“In general, anything that increases economic well-being, according to McKenzie, makes us fat. While the standard of living increased over the past several decades, the price of food relative to other goods has fallen about 17%. Research has shown that for every 1% drop in the price of food, people increase food consumption by .6%. […]
Archive for the 'DayToDay' Category
Oct18th2011
For the record, I agree with every single point David Frum makes here against Republicans in general:
On the most urgent economic issue of the day – recovery from the Great Recession – the Republican consensus is seriously wrong.
It is wrong in its call for monetary tightening.
It is wrong to demand immediate debt reduction rather than wait […]
Oct17th2011
“I don’t feel any obligation to represent liberal Democrats. Over the years I’ve argued, for example, in favor of getting rid of the corporate income tax, creating school vouchers inversely related to family incomes, and extending free-trade agreements — positions not exactly favored by liberal Democrats.” – Robert Reich
Jul30th2011
One of my favorite organizations is the Institute For Justice. It is an extremely successful organization that fights against the powers of the government in areas where there are little other organizations doing so. For example, there is the licensing fight - an especially discriminatory and arbitrary arm of the government that gets little attention […]
May2nd2011
” Whatever their customs and traditions, even the most modern polities often find themselves yearning, like the Israelites of old, for a kinglike authority. And the existence of a largely-powerless royal family can be a useful hedge against the perpetual temptation to invest ordinary politicians with quasi-royal powers, and then (almost […]
Mar18th2011
“Japanese people may well be more honest than most. But the Japanese legal structure rewards honesty more than most. In a 2003 study on Japan’s famous policy for recovering lost property, West argues that the high rates of recovery have less to do with altruism than with the system of carrots and […]
Feb7th2011
Neal Gabler, writing in this months American Prospect gives a poignant view of presidents past:
Every president, whether he says so explicitly or not, approaches the presidency with a metaphor in mind. Theodore Roosevelt thought of his as a “bully pulpit” from which to educate the public. Franklin D. Roosevelt seemed to think […]
Nov25th2010
“First Thanksgivings aside, these local birds just wouldn’t do, and the English began importing turkeys to America. This preference carries over to the present day, and the bird Americans sit down to eat every Thanksgiving is not the northern wild turkey Meleagris americana but the Aztec land chicken Meleagris mexicana [which […]
Nov15th2010
“Are McDonald’s* hamburgers immune to natural processes like rotting? There’s some evidence that they are, but a truly scientific inquiry into the matter has been lacking — until now. J. Kenji Lopez-Alt of Serious Eats tested nine different hamburgers of varying sizes (both homemade and from McDonald’s) to find out. Contrary to […]
May28th2010
Charles Krauthammer writes:
“Why are we drilling in 5,000 feet of water in the first place?
Many reasons, but this one goes unmentioned: Environmental chic has driven us out there. As production from the shallower Gulf of Mexico wells declines, we go deep (1,000 feet and more) and ultra deep (5,000 feet and more), in part […]
Mar3rd2010
The Effort To Keep Ethnic Studies Professors Employed
Published by in DayToDay, General and Personal. 5 CommentsAs someone who both grew up in Compton and attends UCSD, I feel compelled to comment on the recent race relation issues UCSD is having. As most of you have probably already heard, the whole thing started when UCSD students, outside the campus, had a “Compton Cookout”, where participants were to wear “chains, rapper-style urban […]
May13th2008
Comencement Advice Worth Giving
Published by in Academia, DayToDay, Economics and General. 7 Comments P.J. O’Rourke, author of Eat The Rich, gives commencement advice worth giving:
1. Go out and make a bunch of money!
Here we are living in the world’s most prosperous country, surrounded by all the comforts, conveniences and security that money can provide. Yet no American political, intellectual or cultural leader ever […]
Mar24th2008
“No developed country approaches American giving. For example, in 1995 (the most recent year for which data are available), Americans gave, per capita, three and a half times as much to causes and charities as the French, seven times as much as the Germans, and 14 times as much as the Italians. Similarly, in 1998, […]
Jan24th2008
“So what drives modern marriage? We believe that the answer lies in a shift from the family as a forum for shared production to shared consumption. In case the language of economic lacks romance, let’s be clearer: modern marriage is about love and companionship. Most things in life are simply better shared with another. … […]
Nov28th2007
” If we look at the history of Western civilization, we find that Christianity has illuminated the greatest achievements of the culture. Read the new atheist books and make a list of the institutions and values that Hitchens and Dawkins and the others cherish the most. They value the idea of the individual, and the […]
Oct6th2007
Quote Of The Day
Published by in (modern day) Liberalism, Academia, Books, DayToDay and General. 3 Comments“[Conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence] Thomas was talking about how surprisingly positively he has been received in campuses around the country over the past two decades. It is mostly the faculty, not the students or the public that are tough on him. Of course, there are some law schools he does not expect an invitation […]
