7/30 The politics of education: Lisa Snell of the Reason Foundation’s web log:
Education Weak.
Mark Lerner has a brief item on an increase in educational “looping”, in which a teacher stays with a group of students for two years. And check out this alternative school focusing on independence and choice.
7/29 Cuba, North Korea — and Canada — are the only countries in the world that ban private health insurance. The Wall Street Journal reflects on a recent challenge in the Canadian Supreme Court. Meanwhile, Mark Steyn is of two minds about the Canadian socialized and American mixed healthcare systems.
7/28 At the Academy of Achievement, an interview with Fred Smith, founder of FedEx.
7/27 In Reason: Melinda Ammann reviews Robert Guest’s The Shackled Continent:
bad politics keeps Africa poor. (Via
Will Wilkinson.)
7/26 Jason Pappas has a good series of
reflections on Islam, Islamism, terrorism, and the multi-cultural and anti-American Left.
7/25 Safety rules that kill: David Mayer on how
the Eastland disaster killed more passengers than the Titanic disaster did.
7/23 After a trip to western New York, Michael of the Blowhards itemizes
the core beliefs of artsy culture.
7/22 Rebutting an article by Paul Krugman on trade with China, Alex Tabarrok explains the harmony of interests among producing nations. And at Café Hayek, Russell Roberts evaluates the sales-often and low-price-everyday strategies.
7/21 Evan Coyne Maloney offers another example of politicized education. And CNN reports on a tricky case in which an African-American isn’t the politically correct kind of African-American.
7/20 On this day in 1969, my brother was two weeks old and Apollo 11 landed on the Moon. Here are NASA’s page devoted to the Apollo 11 landing and an excerpt from Ayn Rand’s classic essay written after she viewed the July 16 launch from Cape Kennedy.
7/19 Nick Cohen’s personal and perceptive review of Paul Berman’s important book, Terrorism and Liberalism.
7/18 Solving poverty in Africa:
Erich Wiedemann and Thilo Thielke on how some parts of Africa are choking on aid money. And Max Boot suggests, only partly tongue-in-cheek, that sending mercenaries would be more helpful than music concerts. Update: Johan Norberg straightens the record about
why Zambia is still poor.
7/16 Paula Fredriksen reviews James O’Donnell’s new biography of Augustine. (Thanks to Virginia for the link.)
7/15 Julian Baggini playfully plugs for David Hume as the greatest philosopher of all time. Methinks not. (Thanks to Bob H. for the link.)
7/14 Mohammed Bouyeri has confessed to killing Theo Van Gogh and to feeling absolutely nothing for non-believers. Christopher Hitchens sees the London bombings starkly: It’s civilization versus barbarism.
7/13 An inspiring speech to Stanford’s graduates by Apple co-founder Steven Jobs. (Via TomPalmer.com.)
7/12 Friedrich of the Blowhards on the
culture shift among American art critics in the second half of the nineteenth century.
7/8 The dessicated philosophy and anti-human politics of
Jean-Paul Sartre. (Via Arts and Letters Daily.)
Light and pithy commentary;
Always with a poem that’s very
Charming.
7/6 David Boaz’s encouraging list of
liberty-themed Hollywood movies. (Via The Atlasphere.)
7/5 Margaret Soltan ruminates upon nihilism, comedy, and Woody Allen’s tragic sense of life.
7/2 David Mayer explains why the United States is
a republic, not a democracy, and provides an overview of the charged decades leading up to the American Revolution.
7/1 Reason Papers has
a newly-designed website and archives worth browsing.