Universal Health Caring

Michael Millenson asserts in today's WaPo that the primary obstacle to universal health coverage in the United States is that "Those of us with insurance simply don't care very much about those without it." Dave Schuler is a wee bit skeptical: [I]magine how wonderful a perpetual motion machine would be. It could easily be converted into a generator and ...

Spanish Miami’s Primary Language

Spanish-only speakers have an easier time getting by in Miami than English-only speakers, AP reports. In many areas of Miami, Spanish has become the predominant language, replacing English in everyday life. Anyone from Latin America could feel at home on the streets, without having to pronounce a single word in English. In stores, shopkeepers wait on their clients in ...

Rachael Ray, Donut Terrorist

Dunkin' Donuts has pulled an ad spot featuring Rachael Ray wearing a scarf around her neck because some thought it was a subtle nod of support to Palestinians. Does Dunkin’ Donuts really think its customers could mistake Rachael Ray for a terrorist sympathizer? The Canton-based company has abruptly canceled an ad in which the domestic diva wears a scarf that ...

Condi Rice School of International Studies?

I've just gotten this PR announcement from Denver University, with which I'm not affiliated: DU's Graduate School of International Studies will be renamed tomorrow, Wednesday, May 28. Renaming the school will honor one of the most notable and successful individuals in DU history, as well as mark an exciting time for the school. Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine ...

Biofuels Are a Disaster, Stop It Already

I think it is safe to say that the use of things like corn and other crops to produce biofuels simply a stupid and wrongheaded philosophy. We were told that biofuels were supposed to help break our dependence on foreign oil. Yet here I sit having to pay, if I'm lucky, $4/gallon to fill up my gas tank. ...

Burma Air Drops

Barbara Stocking explains that simply dropping food into Burma is much harder than it sounds. [A]ir drops are not the aid equivalent of smart bombs. Running a humanitarian effort from the skies, like running a purely airborne war, is fraught with problems. For a start it requires excellent intelligence. Yet no one knows exactly where the worst affected areas are, or how ...

Rating the Presidents

Alex Massie has conducted an informal survey and came up with lists of The Most Over-Rated US Presidents and The Most Under-Rated US Presidents. Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter* topped the respective lists. These ratings are in comparison to a 2005 survey of eminent historians. The respondents to Massey's survey, then, presumably thought Reagan was somewhere below the 6th ...

‘Sociopaths’? Really?

I know that Andrew Sullivan is a fan of hyperbolic rhetoric ("fifth column", anyone?), and I also know that a lot of time I enjoy his hyperbole, even when I don't agree with it. But the past few weeks of his tirades against the Clintons have gotten tiresome, and I say that as someone who was never a fan ...

Hillary Clinton Fighting On

As predicted, we'll continue to have Hillary Clinton to kick around: Hillary Rodham Clinton says she will remain in the presidential race "until there's a nominee." The former first lady declined to say whether that meant through the roll call of the states at the Democratic National Convention this summer. I'm not convinced she'll drop out then, either. UPDATE (Alex Knapp): For ...

America’s Outdated Infrastructure

Thomas Friedman laments that said state of America's transportation infrastructure. A few weeks ago, my wife and I flew from New York’s Kennedy Airport to Singapore. In J.F.K.’s waiting lounge we could barely find a place to sit. Eighteen hours later, we landed at Singapore’s ultramodern airport, with free Internet portals and children’s play zones throughout. We felt, as we have ...