Julian Sanchez header image 4

photos by Lara Shipley

Entries from January 2007

I Can’t Believe They Takin’ New York’s Wealth!

January 22nd, 2007 · Comments Off on I Can’t Believe They Takin’ New York’s Wealth!

The Financial Times reports on a study commissioned by New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg and Sen. Chuck Schumer, which found that excessive regulation may be undermining the city’s status as a global financial capital.

[Read more →]

Tags: Economics

Two Great Tastes

January 20th, 2007 · 5 Comments

Via A&L Daily, I see a posthumous book of Bernard Williams’ essays about opera has just been released, which for me is a little like hearing that Terry Gilliam will be directing Watchmen after all.

[Read more →]

Tags: Art & Culture

Explaining Atheism

January 19th, 2007 · 9 Comments

Via Megan, Robin Hanson wants to know: Last November we learned that the US public believes in God more than college professors, who believe more than professors at elite schools….If all we know about a view was that professors held it more, and elite professors even more so, we would be inclined to favor that […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Religion

So Far, I Have Not Found the Science

January 19th, 2007 · Comments Off on So Far, I Have Not Found the Science

I actually pretty much agree with Jonah Goldberg here: It’s a mistake to cast such issues as the debate over stem cell research in terms of a battle between “pro-science” and “anti-science” forces, although it’s a little tempting insofar as some of the religiously motivated opponents do seem to have a more general hostility to […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Moral Philosophy

You Don’t Understand What You Can’t Understand If You Don’t Understand It

January 19th, 2007 · Comments Off on You Don’t Understand What You Can’t Understand If You Don’t Understand It

So, I agree with the general gist of this

[Read more →]

Tags: Sociology

The “Kalashnikov Index”

January 18th, 2007 · 1 Comment

There’s a piece in Der Spiegel reporting that many in Iraq consider the “Kalashnikov Index,” a tongue-in-cheek name for average local arms prices, “the most reliable indicator of what the future may bring”: On Thursday morning, only hours after US President George Bush once again promised America would help bring peace and stability to the […]

[Read more →]

Tags: War

RIAA = French Button Makers?

January 18th, 2007 · Comments Off on RIAA = French Button Makers?

Techdirt explains.

[Read more →]

Tags: Tech and Tech Policy

You May Already Be a Lobbyist!

January 18th, 2007 · 1 Comment

A press release from direct-mail king Richard Viguerie calls attention to a measure in a new lobbying reform bill that could, in effect, require bloggers to register as lobbyists. The relevant provision, Section 220, dubs as “grassroots lobbying”: any paid attempt in support of lobbying contacts on behalf of a client to influence the general […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Tech and Tech Policy

Reporting Live from My Own Ass, This Is Thomas Friedman

January 18th, 2007 · 1 Comment

What could possibly be more glib, insufferable, and smug that Thomas Friedman’s New York Times column? Why, Tom Friedman on the radio! Marvel at his noxious Director of Human Resources tic of addressing the host by his first name every fifteen seconds. Wonder at his limitless capacity for self-congratulation. And gape in awe as Friedman […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Stupid Shit

Slightly-Less-Illegal Wiretaps

January 17th, 2007 · 1 Comment

It certainly sounds like good news that the administration has finally deigned to let FISA courts play their legally mandated oversight role, putting an end to the extralegal enterprise euphemistically (and question-beggingly) dubbed the Terrorist Surveillance Program. But as Orin Kerr notes there’s a big honking ambiguity in this new oversight: Justice department officials won’t […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Privacy and Surveillance