International row deepens over use of fake UK passports as Israeli foreign minister fails to deny Mossad involvement Gordon Brown today stepped into the growing international row over the alleged use of fake passports by the assassins of a Hamas leader in Dubai by promising a full investigation. As demands were made for the Israeli [...]
Archive for February, 2010
Gordon Brown pledges inquiry as Israel refuses to rule out Mossad plot in Dubai
Posted in Conflicts and wars on February 17, 2010 | Comments Off
Mix message
Posted in Economy and business on February 17, 2010 | Comments Off
Barack Obama’s advisers lay out some steps to a rebalanced economy. Others are out of his hands FEW things have frustrated Washington’s punditocracy more than the search for “Obamanomics”, a consistent set of principles that underpins Barack Obama’s thinking on the American economy. “We can’t afford another so-called economic ‘expansion’ like the one from the [...]
Pillar of wisdom
Posted in Law on February 17, 2010 | Comments Off
The Rule of Law. By Tom Bingham. Allen Lane; 213 pages; £20. TOM BINGHAM holds that what has come to be known as the rule of law is “the nearest we are likely to approach to a universal secular religion”. The key word is “universal”. Nigel Lawson, Margaret Thatcher’s chancellor of the exchequer, once described [...]
What’s Hot on This BBC Podcast? The Siege of Munster (1534-35)
Posted in Other on February 17, 2010 | Comments Off
The Frankfurt School of philosophers emigrated from Nazi Germany and became dyspeptic critics of American culture. Several landed in Southern California where they were disturbed by the consumer culture and the gospel of relentless cheeriness. Depressive by nature, they focused on the disappointments and venality that surrounded them and how unnecessary it all was. It [...]
Crime by the Numbers
Posted in Editorials and opinion, Law on February 17, 2010 | Comments Off
A RECENT survey of retired New York Police Department personnel strongly implies that the police’s reporting of crime statistics in New York City has been skewed for years, with precinct commanders and others downgrading crimes to make their results look better. According to the survey’s authors, criminologists John Eterno and Eli Silverman, and to spokesmen [...]
An Order of Prosperity, to Go
Posted in Economy and business, Editorials and opinion on February 17, 2010 | Comments Off
PRESIDENT OBAMA called on America to “export more of our goods” in his State of the Union address last month, setting a goal of doubling what we sell abroad in five years. Good idea, but it would have been so much better if he had said “goods and services.” Editing the president’s speeches isn’t my [...]
Global Weirding Is Here
Posted in Editorials and opinion, Energy and Environment on February 17, 2010 | Comments Off
Of the festivals of nonsense that periodically overtake American politics, surely the silliest is the argument that because Washington is having a particularly snowy winter it proves that climate change is a hoax and, therefore, we need not bother with all this girly-man stuff like renewable energy, solar panels and carbon taxes. Just drill, baby, [...]
Fixing Obama’s Tibet Bungle
Posted in Editorials and opinion, tagged Tibet on February 16, 2010 | Comments Off
Accommodating China hasn’t helped the U.S. Meeting the Dalai Lama is a chance to start over. This week’s meeting between President Barack Obama and the Dalai Lama is generating an unusually vocal uproar from Beijing. That uproar, for those who listen carefully, is a sign that Mr. Obama’s policies on Tibet and China are not [...]
Cap-and-Tax Escape
Posted in Editorials and opinion, Energy and Environment on February 16, 2010 | Comments Off
The climate lobby loses three members. Yesterday’s corporate defections from the U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP) won’t be greeted with the same hosannas as last year’s departures of Nike and Apple from the Chamber of Commerce over its global warming stance, but they’re undoubtedly more important. This scales-from-eyes moment shows that some big American businesses [...]
Another Liberal Crackup
Posted in Editorials and opinion, Politics on February 16, 2010 | Comments Off
The real reason Evan Bayh wants out of Washington. The political retirement of Evan Bayh, at age 54, is being portrayed by various sages as a result of too much partisanship, or the Senate’s dysfunction, or even the systemic breakdown of American governance. Most of this is rationalization. The real story, of which Mr. Bayh’s [...]
