Note: See below for more serious commentary. With Ron Paul saying we’re “all Austrians now”, I was reminded of Howard Dean’s “scream” from eight years ago: Not only are we going to New Hampshire, Tom Harkin, we’re going to South Carolina and Oklahoma and Arizona and North Dakota and New Mexico, and we’re going to [...]

I’ve just recently finished a couple of books, and thought I would make a couple of quick recommendations: The Physics of Star Trek: This book is perfect for people who aren’t well versed in physics, but need a reference point, such as Star Trek, to make it understandable. Numerous fascinating little nuggets, like the possibility [...]

The final BCS rankings won’t be out for a few hours yet, but Alabama is still number two in the sportswriters’ and coaches’ polls: AP Poll; Coaches’ poll. I’m biased, but I hope Alabama keeps the number two spot and beats LSU in the championship.

It’s difficult to know what is correct these days (see Doug’s post below), but this appears to be the latest, courtesy of The Guardian: Colonel Muammar Gaddafi has offered to enter negotiations with the Libyan rebels over the formation of a transitional government as loyalist fighters are pushed further to the outskirts of Tripoli and [...]

Amanda Marcotte is usually a little too intemperate for me, but this is right on the money: So, we have a woman running for President who literally believes that her god made women to be the helpmeets of men, and that marriage should be built around women submitting to their husbands. And this belief, being [...]

Obama needs to make clear, and soon, that the Bush tax cuts will be allowed to expire in total, regardless of whether he is re-elected. Can anybody disagree with this at this point? Much of the S&P downgrade is predicated on the inability to raise revenue. Any takers among OTB commenters? UPDATE: I picked the [...]

I have a question for anyone who might be able to answer it. Will a default risk the dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency? I know very little about this, but it is my understanding that central banks hold not only dollars, but also dollar denominated assets. I take this to mean that they [...]

I never would have negotiated in the first place.

The House Republicans are functionally insane.

Evolution is falsifiable and biology is a science. Economics might be.

Time for midterms.

Let’s keep our eye on the ball, people.

Roger Alford of Opinio Juris has a good post explaining why the recent leak of State Department cables is harmful and counterproductive. His co-blogger, Kevin Jon Heller, has a post explaining why Alford’s case is overstated. Both are well worth a read.

I watched the news on television last night for the first time in months. Indeed, I’m watching it this morning. The question I have is the title of this post: should we be pessimistic or optimistic about the Republican win last night? On the economy, I’m a pessimist and that might be bad for Obama. [...]

I don’t want to get too far into the Koran burning fiasco, as James and Doug have covered it admirably. Apparently the service provider for Dove World Outreach Center has pulled its web pages down due to the kerfuffle over Koran burning, as they have every right to do. What I would like to do [...]

“It’s illogical to hunt a species to extinction.” – Spock

The New York Times published an editorial that defended student testing and made controversial statements, such as the following: Groups that dislike standardized tests — and teacher accountability systems based on them — are blaming both for the cheating problem. But that’s like blaming the biopsy that turns up evidence of serious disease. Yearly testing, [...]

The Texas Board of Education recently approved new social studies standards and, as you might have heard, they are controversial. I have been following the controversy, ahem, religiously, and I oppose pretty much everything they are doing. But, I thought a couple of the changes they made were improvements. For one thing, they added Milton [...]

In an earlier post, I ended by saying I had a specific model in mind for reform and it’s based on the Chugach School District in Alaska. They won a Malcolm Baldridge Award for improving student performance. Unfortunately, I don’t have the original links from when I wrote about this a few years ago and [...]

The following is from the comment thread on my post A Question Regarding the Commerce Clause. OTB contributor Alex Knapp wrote: Most of the delegates to the Constitutional Convention fought tooth and nail for Federal Supremacy. Hell, Alexander Hamilton’s plan was to abolish the states entirely. All over the Constitution, Federal powers are defined in vague [...]

