Re: The Smell of a Real Scandal

2004-03-26 Thread Gautam Mukunda
e why you disagree with the implication. All PROVE-IT really demonstrated was that Lipitor is better at doing something that _we already knew statins do_ - save lives. = Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com ___

Re: The Smell of a Real Scandal

2004-03-26 Thread Gautam Mukunda
r brain and is able to differentiate between advertising and medical advice. You can do it after all. I mean, you haven't gone to your doctor for medicine for Social Anxiety Disorder (unless you have it, of course), right? So why do you think that other people can't? = Gautam Mukunda [

Re: The Smell of a Real Scandal

2004-03-26 Thread Gautam Mukunda
id poorly in the study_. Pfizer did not pay for PROVE-IT. BMS did. I have helped design drug company clinical trial strategies, and we don't rig them. Personally, Debbi, I'd prefer taking a pill every day than the sort of nanny-stateism that has the government dictating what I eat ev

Re: The Smell of a Real Scandal

2004-03-26 Thread Gautam Mukunda
cal community. PROVE-IT was a triumph for American medicine. The next time someone tells you about dishonest drug companies, ask yourself this. When was the last time a company designed a test that proved its own products inferior and the whole thing was still sent out to the public? = Gautam

Re: The media and the Media

2004-03-24 Thread Gautam Mukunda
he above. Freedom may not offer any assurance that the press will report reality. Freedom does, however, offer us the assurance that it will get closer than anything else. = Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com _

Offshoring

2004-03-24 Thread Gautam Mukunda
-drezner/the-outsourcing-bogeyman.html = Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Finance Tax Center - File online. File on time. http://taxes.yahoo.com/f

Re: Race to the Bottom

2004-03-22 Thread Gautam Mukunda
ot be as low as they seem. They are often thought of as real interest rates - the interest rate minus the inflation rate. Given the extremely low inflation rate, real interest rates aren't (I believe) at historically low levels. = Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTEC

Re: New Pentagon Papers Author

2004-03-18 Thread Gautam Mukunda
the Nazis?" I don't see Bush doing that yet... = Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - More reliable, more storage, less spam http://mail.yahoo.com ___

Re: Immigration and Inequality Re: Race to the Bottom

2004-03-17 Thread Gautam Mukunda
--- "John D. Giorgis" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > At 05:30 PM 3/17/2004 -0800 Gautam Mukunda wrote: > >What do you mean by needs? > > I mean that if we were suddenly to get rid of the > millions of illegal > workers in the country, we would have a very &

Re: Immigration and Inequality Re: Race to the Bottom

2004-03-17 Thread Gautam Mukunda
at's certainly true. But the type of immigrant is at least as important as the number of immigrants. An economically and socially ideal immigration policy, it seems to me, would look a lot different from what we currently have. = Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED

Re: Spanish elections query

2004-03-17 Thread Gautam Mukunda
hoose to embody all the worst stereotypes of European cowardice and fecklessness I have no idea but hey, there you go. = Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com __ Do you Yahoo

A war opponent on the Spanish Elections

2004-03-16 Thread Gautam Mukunda
Edward Luttwak, an opponent of the Iraq war and an accomplished scholar of international security, wrote in the New York Times today on what happened in Spain. It's worth reading. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/16/opinion/16LUTT.html = Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom i

Re: New Pentagon Papers Author

2004-03-16 Thread Gautam Mukunda
though he would have much better grounds to do so_. That, even more than the importance and frequency with which Democrats are making that claim, is what makes their behavior far worse. = Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogs

Re: New Pentagon Papers Author

2004-03-16 Thread Gautam Mukunda
second, when did he say it? Was it after the "Baghdad Two" went off on their little junket? Because if it was, then he was, you know, _right_. Isn't that kind of a problem for your argument? = Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.bl

Re: New Pentagon Papers Author

2004-03-16 Thread Gautam Mukunda
s. Al Gore claimed that the President betrayed his country. John Kerry claimed that all Republicans - and from the context it's clear that he was talking about Republicans in general - were crooks. You _don't see_ Republicans of equal stature doing anything like that, and the stature of the p

