Obama wins Nobel prize for Peace?

My reaction was, and remains: WTF. If I were to expand on that, it would be roughly on the lines of this oped.
The award of this year’s Nobel peace prize to President Obama will be met with widespread incredulity, consternation in many capitals and probably deep embarrassment by the President himself.
Rarely has an [...]

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Thoughts on John Mackey and Whole Foods

For those not following the Whole Foods controversy, this is roughly what happened: John Mackey, CEO and co-founder of Whole Foods, and a fairly committed libertarian who once debated Milton Friedman on corporate responsiblity to stakeholders, decided to pen an article against Obama-care at the WSJ. Here’s an excerpt.
Many promoters of health-care reform believe that [...]

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Manzi on global warming

While I am not an expert on global warming, the available literature seems to indicate that when everything is considered, the damage of global warming is probably not as high as the damage of the proposed solutions to global warming. That’s of course not to discount the danger or reality of the phenomenon — global [...]

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The extraordinary passion of belief and defiance

I had to share this. Politicians are generally fools, and Mausavi is probably only marginally better than his opponent, but there is no reason to doubt his assertion that “these masses were not brought by bus or by threat, they were not brought for potatoes; they came themselves.”

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That’s one of the best quotes I have read lately

“Obama is causing a lot of Rand fans to completely flip their lids in part because Obama and his devotees are Bizarro World Randian romantics in the grip of an adolescent faith in the generative powers of the state.”
– Will Wilkinson.

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No fairness doctrine: Obama

This is terrific news.
Around three months before the elections, I had listed the possible re-imposition of the fairness doctrine as one of the downsides of an Obama victory. Now that Obama has categorically ruled out that option, I think it is safe to strike it off from my list of fallouts.

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Some good signs from the Obama administration

• Tom Daschle — big government healthcare lord with plenty of tax issues  – is out. Obama admits he screwed up. Refreshing.
• He might actually kill the terrible protectionist clause from the stimulus. I certainly did not expect this. 
• He has selected an excellent nominee for the secretary of commerce post, it’s a Republican who once voted to [...]

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Don’t tell the truth

An interesting post from Robin Hanson on the stimulus bill. Here’s an excerpt (emphasis mine):
Wise taxpayers who get stimuli tax rebate checks should mostly save them, realizing that future taxes must rise to pay for those checks.  For similar reasons, wise taxpayers should also spend less upon hearing about government spending increases.  So with wise [...]

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Geithner and Summers — power equations

The New Republic has a fascinating article on the dynamics between Lawrence Summers and Tim Geithner, the two principal players of Obama’s economic team. An excerpt:
It’s only natural that a man who was hailed as one of his generation’s great academic minds by age 30 and who’d become Treasury secretary by 45 would have strong [...]

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More Krugman nonsense

[Post edited]
From his latest column:
[W]rite off anyone who asserts that it’s always better to cut taxes than to increase government spending because taxpayers, not bureaucrats, are the best judges of how to spend their money.
Here’s how to think about this argument: it implies that we should shut down the air traffic control system. After all, [...]

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New Yorker article on healthcare

Ashutosh points me to this fine article by Atul Gawande on healthcare reform in the US. While the overall viewpoint of the author is pragmatic liberal, the emphasis is definitely on the pragmatic — indeed, his insistence on the value of building upon existing institutions rather than attempting a drastic overhaul gives the piece a [...]

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Raise a toast to Obama

I am a long time reader of Radley Balko’s outstanding blog, The Agitator, and I have seldom seen him this jubilant.
From yesterday’s post:
Credit where it’s due: Well done, Mr. Obama. I’m sure we’ll have our differences, but afer your first 40+ hours on the job, this libertarian couldn’t be happier.
The tally:
Obama rescinded Bush’s 2001 executive [...]

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An old Obama speech on religion

[Post edited] I discovered this video today. It is a recording of a speech Obama made more than an year ago. The familiar themes of collectivist altruism (this is Obama after all!) have their place but the speech is mainly about religion in a political context. Having heard many good and not so good Obama [...]

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Change that gladdens me

No, I don’t know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God…. Yes, I support the separation of church and state. I’m just not very high on atheists.
– George H. W. Bush on Aug 27, 1987.
The greatest freedom we have or one of the [...]

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Obama meets with political commentators

The president elect met with several liberal bloggers and columnists yesterday, following up on his dinner with conservative writers the night before.
I think these (unprecedented) meetings perfectly demonstrate the aspect of Obama I like most, his willingness to carefully hear out opposing viewpoints.
Here’s Andrew Sullivan’s (non-)account of the meeting:
Lots of emails from readers asking about [...]

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