The human mind is a strange thing. It has this enormous capacity to hold conflicting and contradictory ideas without exploding. Consider, for example, this Washington Post-ABC News poll. Barely half — 52 percent — now believe Bush is “honest and trustworthy,” down 7 percentage points since late October and his worst showing since the question… Continue reading Consistency
Fading Stars and Fraying Stripes
In the past few years, a thought has grown in my mind. The seed of it, a nod to inevitability, long layed dormant, but the events of the past few years prompted germination. The steady erosion of the nation’s manufacturing base and malignant mediocrity of the nation’s primary educational system serve as the soil in… Continue reading Fading Stars and Fraying Stripes
Humanitarian Imperialism
Referring to the current troubles in Haiti, Tacitus asks: One might fairly ask whether such chronically failed states might be better off under some sort of permanent protectorate or even colonial arrangement for the maintenance of peace and good governance. I don’t know why colonialism and empire fascinates some Americans today (see Max Boot, for… Continue reading Humanitarian Imperialism
Weblog Review
This weblog has been reviewed by a Pakistani IT magazine, Spider. They rated it among the top 5 Pakistani weblogs. Why did Zack choose to call his blog “Procrastination” and also define the term in the header? Don’t we all procrastinate when we make our blog entries? Apart from that tiny gaffe, Zack has done… Continue reading Weblog Review
Learn to Become a Terrorist at Tech
The School of International Affairs at Georgia Tech is offering a course on terrorism. I mean student projects in that course include terrorist acts. For those students who always seem to have a gripe with Tech, a 3000-level special topics class in International Affairs entitled “The Challenge of Terrorism” could allow those idle musings about… Continue reading Learn to Become a Terrorist at Tech
Busy Procrastinating
I am kind of busy with work. So posts will be somewhat infrequent. I am not going on a hiatus, however. I’ll post whenever I am procrastinating from work. And what better way is there to procrastinate than to tinker with your template! As you might notice, I have been playing with my blogroll. I… Continue reading Busy Procrastinating
Pakistani Nuclear Proliferation
You probably know the story about nuclear proliferation by Pakistan. I have written related posts here and here. This post brings together some of the news coming out of Pakistan regarding the recent questioning of Pakistani nuclear scientists. A lot of the articles in The News were written by their investigative journalist, Kamran Khan (Some… Continue reading Pakistani Nuclear Proliferation
Outsourcing and the Welfare State
On economic issues, I am probably much to the left of the median voter in the US. I am a fan of the social welfare states of Europe. Therefore, I found this paper by Peter Lindert (via A Fistful of Euros) on the effect of a welfare state on GDP interesting. All our well-known demonstrations… Continue reading Outsourcing and the Welfare State
Weblog Visitors
Create your own country map Amazing how much of the world I have had visitors from. Afghanistan, American Samoa, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bermuda, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Canada, Chile, China, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Estonia, Fiji, Finland,… Continue reading Weblog Visitors
Haj and Eid Mubarak
It is Haj today (it’s the day of Arafat to be more accurate). Congratulations to all the Hajis and especially to Amber’s parents and aunt who are in Saudi Arabia performing the pilgrimage. Tomorrow is Eid ul Azha. Eid Mubarak, everyone.