Re: New Pentagon Papers Author

2004-03-16 Thread Gautam Mukunda
). > > Doug I do know who Alex Castellanos is, and the bureaucRATS thing is a proof of how desperate you are to find something. Because, of course, that whole thing was made up - a fictional tempest in a teapot over a non-existent event created by a media desperate to find something or any

Re: New Pentagon Papers Author

2004-03-16 Thread Gautam Mukunda
tant Democratic Congressmen who _did_, by most definitions, do exactly that. The accusation's a lot more credible if it's, well, true. = Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com __ Do you

Re: DEFENDERS OF THE SANCTITY OF MARRIAGE

2004-03-16 Thread Gautam Mukunda
gt; war of conquest. In fact, I believe that Baghdad will be renamed George Bush City next week, if my secret memo from the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy is correct. I believe that my personal profit-sharing as a junior member of the VRWC from the oil revenues comes to $42.03, in fact. =

Re: New Pentagon Papers Author

2004-03-15 Thread Gautam Mukunda
ike this. He might even agree. I would also say, by the way - could you find a quote from Bush or Cheney saying such things about their opponents? You most certainly could not. Anyone who has the gall to claim that Bush is questioning people's patriotism or running a mean-spirited campaign damn

Re: New Pentagon Papers Author

2004-03-15 Thread Gautam Mukunda
ewish people. Well, by that definition I am a Zionist, and I'm proud of that fact. = Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - More reliable, more storage, less spam http://mail.y

Re: Race to the Bottom

2004-03-15 Thread Gautam Mukunda
pact than their pure numbers would imply. = Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - More reliable, more storage, less spam http://mail.yahoo.com __

New Pentagon Papers Author

2004-03-15 Thread Gautam Mukunda
thought the war shouldn't happen was okay, as long as you agreed on that? = Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - More reliable, more storage, less spam http://mail.ya

RE: Terrorists Win in Spain

2004-03-15 Thread Gautam Mukunda
Well, the attacks seem pretty clearly to have been launched to achieve exactly this result. 1. Terrorists attack to get a certain result 2. Terrorists get the result that they want I think that meets most reasonable definitions of a victory for terrorists. = Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECT

Clutch Hitting

2004-03-14 Thread Gautam Mukunda
Baseball Prospectus just published a freely-available article on the state of what we know about clutch hitting. Given the occasional discussions on the topic on list, I thought people might find it interesting. http://premium.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=2656 = Gautam

Re: Race to the Bottom

2004-03-12 Thread Gautam Mukunda
top of the market. I further argue that this is a bad thing, but I don't think you disagree with that point of my argument. Where in that chain of reasoning do you depart from me? = Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com

Re: Immigration and Inequality Re: Race to the Bottom

2004-03-12 Thread Gautam Mukunda
's a real danger in his program of creating a permanent class of guest workers - exactly the program that the Europeans have tried and that has failed miserably for them. = Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com ___

Re: Liberal Talkradio Network To Launch March 31

2004-03-12 Thread Gautam Mukunda
thought, oh, the M-1 tank was a bad idea. That doesn't make it a violation of your rights that the government built M-1s. It might make it bad policy (although it was, in fact, very good policy). But that's different from your rights. The Constitution does not mean that you get

Re: Race to the Bottom

2004-03-12 Thread Gautam Mukunda
many times stated your belief that conservatives actually _want_ to increase that in the US, this poses you something of a problem. = Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Sea

Re: Liberal Talkradio Network To Launch March 31

2004-03-12 Thread Gautam Mukunda
appropriating funds from the general budget to run ads on its own behalf. I assume that is not okay with you? = Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com __ Do

Re: America, land of the Ashcroft-haters

2004-03-12 Thread Gautam Mukunda
--- Damon Agretto <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > As someone who has served in the Army, this whole > statement is more amusing than it should be... > > Damon "nothing says authority like 700 STEEL > BALLS!!!" Remember "Front towards enemy" :-) = Gau

Re: Race to the Bottom

2004-03-12 Thread Gautam Mukunda
Which is, of course, exactly what happened. Furthermore, the large number of illegal immigrants - people willing to work, effectively, for below the minimum wage - creates a further downward pull on low-skilled workers incomes, further exacerbating the income inequality problem. = Gautam Mukunda [

