Class, Empathy, and Taxes

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Several recent studies by three University of California psychologists, Michael Kraus, Paul Piff, and Dacher Keltner, suggest that individuals with lower class incomes are more empathetic and more altruistic than individuals with higher class incomes. They argue that since lower income individuals have to rely more on others to survive, they learn pro-social behaviors and learn to emphasize with … Read more

Debt Ceiling

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This information comes from the Office of Management and Budget’s Historical Tables of the US Government’s budget.  Just some basic information on the debt ceiling that might put the current political wrangling into greater context.  I will add the usual disclaimer that this is not my usual playground, so if anyone catches any mistakes please … Read more

Aid to Pakistan II

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Apparently some US policymakers have decided to cut some of the US' aid to Pakistan.  I'll keep the commentary short on this one as I've already commented on the topic before at greater length.  I still have a suspicion that getting some distance between the US and Pakistan is not for the relationship's greater good—assuming … Read more

Update

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Between dissertating, data collection, and side projects, blogging has been pretty lite here lately.  I'll try to keep up with the occasional updates so as not to dissappoint our loyal reader… Protests continue in Syria. France drops arms to Libyan rebels.  What's particularly interesting about this event (a couple days old I admit) is the … Read more

Summer Reading List?

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This is a partial bleg post. While finishing up some weekly chores in the laundromat I realized that my kindle was quickly running out of content and needed some fresh additions. Summer can be a good time to catch up on reading that we intended to do during the semester or to check off some … Read more

War/Politics Songs (2)

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Clearly inspired by Phil and Mike, I’d like to offer my own list of songs… although mine is more ‘political science’ than war-themed. I should acknowledge, as other have, that my statement about whether a chorus is great or not shouldn’t be taken as a statement that I endorse a particular interpretation of the politics … Read more

The Targeting of Corporate Executives

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I came across this article from Defense News yesterday, and the topic is something that I have not come across before.  The gist of the article is that a Pakistani branch of al-Qaeda, or at least with members affiliated with al-Qaeda, was planning the assassination of Lockheed Martin's CEO.

More after the jump…

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Obama’s New Chairman of the Joint Chiefs

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Things have been fairly quiet here—all of us here at QP have been pretty busy with the end of the year and the onset of summer.  Anywho, I came across this article today and wanted to offer a few quick comments. Obama has named Admiral Mike Mullen's replacement as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of … Read more