It is rare to find a police force—anywhere in the world—that enjoys cordial relationships with the community it polices i.e., a police force that is viewed and treated inclusively as a member of the community, one not so much against the bad guys as for the good guys, and which conceives of itself as providingContinue reading “The Police as Paramilitary Force: A Problematic Conception”
Category Archives: Politics
Twenty20 Franchises and the Evolution of Modern Cricket
As the fixing-scandal ridden sixth season of the Indian Premier League ended on Sunday, I thought it might be time to revisit the opening section of my concluding chapter in Brave New Pitch: The Evolution of Modern Cricket, where I had attempted to assess where the world of cricket might be headed in response toContinue reading “Twenty20 Franchises and the Evolution of Modern Cricket”
Does Explanation Constitute Justification? Geras Contra Greenwald and Eagleton
And does it thereby also run the risk of shading into apologia when the event being explained is one that would strike some as a heinous act? In response to the Woolwich killing of a British soldier by machete-wielding assailants, Glenn Greenwald thinks not. Terry Eagleton agrees (in a fashion). Norman Geras disagrees. (As the linksContinue reading “Does Explanation Constitute Justification? Geras Contra Greenwald and Eagleton”
The ‘Adversarial’ Nature of Unions
One of the strangest objections to the presence of unions in the workplace is that unions make the workplace adversarial, that they introduce conflict into the relationship between the worker and the manager (or between the two classes), that rather than letting workers and management concentrate on maximizing output (or throughput) and enterprise profit, whichContinue reading “The ‘Adversarial’ Nature of Unions”
Amazon, E-Commerce and Monopolies
A couple of interesting comments in response to my post yesterday on Matthew Yglesias and Amazon. First, JW writes: I’m not sure I agree with your point…I think the reason e-commerce and Amazon are less scary is that it is harder to charge monopolistic prices because entry is so easy. If Amazon starts charging monopolisticContinue reading “Amazon, E-Commerce and Monopolies”
Matthew Yglesias Does Not Seem to Understand E-Commerce
Matthew Yglesias is skeptical of people who think e-commerce giant Amazon has a creepy, monopolistic plan to take over the world of retail. He quotes Jay Goltz, ‘proprietor of a small retail store’ as saying it is ‘impossible to make money competing with Amazon…because Amazon itself isn’t making money’: Why would a company choose toContinue reading “Matthew Yglesias Does Not Seem to Understand E-Commerce”
Jonathan Baron’s ‘Against Bioethics’
I’ve been reading and discussing Jonathan Baron‘s Against Bioethics (MIT Press, 2006) this semester – with the Faculty Discussion Group at the Wolfe Institute for the Humanities at Brooklyn College. Roughly, Baron’s thesis is that utility-based decision-theoretic analysis would improve the quality and outcomes of decision making in the medical sphere, which is currently bogged downContinue reading “Jonathan Baron’s ‘Against Bioethics’”
Orin Kerr Thinks Executive Branch Searches of The Press Are a ‘Non-Story’
Orin Kerr suggests the story of the US Department of Justice seizing AP phone records isn’t one, wraps up with a flourish, hands out a few pokes at anti-government paranoia, and then asks a series of what he undoubtedly takes to be particularly incisive and penetrating questions: Based on what we know so far, then, IContinue reading “Orin Kerr Thinks Executive Branch Searches of The Press Are a ‘Non-Story’”
Crossfit, Women, and ‘Tough Titsday’: A Woman’s Perspective
I have often blogged on Crossfit here in these pages. In large part that is because I genuinely enjoy my experiences at Crossfit South Brooklyn (CFSBK), a very unique and distinctive space in which to work out and pursue the ever-elusive objective of being mens sana in corpore sano. It is also because I find aContinue reading “Crossfit, Women, and ‘Tough Titsday’: A Woman’s Perspective”
Of Prefects and Punishment Drills
In my ninth and tenth grades, I attended boarding school in India. Like many boarding schools of its type, it incorporated the disciplinary mechanism of the prefect: senior schoolboys placed in charge of those junior to them, armed with the rule book, and cricket bats and hockey sticks with which to hand out six ofContinue reading “Of Prefects and Punishment Drills”
Samir Chopra 