Category Archives: Politics

I haven’t written about Iraq for a while, largely because I came to the conclusion that there were no remaining contingent pathways left: things were going to turn out however they were going to turn out. I especially came to … Continue reading →

Even back when my political sensibilities were more party-line progressive than they are now, I was always uneasy about the expectation that any given action by a labor union mandatorily demanded unquestioning support. Partly that’s the consequence of growing up … Continue reading →

So Harriet Miers withdraws. Not a surprise. I never weighed in on the nomination in the first place, and that’s because I had (perhaps characteristically) ambivalent feelings about it. On one hand, I thought some of those who were hesitant … Continue reading →

I despair, I really do, whenever I read someone like Maggie Gallagher over at the Volokh Conspiracy combine what appears to be a functioning intellect with sheer empirical bullheadness when it comes to characterizing the history of marriage and using … Continue reading →

Human Rights Watch has a new report on the widespread torturing of Iraqi detainees by US forces from 2003-2004. I’ll be curious to hear the explanations, excuses, alibis from defenders of the war. Probably quite a few will try to … Continue reading →

I had a chance to listen last night to an extremely interesting talk by Brendan O’Leary, who has been part of a consulting team (that included Karol Soltan) advising authorities in Kurdistan about the constitutional negotiations in Iraq. O’Leary is … Continue reading →

Like I’ve said, predictions and acting on predictions, that’s a complicated business. What’s not complicated is when the head of Homeland Security says, “Nobody could have predicted that this would happen”. You can’t spin your way past that one. You … Continue reading →

Gary Farber has been doing an impressive job of compiling a wide variety of reports on the situation in New Orleans, particularly from The Interdictor, who is blogging from within New Orleans. One thing I’ll take back about my original … Continue reading →

It is hard to know how, when, whether and how much to plan for future events. I teach a course on the history of concepts of the future and the specific post-1945 growth (and decline) of a form of expertise … Continue reading →