Homines libenter quod volunt credunt
Posted in Caring, Disingenuous, Inequality on Sep 5th, 2018
Realtors are quite well known for trying to make their properties sound good, and use language and discuss amenities that potential customers find attractive. If inequality were such a huge concern, how come we don’t see reports of Gini Coefficients in real estate listings, or some other such similar measures? Now, sure, this is my […]
Posted in Disingenuous, Economic Illiteracy, Economics 108, If I Really Hated the Poor ..., You Can't Have it Both Ways on Aug 31st, 2018
… for the “rules of economics” not to apply! How often have you heard things like, “during an emergency, the rules of economics don’t apply!”? Or, health care and the environment are too important for the rules of economics to apply. Economics just doesn’t belong here. If only! To suggest that the rules of economics […]
Posted in Disingenuous, Economic Illiteracy, Economics 108, The Din, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Aug 29th, 2018
When you sit through a Physics 101 course, you are taught fundamental laws of motion, particularly Newtownian mechanics. You are then assigned problems that may go something like: you jump naked off of the Freedom Tower, and there is no wind velocity in any direction. How long until impact? And then you go ahead and […]
Posted in Disingenuous, Tribalism on Aug 22nd, 2018
Another very interesting discussion with Thad Russell, this time with Bret Weinstein. Many highlights, but the back and forth on the actual meaning of post-modernism and the confusion about it starting at about the 29:30 mark is well worth listening to. I tend to fall on the interpretation that what is going on on campuses […]
Posted in Caring, Disingenuous, Methodology, The Din, Tribalism on Aug 14th, 2018
It is good intellectual practice (probably not dinner party practice) to take your ideas until they can go no further. If I had one magic wand to wave, one feature I might consider is that all of our attempts to be liked or at least not appear to be one of the deplorables were seriously […]
Posted in Disingenuous, Environment on May 14th, 2018
I just finished reading Peter Brannen’s interesting book on the five previous major mass extinctions that have struck planet Earth. It is, of course, a book that is very much intended to warn us that we are on our way to the sixth if we do not keep carbon dioxide levels low (CO2 ramp ups […]
Posted in Disingenuous on May 4th, 2018
I enjoyed this Quillette piece. It speaks for itself (I read Vox, I listen to Sam Harris, I read Charles Murray, and all of it) … Sam Harris was Right; Ezra Klein Should Know Better … Earlier this week, Ph.D. neuroscientist turned pop-philosopher Sam Harris invited Vox Editor-at-Large Ezra Klein to debate Harris on his […]
Posted in Disingenuous on May 2nd, 2018
More like windbag at times. Now on page 104: If private firefighting sounded like a libertarian dream — private industry stepping in where government falls short — in fact it was just that. As California burned, Adam B. Summers of the Reason Foundation, a free-market think tank historically funded by Shell, BP, Exxon-Mobil, and the […]
Posted in Disingenuous, Environment on Apr 30th, 2018
In an otherwise very good and very important article on the threats to migratory shorebirds, the entire point is diminished by the obligatory implication of climate change. Now, of course, climate change is going to change the location and content of marshes, estuaries, shorelines, and more. And climate change will slowly change the timing of […]
Posted in Disingenuous, Methodology, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Apr 3rd, 2018
One of the most shocking reads from the past couple of years has been Thomas Leonard’s Illiberal Reformers. The book goes through, in gulp-worthy detail, the history of the rise of the “Progressive” movement’s support for various labor market interventions and immigration policies. Almost all of it is hard to reprint here, but the idea […]
