Archive for the ‘Policy’ Category
Missing the Point on the Gates Arrest
Today, President Obama attended the White House press briefing to state that he “could have calibrated those words differently” when he stated that the Cambridge police officer who arrested Henry Louis Gates Jr. acted stupidly. To sum up what happened, Gates, a Harvard professor and leading authority on race, locked himself out of his house. [...]
July 24, 2009
Posted in: Policy 
4 Comments
Venn Diagrams and Free Speech
Fred Kaplan has written an interesting history of the legal case that struck down many of America’s obscenity laws, particularly the ability of the US Postal Service to confiscate items from the mail it deemed obscene. The case revolved around a publisher, Grove Press, that sued the Postal Service for confiscating copies of the D. [...]
July 21, 2009
Posted in: Policy No Comments
How the Recession Affects Me
On my bike ride this morning, I passed through several of Chicago’s northern suburbs, and I noticed the horrendous condition of many of the roads. Over the 50 miles of riding, I had to pass over pot holes, rough patches, and cracks that are worse than any time in recent memory. Of course, this should [...]
July 18, 2009
Posted in: Politics No Comments
One Small Step for Man
July 20 marks the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. The New York Times has a nifty little interactive piece which gives a short account of the recollections of the landing by 24 different people. All the people are either famous (Tom Seaver, Gloria Steinem, Barney Frank) or otherwise involved with space, physics, [...]
July 15, 2009
Posted in: Politics No Comments
Not All Taxes Are Equal
In an editorial in the Globe and Mail Jeffrey Simpson reported that Canadian Prime Minister (yes, Canada!) Stephen Harper stated that he doesn’t “believe that any taxes are good taxes.” While this is a fun political statement, and a nice sound bite, it’s hard to believe that the Prime Minister of Canada does not believe [...]
July 14, 2009
Posted in: Economics, Politics No Comments
