“Skepticism of Mr. Obama’s “post-partisan” politics is partially developed out of a sinister second meaning appropriated by bandwagon “agents of change” — pushing an agenda through a unified government with little to no opposition. It’s not partisan because there is only one side. Yes, they could get a lot done. They could also do a lot of damage.“

Jonah Goldberg, author of the provocative new book Liberal Fascism is upset at how his book has been received. He believes most critics are missing his main point which is:
[T]o the extent that fascism of any kind will come to America, it will do so in the guise of something “progressive.” Indeed, American progressives, particularly [...]

Perhaps the market is indeed trying to digest what an Obama presidency and a unified single party Democratic government will mean for 2009.

What is the real story? It is not about whether GWB or LBJ is the biggest spender. It is not about whether Republicans or Democrats are bigger spenders. It is not about whether GWB is hypocritically claiming to be an advocate of fiscal responsibility. The real story is about what happens to spending under divided vs. single party control of the federal government.

Stephen Sliviniski, economist, author of Buck Wild, Director of Budget Analysis for the Cato Institute, and DWSUWF favorite, comments on recently released CBO budget estimates in “Finally, Some Not-So-Bad News on the Budget” posted at Cato@Liberty:

The big surprise in the Congressional Budget Office mid-year budget estimates released today isn’t that the year-to-year deficit [...]

I host a (more or less) monthly compilation of posts and articles on the subject of divided government at Divided We Stand United We Fall. The August Carnival of Divided Government Quîntus Decimus – Special Dog Days of Summer Edition was updated today. I’ll just highlight two recent links here –
Bruce Bartlett is [...]

In Wednesday’s post about a new redistricting algorithm, I focused on the technical specifics of the proposed method, and the pros and cons that made it different from previous proposals.
I deliberately avoided delving into all the standing arguments about how best to draw districts, largely because I’ve discussed them in tedious detail before. But judging [...]

Certainly there is a fairness problem with broadcasters, but if we look at this problem objectively, we see it cannot be solved by dealing with the broadcasters alone. The bigger problem resides in the listeners, watchers, and readers…

As long as the bulk of the electorate remain polarized and balanced, even a small percentage libertarian swing vote organized around divided government will be enough for libertarians to wield the biggest swinging political “hammer” in town.

Today I announce that I am switching my party affiliation from Democratic to Republican.

Eight months after the American electorate in their collective wisdom saw fit to install divided government in Washington DC, the investor class seems to be enjoying it more and more.

In this edition, as in all of the CODGOV series, we select volunteers and draftees from the blogosphere and main stream media on the singular topic of government divided between the major parties

The next edition of the Carnival of Divided Government TERTIUS DECIMUS – Special Memorial Day Weekend Fishing Edition, will be cross-posted at Donklephant and at DWSUWF on Memorial Day, May 28, 2007.

Seriously, you have to look at this. Each floor moves independent of one another so the shape is constantly changing. AND, it creates enough wind power to power 10 buildings like it.

WSJ has more:
In a design to be unveiled today in the oil-rich emirate, David Fisher, an Italian-Israeli architect, has dreamed up a 68-story combination [...]

It’s become fashionable to put down Barack Obama, just to compensate for the embarrassing fervor of his fans. But that too can go too far, and today I read something that reminded me what it is about him that genuinely appealed to me before he was a superstar. From an excellent Seattle Times [...]

Are humans innately good, or innately selfish?
That’s a fundamental question when it comes to discussing morality, law and society. If humans are innately selfish, then the only way society functions is by the majority forcing everyone to behave, through tools of social control like government, religion and culture. Without such control, the argument goes, society [...]

Over at my blog, Neomugwump, I am wondering why there is no “Euston Manifesto” on the Right and Center-Right. With conservatism as defined by the President and his allies, there needs to be a gathering of the faithful who can spell out a conservatism that is for things like gay rights, civil liberties, and [...]

Ethicist Peter Singer has an interesting article in the New York Times magazine on charitable giving. It’s largely a discussion of “how much should one give?” and makes the argument that it is perfectly defensible, on moral grounds, to tax the rich more heavily than the poor and to expect them to donate more.
I’ve been [...]

It took me awhile, but I’ve read the entire ISG report.
My detailed thoughts are over at Midtopia. Here at Donklephant I’ll do the executive summary.
There’s nothing earth-shattering in their analysis of the current situation, and nothing paradigm-shifting in their proposed solutions. But both are very solid, very reasonable. I came away with two impressions:
1. The [...]

When our children were little, their grandparents really liked talking “baby talk” to them. I’d watch as supposedly intelligent adults spent hours talking nonsense to unresponsive infants. Both baby and adult seemed to enjoy it.
I hated it.
Why? Because my wife and I were convinced that it stunted brain development. Because of that, and because we [...]