“Another $40 billion down the rathole,” Secretary of the Treasury Gordon Humphrey used to sigh, contemplating the Defense Department’s annual budget requests under the Eisenhower administration.1 But that was then. Now we’re up to $2 trillion! Well, on the one hand, that $2 trillion, to update our nuclear deterrent, will be spread out over 25…
Congressional Progressive Caucus speaks common sense to power: DC goes insane
If you live within 200 miles of our Nation’s Capital, you probably heard that enormous squeal of terror last week when, on October 22, 2022, the Congressional Progressive Caucus sent a letter to President Joe Biden making the not too remarkable suggestion—one would think—that the current bloody war in Ukraine can only be brought to…
Risa Kobayashi & Tappi Iwase—“I Mean You”
Fareed Zakaria is showing definite signs of improvement. He definitely is!
China is weaker than we thought. Will we change our policies accordingly? reads the head for Fareed Zakaria’s latest column, which I found cogent in the extreme, Fareed noting that, way back in 1992, when he was, well, managing editor of Foreign Affairs—“my first full-time job,” he notes—so humble!—“everyone” thought that Japan was going to…
The Republicans: WTF Happened to this Party? Part II Part 1: Tim Miller’s Why We Did It
A couple of years back, when, it seems, I was feeling particularly down in the mouth, I wrote an extended piece bearing the title The Republicans: WTF Happened to this Party?. Recently, a couple of actual Republicans have written books asking themselves the same question, viz. Matthew Continetti (The Right The Hundred Year War for…
So, the Nobel wasn’t for stand-up, am I correct, Dr. Krugman?
“I sometimes joke that there are only around 15 true libertarians in America, and they all wear bow ties”—Nobel Prize dude Paul Krugman, holding forth in today’s NYT. Assuming that that’s true, one can only pity Paul’s friends, if he has any. I know a number of “true libertarians”, though probably not 15, and none…
Paul Jones—“I Mean You”
Paul Jones on tenor saxophone, Colin Stranahan on drums, Leon Boykins on bass, and Perry Smith on guitar. Posted by Paul Jones
California’s high-speed rail project not so hot, the New York Times discovers
This just in! How California’s Bullet Train Went Off the Rails! Yeah, the NYT’s Ralph Vartabedian has the story on California’s long-struggling mega-mega project, a 200 mph bullet train running between San Francisco and LA, aka “the train to nowhere”: America’s first experiment with high-speed rail has become a multi-billion-dollar nightmare. Political compromises created a…
Barack Obama, wise before the fact, but not, alas, during
Timothy Shenk, a professor of history at the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, which is “within” (somehow) George Washington University, has a nice article up at the New York Times, A Lost Manuscript Reveals the Fire Barack Obama Couldn’t Reveal on the Campaign Trail. What the good professor is talking about is a 250-page…
Central Michigan University—“I Mean You”
Robbie Smith, trumpet, John Nichol, saxophone, Bob Lindahl, trombone, Ed Fedewa, bass, Andrew Spencer, drums, and special guest Lisa Sung from Hope College of Music. Posted by Central Michigan University School of Music