Second thoughts about the Iraq War

Bullheadedness is a virtue?

Like most people, I woke up this morning to find out the Pope would abdicate the See of Peter. As someone who grew up Catholic, I’ve been wondering this for more than a decade: why was the Catholic church in the U.S. never charged with a RICO suit? Just going from the name of the [...]

Are we really going to do this again? The answer appears to be yes.

The Tea Party guys had a bad year.

Obama shows some spine.

Taxing Ammunition Should Be Considered to Reduce Gun Violence

Would Liability Insurance Help Minimize Threats to Public Safety?

Since I live in NOLA, this stood out to me, though it happened in Opelousas, LA. A man was found in his car this morning dead, having been shot three times. The words “Slow Down” were scratched into the back window. What’s the matter with people, and how much more of this crap will we [...]

Sharing some thoughts and soliciting feedback on what the 2nd amendment means.

In the past, I’ve disagreed with Steven Taylor on the merits of the electoral college. One of his most recent posts on it is here. I was wrong. The thing that made me reconsider is the fact that Romney would have won under my previously preferred option, having states allocate their electoral vote like Maine [...]

Well, perhaps not “returns”, as it hasn’t been destroyed in the way that smallpox was, but these kinds of stories are unnerving: Several children have been sent home from a Greeley school this week for what appears to be whooping cough, and a local health official said Friday that the possible outbreak illustrates the importance [...]

Santorum and stewardship of the Earth.

Apparently, the Nazis were quite successful, too. A 1945 report in the National Archives suggests Germany began production of the fake notes five years earlier in a bid to undermine sterling. Notes began to enter neutral countries by D-Day and the Bank of England issued the first of two recalls. The Nazis produced counterfeit sterling [...]

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.