While I’m opposed to the death penalty on both moral and practical grounds, I can’t feel sorry about Saddam’s execution. And this might be a good story to tell those who think his death will only worsen the insurgency in Iraq.
In fact, the overall effect of his death is the only thing about this [...]
Entries from December 2006
radical transparency
December 31st, 2006 · No Comments
Tags: journalism · politics
making fools of themselves
December 31st, 2006 · No Comments
I realize how distasteful it is to dignify the Holocaust denier arguments in a public forum. But the opportunity to show how science and reason can triumph over ignorance and propaganda is too good to ignore. This qualifies as one of those “once in a thousand years” opportunities.
Scott Adams gives a perfect example of why [...]
foreign looks on Brazil
December 29th, 2006 · 1 Comment
With the holidays, come the tourists. And some of them, like Tyler Cowen, have blogs, which gives us a rare opportunity to get a glimpse of how other people see our country. His post on the billboard ban in São Paulo is a great example of why I think more Brazilians should blog in English.
Not [...]
what goes around
December 24th, 2006 · No Comments
It is no secret that this Workers’ Party administration has no sympathies for Varig’s problems. In fact, one might say that were it not for the Judiciary and the company’s judicial reorganization would never have gone through. Even after the auction, Anac (National Agency of Civil Aviation) stalled its homologation process and tried to strip [...]
iPhoneyGate
December 19th, 2006 · No Comments
So this is what all the fuss was about? For crying out loud, someone should ask Steve Jobs to do something about Apple fanboys, for things are starting to get out of control. It seems Apple Stores are running low on sense of humour these days.
Tags: tech
helping freedom
December 19th, 2006 · No Comments
This is the sort of thing why I love Reason:
But if the filthy commies are hypocrites for only seeming to object to tyranny when it comes from non-commies, as the right is so quick to point out, what does that make the right-wingers who only seem to object to tyranny when it comes from commies [...]
Tags: politics
baby steps
December 19th, 2006 · No Comments
Scott Adams recently said he doesn’t really worry about “any problem that we can see coming”. For similar reasons, I’ve never really worried about Brazilians’ apathy toward politics, and their seemingly incapacity to hold elected officials accountable for their deeds. It always seemed like a question of time for people to realize that if, as [...]
some federation
December 18th, 2006 · No Comments
Here’s a great lesson for legislators and left-leaning pundits in general:
When the US government ended “welfare as we know it” in 1996, it handed responsibility for reform to the states. In so doing, it also created a real-world test of two competing economic strategies used to fight poverty. The results are in and the lessons [...]
first post
December 18th, 2006 · No Comments
(In which one makes the proverbial presentation.)
If you were to sign up for Orkut, chances are you’d end up only finding communities where people speak in Portuguese. Even if its name is in English, it will most likely have been taken over by Brazilians who make no effort to try and communicate in some other [...]
Tags: meta