For the Soul of France, by Frederick Brown The subtitle of this book is Culture Wars in the Age of Dreyfus, and it is a fascinating history of the wrenching issues that roiled France in the period between the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 and the beginning of World War I. This period bordered on civil […]
Archives for May 2011
Our Misguided Fed
Our Federal Reserve has reached the point of almost complete dereliction of duty. With its reckless monetary policy, it has flooded the world with dollars and liquidity, undermined the world’s reserve currency, driven investment off America’s shores, misallocated enormous flows of capital to commodity speculation, and will ultimately be the leading culprit in defrauding dollar […]
The Continuing Texas Higher Education Media Frenzy
Last month I mentioned the current debate mainly centered on the respective values of research vs. teaching in our flagship universities sparked by my friend Jeff Sandefer’s “seven breakthrough solutions” to higher education reform and their possible implementation at The University of Texas and Texas A&M. Never did I suspect that the issue would have […]
Will and Kate
No, I didn’t arise at 4AM to watch the live wedding performance, knowing full well that there would be hundreds of repeats over the subsequent week from which to choose, or not. But I am a fan of the British monarchy mainly because I believe that it represents the best of British tradition and identity, […]
“We Got Him”
It was, as has been described, Obama’s finest hour, and I won’t engage in any of the speculation about the details of the mission that resulted in Osama bin Laden’s death, nor any critique of the President’s role in it, except to congratulate him on his ultimate decisiveness and the outstanding execution of the mission […]
Much More Than a Math Problem II
The 20th century was one in which limits on state power were removed in order to let the intellectuals run with the ball, and they screwed everything up….We Americans are the only ones who didn’t get creamed at some point during all of this. We are free and prosperous because we have inherited political and […]