Julie Saltman

UNREST IN ECUADOR….Ecuadorean President Lucio Gutierrez called off the state of emergency he imposed yesterday to quell protests in Quito calling for his resignation. The military, which under the state of emergency was charged with maintaining public order, was not visible on the streets Saturday as thousands of people disobeyed the decree and staged a […]

WITH TAXES WE BUY CIVILIZATION….Max Sawicky writes an ode to the income tax and makes an intriguing suggestion to simplify the tax code. Isn’t the income tax too complicated? Sure. How to simplify it? One way is to tax all income under the same rates, rather than favoring wealth over work, as above. Another is […]

BOOK MEME….Kevin gave us an assignment, and as usual, I’ve left it till the last minute. Here goes. You?re stuck in Fahrenheit 451. Which book would you be? I would be inclined to choose a book on science that reveals a thought process that we could continue to learn things from, but since I’m woefully […]

NOT IMPRESSED….Ohio was Bamboozlepalooza central on Friday, but the loyal few who were allowed to attend Bush’s invite-only propaganda ploy were not terribly impressed. It seems they’ve spent some time in the reality-based community. KIRTLAND, Ohio ? President Bush came to Ohio on Friday to highlight a state retirement savings system that he said showed […]

NOT QUITE UTOPIA….Just another example of conservatives relying on the judiciary instead of the democratic process to further their social agenda. LANSING — The state appeals court on Friday dismissed a challenge to the Ann Arbor school district’s same-sex benefits policy but avoided the bigger legal issue by tossing out the case on a technicality. […]

FALSE RAPE CLAIMS….Eugene Volokh is researching the incidence of false rape claims. Researchers have had quite a difficult time pinning down what percentage of rape claims are actually false. Volokh writes: ….(short summary: estimates range from under 2% to 40+%, though I have no opinion about which is right). But in the meantime, I thought […]

LACKING SELF-CONTROL….Brad Plumer points to a survey of two studies by psychologists who found that people who are socially excluded have trouble exerting self-control. I have something to say about that, but first, with the caveat that I know nothing about psychological methodology, does this study strike anyone else as a little bizarre? In the […]

WHAT DO YOU THINK….The Onion asks, In recent weeks, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay has come under increasing fire from a number of important media and political figures. What do you think? It’s hilarious.

HOUSING DISCRIMINATION….Via ACSBlog, I found that six days before the 37th anniversary of the passage of the Fair Housing Act, the National Fair Housing Alliance released its 2005 Fair Housing Trends Report. It provides some numerical context for a problem we all know exists, a problem that is a profound barrier to the success of […]

INTELLIGENCE FAILURE….Steve Clemons points to an illuminating article in The Economist that explores how John Bolton has worked to undermine US foreign policy over the past few years. At the hearings, Lincoln Chafee, a liberal Republican senator from Rhode Island, asked Mr Bolton about a speech he had given in South Korea on July 31st […]