Unqualified Offerings

By Thoreau
I can’t even remember the last time I blogged about taxes, but as long as I’m calling myself a libertarian I’m required to say something about taxes now and then in order to keep receiving my subsidy from the Koch Brothers.  Julian Sanchez has taken up the question of whether people would actually work [...]

By Thoreau
One of the Ordinary Gentlemen, a pediatrician, is blogging about the way in which Generation Veal is produced.
I like this exchange in the comments:
Jesse Ewiak:  People have been saying the generation coming up behind them is coddled and will be useless in adulthood since Egyptian times.
Russell Saunders:  You laugh, but when was the last [...]

By Thoreau
Given the gross illegality of the continued bombing of Libya past the timeline in which the War Powers Resolution gives him latitude, I have no choice but to call for Obama to be impeached for a high crime. I wanted Bush impeached for all of the illegal and violent things that he [...]

By Thoreau
Radley wins it:
New York legalizes gay marriage. In protest, Newt Gingrich promptly divorces his third wife.
It’s worth noting that my wife and I got married in 2003, the year that Massachusetts legalized gay marriage.  It’s been 8 years, we’re still happily married, and we have yet to figure out how gays are ruining any [...]

To the extent Matt is saying that a functional US elite should effectively organize foreign policy around addressing real issues originating in important countries, he’s absolutely correct. But there’s a whiff of suggestion that US neglect of “India, Brazil and Nigeria” is tragic for them, since “in terms of the long-term future prospects of the [...]

By Thoreau
Barney Frank and Ron Paul have introduced a bill to legalize pot at the federal level. Obviously this bill has zero chance of passing, but call your Representative anyway. As we get closer to knocking down the wall, every bit of pressure that we exert just moves us closer to the breaking [...]

By Thoreau
And so it winds to a close.  Today I gave my last seminar, got another excellent reception.  Then we had dinner at a fancy restaurant that has a special members-only dinner once a month (NOT tonight, though!).  My friend was lamenting that he’s new to town and can’t go to this dinner because all [...]

By Thoreau
I am now on the final leg of the tour.  A senior colleague from a former institution changed jobs, moved to another institution, and bought 2 condos, one for him and his wife to live in and one for visiting speakers, collaborators, friends, and family.  He has so many visitors (some of them collaborators [...]

By Thoreau
In an earlier geological era, during a quantum mechanics course, a professor was explaining that entanglement is crucial to quantum computation.  I asked him what is so special about entanglement:  From the standpoint of the universe, an entangled state is just another state.  We think the entangled states are special because we are more [...]

By Thoreau
Two words:  Kimchi pancakes.
Interestingly, my mother saw her doctor today, and her case is complicated enough that the doctor (who is at a medical school) is going to be asking a visiting professor to look at her scans and help him make a decision.  So, score one for academic nomads.