Grand Rounds XXXVI

The U.S. House of Representatives on Friday voted 230-193 to pass H.R. 2868, the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Act. (Roll call vote.) All but 21 Democrats voted in favor; Republicans all opposed. With the announcement yesterday of October's 10.2 percent unemployment,... […]

The New York Post has now picked up a slightly shortened version of my City Journal piece on the housing lawsuit that contributed to a voter revolt in Westchester. P.S. And the Weekly Standard "Scrapbook" feature discusses the piece.... […]

The Washington Times assails as "dishonest" and a "poison pill" the House health bill's provisions bribing states not to enact limits on malpractice awards and attorneys' fees.... […]

The H1N1 virus could provide a foot in the door, observes Daniel Schwartz.... […]

Rahm Emanuel, for one, is said to be pressing for it [Bloomberg] The New York Times's Floyd Norris is predictably having a fit.... […]

Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus have had enough of efforts to stifle debate over climate change policy, particularly by those who solicit quotes to “trash” those who don’t toe the party line.  Roger Pielke, Jr. would add those who selectively edit their comment threads. Copyright © 2008 This feed is for personal, non-commercial use only. [... […]

The New York Times reports on budget season at the UN and various battles hotting up.  It’s a good piece by Neil MacFarquhar, dated November 7, 2009.  As the article says, that fact that it costs the United Nations an average of $2,473 per page to create every single document in its six official languages, while outside [...] […]

Here are the results of a very interesting study, which I participated in (along with 30,000 other people). FWIW, I usually pronounce the o in “orange” like “a” in farce, though the longer I’ve lived outside New York, the less consistent I’ve become; call the place that I attend services “synagogue“‘; am proficient in Hebrew; never [...] […]

Last month in Massachusetts, my father, Jerry Kopel, received the Soviet Jewry Freedom Award from the Russian Jewish Community Foundation. He was honored along with his fellow former legislator, Tilman Bishop. (Bishop is now an elected Regent of the University of Colorado. He is a conservative Republican from Grand Junction; my father is a liberal Denver D […]

In my last post, I discussed the neglect of communist atrocities. Although communist governments murdered and repressed even more people than the Nazis, their crimes have gotten only a tiny fraction of the public awareness and recognition extend to the latter. But does that neglect matter? After all, the major communist regimes have either collapsed [...] […]