Romney, Quo Vadis?

Mitt Romney (DonkeyHotey/flickr)

I’d prefer not to spend too much time on the Republican primaries for the U.S. presidential elections, or on the U.S. presidential elections in general for that matter. Any self-respecting supermarket chain would be losing customers, not to say on its way to bankruptcy, if its products were limited to two mediocre brands neither of which are able to offer what they promise. Even though that’s what the presidential elections have been about for years, or maybe especially because these elections have become devoid of any fundamental debate, the Republican primaries at least have succeeded this year in being of great entertainment value like a TV reality show. Rarely have we seen a bunch of political leaders who say....

Author Jonathan Franzen: "eBooks are a Threat to Society"

(goXunuReviews/Flickr)

A few years ago, after the dotcom boom and the splurge of new digital entertainment gadgets, pundits started speaking of the upcoming death of the book. More recently, as eBooks finally seem to take off, eBooks are seen by some as the possible savior of reading. Everyone has been reading about the Kindle and its seemingly endless incarnations, Barnes and Noble’s Nook, and the astonishing success of the iPad. If we look at total U.S. trade book sales (which include the popular categories of fiction and non-fiction in print, audio and eBook formats), then we can see these increased slightly, 6%, between 2008 and 2010 from $13.1 billion to $ 13.9 billion. eBook sales, however, as part of this total grew an extraordinary 1,300% from $62 million to $864 million!So, there is no denying that eBooks are changing the book industry. Experts and readers differ strongly about what kind of change and how positive this eBook-caused change is.American novelist Jonathan Franzen recently has spoken out against eBooks as damaging society and corroding its values. He was quoted in the British Telegraph as saying:..................

Spinoza's Vision of Freedom

In a recent, op-ed article in The New York Times, Steven Nadler, professor of philosophy at the University of Wisconsin- Madison, writes about the enduring importance of  Baruch Spinoza, the 17th-century Dutch thinker. 

"He was an eloquent proponent of a secular, democratic society, and was the strongest advocate for freedom and tolerance in the early modern period. The ultimate goal of his “Theological-Political Treatise” — published anonymously to great alarm in 1670, when it was called by one of its many critics “a book forged in hell by the devil himself”— is enshrined both in the book’s subtitle and in the argument of its final chapter: to show that the “freedom of philosophizing” not only can be granted “without detriment to public peace, to piety, and to the right of the sovereign, but also that it must be granted if these are to be preserved.”

Nadler then continues about Spinoza's views on freedom of expression:

Obama, Hostile to Business?

President Obama
(photo by Jurvetson/flickr)

Last week I was watching the Kudlow Report, a daily TV program on politics, business and investing on CNBC, hosted by Larry Kudlow, a former economist in the Reagan administration. For those not familiar with CNBC, it’s generally skewed towards Wall Street and as far as mr. Kudlow goes, he seems a nice guy who speaks eloquently and passionately about the importance of free markets, while conveniently favoring Republican viewpoints. Kudlow's guest was Bob Lutz, a former senior executive at several car companies, including President of Chrysler in the eighties and nineties and Vice Chairman of General Motors from 2001 to 2010. In other words an accomplished businessman with wide experience in one of the key industries in the U.S. Kudlow asked him  whether Mitt Romney, as U.S. President, would be good for business. Lutz’s response was: