Assorted Links (12/6/2010)

Here’s a list of articles that I have been reading lately:

The TSA body count

washingtontimes.com

“Important privacy concerns aside, these new scanners and the enhanced pat-down alternative are costing more American lives than they save by causing fliers to drive instead. Driving is much more dangerous than flying, and the result will be that the new TSA procedures will kill more Americans on the highway.”

The Moral Frontiers of Stem Cell Research

www.thepublicdiscourse.com

“Scientists have recently developed a safe and efficient method to create induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells from adult skin cells. Many opponents of embryonic stem cell research hail this news as an important step away from research methods that rely on destroying embryos.”

Faith Matters: The Kingdom of God in A Food Court

blogs.the-american-interest.com

“On November 13 of this year, a group of shoppers in the food court of the Seaway mall in Welland, Ontario got the shock of their lives — in a nice way.”

The Changing Culture War

nytimes.com

“Middle America retreats from marriage, and religion.”

Putin, Russian Democracy, and Wikileaks

advancingafreesociety.org

“It will take years for the United States to restore its image as a trustworthy diplomatic partner. U. S. diplomacy has suffered a severe setback and its national security has been damaged by the Wikileak dumps of classified documents.”

How to Fight and Win the Cyberwar

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Mort Zuckerman, editor in chief of U.S. News and World Report, writes that we should think of cyberattacks as guided missiles and respond similarly—intercept them and retaliate.”

Julian Assange, Information Anarchist

online.wsj.com

“Gordon Crovitz writes in his Information Age column for The Wall Street Journal that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange hopes to hobble the U.S. government—not make it more transparent.”

Too Big to Succeed

nytimes.com

“Despite financial reform legislation, the biggest banks still pose a threat to the American economy.”

The Controversy Over CQ Press’s Crime Rankings – The Numbers Guy – WSJ

blogs.wsj.com

“An annual ranking of U.S. cities by crime rates draws criticism for oversimplifying the issue and not telling Americans much about their personal safety.”

We Are Not Japan — The American, A Magazine of Ideas

american.com

“Why a deflationary spiral is not likely.”

Liberalism—An Autopsy

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, R. Emmett Tyrell Jr., editor in chief of the American Spectator, writes that the heirs of the New Deal are down to 20% of the electorate.”

The road to a US insolvency crisis

advancingafreesociety.org

“Today’s auction of 10- and 30-year US Treasury notes and bonds won’t tell us as much about the US economy as auctions used to — because the Federal Reserve has started buying up the notes as part of Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s “quantitative easing” effort.”

Will Netflix Kill the Internet? – BusinessWeek

businessweek.com

“The crushing demands of video delivery and mobile devices are changing the economics of the Internet.”

The Intelligent Investor: The New Supercharged Index Funds

online.wsj.com

“For investors in these low-cost, autopilot portfolios that replicate the holdings of a broad basket of stocks or bonds, the best is yet to be.”