John's blog

Hat tip to Mark Thoma .

subtitle:

"How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream"

That's the new book by Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam.

Hat tip to Arnold Kling for pointing out this interesting article about a promising innovation that may help address our "peaky" oil problem.

The article's headline:

Scientists find bugs that eat waste and excrete petrol
Silicon Valley is experimenting with bacteria that have been genetically altered to provide 'renewable petroleum'

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

That about sums it up. In the last 24 hours, I have have had the unpleasant experience of being in a room listening to ignorant blather about gas prices and reading a dumb quote by McCain on food prices.

In one sense those terms can mean the same thing. It's common in water-cooler speak to imagine a scene where our gigantic military is scrutinized, defended and discussed.

High gas prices are undoubtedly and not surprisingly shooting to the top of the list of concerns for most people. Indeed, if you recall the NPR Poll cited in my previous blog entry, a look on pages 12-14 shows the polling data to back up what we all sense.

Hat tip to Reason Magazine .

From Copenhagen Consensus 2008 , we get their list of priorities to world-wide problems.

Being that the problems are "world-wide", many do not necessarily directly affect the First World like the U.S. and Europe.

1. Supplying Micronutrients

Hat Tip to Conor subbing at Megan McArdle

The American Conservative has an article up about partisanship and the difference in how it affects views on ideas when presented with or without partisan "cues", which generally are more likely to trigger a predictable answer.

Hat tip to Arnold Kling .

Congress Paul Ryan has a new policy package up for others to see called America's Road Map

The PDF bullet point version here .

Interesting. I commend him on the effort. This isn't about vague generalities but quite specific.

As Ryan says:

Hat tip to Dr. Boudreaux at Cafe Hayek who cites a commentary in today's WSJ by David Boaz of Cato.

In the commentary, Boaz challenges the notion, implicit or explicit, put forth by the presumptive nominees which states that we as citizens should commit ourselves to higher national causes.

Boaz is obviously not impressed with this vision.

Hat tip to Publius Endures (PE) for this little expose' of the mind of a Modern Conservative.

The article he links to is from Michelle Malkin and written by "See-Dubya".

Says Mark at PE: (emphasis mine)

Via this diary at the Forvm , we have a recent WSJ Article on tax policy.

The article goes into some well-discussed and common issues on tax policy that we've all heard and talked about and surly have our own opinions on.

A personal disclaimer: I don't like McCain. ;)

I don't like his views on Foreign Policy. I don't like his views on society with respect to government. Of course, the latter applies more broadly to all candidates so he's 0 for 2.

Hat tip to my fellow traveler Ka1igu1a at Freedom Democrats for the following video of the breathless and moronic Kevin James, conservative talk show host and devout ditto head.

As I watched and chuckled, I recalled MacBeth for some strange reason:

"Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."

Says Ka1igu1a:

See Story

Think Tanks are valuable sources of information. No doubt. But at the same time, I think most people can admit that they can also obscure debates on issues because they do their job too well.

In a way, I'm reminded of a previous diary that grumbles a bit about the complexity of stats and how it would seem that the same raw numbers can made to support opposing arguments....gotta hand it to those think tanks.

While most people's votes are as good as cast, endorsements still come out in favor of one candidate or the other. Be they prominent figures, other politicians or celebrities...they all like to give their public stamp of approval to a candidate with the thought that some people may be swayed or perhaps because they just like to be heard.

Tyler Cowen cites and comments on on an interesting post by Brad DeLong .

Having reading a study about education, market inequality and the question, "why more people don't go to college?", by Altonji, Bharadwaj, and Lange, Brad Delong concludes:

Altonji, Bharadwaj, and Lange do not know.

In the latest feature article at Reason (not online yet), Gene Healy looks at the growth of the all powerful, all knowing, all affecting, all healing, all preaching, all nourishing president.

Under the headline on page 21 reads the following:

Who can we blame for the radical expansion of executive power? Look no further than you and me.

There are many ways to view the Hillary vs. Obama debate as a perspective voter or supporter.