Liberal Talk Radio

As some of you will know, one of my bete noirs is poor personal hygiene, especially of the kind that leads to spreading illness. I sort of understand why hourly wage workers are reluctant to miss time from work, but it bothers me tremendously to see salaried employees — all of whom have laptops and [...]

An insider’s account of why Spencer Ackerman was fired from the New Republic: In what [TNR editor Franklin] Foer called the “proximate cause,” Mr. Ackerman had been using that personal blog — titled “Too Hot for TNR” — to disparage the magazine. Again with the Web logs: On Sept. 1, senior editor Lee Siegel was [...]

Omigod.  A state actually making public policy based on evidence. From Michigan: The state says it’s increasing speed limits to make freeways safer through realistic speed limits that encourage more uniform traffic flow. One of my public policy bugbears is the insistence on enforcement of too-low speed limits.  In WA state, for example, we’re subject [...]

I have to admit that I’ve passed by Citgo stations on the few times recently when we’ve either rented or borrowed cars**. Apparently 7-Eleven has noticed: Convenience store operator 7-Eleven Inc. is dropping Venezuela-backed Citgo as its gasoline supplier at more than 2,100 locations and switching to its own brand of fuel. The retailer said [...]

Now that the academic world is supremely conscious of fair-labor practices, universities are having trouble finding enough suppliers to churn out that endless stock of sweatshirts, t-shirts and shot glasses bearing the logo of dear old State U.: Five months after Columbia joined a national effort to enforce labor standards in the factories that produce [...]

In a pre-taping discussion this Sunday, the Prof and I talked a bit about the supreme court races in Washington State. they’ve garnered a lot of attention because the BIAW (among others) has dumped tons of cash into the elections as a way of (I believe) pre-empting the pro-developer I-933 initiative. 933 is going to [...]

There was a rumor floating around a while back that President Bush had started watching early episodes of The West Wing on DVD. Perhaps that explains why, this week, President Bush took some time during his first speech to the NAACP to talk about the estate tax, noting “the death tax will prevent future African [...]

Do you reserve the right to allow your kid to die from cancer? A Virginia court weighs this idea: A teen cancer patient fighting to use alternative medical treatment for his illness said he told a juvenile court judge in a two-day, closed-door hearing what it’s like to go through chemotherapy and that he didn’t [...]

Bruno’s post inspired me to comment on why I think initiatives are a terrible thing for democracy. Bear with me through a little setup. In our information-driven economy, you’re essentially paid based on how much information you can process, and how effectively you do that — i.e., your efficiency (or “productivity” as it’s sometimes called [...]

I kind of hope we are in for a redistricting boom in the wake of the Supreme Court’s recent decision to uphold most of the DeLay Texas map. I hope that all state legislatures (both Dem- and GOP-controlled) take this opportunity to shamelessly re-draw districts to their advantages every chance they get. Several good things [...]