Lindsay

This awful past has resonated deeply with me for months as I have watched the unfolding of the conflict between Israel and Hamas and the outrageous toll that it has taken on civilians on both sides—first against Israelis, and then in vastly larger numbers against Palestinians. Dower argues, I believe convincingly, that one only arrives at a state o... See more

Much of ‘the evidence’ is crap! You can safely ignore it! A garbage study is always more garbage than study. Even good studies can be turned into garbage by the garbage practices of everyone else. If I wanted to be extreme: no matter how well you design your study, and how carefully you document your data choices and how carefully you design your e... See more

stubborn ounces :: bonaro w. overstreet

(To One Who Doubts the Worth of

Doing Anything If You Can’t Do Everything)

You say the Little efforts that I make

will do no good: they never will prevail

to tip the hovering scale

where Justice hangs in balance.

I don’t think I ever thought they would.

But I am prejudiced beyond debate

in favor of my right to choo... See more

Atrocities tend to rhyme.

More than half a million Germans migrated to the United States in the two decades before the rise of the Third Reich, largely for economic reasons. It would be absurd to claim they were morally superior to those who stayed and participated in the Nazi regime. They were simply spared the moral test that so many of their compatriots, whether through ... See more

Discretion is disallowed because of a belief that deviation from a plan is necessarily a distortion. Impartiality is guaranteed by perfect system design, i.e., only the wisdom and impartiality of the system designer can be trusted. But few, if any, contexts are simple, uniform and controllable, which are the preconditions for allowing strict preset... See more

In 1980, the richest one-hundredth of 1 percent of Americans provided 10 percent of all donations to federal elections. By 2012, they provided 40 percent.

These are problems that can only be solved by policymakers (including program managers working for donors, IFIs, and philanthropies) reclaiming their roles as bridges between rigorous academic research and policy formulation and implementation. That means internalizing the fact that the craft of policymaking is both an art and a science. Socio-hist... See more