Binyamin Applebaum has an excellent article in the New York Times today, titled "Who Wants to Buy a Politician?", on the ineffectiveness, on the margin, of spending on political campaigns.
Dr. John Wesley Rice Jr.’s first born was supposed to be a boy. His son would carry on the family name, values, traditions, and most importantly – love football. Instead, he and his wife, Angelena Ray Rice, brought a girl, Dr. Condoleezza Rice, into the world.
Torture is wrong. Applied to interrogation it is unproductive. Given these two things, it should be easy for interrogators to choose not to use torture. Despite this, torture is widely and persistently used in interrogation around the world. So here, apparently, is a puzzle. Why does torture persist? The solution to the puzzle is found in a third feature: torture is corrupting.
The last few posts haven't worked out so well, that's for sure. After a too-grumpy reaction to Alan Blinder's review, I wanted to say something nice and find common ground with the "what's wrong with macro" articles and even Krugman's posts. In doing so I was much too quick and superficial in characterizing what's going on at high levels of our policy institutions.
On November 3rd, I provided some predictions for California’s top legislative and Congressional races. With the dust settled, I can take a look back at those predictions to figure out what, indeed, happened.
The Senate Intelligence Committee report on the CIA’s interrogation program is expected out today, but unsurprisingly, many people aren’t bothering to wait for it, the minority views, or the CIA’s response before commenting breathlessly on it. After all, actually reading it will be time consuming. Between all three documents, it’s many hundreds of pages.
The new National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is likely to extend the ban on any transfers of Guantanamo detainees into the United States but ease restrictions on transfers to other countries.
The release of a searing report by the Senate Intelligence Committee on the CIA’s interrogation program Tuesday was the latest morale-sinking moment for an agency that has been buffeted repeatedly throughout its history, from the Bay of Pigs fiasco to the Nixon-era domestic abuses to the 1980s scandals tied to Iran and Latin America.
Ohio charter-school students learn less in a year than similar students at the traditional public schools they left, according to a study released yesterday.
AUSTIN -- Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) is undergoing exhaustive preparations to run for president in 2016, with dozens of think tank experts flying into Austin this month for daylong briefings and tutorial sessions with the governor.
