Hillary’s problem
Today I read for the first time in a major newspaper (the Washington Post) the key argument against Hilary Clinton’s run for the presidency.
The Next President of the United States
Barring a major terrorist attack on the United States, my money is on Obama. Elections are decided by the independents. They will vote for him rather than the Republican candidate because they want to be part of restoring American values. Here you can hear why Obama is going to be the frontrunner for the presidency in a few days.
Continue ReadingHow to make religious fanatics
The Economist reviews two interesting books that put Islamic fundamentalism in perspective.
Religion in Europe: The discovery of tolerance
A TYPICAL Protestant view of European religious history might go like this. In medieval times, the Roman Catholic church grew increasingly corrupt and impervious to criticism. Then came the Reformation, with its new breath of freedom and tolerance. After a brief fightback that culminated in the ghastly Thirty Years War in 1618-48, Europe moved smoothly towards the Enlightenment and today’s ideal of secular tolerance. It was all quite unlike, for example, Islam and the horrors of the Ottoman empire.
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Artistic Pepptalk for Girls
———————Girls——-
—————-are like apples——-
———-on trees. The best ones——
——-are at the top of the tree.——
—-The boys don’t want to reach—-
—for the good ones because they—
-r afraid of falling and getting hurt.-
-Instead, they get the rotten apples-
from the ground that aren’t as good,
but easy. So the apples up top think
something’s wrong w/ them when in
-reality they’re amazing. They just—
—-have to wait for the right boy to
——come along, the one who’s—
—————- brave enough to——
———————-climb all————
———————-the way———-
———————to the top———-
——————-of the tree.————
The latest recommenations for achieving an optimal diet
I have been improving my diet over the past five years. But the new scientific recommendations prompted me to re-evaluate my eating habits. I did not know that processed meet like salami is so bad for you while red meat properly cooked is healthy. Click on “More” to see what foods you should eat or avoid.
Are men and women different in how they chose their dates?
Ray Fisman filed this interesting report in Slate:When economists began broadly applying their theories of rational choice-making, love and marriage were among the first areas they colonized. Nobel Prize winner Gary Becker laid the foundations back in 1973 with his two-part article “A Theory of Marriage.” Becker imagined society as an immense cocktail party with rational-minded daters searching for the most desirable partner who would have them. His analysis predicted a pattern of “positive assortative matching,” where men and women of similar desirability would partner with one another.
A Short Primer on Conservatism for Liberals
David Brooks articulates the intellectual conservatism that will give any Democrat and Republican food for thought:
The Republican Collapse
Modern conservatism begins with Edmund Burke. What Burke articulated was not an ideology or a creed, but a disposition, a reverence for tradition, a suspicion of radical change. When conservatism came to America, it became creedal. Free market conservatives built a creed around freedom and capitalism. Religious conservatives built a creed around their conception of a transcendent order. Neoconservatives and others built a creed around the words of Lincoln and the founders.
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Jealous of the people at 15 Central Park West
It was always clear that me that with a lot of money New York City would be even a more spectacular place to live. I accepted with buddhist equanimity my low position in the money hierarchy until I read this review of the new building at 15 Central Park West. Should I have tried to become a rock star or a Wall Street Mogul so that I could have moved into this splendid building?
In an essay titled “The Plight of the Prosperous,” published in 1950 in this magazine, Lewis Mumford dismissed the living accommodations of upscale New Yorkers as little better than slums. “I sometimes wonder what self-hypnosis has led the well-to-do citizens of New York, for the last seventy-five years, to accept the quarters that are offered them with the idea that they are doing well by themselves,” he wrote.
Continue ReadingAre you the next Buddha?
How would you ever know if you are the next Buddha? Or are you Christ, as in the second coming of Christ? Slate reflects on the difficulties of identifying the next Buddha.
The 100 Most Influential Americans of All Time
The Atlantic Monthly came up with this list:
1 Abraham Lincoln
He saved the Union, freed the slaves, and presided over America’s second founding.
2 George Washington
He made the United States possible—not only by defeating a king, but by declining to become one himself.
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