Chidem Kurdas The United States Postal Service is in a deep financial hole that looks to get deeper unless the institution undergoes a major revamp. Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe says current bills in Congress do not provide enough savings to get out of the hole. US Mail has historical roots. What would Benjamin Franklin, who was appointed … Continue reading Is USPS as American as Pumpkin Pie?
US Constitution
Sliding Toward the Individual Health Insurance Mandate: An Absurdist Analysis
by Mario Rizzo I am not an expert in US Constitutional law, but I am not totally uninformed either. And yet (or because of this) I was shocked to see the completely crazy “analysis” that appeared, as an opinion piece, in the Wednesday, November 16th issue of the New York Times. The author is the … Continue reading Sliding Toward the Individual Health Insurance Mandate: An Absurdist Analysis
The Targeted Killing of Anwar al-Awlaki
by Roger Koppl Anwar al-Awlaki was killed in a drone strike today. If you recognize the name Awlaki, then you know that he was bad guy. He was a propagandist for Al Qaeda who seems to have inspired the Fort Hood shooting, in which Nidal Hassan killed 13 people. He was also an American citizen, … Continue reading The Targeted Killing of Anwar al-Awlaki
Kissinger on Bismarck
by Chidem Kurdas A man described as both great and evil, Otto von Bismarck-Schönhausen makes a fascinating study, as Jonathan Steinberg’s Bismarck: A Life demonstrates. Henry Kissinger reviewed this biography in the New York Times Book Review, highlighting the diplomatic and political victories the unifier of Germany won through nimble maneuvers. The review is a … Continue reading Kissinger on Bismarck
Constitution Bashers’ Internet Fallacy
by Chidem Kurdas There’s a ferocious backlash against the Tea Party’s reverence for the U.S. Constitution. Court decisions against ObamaCare’s compulsory health insurance provision have further stoked the hostility. One common and obvious line of attack is that the Constitution is old-fashioned and out of synch with our world of satellites and Twitter. To take … Continue reading Constitution Bashers’ Internet Fallacy
Two Visions Fuel Political Attacks
by Chidem Kurdas Apparently left-liberal pundits are convinced that people oppose government expansion either out of stupidity or cupidity—not, say, out of a sincere belief in freedom. The oft-repeated story is that ignorant and misguided masses are being led by greedy business interests. Paul Krugman’s recent column is one of many examples in the genre … Continue reading Two Visions Fuel Political Attacks
Anti-Intellectualism and Freedom
by Chidem Kurdas Anti-Intellectualism in American Life by Richard Hofstadter, a historian who died in 1970, is very much part of politics several decades after it was written. The past two years brought many charges of anti-intellectualism by left-liberals against people on the other side of the political divide. The latest in Hofstadter-inspired critiques is … Continue reading Anti-Intellectualism and Freedom
Constitutionalism: Point/Counter-Point
By Chidem Kurdas and Thomas McQuade In our previous post, Thomas argued that voter feedback is weak in constraining the exercise of legislative power. Chidem countered that the other fundamental constraint, the constitution, is therefore all-important. Commentators were divided, with cogent arguments pro and con. We continue this discussion. Chidem: Constitutionalism is the idea of … Continue reading Constitutionalism: Point/Counter-Point
Understanding Politics: Point/Counter-Point
by Thomas McQuade and Chidem Kurdas Our previous post and the ensuing discussion raised points for and against the appropriateness of understanding markets as complex adaptive systems. We discuss here whether the same approach can say something useful about modern political systems, taking the US as the illustrative example. Thomas: I think it could be … Continue reading Understanding Politics: Point/Counter-Point
Time for a Truth Commission
by Roger Koppl London’s The Times reports on evidence suggesting “George W. Bush 'knew Guantánamo prisoners were innocent.'” (HT: Radley Balko) Supposedly, Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld were all in on it. “The accusations were made by Lawrence Wilkerson, a top aide to Colin Powell, the former Republican Secretary of State, in a signed declaration to … Continue reading Time for a Truth Commission
Sign of the Times: A Note
by Mario Rizzo The Wall Street Journal has an excellent editorial "ObamaCare and the Constitution" in Friday's edition. It covers ground similar to my post below. However, there is sentence that bothers me, not because it is wrong, but because it expresses the temper of our times: Judicial and media liberals are trying to dismiss … Continue reading Sign of the Times: A Note
Our Inconvenient Constitution
by Mario Rizzo The question of questions for the politician should ever be -- "what type of social structure am I tending to produce?" But this is a question he never entertains. (Herbert Spencer, "The Coming Slavery.") It is hard for an abstraction to win against a poor mother with a kid who is uninsured. But this … Continue reading Our Inconvenient Constitution
