Can’t Buy You Love

by Stuart Shapiro

It is an often quoted statement that money can’t buy happiness, but in our heart of hearts, many of us doubt that it is true.  One of the growing subfields of behavioral economics (a field which I’ve posted about before) is happiness research.  In particular, the relationship between wealth and happiness has gotten a lot of attention.

The researchers discovered money is indeed a major factor in day-to-day happiness. No surprise there. You need to make a certain amount, on average, to be able to afford food, shelter, clothing, entertainment and the occasional Apple product, …

Romney Four Years Ago: Bob Dole “Is The Last Person I Would Have Wanted To Have Write A Letter For Me”

Today Mitt Romney published a letter from Bob Dole endorsing him for president (via Political Wire). Four years ago Romney trashed the McCain campaign and Bob Dole’s endorsement of it.

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Shiites Sunnis And Kurds Threaten Turmoil As Soon As Americans Leave Iraq

Sunnis and Shiites began fighting the moment the last American left Iraq.

Within hours of the last U.S. troops rolling out of Iraq on Sunday, Shi’ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki had asked parliament to sack his Sunni deputy, and security sources said an arrest warrant was issued for the Sunni vice president.

Add to this a parliamentary boycott announced Saturday by the secular Iraqiya bloc, backed by many Sunnis, and the risk is growing of an intensified power struggle between Sunni, Shi’ite and Kurdish politicians that could leave Iraq vulnerable to meddling by Sunni Arab nations and Shi’ite Iran……

Another “Family Values” Politician Resigns Because Of “Inapproriate Relationship”

Amy Koch, Minnesota’s Senate Majority Leader, has quit that post after being confronted by fellow Republicans about an “inappropriate relationship” with a staff member. Koch was accused of being involved with a subordinate, although she neither confirmed nor denied it when confronted, but rather said,”I think I need to consider resigning.” (h/t Little Green Footballs)

Koch, 40, is married and has a teenage daughter. The day she resigned, she betrayed no hint of scandal. In an interview with the Star Tribune, she joked, laughed and brushed aside questions about whether her leadership had been threatened from inside her caucus.…

Gingrich As President Would Ignore Supreme Court Rulings He Opposes And Abolish Courts

In addition to ignoring court rulings he doesn’t like, Newt Gingrich as president would impeach judges and abolish courts not to his liking.

“I’m fed up with elitist judges” who seek to impose their “radically un-American” views, Gingrich said Saturday in a conference call with reporters.

In recent weeks, the Republican presidential contender has been telling conservative audiences he is determined to expose the myth of “judicial supremacy” and restrain judges to a more limited role in American government. “The courts have become grotesquely dictatorial and far too powerful,” he said in Thursday’s Iowa debate.

Gingrich also says:

“While abolishing …

RIP Vaclav Havel 1936-2011

Vaclav Havel rose to become president of Czechoslovakia after leading a peaceful anti-Communist revolution.

Havel, a playwright and essayist by trade, rose to prominence with a band of liberal reformers who challenged the authority of Czechoslovakia’s hard-line Communist government in the late 1970s and 1980s, at the height of the Cold War. The government’s decision to arrest Havel over his dissident activities in 1988 fueled opposition within the country and drew international criticism, forcing authorities to reverse course and release him, an Associated Press obituary noted. It was only eight days after the Berlin Wall was torn down, after Czechoslovakian …

Mississippi Man Gets 10 Months For Threatening To Kill President Obama

Submitted by William

David Williams threatened to kill President Obama and to blow up a hospital that refused to perform surgery on his wife.

Secret Service agent Ronald McCormick said in a sworn statement filed in court records that Williams called the hospital July 19 to schedule surgery for his wife. Williams was told the hospital wouldn’t do the surgery, and he threatened to blow up the hospital and kill Obama, using a racial epithet to describe the president, McCormick’s statement said. Williams made the threats during a conversation with hospital operator Alfreda Fairley.…

Last American Troops Leave Iraq

The last American troops rolled out of Iraq at daybreak Sunday. The top commander in Iraq, General Lloyd Austin, is seen here at Camp Adder just before soldiers from the 25th Infantry Division head for Kuwait.

Their exit marked the end of a bitterly divisive war that raged for nearly nine years and left Iraq shattered, with troubling questions lingering over whether the Arab nation will remain a steadfast U.S. ally.

The mission cost nearly 4,500 American and well more than 100,000 Iraqi lives and $800 billion from the U.S. Treasury. The question of whether it was worth it all …

Gingrich Slides In Iowa And National Polls

The Republican love affair with Newt Gingrich seems to subsiding.

…as Republican contenders hit the final stretch before the Iowa caucuses, polls in the state show Gingrich with a much less commanding lead than earlier this month.

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Family Values Republican Mayor Bills Gay Sex Shop Purchase To Taxpayers

Southhaven, Mississippi Mayor Greg Davis spent $67 at Priape, known as “Canada’s premiere gay lifestyle store and sex shop.”

Davis declined to comment on the expenses, saying his attorney had told him not to talk.

“I can’t say anything,” Davis told the AP on Friday.

The 45-year-old mayor told The Commercial Appeal he doesn’t remember what he bought at the sex shop, which he visited on a recruitment trip with warehouse developers.

Davis, who divorced this year, told The Commercial Appeal on Thursday that he is gay. It was the first time he had said so publicly.

But what …

Netanyahu Refuses To Write Op-Ed For New York Times

The Israeli prime minister says the New York Times is too anti-Israel and so he won’t write an opinion article.

The unusual public refusal appears to reflect the hardline Israeli government’s increasingly prickly relations with much of the outside world.

In a letter to the Times published in The Jerusalem Post website, Netanyahu adviser Ron Dermer says the prime minister decided to “respectfully decline” penning an opinion piece. He says past op-ed articles in the Times have “vilified” Israel and “constantly distort the positions of our government.”

If you think the New York Times doesn’t present enough of your …