The Unbroken Window

Obese people have a hard time regulating their own behavior. If there is a bag of M&Ms lying around the house, rest assured they will take a handful each time they walk by. Obese people have low levels of energy. Though it is well known that regular exercise will improve health and energy levels, they [...]

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My new default position on gleaning information from marketing messages in the political realm is to put a negative sign in front of claims. The amount of ideology embedded in an organization is inversely proportion to its claims of “avoiding ideological junk.” The amount of partisanship is inversely proportional to how much non-partisan-ism it proclaims [...]

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Much hand wringing has been done in the past century about the “professionalization” of athletics on college campuses, how athletics is corrupting the academic mission of higher education and so forth. Indeed, many more programs compete in college athletics today than in the past and schools are still regularly making the jump to Division I [...]

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I posted an image a few days ago about the blue-green algae that is causing problems in many of the Finger Lakes waterways (and around the country). That piece was not intended merely to point out inconsistency, but also to have folks be clear about asking themselves the following question. “When I am concerned about [...]

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Here is but one reason I absolutely deplored living in Western Massachusetts. My parents live here so I have to show up every once in a while. But per usual when I was driving in RT7 near downtown on the old circle there were the usual people with signs. The signs were familiar this time: [...]

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I couldn't help but insert the pun. I am researching a little bit about popular environmental rhetoric and came across these doozies from the esteemed Robert Kennedy Jr.:   By now Kennedy was fully warmed up. He asserted, without any evidence, that “the quality of life has diminished measurably in America. But people don’t know [...]

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Disclaimer: My current understanding is that the mandate in the Affordable Care Act should pass constitutional muster based on what the court has been deciding since the Wickard v. Filburn case. But here’s yet another AP Story that will make you want to gouge your eyeballs out with piping hot meat thermometers … The headline: [...]

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Via Brookings: Notice the direction of the trend lines and when the inflection points happen.

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Here is Krugman at his best. Here is more. UPDATE: Tyler Cowen links to this interesting Krugman post and points out this question: And if states and localities can borrow freely, how do you explain the drastic fall in their spending I have been documenting? To answer his question directly, I’d argue that people want [...]

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I don’t care too much about the “bias” in the media, though I have no doubt that it exists. For those who want some scientific proof of the existence of such bias, Professor Tim Groseclose has a new book with evidence: To measure media bias, Professor Groseclose examines the political content of news and converts [...]

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