goldman Sachs, McKinsey or General Electric, an MBA is a handy scrap of paper.
But if you’d prefer to bypass the corporate ladder and actually build something of your own, spending upwards of $140,000 and two years without pay is just about the worst way to go about it. Because looming outside those classroom walls is a creature far less merciful...
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GOP Veepstakes →
Sure, we don’t have a presidential nominee yet. But that’s not stopping pundits from starting to pencil in the bottom half of the GOP ticket
“The Yankees moved like Michael Corleone in Godfather II. All family business...”
– Buster Olney
(via Quickish)
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Just like that, New York Yankees upgrade their... →
So think through what just happened here. For 12 relaxing months, any time all of us baseball geniuses were asked what we thought about the Yankees, we could just push our favorite knee-jerk-analysis button and answer: “Who the heck’s going to pitch on the nights CC Sabathia doesn’t?”
Uh-oh. So much for that.
(via Quickish)
7 tags
Tebow and expectations →
If the Broncos lose tomorrow, it doesn’t mean anything about Tim Tebow. It doesn’t mean he sucks, it doesn’t mean he isn’t an NFL QB and it doesn’t take away from what happened last week and all season — it means the Broncos lost on the road to the bye-week-rested No. 1 seed in the AFC. Yeah, losing under those conditions would be humiliating. Come on.
14 tags
Romney and free enterprise →
Whatever you think of Romney’s record, I think Roy hits it spot on — because Santorum and Gingrich did most of the things that Romney did, the only thing they can attack him for is his private sector career — something neither of them really know anything about.
A number of commentators have been remarking on how rarely Mitt Romney gets attacked by his opponents in the GOP...
2 tags
US debt equals GDP →
The soaring national debt has reached a symbolic tipping point: It’s now as big as the entire U.S. economy.
(via The Freeman)
4 tags
Ubuntu TV →
Ubuntu TV is to be the first proof point of this new strategy. Silber says that you’ll be able to watch your own media files, streaming media, or broadcast media. The goal is to combine all of these media sources without radically changing user behavior. Specifically, Ubuntu TV is not simply a Linux desktop on your TV. Canonical, says Silber, does not believe in the “browser on your TV”...
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“Tebow Time met overtime, and overtime had no chance. Neither did the Pittsburgh...”
– Judy Battista
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Worker flexibility: Why Europe is going broke →
European leaders like to mock the U.S. for its inequality and lack of social safety net. Though, for now, it looks as if Europe is headed for a two-tier society without any plan for improving the lot of the lower tier. How can Brussels excite a generation of ambitious young people — the ones who will determine Europe’s future success — when too many of them are offered low-wage, short-term work...
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Romney, post-Iowa →
The bottom line is that Mr. Romney’s chances of becoming president are a little higher than they were 24 hours ago, quite a bit higher than they were 24 days ago, and much higher than they were 24 months ago, when he was one of among dozens of potential aspirants to the nomination. If Mr. Romney achieves his goal, he will have some more aesthetically-pleasing victories along the way.
4 tags
Taking down the ethanol beast →
As the clock struck 12 am January 1, one of the most anti free market government interventions expired without renewal and without fanfare. In honor of the Iowa Caucuses, we can now declare that the ethanol subsidies and tariffs are finally dead. However, before we celebrate this rare piece of good news, we must remember that in order to deracinate the ethanol beast from our midst, we must...
6 tags
Tebow and the Steelers →
The point is that Tim Tebow led the Broncos into the playoffs. The playoffs! The Broncos! A team that, before the season, was expected to win maybe 4 or 5 games as a best-case scenario — even fewer if Tebow was given the chance to start at QB. But Tebow is going to get shellacked in the first round of the playoffs! is the dumbest sports argument of the day. The most important words in that...
December 2011
9 posts
2 tags
The rise of heterodox economics →
Most interesting is how they’re spreading: often, instead of through academic journals, through the blogosphere.
These three schools of macroeconomic thought differ in their pedigree, in their beliefs, in their persuasiveness and in their prospects. Yet they also have a lot in common. They have thrived on the back of massive disillusion with mainstream economics, which held that the...
3 tags
Canadian conservatives →
It’s true that Harper’s concessions to liberal public opinion would make him sweat behind a podium at a Republican primary debate—imagine Mitt Romney’s contorted defense of the individual mandate times a thousand. But the Prime Minister is certainly not a Pelosi-Waxman California Democrat, either. Canada is now more conservative than the U.S. on the environment, Israel, and public funding for...
