US Politics
He ain’t seen nuthin’ yet (Or: Everything is relative)
The 150th Anniversary edition of The Nation magazine, out last week, is a fun read, with reprints of articles dating back to the time of the journal’s early years by the likes of Henry James, Fredrick Law Olmstead, and H.L. ...
Read MoreRand Paul and the Political Limits of Libertarianism
It’s official: Rand Paul, the libertarian conservative Republican senator from Kentucky, is running for president. He doesn’t have a chance. Rand’s lack of prospects says a great deal about the political limitations of his libertarian creed and its relationship to ...
Read MoreHillary’s Troubles
Regular readers of this blog know that I am not a great fan of Hillary Clinton’s, and certainly not one to leap mechanically to her defense over e-mailgate. But really, this affair is much ado about very little. Yes, Hillary ...
Read MoreThe Right on Obama and the Terrorists
President Obama has come under fire from the right lately for his failure to use phrases like “Islamic radicalism” in characterizing the terrorist threats facing the West. Obama knows what he’s doing. To characterize the threats as “Islamic” would play ...
Read MoreBittman’s Wisdom
I’ve never paid any attention to Mark Bittman–not out of hostility, just that I don’t normally read about food. But I couldn’t help noticing his op-ed in today’s NY Times, and I was impressed. I especially want to point to ...
Read MoreMoulitsas on Obama
I always enjoy reading stuff by well-known commentators that more or less repeats stuff that I’ve been saying for years. So, I was happy to see Marcos Moulitsas, the founder of the popular Daily Kos website, reflecting on the uncharacteristic ...
Read MoreIt’s Official: Republican Senators Deny Science, 49-5
In a series of resolutions introduced in the Senate, Democrats have used the debate over the Keystone pipeline to get Republicans to go on record on their views on climate change. Remarkably, practically all Senate Republicans are willing to acknowledge ...
Read MorePresident Obama on the State of the Union
President Obama in his SOTU address has proposed a number of worthwhile initiatives that he knows have no chance of passage. Many Republicans were outraged. Doesn’t he know that he lost the last (midterm) elections? How dare he propose ...
Read MoreDe Blasio and the Police (III)
An op-ed in today’s New York Times, “Why we’re so Mad at de Blasio,” provides a good, reasonable statement of the NYC police case against the mayor. But it’s not good enough. The author is Steve Osborne, a retired NYC ...
Read MoreDeBlasio and the Police (II)
A meeting yesterday between Mayor Bill DeBlasio with the leaders of five NYC police unions, though apparently fairly civil, yielded no clear progress toward a resolution of the current antagonism between City Hall and New York’s men in blue. That ...
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