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John Roberts was confirmed today as the 17th Chief Justice of the United States. At 50 he is the second youngest Chief Justice in history. The handy majority of votes (78-22) in his favor is a tribute to his integrity and to some of the most impressive judicial credentials for a nominee in recent times. Under those circumstances, only some of the most die-hard left ideologues were still willing to vote against him. Unfortunately for Democrats most of those ideologues are also "stars" of Democratic party: John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, Evan Bayh, Barack Obama, Edward Kennedy, Harry Reid. For the most of them, this seems to have been an opportunity to score some cheap points with their base in a run-up to to presidential elections of 2008 and beyond.

Posted by Bojan Tunguz at 12:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

It seems that Summer is finally drawing to a close. Today's been a beautiful yet slightly crisp day. It's the kind of weather that I really like. Unfortunately, this kind of weather doesn't last for too long in this part of country, giving it extra urgency to be enjoyed to the fullest.

Posted by Bojan Tunguz at 02:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Ever since Sharmin moved to Indiana, I've been driving a lot between Urbana and Greencastle. It's about hundred miles each way, and it takes me up to an hour and forty minutes to get there. For about seventy miles I drive on I-74, and since Indiana has recently changed to 70 mph speed limit, that part of my trip goes by pretty quickly. The rest of my trip is along US-231, and since it's only a one lane highway, my speed is largely determined by who do I get stuck behind. On a good day there is very little traffic, so I can zip by pretty quickly. Otherwise, I can get stuck behind and ox cart, and then all I can do is twiddle my thumbs and enjoy the scenery.

The scenery is actually the best part of the whole trip. 231 passes through some really picturesque, postcard-perfect areas. The landscape is filled with rolling hills, farmhouses and small towns. It's all very pretty and makes my journey that much more enjoyable.

Posted by Bojan Tunguz at 11:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

It's been a mixed weekend for Croatian sport. We lost in the quarterfinals of the European Basketball Championship, albeit primarily due to atrocious refereeing, most likely with some fishy political background.

The tennis players managed to bring back some good cheer with their amazing victory in the semi-finals of Davis Cup. The victory was secured once again by Ivan Ljubičić, who has won all of his Davis cup matches this year. Croatia will face Slovakia in the finals which will be played later on this year.

Posted by Bojan Tunguz at 07:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Within days of the disaster brought by hurricane Katrina, it became obvious that majority of people who were affected the worst, primarily in New Orleans, were not getting help nearly as fast as they needed to. This in turn initiated salvos of finger-pointing, blame-finding, and other time honored practices valued by both the armchair and real politicians. The votes are finally in: its all governments fault. What a shocker! The only difference is the relative amount of responsibility that people are willing to assign to local, state and federal government.

That is all fine. There would be no point in having a government that is not capable to protect its citizens from major disasters. However, one should then also accept some form of governmental control and restrictions on housing market, especially in disaster prone areas. Government should be able to forbid people from settling and living in particularly dangerous areas. Otherwise, continuous reconstruction aid to those areas will only help fuel unrealistic housing bubbles. It would help a lot of short-term real estate speculators become rich, but it will not make anyone safer or better off in a long run.

Posted by Bojan Tunguz at 05:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It seems that some of my fans have been disappointed with the lack of controversy that surrounds my first day of blogging, so I guess I'll have to put some red meat.

I've been following the live hearings of John Roberts, and I have been impressed by his handling of many controversial judicial bombs that heave been lobed at him. He's been exhibiting a great deal of finesse without betraying a lack of substance behind his positions. It will be very hard for anyone to characterize him as an ideologue.

I don't expect there to be much opposition to his confirmation. This is especially true now that he's been nominated to replace William Rehnquist. It will be interesting to see who is Bush going to nominate now to replace Sandra Day O'Connor. If he chooses someone with an impeccable conservative record, that could shape up to be a battle royal of the upcoming Senate session.

Posted by Bojan Tunguz at 02:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Although I did not intend to do so, I stayed at work for almost ten hours today. Besides teaching and my own research work, I finally installed blogging features both here and on naboj. It took some time to tweak both blogs so they mesh more or less evenly with those two sites. I am especially looking forward to posting comments about interesting sci/tech news on naboj blog.

Posted by Bojan Tunguz at 06:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Here I go - finally decided to add a blog to my homepage. Right now I am just experimenting with it, but hopefully I will be posting interesting stuff soon. Keep on checking!

Posted by Bojan Tunguz at 01:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)