Since the Republicans are bereft of ideas these days, I have one for them: get rid of the Department of Education. Now, I know what you are thinking, that’s an old idea. It is, but if the Republicans sold it and implemented it the same as welfare reform they might have something. For instance, if [...]

The excitement of the last few days in the British elections has been great for me because I’ve been able to learn a lot about their electoral system (see Chris Lawrence’s post here and Steven Taylor’s post here). In addition, James Joyner has covered the politics of the British election here and here. Given that, [...]

This is Robert Prather again, or Rob if you prefer. I haven’t posted since Obama’s election night win, but will be posting once or twice a week going forward. I’m not sure exactly what I’ll be posting about, but I should warn readers that I have moved somewhat to the left in recent years. My [...]

Since the boss has already called it, we might as well go ahead and assign blame. Though there’s plenty of blame to go around, I place the bulk of it on Bush. He killed the Reagan coalition. That coalition has consisted of the religious right, small-l libertarians and other small government types. Likewise with people [...]

Matt Yglesias observes, There’s I guess a convention in America that it’s impolite to talk about politics. That’s a convention that, I think, ultimately grows the level of ignorance in the country and advantages those who would take advantage of the public’s ignorance. People who are well-informed ought to discuss the issues with friends, family, [...]

It’s a bad weekend for famous black men I’m fond of, after Bernie Mac’s passing. The legendary Isaac Hayes has also passed away: Soul singer and arranger Isaac Hayes, who won Grammy awards and an Oscar for the theme from the 1971 action film “Shaft,” has died, sheriff’s officials in Memphis, Tennessee, reported Sunday. Hayes [...]

Remember the good old days when everyday events were coordinated by Karl Rove? Today could have counted as one but, alas, Karl Rove is nowhere to be found. Child rapists can’t be executed, Supreme Court rules The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 Wednesday that child rapists cannot be executed, concluding that capital punishment for crimes [...]

That’s how Instapundit refers to James Hansen, apparently the most intemperate of the global warming alarmists (yes, he’s worse than Gore because he’s Gore’s science advisor). Here’s Hansen’s latest proposal: James Hansen, one of the world’s leading climate scientists, will today call for the chief executives of large fossil fuel companies to be put on [...]

The Boston Globe has a story that appears typical of religion in general, not just Judaism: At the Reform movement’s seminary, 60 percent of the rabbinical students and 84 percent of those studying to become cantors are female. Girls are outnumbering boys by as much as 2 to 1 among adolescents in youth group programs [...]

Thinking ahead to November, I was trying to imagine how the Democrats, particularly Obama’s most ardent supporters, might react if he lost. As bad as they were at accepting Kerry’s loss, Obama’s loss would be far worse. To begin with, his supporters will try to poison the well by claiming that some sort of cheating [...]

The Economist has a good article that summarizes why Jim Webb would be a nightmare pick for VP to people like me: The main worry about Mr Webb, however, is that he is a genuine fire-breathing economic populist. He appears actually to believe the sort of stuff that Mr Obama only says during Democratic primaries. [...]

You could get your TV stolen, among other things. A response to a comment in this post.

The creationists deserve a few props here. Since the Dover loss they’ve switched strategies away from claiming that ID is science and are instead focusing on “academic freedom”. That the concept of academic freedom doesn’t generally apply at the elementary and secondary levels seems to be of no consequence. The Louisiana legislature has passed, by [...]

School vouchers is an idea I’ve supported ever since I first read Capitalism and Freedom in 1989. It’s an idea so simple, and sound, that it’s a wonder it hasn’t been embraced. Yet here we are, forty-six years after CaF was published and choice hasn’t caught on (except when dismembering a fetus) and is even [...]

Though I’m not that fond of the Democrats on most economic matters, I don’t think they are socialists (what they are would involve a much longer discussion). The idiocy of socialism and national ownership of industry is apparent to most thinking people. Nevertheless, my first reaction to tripe like this is alarm: Link: sevenload.com Once [...]

