Today’s links to interesting news and analysis. If you find this useful, pass it to a friend or colleague.
- “Conservatives and Economic Mobility“, Mark Zeitlin, 10 January 2010
- Some people never learn: “Three Strikes You’re Out? Ten? More?“, Josh Marshall, TPM, 12 January 2010 — Conservatives call for a 3rd “team b” to make yet another false foreign intelligence estimate.
- Food for thought: military spending ruined the USSR: “The Russians (Were) Coming“, Brad DeLong (Prof Economics Berkeley), 13 January 2010 — Interesting that Delong does not mention this obvious aspect of this analysis, that the USSR funded the military instead of civilian consumption.
- Budget cuts cancel America’s future, chapter xx: “Budget Will Eliminate Yucca Nuclear Waste Repository, Says Sen. Reid“, New York Times, 1 February 2010
- “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”, Benjamin Franklin, February 1775 (source)
- Some people disagree with Franklin: “Richard Cohen Begs For Fascism“, Adam Serwer, blog of The American Prospect, 2 February 2010 — “Cohen doesn’t care about the law; he just wants to feel safe!”
- “Nevada Governor Says Hundreds of Layoffs Possible“, AP, 2 February 2010
- State of the global warming debate: “Credibility is what’s really melting“, Mark Steyn, Maclean’s, 3 February 2010 — His opening paragraph exactly matches my experience.
- Today’s must-read, more effects of a long war: “The lynch-mob mentality“, Glenn Greenwald, Salon, 5 February 2010 — “That authoritarian mentality is stronger than ever now.”
- Budget cuts cancel America’s future, chapter XXI: “Nevada lawmakers ponder shorter school year, teacher pay cuts“, RGJ, 5 February 2010
- All too true: “Down With the People“, Jacob Weisberg, Slate, 6 February 20010 — “Blame the childish, ignorant American public — not politicians — for our political and economic crisis.”
Another IPCC error
“Top British scientist says UN panel is losing credibility“, The Times, 7 February 7 — Excerpt:
Robert Watson, chief scientist at Defra, the environment ministry, who chaired the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) from 1997 to 2002, was speaking after more potential inaccuracies emerged in the IPCC’s 2007 benchmark report on global warming.
The most important is a claim that global warming could cut rain-fed north African crop production by up to 50% by 2020, a remarkably short time for such a dramatic change. The claim has been quoted in speeches by Rajendra Pachauri, the IPCC chairman, and by Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general. This weekend Professor Chris Field, the new lead author of the IPCC’s climate impacts team, told The Sunday Times that he could find nothing in the report to support the claim.
Update: Some things about this are typical, but sad.
- The groundwork research was done by sceptics (e.g., here).
- The Guardian does not acknowledge their work.
- People relying on the US press for information remain totally ignorant of this news.
Today’s recommended website: New World Economics, by Nathan Lewis
One limiting factor for America is our lack of imagination about alternative ways to live. American exceptionalism acts as blinders, so that we don’t learn from other nations. Lewis helps cut them off in posts like “What A Real Train System Looks Like”.