Re: Race to the Bottom

2004-03-12 Thread Gautam Mukunda
ployers - largely from low-skilled, low-wage employees who have seen their wages driven down relatively to employers. = Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com __ Do you

Re: LIBERAL TALKRADIO NETWORK TO LAUNCH MARCH 31

2004-03-12 Thread Gautam Mukunda
penny if Halliburton goes into bankruptcy or it becomes the most profitable corporation in the world. One wonders how this could then affect his decisions. = Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com __ D

Re: LIBERAL TALKRADIO NETWORK TO LAUNCH MARCH 31

2004-03-12 Thread Gautam Mukunda
want to have a very high degree of confidence in these companies before you award them a contract, and you can only get that confidence by knowing them for a prolonged period of time. = Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com

Re: Race to the Bottom

2004-03-12 Thread Gautam Mukunda
but the average Hispanic is not. This is a classic example of the principal-agent problem, actually, because the interests of Hispanic leaders (whose power is increased the more Hispanics there are in the country) clearly conflict with the interests of Hispanics in general (whose economic well-bei

Re: LIBERAL TALKRADIO NETWORK TO LAUNCH MARCH 31

2004-03-12 Thread Gautam Mukunda
ple) is indirectly going to speech. But NPR money is direct. So it's coerced speech. That's something that you, of all people on the list, should be most opposed to. = Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com _

Re: Race to the Bottom

2004-03-12 Thread Gautam Mukunda
--- Erik Reuter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Thu, Mar 11, 2004 at 07:23:00PM -0800, Gautam > Mukunda wrote: > > > It's plausible. It _may_ even be true. The other > big difference > > between the European and American economies, > though, is mass > &g

Re: LIBERAL TALKRADIO NETWORK TO LAUNCH MARCH 31

2004-03-11 Thread Gautam Mukunda
everyone to give benefits to the wealthy. = Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Search - Find what you’re looking for faster http://search.yahoo.com _

Re: LIBERAL TALKRADIO NETWORK TO LAUNCH MARCH 31

2004-03-11 Thread Gautam Mukunda
ers of the United States civil service who work to the best of their ability to award such contracts fairly. Anyone who knows the government procurement system (as I do) knows that it isn't even possible to rig the bidding if you want to. = Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "

Re: LIBERAL TALKRADIO NETWORK TO LAUNCH MARCH 31

2004-03-11 Thread Gautam Mukunda
ven have a right to be dishonest about it (sort of). You do _not_ have a right to do it with _my tax dollars_. Your opinions can't make it on their own? That is not my problem. You don't have the right to take money from me by force to support _your_ opinions. =

Re: America, land of the Ashcroft-haters

2004-03-11 Thread Gautam Mukunda
rder. The hijackers were able to die, but not, I think, with courage. = Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Search - Find what you’re looking for faster http://search.ya

Re: Race to the Bottom

2004-03-11 Thread Gautam Mukunda
s in the US down, and creates a pool of poor in the US who have no equivalent in Europe, increasing inequality in two ways. It's at least possible that the US could maintain higher economic growth than Europe _and_ equivalent differences in income without that factor. Or it might not - but cert

Oh that liberal media

2004-03-11 Thread Gautam Mukunda
A pretty classic example... http://slingsnarrows.erudite-absurdity.com/archive/001447.html = Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Search - Find what you’re looking for f

Re: LIBERAL TALKRADIO NETWORK TO LAUNCH MARCH 31

2004-03-11 Thread Gautam Mukunda
--- Erik Reuter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Thu, Mar 11, 2004 at 06:07:44PM -0800, Gautam > Mukunda wrote: > > > But it's not a real parallel, because Halliburton > wins those contracts > > on a free market basis. > > I think he has a point, Gautam.

