tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10820485.post6805684096174532757..comments2023-11-03T09:36:22.100-04:00Comments on In From the Cold: Where the Jobs AreGeorge Smileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07049707648660651119noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10820485.post-70693225279723634762010-05-20T04:51:19.068-04:002010-05-20T04:51:19.068-04:00This comment has been removed by the author.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10820485.post-40108829552822101202010-04-09T07:42:38.752-04:002010-04-09T07:42:38.752-04:00"The Nation that makes a great distinction be..."The Nation that makes a great distinction between its scholars and its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools."<br /><br />I'm somewhat disappointed in your slam on the liberal arts. The liberal arts, classically, were the cultural repository of wisdom that was deemed essential for a free man to possess. I think it is highly important that we reinvigorate real liberal arts education at all levels. I'm in the military today and I am constantly distressed at the level of ignorance about basic history, rhetoric, even grammar -- all core liberal arts.<br /><br />I'm a supporter of a more Jeffersonian education, which includes some of the technical specialties you endorse but also includes the liberal arts.<br /><br />"The objects of... primary education [which] determine its character and limits [are]: To give to every citizen the information he needs for the transaction of his own business; to enable him to calculate for himself, and to express and preserve his ideas, his contracts and accounts in writing; to improve, by reading, his morals and faculties; to understand his duties to his neighbors and country, and to discharge with competence the functions confided to him by either; to know his rights; to exercise with order and justice those he retains, to choose with discretion the fiduciary of those he delegates; and to notice their conduct with diligence, with candor and judgment; and in general, to observe with intelligence and faithfulness all the social relations under which he shall be placed." --Thomas Jefferson: Report for University of Virginia, 1818.Chrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17407530889660573874noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10820485.post-64635970372418797972010-04-09T04:25:39.937-04:002010-04-09T04:25:39.937-04:00Paul G. - Do you have any military or national sec...Paul G. - Do you have any military or national security experience? Let me guess: liberal arts degree from a mid-level New York university?Storms24https://www.blogger.com/profile/14360242925876169578noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10820485.post-52708423907191095762010-04-09T00:31:48.082-04:002010-04-09T00:31:48.082-04:00To come to our hosts defense I took the France com...To come to our hosts defense I took the France comparison to be mainly aimed at an overly realistic foreign policy to the point of ineffectiveness and weakness. Obama is beginning to look more and more like Carter. Bush's problem wasn't his willingness to defend us, it was his lack of skill. <br /><br />As to the health care debate the problem is unique to the US which spends twice as much on health care (16% of GDP )as other first world countries including France and where I live Australia (8.5% of GDP for both our universal public and our private system combined). Government in the US already pays 50% of health care costs so it should be clear we are spending way too much. The health outcomes are about the same and, while the US is right up there, it is is not the healthiest nation on earth. For that money it should be. It is clear to me that the US has a structural problem in the way it finances health care. The Health Care Bill did nothing to fix the structural problems and probably made it worse. Good luck with it. <br /><br />The danger of Social Democracy for the US that I see as an expatriate is that culturally Americans are different than Europeans. We broke free of too powerful government in the 18th century and showed we could make it work to the point of leading the world. The French revolution failed - ours didn't. It is an illusion that we can retreat to the big government paternalism of Europe. I think the current loss of confidence is in part a response to the ineptness of the Bush administration but I notice that the US public is rejecting Obama faster than they did Bush. In my view we have been badly let down by both parties overspending and the inability to effectively discharge our responsibilities as the worlds leading power. Bush badly mishandled those responsibilities for far too long before he learned to do better. Obama seems to me to be trying to avoid those responsibilities such as stopping Iran or keeping Russia honest. I think the US can and must do better.lgudehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12774491337993415578noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10820485.post-89943648557361131592010-04-08T20:19:53.783-04:002010-04-08T20:19:53.783-04:00Brooks failed to mention the basis for his great o...Brooks failed to mention the basis for his great optimism is that Obama will be gone in 2.5 year :)Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12337285145893256026noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10820485.post-47984260953465858382010-04-08T19:59:15.215-04:002010-04-08T19:59:15.215-04:00...recession started in December 2007, again, when...