The snarky quip attributed to 19th-century French Foreign Minister Charles Maurice de Talleyrand -- "It was worse than a crime; it was a blunder" -- has recently been making the rounds to deride a letter written by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and signed by 46 other senators.
In January, Governor Jerry Brown announced a goal for Californians to double the planned level of savings from energy efficiency improvements in existing buildings by 2030 and develop cleaner heating fuels. Hitting these very high targets in just 15 years “will take great thought and imagination,” the Governor said, and “require enormous innovation, research and investment.”
Jerry Brown is California’s longest-serving governor, not to mention one of its more arcane chief executives in recent times. Brown doesn’t do many in-depth interviews; he cares little for insights into his political psyche.
Last week, I complained that Eva Moskowitz and other reformers weren’t being fair when they described schools as “persistently failing” because they didn’t get many of their students to the ambitious levels built into the Common Core.
In a previous RealClearMarketscolumn, I asked whether California could actually get any greener than it currently is. This matters when we remember that Golden State politics are increasingly centered on who can propose the most aggressive environmental plan. But what California's elected leaders often ignore when "keeping up with the environmental Joneses" are the facts.
In a study that is widely seen as among the most important contributions to social psychology, a team of observers joined a prophetic, apocalyptic cult to determine what would happen to the group if the predicted events failed to materialize.
This is a very interesting case. The other day, federal district judge Edgardo Ramos in New York threw out a defamation lawsuit between two private parties on the government’s intervening motion asserting the state secrets privilege. The case is Restis v. American Coalition Against a Nuclear Iran (UANI). The 18-page opinion is worth reading.
On March 10, the Hoover Institution held a roundtable discussion on “Perspectives on Russia’s Hybrid War on Ukraine and US Foreign Policy." Hoover fellow Paul Gregory moderated; presenters were Michael McFaul, director of Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute, Hoover senior fellow, and former ambassador to Russia; Alexander Yarim-Agaev, a professor at Donetsk Technical University; General Jim Mattis, Annenberg Distinguished Visiting Fellow; and Yuri Yarin-Agaev, Hoover visiting fellow.
Hoover fellow Kori Schake discusses President Obama’s plan to slow troop withdrawal from Afghanistan. Schake notes that the end game of war should be dictated by the circumstances not by an artificial timeline. Schake believes that Obama does not want another Iraq on his hands and therefore he wants to leave troops in Afghanistan for a longer period of time.
Call it the revenge of the nerds, Washington-style. The gun-toting F.B.I. agent and the swashbuckling C.I.A. undercover officer are being increasingly called upon to share their clout, their budgets and even their Hollywood glamour with the humble, desk-bound intelligence analyst.
Across the country, Democratic governors and mayors have cozied up to the teachers unions and given up on education reform. Not New York’s governor, Andrew Cuomo.
What does energy efficiency mean to you? Does it mean replacing old light bulbs with energy-stingy LEDs? Is it a remodeling project that installs double or triple pane windows? Does it include upgrading appliances like air conditioners and refrigerators to take advantage of Energy Star ratings and utility rebate programs?
