Professors' Politics Draw Lawmakers Into the Fray
is on David Horowitz's efforts to push for "academic freedom"
legislation. I am sympathetic to those who feel that academia as a
whole has a lot of liberal biases and that academics often don't even
understand their own predilections. (They aren't as fair and open
minded as they often believe they are.) Legislation is not the answer,
and Horowitz's effort is clearly motivated for partisan conservative
ends.

I jus saw an interview on CNN with Stanley Renshon, the author of The 50% American: Immmigration And National Identity in an Age of Terror.
I wasn't impressed with either the author or CNN. I was surprised by
the shared, unquestioned, and blatant assumption that in order to be
loyal to the USA, one has to detach completely from other countries.
There doesn't seem to be any room for being both fond and critical of
the country. That is the gist of what I got, but I could be wrong. Important questions on immigration – but wrong answers confirms my impressions though.

Often, I need encouragement -- even a kick in the pants -- to pursue
the biggest ideas and problems that intrigue me. I found such
encouragement in Paul Graham's latest Good and Bad Procrastination that points to Richard Hamming: You and Your Research.
Hamming would go around asking fellow Bell Labs staffers what the most
important problems were in their respective fields, whether they were
working on said problems, and if not, then why.

Don't Think Twice, It's All Right. Thinking is overrated. (inside joke)

Twenty Years Later, Buying a House Is Less of a Bite:

In high-profile places like New York and Los
Angeles, home to many of the people who study and write about real
estate, families buying their first home often must spend more than
half of their income on mortgage payments, far more than they once did.
But the places that have become less affordable over the last
generation account for only a quarter of the country's population.

On Sunday morning, I read The New York Review of Books: The Strange Case of Chaplain Yee, a review of For God And Country: Faith and Patriotism Under Fire.
It astounds me and saddens me that such egregious abuse of power is
tolerated in this country. You can listen to an interview with James
Yee at NPR : Muslim Army Chaplain Recalls Guantanamo Ordeal.