Posted on October 6, 2009 by dakinikat
This is one of those stories I offer up not because I really know much about the subject at hand but because what’s
being talked about doesn’t pass the smell test for me. Policy on terrorism was one of those issues where we were supposed to see a distinct difference between the Dubya/vpResident Evil administration and [...]
Filed under: FISA, Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, Human Rights, Justice, Law Enforcement, Media, Patriot act, Worst President Ever, government | Tagged: Salon, terrorism, Howard Kurtz, Media Matters, Glenn Greenwald, Zazi, incarceration of terror suspects, Ann Kornblut, The Washington Post | 85 Comments »
Posted on September 21, 2009 by Steven Mather
Gay-Lussac
The pressure of a fixed mass and fixed volume of a gas is directly proportional to the gas’s temperature.
This relationship is known as the Gay-Lussac’s Law and a pressure cooker is an example of the law in practice. Cooking under pressure creates the possibility of cooking with high temperature liquids because the boiling point of [...]
Filed under: Bad Bank, Barack Obama, Blogosphere, Campaign Finance Reform, Clinton Derangement Syndrome, Cost of Sexism, Democracy as a form of liberal goverment, Economy, FISA, Financial Meltdown of 2008, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Gender Equity, General, Health Care Reform, Human Rights, Justice, LGBT rights, Liberalism, Politics, Recession/Depression 2008, Single Payer, Social Media, astroturf, big pharma, broken promises, choice, collective action, corruption, culture, feminism, financial bailout, foreign policy, government, racism | Tagged: bailout, civic virtue, civil liberties, civility, ethics, Health Care Reform, moral hazard, morality, Politics, recession, Single Payer, TARP | 18 Comments »
Posted on September 15, 2009 by Steven Mather
Is it beyond our ken to maintain a noble purpose as we guide our battered ships of state through the dark shadows of this mild squall of an economic crisis? Whom of us will risk life and limb to keep the ships afloat? Who will cast away possessions for the same purpose? [...]
Filed under: Economy, Financial Meltdown of 2008, Health Care Reform, Human Rights, Hurricane Katrina, Justice, Liberalism, culture, going forward, government | Tagged: Politics, global warming, climate change, environmental responsiblity, Cap and Trade, morality, civic virtue, sacred cow, environmental degradation, energy, ethics, absurdity, cultural dynamics, world development report, honeybees, sacrifice, CO2, environmental collapse, extinction, starvation, food crisis, intersex fish, gorilla poaching, mafia, nuclear waste, EPA, carbon emissions, clean air act, greenhouse gases | 103 Comments »
Posted on September 11, 2009 by Steven Mather
You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time. – Abraham Lincoln
There’s a sucker born every minute. – P.T. Barnum
We, the People, are born every minute. The last ten [...]
Filed under: American Society in Flux, Barack Obama, Democracy as a form of liberal goverment, Economy, General, Health Care Reform, Human Rights, Politics, Single Payer, big pharma, choice, corruption, government, healthcare | Tagged: anti-liberty, Barack Obama, big brother, Big Insurance, big pharma, conservatives, founding fathers, Frater Magnus, Glenn Beck, Glenn Greenwald, GOP, health care, Health Care Reform, HMOs, liberty, neo-feudalism, Politics, private healthcare, Single Payer, tea parties, U.S. Constitution, Washington | 46 Comments »
Posted on August 23, 2009 by Steven Mather
Imagine you were rowing your boat gently down the stream and one of the oars got caught in the hatch. What would happen? Logic suggests that the current would slowly move you downstream as you spun the boat in circles.
O.K. Rowboats don’t have hatches, but Orrin Hatch is a creature and a feature [...]
Filed under: Barack Obama, Economy, Financial Meltdown of 2008, General, Health Care Reform, Public Plan, Recession/Depression 2008, Single Payer, government | Tagged: Charles Schumer, Democrats, economic meltdown, economic Policy, Health Care Reform, neo-conservatism, Orrin Hatch, Politics, President Obama, private insurance, Public Option, Republicans, Single Payer | 62 Comments »
Posted on August 23, 2009 by Steven Mather
In difficult circumstances, such as the current economic crisis, it’s normal to work out how one got there as a means to avoid repeating the process. In the current situation, the discussion seems to range between those who feel that the situation is already working itself out, to those who feel that structural dangers [...]
Filed under: Democracy as a form of liberal goverment, Economy, General, Human Rights, Justice, Politics, education, going forward, government | Tagged: 10th Amendment, activism, Alexander Hamilton, Bachmann, Barack Obama, Beck, DeMint, downsize, education, FDR, James Madison, limited government, Perry, Politics, re-structuring, recession, The New Deal, U.S. Constitution, Washington, White House | 4 Comments »
Posted on July 17, 2009 by quixote
I live in California, and you may have heard that we’re having a bit of an argle-bargle about a budget in this state.
The history, for those who’d like it: Back in the 1970s, enough Californians felt their taxes were too high to limit property taxes by law. The limit is low, (1.5%, [...]
Filed under: government | Tagged: budget, California, crisis | 25 Comments »
Posted on June 11, 2009 by dakinikat
As you know, I frequently rely on the British press for news and political analysis. I was delighted to find a link on Dr. Mark Thoma’s Economist’s View to the BBC’s broadcasts of the Reith Lectures for 2009. Dr. Michael Sandel, Harvard Professor of Government, delivers four lectures on the prospects [...]
Filed under: Economic Blogs, Economy, Hillary Clinton, government | Tagged: common good economics, Development Economics, Dr. Michael Sandel, Grameen bank, Karela India, Market Economies, Muhammad Yunus, Reich Lectures, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Shameless plug for KIVA.ORG | 25 Comments »
Posted on June 10, 2009 by dakinikat
I’ve had to read executive pay studies for some time since Corporate Finance is one of my fields. This is one of those areas where every time they think they come up with a good explanation and plan, we see a complete failure in the real world. This is because it fits under theories [...]
Filed under: Economic Blogs, Economic Stimulus, Economy, Financial Meltdown of 2008, financial bailout, government | Tagged: Asymmetric information, CEO pay and bonuses, executive compensation, Lemons Problem, moral hazard, Pay Czar | 47 Comments »
Posted on April 28, 2009 by dakinikat
There’s a very big debate between economists that’s beginning to spill on to the pages of major newspapers. Suddenly, people that I usually only read in scholarly articles are attending conferences where they give papers in what passes off more as the lessons of theory and empirical evidence instead of the theory and evidence itself [...]
Filed under: Economic Blogs, Economy, Financial Meltdown of 2008, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, financial bailout, government | Tagged: fresh water macroeconomists and salt water macroeconomists, laissez faire economics, Macroeconomics, market failures, role of government in economy | 54 Comments »