<i>...recession started in December 2007, again, when bush was president, right?</i><br /><br />I guess the the very solid Democratic Congress at the time gets no credit at all? :)Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12337285145893256026noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10820485.post-77300688670702756222010-04-08T18:14:10.233-04:002010-04-08T18:14:10.233-04:00I follow your blog and almost always agree with it...I follow your blog and almost always agree with it. In this case I agree with your thoughts on education. However, after reading your blog, I found myself thinking many of the things Paul G. so nicely wrote. Your blog seemed to me to be a little one sided with a targeted memory. Usually I find your blog looking more at the big picture, with a better, more balanced memory.planethouhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14499375793289541938noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10820485.post-41111105797863614582010-04-08T17:06:53.871-04:002010-04-08T17:06:53.871-04:00"Can you name another G-8 or how about G-20 c..."Can you name another G-8 or how about G-20 country that does not have universal health care?"<br /><br />Obviously, your mother never asked if "If every other kid was jumping off a cliff, would you join them?"<br /><br />Universal health care and the other trappings of the social-democratic state are precisely why France and other countries have such high structural unemployment, and why it disproportionately affects the young.<br /><br />"(And apparently Henninger forgets how many private sector jobs Obama saved at GM, Chrysler, oh, and every major financial institution.)"<br /><br />They aren't private sector jobs anymore. GM, Chrysler, and the TARP banks are now effectively agents of the state. And, in becoming state agencies, they do a marvelous job of showing why "crony capitalism" is such a bad idea.Ken Prescotthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13779589712239613030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10820485.post-72305443336492272992010-04-08T16:02:58.937-04:002010-04-08T16:02:58.937-04:00Wow, a beaut. It's ok if you don't like O...Wow, a beaut. It's ok if you don't like Obama but lets call a spade a spade: <br /><br />Starting with your "remaking the US in the image of France" comment: <br /><br />1) Can you name another G-8 or how about G-20 country that does not have universal health care? Maybe Indonesia. <br /><br />2) Feuds with our Allies? Come on, remember George W. Bush? The guy that Britain thought was more dangerous than Kim Jong-Il? Mr. "You're with us or you're against us?" How quickly we forget. <br /><br />3) Over-reliance on diplomacy, Seriously? Over-reliance on a military option moved us quickly into Iraq and found the WMDs, committed 250,000 troops, many military deaths, and is costing us $2 billion per week (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_cost_of_the_Iraq_War) <br /><br />4) Perpetual patience with our foes...it's a good thing GWBush acted to prevent Iran from getting nukes, oh wait, he didn't, for 8 years. W really solved North Korea too in the time he was in office, by not waiting.<br /><br />The best is that you blame Obama's policies for unemployment. You do know that our current recession started in December 2007, again, when bush was president, right? http://www.nber.org/cycles/dec2008.pdf<br /><br />(And apparently Henninger forgets how many private sector jobs Obama saved at GM, Chrysler, oh, and every major financial institution.)<br /><br />But no matter what we agree or disagree on, lets keep this in mind from David Brooks' NYTimes column on Monday: "The United States already measures at the top or close to the top of nearly every global measure of economic competitiveness. A comprehensive 2008 Rand Corporation study found that the U.S. leads the world in scientific and technological development. The U.S. now accounts for a third of the world’s research-and-development spending. Partly as a result, the average American worker is nearly 10 times more productive than the average Chinese worker, a gap that will close but not go away in our lifetimes."Paul G.https://www.blogger.com/profile/17270835772123856564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10820485.post-65457104105903294902010-04-08T15:45:48.045-04:002010-04-08T15:45:48.045-04:00My one word -- Engineering. While liberal arts st...My one word -- Engineering. While liberal arts students are exposed to four years of idealistic garbage and social theories that don't work, engineering students suffer a minimum of that, and are exposed to four years of scientific theory, math, and truth about the physical world -- ideas and things that do work.<br /><br />It is one of the last uncorrupted university degree paths.jmshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04874776420064635278noreply@blogger.com