Thursday, July 31, 2014

Knowledge Isn’t Power - NYTimes.com

Knowledge Isn’t Power - NYTimes.com:



"One of the best insults I’ve ever read came from Ezra Klein, who now is editor in chief of Vox.com. In 2007, he described Dick Armey, the former House majority leader, as “a stupid person’s idea of what a thoughtful person sounds like.”"



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72-Hour Cease-Fire Announced in Gaza - NYTimes.com

72-Hour Cease-Fire Announced in Gaza - NYTimes.com:



NEW DELHI — Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon of the United Nations announced early Friday that Israel and Hamas had agreed to a 72-hour humanitarian cease-fire in the Gaza conflict.



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On the Border, Who Gets to Be a Refugee? - NYTimes.com

On the Border, Who Gets to Be a Refugee? - NYTimes.com:



 "A poll by the Public Religion Research Institute asked Americans whether they thought children illegally crossing the United States border from Mexico “should be treated as refugees and be allowed to stay.” Sixty-nine percent of respondents said “yes,” according to The New York Times’s Julia Preston, and “about a quarter of Americans in the survey, 27 percent, said the minors should be ‘treated as illegal immigrants’ and deported to their home countries.”"



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C.I.A. Admits Penetrating Senate Intelligence Computers - NYTimes.com

C.I.A. Admits Penetrating Senate Intelligence Computers - NYTimes.com:



WASHINGTON — An internal investigation by the Central Intelligence Agency has found that its officers improperly penetrated a computer network used by the Senate Intelligence Committee in preparing its report on the C.I.A.'s detention and interrogation program.



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Wednesday, July 30, 2014

In Search of the Next Andrew Wiggins - NYTimes.com

In Search of the Next Andrew Wiggins - NYTimes.com:



"“Everything’s wrong,” Terrance Williams said, his voice growing raspier with each word. He looked around at the teenagers on his basketball team, many of whom were chewing the necks of their jerseys and staring at the ground. “Shot selection! Body language!”"



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Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Israeli Leader Sees No Quick End to Gaza War - NYTimes.com

Israeli Leader Sees No Quick End to Gaza War - NYTimes.com:



 "JERUSALEM — An informal lull between Israel and Hamas timed for the start of a Muslim holiday collapsed into deadly violence on Monday and Israel’s prime minister signaled no quick end to the three-week-old Gaza war, advising Israelis that “patience and determination” were needed."



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Sunday, July 27, 2014

Moore of the Same


A few months ago the buzz was that the Heritage Foundation wasgetting serious after a series of blatant errors and ludicrously biased “research”. The supposed evidence for this turn was the hiring of Stephen Moore from the Wall Street Journal to become chief economist. I was, shall we say, unimpressed.
Ahem. Conservative Media’s Favorite Economist Caught Distorting Facts About Taxes And Job Creation:
On July 7, Moore published an op-ed in The Kansas City Star attacking economic policies favored by Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman. The op-ed claimed that “places such as New York, Massachusetts, Illinois and California … are getting clobbered by tax-cutting states.” Moore went on to attack liberals for “cherry-picking a few events” in their arguments against major tax cuts, when in fact it was Moore who cited bad data to support his claims.
On July 24, The Kansas City Star published a correction to Moore’s op-ed, specifically stating that the author had “misstated job growth rates for four states and the time period covered.”
What gets me here is the sheer laziness; it looks as if Moore pulled numbers from an old piece of his, and never bothered to update. How hard is it to check state job numbers?
Actually, if you’re going to do something about state job growth, the very least you should do is bear in mind that the recession and recovery have had differential effects across states, so that you might want to look at job growth over the whole period of recession and recovery. If you do, the figure shows what you see for Moore’s four states:
Photo
Credit
Texas is, not surprisingly, the best performer. New York comes in second, followed by California, with Florida in last place. Not much of a clear ideological message there.
Nor should you expect there to be. Real empirical work on state growth shows multiple factors — mildness of climate, cheap housing, high wages, and yes, some impact from tax rates. The idea that you would find an overwhelming one-factor correlation with taxes alone is something only a, well, Heritage foundation analyst could believe.
Last point: there are quite a few politically conservative but technically competent economists out there, and Heritage clearly has the resources to hire them if it chooses. But it doesn’t — I suspect because it’s afraid that they might stray off the reservation. Competence has a well-known liberal bias.

