The “amen corner” has already spoken–President Obama has delivered another masterpiece in Egypt and the relationship between the U. S. and the Muslim world will never be the same. Well, let’s take a deep breath and reflect on it in more depth. To his credit, unlike the first two legs of his international tour in Europe […]
Archives for 2009
Recent Books
Quite a lot of my recent reading time has been devoted to the history of the Medieval period, or the Middle Ages, particularly in terms of the impact of the Judeo-Christian and Muslim traditions and their respective influence on the development of Western civilization. Much of what I read and learned involved correcting many misconceptions about […]
Deja Vu
A couple of entries from the Wall Street Journal’s “Notable and Quotable” section just days apart recently caught my attention. One is from Doris Kearns Goodwin on Lyndon Johnson and the Great Society from her book, Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream, the other is from a 1939 article in the New York Herald Tribune […]
The Souter Replacement
Well, very soon we won’t have Justice David Souter to kick around anymore. Arguably George H. W. Bush’s worst decision as President (my choice), even topping the violation of his “no new taxes” pledge, Souter has haunted us for nineteen years with the nightmare of what might have been had Bush not listened to Warren Rudman and […]
The Hero of the Opportunity Society
Brit Hume referred to Jack Kemp as the “original compassionate conservative” and, as much as I have always resented that term as unnecessarily redundant and wish that George W. Bush had never coined it, upon reflection, it is probably an appropriate characterization. For Kemp, more than anyone else in public life, championed conservative economic policies […]
Texas Education Update
The Texas Legislature is now in full swing and, of course, the Texas Institute for Education Reform (TIER) is at every table on every significant public education issue at stake, hopefully providing meaningful policy advocacy leadership. We have a comprehensive agenda for the session, but I am often asked–if I could get only one major thing […]
Disaster Watch
Events almost overwhelm. As I write, President Obama is in Europe winding up the G-20 meeting and the rest of his tour, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) is revisiting “mark to market” accounting rules as they apply to financial institution asset write-downs, the stock market is showing signs of a bear market rally, the Obama […]
Driving on Parkways, Parking on Driveways, and Hedge Funds
I am pleased to include in this issue the following guest essay from David Ikenberry, Professor of Finance and Associate Dean for Executive Programs of the College of Business, The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who brings unique perspective on hedge funds and their particular role in the recent financial meltdown. It’s funny when you […]
The Re-Politicization of Stem Cell Research
“If human embryonic stem cell research does not make you at least a little bit uncomfortable, you have not thought about it enough.” — James A. Thompson, the first scientist to isolate human embryonic stem cells, as quoted by Charles Krauthammer. Krauthammer served as a member of President George W. Bush’s Council on Bioethics and […]
Protectionism Rears Its Ugly Head
One of the most insidious consequences of the worldwide recession, particularly if it persists for an extended period, will be the growing tendency toward “economic nationalism”, or, to put it more bluntly, the protection of markets, industries, and jobs by home countries who feel threatened by free trade in a shrinking economy. It’s a natural […]