Would Democrats Block a Republican Plan for Universal Coverage, Out of Spite?
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Avik Roy dives into the recent history of healthcare reform and details the bipartisan plan that the Democrats killed, in order to pass a partisan plan of their own. Hence, a bipartisan health-care agenda at the federal level will necessarily look quite different than one at the state level. If liberals had bothered to ask, [...]
Robert Caro’s Big Dig
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Caro began “The Years of Lyndon Johnson,” his multivolume biography of the 36th president, in 1976, not long after finishing “The Power Broker,” his immense, Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of Moses, and figured he could do Johnson’s life in three volumes, which would take him six years or so. Next month, a fourth installment, “The Passage [...]
Jeff Bezos Is Indulging His 11-Year-Old Self And We Love It
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If you had asked an 11-year-old Jeff Bezos to let his imagination run wild and think of the stuff that he would most dream to have as an adult, he might have said:The world’s biggest bookstore! Maybe even a bookstore that can beam any book directly to your hand in an instant (and movies and [...]
Streets without name – A geek in Japan
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In Japan, street are simply an empty space in between blocks, they don’t have an identity. However you can identify buildings following a 3 digit system: the first one indicates the district, the second one the block and the third one the building or house inside the block. It is a completely different, but perfectly [...]
A Guide to Budget Rhetoric
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Arnold Kling offers some perceptive words Congressional budgeting and campaign rhetoric. Because the budget is so far from being sustainable, budget rhetoric needs to be re-interpreted. When their side refuses to cut spending because it would be “cruel,” they are ensuring that future spending cuts will be even crueler. When our side refuses to raise [...]
Caution, During Political Silly Season
Nationally, we are gearing up for political silly season. The Republican primaries are half over and we’re moving swiftly towards the national conventions and the fall election season. In Wisconsin, the political silly season has been with us for the past 15 months and looks to stay with us straight through November. (In case you [...]
War on Women: Equal Pay Edition?
The repeal of Wisconsin’s “Equal Pay Act” is much less significant than certain politicians would like you to think it is. And the pay gap overall is much narrower than certain interest groups would like you to believe it is.
Review: Means of Ascent
Means of Ascent by Robert Caro My rating: 5 of 5 stars Personal Enthusiasm: A Great Book I loved the first volume of Robert Caro’s biography of Lyndon Johnson, The Path to Power. I’d ever read a better biography. I’ve still never read a better one but I’ve now read one that’s just as good. [...]
Review: The Peace War
Vernor Vinge does exactly what a good SF author should do: he poses a new technology and examines how it might change the world, for good and bad. This was a very imaginative book and a great example of what “hard science fiction” should be. I highly recommend it.
Review: Fool Moon
Butcher incorporated many different variants of the werewolf legends. It made for a more complex story, as it involved a mix of characters, each with different motives, abilities, and weaknesses. On the other hand, it made the story more complex and I’m not entirely sure that that was such a good thing.