http://highclearing.com Looking Sideways at Your World Since October 2001 Thu, 09 Sep 2010 06:13:13 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en By Thoreau As I started speculating on last week, there are very few wealthy and liberal democracies that have a government structured anything like ours.  For starters, strong second chambers are a rarity, except among (some) federal systems.  Even wealthy liberal democracies with substantial federalism (e.g. Switzerland, Canada) tend to have ... http://highclearing.com/index.php/archives/2010/09/09/11744 By Thoreau Frankly, life is cheap, most notably to Serious People.  And among the Serious People there is hardly one who has raised a fuss about the routine and random bloodshed that defines their foreign policy.  So, yes, I wonder whether I need honor these people and pretend that they are ... http://highclearing.com/index.php/archives/2010/09/07/11742 By Thoreau One of our admirers posted a most interesting graph: The date is taken from here. As those corners were turned and Spinal Tap drummers were killed, it actually became more and more expensive to keep all of these armed government employees and contracting firms in the field doing whatever the fuck ... http://highclearing.com/index.php/archives/2010/09/06/11736 By Thoreau In many ways it's great living in a futuristic technotopia where all of the world's information is available via a small pocket-sized device owned by billions of people around the world.  However, I just realized that as recently as 10 years ago, hardly anybody would say "My phone is ... http://highclearing.com/index.php/archives/2010/09/06/11734 I try hard to keep a feminist perspective in mind because, as a man, I have to - it's easy to to make conveniently sexist assumptions otherwise. ("Convenient" for a dude.) But for the life of me, I can't read a crime into even the details of the accusers' own ... http://highclearing.com/index.php/archives/2010/09/06/11733 Before my coblogger gets ahead of the evidence, let me state that the official position of Unqualified Offerings is that we simply do not know whether Cellist Mike Edwards, cofounder of Electric Light Orchestra,was Al Qaeda's Number Three leader when the 94 stone bale [of hay] careered down the side ... http://highclearing.com/index.php/archives/2010/09/06/11732 By Thoreau I finally saw Avatar (and in 3D, the way it was meant to be seen).  A lot has been said about how one message is that ultimately what the indigenous people REALLY need is the help of a white guy.  There are various rejoinders that have been made (e.g. ... http://highclearing.com/index.php/archives/2010/09/06/11727 By Thoreau GE is hoping to sell nuclear reactors to Vietnam. Some day, I'm sure US companies will be selling nuclear reactors to Iraq.  And so it goes. http://highclearing.com/index.php/archives/2010/09/05/11725 By Thoreau As James Hanley notes, the legal battle over Prop 8 has reached an interesting stage:  The governor and attorney general do not believe that they can make a constitutional case in an appeal.  With the state officials finding no grounds for appeal, the only way it can be appealed ... http://highclearing.com/index.php/archives/2010/09/05/11721 By Thoreau The faltering economy means that the number of illegal immigrants in the US has declined for the first time in 20 years.  The Onion uncovers the most important angle on this development: "So a strong economy would bring back the illegals? Now I see why that rat Obama has been ... http://highclearing.com/index.php/archives/2010/09/04/11719 By Thoreau David Sirota argues that this is not the beginning of the end, but just another corner turned. Meanwhile, Greenwald notes that Social Security cuts may be coming. I'm sure they're both mistaken. http://highclearing.com/index.php/archives/2010/09/04/11714 By Thoreau One thing that I was trying to say was that on paper the US has a much more elaborate set of checks and balances than most other liberal democracies in the developed world.  Despite that, most of those countries with fewer formal checks and balances in their official flowcharts ... http://highclearing.com/index.php/archives/2010/09/04/11712 By Thoreau Anybody who wishes to fight with joe can post in here.  If joe wishes to fight somebody, he can post it in here. The other threads are for grown-up talk. http://highclearing.com/index.php/archives/2010/09/03/11710 By Thoreau Phil Ebersole argues that the filibuster is unnecessary in light of the fact that the US government already has more checks in the legislative process than most other liberal democracies in the developed world.  Certainly it is true that unlike most other rich, liberal democracies we have a truly ... http://highclearing.com/index.php/archives/2010/09/03/11707 By Thoreau The Islamic Republic is releasing new video games explicitly timed to coincide with the start of the academic year: State-run media have called on government supporters to turn out for Friday's rallies, and the pro-government militiamen, known as Basiji, produced two new anti-Israel video games called "Satan's Den ... http://highclearing.com/index.php/archives/2010/09/03/11705 By Thoreau First, let me note that it is September 2 and I don't see quite as much commentary on the Burlington Coat Factory recreation center.  So that's something. Second, one of the ordinary gentlemen says that we're ducking the issue when we criticize the rec center opponents for bigotry: Even to the ... http://highclearing.com/index.php/archives/2010/09/02/11702 By Thoreau The only thing encouraging about this story is that the adults who interacted with the kid once he was "in the system" actually recognized that he didn't deserve what was happening to him, and treated him decently. http://highclearing.com/index.php/archives/2010/09/02/11700 By Thoreau The quarter doesn't start for a few weeks yet, but for whatever reason I have been assigned to co-teach the "First Year Experience" class, i.e. our "How to survive in college" class.  Part of me wants to weep and curse as I give presentations on things like "Yes, you ... http://highclearing.com/index.php/archives/2010/09/01/11698 By Thoreau The Islamic Republic of Iran has ordered limits on the number of humanities degrees awarded. Now, if this were just a limit on the number of doctorates, I'd be saying "Finally, somebody decides to DO SOMETHING about PhD over-production!"  But, no, this is a limit on bachelors degrees, because ... http://highclearing.com/index.php/archives/2010/09/01/11692 By Thoreau Coming soon to a jail interrogation room near you: Microwave heat guns that cause unbearable pain. To be fair, they promise to only use them on settings that do not rise to the level of torture. Beautiful, isn't it? It took them half a life-time ... http://highclearing.com/index.php/archives/2010/08/31/11689