Re: Race to the Bottom

2004-03-11 Thread Gautam Mukunda
otections that you are claiming that they do (and in the rare circumstances when they do, it's a very bad idea, the product of political pressures that do a great deal of harm to the United States as a whole). = Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://

Re: LIBERAL TALKRADIO NETWORK TO LAUNCH MARCH 31

2004-03-11 Thread Gautam Mukunda
rton (a profitable corporation), it's Halliburton's money, to do with as its shareholders choose. NPR has no shareholders. It is a creation of the government, not a private entity. The rules for private and public entities are very different, and NPR is a private entity. = Gautam Mu

Re: LIBERAL TALKRADIO NETWORK TO LAUNCH MARCH 31

2004-03-11 Thread Gautam Mukunda
r corporations to do that. Unions, _as long as they operate under the open shop_, can do so as well (closed shop unions are a different situation). But I don't have a choice about my taxes. = Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogspot.co

Re: LIBERAL TALKRADIO NETWORK TO LAUNCH MARCH 31

2004-03-11 Thread Gautam Mukunda
deral funding that engage in political speech - although this is something that should be viewed with _extreme_ caution - but NPR crosses way over the line. Note that PBS, which is still liberally biased but not nearly as bad as NPR, doesn't draw my fire in the same way.

Re: LIBERAL TALKRADIO NETWORK TO LAUNCH MARCH 31

2004-03-11 Thread Gautam Mukunda
t; > > Dan M. Note that it could be 50 cents, and I would still think it's unconscionable, but I _believe_ that this is a fudge on their part. Not a lie, per se, but I think that some fairly substantial fractions of the pie are "indirect" federal funding - money from local

Re: LIBERAL TALKRADIO NETWORK TO LAUNCH MARCH 31

2004-03-11 Thread Gautam Mukunda
ch is a violation of the most fundamental principles of the United States. It is ironic and revelatory that people who think preventing flag burning is an atrocity are fine with NPR. = Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com _

Re: LIBERAL TALKRADIO NETWORK TO LAUNCH MARCH 31

2004-03-11 Thread Gautam Mukunda
- the sheerest violation of the First Amendment. = Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Search - Find what you’re looking for faster http://search.yahoo.com ___

Re: LIBERAL TALKRADIO NETWORK TO LAUNCH MARCH 31

2004-03-11 Thread Gautam Mukunda
fund, but it doesn't really matter to me. Nor does the percentage matter (I believe it's around 40%, but say that with no confidence). It's the principal of the thing. The fact that _my tax dollars_ go to fund leftist propaganda is an outrage. It's coerced speech - the sh

Re: LIBERAL TALKRADIO NETWORK TO LAUNCH MARCH 31

2004-03-11 Thread Gautam Mukunda
taken by threat of force. And NPR pretends to be unbiased, when it is in fact sheerest partisan hackery most of the time. That's the difference. Everything else is unimportant. = Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com _

Re: Race to the Bottom

2004-03-11 Thread Gautam Mukunda
ever > else it may be, India is not the Singularity. > > Rich Well, sort of. But it's already happened to secretaries, right? That's what voicemail/PIMs has done to that job. It's happened to a lot of manufacturing jobs - that's what automation has done. There'

Re: America, land of the Ashcroft-haters

2004-03-11 Thread Gautam Mukunda
ic way that calling the > 911 terrorists cowards was inaccurate. He did not > call them heros but no reasonable defintion of > coward applies to those lunatics True as far as it goes, but I believe that he called _American_ soldiers cowards instead. That was not exactly okay. = Gaut

Re: Race to the Bottom

2004-03-11 Thread Gautam Mukunda
shoring to India different _in its effects_ from that invention? = Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Search - Find what you’re looking for faster http://search

RE: Race to the Bottom

2004-03-11 Thread Gautam Mukunda
t if they weren't going to Indians - that is, if they were disappearing because of technology, or, on a darker note, if they were going to Germans, say - there would be no attention paid to it at all. One other point. The _US_ is a primary offshoring location. Every Japanese car factory in

Re: LIBERAL TALKRADIO NETWORK TO LAUNCH MARCH 31

2004-03-10 Thread Gautam Mukunda
you'd be honest about it if you admitted that you already had one - it's called NPR - paid for with my tax dollars. If you want to waste _your_ money on such a thing, be my guest. = Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com _

