In the new Harvard Salient, Patrick T. Brennan has achieved the Platonic ideal of a Salient article: equal measures of pure arrogance, submerged racism, and exclusive affection for all things ancient. The only way to appreciate this article is to quote some of the choicest sections. For example: Americans of color have undoubtedly done some … Read more
There was really no justification for the status quo ante in the federal student loan program. The model was this: Students applied for a loan from a private loan company, which loaned them money guaranteed by the federal government. They pocketed the profits, and all risk was assumed by the federal government. Students who had … Read more
The article I wrote with Peter recently went up, and I had a few thoughts that I wanted to add. I’m from Massachusetts — Plymouth to be exact — so this election was pretty much the only big news for the greater part of our J-term. This was bound to be one of the big … Read more
Matthew Yglesias has written an excellent analysis of the relationship between Republican obstructionism and the size and scope of the health care reform bill. He calls Mitch McConnell the “unsung hero of comprehensive reform”: We should also, however, spare a thought for the unsung hero of comprehensive reform, McConnell and his GOP colleagues, who pushed their … Read more
I would like to think that the Committee on African Studies’ decision to hold a panel event entitled “Africa in the Media” together with the Department of African and African American Studies just two weeks after I finished writing an article about the same subject (you can read it here) is more than mere coincidence. … Read more
Copenhagen postmortem and the question of climate aid. After two years of intense negotiation and eager anticipation of a new international climate-change framework, the Copenhagen Conference in December 2009 delivered weak progress towards a legally binding treaty. Conflict and stalemate characterized the negotiations in Copenhagen, often revealing deep-seated divisions between the developed and developing worlds. … Read more
Why Chile’s new conservative leader isn’t much of a change. On Jan. 17, the Chilean presidential run-off election concluded with the victory of a former Harvard economics teaching fellow, Sebastian Piñera. The Conservative Piñera, the third-richest Chilean and the holder of a Harvard Ph.D in economics, ended two decades of uninterrupted rule by the center-left … Read more
In today’s Crimson, Colin Motley and Caleb Weatherl knock off most of the requirements for your standard anti-Obamacare hit piece. Invocation of public opinion without acknowledging that majorities favor the actual policies just enacted when they are described? Check. “Government takeover of health care”? Check. Moaning about how the bill isn’t “post-partisan,” while ignoring the … Read more
Eastwood does Mandela It is not hard to imagine a three-hour-plus biopic covering the trials and triumphs of Nelson Mandela. A life as epic as Mandela’s naturally lends itself to a lofty cinematic portrayal along the lines of a Gandhi or an Elizabeth. But to tell the complete story of a person on film entails … Read more
This is the last part of Obama’s closing argument for health care reform to the House. It’s rather stirring. I’ve always regarded the heath care debates as something of a litmus test for our democracy, and here Obama gets at the heart of it: does America still have what it takes, as a polity with … Read more