Tag: New York Times
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Conspiracy of Confusion
Diet is about as far from my normal topics as I can imagine. Part of the reason for this is that I generally follow the world’s simplest diet: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” (Michael Pollan January 28, 2007) I have followed that basic idea for years without knowing anything about Michael Pollan or…
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The Electability Trap
In what is probably the best non-partisan political commentary I’ve read recently, Ron Klain at Campaign Stops (a New York Times blog) writes about the dangers of choosing a candidate based on electability. Whether you are looking for the person you think would be the best president or the person with whom you agree on…
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Case for Absitnence
I was surprised as I read this Op-Ed piece in the New York Times by Caitlin Flanagan. I doubt it was her intent, but I found a very strong argument in favor of abstinence as the preferred attitude toward extra-marital sex. She argues that there is a double standard related to the burdens of teenage…
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The Pull of Youth
I can’t really explain why the following passage stuck in my mind from Frank Richs’ column in the New York Times yesterday. Something about it just caught my attention and has been hanging on in the background ever since. Speaking of the winners of the Iowa caucuses: The two men are the youngest candidates in…
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A Tax Debate Would Be Wise
Apparently the New York Times would like to have a public debate about taxes. The editorial board expresses their despair that none of the presidential candidates talk about taxes. I think that they are completely right that such a debate is necessary. Beyond that it seems that there is hardly anything that we agree about…
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NYT On Health Care
I was impressed with the New York Times editorial The High Cost of Health Care. I don’t really have time to review it here right now (it’s quite long) but it is well worth the read and I would like to come back to it later to review it. They talk about some of the…
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Many Primary Ideas
There are a variety of ideas for how we can fix our primary election process. They range from a lottery system proposed in comments and a post earlier on my site to more authoritative proposals such as rotating regional primaries as outlined by Trey Grason (go to page 25 of the PDF – hat tip…
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Smart Presidential Candidate
LaVarr Webb commented today in Utah Policy Daily on a great column by David Brooks at the New York Times called The Happiness Gap. Brooks was talking about the gap between how happy people are with their own lives and how optimistic they are about government. I think Brooks is right that people are beginning…
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Put Virtual Politics on the Ground
I have been thinking about the words of Tom Friedman when he wrote about what he calls Generation Q. I am impressed because they are so much more optimistic and idealistic than they should be. I am baffled because they are so much less radical and politically engaged than they need to be. . .…
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Congress – Do Something
A month into the fiscal year and Congress has not presented an appropriations bill for the President to sign because they don’t care enough about making things work when there are accusations to be flung, fights to pick (like SCHIP), and post offices to be named. The New York Times takes issue with the fact…