Reading Material

Laura links to an interesting article in the New Yorker by Malcolm Gladwell on demographics, dependency ratios and their impacts on national growth rates, the optimal way of delivering social programs and the real source of some of GM's self-inflicted (a long time ago) problems.

Meanwhile, the aforementioned John Rogers links to an interesting article by General Wesley Clark on the strategy the U.S. should adopt in the Middle East. His conclusions are similar to the ones I came to in my post on the topic, but his article is a whole lot better written and coming from a much more credible source so it's definitely worth a read.

Finally, on a shorter note, the Canadian Cynic compares the Republican Party's concern for the welfare of war veterans with it's concern for the Paris Hilton's of the world. Not that it's news that the Republican party only cares about the rich (except to the poor bastards who keep voting for them, I suppose), but even after all they've done, it can still be a little shocking to see their sheer disregard for the welfare of their fellow citizens thrown into such sharp relief.