The Origin Of Species

From Wikipedia

It's a day to remember Charles Darwin. It's 150 years ago today that his On the Origin of Species was published.

The Debt Buildup

The New York Times has a foreboding article today about the national debt. The interest on it could get very expensive pretty soon adding to an already ballooning debt.

But as the HuffingtonPost points out, Paul Krugman has this opposing view, and Dean Baker has this opposing view.

Animal, Vegetable, Miserable

Karen Barbour

The New York Times rather stunningly published a strong op-ed today by Gary Steiner on veganism. Steiner's opinion is not focused on the health or environmental benefits of veganism but rather on the humanitarian reasoning. I have to commend the Times for publishing the opinion.

 

The Fall of Greg Craig

    Doug Mills, The New York Times

 An interesting narrative in Time magazine (link below) about Greg Craig, Obama's former (or soon to be former) White House counsel. It is about what happens to someone who tries to follow the policies that Obama set out during the presidential campaign and early in the administration. He gets cut off at the knees.

The Fall of Greg Craig

Eating Animals

Sue Coe, "My Mother and I Watched a Pig Escape From a Slaughterhouse"

 The New Yorker's November 9 edition was a good issue. Lawrence Wright has an extensive article on Gaza, and Elizabeth Kolbert reviews Jonathan Safran Foer's book "Eating Animals". I like the issue of eating animals (and the alternative, vegetarianism/veganism) receiving more national media and serious prominence. The review is good up until the Kolbert gets a bit silly by asking whether veganism is enough in solving all our environmental problems. Of course not, but it would certainly have desirable effects in that area.

The Warning

Frontline had a very good program on a couple of weeks ago. Thankfully, one can still watch it online which I just did. The program is about the unregulated market in derivatives and how a woman named Brooksley Born (above) back in the 90's tried to warn the government that there needed to be regulation of this dark market. Unfortunately, the economic powers that were, Alan Greenspan, Robert Rubin, Larry Summers, held sway, and nothing was done, despite events at the time! And today, we've seen how derivatives brought Wall Street to its knees and how the government has had to step in and bailout a number of firms. Hopefully, there will finally be some regulation enacted, but it is slow going, particularly with Obambi in the White House.