Friday, July 25, 2014

Obama to Urge Central American Leaders to Slow Wave of Migrants - NYTimes.com

Obama to Urge Central American Leaders to Slow Wave of Migrants - NYTimes.com:



"WASHINGTON — President Obama will urge the presidents of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador to do everything they can to stem the flow of migrant children toward the United States when he meets with them on Friday at the White House, officials said."



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Huge Protests in West Bank Over Israeli Offensive in Gaza - NYTimes.com

Huge Protests in West Bank Over Israeli Offensive in Gaza - NYTimes.com:



"JERUSALEM — Violence spread to the West Bank on Friday as enraged Palestinians protested Israel’s continuing military offensive in Gaza. At least five Palestinians were killed in clashes with Israeli security forces, according to Palestinian medical officials and local news reports, adding to the explosive atmosphere in the region and raising the specter of further unrest."



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When Media Mergers Limit More Than Competition - NYTimes.com

When Media Mergers Limit More Than Competition - NYTimes.com:



 "The much-admired Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black may be rolling in his grave at the prospect of a merger between 21st Century Fox and Time Warner Inc., which would reduce control of the major Hollywood studios to five owners, from six, and major television producers to four, from five."



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Thursday, July 24, 2014

U.S. Considering Refugee Status for Hondurans - NYTimes.com

U.S. Considering Refugee Status for Hondurans - NYTimes.com:



"Hoping to stem the recent surge of migrants at the Southwest border, the Obama administration is considering whether to allow hundreds of minors and young adults from Honduras into the United States without making the dangerous trek through Mexico, according to a draft of the proposal."



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To Ease Crisis, U.S. May Vet Young Refugees Inside Honduras - NYTimes.com

To Ease Crisis, U.S. May Vet Young Refugees Inside Honduras - NYTimes.com:



"Hoping to stem the recent surge of migrants at the Southwest border, the Obama administration is considering whether to allow hundreds of minors and young adults from Honduras into the United States without making the dangerous trek through Mexico, according to a draft of the proposal."



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Wednesday, July 23, 2014

‘The Interior Circuit,’ by Francisco Goldman - NYTimes.com

‘The Interior Circuit,’ by Francisco Goldman - NYTimes.com:



 "On the back cover of Francisco Goldman’s new book about Mexico City, two blurbs describe it as funny. Now Mexicans can be very funny, but there is nothing funny about “The Interior Circuit: A Mexico City Chronicle.” How could there be? Dwelling as it does on booze, drugs, corruption, violence and murder, it offers a decidedly bleak picture of one of the world’s largest metropolises."



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In a Syrian City, ISIS Puts Its Vision Into Practice - NYTimes.com

In a Syrian City, ISIS Puts Its Vision Into Practice - NYTimes.com:



"RAQQA, Syria — When his factory was bombed in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, the businessman considered two bleak options: to remain at home and risk dying in the next airstrike or flee like hundreds of thousands of others to a refugee camp in Turkey."



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‘Two Countries, No Home’ - NYTimes.com

‘Two Countries, No Home’ - NYTimes.com:



 "Earlier this year, I met a group of young people in Mexico City who call themselves “the other Dreamers,” undocumented young people taken to the United States as children who returned to their birth countries. Some had been deported, while others had voluntarily returned to Mexico and were working or making their way through college. Many told me of their struggles to adapt to what, for them, was largely a foreign culture. They had left behind friends, family and important parts of their identity in the United States, which for many of them was the only home they had ever really known."



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Kerry Arrives in Israel in Effort to Broker a Gaza Cease-Fire - NYTimes.com

Kerry Arrives in Israel in Effort to Broker a Gaza Cease-Fire - NYTimes.com:



"JERUSALEM — Secretary of State John Kerry began a round of intensive meetings here on Wednesday as he sought to forge a cease-fire to stop the bitter fighting in the Gaza Strip."



