Krugman on the party divide
Paul Krugman comments on the differing moral values of the two major parties.
How can the parties agree on policy when they have utterly different visions of how the economy works, when one party feels for the unemployed, while the other weeps over affluent victims of the “death tax”?
Is Krugman’s assessment fair or does he oversimplify a complex debate?
-Luke
The right to remain private
Several months ago I posted on how willing reporters should be to dig into the private lives of politicians. In yesterday’s NY Times Ross Douthat argues that the increased focus on the private indiscretions of politicians is by and large a positive:
Anyone who waxes nostalgic for the days when the press corps winked and nodded at John F. Kennedy’s adulteries, for instance, should acknowledge that they’re pining for a time when the president of the United States probably shared a mistress with a mobster without the public knowing anything about it.
-Luke
Kristol on “Don’t Ask”
Balancing liberalism and practical concerns
In a previous post Sam pondered whether the moral elements of the debate over “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” were as decided as many liberal commentators seemed to assume. In this week’s Weekly Standard Bill Kristol deals with both the practicalities and normative questions surrounding DADT, arguing that now is not the right time to address the policy.
Kristol begins the piece by citing public opinion polls that show that Americans profess high levels of faith in the military, but we can only draw dubious conclusions from these findings given that a majority of Americans also favor repealing DADT. The crux of Kristol’s argument, though, rests on the assertion that Obama is promoting broad principles while overlooking real world concerns: Read more
More on Tim Tebow
Does a Super Bowl ad about abortion go too far?
CBS has stirred up some controversy with its decision to air a pro life commercial in the Super Bowl featuring college football star Tim Tebow. In the spot, the Heisman trophy winner and his mother discuss her decision to forgo an abortion, despite medial warnings from doctors, and instead give birth to a child that turned out to be Tim. A coalition of women’s organizations have called on CBS to pull the add claiming that the Super Bowl is not the appropriate venue to debate such a divisive topic. Erin Matson, vice president of the National Organization for Women comments that: Read more
Campaign financing revisited
In August, I wrote about the Supreme Court case challenging restrictions on laws that limited spending by corporations on campaign adds. Today, the Supreme Court handed down their decision on the case, ruling that such restrictions are unconstitutional. You can read the full text of the decision here.
Lights, camera, health care reform?
Should the final round of health care negotiations be televised?
C-SPAN President Brian Lamb is asking to film the remaining health care negotiations. Is Lamb’s request reasonable, or would television cameras simply turn important negations into political theater?
Under normal circumstances, when there are substantial differences between versions of a bill in the House and Senate, some members of each chamber meet to resolve the differences in conference committee meetings that are open to the public. However, to prevent Republicans from using their formal powers to stall a formal conference committee meeting, Democrats will instead resort to a series of more informal private meetings and send the bill back and forth between the chambers until differences are resolved. Read more
Moral luck & negligent driving
Bicycle advocates in my home state of Washington are arguing for tougher laws against reckless drivers who kill pedestrians. In many ways, these new policy proposals mirror the national trend, as the Department of Transportation held a September summit on the dangers of distracted driving, and states like Utah have dramatically increased the penalties for drivers who cause an accident while texting. Are these stricter laws justified, and how responsible should we hold an individual who makes a reckless and deadly mistake? Read more
Obama & international relations
Ross Douthat evaluates Obama’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech, and explains that Obama’s approach to foreign policy draws on elements of competing schools of international relations:
In a sense, this was one of the clearer statements of foreign policy principle that Obama has delivered to date: An extended defense of using realist means in the service of liberal internationalist ends. It’s an approach that fits at least some of the challenges we face, and the turn toward modesty and pragmatism, in particular — toward the pursuit of “a more practical, attainable peace
-Luke
More on Minarets
The Swiss measure is a clear infringement on religious freedom
The ban on the construction of minarets in Switzerland has sparked a great deal of controversy and debate. As Sam correctly points out, whether this decision is justified hinges on what exactly freedom of religion entails. The political parties who introduced the measure argue that the decision does not infringe on religious freedom, contending that the minaret is not merely a religious symbol but “a political symbol against integration.” They explain that many Muslims associate the minaret with a rejection of the Swiss political and legal system in favor of Sharia law. Read more
Food for thought
Philosopher Gary Steiner has an interesting article in Sunday’s New York Times on whether it is wrong “to kill animals for human consumption.” Steiner comments on how
These uses of animals are so institutionalized, so normalized, in our society that it is difficult to find the critical distance needed to see them as the horrors that they are
Regardless of how one feels on the issue of eating meat, Steiner’s argument illustrates the importance of public philosophy. The fact that it is easy to become desensitized to the ethical choices we face in our day-to-day lives illustrates why philosophy is often dismissed as irrelevant and overly abstract and consequently why it is still so important.
-Luke
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