Iran Has Designs on Iraq
Posted in Conflicts and wars, Politics, tagged Iran, Iraq on February 16, 2010 | Comments Off
Progress has been very real, but Joe Biden’s claims of victory are premature Vice President Joe Biden recently told Larry King that Iraq “could be one of the great achievements of this administration.” Mr. Biden’s transparent attempt to take credit for Bush administration policies aside, it’s worth asking how exactly does the Obama administration define [...]
Paying attention in law school
Posted in Law, Weird cases on February 16, 2010 | Comments Off
Law school is a tough challenge even for the bright students who gain admission. In America, a good student will complete over 4,000 hours of lectures, classes and scholarship. Law books are long and law libraries are large. Law school probably isn’t the best choice for anyone unable to pay attention to something for longer [...]
China Has a Plan, America Doesn’t
Posted in Economy and business, tagged China, United States on February 16, 2010 | Comments Off
Chimerica’s Monetary Management Lender and borrower: Chinese President Hu Jintao (L) and US President Barack Obama America has been squandering money it borrowed from the Chinese. Instead of criticizing China’s monetary policy, US President Barack Obama should acknowledge the financial skill being displayed by the new world power and learn a few useful lessons. Everyone [...]
Tourist Trapped on Ski Lift Escapes Death by Burning Cash
Posted in Other on February 16, 2010 | Comments Off
Some snowboarders are fond of big air. But trapped 10 meters up on a chair lift, Dominik Podolsky elected to burn money to attract attention. A German snowboarder, stranded on a ski lift for six hours, saved himself by burning all his cash to attract attention in the icy darkness. He was burning his [...]
Major Hasan: The Counterlife
Posted in Conflicts and wars, Editorials and opinion, Politics on February 15, 2010 | Comments Off
The Fort Hood killer just missed becoming a civil-liberties martyr. Suppose that on Nov. 4, 2009—the day before he would open fire on his fellow soldiers at Fort Hood, killing 13 and wounding 30—Major Nidal Malik Hasan had been arrested by military police and charged with intent to commit acts of terrorism. Where would his [...]
Clash of the Titans
Posted in Politics on February 15, 2010 | Comments Off
Bill Clinton and Ken Starr do battle. Did Monica save Hillary along the way? Bill Clinton is not a man known for introspection, but looking back at the scandal that nearly destroyed his presidency he does have regrets. It is not his personal conduct that seems to trouble him most, or his misleading statements under [...]
Biden’s Diversion Strategy
Posted in Editorials and opinion, Politics on February 15, 2010 | Comments Off
Joe’s ‘gaffes’ have a political logic. It’s easy to pile on Joe Biden. Vice presidents, after all, acquire reputations in Washington they never really shake. Dick Cheney was Darth Vader, and now Joe Biden is the embarrassing uncle you try to keep away from the microphone. Neither is entirely fair. Still, when Mr. Biden claims [...]
Speaking too softly
Posted in Editorials and opinion, tagged China, Tibet, United States on February 15, 2010 | Comments Off
Relations between America and China may chill over a meeting with the Dalai Lama IT IS bound to be a controversial meeting. The Dalai Lama, Tibet’s spiritual leader, goes to Washington, DC, this week and will sit down with President Barack Obama for the first time on Thursday February 18th. American presidents have long been [...]
Fair dues
Posted in Economy and business on February 15, 2010 | Comments Off
Employees sniff out unfairness when money is involved IF YOU can count your money you don’t have a billion dollars, opined Jean Paul Getty, an oil magnate. You may feel peeved for other reasons, too. A study published this month in the journal Psychological Science reveals that employees’ perceptions of how fairly they are being [...]
