tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88241882012-01-22T09:39:53.423-08:00For open borders, freedom from tyranny, solidarity with the world's less fortunate, and a humble but incorruptible devotion to truth.Nathanaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07207539771295416417noreply@blogger.comBlogger5811100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-90382617880462025622007-02-18T13:14:00.000-08:002007-02-18T13:18:05.256-08:00

New blog home: http://freethinker.typepad.com

Nathanaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07207539771295416417noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-6525192134556201612007-02-11T20:27:00.000-08:002007-02-10T14:56:28.594-08:00

I read this interesting tidbit about job-hunting the other day:Bad Rule No. 7: Clean up your online identityStop stressing about the stupid stuff you posted when you were drunk (or worse, not drunk). It's out of your control.Instead, build a more current online identity that will pop up highest when an employer or recruiter does an online background check (which about 70 percent do). One way to

Nathanaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07207539771295416417noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-78276490998019219032007-02-07T13:48:00.000-08:002007-02-07T16:41:38.844-08:00

My argument about mind-brain supervenience set off a huge discussion in the comments. It's times like this that I feel like I really learn something from blogging. One thing is that I'm more and more convinced of my original claim, that is, of the necessity of agnosticism about mind-brain supervenience. With all due respect to my interlocutors, they're somewhat at a loss here. Either they

Nathanaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07207539771295416417noreply@blogger.com26tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-61796190112645564232007-02-07T11:14:00.000-08:002007-02-07T11:15:59.818-08:00

I wonder how much I would make if I applied for this job. I'm qualified... Hmm. The downside of the land of opportunity: so many roads not taken.

Nathanaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07207539771295416417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-80881562360989568892007-02-06T15:18:00.000-08:002007-02-06T15:26:49.693-08:00

In Public View, Saudis Counter Iran in Region:With the prospect of three civil wars looming over the Middle East — and Iran poised to gain from them all — Saudi Arabia has abandoned its behind-the-scenes checkbook diplomacy and taken on a central, aggressive role in reshaping the region’s conflicts. On Tuesday, the kingdom is playing host in Mecca to the leaders of Hamas and Fatah, the two

Nathanaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07207539771295416417noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-49336876797156583222007-02-05T08:47:00.000-08:002007-02-05T08:55:55.335-08:00

McCain Blasts Iraq Resolution (Newsday).Meanwhile, Iraqis are blaming the US for not getting the surge started fast enough:A growing number of Iraqis are saying that the United States is to blame for creating conditions that led to the worst single suicide bombing in the war, which devastated a Shiite market in Baghdad on Saturday. They argued that the Americans had been slow in completing the

Nathanaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07207539771295416417noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-28608843611257692012007-02-05T05:52:00.000-08:002007-02-05T06:39:28.790-08:00

In response to an extended discussion on philosophy of mind in the comments a previous post...Commenter froclown presents a good analogy for the physicalist view of the relationship between the mind and the brain: the brain is like a DVD, whose contents (e.g. Darth Vader) cannot be readily discerned from its physical form, but which nonetheless is ontologically reducible to its micro-physical

Nathanaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07207539771295416417noreply@blogger.com44tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-5847471410080461522007-02-04T15:59:00.000-08:002007-02-05T08:47:28.970-08:00

Francis Fukuyama is right that Americans are unduly pessimistic. But he underestimates bin Laden:[T]here is good reason to think that we have consistently overestimated threats to stability since 9/11 and that it is our reaction to this overestimation that has created special dangers. At the time of the Sept. 11 attacks, there were probably no more than a few dozen people in the world with the

Nathanaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07207539771295416417noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-5201901708722016022007-02-03T19:20:00.000-08:002007-02-03T20:55:45.605-08:00

David Warren of the Ottawa Citizen is a bracing columnist. An excerpt from Tribalism & Us:Here is the paradox: that we cannot afford to abandon Iraq, for the very reason that things are so bad there. Were the Americans and allies to step out now, it would certainly become the staging area for both Shia and Sunni violence on a larger scale -- directed not only inward against each other, but

Nathanaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07207539771295416417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-38387761225701046742007-02-02T14:30:00.000-08:002007-02-02T14:48:54.171-08:00

The world has fewer officially atheist states now than it did twenty years ago, when the Soviet Union and the communist powers of the Warsaw Pact were still in business. One of those still standing is China. But religion is getting stronger there at the grassroots level, and it is also gaining more acceptance from the regime. The Economist reports:The revival of the Black Dragon Temple's

Nathanaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07207539771295416417noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-33287406805358745992007-02-01T10:55:00.000-08:002007-02-01T11:19:58.366-08:00

A brave commenter, "froclown," challenges me on physicalism and the brain:If the information in your inner world is so private and unavailable to the public, not to mention as you say it's fundamentally non-physical, then how come it is possible to physically connect electrodes into your brain, and by use of a complex decoding program performed by a physical computer, the images in your mind's

Nathanaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07207539771295416417noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-92163621001324300692007-02-01T08:11:00.000-08:002007-02-01T08:31:37.977-08:00

A great post on evolution at Brothers Judd: THEY WOULDN'T EVEN HAVE 13% WITHOUT THE COERCION THE MONOPOLY PROVIDES. Brothers Judd often takes potshots at evolution, but this post is more substantive. They quote an article "Why Do We Evoke Darwin?" from a magazine called The Scientist: Magazine of the Life Sciences:Darwin's theory of evolution offers a sweeping explanation of the history of life

Nathanaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07207539771295416417noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-80420879460930187552007-01-31T10:21:00.000-08:002007-01-31T10:25:47.020-08:00

Nato writes in a comment thread:In Obama I see a man who seems to leave his attempts to balance between epistemic humility and the need for action out in the open. That is to say, his subtlety does not appear to just be an attempt to remain a cipher until it's clear which way the political winds blow.Perhaps I am projecting here, but I will say that onto no other recent candidates was I able to

Nathanaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07207539771295416417noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-30124410950204384032007-01-31T08:18:00.000-08:002007-01-31T08:30:37.840-08:00

From Iraqi blogger Hammorabi:Through out the history we read about revolutions at their induction, climax and decline. Almost all of these revolutions are based on mounting pressure by tyranny or a party in power. At the end a new state formed making certain correction yet not suitable for every one.The revolution of Imam Hussein is the only one which will never end and will remain active and

Nathanaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07207539771295416417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-28657593627133940292007-01-29T14:55:00.000-08:002007-01-29T15:00:48.397-08:00

Ralph Peters on the complexities of handling the Sunni-Shia divide:And now, in the worst American tradition, we're in danger of grabbing at short-term gains at an exorbitant strategic price: Defaulting to our old habit of backing hard-line regimes, we've dropped all pressure on the Saudis and Egyptians to reform their political systems. Want to recruit more terrorists for another 9/11? Give Sunni

Nathanaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07207539771295416417noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-77414377346316867752007-01-29T07:54:00.000-08:002007-01-29T08:06:18.226-08:00

A Guardian writer is worried about "power vacuum" in the US:And there, from afar, is the unique problem with an American presidential election race that has, for all practical purposes, started already. Many times past, you juggle the possibilities and see at least one firm peg to hang a few calculations on. After Clinton, Gore; after Reagan, daddy Bush; after Carter, Mondale. There was always a

Nathanaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07207539771295416417noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-62405566861574725362007-01-28T20:49:00.003-08:002007-01-28T22:14:00.885-08:00

The commend thread inspired more thoughts about epistemology...Tradition. If one takes the foundationalist view of epistemology-- that certain truths are "foundational," i.e. known a priori or directly from experience, while other true beliefs are discovered by deduction or induction from the foundational ones-- knowledge becomes possible in principle, but in practice the justification-chains

Nathanaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07207539771295416417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-58965704094247349782007-01-26T08:15:00.000-08:002007-01-26T11:16:53.024-08:00

Another dismissive, contemptuous review of Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion. (Hat tip: Brothers Judd.)Until recently, western atheism had waited patiently, believing that belief in God would simply die out. But now, a whiff of panic is evident. Far from dying out, belief in God has rebounded, and seems set to exercise still greater influence in both the public and private spheres. The God

Nathanaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07207539771295416417noreply@blogger.com30tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-11465990301794746312007-01-25T15:47:00.000-08:002007-01-25T16:27:11.929-08:00

Mickey Kaus argues that "comprehensive immigration reform" and the Iraq War are both "bold, decisive disasters":Bold, Decisive Disasters: The conventional view of Tuesday's State of the Union speech is this: Bush's invasion of Iraq has turned nightmarish. He got beat in the midterms. He's reacted by changing his approach on the domestic front--reaching across the aisle to make bipartisan,

Nathanaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07207539771295416417noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-66637392692767684072007-01-24T09:54:00.000-08:002007-01-24T09:58:00.465-08:00

My latest article at Tech Central Station:Last night, President Bush's State of the Union address and Senator James Webb's Democratic response provided a useful juxtaposition of views. Among other things, it showed how the parties' positions on poverty have changed. To wit, President Bush's proposals tend to target various aspects of what might be called absolute poverty. By contrast, Sen. Webb

Nathanaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07207539771295416417noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-61621023006598471162007-01-22T06:05:00.000-08:002007-01-22T06:07:18.463-08:00

UnAmerican:Imagine you've just given a year and a half of your life to serving your country in Iraq and come home to find that your pregnant wife and your toddler daughter have been forced to leave the United States, and now the government won't let them back in. You sit at home waiting, but no one can give you answers when or if they will be allowed to return. You wait five months, long enough

Nathanaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07207539771295416417noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-90938631295497916202007-01-19T11:12:00.000-08:002007-01-19T11:25:08.495-08:00

Writes historian John Judis:What exactly are we doing in the Horn of Africa, where we have encouraged the Christian government of Ethiopia to invade Somalia and replace its Islamic government? As far as I can tell, we have violated international law, committed war crimes, helped Al Qaeda recruit new members, and involved ourselves in a guerrilla war that could last decades. It's Iraq writ small.

Nathanaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07207539771295416417noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-457604388651864782007-01-18T13:02:00.000-08:002007-01-18T13:11:36.668-08:00

From Iraqi blogger Hammorabi:Tuesday the 16th January 2007 was another bloody day in Iraq. This time the bloodshed was of female students in Almostansiriyah University in Baghdad. The terrorists used the same barbaric strategy by using several and different types of blasts in the same time.More than 200 students have been killed and wounded after a suicidal attack and two car bombs. Most of the

Nathanaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07207539771295416417noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-84135057572729021432007-01-17T21:36:00.000-08:002007-01-17T22:00:25.560-08:00

Barak Obama, now Democratic candidate for president, has no executive experience and only two years of experience in national politics. George W. Bush would have benefited from having more experience before becoming president. He'd been governor of Texas for six years. And that was peacetime. But peacetime or wartime, Obama is just too inexperienced to belong in the White House.But a bigger

Nathanaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07207539771295416417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-68591481351810099292007-01-17T21:25:00.000-08:002007-01-17T21:36:36.216-08:00

One positive summary of the Democrats' "100 hours":Second, the House has now approved legislation directly addressing public concerns: raising the minimum wage, ethics reform, interest rate reductions on subsidized college loans and expanded federal support for stem cell research. It has put in place rule changes to promote fiscal responsibility and adopted recommendations from the 9/11

Nathanaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07207539771295416417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-64823722599955025452007-01-15T09:17:00.000-08:002007-01-15T09:59:29.050-08:00