Re: LIBERAL TALKRADIO NETWORK TO LAUNCH MARCH 31

2004-03-10 Thread Gautam Mukunda
nda > >on the American public. > > You mean, moreso than making money? > > JDG Now, now, John, you know that arguing with the paranoid school of American politics is a lost cause... = Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogspot.c

Re: Voting Re: Pledge of Allegence

2004-03-06 Thread Gautam Mukunda
ion troops passing through Baltimore in an attempt to reinforce Washington in the early days of the war. Everything about it is just atrocious. = Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com __ Do you Yaho

Re: States Bent on Collecting Internet Taxes

2004-03-05 Thread Gautam Mukunda
es tax). Or, of course, to shift the tax burden from investment to consumption... = Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Search - Find what you’re looki

RE: L3 Bitter Mellons, Gin and Tonic, and a an Un- reasonable vie w.

2004-03-04 Thread Gautam Mukunda
_ be a racist. That was, I think, pretty much the default position in the North, actually. So it really isn't that surprising that after the war and abolition the North didn't make the efforts that it should have to promote equality. = Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not

Re: Why fight in the Civil War?

2004-03-03 Thread Gautam Mukunda
long time. What do you think, robb? I'd be interested in hearing your take on Foner and the historical dispute. Gautam = Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com __ Do you Yahoo!? Y

Re: Why fight in the Civil War?

2004-03-03 Thread Gautam Mukunda
r the cultural too much (about which I could be entirely wrong) I don't know. I know I've read _something_ by Dunning, but for the life of me I can't think what it was. = Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blog

Re: Why fight in the Civil War?

2004-03-02 Thread Gautam Mukunda
e an important lesson for liberals who feel that we should be flexible in interpreting the Constitution. Not all change is progress. Civil rights got _worse_ between 1877 and the 1920s or so, not better. So it seems a bit unfair that the "Radical Republicans" are still vilified as r

Re: Race to the Bottom

2004-03-02 Thread Gautam Mukunda
ere a technological invention that allowed you to use, say, 50% fewer American programmers, would you have the government legislate against it? If so, why did you not support (say) such legislation against the roboticization of American factories? If not, how is that different from sending progra

Re: The Fugitive Slave Act Re:L3 Bitter Mellons, Gin and Tonic, and a an Un- reasonable view.

2004-03-01 Thread Gautam Mukunda
could say that the American Civil War was a product of technological change, actually. Without the cotton gin, slavery would probably have been economically unsupportable, and the South might have been willing to agree to compensated emancipation, or something like that, anyways. = Gautam Mukund

Re: Would the North Have "Settled" in the Civil War? Re: L3 Bitter Mellons, Gin and Tonic, and a an Un- reasonable view.

2004-03-01 Thread Gautam Mukunda
Civil War. Gettysburg was the largest. Shiloh was the worst at its time - unprecedentedly bad. It is perhaps a sign of how incredibly bloody the Civil War became that it would be surpassed over and over and over again by the time the war was done. = Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTE

Re: L3 Bitter Mellons, Gin and Tonic, and a an Un- reasonable view.

2004-03-01 Thread Gautam Mukunda
st _urban_ President from a poor family? I don't know - can't think of who it might be. Nixon is the first to spring to mind, but there surely must have been others before that. Anyone else on the list have an idea? = Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freed

Re: L3 Bitter Mellons, Gin and Tonic, and a an Un- reasonable view.

2004-03-01 Thread Gautam Mukunda
like to study some day). _But_. One reason the British were under less economic pressure to intervene than they might have been was record cotton crops in India and Egypt. Had the climate been less favorable, the economic pressure for Britain to intervene would have been much higher. Luck once

Re: L3 Bitter Mellons, Gin and Tonic, and a an Un- reasonable view.

2004-03-01 Thread Gautam Mukunda
lower middle class at best, and Reagan's family was _poor_. = Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com __ Do you Yahoo!? Get better spam protection with Yahoo! M

Re: L3 Bitter Mellons, Gin and Tonic, and a an Un- reasonable view.

