The humanities have been gutted by four decades of pretentious postmodernist theory and insular identity politics. . . .No kidding.
In general, Americans are much more likely to identify politically as conservative than as liberal, and this has been the case for many years.The most liberal 10 states begin with the District of Columbia, followed by Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont, Massachusetts, Colorado, New York, Oregon, Washington, and New Jersey. (It is unclear why the District was included. It is not a state; the politics of its voters are largely irrelevant.)
As a country, we've dummied down standards. We've reduced them due to political pressure, and we've actually been lying to children and parents, telling them they're ready when they're not.Are you really authorized to say things like that, Mr. Secretary?
Sleek, cerebral, detached, an academic from Chicago by way of Hawaii and Indonesia. "You know what? I don't know that guy!"Obama spent several years as a part-time law school lecturer, but people including Noonan identify him as "an academic." I suspect what they really mean is that he is odd, as many of my fellow academics were/are odd folk. BTW, lecturer is not a synonym for professor.
He’ll have plenty of time for vacations when his one term is up. Plenty of time.
In Washington, the operative presidential declaration is that in July 2011 the troop withdrawal will commence because they will be increasingly unnecessary in the war. In Kandahar, meanwhile, so much construction is underway that KAF (Kandahar Air Field) has its own cement factory that churns out concrete 24/7.In other words, if you thought we would be leaving Afghanistan anytime soon, be disabused of that idea. We are likely to have troops there for the next decade or more. The President will have to come up with a fig leaf to cover the gap between his promises and reality.
Nothing more effectively freezes business in place than what economist and historian Robert Higgs calls "regime uncertainty."I like that phrase, "regime uncertainty." In other words, all the uncertainty surrounding taxes, health care regulations, and financial regulations - every one of them government-driven and every one of them still up in the air.
The United States wants a peace process, preferably a long one designed to put off the day when it fails. This will allow the United States to appear to be deeply committed to peace and to publicly pressure the Israelis, which will be of some minor use in U.S. efforts to manipulate the rest of the region. But it will not solve anything. Nor is it intended to."Nor is it intended to." In other words, none of the three parties want the talks to accomplish their stated goals. This is interesting, deep stuff, not for the dilettante.
- An overwhelming majority of Likely Voters in the United States think all voters in the country should be required to present photo identification in order to vote in U.S. elections.
- Fifty six percent (56%), in fact, believe the policies of the federal government encourage people to enter the United States illegally.
- Most Americans still oppose granting U.S. citizenship automatically to children born in America to illegal immigrants.
- With midterm elections less than three months away, nearly two-out-of-three voters (65%) remain at least somewhat angry at the current policies of the federal government in all areas, including 40% who are Very Angry.
It's not easy to change Americans' financial habits permanently, and 'new normals' don't always last. Fortune found five that just might stick, at least for a while.
Building a coal-fired power plant today is betting that we are not going to put a serious financial cost on emitting carbon dioxide.
Utilities say they are clinging to coal because its abundance makes it cheaper than natural gas or nuclear power and more reliable than intermittent power sources such as wind and solar.
The arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and assistance to foreign hands should be curtailed, lest Rome fall.
Does the economy matter? Yes, of course. But does political management and facility matter, too? Yes, of course. Unfortunately, it is hard to capture "facility" quantitatively.
If you want to graph the President's job approval against GDP or unemployment, that's easy to do. But what about graphing it against competence or ambition or boldness? That's not as easy, which means that quantitative analysis is usually going to de-emphasize these features, not because they are unimportant but because they can't be measured very well.So, it isn't just "the economy, stupid." It is "the economy and how well you're perceived to be doing the job, stupid."
The aspect of this crisis that is probably the most important and simultaneously the most difficult to recognize is that the heroic efforts needed to alleviate it will not come from the government or the wider American society. This is a job that will require a campaign on the scale of the civil rights movement, and it will have to be initiated by the black community.His proposed solutions are statist; that's what I expect from a liberal. But his diagnosis of the problem seems reasonable. You might find his column interesting.
I hope by next year we’ll have abolished Fannie and Freddie. It was a great mistake to push lower-income people into housing they couldn’t afford and couldn’t really handle once they had it. I had been too sanguine about Fannie and Freddie.
Almost everything Obama does these days suggests that he doesn't care much about being re-elected.
