Re: Is this good journalism? No, this is a great rant, that I happen to think is true.

A cogent criticism of widespread, but unexamined, central themes in societal goals: the importance of self versus the importance of contributing to society.

Very interesting legal case requiring *technological* common sense, which is surprisingly lacking sometimes.

So how come nobody reported the Transportation Dept's report when it came out? (asked rhetorically)

The paragraph on how failure equates to a lack of discipline really does get to the "losing is for losers and they deserve it" mentality of the conservatives. Very insightful.

This article gets it mostly wrong by concentrating on a long known to be insecure technology and then making an incomplete statement (but scary) about the current state of wireless password hacking. If you have a long (8+ character) password that doesn't use words from a dictionary, common names, or routine abbreviations with the new WPA wireless encryption protocol, then you're still very secure. See "NY TImes Wrong about WPA Cracking" at: http://wifinetnews.com/archives/2011/02/ny_times_wrong_about_wpa_cracking.html

I think the point it makes is reasonable, but I think there are better ways of making the point.

A review of dysfunctional financial system in the US, how it's responsible for the recent recession, and how the problem may repeat since the system isn't getting fixed.

This sounds wonderful, but it hasn't been submitted to a big name journal yet for publication and peer review. Exceptional claims require exceptional proof.

This is covering financial regulation failures that should be one of the most important stories of the year, but which isn't getting much coverage.

A technical note, the pay freeze is actually a cost of living freeze. Automatic seniority-based pay increases (in step promotions) would still result in pay increases. Given that the Fed is dumping billions into the economy to prevent deflation, maybe a cost-of-living freeze isn't that big a concession.

An interesting article, but there are lots of other solutions on the table the author didn't talk about. For example, there are several 1st choice/2nd choice voting schemes that permit people to vote for candidates they like, rather than for candidates they think will win. Likewise, the current primary system produces only candidates who cater to the extremes. Would open primaries be another solution? The Brookings Fellow is quoted as saying "I’ve spent a lot of time thinking and doing research on this problem", but there are no references that might provide details about she came to her "radical" solution. Lastly, maybe the partisanship in politics represents real divisions in the popular opinion? Although one ... More »

Clearly a story about a very important issue. But the article doesn't get to the essential question. It says there number of DC properties that could go into foreclosure constitutes an "11-month supply". But not included in the calculation are how many homes are significantly underwater. Hope it's not another 12 months worth.

The first several paragraphs are basically repetitions of each other.

An opinion piece that's so depressingly insightful, nobody will want to read it, thus proving it's point. Oh well. But Mr Weisberg doesn't discuss whether this is new to US politics (except for post-WWII, it's actually the norm) and why it's happening now (eg., declining industrial base gutting the heartland, etc)