Tag Archives: liberals

Obama must not believe that insurance companies act in their own self-interest

Posted on February 12, 2012 by Jonathan

From the NYT: Mr. Obama said that the compromise would take the Catholic institutions out of the equation by relieving them from either paying for coverage for contraceptives or providing any referral to their employees for the coverage. Instead, insurance … Continue reading →

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A Confusing Attempt to Take Money from Subway Riders and Taxpayers

Posted on December 27, 2011 by Jonathan

MetroChange is a proposal for a kiosk that will allow MTA riders to donate the pesky leftover funds on their Metrocards to charity. NYU students Stephan Boltalin, Genevieve Hoffman, and Paul May have imagined a friendly, easy-to-use machine that invites New … Continue reading →

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More Handouts for the 1% (i.e. Salman Rushdie and Michael Moore)

Posted on October 26, 2011 by Jonathan

Salman Rushdie, joined by Michael Moore and 45,000 others, have signed an online petition to ask Jamshed Bharacha, the president of the Cooper Union (a private school in New York City), to reverse his decision to raise the monthly rent … Continue reading →

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Silliness on Steve Jobs’ Legacy as a “Job Creator”

Posted on October 24, 2011 by Jonathan

Tim Noah has a blog post attacking Eric Cantor, who can stick up for himself, but Noah also unfortunately slandered Steve Jobs, who cannot. I was writing an email to Noah to address this problem, but I figured that a … Continue reading →

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The Unaddressed Question

Posted on August 29, 2011 by Jonathan

Sam Harris, in a followup post defending his call to use taxes to reduce income inequality, complains that his rich readers foolishly give themselves credit for their own well-being, failing to see that, in large part, they have other factors … Continue reading →

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Warren Buffet’s Taxes

Posted on August 19, 2011 by Jonathan

After Warren Buffet suggested that rich people like him should pay more taxes, conservatives predictably encouraged him to voluntarily give more money to the government if he so desperately desires to do so. (E.g., from Michelle Bachmann: “If he’s worried … Continue reading →

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Is what a politician does with his animals his own business?

Posted on July 15, 2011 by Jonathan

Some people (for convenience, I’ll use the word “liberals” to refer to those people) argued in the wake of the Weiner scandal that politicians’ personal lives should not be our concern. They can’t really believe that, though. Suppose a politician … Continue reading →

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Matthew Yglesias on Paul Ryan’s Taste for Wine

Posted on July 9, 2011 by Jonathan

Matthew Yglesias has an interesting post about why Paul Ryan’s recent sipping of expensive wine actually can be related to a substantive policy issue. Yglesias’ argument is as follows (I critique the argument below the summary): ———————— 1. Paul Ryan … Continue reading →

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Why don’t liberals care about poor people in other countries very much?

Posted on April 2, 2011 by Jonathan

Jonathan Cohn says, when discussing whether we should extend the Bush tax cuts (which we ultimately did, temporarily): But this debate isn’t just about budget arithmetic. It’s about morality, too. And I’m not sure that part of the debate is … Continue reading →

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