On a non-political note, there’s this interesting map on what people call a soft drink. Via Gene Expression.

For the last seven years I’ve thought a couple of things about Hillary Clinton: she wants to be president in the worst way; if there is a worst way to become president, she will find it. My suspicions have proven true, according to Ezra Klein: This is the sort of decision that has the potential [...]

Andrew Sullivan has a reader email post that captures, for me, the reason that Obama has been catching on of late and could very well knock Hillary Clinton aside in the run for the Democratic nomination. A sample: It’s remarkable how little Obama has focused on black voters until now, but that may have been [...]

I haven’t posted in quite a while, but I will try to do better. George Will wrote a blistering column today about Fred Thompson which, for me, summed up many of the things I don’t like about Thompson. First on the list is that he’s a protege of John McCain and was involved with that [...]

I wish I had something of more substance to post on, but I’m rusty and just thought I would bring attention to this piece by CNN: With the aviation industry currently in the spotlight over its impact on the environment, Boeing has been keen to play up the 787′s green credentials. Lighter than other planes [...]

One of the dangers of blogging infrequently is that you only post when you’re angry. Such is my dilemma. I’m generally OK with religious people, but it makes me fume when I think of what they will do to the nation if the latest nonsense against evolution actually succeeds: I recently addressed a group of [...]

I’ve written about this numerous times on my old site, but I thought I would share a bit on the new site. On September 11th, I worked in the suburbs of Chicago and left my townhome at 7:45am CT. At the time, I left for work thinking that it was a small commercial airliner that [...]

Megan McArdle had a good post the other day pointing out the inconsistency of those who want to tax income at a higher rate because the rich supposedly get utility from spite. That is, the rich are made to feel better than people who have less money because of their relative positions. She used peoples’ [...]

As the OTB Roving Correspondent for New Orleans, I actually ran into George Stephanopoulos at the Acme Oyster House. Of course, it wasn’t a professional run-in: I’m not a professional. Nevertheless, I met him and he’s in NOLA to do a story tomorrow. I was discreet and didn’t want to disturb him too much. I [...]

Hmm. I’ve wondered when this might happen. It’s been building for a while, since they cut his budget a few months ago. The latest: Viacom Inc. Chairman Sumner Redstone said his company’s Paramount Pictures is terminating its 14-year relationship with actor Tom Cruise’s production company, citing the actor’s controversial and sometimes erratic behavior of the [...]

I’m not sure why Amnesty International would find it surprising that civilians died in large numbers when Israel is fighting a bunch of skulkers: Amnesty International says attacks on civilian targets by Israeli military forces during the recently ended fighting in Lebanon look like deliberate war crimes. In a report released on Wednesday, the London-based [...]

In spite of what happened to Larry Summers, research into the differences between male and female brains seems to be all the rage these days. And the conclusions are fascinating: Brizendine uses those differences to explain everything from why teenage girls feverishly swap text messages during class, to why women fake orgasms to why menopausal [...]

Perhaps Democrats should consider permanent income — or peoples’ average incomes over several years — when considering how people might vote. Briefly, the idea is that people base their current period’s consumption on their permanent income rather than that period’s income. There is some support for this and it makes sense if people are forward [...]

Martin Scorsese could have a field day with this, al la Taxi Driver and Raging Bull. It’s not entirely surprising that a repressed view of sexuality might spawn violence, given that they seem to be revulsed by their feelings: Wright draws a fascinating picture of Sayyid Qutb, the font of modern Islamic fundamentalism, a frail, [...]

This is more than a little distressing (WSJ, $): Time Inc. hired former Wonkette blogger Ana Marie Cox to be Washington editor of Time.com. In her new role, Ms. Cox will head the Web site’s political coverage and produce stories for the print and online editions of the magazine. Ms. Cox joined Time magazine as [...]