From what I’m reading, the justification for the Bergdahl swap without Congressional notification has been that his health was deteriorating.  But here’s what the Los Angeles Times has to say (a similar article was in today’s Tribune, and the story is in other outlets, too): Stung by mounting criticism that they had failed to notify Congress before moving the five Afghan prisoners from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, administration and military officials provided a classified briefing to the full Senate, a rare... Read more

Thinking about the Bowe Bergdahl case, and the fact that the administration is so eager to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table, led me to read the Wikipedia entry on the Paris Peace Accords. I have to admit, I always thought that this war ended similar to the Korean War, a status quo ante — and the difference was that, aftewards, we didn’t build a DMZ but instead North Vietnam resumed the battle and, without U.S. support, South Vietnam... Read more

I don’t have anything to offer in terms of insights into the Bowe Bergdahl swap. CNN reports the administration’s line: “We don’t leave men and women in uniform behind,” he said during a news conference in Warsaw, Poland, on Tuesday.  “This is what happens at the end of wars,” Obama said of the prisoner swap. “Regardless of the circumstances, we still get an American soldier back if he’s held in captivity. Period.” Hotair.com (among numerous sites) reports on accusations now... Read more

(This is where it would be really helpful to have more readers, say, by an order of magnitude or two, to initiate an extended discussion.  But anyway:) This whole bit with the Bergdahl swap had me thinking about a book I read a while ago, about North Korea, and the fact that it’s now been proven that North Korea held onto a great many South Korean POWs after the war ended, in prison camps and later released, but unable to... Read more

“The Other McCain” linked today to an article in The Atlantic with five predictions about the future of reproduction: 1.  triple-parent reproduction, such as uterus donation.2.  “personalized” fertility assessments (e.g., for a given woman, how do her own chances of conception decline as she ages?)3.  precise forecasting of most fertile times of the month (which is goofy — fertility awareness methods do a perfectly fine job) and sensors to monitor the unborn children conceived as a result4.  creating sperm and... Read more

So the other day I connected an article claiming that same-sex marriage would be a boon for the economy, to the broken-windows fallacy, because, if a couple spends big bucks on a wedding that wouldn’t have otherwise happened, the money isn’t going to come from nowhere but would be money not spent on other things. Today I’m thinking about this some more. In principle, through creative destruction, jobs are lost — due to mechanization, due to global sourcing, etc. —... Read more

For those of you who don’t recognize the reference, that’s a series of kids’ books, e.g., “You wouldn’t want to be a Roman Soldier,” detailing all the gross and icky things about life in a given time or occupation.  There’s another one about medical care — leeches, for instance. And I was thinking about small businesses the other day, both because our usual ice cream shop has closed down, and the owner of the small marina where we’ve kept our... Read more

The reporting at CNN on a revised “morals clause” for the teachers at Catholic schools in Cincinnati is worse than usual:  the school system defined all teachers as having a “ministerial” role, and, rather than the generic promise to abide by Catholic doctrine, they spelled out more clearly that, for instance, “living together or having sex outside of marriage, using in-vitro fertilization, a gay “lifestyle,” or publicly supporting any of those things” are not acceptable for Catholic school teachers. And... Read more

In Illinois, the voters have a very limited ability to place legislation on the ballot — only via constitutional amendments with a rather high signature requirement (and, as is happening now with the Independent Maps initiative, significant opportunities for politicians to play hardball with amendments they oppose).  Politicians, on the other hand, have free reign, especially with “advisory referendums,” and the Illinois Democrats are taking full advantage of this, with advisory referendums on such items as the minimum wage in... Read more