Year: 2013

“I’m afraid. Write that. We’re scared to death,” – a traveler on National Review's Cruise recent fundraiser, to New York Magazine's Joe Hagan.

A reader writes:

Here in Britain, I get 27 days paid leave, plus 8 public holidays a year, and can add up to 5 extra days unpaid leave if I want to. It’s about average for a middle-class job in Britain these days (probably a few more than when you first came to the US, Andrew, as employers have raised leave rather than salary through the recession). Lack of holidays is one reason why I’ve turned down job offers from the US.  I’ve offered several times to take less pay if I could have the leave instead and, every time, I get looked at like I have two heads.

Another: 

Thanks for posting that enlightening graph! This is something I've been worrying about this year. Here are a couple things to consider:

France's 35-hour work week adds, effectively, 32 days on top. Since our economy is more or less back to pre-recession levels, yet unemployment and take-home pay have seen almost none of that recovery, perhaps cutting the work week and passing some minimum-vacation laws would be a good way to share productivity gains with workers. It would have the additional salutary effect of boosting the economy via increased consumption in off hours and of boosting employment (marginally?) as companies hire more workers to make up for lost time. Just a center-left fantasy for the new year.

The winner was the wrenching expression on the face of Tony Nicklinson, reacting to a court decision against allowing him to ask a doctor to end his life. Nicklinson suffered from locked-in syndrome due to a stroke. It behooves us to point out that Nicklinson died a week later, after refusing to eat and succumbing to pneumonia. May he rest in peace.

You can see all the winners here.

Robert Lustig, author of Fat Chance, believes that "that one particular form of sugar—fructose—is toxic in high dose":

In animal studies, fructose causes the four criteria of addiction: bingeing, withdrawal, craving, and sensitization to other addictive substances (meaning after chronic exposure to sugar, it’s easier to get hooked on another drug). In humans, fructose lights up the reward center in your brain called the nucleus accumbens on MRI; but after repeated exposure, the reward center lights up less and less, so you need more and more to achieve the same effect. Fructose has effects on the reward center similar to alcohol; and just like alcohol, can lead to a "vicious cycle" of consumption and disease.

Elizabeth Weil profiles Lustig:

Maybe someday sugar will replace saturated fat as the villain in our diets. If this happens, Lustig will have succeeded in stealing the public health mantle from Ancel Keys, whose landmark Seven Countries Study pinned heart disease on saturated fat and shaped nutrition guidelines in the United States for more than a quarter century. Yet for all his determination, and confidence, Lustig remains pessimistic.

Nathan Harden believes "massive open online courses" (MOOCs) offer a new way forward:

Today, when you drive down music row in Nashville, a street formerly dominated by the offices of record labels and music publishing companies, you see a lot of empty buildings and rental signs. The contraction in the music industry has been relentless since the Mp3 and the iPod emerged. This isn’t just because piracy is easier now; it’s also because consumers have been given, for the first time, the opportunity to break the album down into individual songs. They can purchase the one or two songs they want and leave the rest. Higher education is about to become like that.

The trend for the future will be more compact, targeted educational certificates and credits, which students will be able to pick and choose from to create their own academic portfolios. Take a math class from MIT, an engineering class from Purdue, perhaps with a course in environmental law from Yale, and create interdisciplinary education targeted to one’s own interests and career goals. Employers will be able to identify students who have done well in specific courses that match their needs. When people submit résumés to potential employers, they could include a list of these individual courses, and their achievement in them, rather than simply reference a degree and overall GPA.

A reader absorbs the latest update:

I am surprised at how very little we know of Hillary Clinton's condition.  From what I understand, she has a sinus venous thrombosis, which floored me.  My father died of this very thing seven months ago. It is extremely rare and often points to another, more serious problem.  Just wanted to put that out there since not much is known about the condition in the general public or the media.  Her clot obviously has been caught much earlier than my father's, but I wonder if there isn't something else going on with her health that is very grim. Hopefully, the answer is no, but I am concerned given what I know of this seldom seen issue.

Another:

The first thing I thought was that should – God forbid – Hillary Clinton die from this, the wingnuts would accuse the Obama administration of killing her to keep her from testifying.

Blessedly she is expected to make a full recovery.

Bruce Bartlett largely blames low inflation and low interest rates:

According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, none of the preconditions that historically are necessary for a significant budget deal are now present. Inflationary expectations continue to fall and real interest rates are very low. Hence, it is impossible for politicians to promise any benefit from large spending cuts or tax increases that would materially improve peoples’ lives. The benefits are purely abstract.

Daniel Gross adds:

Deficit scolds have always said that the U.S. could become the next Greece if it fails to close its deficits. But in the last several years, as deficits have exploded, America’s borrowing costs have plummeted. Meanwhile, in contrast to Greece, the U.S. private sector has thrived in recent years. Profits have soared to historic levels, and the stock market has doubled since March 2009. Looking solely at the charts of the stock and bond markets over the last few years, you’d never guess America has a woeful fiscal situation.