Evan Bayh says that a constitutional amendment may be necessary
in order to correct the corrosive effect of private money upon political campaigns. www.nytimes.com/2010/02/21/opinion/21bayh.html?hp I also have to agree with Thomas Friedman in his column of today, although I am not generally an admirer of his. “Indeed, to lead now is to trim, to fire or to downsize services, programs or personnel. We’ve gone from […]
Leon Wieseltier v Andrew Sullivan, a Jewish layman’s reaction
I have been introduced to a public row between Leon Wieseltier and Andrew Sullivan by a conversation between Matthew Yglesias and Glenn Loury on bloggingheadstv: bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/26064 The venomous article directed at Sullivan by Wieseltier is here: www.tnr.com/article/something-much-darker Here is my reaction to the article, which I have also posted in the bloggingheadstv online forums, in […]
More on the ungovernability of the USA
This front-page article in yesterday’s NYT is highly relevant: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/17/bu…idlock.html?em The reason I think the American political system is broken is its failure to deal with the fundamental fiscal and economic problems facing the nation. That’s the symptom. So what are the causes? Health care costs are a big part of the problem. This has […]
Ledocs World Gets New Web Address
Through the wonders of information technology that are mostly opaque to me, this blog should now be available at the address “http://ledocs.net”, or, more simply, “ledocs.net.” If you are using the old address at wordpress.com, you should be redirected to the new, sleek, hip, very wonderful address. Now, all the incredible free content of this […]
Jonathan Chait – the US is ungovernable
…And this from TNR’s Jonathan Chait, on the ungovernability of the United States of America. This guy Chait is starting to grow on me. www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-chait/america-ungovernable
What are Obama’s core economic beliefs?
This just in from John Judis at “The New Republic,” Obama’s sympathies are really with Wall Street, not with Main Street. But I object to Judis’s own gloss on the old chestnut of comparing very high compensation in the business world with the very high compensation of athletes and entertainers. Judis makes the wrong argument. […]
Super Bowl XLIV
We watched the Super Bowl live from France, so the game ended at about 4:30 in the morning. It was a very good game to watch. I used to be a huge fan of the San Francisco 49ers and knew a lot about professional football. Today, I watch very few games. This year, I saw […]
Great column on Mideast peace by Roger Cohen
I agree with everything said in this column, written by a somewhat unlikely source, because I think of Cohen as being very slightly left of center. He is a British Jew. The American Jewish community must come to its senses, but it shows every sign of not doing so, year after year. The reason is […]
Brooks calls for debate on constitutional reform
Wow, I am astounded and gratified. Shortly after I suggested that America needs constitutional reform regarding two things, the disproportionate power of the Senate and the inability of our system to limit spending on political campaigns, David Brooks chimes in to say that the system might be broken and that there should be a debate […]
Doug Henwood Speaks for Me
in his introductory editorial for the edition of January 21, 2010. Those not familiar with Henwood should check him out. A leftist with a brain, who began adulthood as a graduate student of comparative literature at Yale. I don’t share his taste for punk rock, but his book about Wall Street is quite good. He […]