Politics

CIVIL DEBATE….I already wrote once about this subject, and figured I would let it go at that, but Mark Kleiman has a post up today with some more details about the “Jane Galt goon squad,” and it’s worth reading. I don’t have much more to add except that I agree entirely with Mark: we all […]

A PHILOSOPHICAL QUESTION….Brian Weatherson and Matt Yglesias have read the Hall and Paul preemption paper and have some comments. So do I. Specifically, I have a question about the third sentence of the paper: But as is typical in philosophy, deep intuitive familiarity has not led to any philosophical account of causation that is at […]

LONDON CONGESTION CHARGES….Well, what do you know? It looks like London’s congestion charge experiment has gotten off to a smooth start: It was like a Ken Livingstone utopia ? not even a pigeon in sight. ….London was like a ghost town and possessed an eerie beauty. Further ahead there was another reminder of Ken Livingstone’s […]

MEMORY….I found out this morning that Elizabeth Loftus, one of the leading experts in memory and the tricks it can play on us, is now at UC Irvine. She presented her latest research on Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, including the following: In one study, undertaken […]

LOCAL TV NEWS….A few weeks ago Matt Yglesias commented that his local TV news was really, really bad, and suggested that it must be even worse in small markets where news budgets are correspondingly smaller. This prompted a bit of discussion, but no resolution. Well, today resolution comes. The Project for Excellence in Journalism has […]

CONSUMPTION TAXES….Just a quick note about the idea of a “consumption tax” replacing our current income tax. There are lots of different kinds of consumption taxes. The most obvious one is a sales tax, and 20 years ago there were some conservative fans of consumption taxes who promoted this idea. As it turns out, however, […]

LET’S MAKE A DEAL….Sam Heldman shows why he’ll never be a politician. No, not because he was infuriated by Bill Clinton’s compromising over judiciary nominations, but because he apparently thinks Bush might be willing to do the same thing. Sam, Sam, Sam….

LIBERAL TALK RADIO….A group of wealthy Democratic donors wants to create a slate of liberal talk radio shows that would be syndicated across the country and compete with Rush Limbaugh. Hesiod doesn’t like the idea: I like Al Franken as much as the next guy. But he belongs on TV. And, I’d prefer it if […]

CONGESTION CHARGES IN LONDON….Starting Monday morning, you’ll have to ?5 if you want to drive into London. Mayor Ken Livingstone predicts a “very bad two or three days.” Oh yeah. Aside from the peculiar spectacle of a former communist known as “Red Ken” introducing a measure that would be applauded by Milton Friedman, I gather […]

WHAT THE WORLD THINKS OF WAR….So what does the rest of the world think of our little war? Thankfully, there’s no need to guess any longer because eRiposte ? in its typical chart-happy style ? has laid it all out for us: opinion polls about the war from France to Albania to India and beyond. […]