I read this story and I am even more opposed to the death penalty than I was before. It’s 1944, and police escort a 14-year-old boy into the death chamber. He stands just 5’1 and weighs a mere 95 pounds. He is so small in stature that dictionaries need to be stacked on the seat [...]
To paraphrase Mark Twain, “Everyone talks about education reform, but no one does anything about it.”, except that people are always launching education reform of one sort or another. And except that none of the reforms work. Ask Bill Gates. His foundation spent $9 billion on education reform and had almost no impact. Part of [...]
Narrative finding is the method that in we derive meaning by observing events. Narrative tools allow us to characterize and understand our observations. It is patently obvious that narrative is import to politics, mostly because the way we practice politics would be lost without narrative. Frank Rich: Unlike his unflappable temperament, his lingering failings should [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]