Recently in Politics & Current Events Category

(Thanks to Soho the Dog)

Friedman was my intellectual hero in high school and college. "Capitalism and Freedom" probably influenced me more than any book I read at that time. The BBC obit mentions that he was reputed never to have lost a debate, a claim that anyone who ever saw his performance would have no trouble believing.

Here is the NYTs obit, and here is a vintage performance from the 1970's "Open Mind" TV show. Finally, here is the Financial Times obit (quite good).

Milton Friedman was a great man who had a tremendous and positive influence on the well-being of mankind. RIP.

The letters "W" and "Q" have been outlawed in Turkey. We know that in many parts of the world freedom of speech is not protected like it is here, but this seems especially silly. It is as if the umlaut had been outlawed here in World War I. Büt, it wasn't.

I hope this BBC article Indonesia Fears Bird Flu Epidemic doesn't prove that my avian flu post of two days ago was prophetic....

I don't know what the odds are, but given what happened in 1918 and the obvious virulence of the H5N1 strain of avian flu when it crossed to humans in the winter of 2003/2004, everyone should learn as much as possible. A good place to start is the resources page of the Flu Wiki. Even if you are neither a boy, nor a scout, in this case you should do as they do and be prepared.

It may be that I am in a very tiny minority about this, but I'm a wee bit concerned about the rush to throw money at the aftermath of hurricane Katrina. I've been shocked at the misery and death and destruction along the gulf coast, and have donated to private charities to help, but $10 Billion plus $50.8 Billion is a whole lot of money however you look at it, and I have the feeling that this is only the beginning. It is plainly too much money with not enough accountability. Paving the streets of New Orleans with dollar bills (*) will not make up for the evacuation that didn't take place, and the food, water, and rescue that was late. Assuming 200 million taxpayers, all of us just donated $300 each to federally-funded hurricane relief.

Given the current political climate only a very brave person, who is truly committed to reigning in spending would vote against this supplemental appropriation. No one in the Senate was that brave, but eleven House members were both brave and principled, and I salute them:

Charles Murray has bravely rejoined the debate on racial and gender differences in an article: The Inequality Taboo in the September 2005 issue of Commentary Magazine

I have omitted perhaps the most obvious reason why men and women differ at the highest levels of accomplishment: megn take more risks, are more competitive, and are more aggressive than women. The word "testosterone" may come to mind, and appropriately. Much technical literature documents the hormonal basis of personality differences that bear on sex differences in extreme and venturesome effort, and hence in extremes of accomplishment--and that bear as well on the male propensity to produce an overwhelming proportion of the world's crime and approximately 100 percent of its wars. But this is just one more of the ways in which science is demonstrating that men and women are really and truly different, a fact so obvious that only intellectuals could ever have thought otherwise.

The summer Supreme Court follies have just been launched with some nice performances by Bush, Roberts, Schumer and Lehey. The curtain has just gone up and already everyone seems quite comfortable in their roles.

For instance, here are some arguments I happened on this evening:

A recently published study finds that genes may account for a significant amount (41%)of how we react to policy issues; genetics was less important in determining political party affiliation (14%).

In a conclusion similar to that in the infamous Bell Curve, where intelligence differences between segments of the population were forecast to increase because of "tribal intermarrying," the authors are not optimistic about the future of bipartianship.

It's a fascinating study and you should probably read Tyler Cowen's comments @ Marginal Revolution (thanks for the pointer) on the way there.

UPDATE: The folks at the New York Times have picked up this story: Some Politics May Be Etched in the Genes

This is interesting. (Follow the various links, too).

America this Holy Week is following the frenzied efforts to halt the court-enforced starvation of a brain-damaged woman for no reason other than that her continued existence is an inconvenience to her husband.

This can't be good news...

German Unemployment Rate Highest Since Depression

It is significant when a single company, by declaring a dividend, can distort national income accounting...
CONSUMER SPENDING PUMPED UP BY MICROSOFT DIVIDEND

The government said U.S. consumer spending jumped in December after thousands of Americans shared in a massive payout by software giant Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)

"The People Have Won" proclaims a blog posting from a young Iraqi in Baghdad. After all of the anguish and terror of the last year and the uncertainty of what might happen on Iraq's election day, the results are gratifying, no... the results are remarkable and inspiring, and the pictures of joyous Iraqis braving threats of death from the al-Zarqawi gang and going to the polls and voting make me proud of the courage of these people.

Al-Zarqawi issued a remarkable statement last week where he said: "We have declared a fierce war on this evil principle of democracy and those who follow this wrong ideology. Anyone who tries to help set up this system is part of it." He was right about the second part, and Praise be to Allah that the Iraqi people understood it, too.

Al-Zarqawi also said that "Democracy is [...] based on the right to choose your religion, and that is "against the rule of God." This is Tyranny of Religion, a yoke around the neck of humanity which was thrown off in the West four hundred years ago. It will be interesting to see what happens in Iraq, whether they use the power of the ballot to choose a theocracy as they did in Iran, or if they will chose a secular non-tyrannic government. I am betting that Iraq will choose the 21st century instead of the 14th century.

Forget Main Stream Media; read what the Iraqis have to say about January 30th direct from the street via these Iraqi Blogs...

Iraq The Model, The Mesopotamian, Hammorabi, Diary From Baghdad, Iraqi Humanity, Democracy In Iraq, Free Iraqi