Want to distinguish a libertarian from a conservative? Ask about corporate welfare, which is charity not to poor people but to Big Business. Republicans usually support it, but libertarians oppose it. Cato's Stephen Slivinski documents the reasons why in a new study, "The Corporate Welfare State: How the Federal Government Subsidizes U.S. Businesses."
The NYT's David Kirkpatrick investigates Mitt Romney's vaunted venture capital career. What's surprising is not Romney's use of leveraged buyouts, or that he was more a deal-maker than a manager, but the utter lack of shadiness that I suspect others who have achieved Romeny's level of success have dabbled in.
Social media is changing the way we communicate. Is your company ready for the challenge? Take a test (it's short), courtesy of Ogilvy.
John Judis deduces that Chuck Hagel's impassioned opposition to the Iraq war derives from his repressed silence about Vietnam, in which he served and after which he remained regrettably patriotic.
Monday, June 4, 2007
The Daily Digest
Saturday, May 26, 2007
The Daily Digest
Whatever happened to Ward Churchill, the professor who analogized the victims of 9/11 to Nazis? Last week, a five-member panel representing the University of Colorado Faculty Senate Committee on Privilege and Tenure voted 3-2 for the chickens to come (half-way) home to roost, and that Churchill be suspended rather than fired.
James Antle puts his finger on why religionists should practice toleration rather than resorting to regulation: "[F]aith depends on a choice: the choice to receive salvation by accepting Jesus Christ. The most important thing evangelicals believe God asks of them—in their view, the most important thing of all—is something they must choose freely. For evangelicals, God does not coerce people into being saved and accepts their decision in the matter as final."
Tim Carney continues to expose the unholy alliance between big business and big government: "Taxes are too complex for the good of the economy, too complex for families, and too complex for small businesses. For big business and for Washington lobbyists, complexity means profit."
If you're one of the 700,000-plus people who have viewed the John McCain "Bomb Bomb Bomb, Bomb Bomb Iran" video, you'll want to read Michael Scherer's expose on how this little-noticed ditty wormed its way into the nightly news on each major television network. If none of this rings a bell, read Scherer's piece to understand the relationship between opposition-research peddlers and their receivers on the Web.
