Thanks Juan for your post on prominent liberal economists defending the USSR. Another liberal has echoed my previous correspondent denying that liberals ever had a tendency to defend the USSR (for my original post click here): Sorry, but your respondent’s reply seems very much closer to the truth than your more or less claim that […]
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Big spenders (continued):
In reference to Wednesday’s post, “We’re All Big Spenders Now,” some readers believe the comparison between Bush’s spending increases and Democratic proposals are unfair, because neither is necessarily a reliable indicator of future spending patterns. Under one theory, a Democratic president facing a Republican Congress will be forced to exercise spending restraint, resulting in lower […]
Another note on defending the USSR:
Let me put in a note about another aspect of the fall of Communism. Many people on “my side” have suggested that the fall of Communism tells us something meaningful about the feasibility of American-style leftism or Western European-style social democracy — either that it should make liberals revise their predictions of the economic impact […]
On defending the Soviet Union:
Randy’s correspondent wanted some smoking-gun quotes by mainstream liberals. I don’t have such a source handy (though I, too, have encountered mainstream people taking that line). But I did come across this article which collects sources by very well-respected mainstream liberal economists (Samuelson, who defined the profession for a time, and Thurow and Galbraith of […]
More on Defending the USSR:
In response to my earlier post, Volokh on USSR, in which I related my experience as a student with some of my liberal classmates defending the USSR, a reader offers a predictable response: Now, I can remember, from my college days, a number of campus radicals of various stripes (Spartacists, RCP’s, even, ridiculously enough, self-proclaimed […]
Presidential candidate embraces author of book called “Stupid Black Men”:
Oh, sorry — my mistake; it’s actually called Stupid White Men. Funny how an author who wrote a book Stupid Black Men (not as an ironic title) would be rightly reviled, while when he writes Stupid White Men, we hear barely a peep? In any case, the author’s documentary also apparently includes fiction mixed in […]
Law clinic for legal assistance to servicemembers:
Michael Krauss, a law professor at George Mason University, reports: I am proud and pleased to announce that the Clinic for Legal Assistance to Servicemembers (CLAS) has now been organized and is operating. The executive director, Joseph Zengerle, is a West Point grad and Viet Nam vet, as well as being a tremendous guy (and, […]
Centrally control, regulate, and clean up the Internet:
Here’s part of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals reaction to the notorious bonsaikitten.com hoax site: Unfortunately, the worldwide web is not controlled or regulated centrally. There is not, therefore, any central authority to which we can complain about this, and other such sites. The RSPCA has written to the Internet […]
Be good to insects:
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is apparently complaining about cruelty to insects (“maggots, cockroaches, . . . and ants”) on a TV show, the Times (London) reports, as well as cruelty to rats. The Daily Ablution has more on this. The RSPCA is a private charity, but as best I […]
Samuel Beckett?
Slate‘s Chatterbox reprints a transcript of a conversation between reporters and President Bush at a ribs diner in Roswell, N.M.. Chatterbox’s reaction: “Today’s lunchtime press ‘pool’ transcript from the Nothin’ Fancy Caf? in Roswell, N.M., was scripted by Samuel Beckett.” My reaction: This is a savvy politician (1) having some fun with the journalists (and […]
The New Hampshire primary in action:
According to CNN, Clark, meanwhile, took a few minutes to bag groceries at a Goffstown supermarket Thursday. Cashier Carolyn Creeden said the former NATO supreme commander was “pretty good at it,” despite dropping a woman’s bag of cookies during a discussion of the new Joint Strike Fighter. UPDATE: David Plotz’s piece is also dead-on. Every […]
Separated at Birth?
Andrew Jackson and John Kerry.
Blogger and lawyer Pejman Yousefzadeh should be on the radio in Southern California this afternoon (AM 600, around 4 pm), talking about the Do Not Call list.
Congress enacts school choice program for D.C.:
The Institute for Justice, a leading defender of school choice programs reports that “[t]oday, the U.S. Congress passed an omnibus spending bill including authorization for a school choice program for low-income students in the District of Columbia.” According to the details that the IJ put up, The “D.C. School Choice Incentive Act of 2003” creates […]
Letter from man who defended himself and his family:
Dan Gifford points to this Chicago Sun-Times item: [In late December,] someone broke into the DeMar family home in Wilmette through a dog door, stealing a television, an SUV and the keys to the home. The next night, Hale DeMar was prepared for a return visit. With his children upstairs, DeMar, 54, shot burglar Morio […]