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Monday, July 21, 2014

Senate Inquiry Faults Hedge Funds' Tax Strategy - NYTimes.com

Senate Inquiry Faults Hedge Funds' Tax Strategy - NYTimes.com:



"WASHINGTON — A Senate investigation has found that hedge funds — including James H. Simons’ Renaissance Technologies and Steven A. Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors — have claimed billions of dollars in tax savings through complex financial structures."



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More Eyes on the Skies - NYTimes.com

More Eyes on the Skies - NYTimes.com:



"The future, it is often said, belongs to those who plan for it. And astronomers have been busy working the proverbial smoke-filled rooms (or whatever passes for them today) where the destiny of big science is often shaped and crisscrossing one another in airports on fund-raising trips. Now they are about to have something to show for it."



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Sunday, July 20, 2014

Trying to Slow the Illegal Flow of Young Migrants - NYTimes.com

Trying to Slow the Illegal Flow of Young Migrants - NYTimes.com:



"SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras — The wave of Central American child migrants heading to the United States in recent months, feeding a humanitarian crisis there, is showing some signs of abating."



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Both Sides Report Deadliest Day in Gaza War - NYTimes.com

Both Sides Report Deadliest Day in Gaza War - NYTimes.com:



"GAZA CITY — After weeks of escalating conflict in Gaza, both sides reported death tolls that made clear Sunday was the deadliest day so far in the war. The Palestinian Health Ministry reported that 87 Palestinians had died, and the Israeli military said 13 soldiers were dead."



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Saturday, July 19, 2014

And Now for a Bit of Good News . . . - NYTimes.com

And Now for a Bit of Good News . . . - NYTimes.com:



 "From Ukraine to the Middle East, some bad actors — Hamas, Vladimir Putin and Israeli settlers to name but a few — are trying to bury the future with the past and divide people. Instead of focusing on them even more, I prefer to write about a company that is burying the past with the future, and actually bringing strangers together."



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Friday, July 18, 2014

Obama Points to Pro-Russia Separatists in Downing of Malaysian Airlines Plane - NYTimes.com

Obama Points to Pro-Russia Separatists in Downing of Malaysian Airlines Plane - NYTimes.com:



"WASHINGTON — President Obama said Friday that the United States believed the Malaysia Airlines jetliner felled over eastern Ukraine was shot down by surface-to-air missiles from an area inside Ukraine that is controlled by Russian-backed separatists."



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Thursday, July 17, 2014

Addicted to Inflation - NYTimes.com

Addicted to Inflation - NYTimes.com:



 "The first step toward recovery is admitting that you have a problem. That goes for political movements as well as individuals. So I have some advice for so-called reform conservatives trying to rebuild the intellectual vitality of the right: You need to start by facing up to the fact that your movement is in the grip of some uncontrollable urges. In particular, it’s addicted to inflation — not the thing itself, but the claim that runaway inflation is either happening or about to happen."



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Monday, July 14, 2014

The Advanced Metrics of Attraction - NYTimes.com

The Advanced Metrics of Attraction - NYTimes.com:



"The essayist Alain de Botton has been writing a great deal lately about crushes, those sudden infatuations aroused by the merest of stimuli — the way she subtly rolls her eyes at a blowhard’s pronouncements, her intentional dropping of a glass to attract a waiter’s attention, the way he casually uses his iPhone as a bookmark. In beautiful prose laden with examples, Mr. de Botton describes how attraction can cascade into exultation but, alas, gradually dissolve into disillusionment and a slow vanishing of the mirage."



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Sunday, July 6, 2014

Conservative Delusions About Inflation - NYTimes.com

Conservative Delusions About Inflation - NYTimes.com:



 "On Sunday The Times published an article by the political scientist Brendan Nyhan about a troubling aspect of the current American scene — the stark partisan divide over issues that should be simply factual, like whether the planet is warming or evolution happened. It’s common to attribute such divisions to ignorance, but as Mr. Nyhan points out, the divide is actually worse among those who are seemingly better informed about the issues."



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