×
- Ezra Klein has some thoughts on our "center-right nation," which could be distilled to: Americans aren't, on the whole, ideological. I suppose it's fair to ask why Americans don't have a coherent political worldview, but I doubt anyone could come up with an airtight theory. This is why "centrist" has become shorthand for "ordinary Americans agree with my particular political viewpoints."
- John Stossel, on taxing the rich: "As I've said before, a tax cut is not a handout. It simply means government steals less. ... An economy that, through freedom, encourages the production of wealth raises the living standards of lower-income people as well as everyone else." An excerpt from a Tea Party coloring book: "[w]hen taxes are too high, the high tax takes away jobs and freedom." I'll leave it to readers to decide which is the more compelling argument.
- Jay Nordlinger really, really, wants the United States to do something about Hugo Chavez, he's just not sure what: "So, what should the United States do? As a general principle (not that this is super-specific policy advice): Stick up for democracy, decency, liberalism (not the McGovern kind), everywhere." Needless to say, the problem is precisely that "stick up for Democracy" is not "super-specific." Foreign policy is about setting concrete goals to reach palpable results, not fantasies that we can remake the world at will.
- Remainders: Nate Silver explains the importance of the confidence interval in statistics; Rand Paul's professional medical association is, kinda... well, yeah; and TARP, the forbidden bipartisan success.
-- Mori Dinauer
