In earlier posts I mentioned the use of geoengineering as a way of dealing with excess CO2 emissions. One such method is called carbon sequestration and generally means pumping CO2 emissions into the ground for storage. The Economist has a report on one early attempt: But few studies have looked at what happens once the [...]

It seems to be in fashion to link to Craig’s list lately, so I’ll follow suit. There’s an interesting “best of” about the rules of dating that is downright hilarious. Among other things, the writer says, in a note to his roommate: PAY ATTENTION TO THE CONVERSATION. You always complain about uncomfortable silences. Well, d*ckhead, [...]

A hilarious video about sushi and how the Japanese played us for fools. Really great. (h/t Volokh)

Amanda Marcotte has a post up on racism that is actually temperate enough to deserve a response and some thoughtful questions. She says that racism is a system and argues vigorously that the person who behaves in a racist way is a racist, regardless of intent. It was an ugly conversation, with all sorts of [...]

The Wonk contest on the White House Hotties is done, and Emily House lost. I don’t know what kind of knuckledraggers were voting for Taylor Hughes, but that’s not a “come-hither” look she has on her face, it’s a smug look. The kind of look that says “these guys are going to vote for me [...]

Continuing to follow the developments in biofuels is interesting because the things you know from two months ago are supplanted by new developments. There are numerous objections to the way ethanol is being handled in this country — the massive subsidies, the 54% tariff on imported ethanol — that make ethanol itself an objectionable solution. [...]

Eugene Robinson has never been one of my favorites among the WaPo writers and it’s become pretty clear in recent months that he is among the worst. If he’s breathing, he’s probably lying. He begins this op-ed by using the dictionary definition of dissembling to rage against it, then proceeds to do it. Bigotry Beneath [...]

I took a step back from the issue before writing because I get a bit unreasonable over these kind of topics at times (see here and here). It’s difficult to remain reasonable at times when the country is under attack for various, often contradictory, reasons. Nevertheless, I shall try. This is usually James’s bailiwick and [...]

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child must be a good thing, right? After all it’s for The Children™? Apparently not. It seems that even though we never ratified this abomination, some people think it still applies to us. If it is customary international law, I predict they’ll need an Army, not a [...]

Over the past few months I’ve been reading about the “ingenious” solution to do away with the electoral college without amending the constitution: By having states enter into a compact that insures they will allocate their electoral votes to the winner of the popular vote. There are several reasons to object to this effort, but [...]

There’s an interesting conversation going on over at VC about the ethics of having children, but one comment in particular caught my attention: I’m pretty skeptical of the “children are good for the future” argument. Erlich’s “population bomb” may not have been wrong so much as delayed; the Green Revolution pulled a rabbit out of [...]

I was going to wait and write on Pandagon when they had yet another post denigrating capitalism, but I couldn’t let this one go by. Amanda has a post dedicated to taking Dennis Prager apart, which is fine with me. I have no particular love for the man. Without a lot of time at my [...]

Don’t get too bent out of shape, but we are going to deal with a touchy subject here and we will try to do it rationally. It’s about prostitution and a rancid piece of writing in today’s WaPo. To begin with, the piece conflates three distinct issues: prostitution between consenting adults (in a place where [...]

Yesterday I wrote on the successes of the European carbon market. Well, a new piece from The Economist ($) points to some flaws in the way the market was established. Among the shortcomings, the pollution credits were not auctioned off so companies would be forced to look at the the amount they would need given [...]

Yet another radical Islamist has been killed, but this time at the hand of the Israelis. The world is clearly a better place with him now living out eternity in hell with a bunch of ghouls raping him. Even so, I’m somewhat concerned that he was a government official for the Palestinians. Have the Palestinians [...]

After six years of talk, the Senate refused to bring a bill to the floor that would have created a separate legal entity in Hawaii for people of Hawaiian descent. This idea reeks of identity politics and seems more like an attempt to enshrine a grievance into law. How the success of this bill actually [...]

Unlike many of my political ilk, I favor taking an aggressive approach to environmental protection, provided that it’s done using the markets or a market mechanism. Global warming is one issue where I favor us stepping up and doing something to reduce the amount of CO2 emissions. New nuclear reactors should be part of the [...]

The UN is one of the last institutions you will find me defending, and I won’t start now. There is much to be angry about with regard to Mr. Malloch Brown’s speech yesterday, but let us focus on a few points for now: The deal was struck to link budget approval with achievement of significant [...]