The Weekly Web Roundup, Week of June 8
I’m going to try out a new “web roundup” feature on the blog where I briefly highlight some of the more interesting reads I came across on the web over the previous week. I’m sure it’ll need tweaking over time, but let’s give it a shot:
- An old, but good interview with author Dambisa Moyo in the New York Times, which refers to her as the “anti-Bono” for crusading against increased foreign aid to impoverished African nations. Ms. Moyo, now with the Cato Institute, asserts that the influx of aid from well-intentioned nations and celebrities over the past few decades has contributed to a debilitating culture of dependence, corruption and stagnation among the most disadvantaged African nations.
- There are apparently many counties in Michigan that are choosing to destroy paved roads that have fallen into disrepair, opting instead to revert to gravel roadways. In a related story, check out this article from the Telegraph that looks at a new strategy being employed by the city of Flint, Michigan to reclaim abandoned sections of its city and “return them to nature” due to a dramatically smaller population.
- Glenn Greenwald, the thoughtful columnist for Salon.com, wrote a provocative but forcefully argued piece a few weeks ago on the moral hazard of the Obama administration continuing to suppress photos of alleged torture of terrorist suspects. In “We wouldn’t want to inflame anti-American sentiment,” Greenwald makes that point that the government’s widespread failure to adhere to international treaties and advocacy of sometimes dubious legal arguments, as well as its paternalistic “we’ll tell you, the citizens, what you need to see,” are dangerous precedents to set for the expansion of the federal government’s power.
- In “End of the University As We Know It,” an op-ed published a few weeks ago in the New York Times, the author, Mark Taylor, makes the argument that higher education should shift its focus from rigid and “obsolete” “division of labor” academic departments and emphasis a kind of teaching that is “cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural.” The practical examples he lays out are intriguing, though some suggestions, such as abolishing tenure and imposing mandatory retirement, are, I think, too far in the extreme.
- American.com, a journal of the American Enterprise Institute, published two great articles related to our national energy concerns. The first, “Why Gasoline Is Still King,” does a superb job of explaining both the history behind gas as our primary fuel and the science behind why it remains dominant even as renewable alternatives are beginning to emerge. The second, “The Case for Ending Ethanol Subsidies,” articulates the folly behind government underwriting of an inferior fuel that exists largely for political rather than practical reasons.
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