"If," by Rudyard Kipling:If you can keep your head when all about youAre losing theirs and blaming it on you;If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,But make allowance for their doubting too:If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,Or being hated don't give way to hating,And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;If you can dream -- and not

Nathanaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07207539771295416417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-42207297259734234112007-01-15T08:18:00.000-08:002007-01-15T08:26:44.608-08:00

Dominique Moisi's thesis that "the world today faces not only a clash of civilizations but a clash of emotions as well[; the] West displays -- and is divided by -- a culture of fear, while the Arab and Muslim worlds are trapped in a culture of humiliation and much of Asia displays a culture of hope" is astute in some ways. Although I would say that "culture of fear" mainly describes Blue-State

Nathanaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07207539771295416417noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-53308036748143376132007-01-13T11:04:00.000-08:002007-01-13T11:48:07.903-08:00

Larry Kudlow reports that the markets seem to like Bush's Iraq plan:Amidst all the pessimism about the U.S. strategy-shift in Iraq, world financial markets seem to be voting for Bush and his plan -- not against. On the days immediately preceding the president's speech, as its contents were leaking out, oil prices were plunging and stock prices were rising. And right after the speech, when the

Nathanaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07207539771295416417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-84126995744514599492007-01-11T15:41:00.000-08:002007-01-11T16:19:35.151-08:00

Jonah Goldberg writes:Americans are torn between two irreconcilable positions on the Iraq war. Some want the war to be a success -- variously defined -- and some want the war to be over. Conservatives are basically, but not exclusively, in the "success" camp. Liberals (and those further to the left) are basically, but not exclusively, the "over" party.I'm one of the ones who wants the war to be

Nathanaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07207539771295416417noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-1258678845524214652007-01-10T05:51:00.000-08:002007-01-10T06:15:46.513-08:00

The Wall Street Journal speaks up in favor of the surge:President Bush is set to announce his new strategy for Iraq this week, and the early signs are that it will include both more American and Iraqi troops to improve security, especially in Baghdad. We think the American people will support the effort, as long as Mr. Bush treats this like the all-in proposition it deserves to be.If the stakes

Nathanaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07207539771295416417noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-2877307338390672892007-01-05T09:19:00.000-08:002007-01-05T09:26:54.898-08:00

Given that one of its authors, Edward Prescott, is a Nobel Prize-winning economist, you can't just dismiss this argument in favor of greater government debt out of hand. But this claim seems really goofy:Some naively think that government debt is a burden on the young. This is not the case since the welfare of the young and the government debt are both large in the efficient

Nathanaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07207539771295416417noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-69292923542663445012007-01-03T15:53:00.000-08:002007-01-03T16:21:25.306-08:00

Kurt Andersen writes:Populism has gotten a bad odor, and not just among plutocrats—for most of the political chattering class, it is at least faintly pejorative. But I think that’s about to change: When economic hope shrivels and the rich become cartoons of swinish privilege, why shouldn’t the middle class become populists? Why shouldn't the middle class become populists, you ask? Because the

Nathanaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07207539771295416417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-29905561407596839712007-01-03T06:24:00.000-08:002007-01-04T06:55:56.417-08:00

Bush addresses the new Congress, and the nation in the Wall Street Journal. Just a few words here about Iraq. The main focus is on the economy:America's priorities also include keeping our economy strong. The elections have not reversed the laws of economics. It is a fact that economies do best when you reward hard work by allowing people to keep more of what they have earned. And we have seen

Nathanaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07207539771295416417noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-91975766871534069702006-12-29T14:22:00.000-08:002006-12-29T14:40:09.237-08:00

I have generally been skeptical of Barack Obama because it seems that he doesn't take substantive positions on anything. But with this column, I guess Obama becomes (unless he was already) the most high-profile advocate of "phased redeployment" from Iraq:Now we are faced with a quagmire to which there are no good answers. But the one that makes very little sense is to put tens of thousands more

Nathanaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07207539771295416417noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-52588617481552085832006-12-29T12:30:00.000-08:002006-12-29T12:45:29.384-08:00

The death of Ronald Reagan in 2004 served to humiliate the Democrats in the midst of a crucial election year: an outpouring of eulogies to Reagan was a reminder that another "crusading," tax-cutting president, despised by liberals and the media at the time, with an embarrassingly binary view of good and evil, had been vindicated by history to the extent that even his erstwhile enemies dared not

Nathanaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07207539771295416417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-61746775582694683902006-12-26T08:49:00.000-08:002006-12-26T08:51:13.391-08:00

This is from the New York Times, not the most reliable source, but it sounds like good news:Counting on the support of the new Democratic majority in Congress, Democratic lawmakers and their Republican allies are working on measures that could place millions of illegal immigrants on a more direct path to citizenship than would a bill that the Senate passed in the spring.The lawmakers are

Nathanaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07207539771295416417noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-27140159337772810502006-12-21T10:49:00.000-08:002006-12-21T10:52:01.577-08:00

In an article entitled "Illegal Immigration: A Rich Americans' Game", From Harrup writes:Who doesn't suffer from illegal immigration? For starters, the people who write about it. I speak of the journalism profession, which has the habit of covering the issue by anecdotes. Reporters thrive on sympathetic stories about illegal immigrants who work hard and go to church.But, were a busload of

Nathanaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07207539771295416417noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-34278341077551330152006-12-19T06:49:00.000-08:002006-12-19T07:08:03.757-08:00

Paul Campos, who I'm ashamed to say is an old friend of my dad's, writes:Voltaire's epigram crossed my mind when I heard neo-conservative military strategist Frederick Kagan holding forth on National Public Radio, regarding his plan to send a "surge" of new combat troops to Iraq. The word in Washington is that Kagan's plan is much to President Bush's liking, and that the president is inclined to

Nathanaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07207539771295416417noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-30903435287757362402006-12-18T16:09:00.000-08:002006-12-18T16:16:49.860-08:00

Harry Reid is willing to support a troop surge in Iraq if it's "temporary." Arianna Huffington is livid, and insists that the mandate of Election '06 was for withdrawal. Trouble is, that's not so clear; Democrats let themselves make the "incompetence" argument as well, and part of the "incompetence" argument was that not enough troops were sent in the first place. So if Bush wants to right old

Nathanaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07207539771295416417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-16347721528266955862006-12-18T11:41:00.000-08:002006-12-18T11:52:42.720-08:00

We all know that Bush encountered a serious setback last month in the Congressional elections. Now Ahmadinejad is feeling the heat:With most of the results for local elections announced throughout the country, the president's allies have failed to win control of any council. With about 20% of the Tehran votes counted, Mr Ahmadinejad's supporters were said to be in a minority. Candidates

Nathanaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07207539771295416417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-43191933563343525452006-12-16T06:34:00.000-08:002006-12-16T11:31:44.271-08:00

In one respect, the way I've managed the discussion of philosophical themes on this blog may be a bit unfair. I've engaged in a sustained skeptical critique of materialism, naturalism, and Darwinism, as being based on inadequate evidence and groundless assumptions, and broadly at odds with experience. I have often mentioned, but never elaborated on or defended, my own Christian position, from

Nathanaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07207539771295416417noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-75935364350457202452006-12-15T12:56:00.000-08:002006-12-15T14:50:15.238-08:00

Ellen Goodman at the Seattle Times has the right idea:Now that the Iraq Study Group has handed in its term paper, now that we have stopped talking about "winning" and are waiting for the president to offer nothing new, may I suggest an exit strategy. Why not hold an election? Why not ask people to vote on whether American troops should stay or go?I'm not talking about an American election. After

Nathanaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07207539771295416417noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-10814395440272817942006-12-14T06:55:00.000-08:002006-12-14T07:14:40.881-08:00

Robert Samuelson writes:With hindsight, we may see 2006 as the end of Pax Americana. Ever since World War II, the United States has used its military and economic superiority to promote a stable world order that has, on the whole, kept the peace and spread prosperity. But the United States increasingly lacks both the power and the will to play this role. It isn't just Iraq, though Iraq has been

Nathanaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07207539771295416417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-55101274595611155652006-12-13T11:12:00.000-08:002006-12-13T11:17:23.590-08:00

Tom writes in the comments:The universe cannot disobey logic. You may call that a "faith-proposition" if you like, though I will call it an axiom. Since the universe obeys logic, induction necessarily follows. It's no more complicated than that.No, no, no, no, NO. Induction does not follow from mere logic. No matter how many times you flip the coin and it comes up heads, that does not logically

Nathanaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07207539771295416417noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-42492052599972683392006-12-12T06:23:00.000-08:002006-12-12T07:27:30.323-08:00

Pat Buchanan calls the Iraq War "the worst strategic blunder in U.S. history." As usual, he offers not the slightest shred of argument for the claim. He doesn't compare the Iraq War to past "strategic blunders" and explain why it is worse. He doesn't explain why the Iraq War was a strategic blunder. He doesn't even pretend to.From the liberal/internationalist point of view, the rising

Nathanaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07207539771295416417noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-35145019714884035942006-12-11T15:33:00.000-08:002006-12-11T15:47:13.599-08:00

Nato writes:[W]e can sidestep Humean circularity if we cease throwing modal logic at the problem in the hopes that we'll somehow arrive at some granule of non-contingent empiricism. We don't need it. All we need to show to justify empirical belief is that the "inductive" approach is objectively (not merely intersubjectively ["we all do it"]) privileged.Hmm. Finding an objective basis for

Nathanaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07207539771295416417noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-49433253760192090602006-12-11T09:43:00.000-08:002006-12-11T12:37:19.269-08:00

One commenter, upon reading the last post, calls my position "skeptical reductionism." Actually, I end up agreeing with the general rejection of skepticism. But I do take it as a premise that Humean skepticism about induction is unanswerable in strictly logical/rational terms. One cannot refute the induction-skeptic, but one can easily show that the induction-skeptic is inconsistent,

Nathanaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07207539771295416417noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-25945482821915412602006-12-09T06:59:00.000-08:002006-12-09T11:25:49.714-08:00

Nato writes:[D]efining all empirical knowledge as faith because it is always contingent is a great rhetorical success for those who want to demote naturalism, but like many such, it's a fickle victory. At some point, someone will notice that the relabeling doesn't invalidate Popper's central critique, and the new rubric would allow one to evaluate faith for how well justified it is in the same

Nathanaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07207539771295416417noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-54055125530337010132006-12-08T12:41:00.000-08:002006-12-08T13:17:45.856-08:00

Whoever gets a date with this girl is a lucky guy:You don't want any woman larger than a Size 4 - You don't want any breasts smaller than a 36C - You want her to have a career, but not be so focused on it that it takes attention away from YOU (otherwise she is a frigid, career-driven bitch) - You want her to be sexually adventurous and kinky, but not to have had an adventurous or kinky past (that

Nathanaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07207539771295416417noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-1165603335068646622006-12-08T10:29:00.000-08:002006-12-08T11:44:05.249-08:00

Econlog blogger (and GMU prof) Bryan Caplan writes:Last week I stumbled upon a little gem outside of Larry Iannaccone's office: a chapter by Rodney Stark and Alan Miller on the religious gender gap. Long story short: Women are more religious than men by virtually every measure in virtually every culture.But the fun doesn't stop there. Once people admit that this gender gap exists, the most

Lancelothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16027791044534209279noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-1165600271901547452006-12-08T09:35:00.000-08:002006-12-08T09:51:11.933-08:00

