Newsletter 1 November 2023: AI regulation fail; Scholastic reversal; blocking deep fakes

Newsletter 1 November 2023: AI regulation fail; Scholastic reversal; blocking deep fakes

Newsletter Week 16: The president’s executive order on AI is incoherent, plus Scholastic ends its book ghetto, attempting to outlaw image theft, three people to follow, three books to read, and my book makes the Inc. Non-Obvious longlist. What’s wrong with Joe Biden’s AI executive order Two weeks ago, I complained that Marc Andreessen’s “Tech-Optimist…

Unity, compromise, and politics

Unity, compromise, and politics

Joe Biden mentioned unity nine times in his inauguration speech yesterday. Then he signed 17 executive orders undoing actions of President Trump. Is this unity? Representative Liz Cheney doesn’t think so. “We face significant challenges that require bipartisan responses,” she wrote in a statement. “Today’s Executive Orders reverse important policies and impose significant economic cost…

Priorities for Democrats

Priorities for Democrats

What should be the work of government for the next two years? It’s clear from last night’s results in Georgia that the Democrats, having flipped two more Senate seats, will have a slim majority (50/50, with Vice President Kamala Harris breaking ties). It’s also clear that despite the protests of the president and a dozen…

What it really means when the Journal asks Jill Biden to drop the “Dr.”

What it really means when the Journal asks Jill Biden to drop the “Dr.”

On the Wall Street Journal’s editorial page, Joseph Epstein published an op-ed advising first lady Jill Biden — who has a doctorate in education — to drop the “Dr.” in her name. It’s dumb, sexist, and an insult to anyone who’s ever earned a university doctorate. Dissecting Epstein’s screed Here’s what’s in the op-ed —…

The power of calm writing in a frantic world
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The power of calm writing in a frantic world

I chose to spend five weeks writing about politics leading up the election, in a collection of posts I called “The Rationalist Papers.” The posts succeeded in their goals. Now that the stress and excitement of the election is (mostly) behind us, I’ll take you inside what happened and why it worked — and what…

The GSA Emily Murphy transition letter is a study in conflicted language

The GSA Emily Murphy transition letter is a study in conflicted language

Weeks after the networks declared the presidential election for Joe Biden, the administrator of the US General Services Administration made the decision to release congressionally appropriated resources and cash to fund the Biden transition team. This required her to take two contradictory positions at once: that Biden won, and that Trump had not yet lost….

The Rationalist Papers (30): Harden your heart
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The Rationalist Papers (30): Harden your heart

Only the tough survive. It’s time to get tough, America. At its core, that’s the argument for Donald Trump in this election. What’s the alternative? Bleeding-heart liberalism that wants to take what you have and give it to people who don’t deserve it. Sympathy is weakness. To keep America great, you need to harden your…

The Rationalist Papers (29): The story of Joe Biden and Lt. Peter F. Morrison Jr.
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The Rationalist Papers (29): The story of Joe Biden and Lt. Peter F. Morrison Jr.

Here’s a Biden story I bet you’ve never heard. Joe Biden was US Senator from Delaware starting in 1973. Pretty much from the start of his term, he took the Amtrak train from his home in Delaware to his office in Washington every day. Around 1980, he began to notice a woman who took the…