Seen ’round About

Hmm. Interesting?

• Magical versus Miraculous Thinking September 8, 2010
  Or, Living Supernaturally Without Being a Wizard What is a poor Muggle to do? Muggles lack magic, J.K. Rowling tells me, and there is no doubt I am a muggle. My students are Muggles too, but worst of all instead of Dumbledore in class, they get me. Sometimes I get on the elevator in my two-story building and hope that it will open to Narnia, but it always op […]
  John Mark Reynolds
• Thoughts on “Lawfare” September 8, 2010
  A friend bristled at the title of this blog, Lawfare, because he thinks that the first sense in which Ben uses the term in his initial post – the use of law as a weapon of war – has derogatory connotations for the rule of law in warfare.  My friend traces this derogatory connotation to the Bush’s administration’s early resistance to international law and jud […]
  Jack Goldsmith
• Nepal: Gokarna Aunsi - The Fathers' Day September 8, 2010
  By Rezwan Nepal has its version of fathers' day which is called Gokarna Aunsi. Pradeep Kumar Singh explains the tradition and the mythology behind this day. […]
  Rezwan
• Woman gets Kia Soul after passing drive test on 960th try September 8, 2010
  Filed under: Etc., Government/Legal, Hatchback, Kia, Humor, South Korea Kia Soul - click above for high-res image gallery We like to think of ourselves as pretty determined folk here the United States. After all, our forebearers forged our country out of a wild and unsettling terrain, fought off tyrants, cooked up some of the most amazing inventions of the l […]
  Zach Bowman
• A Surveillance State Coda September 8, 2010
  The program of warrantless NSA wiretapping (and data mining) authorized by the president shortly after the 9/11 prompted a flurry of intense debate over its legality when it was disclosed by The New York Times back in 2005. Those arguments have, by now, been so thoroughly rehearsed that there’s not a whole lot new to say about it. But like Monty Python’s Bla […]
  Julian Sanchez
• Rage Against the Breeders September 8, 2010
  Jonathan V. Last at The Weekly Standard has written an article about the rising tide of anti-childbearing sentiment, in which he writes:It is a quirk of the movement that while the most committed childfree people tend to be women, being childfree is not primarily a feminist pose. In The Childless Revolution, Madelyn Cain describes three types of childfree wo […]
  James M. Kushiner
• Economic Miracles Come in Similar Packages --- Free Market Reforms Work! September 8, 2010
  |Peter Boettke|Larry White has a great op-ed in today's WSJ addressing the policy steps that produced the German economic miracle after WWII. […]
  Peter Boettke
• Canada’s Century September 8, 2010
  Will global warming help make our Northern neighbor into a superpower?Related posts...Lomborg RecantsNo epistemic closure here!Same-Sex Marriage and Divorce, By the Numbers […]
  Will
• Inconvenient Ice Study: Less ice in the Arctic Ocean 6000-7000 years ago September 8, 2010
  Since there is so much worry about the Arctic Sea Ice extent this time of year, it is always good to get some historical perspective. According to this study, our current low Arctic ice extents are not unprecedented. From a press release of the Geological Survey of Norway: Less ice in the Arctic Ocean 6000-7000 years ago Written by: Gudmund Løvø 20. October […]
  Anthony Watts
• The Storm of History September 8, 2010
  A storm on Russia’s northwestern Lake Onega began to seriously rock the five-deck riverboat “Kronstadt” last Thursday, just as the boat’s travelling party of some 90 Russia experts from around the world brainstormed whether Russia should move “forward to Asia” or “backward to Europe.” […]
  (author unknown)
• ‘Housing prices must fall, yet…housing prices must not fall’ September 8, 2010
  Tyler Cowen sums up the central problem with our economy, asking “Should we let housing prices fall?” Many smart people say we should.  It seems increasingly clear that we must.  For how long can the government prop them up?  Are we never to have a private market in mortgages again? Yet what happens if we let them fall?  Arguably many banks would once again […]
  E.D. Kain
• Obama's Wedge September 8, 2010
  I write about Obama's latest economic proposals today. The most direct way for him to boost Democrats' fortunes in the fall is to turn out the base, eroding the Republican enthusiasm advantage. The problem is that the kind of things he can do to motivate his supporters are the kind of things that are driving independents away from him: Obama’s dome […]
  (author unknown)
• Nearer to the first joy September 8, 2010
  O you companies of women, make spiritual festival while you say, “Today our race has drawn near to the first joy, in that it was through mother Eve that we were led to our fall, but with Mary we found our way to the Garden from which had been driven out. Ramsho (Evening Prayer), Feast of the Birth of Mary the Theotokos […]
  Wei Hsien
• Magic Bus September 8, 2010
  Public Service Announcement: The League of Ordinary Gentlemen officially endorses letting your kid walk to school. Also: I hope there’s a special circle of hell reserved for busy-body elementary school administrators.Related posts...Reclaiming the “Urban Ballet”the great thing about being a father (part 1) […]
  Will
• Books of the exodus September 8, 2010
  Joe K asked about other books I took with me during my “exodus” from Denver in May 2008. Since the books of that “first wave” have now mingled with other volumes on my shelf (shipped from Denver over the course of the last 2 years as well as newly-purchased volumes), my recollection is only partial. Our conversation also turned to the role some of these book […]
  Wei Hsien