My birthday is January 6, which is celebrated as Epiphany in most of the countries where Roman Catholicism is the major religion. Epiphany is the day that the three wise men got to see Jesus. It is celebrated on different days in other countries where Roman Catholicism is not the dominant religion. It is celebrated [...]
I finally finished “The Soloist” with Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr. I started to watch this movie while on a business trip. The Airbus had a video server and individual players in each head rest. I saw this film and thought it would be the typical Hollywood pap. About 40 minutes out of Seattle, [...]
Neda was a young woman, standing on the street watching the demonstrations in Tehran when a basiji shot her.
See the video at the 2.37 mark here. Neda
I don’t know that much about Iran, and I wish I knew more. I have known Iranians who were great people, and I have known some who practiced, “I thought he was going to hit me, so I hit him back first.”
There’s a great article in Newsweek about Iran. It is long and it is [...]
People keep talking about McCain like a secular saint.
McCain’s problem is that he is more fecular than secular.
Michael Kinsley cuts to the chase:
If you re wondering why a formerly honorable man like John McCain would build his presidential campaign around issues that are simultaneously beside-the-point, trivial, and dishonest sex education for kindergartners, lipstick on pigs , the numbers presented here may help to solve that mystery. Since the conventions ended, McCain [...]
It’s hard being a professor of Economics these days. Quoth Brad DeLong,
In short, I trot over to the J-School TV studio as part of the sober, sensible, bipartisan consensus, intending to carry water for Ben Bernanke and Hank Paulson.
And what do I find also on BBC/Newsnight when I get there?
I FIND THAT I AM [...]
Here’s the headline:
Fed’s rate-cutting days may be over – for now
And why?
After a year of aggressively slashing interest rates, Federal Reserve policymakers signaled that their rate-cutting days may soon be over — for now.
As expected, the Fed’s Open Market Committee served up just a quarter-point cut Wednesday, leaving the benchmark for overnight loans between [...]
The New York Times has a overview of the tax breaks and other regulatory free passes given out to religibusiness.
As religious activities expand far beyond weekly worship, that venerable tax break is expanding, too. In recent years, a church-run fitness center with a tanning bed and video arcade in Minnesota, a biblical theme park in [...]
In a letter to a friend recently, I countered the saw of “history is written by the victors” with “history is written by the aggressive.” Steve Clemons has a good example of that. He tells the story of to men in Japan.
Masaru Tamamoto — editor of an important on-line magazine, JIIA [...]