Category Archives: Politics

Why You No Post (on Iraq)?

Posted on October 10, 2007 by Timothy Burke

There was a quick comment in a discussion elsewhere that having concluded that there’s nothing really to discuss any more with defenders of the President’s Iraq policy, I now seem to have nothing to say about Iraq. E.g., that once … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 4 Comments

Bump Off

Posted on October 8, 2007 by Timothy Burke

So I’m driving home today to pick up lunch. We live about five minutes from campus by car. I turn onto the road before our street, which often gets a lot of traffic. A pickup truck comes up fast behind … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 20 Comments

Goose and Gander

Posted on September 5, 2007 by Timothy Burke

Eric Rauchway has a short comment on John Gray’s forthcoming Black Mass that really interests me (and got me to pre-order the book from Amazon.) Rauchway describes Gray as arguing that Thatcherite neoliberals assumed that reducing the size of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 5 Comments

Something Wicked This Way Comes?

Posted on August 17, 2007 by Timothy Burke

I’m not very good with financial matters. I feel I understand some aspects of economic history fairly well, but where economics crosses into the management of my own resources, I start to feel very uncertain. Largely I don’t worry too … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 8 Comments

Bugs and Puppy Faces

Posted on August 14, 2007 by Timothy Burke

We took off for a late summer trip to a New Jersey amusement park today, which was fun. At one point, my daughter wanted to get her face painted. I was kind of struck at the catalogue of choices. They … Continue reading →

Posted in Games and Gaming, Politics, Popular Culture | 24 Comments

Ignatieff

Posted on August 8, 2007 by Timothy Burke

Michael Ignatieff’s piece in the NY Times magazine this weekend made for an interesting read. I really agree with a lot of the points made by Henry at Crooked Timber. It’s an interesting piece in its own right, with some … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Politics | 34 Comments

All That Glitters

Posted on August 1, 2007 by Timothy Burke

I have a question. Why does Ron Paul, or by extension any libertarian who finds his political platform congenial, have such a fixation on the gold standard? This is an arena of political and economic thought that I’ve never really … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 15 Comments

Schneier and Hawley

Posted on August 1, 2007 by Timothy Burke

Directed from BoingBoing, I’ve been reading the installments of Bruce Schneier’s illuminating interview with TSA head Kip Hawley. I give Hawley some credit for agreeing to do the interview: not that many bureaucrats would agree to this kind of public … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 1 Comment

Institutional Cultures and External Missions

Posted on August 1, 2007 by Timothy Burke

I’m generally not drawn to arguments about the discrepancy between a politician’s personal behavior and their public political positions, unless those political positions are already directed at personal or private behavior. If you’re a conservative politician who wants to legislate … Continue reading →

Posted in Miscellany, Politics | 4 Comments

Let’s Not Mince Words

Posted on July 24, 2007 by Timothy Burke

The US Senate is being “tough” on Gonzalez, but it comes down to this: either Gonzalez or Comey is lying. They need to ask him straight up: are you calling Comey a liar? No more of this postmodern “you have … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 5 Comments