Kevin’s Blog

Monday, April 6, Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, announced plans of the Obama administration to make major changes to the U.S. military.  The intended goal of the administration is to shift focus from larger, more conventional warfare to smaller, unconventional wars like Iraq and Afghanistan or insurgents from Pakistan who disrupt their host nation and raid into neighboring Afghanistan.

I like the idea of focusing on an agile, unconventional military and I see scrapping the F-22 as a potentially worthwhile deal (how long has that thing been in development?) but I think it’s ridiculous to not keep a large, standing military with “dumb” weapons like rifles as well as putting dollars into developing new technology planes and submarines.  I don’t like the idea of throwing away the conventional for the unconventional; I’d prefer that we utilize both.

Editorial Council on Foreign Relations, President Obama, Robert Gates, Secretary of Defense, Wall Street Journal

I’ve not blogged much the last week or so but I’ve been reading; I wish I engaged more material faster as often the dearth of my posts is due to my feeling that I’ve not engaged enough material from different viewpoints.

For BestLawTalks lately I’ve been reading Antonin Scalia’s A Matter of Interpretation. I started Stephen Breyer’s Active Liberty: Interpreting Our Democratic Constitution but I’d have to say that I fall far closer to Scalia’s viewpoint of textualism and questioning the Twentieth Century application of “due process.”  On the topic of due process and common law I’m still reading Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr’s The Common Law.

Personal Antonin Scalia, Austrian School, Due Process, Economics, Keynes, Keynesian, Ludwig von Mises, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr, Stephen Breyer, The Common Law

Without solid international or political cover and needing to move back into a more populist position, Pakistani President Zardari solid international or political cover and needing to move back into a more populist position, Pakistani President Zardari reached out to former Prime Minister Sharif and called for “tolerance, mutual accomodation and respect for dissent ….”  His efforts even went so far as the government asking the Supreme Court to lift the ban on the Sharif brothers holding political office.

Politics Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan, President Zardari

According to Dr Bernadine Healy, former director of the National Institute of Health (NIH), embryonic stem cell research, the type that President Obama just opened up when he lifted the ban President Bush put in place, may not provide the benefit once thought. Embryonic stem cell research may help those who have their own cord blood banked in the future but it appears that this avenue of research has lost its luster for most.  Embryonic stem cell solutions have, in some cases, led to tumors.

Editorial CBR, Cord Blood, NIH, Stem Cell

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, under pressure from his U.S. supporters yielded and agreed to reinstate Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammed Chaudry.  The U.S. supports President Zardari but the administration is also supporting public marches and demonstrations to which Zardari and his appointed local governor, Salmaan Taseer, have opposed. The main demonstration that was planned was directed by former Pakistani Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, ostensibly with the goal of getting President Zardari to reinstate the former Chief Justice Chaudry who was ousted during former President Pervez Musharraf’s administration.

Editorial Benazir Bhutto, Foreign Policy, Hillary Clinton, Iftikhar Muhammed Chaudry, Nawaz Sharif, Obama Administration, Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf, PML-N, PPP, President Obama, President Zardari