Covering the Coverage of the Diplomatic Leaks

The major outlets that received document drops from Wikileaks are covering the story in different and interesting ways.

Americans Mad As Hell, Still Going to Take It

After days of hype, National Opt-Out Day fizzled. It’s a classic collective action problem.

Removing the Fig Leaf from the Sunni Regimes

The diplomatic ramifications of the latest Wikileaks leaks are just starting to emerge and may place some countries in very embarrassing positions.

OTB Radio – Tonight at 6 Eastern

Tonight’s topics: Escalation on the Korean peninsula, the continued woes of the eurozone, and goodness knows what else.

The Security State

The People In Charge telling us that something is Necessary For Our Own Good makes a large number of people accepting of the inconvenience, no matter how asinine or unsupported by evidence.

Potential Responses to North Korean Provocations

What sort of response is required to Pyongyang’s ratcheting up of tensions on the Korean Peninsula?

Bike Lane Backlash?

As bicycle advocates have been getting new lanes and other concessions in major cities across the country, a minor backlash has formed in reaction.

Professor Gets 200 Confessions to Cheating

Richard Quinn, a business professor at the University of Central Florida, got suspicious after a historically high grade distribution on the midterm for his capstone course and decided to scare his students.

NATO-Russia Missile Defense Cooperation

NATO-Russia cooperation on missile defense is a welcome step forward.

Bernanke’s Reply to China

The finger-pointing about the global economy continues.

Airline Security Killing More People Than It Saves?

It’s quite possible that the delays spawned by airline security measures are killing more people than they’re saving.

What Do Voluntary Mean?

TSA boss John Pistole has offered to give Senators a pat-down search so that they understand the controversial new procedures.

Conservatives and Racism, Take MXLVI

Rush Limbaugh is apparently not impressed with Barack Obama’s presidency. That doesn’t make him a racist.

OTB Radio – Tonight at 5:30 Eastern

Tonight’s topics: New airline screening measures, Karzai vs. Petraeus, political infighting among victorious Republicans, and the defeated Democrats keeping their leadership intact.

Child-Free Air Travel?

The gang at The Week ask, “Are child-free flights the next travel trend?”

The Price of Tea in China

Food prices are rising in China. For us higher food prices mean we get fat a little more slowly; for a poor Chinese family it means starvation stalks a little closer.

Haiti’s Cholera

The cholera outbreak in Haiti continues unabated; riots against UN peacekeepers have broken out.

Airport Security Backlash Gathering Steam

Airport security is less intrusive in Communist China and war torn Afghanistan than in the USA. Have we finally had enough?

What If Hillary Were President?

Dana Milbank asks, “Would we be better off under a President Hillary Clinton?” His affirmative answer isn’t very convincing.

Justifying Marijuana Laws

The mental gymnastics people go through to justify their position on marijuana legalization are exhausting.

OTB Radio – Tonight at 5:30 Eastern

Tonight’s topic: Slow news day. We’ll figure out something.

Prop 19 Loses Big

Despite the Democrats sweeping quite literally every statewide office in California, Proposition 19, the marijuana legalization ballot issue, lost by 10 points.

Should College Really be the Best Four Years of Your Life?

Isn’t that a strange goal? Shouldn’t college prepare students to have better lives later on?

Stewart Rally Bigger Than Beck Rally?

215,000 people attended the “Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear” compared to 87,000 for “Restoring Honor.” Even if you believe the numbers, they don’t tell us much.

OTB Radio – Tonight at 5:30 Eastern

Tonight’s topic: The election is finally here.

Angle Attorney: Reid Intends to Steal Election

Sharron Angle’s attorney is charging that “Harry Reid intends to steal this election if he can’t win it outright.” She touts various “shenanigans” in a fundraising letter.

Where Are the Moderates?

Political pundits love centrism and moderate candidates. But political movements are built on desire for broad change.

Blog Rage

Is angry and violent language which dominates blog comments sections a sign of broader trends in our political culture?

Putting a Price on Professors

There’s a trend toward using metrics to identify ways to stem the skyrocketing cost of higher education. The likeliest result is to devalue the “education” component.

Jane Austen’s Tight Prose Thanks To Editor

Jane Austen was a poor speller and sloppy grammarian but her published words were precise and exquisite thanks to her editor, William Gifford.

Subsidize Broadband, Close the Post Office?

Fast Internet access is becoming a necessity for modern life. Should we subsidize it by eliminating the Postal Service?

NPR Fires Juan Williams

NPR has fired Juan Williams over controversial comments about Muslims.

OTB Radio – Tonight at 5:30 Eastern

Tonight’s topics: The foreclosure mess, low GDP growth, and the world-wide Tea Party.

Why Do Construction Projects Take So Damned Long?

Jonah Goldberg observes, “It took 410 days to build the Empire State Building; four years to erect the Golden Gate Bridge. The Pentagon took two years; the Alaska Highway just nine months. These days it takes longer to build an overpass.”

Palin: Party Like It’s 1773

Sarah Palin and the Tea Party aren’t as clueless as their detractors think.

Obama Cut Taxes? Really?

Remember that $400 tax cut President Obama gave you? Neither do 90 percent of Americans.

Taxation as Confiscation

An English instructor commenting at Balloon Juice takes issue with my characterization of taxation as “confiscating” income.

Empathy Deficit

Today’s college students are 40 percent less empathetic than they were thirty years ago. Is our political culture to blame?

Could Republicans Win the Senate?

Polls show the Republicans easily retaking the House but falling short in the Senate. But 2006 showed us that wave elections can produce shocking outcomes.

Pentagon to Gays: Please Stay in the Closet

The Pentagon has advised gay soldiers not to come out in the wake of a court order ending Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. This is a very pro-gay move.

Democrats Running Against Pelosi

Some Democratic candidates for Congress are working hard to distance themselves from Nancy Pelosi.

Oprahturfing

Jim Treacher has coined a new term, Oprahturfing, to describe wealthy celebrities funding attendance at political rallies. While clever, the concept of “Astroturfing” is being misused by both sides.

America’s Economic Model a Joke?

Paul Krugman argues that recent economic crises demonstrate that America has failed at corporate governance, banking, and the rule of law.

OTB Radio – Tonight at 5:30 Eastern

Tonight’s topics: The latest mortgage scandal, lust for a third party, the role of judges in Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, political motorcades and their impact on the little people, and who knows what else. I hear there’s an election coming up, so perhaps that will enter into the discussion as well.

Modernizing Education

We must abandon an Industrial Age education system that rewards compliance and stifles creativity.

Universities vs. Education

The skyrocketing cost of tuition makes it harder for students to justify getting a liberal arts education rather than training for a high paying job.

Free Speech For Soldiers and Government Employees?

Should members of the Armed Forces and other public employees have the same rights under the 1st Amendment as the rest of us? Or should they be more like journalists?

Fredi Gonzalez New Braves Manager

As widely rumored, Fredi Gonzalez has been hired to manage the Atlanta Braves, following the retirement of the beloved Bobby Cox.

War Makes You Fat

American troops in Afghanistan are overindulging in the fast food fare brought in to raise their morale.