Politics
Oregon State Measure 54: Yes. A little bit of Constitutional clean-up that I'm glad we're doing. Oregon State Measure 55: No. Is pretending that the old district lines are still in force any less confusing a way to deal with redistricting than the current way?
Politics
Oregon Secretary of State: Kate Brown (D). By default. Her two opponents are, respectively, an amateur and a naïf. Oregon State Treasurer: Ben Westlund (D). Westlund's opponent, Allen Alley, touts his business experience, but when I look at how his company, Pixelworks, was doing when he resigned as
Politics
The Republicans deserve the broom. United States President: Barack Obama (D) United States Senate: Jeff Merkley (D) United States Representative, 3rd District: Earl Blumenauer (D)
Life
I have had an Inspector Maigret mystery checked out but unread, in case I needed something to read while sick in bed. Coming in handy today…
Commerce
Most people both own and owe: We have assets and we have debts. An important distinction between the cash value of the two: Assets are speculative. Debts are real. We can believe we know what our assets are worth, but their actual cash value is what someone will pay for
Commerce
When enough financial institutions that are "too big to fail" totter at the same time, the government cannot save them all. What worries me is the possibility that the federal government and Federal Reserve will sink $2 trillion, $3 trillion, $4 trillion into stabilizing the financial system and
Commerce
Financial maneuvering is a form of endeavor favorable to old men: The financial brain, unlike brains adept in various other areas—for example, mathematics, physics, chess, and, quite possibly, armed bank robbery—apparently deteriorates very little, if at all, with passage of time, even in the eighth and ninth decades
Politics
With the tide of the campaign running so heavily in Obama's favor, it's fun to speculate on exactly how low McCain's support might go on November 4. The biggest electoral college landslide that I can believe possible is Obama 461, McCain 77. In that
Life
Aside from the more obvious indicators, there seem to be two reliable indicators that I'm feeling stressed: 1. I don't blog. 2. I don't read.
Philosophy
The following reflection on the unknowable vastness of human knowledge was written 75 years ago: SpenglerEduard Meyer So wrote Will Durant, looking back at the 1920s. When we think of the unknowable—the almost unfathomable—depths of what human individuals in the aggregate know; and then think of what is
History
When was the last time the Republican Party chose a presidential candidate who had neither been a fighter pilot nor been wounded in wartime? Ronald Reagan in 1984.
History
At The American Scene, Jim Manzi speculates that we are seeing a liberal realignment in the 2008 election. I agree that a realignment is happening, though I have no idea if it will turn out to be liberal or whether it will happen this year or in 2012. However, it