I just watched David Keith’s talk on geoengineering on TED.   He mentions at the end of the talk an interesting problem with global politics that is probably going to be more and more prevalent this century.  The problem is this: let’s say that the United States is against shooting sulfur into the atmosphere to cool [...]

William Galston and Elaine Kamarck’s essay on the Democratic Party in the 1980’s, “The Politics of Evasion,” is an amazing self- examination of a broken political party at the end of the 1980’s.  The legend goes that the essay caught the eye of a young Arkansas governor named Bill Clinton and well, you know the [...]

I’m trying to get my head around the Obama school address protests.  I am mystified by the following elements.

Why the administration would think it would be in any way convenient to disrupt the school schedule so early in the new year for most public schools.  This is for some schools, a very serious burden on [...]

I have kept only the loosest of eyes on the health care reform, because, as I suspect is the case for many people, the mind boggles trying to track both the relevant public information, the way it is getting distorted by various interests, and the difference between the two.  In this post, I’d like to [...]

Here again, is the Sotomayor quote that has some rankled:
I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life
Here’s the context of where and why she said it, via the WSJ.  
The idea [...]

It’s funny.  I watched the HBO movie Recount last night, where both sides of the Bush-Gore election are portrayed in a fairly positive manner, but the Supreme Court is not.  It was an interesting thing to watch in the context of the nomination of Justice Sonia Sotamayor to the United States Supreme Court.  
I’m not [...]

“Even if plaintiffs have shown irreparable injury from the Navy’s training exercises, any such injury is outweighed by the public interest and the Navy’s interest in effective, realistic training of its sailors,” Roberts wrote.
From The Washington Post.
It would please me greatly to say this get reversed by an executive order early in the Obama administration.

Many people have already infused their hopes and wishes into the soon-to-be Obama administration.  Let me add my wish:  I wish for a return to a re-professionalization of our Federal Administration, the free and full access of government scientific studies, and a foreign policy done wth full and open consultation with military experts and regional [...]

There’s some soul-searching going on in light of the fact that most people don’t seem to expect McCain to convert his 3.6% 1.9% chance of winning.  I would advise someone in the Republican party to examine Galston and Kamarck’s excellent essay “The Politics of Evasion” about the Democratic Party in the late 1980’s.  The party and era [...]

Socrates would likely approve.  A good way for the media to appear both neutral and a meaningful source of information, it has always seemed to me, was to ask questions that force people to explain themselves.  It’s hardly unpopular, 60 Minutes has done it for decades.  CNN Anchor Rick Sanchez gives it a try:

Has the [...]