Peggy Noonan on Sarah Palin

Peggy Noonan, one of my favorite columnists, has broken party lines and questioned the Republican Party's VP choice:

http://www.peggynoonan.com/article.php?article=438

Talk about a true maverick.

The Two-Headed Monster

Denis MacShane, in this quarter's WQ (Autumn 2008, p. 51), reminds us that we desperately need a third party:

I'm reminded of President Julius Nyerere's joking retort decades ago to American visitors who criticized his one-party state in Tanzania. The United States is a one-party state, too, he would say, but since America is so big, it takes two parties to do the job.

Touché.

The Three Ideals?

Joshua Kucera had a good line about Greenlandic culture in the Autumn 2008 WQ edition:

Both Danish and Greenlandic cultures "value communitarianism, egalitarianism, and emotional restraint."

It's not as poetic, but to me, it sounds substantively better than France's "Liberté, égalité, fraternité."

Bruce Schnei­er on Terrorism

I don't usually like Jeffrey Goldberg's articles, but this one is hilarious and tragic at the same time:

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200811/airport-security 

I couldn’t believe that what Schneier was saying was true—in the national debate over the no-fly list, it is seldom, if ever, mentioned that the no-fly list doesn’t work. 

Gotta love Bruce Schnei­er's honesty and intelligence. Here is his blog: 

http://www.schneier.com/ 

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/10/me_helping_evad.html

PinDebit Blog on Visa

The PinDebit blog (pindebit Blog) has a great article on Visa:

http://pindebit.blogspot.com/2008/10/it-all-about-visa-forbes.html

They apparently liked my post on Visa:

http://pindebit.blogspot.com/2008/10/visa-1st-annual-sh-meeting-called-non.html

G-7 Redux

The CS Monitor has an interesting article on the economy:

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1020/p16s03-wmgn.html

Froehlich suggests the G-7 reflect the "changing global landscape" by adding China, India, Mexico, South Korea, Russia, and Brazil, all with economies exceeding $1 trillion in size, to the current members – the US, Britain, France, Germany, Canada, Italy, and Japan.

Sounds similar to what I suggested in this post:

http://willworkforjustice.blogspot.com/2008/10/g-7-to-rescue-dont-bet-on-it.html

Housing Graphic of Foreclosures

From Bloomberg comes a great graphic showing the hardest hit areas in the U.S. housing crisis:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/data?pid=avimage&iid=ibDX8eWtKfZs