Sebastian

In a recent ObsidianWings discussion on Social Security I have repeatedly come across an argument against changing it which operates along these lines: …I have very little faith that our poor elderly will be taken care of should the system be dismantled, all promises to that end duly noted. To which I replied: There are … Read more

I found Alex Tabarrok’s discussion of me-too drugs and drug research very useful.  It can be found here, here and here.  Anyone who is interested in the topic should be reading Derek Lowe on a regular basis as well.  I these paragraphs are especially useful: Concerning me-too drugs, on page 90 Angell says "there is … Read more

Sorry I haven’t been posting much, I’ve been sick.  Considering recent discussions here, I am reposting one of the very first posts from my own blog which seems appropriate: More and more, there is concern about the role money plays in politics. The basic concern seems to be that money deforms otherwise rational political choices. … Read more

Bush’s policy team took the proper stance on the Ukraine election despite the fact that stance put it in opposition to Russia’s Putin–a man whose help Bush is likely to need in the future: Secretary of State Colin Powell said Wednesday the United States cannot accept the results of elections in Ukraine, which the opposition … Read more

If anyone is interested in the very tense situation going on regarding the vote in the Ukraine, I would suggest that Fistful of Euros is an excellent source for updates.

One of my on-line acquaintances is developing what he calls the "Eagle Platform": a political platform which is not closely tied to either current political party in US politics, though it draws from a slightly conservative and more strongly libertarian bent. It provides an excellent starting point for useful political conversation and can be found … Read more

Iran is playing rope-a-dope with the Europeans again. They recently sort of agreed to an enrichment freeze as the US threatens to submit the issue to the Security Council (BTW, what kind of pathetic threat is that?) It seems to me that the proposed nuclear deal is an exact replay of the Agreed Framework which … Read more

I know this seems like an unusually dead horse to bother beating, but American foreign policy would be best served by having two parties both strong on national security so we can adequately debate the best course forward on the large number of serious international issues which are before us. On that note, Matthew Yglesias … Read more

The meme suggesting that Bush won largely on the strength of anti-gay backlash seems to be undergoing a rather thorough debunking. See for example Kevin Drum, Andrew Sullivan, Slate, and David Brooks (NYT Nov. 6). Andrew puts it most succinctly: The percentage of people who said in 2004 that their vote was determined by the … Read more

With the election out of the way, some parts of the blogosphere that I could hardly bear to read are becoming interesting again. There is an interesting post over at Crooked Timber where Henry Farrell asks why it is so difficult to have even remotely rational discussions on the subject of Israel. Matthew Yglesias raises … Read more

I’m sure you all know by now that Arafat has died.  I won’t pretend to mourn because I think that the Palestinians would have been much better off both materially and spiritually if he had not been their leader for my entire lifetime.  But with his passing, I think there may finally be some chance … Read more

Now that Bush has won reelection, Republicans have secured general legislative control for an additional two years, and knowing Congressional turnover probably four unless they screw up horribly. Republicans, you need to learn a lesson that every ruling party must keep in mind if they want to avoid becoming an ossified wreck. You did not … Read more

Well it appears that my hope for a clean victory by one party or the other may be dashed in Ohio. It is now midnight Pacific Time and in my opinion Ohio is too close to call. Which leads directly to my next topic. FoxNews and NBC should not have called Ohio–it is just too … Read more

Matthew Yglesias says something pretty frightening while mentioning a concept well worth dicsussing: The people who I want voting are the people who will vote for John Kerry. Not that there’s anything wrong with that! Democracy has an instrumental value and there’s no fact of the matter about what really is and is not a … Read more

When I was a young child I was race-unconscious. It wasn’t that I didn’t come into contact with people of other races. It was just that the ‘racial’ component of skin color wasn’t drummed into me by my parents, and it took a long time for a misfit nerd to pick up on the distinctions … Read more

Sometimes you read something so perfectly correct that you just have to pass it on. From Oxblog: THE KILLING CONTINUES: In Darfur. Sadly, the coincidence of genocide in the Sudan with a presidential election in the United States has only benefitted the murderers. I expect that within a matter of months, both Republicans and Democrats … Read more

I was seraching the blogosphere for a topic that wasn’t directly tied to the presidential elections. I found it in another of Kevin Drum’s suggestions that there is no Social Security Crisis. I wish he were right. But he isn’t. I’m going to repost my thoughts from last time he said that: I’m not going … Read more

I didn’t watch the debates last night. I was invited to attend the San Diego Business Journal’s “Women Who Mean Business” awards dinner, so of course I went. It was an excellent celebration of the success of women in business. 25 women were especially honored, and it was nice to see such a diversity of … Read more

I generally support the 9/11 Commission Bill (which is more formally known as H.R. 10). However, Sections 3032 and 3033 are very disturbing. They make it very easy for the US to move terrorist suspects into the custody of other countries in order to allow such suspects to be tortured in that country. I strongly … Read more

All examples were pointed out by Patterico: I. LA Times Headline: Long a Republican Bulwark, a Growing Arizona Is in Play Not until paragraph 17 does the paper bother to report: “A poll taken for the Arizona Republic and released last week showed Bush ahead of Kerry, 54% to 38%.” The poll showed Bush up … Read more

The ADA is a law which seems to attract unintended consequences. I wrote before about Dollywood and its now-abandoned policy to give free admission to people with grave disabilities. Here are two stories about the intersection between the ADA, the desire to help patients, with one of the stories having a little Medicaid thrown in. … Read more

I promised a more in-depth look at the European Security Doctrine Proposal. The more I look at it, the more I realize that a full analysis will require more time than I can put into it right now–this is a function of how much internal tension can be found in the report. Nevertheless, I will … Read more