2004-03-01 Thread Gautam Mukunda
my opinion) would have settled for no less than the absolute censorship of any anti-slavery views expressed anywhere in America (something that was already the case in the South) and quite possibly the extension of slavery over the whole country (see Dred Scott). The North would never accept eithe

Re: Re:L3 Bitter Mellons, Gin and Tonic, and a an Un- reasonable view.

2004-03-01 Thread Gautam Mukunda
t book I've read on this topic (in part) is _America's Constitutional Soul_, a collection of essays by Harvey Mansfield. Unfortunately it's written with Mansfield's usual elegant but opaque style, so I found that I had to read every paragraph at least three times bef

Re: The unlikely triumph of democracy

2004-03-01 Thread Gautam Mukunda
s victory in the war made further democratic reforms in Britain possible, and without that victory they would not have happened. So not only did the North's victory assure the survival of American democracy - it had a pretty important impact on the development of _British_ democracy as well. =

Re: The unlikely triumph of democracy

2004-03-01 Thread Gautam Mukunda
mind that had Seward or Chase been President of the United States, the North would have lost the war in short order. = Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com __ Do you Yahoo!? Get better spa

Re: L3 Bitter Mellons, Gin and Tonic, and a an Un- reasonable view.

2004-03-01 Thread Gautam Mukunda
again. Why did they (finally) find the generals (Grant and Sherman) who understood the war (not just tactics, but the war itself) and what it took to win it? Lincoln. And what are the odds of that? = Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com __

Re: Lincoln and the Civil War (Was: Re: L3 Bitter Mellons ...)

2004-03-01 Thread Gautam Mukunda
you understand? It is _all our soil_.") All of that just for starters. There's much more. It's a fascinating topic that I have only begun to scratch the surface of, and every President and Defense Secretary (in my opinion) should be required to study it before taking office in order to

Re: L3 Bitter Mellons, Gin and Tonic, and a an Un- reasonable view.

2004-03-01 Thread Gautam Mukunda
ong many) of the Civil War that perhaps the single most important reason for the South's defeat - the genius of Abraham Lincoln - could _only_ be utilized in the meritocratic North, where a dirt-poor farm boy had the chance to rise to the Presidency, something that would have been inconceivable i

Re:L3 Bitter Mellons, Gin and Tonic, and a an Un- reasonable view.

2004-02-29 Thread Gautam Mukunda
..state's rights. So while I think it was fair to look with suspicion at people who made the claim that they were important in the 1950s, or even the 1970s, I don't think it would be fair to do so today. Had the claim of state's rights _always_ been about race, it would b

Re: Thoughts on gay marriage?

2004-02-25 Thread Gautam Mukunda
ated_. I can't speak for John, but I think it's unfair to state as a blanket that he supports activism that he agrees with and opposes activism that he disagrees with without probing to see if there's a judicial philosophy underlying those positions that makes them consistent, i

RE: Tyranny

2004-02-25 Thread Gautam Mukunda
niquely tolerant of homosexuality (as with most other things). = Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail SpamGuard - Read only the

Re: Tyranny

2004-02-25 Thread Gautam Mukunda
ing to do about it? Better that they have the bare minimum, with disagreements engaged in the legislature, where people can decide on things and accept the legitimacy of the decisions, not have them made for them by the arbitrary and unrestricted power of an appointed elite that has little or no

Re: Thoughts on gay marriage?

2004-02-24 Thread Gautam Mukunda
wasn't by much. The point is that each of the three has _different_ powers, which act as a check upon each other. It's the difference in the nature of their powers that is crucial. The problem with Rehnquist is that he has aggressively usurped executive and (even more) le

Re: Constitutional Amendment Question

2004-02-24 Thread Gautam Mukunda
p some more articles on the topic when I get a chance. But conservative judicial usurpation is no better - and sometimes worse - than its liberal counterpart, and I _must_ to oppose the one if I oppose the other. = Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.

Re: Constitutional Amendment Question

2004-02-24 Thread Gautam Mukunda
y contrast, was a model of judicial deference to the legislative branch. The rot began with Burger, but it's Rehnquist who has done the most damage. We certainly shouldn't be amending the oldest governing document in history, the blueprint of the most successful government in the entire hi

Re: No Predictions But...

