cross posted to foreignaffairsJust a year ago the U.S. applauded the Cedar revolution in Lebanon and the corresponding elections. Now, this is how we support them, we refuse to call for an Israeli cease-fire in Lebanon. I think Putin’s reaction was more balanced: "No hostage-takings are acceptable … but neither is the use of full-scale force in response to these ( Read more... )

...hummingbird, yes we've spotted our first hummingbird. On Monday we put up a hummingbird feeder, and volia on Saturday morning we saw a hummer floating around it. I was delighted. It made my weekend. As part of my excitement I am posting some pictures of the visitors here. They are ruby-throated hummingbirds ( hummingbirds )

I liked this article because it drew an interesting parallel: Paulson goes from leading Goldman Sachs-a company with a lot of debt to treasury secretary at a time when our national debt keeps growing. On a related note, I thought this was an interesting graph showing the national debt as a percentage of GDP. The ratio has fallen before, and I ( Read more... )

This weekend I noticed one of the cardinals that frequents the hibiscus tree/bush is moulting. I wonder if it is the little baby we saw about a month ago. I snapped a gizillion pictures thinking it was the baby...growing up right in our backyard. After the excitement wore off, I realized it is just as likely that this is just another cardinal ( Read more... )

I thought this Washington post article was rather interesting. It is about a young Salvadorian-American lady who converts to Islam and her family’s reaction. She explains that Islam offers a respect for women, which is in contrast to the objectification of women in Latin/American culture. I sympathize with her concerns and never quite thought of ( Read more... )

I am worried. BusinessWeek reports: Intelligence Czar Can Waive SEC Rules

cross posted to birdlovers community

Since late February, a pair of cardinals has been visiting our backyard. And today we noticed a baby with them! I was pretty excited, so I am posting a couple pictures here. ( pictures here )

I read about the online role-playing game secondlife.com in Business Week and was utterly fascinated by the concept. The thing that intrigued me was the entrepreneurial capacity of the game. Your character can open up a shop in the game and sell clothes, operate an amusement park, etc. The revenue you generate from your sales is yours and anything ( Read more... )

Cross posted to economics and policyresearch

I started the policyresearch community in the hope to generate more policy oriented discussions. I dislike policy discussions that devolve into a battle of values. Values are unavoidable, but stating your value is not an argument supporting the value. So here is my second post in that community ( Read more... )

cross posted to foreignaffairs community

I just read about the heated debate over Mearsheimer and Walt’s paper “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy”. The author’s focus their attention solely on the influence of the Israeli lobby on U.S. policies in the Middle East, without noting the other factors that have influenced the U.S. role in the ( Read more... )