Partisan Free Politics

The New York Times is on a trend-reporting spree again, which means that over the next couple of days you will all read articles in "lesser" magazines and newspapers all echoing the original article. This time, my beloved NYT has decided to talk about obscenely wealthy people, using what is surely the catch phrase of the month, "The New Gilded Age." The first article appeared on July 15 (it might be TimeSelected by now, irony of ironies; google it or email me if you can't read it) and it profiled several billionaires whom the author thought were representatives of this throwback era, particularly because of their disdain for regulation and their philanthropy. According to the article, "Only twice before over the ...

• Comments (1)

As my interests fall more towards the sphere of international politics I found this article from the latest addition of the Economist rather interesting. It raises some interesting points about the wanning, or not, of US hard and soft power in the world. In terms of hard power, while our military may be overstretched, it is my view that the United States is still the lone super power in the world. In terms of soft power, the area gets more sticky. I truly believe we are living in a multipolar world when it comes to economics and the world economy. While the dollar may be falling, the Euro rising, and the Chinese and Indians driving, the US is still the ...

• Comments (2)

Reading my July edition of Beer Advocate magazine, I found a spectacular example of how difficult it can be to live up to one's ideals.  While I am not a vegan, I know a few people who are and I respect their choice to live such a lifestyle, whatever their reason(s) for doing so.  I am well well aware of the fact that many vegetarians or vegans avoid products  containing gelatin, but until today I had never heard of isinglass.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isinglass http://homepage.ntlworld.com/geraint.bevan/Vegetarian_beers.html#Adnams  http://www.gonchong.co.uk/vegbeer.html  Fascinating stuff.  From what I garnered reading BA and surfing the web it appears virtually none of the product is left in the beer that is bottled or kegged, just like virtually none of the yeast is left in a filtered beer.  But if ...

• Comments (1)

So this blog began a mere week ago, but I've been pleasantly surprised what has happened here. Here's a summary of the web traffic; overall there have been 797 pageviews and 541 unique users, but here are some geographic breakdowns (something which I find most interesting is how many Montanans are reading the blog). Region - Visits District of Columbia - 36 Montana - 34 Texas - 20 Wisconsin - 19 Pennsylvania - 18 Georgia - 18 Oregon - 14 Massachusetts - 11 Virginia - 9 (not set) - 8 I encourage you all ...

• Comments (1)

Among the conversations here have been a critique of the short-term thinking of corporations. It is no secret that a great deal of external pressure is placed on publicly traded organizations to maximize growth, especially in the short term. This methodology narrows the focus of CEO's and contributes to the perception that things like "the environment" or a "sustainable and well-trained workforce" are mere externalities. A few weeks ago, the front page of the Financial Times, featured a report issued by the Aspen Institute's Business and Society Program. This initiative brought such varied interests as the AFL-CIO, Pfizer, Inc. and Council of Institutional Investors - to begin shifting investors away from quarterly earnings, and ...

• Comments (2)

Alright, I'm gonna try to get this ball rolling. I am not sure who will eventually be contributing to this blog, so I feel compelled to update everyone on exactly "where" I am in my life. Physically I am in DC after nearly two years in the Montana wilderness working for Project Vote Smart. Moving from Missouri to Montana to DC has In wake of a number of news pieces on dumpster diving, freeganism, rampant consumerism and the like, Sam requested my thoughts on said matters. Following are a few of these thoughts. While I have A LOT to say on these issues, I am going to be as brief as possible. Consequently I will present truncated arguments, ...

• Comments (10)