Robert Kagan approves of the Iraq Study Group report. But Iraqis seem skeptical:Amid growing Iraqi criticism of the findings of the Baker-Hamilton commission, senior government figures yesterday expressed bewilderment at a proposal to take the police force out of the hands of the interior ministry and put it under the control of the ministry of defence.The report claimed the problems with Iraq's

Lancelothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16027791044534209279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-1165446436276455362006-12-06T14:40:00.000-08:002006-12-06T15:07:16.310-08:00

Nato offers an intriguing thought-experiment:I will definitely agree that the point of wanting gay marriage to be called marriage rather than union is precisely because gay people want it to be publicly treated like any other marriage rather than some alien mind-meld experiment resulting in similar legal consequences. I suppose it's separate but equal and all. Permit me a moment of hyperbole when

Lancelothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16027791044534209279noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-1165443066956390482006-12-06T14:00:00.000-08:002006-12-06T14:11:06.986-08:00

While I'm skeptical about whether liberal-libertarian fusionism can really happen, it would be great if liberals would follow some of Brink's policy advice.Allow me to hazard a few more specific suggestions about what a liberal-libertarian entente on economics might look like. Let's start with the comparatively easy stuff: farm subsidies and other corporate welfare. Progressive organizations like

Lancelothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16027791044534209279noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-1165347646359405882006-12-05T11:13:00.000-08:002006-12-05T11:40:46.393-08:00

Nato writes: I believe that the "official" libertarian heirarchy is: 1)remove government recognition of marriage qua marriage entirely or, failing that, 2)legalize all marriage arrangements or, failing that, 3)allow any two people to marry.That's logical! We oppose government recognition of marriage, but if we have to have it, let's have as much of it as possible! Imagine applying that to taxes

Lancelothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16027791044534209279noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-1165329677688629182006-12-05T06:24:00.000-08:002006-12-05T06:41:17.820-08:00

Brink Lindsey, a genuine Cato Institute libertarian, makes the case for liberal-libertarian fusionism in the New Republic. It's great to see this defense of Social Security reform in one of the bastions of reactionary leftism:Entitlement reform is probably the most difficult problem facing would-be fusionists. Here, libertarians' core commitments to personal responsibility and economy in

Lancelothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16027791044534209279noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-1165271300962173762006-12-04T14:21:00.000-08:002006-12-04T14:28:20.996-08:00

Economist Peter Orszag thinks we can learn from Scandinavia:The dramatic increases in economic instability demand our response. We can learn lessons from Europe. In the Nordic economies (such as Denmark), market flexibility and competition have been combined with social insurance schemes that protect family incomes but also encourage work. In the continental European countries (such as France and

Lancelothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16027791044534209279noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-1165265256143913522006-12-04T12:42:00.000-08:002006-12-04T12:47:36.176-08:00

Congress open to passing bill on immigration:Congress will approve an immigration bill that will grant citizenship rights to most of the 12 million to 20 million illegal aliens in the U.S. after Democrats take control next month, predict both sides on Capitol Hill. While Republicans have been largely splintered on the issue of immigration reform, Democrats have been fairly unified behind the

Lancelothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16027791044534209279noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-1165250846908187022006-12-04T08:29:00.000-08:002006-12-04T13:39:49.250-08:00

An extended debate on the merits of the Swedish economic model, which developed in the comments of this post, probably deserves a post of its own.One thing that is established is that US GDP per capita (in purchasing power parity terms) is 40% higher than in Sweden: the US is at about $42,000, Sweden, about $30,000. But what about growth rates. Nato chides me for persisting in the claim that

Lancelothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16027791044534209279noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-1165177097317603172006-12-03T12:09:00.000-08:002006-12-03T12:18:17.356-08:00

The Economist this week has a cartoon showing Bush in Iraq as a knight (Bush) fighting a dragon (with the word "IRAQ"). Bush is completely dismembered, and the dragon has his horse in its jaws. Bush's head, in a medieval helmet, is being approached by three men representing the Iraq Study Group. "What do you mean, 'My options are limited'?!" asks (the detached head of) Bush.Very funny, but

Lancelothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16027791044534209279noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-1165010157477102482006-12-01T13:43:00.000-08:002006-12-01T13:55:57.780-08:00

In the comments of my last post, there is an exchange between Nato, Tom Reasoner and I about whether "the iPod economy" (our increasing technical efficiency to reproduce design) will make part of the population unemployable. Nato fears so, Tom and I think not, but I argue that in any case: At worst, [the concentration of high-paying design-type tasks in an elite] could be ameliorated... by

Lancelothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16027791044534209279noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-1164934549018300412006-11-30T16:50:00.000-08:002006-11-30T16:55:49.063-08:00

My article at Tech Central Station, "The New Populism and the iPod Economy," takes on Senator-elect James Webb's populist manifesto in the Wall Street Journal. Among other things, I show that an evolution-skeptic can still find merit in the work of Daniel Dennett:Think of all work as occurring on two metaphysical planes: physical space and Design space. (The term "Design Space" is the

Lancelothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16027791044534209279noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-1164836871031599822006-11-29T13:41:00.000-08:002006-11-29T13:47:51.076-08:00

Moshen Rezai, secretary of Iran's "Expediency Council," is very happy with recent developments in the Middle East:"The kind of service that the Americans, with all their hatred, have done us," said Mr. Rezai, "no superpower has ever done anything similar. America destroyed all our enemies in the region. It destroyed the Taliban. It destroyed Saddam Hussein. ... It did all this in order to

Lancelothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16027791044534209279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-1164767673576950432006-11-28T18:26:00.000-08:002006-11-28T18:34:33.606-08:00