10 tags
Estimating the number of Senate pickups →
Thus, a realistic forecast of the Senate is that Republicans will pick up four or five seats — just enough to guarantee them the majority whether or not Barack Obama is re-elected and Vice President Biden controls the tie-breaking vote. But the forecast has a very large margin of error. Republicans could plausibly pick up 13 seats, or lose 2.
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Gingrich fails to make the Virginia ballot →
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Gingrich's assault on the rule of law →
But Gingrich’s hunger for distinction has surely been slaked by his full-throated attack on such a judiciary. He is the first presidential candidate to propose a thorough assault on the rule of law. That is the meaning of his vow to break courts to the saddle of politicians, particularly to members of Congress, who rarely even read the laws they pass.
(via Ilya Somin)
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“While Jesus taught that a disciple in his own case should turn the other cheek,...”
– Paul Ramsey
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“The Tebow haters, doubters and skeptics will point to Matt Prater, John Fox,...”
– Boston.com
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“If there’s been a story like Tebow’s in the 27 years I’ve...”
– Peter King
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Even the Denver Broncos can't quite explain the... →
To a man, the Broncos believe this. They can’t explain the Tebow phenomenon, why he is having success despite such unorthodox mechanics. Backup wide receiver Demaryius Thomas said Denver’s season changed when coach John Fox pivoted from Kyle Orton to Tebow during a Week 4 loss to San Diego. Thomas was on the sideline injured, and said that when Tebow went in the game, “I just...
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Did Tebow almost become a Viking? →
Sunday will be Tebow’s first visit to Minnesota, but, if my suspicions are correct, I believe that Tebow would be making approximately his 10th Metrodome start if Josh McDaniels hadn’t have jumped in the way.
November 2011
7 posts
3 tags
Forecasting the Supreme Court vote on health care →
Respect for precedent pushes Kennedy to support the law and Roberts comes along for the ride in order to keep the opinion out of Kennedy’s hands (and possibly writing an opinion that cabins the Commerce Clause more than it is now). Alito probably goes with Roberts, but seems more up for grabs. If we are wrong, expect the justices to either downplay precedent and emphasize other legal values...
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The conservative case against Herman Cain and his... →
Cain’s defenders could also claim that his ignorance is irrelevant because, once in power, he can just rely on the advice of experts. Obviously, every president must rely on advisers to a great extent. But in order to make effective use of those experts, a president needs to have at least a basic understanding of what they’re talking about. That’s especially true in the many cases where experts...
4 tags
Canada and Russia joining forces to spread global... →
So funny.
As part of the plan, Canada and Russia are both increasing the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere as fast as possible. In Canada, a construction project to build the world’s largest hockey rink purely out of wood involves cutting down at least half the number of trees in Canada.
Russia has passed a bill raising the number of factories in the country by 800% each,...
7 tags
Steve’s last laugh: Adobe killing off Flash for... →
It’s sad that Jobs is no longer with us to see this day. But the truth is that he probably didn’t need to see it — he knew he was right. In his post, he outlined the need for a move towards technologies like HTML5, and now that’s exactly where Adobe is heading.
Steve gets the last laugh.
9 tags
Herman Cain’s seven biggest foreign policy... →
The China miscue points up a persistent problem for Cain: He doesn’t seem to know much about foreign policy. His stumbles on the economy and his personal life are bad, for sure, and the sexual harassment claims could very well end his campaign. But arguably Cain’s most notable gaffes on the stump have come not in the realm of social or economic policy, but in foreign affairs. If he wants to...
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Fedora simplifying UNIX file system structure →
Specifically, the developers in the Fedora Project are proposing to move all executable files into the /usr/bin directory and their libraries into /usr/lib or /usr/lib64, as needed.
(via Thom Holwerda)
October 2011
18 posts
3 tags
"Stealing" wealth →
I don’t necessarily agree with Adams’s solution, but I think his diagnosis of the OWS problem is compelling.
And what the hell does it mean to steal the national wealth anyway? If my flower shop does well, but your donuts shop doesn’t, did I steal some national wealth from you? It might look that way on paper, but it doesn’t tell you anything about what’s going on.
...