Thousands of TWEETS, Posts, Articles, Pages, chapters, Notes, Diagrams, drafts, sketches and Quotes from 2009 to present
The Difference Between The Liberal And Conservative Mind?
From Education And Its Discontents About three years ago, a scientific study was undertaken to examine some of the differences between the conservative and the liberal mind. One of the conclusions emerging from the study was that liberal people tend to be able to handle ambiguity and nuance better than conservative people, processing new information…
Egalitarianism (Insurance) vs. Status Seeking (Access To Mates)
Egalitarianism is an attempt to either: a) obtain status by redistributing status to others b) obtain status at a discount, largely so that we have access to and opportunity for better mates and other opportunities for either status, stimulation (learning, experiences), or material gain. c) As a sentiment, its function is to maintain group strength…
Paul Krugman Says “No” To Responses To Critics. I Explain The Consequences
Would I Please Respond? I get a lot of comments along the lines of “Would you please respond to the criticism of your work in ______?” Um, no. Do you have any idea how many articles there are out there attacking me? I literally don’t have the time to respond to them all, or even…
Secret Wars? Sure. They’re Cheaper. (And more effective.)
Secret Assault on Terrorism Widens on Two Continents By SCOTT SHANE, MARK MAZZETTI and ROBERT F. WORTH The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/15/world/15shadowwar.html In roughly a dozen countries — from the deserts of North Africa, to the mountains of Pakistan, to former Soviet republics crippled by ethnic and religious strife — the United States has significantly…
Exasperation: Trading Miracles for Probabilism
A long day of reading. A long day of studying college course curricula from a dozen large universities. A long day of discovering that far too many feign scientific methods, and deliver theology. (No, really.) The university has become a vehicle for tradesmen. It is almost impossible to obtain a meaningful education. And worse, that…
Ground Zero Mosque. No. Never.
Let me say this in public. Openly. With conviction. “Over…. My…. Dead…. Body….” Let me promise any and all that I mean that statement. I’ll die to prevent it. Period.
The Properties Of Political Argument
[table id=2 /] NOTES Forms Of Argument a) Our Republican political system is a trade of violence for argument. Argument, consent, and majority-voting are proxies for violence. These proxies for violence were the result of the need for expensively equipped warriors to resolve disputes among a military class of necessarily meritocratic warriors, and to enfranchise…
Is Economics Ideological By Nature? (Yes and No.)
The Curious Capitalist at Time Magazine posts: “Is economics ideological by nature?” by Barbara Kiviat It’s easy to rag on economics as not being a “real” science, and I try not to do things that are too easy. But in recent weeks I’ve really started to wonder. It is fascinating, and frightening, to me that…
“It’s So . . . Complex?” Not Really.
MEGAN MCARDLE at the Atlantic, posted an essay question by Pascal Emmanuel-Gobry. Complex societies collapse because, when some stress comes, those societies have become too inflexible to respond. In retrospect, this can seem mystifying. Why didn’t these societies just re-tool in less complex ways? The answer Tainter gives is the simplest one: When societies fail…
It’s Not A Privacy Issue: The Economics Of Tracking : Correcting The WSJ’s Sale Of Fear Uncertainty And Doubt:
From the WSJ: The Wall Street Journal conducted a comprehensive study that assesses and analyzes the broad array of cookies and other surveillance technology that companies are deploying on Internet users. It reveals that the tracking of consumers has grown both far more pervasive and far more intrusive than is realized by all but a…
Updating English Spelling? Not so fast, maybe.
For some reason, Joseph Fouche from The Committee On Public Safety found a proposal on revising English Spelling interesting enough to write about. He lifts this example: It woz in the ferst dae ov the nue yeer that the anounsment woz maed, aulmoest simultaeneusli from three obzervatoris, that the moeshen ov the planet Neptune, the…
The Dystopian Future Of Cities – Concrete And Rubble VS Star Trek
As I spend more of my time trying to understand the different ways by which the USA will degenerate from its position of trade-empire, I have been working on the future of cities, which will even more dominantly influence the future culturally, morally, economically and politically. There is a healthy literature on it. And it’s…
Losing The Habit: We Will Not Return To The Consumer Economy.
Loved this little paragraph today on “extend and pretend”. Although I can’t remember where I found it. The government has been playing “extend-and-pretend” based entirely on the idea that pent up demand in consumers would grow until it busted out and the recovery would be on – [a recovery] fueled by consumers. What has happened…
All Costs Are Opportunity Costs. Projections Do Not Include The Alternatives.
This article by a local democratic group led me to this CBPP article, which is a response to a paper by the Heritage foundation. Some critics continue to assert that President George W. Bush’s policies bear little responsibility for the deficits the nation faces over the coming decade — that, instead, the new policies of…
Krugman Watch: Barking Up The Wrong Tree
Paul Krugman writes, in Permanently High Unemployment I really don’t think people appreciate the huge dangers posed by a weak response to 9 1/2 percent unemployment, and the highest rate of long-term unemployment ever recorded Paul, You will not get consensus on general liquidity (unbridled credit). You will not get consensus on government spending (expansion…
“What do you think about China?” I Think You Are Confused About The Virtues Of Political Systems
Kenneth V. asks: I’m curious about your opinion on China’s future. As the democratic empire collapses in the west and power shifts its balance, do you think that the Chinese people will demand more political freedom, especially since libertarian books are bestsellers? Or do you think the oligarchy will be successful in suppressing dissent? What…
Review: War by Sebastian Junger
A work of personal experience by a reporter cohabitating with soldiers in Afghanistan. A work that states the patently obvious. At least, patently obvious to anyone with testosterone: That men fight for the men beside them. That the bond between soldiers is the greatest emotional bond that men can experience. That the platoon is approximately…
The Obama “Small Business” Speech Impediment?
I’m watching Obama talk about the new small business jobs bill on the news. And I”m struck by the observation that he has a really hard time saying ‘small business’. While any phrase with the world ‘government’ in it, simply rolls comfortably off his tongue. Freudian. Absolutely Freudian.
High Unemployment, or Normal Employment? It Depends On The Scope Of History You’re Considering.
Over on Questions and Observations, Bruce McQuain questions whether we’re having another “Great Depression” or just a very slow recovery. An unnamed visitor pointed to a graphic from The Atlantic and commented: “The median duration of unemployment is higher today than any time in the last 50 years. That’s an understatement. It is more than…
Straight Dope: Would Communal Ownership Result In Fewer Oil Spills?
No. But increased liability would. I found the Straight Dope forums and they’re full of fairly good libertarian thinking. So I’m going to add them to my crawler’s roundtable. This is the second or third posting I”ve made there. And in it I’m making a bold claim in response to this statement: And I think…