Using $9,000 charged to a credit card, they created the Entertainment Sports Programming Network, or ESPN. They soon scored a major investor in Getty Oil and launched in 1979. Within a few years, they had millions of viewers.The Rasmussens sold their ESPN interest in 1984 when Scott was 22. Another thing I didn't know was his belief that understanding the tea party movement is very important. He says:
This will be the third straight election in which people vote against the party in power. The GOP will benefit from that this year, but 75% of Republicans say their representatives in Congress are out of touch with the party base. Should they win big this November, they will have to move quickly to prove they've learned lessons from the Bush years.COTTonLINE concurs.
Beijing is in a dilemma. It can cut spending and rein in its monetary expansion, releasing over time capital for more productive endeavors (especially if it opens up hitherto closed investment options) and putting the economy on a healthier footing. However, that would mean slower growth, lower home values, rising unemployment and potential political unrest. Alternatively, it can buy a few more years of faux-growth and stability by propping up the real-estate market—and risk making the day of reckoning far worse when it arrives.An interesting dilemma for the world's second-largest economy; particularly since it to some degree remains a command economy.
We're seeing just every sign in the world that this is going to be a wave, and a pretty good-sized wave.
Democrats are selling a controversial agenda in lousy economic times. It appeared briefly in the spring that the economic trend lines might be starting to point upward. It doesn't feel that way now.
We have to stop saying that English is one of the languages. It is the language of international exchange: commercial, military, and also intellectual and scientific. . . . It is no longer an object of debate.Imagine hearing that from a Frenchman. He hints at the truth, that in many fields of study, all scientific journals are published in English regardless of where they are based. But he doesn't mention that English is also the universal language of international air traffic.
Republican candidates have jumped out to a record-setting 12-point lead over Democrats on the Generic Congressional Ballot for the week ending Sunday, August 15, 2010. This is the biggest lead the GOP has held in over a decade of Rasmussen Reports surveying.The biggest lead in over a decade. Some 48% said they'll vote for the Republican while 36% said they'll vote for the Democrat. Do you suppose President Obama will blame that on President Bush? Somehow I doubt it.
Americans increasingly are convinced — incorrectly — that President Barack Obama is a Muslim, and a growing number are thoroughly confused about his religion.Perhaps President Obama is not be a Muslim but he certainly acts more positively toward Islam than do most Americans. That, combined with his childhood exposure to Islam, appears to many people to be evidence that his claims of being a Christian are either suspect, or false. And the President keeps digging this hole deeper.
In a separate poll by Time magazine/ABT SRBI conducted Monday and Tuesday — after Obama's comments about the mosque — 24 percent said they think he is Muslim, 47 percent said they think he is Christian and 24 percent didn't know or didn't respond.
The number of people applying for unemployment reached the half-million mark last week for the first time since November. It was the third straight week that first-time jobless claims rose.
Mr Obama is no longer able to blame his country’s travails on the previous administration.
That you go to college is more important than where you go.I've always suspected that to be true. My source is this Brookings document.
It is time to stop pretending that Europeans and Americans share a common view of the world, or even that they occupy the same world.
The country they left behind was poor, but relatively safe. It is still poor, but shockingly violent. This verdant island has one of the higher homicide rates in the world (emphasis added).The result has been a dramatic drop off in retirees returning home, which is a serious setback for the island's economy. Violence can cause a similar decline in tourism as there are other lovely islands in the Caribbean.
The greatest advantage of Huntington's civilizational model of international relations is that it reflects the world as it is—not as we wish it to be. It allows us to distinguish friends from enemies. And it helps us to identify the internal conflicts within civilizations, particularly the historic rivalries between Arabs, Turks and Persians for leadership of the Islamic world.
Fiji became independent in 1970 after nearly a century as a British colony. Democratic rule was interrupted by two military coups in 1987 caused by concern over a government perceived as dominated by the Indian community (descendants of contract laborers brought to the islands by the British in the 19th century). The coups and a 1990 constitution that cemented native Melanesian control of Fiji led to heavy Indian emigration; the population loss resulted in economic difficulties, but ensured that Melanesians became the majority.Inasmuch as the Indians were Fiji's entrepreneurial class, the resulting "economic difficulties" are understandable. Since 1997 there have been coups, elections, and more coups. Essentially what drives all of this unrest is the tension between the remaining Indians who have most of the money and the Fijians who control the military and government.
Disappointed, frustrated, angry registered voters told pollsters that at this point in time, less than halfway through the term of No. 44, they'd actually be good with anyone labeled Republican for No. 45 against anyone named Barack Obama -- 50% to 45%.
A professor is somebody that (sic) often talks in other people's sleep.