“Venecuba”, a single nation
Posted in Politics, tagged Cuba, Venezuela on February 15, 2010 | Comments Off
Hugo Chávez, as he drafts in ever more Cuban aides to shore up his regime, is fulfilling a longstanding dream of Fidel Castro’s IN A small fishing village on the Caribbean coast of Venezuela stands a plinth. Unveiled by government officials in 2006, it pays homage to the Cuban guerrillas sent by Fidel Castro in [...]
Defending the word ‘retard’ is not heroic
Posted in Editorials and opinion, Living on February 15, 2010 | Comments Off
The media is least attractive when it offers the pretense of fairness to cover a desire for self-serving controversy. “Tonight, the issue is cannibalism. Taking the pro-cannibalism side is Dr. Littleknown Academic, professor of cultural and culinary studies at Unjustifiably Prominent University….” As G.K. Chesterton said, some viewpoints are not just minorities but monstrosities. Giving [...]
The bigotry behind the word ‘retard’
Posted in Editorials and opinion, Living on February 15, 2010 | Comments Off
Professor and author Christopher M. Fairman ["The case against banning the word 'retard,' " Outlook, Feb. 14] made good arguments about the limits of language to effect change in behavior and attitude, as well as about the nuanced ways in which words such as “retard,” “queer” and “gay” can carry multiple meanings, some of which [...]
The case against banning the word ‘retard’
Posted in Editorials and opinion, Living on February 15, 2010 | Comments Off
Does the word “retard” have less than three weeks to live? Long before Rahm Emanuel, Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh made the word fodder for political controversy and late-night punch lines, a movement was underway to eliminate it from everyday conversation. Saying, irrefutably, that the word and its variations are hurtful to many, the Special [...]
Rock Groups
Posted in Mathematics on February 15, 2010 | Comments Off
Like anything else, arithmetic has its serious side and its playful side. The serious side is what we all learned in school: how to work with columns of numbers, adding them, subtracting them, grinding them through the spreadsheet calculations needed for tax returns and year-end reports. This side of arithmetic is important, practical and — [...]
The Enemy of My Enemy
Posted in Mathematics on February 15, 2010 | Comments Off
It’s traditional to teach kids subtraction right after addition. That makes sense — the same facts about numbers get used in both, though in reverse. And the black art of “borrowing,” so crucial to successful subtraction, is only a little more baroque than that of “carrying,” its counterpart for addition. If you can cope with [...]
Reading Between the Sheets
Posted in Living on February 14, 2010 | Comments Off
Over the years, as a parade of powerful male figures (mostly politicians, with the exception of one particular golfer whom we treat like a world leader) have been caught with women who were usually younger and always less powerful than they, the question has often been raised: Why don’t women gamble their political and personal [...]
Uncommon knowledge
Posted in Uncommon knowledge, tagged February 14 2010 on February 14, 2010 | Comments Off
He just looks Republican You shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but you can probably judge political partisans by theirs. Psychologists at Tufts University showed people photos of white Democratic and Republican politicians and college students. People were able to guess the political affiliation of the person in the photo at a rate significantly [...]
How to write an incendiary blog post
Posted in Other on February 14, 2010 | Comments Off
This sentence contains a provocative statement that attracts the readers’ attention, but really has very little to do with the topic of the blog post. This sentence claims to follow logically from the first sentence, though the connection is actually rather tenuous. This sentence claims that very few people are willing to admit the obvious [...]
The sweet smell of morality
Posted in Living on February 14, 2010 | Comments Off
How scent can shape our thinking Can a clean smell make you a better person? That’s the provocative suggestion of a recent study in the journal Psychological Science. A team of researchers found that when people were in a room recently spritzed with a citrus-scented cleanser, they behaved more fairly when playing a classic trust [...]
Imaginary fiends
Posted in Other on February 14, 2010 | Comments Off
Crime in America keeps going down. Why does the public refuse to believe it? The year 2009 was a grim one for many Americans, but there was one pleasant surprise amid all the drear: Citizens, though ground down and nerve-racked by the recession, still somehow resisted the urge to rob and kill one another, and [...]