2004-02-21 Thread Gautam Mukunda
of warning. Mark Prior was the most-abused pitcher in the Majors last year. He has the best mechanics of any pitcher of his age ever recorded, so if anyone can survive that, he can. Nonetheless, that would be my major concern if I were a Cubs fan. = Gautam Muk

Re: Semicolon Saved San Francisco RE: BRin-L - are we average?(was RE: Hate_Amendment)

2004-02-21 Thread Gautam Mukunda
ter http://www.erikreuter.net/ My theory has always been that The Fool is Howard Dean, actually... = Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail SpamGuard - Rea

Re: A reasonable view.

2004-02-20 Thread Gautam Mukunda
and one of my professors in college actually used it in a lecture - only to come back to us next week and tell us that he was incorrect, that this fact was not true. = Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com ___

Re: Dean today, gone tomorrow?

2004-02-18 Thread Gautam Mukunda
e sex scandals and Republicans have money scandals, and I don't really care about money, shouldn't I be a Democrat? His answer was "Republicans have better booze and better-looking women. That's all you need to know." Not sure if he was _right_, but that seems like a

RE: BRin-L - are we average? (was RE: Federal Marraige [sic]Amendment)

2004-02-17 Thread Gautam Mukunda
n-in-fur, 3 > surrogate children-on-the-hoof... > > Debbi Single as well. One of my best friends (gay) once described me as "the straightest human being who has ever lived." I don't think he meant it as a compliment, but he's probably right :-) = Gautam Mukunda [EM

Re: Democrats secular?

2004-02-17 Thread Gautam Mukunda
ily aware of who edits The Nation? No, not at all - but the tenor that they create is perceived by the very perceptive American public. = Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Fin

Re: Politics and Motivations

2004-02-16 Thread Gautam Mukunda
--- Erik Reuter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Mon, Feb 16, 2004 at 02:17:39PM -0800, Gautam > Mukunda wrote: > Not always. Some taxes provide services that > increase freedom. For > example, taxes that support schools that provide a > good education > for anyone, re

Re: Politics and Motivations

2004-02-16 Thread Gautam Mukunda
t that's the equivalent of what you're doing to people who support the PATRIOT Act. I'm willing to acknowledge that reasonable people can differ on such opinions. = Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" ht

Re: Politics and Motivations

2004-02-16 Thread Gautam Mukunda
iable truths - that regime change was a goal of the US government before the Bush Administration (again, something that we were legally committed to by a vote of Congress and by many public statements from the Clinton Administration) and that there was only one way to do it (invading Iraq) - is why

Re: Politics and Motivations

2004-02-16 Thread Gautam Mukunda
e fence. Before the Vietnam War that wasn't true. Today, Michael Walzer rights essays asking if it is even _possible_ for there to be a decent Left, and his answer appears to be yes, but it doesn't exist right now. If the editor of _Dissent_ is saying that, then there is a problem, an

Politics and Motivations

2004-02-15 Thread Gautam Mukunda
ted. American conservatives are a lot of things. Many of them are not particularly admirable. But I've never met an American conservative who didn't _like_ Americans, and I've never met one who didn't respect the extraordinary wisdom of the American public. The question I would p

Re: Thoughts on gay marriage?

2004-02-15 Thread Gautam Mukunda
ite a few things as well, I think. They just have a lower level of political salience right now, so they don't come up in political discussion much. = Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com

Re: Thoughts on gay marriage?

2004-02-15 Thread Gautam Mukunda
tart. If John ever did the same (and I don't think he ever would, because he's a _lot_ more polite than the people on this list who abuse him constantly and then whine and whimper when he snaps back) I'd call him on it. = Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not

Re: Thoughts on gay marriage?

2004-02-15 Thread Gautam Mukunda
r why I'm a conservative. But I can always rely on you to remind me... = Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Finance: Get your refund fast by fili

Re: Voodoo Economics

2004-02-10 Thread Gautam Mukunda
u in any position to tell me that. Displacement sound familiar to you, Doctor Z? = Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Finance: Get your refund fast by filing online. http

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