As the NATO bombing campaign in Libya nears the one month mark, we can – and indeed must – reassess our previous opinions on the Libyan intervention with the new information that has become available. There is a caveat that we should keep in mind befo…
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Progressive Proselytizing: US government shuts down online poker; the case for legality
The US government has just launched an assault that has temporarily shut down the largest online poker operators in the US. This historic decision implements in a meaningful way for the first time the 2006 UIGEA law that effectively outlawed running a …
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: How we can change the political capital formula
It is a tautology that a successful politician is one who is capable of attracting votes. However the way successful politicians can attract votes is divided into largely two overlapping categories. They can enact and advocate for policies and politi…
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Pharmaceutical Patent Lengths
Obama’s recently announced deficit reduction proposal includes the reduction in patent lengths for brand name pharmaceutical drugs from 20 to 7 years. Let us step back and consider the case for such patents and how we might determine an optimal time le…
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Strategic voting depends on your ridings poll numbers.
The majority of ridings are essentially a lock before the election even happens. A minority have a good competition and a small number end up being too close for poll aggregates to predict the day before the election. There is thus a reasonab…
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Private security is a moral hazard when there is no rule of law
The rise of private security personal and war contractors – embodied by the since rebranded Blackwater – is a moral hazard that has, predictably, led to significant consequences. The profit motivation provides incentive distinct from minimizing human s…
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