A couple of years ago I made the argument (on an obscure personal web page) that:When we departed in 1973, only Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos fell to communism. But what if we had departed ten years earlier, or never gotten involved? By 1973, there had been two crucial changes. First, Suharto had come to power in Indonesia, and massacred hundreds of thousands of communists, not only ending the

Lancelothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16027791044534209279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-1164663597067286762006-11-27T13:34:00.000-08:002006-11-27T14:11:10.376-08:00

A chilling, heart-breaking post from Iraq the Model:Some news were really bad though, my uncle called on Friday to tell me that he and his family of eight were being forced to leave their neighborhood.My Sunni uncle, his Shia wife and their children were told to leave because the head of the household is Sunni. His voice was filled with pain as he talked to me, I asked him who made the threat and

Lancelothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16027791044534209279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-1164641145821247502006-11-27T06:54:00.000-08:002006-11-27T07:25:45.856-08:00

Of all government activities above the basics of providing national security, law and order, and protection of property, subsidizing knowledge creation is one of the most defensible. Economists call knowledge a "non-rival" good, meaning that if one person knows something that doesn't exclude others from knowing it. Once knowledge has been created, it can be spread and used at a low marginal

Lancelothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16027791044534209279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-1164637512810645892006-11-27T06:15:00.000-08:002006-11-27T06:25:12.850-08:00

Gary Becker writes about the minimum wage:Controversy remains in the United States (and elsewhere) over the effects of the minimum wage mainly because past changes in the U.S. minimum wage have usually been too small to have large and easily detectable general effects on employment and unemployment. The effects of an increase to $7.25 per hour in the federal minimum wage that many Democrats in

Lancelothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16027791044534209279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-1164153506032846812006-11-21T15:45:00.000-08:002006-11-21T15:58:26.503-08:00

Recent events in Iraq reminded me of a blog post I once wrote while I was in the desperately poor sub-Saharan African nation of Malawi:"THEY'RE NOT READY FOR DEMOCRACY"This idea, that some peoples are just not ready for democracy, has a long history. It used to be a favorite notion of the old colonialists, who practiced liberal principles at home and, to justify not practicing them abroad, opined

Lancelothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16027791044534209279noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-1164147071020563782006-11-21T14:04:00.000-08:002006-11-21T15:42:47.386-08:00

Iraq the Model:Dialogue: Their way...Lebanese industry minister Pierre Gemayel was assassinated a few hours ago this afternoon…Prime ministers, MPs and journalists; all are targets for terrorist regimes if they dare show their opposition to Damascus or Tehran.The message is clear and loud, I just wonder how many more messages do we need before the world realizes that these murderous regimes are

Lancelothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16027791044534209279noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-1164137249940452572006-11-21T11:23:00.000-08:002006-11-21T11:27:29.970-08:00

Christopher Hitchens on James Baker:In 1991, for those who keep insisting on the importance of sending enough troops, there were half a million already-triumphant Allied soldiers on the scene. Iraq was stuffed with weapons of mass destruction, just waiting to be discovered by the inspectors of UNSCOM. The mass graves were fresh. The strength of sectarian militias was slight. The influence of Iran

Lancelothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16027791044534209279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-1164056093473403302006-11-20T12:31:00.000-08:002006-11-20T13:20:57.513-08:00

Is the impassioned Iraqi democrat advocating a coup here?Where do Iraqis stand from all the debate about Iraq's future, and how do they look at the expectations and recommendations being made these days?Iraqis are of course the most concerned and affected by the ongoing crisis but the continuous pressure and trauma made their vision so confused that they are drowned by the daily dangers and

Lancelothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16027791044534209279noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-1164033371997350552006-11-20T06:23:00.000-08:002006-11-20T06:36:12.030-08:00

Two accounts of the life of St. Job of Pochaev. Here's Wikipedia:In 1604, the monastic community was joined by Ivan Zalizo, a well-known champion of Eastern Orthodoxy and vocal critic of the Union of Brest. Formerly associated with the printing house of Prince Ostrogski, Zalizo established a press in Pochayiv in 1730, which supplied all of Galicia and Volhynia with theological literature. The

Lancelothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16027791044534209279noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-1163799984671073772006-11-17T13:42:00.000-08:002006-11-17T13:46:24.703-08:00

A surprising tribute to the late Milton Friedman from Bush-hating economist Brad DeLong. An interesting twist:Sometime empirical circumstances could win Friedman some unexpected allies. Left-wing Mayor Ken Livingstone's congestion tax on cars in central London is an idea straight out of Milton Friedman. Friedman's negative income tax is one of the parents of what is now America's largest

Lancelothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16027791044534209279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-1163784021122545872006-11-17T09:07:00.000-08:002006-11-17T09:20:23.143-08:00

There's a certain parallel between the firing of Rumsfeld after the election, and the victory of Steny Hoyer as Majority Whip for the Democrat-controlled House. Rumsfeld, the ultimate hawk in his public rhetoric, fell; now anti-war champion Jack Murtha, despite the backing of the new Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, has been rejected for the House leadership in favor of a candidate with more credibility

Lancelothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16027791044534209279noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-1163466023712341592006-11-13T16:55:00.000-08:002006-11-13T17:00:23.743-08:00

Iraqi blogger Zeyad has a long post of Iraqi blogger's reactions to Saddam's execution. The gratitude and joy at justice finally being done is visible in a lot of the posts, but there's also a lot of bitterness at the violence the country is suffering from now, and some don't think that Saddam's execution will do any good in practice.Saddam's execution could affect the incentives facing other

Lancelothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16027791044534209279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-1163051158970162362006-11-08T21:39:00.000-08:002006-11-08T21:45:59.000-08:00

Meanwhile, here's a tribute to the departing Secretary of Defense over at TCS:After returning from Iraq in 2003, I found myself preparing to leave active-duty in 2004. For some reason, I encountered several interesting articles about Donald Rumsfeld and came to be pretty impressed with the guy. I don't mean his leadership style, or his decisions or anything like that. I mean personality-wise.

Lancelothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16027791044534209279noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-1163048018975546692006-11-08T20:51:00.000-08:002006-11-08T20:53:39.003-08:00

Saddest thing I've read about the election:The bums, or at least many of them, have been thrown out. And so the political conversation turns naturally to the question of what the Democrats will do now that they again share power with a Republican president. And while it may be too soon to fully answer that question, we saw enough during the campaign to be alarmed about one tendency in particular:

Lancelothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16027791044534209279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-1163002102577847582006-11-08T08:02:00.000-08:002006-11-08T08:08:22.616-08:00

Here's a stupid take on the 2006 elections:"THE presidency of George W. Bush ended last night."No, actually, George W. Bush is still president. For two more years. It may be half-true that "the Democratic Party turned this election into a referendum on the president - and the president lost." But just because the Democrats ran against George W. Bush doesn't mean that people were voting against

Lancelothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16027791044534209279noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-1163000607418729272006-11-08T07:37:00.000-08:002006-11-08T07:43:27.460-08:00

My comment on the election: "Walls Are for Losers."Hugh Hewitt agrees: "The anti-illegal immigration absolutists got their heads handed to them."

Lancelothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16027791044534209279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-1162980754509583602006-11-08T02:08:00.000-08:002006-11-08T02:12:34.536-08:00

Nato writes:It seems to me that protectionists are all over the political map these days. Are there really that many more protectionist Democrats than protectionist GOP any more?Greg Mankiw is on the case:Some of my best friends are Democrats. They often like to think that their party is good for international trade."Remember NAFTA?," they tell me. "Clinton was a Democrat, and he pushed the

Lancelothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16027791044534209279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-1162963384669141072006-11-07T21:12:00.000-08:002006-11-07T21:23:04.696-08:00

So says Nancy Pelosi, probably the next House Speaker since the Dems seem to have taken the House. I'll agree to that! A Dem takeover of the house probably means that millions of people will get civil rights.Better yet, it looks like the Republicans will hold the Senate. Divided Congress. Cool!

Lancelothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16027791044534209279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-1162899627294227712006-11-07T03:24:00.000-08:002006-11-07T03:40:27.323-08:00

Michael Barone voices a common meme:Now, as then, they want to see American withdrawal even if that means defeat. Yet Iraq is plainly not Vietnam. There were more than 20 times as many American deaths in Vietnam as there have been in Iraq. And withdrawal from Iraq would be vastly more dangerous than withdrawal from Vietnam turned out to be.I certainly don't think that withdrawal from Iraq would

Lancelothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16027791044534209279noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-1162898523773695262006-11-07T03:04:00.000-08:002006-11-07T03:24:08.966-08:00

Like most E.J. Dionne columns, "Conservative Identity Crisis" is half astute analysis, half spin. He points out:All successful political coalitions have disparate elements. But the lesson of 2006 is that the last five years have aggravated every contradiction on the right to the breaking point: the religious conservatives against the libertarians; the neoconservatives against the foreign policy

Lancelothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16027791044534209279noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-1162828228759669572006-11-06T06:57:00.000-08:002006-11-06T07:50:28.943-08:00

Howard Dean's election manifesto, as it were, at USA Today.Tuesday, Americans have a choice between staying the course and a new direction for our country. After six years of Republican leadership, some Americans may be considering doing something they haven't done in a long time. Vote for a Democrat. No points for guessing that. A lot of conservative pundits at places like the Cato Institute,

Lancelothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16027791044534209279noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-1162565103490719542006-11-03T06:28:00.000-08:002006-11-03T06:45:03.523-08:00

I'm getting increasingly excited about the likely Democratic takeover of the House of Representatives. So is Larry Kudlow:Nancy Pelosi told me last week on CNBC that the Democrats, if they take the House, will push for a balanced budget and spending restraint. She also said tax increases would only be a last resort...Cheney noted that the administration has had to meet some "extraordinary"

Lancelothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16027791044534209279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-1162554948699404192006-11-03T03:53:00.000-08:002006-11-03T03:55:48.726-08:00

I'm in a Muslim country right now. Around noon, and also in the evening, the haunting music of the call to prayer wafts over the rooftops and through the windows. I feel a little guilty saying this, as a Russian Orthodox, but I really like. It draws my spirit somehow...

Lancelothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16027791044534209279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-1162447197151574012006-11-01T21:58:00.000-08:002006-11-01T21:59:57.183-08:00

It hit me the other day: the answer to Iraq. Not the solution in a military sense. Not an answer to whether the war was right or wrong in 2003. But the solution at the political and ideological level, to the question: Now we’re here, what should we seek to do? It could be a campaign slogan, or the motto of a new Bush administration direction; it’s a goal towards which our plans should seek to

Lancelothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16027791044534209279noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-1162302866018238242006-10-31T05:26:00.000-08:002006-10-31T05:54:26.046-08:00

Iraqi blogger Zeyad, now a journalism intern at the New York Times, writes:Another close friend of mine has been killed in Baghdad. We had lunch together in Baghdad just days before I left. I can't concentrate on anything any more. I should not be here in New York running around a stupid neighbourhood, asking people about their 'issues'. I now officially regret supporting this war back in 2003.

Lancelothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16027791044534209279noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-1162275904332329532006-10-30T21:18:00.000-08:002006-10-30T22:52:53.760-08:00

Hmm. I wish this hostile commenter on my last post would name himself; I'd be interested in finding out who "Anonymous" is.The Professor has been in denial for several years on Iraq, a denialwhich origin is in his assumptiona priori of American goodness.Arrogance unnoticed by thearrogant is egregious. Ash is so much his superior it ain't funny.No, I have no a priori assumption of American

Lancelothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16027791044534209279noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-1162222037625343482006-10-30T06:27:00.000-08:002006-10-30T07:27:18.006-08:00

Timothy Garton Ash is a member of the humane, generous-minded left. Famously, he wandered around Western Europe in 1989 enthusiastically reporting on the "velvet revolutions" that took place there. He is a British EU-phile who has sometimes written to promote a sort of pan-European nationalism.Now he is voicing what is attempting to be a new conventional wisdom:'They died in vain." Four words

Lancelothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16027791044534209279noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-1160423174807754342006-10-09T11:24:00.000-07:002006-10-09T13:02:28.816-07:00

Historian John B. Judis writes a very interesting account of the evolution of John McCain's foreign policy philosophy over at TNR. Judis praises McCain's centrism:McCain is also another rarity in Washington: a centrist by conviction rather than by design. His political philosophy places him closer to Theodore Roosevelt than to his other idols, Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan: more noblesse

Lancelothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16027791044534209279noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-1160341787072727462006-10-08T13:46:00.000-07:002006-10-08T19:14:06.346-07:00

The phrase "stick and carrot" refers to two ways of motivating a donkey to move forward: beat him with a stick, or offer him a carrot. A too-clever-by-half interpretation of the phrase is that the donkey has a stick propped in its saddle which dangles a carrot permanently in front of its nose. As the donkey follows the carrot, unbeknownst to him, he is also moving the carrot forward. Maximum

Lancelothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16027791044534209279noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-1160164826810050642006-10-06T12:51:00.000-07:002006-10-06T13:00:26.843-07:00

Fascist website VDare objects to the practice of "anathematization":This weird attempt to ban discussion of an historical event has been noticed here before. But it is significant and worth thinking about. The Anglo-Saxon tradition of political discourse needs free speech. The concept that some issue can be declared taboo and excluded from public consciousness by anathematization, not uncommon in

Lancelothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16027791044534209279noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-1159999809563652642006-10-04T14:58:00.000-07:002006-10-04T15:10:09.596-07:00

I wouldn't say that I trust historians more than others generally on current events. In fact, I probably trust academic historians less than most, since most academic departments are held hostage by post-Marxist, leftist cliques. But studying history may induce a bit of perspective. There's an impressive clarity and sanity in this passage from Victor Davis Hanson on Iraq:My rule of thumb is

Lancelothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16027791044534209279noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-1159884293091188022006-10-03T06:59:00.000-07:002006-10-03T07:04:53.136-07:00

Once again, Nick Schulz recklessly alienates Tech Central's readership by publishing my views on immigration: "Build It and They'll Still Come" (my title was "Fortress America" but theirs is perfectly appropriate). I hate writing on this subject, I really do. At a time like this, I would rather just not think about it. But as they say, if good people remain silent... Well, I can't remember

Lancelothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16027791044534209279noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-1159825217755822442006-10-02T14:34:00.000-07:002006-10-02T14:40:17.783-07:00

Republicans' 2006 election chances are sinking because of the recent Foley scandal (sexy IMs to Congressional pages). That should affect no one but Foley. The reason Republicans deserve to lose this election is the recent border fence. Funny, the mix of justice and injustice in life.

Lancelothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16027791044534209279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-1159819735838539592006-10-02T13:05:00.000-07:002006-10-02T13:08:55.866-07:00

"Daniel Dennett was wrong." An interesting post at the blog Conscious Robots. (Denies free will.) Conclusion:The next step to defeating the tyranny of the selfish replicators isn't, as Dawkins suggests, to start being nice to each other. It's to start being nice to ourselves. To feel good all the time. By getting direct control over our neural pathways so that our conscious minds can achieve

Lancelothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16027791044534209279noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-1159806031729362202006-10-02T08:45:00.000-07:002006-10-02T09:20:32.563-07:00

In response to my last post on free will, Nato writes:As a matter of fact, the kind of compatibilist view of free will covers the general, day-to-day moral usage, since we generally want to know what people will do, ceteris paribus, to assign moral qualities to that person. Put another way, what we learn about a person from their actions depends on external factors that would tend to coerce that

Lancelothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16027791044534209279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-1159540104959959152006-09-29T06:43:00.000-07:002006-09-29T07:28:25.216-07:00

One reason to reject free will is that one believes in a materialist universe governed by deterministic physical laws, which leaves no room for an entity with the power of choice (in the unreconstructed sense: choice is a form/source of non-predetermined causation such that the future cannot be predicted, even in principle, on the basis of the past). The "compatibilist" position attempts to make

Lancelothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16027791044534209279noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-1159395804468548982006-09-27T15:02:00.000-07:002006-09-27T15:23:25.556-07:00

Nato asks:I have a question - how do theistic moral systems make ethics objective (or at least non-arbitrary) in a way materialists can't?To me, it's not that theistic moral systems have a magic formula for making ethics objective; rather materialism in particular creates problems for ethical realism. Right and wrong is part of the content of our experience. I witness rape, or cruelty, or

Lancelothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16027791044534209279noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824188.post-1159391908301566522006-09-27T14:09:00.000-07:002006-09-27T14:18:28.973-07:00

I've been reading the book "Jesus in Beijing" lately, about the spread of Christianity in China. House Church leaders in China-- the Chinese house churches are semi-underground churches, as opposed to the officially sanctioned Christian "Three Self Patriotic Movement"-- estimate that there are 80 million house church Christians in China. The spread of Christianity in China seems to be driven in

Lancelothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16027791044534209279noreply@blogger.com0