Links, 12-6-11

*David Brooks writes about Cass Sunstein, "the wonky liberal" (and co-author of Nudge) and his work administering the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, which calculates the degree to which new regulations will help and hurt economic and social causes.

This office, under Sunstein, is incredibly wonky. It is composed of career number-crunchers of no known ideological bent who try to measure the trade-offs inherent in regulatory action. Deciding among these trade-offs involves relying on both values and data. This office has tried to elevate the role of data so that every close call is not just a matter of pleasing the right ideological army.

He concludes that "Obama’s regulations may be more intrusive than some of us would like. They are not tanking the economy."

*Paul Krugman dissects the Republican primary race, arguing that " There are only two ways to make the cut: to be totally cynical or totally clueless."  He says the reason Romney has so far failed to take control of the race is:

Mr. Romney’s strategy, in short, is to pretend that he shares the ignorance and misconceptions of the Republican base. He isn’t a stupid man — but he seems to play one on TV. Unfortunately from his point of view, however, his acting skills leave something to be desired, and his insincerity shines through. So the base still hungers for someone who really, truly believes what every candidate for the party’s nomination must pretend to believe. Yet as I said, the only way to actually believe the modern G.O.P. catechism is to be completely clueless.

Krugman worries about the potential of the nominee because, he says, "the fact that the party is committed to demonstrably false beliefs means that only fakers or the befuddled can get through the selection process."

*A new study finds a large jump in worldwide carbon emissions in 2010

*The unemployment rate dropped to 8.6% last week, but mostly because people stopped looking for work

*Conservative Frederick Hess and liberal Linda Darling-Hammond, two of the leading experts on education policy, have co-authored an op-ed articulating the four things the federal government should do to/for schools when NCLB is reauthorized

*According to a new report, Tennessee's obesity rate dropped from 32.8% to 31.7% in the past year, dropping us from 3rd to 9th in the country.  The nation's obesity rate, though, increased from 26.9% to 27.5% (lots of stats here).

*Here's an article relevant to tomorrow's presentation on women at war