Obama vs. Palin
If you have a graduate degree, then Obama, even though he’s black and you may be white, is nevertheless more “your people” than Sarah Palin is.1 It takes about thiry seconds walking around the Princeton Graduate College to see this proven unequivocally. Half Sigma : David Frum mentions eugenics↩
Would God Buy that Stock?
Yes, America, you’ve come to this: an article on MSN Money entitled, “Would God Buy that Stock?”. The article does, though, provide some interesting examples of how capitalism provides the members of society with the tools to enforce their choices on others without recourse to governmental decree.
Orwell on Gibraltar
For the past few weeks I’ve been reading George Orwell’s journals, which are being posted here as if they were the entries of a blog. Generally, I’ve been disappointed: Orwell’s fascination with details leads to short entries that, by and large, only contain his descriptions of mundane objects like the farm animals he had encountered [...]
G.K. Chesterton
After spending more than two years on the list of authors I want to explore, I’ve finally begun reading G. K. Chesterton’s “The Man Who Was Thursday.” There is a brilliant passage at the start that I plan to quote in the future, but for now I thought I should quote this wonderful aphorism of [...]
Heavy Metal in the Islamic World
Here is an absolutely amazing article on heavy metal bands in the Islamic world.
Media Bias in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal
A recent post on the Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science blog provides an especially clear example of media bias: the New York Times uses an article recently published in Science to support the traditionally liberal view of gender differences as created by social injustices, while the Wall Street Journal uses the same research [...]
The Watchmen and Jeremy Bentham
I was delighted to find out today that Bryan Caplan thinks, just as I have for many years now, that The Watchmen is the Best… Utilitarian Parable… Ever.1 Bryan Caplan : EconLog : Why Read the Watchmen?↩
Fannie and Freddie
Capitalism without failure is like religion without sin.1 Gerald P. O’Driscoll Jr. : New York Post : Treasury’s Thieves↩
Another Reason to Love the Internet
The Internet helps prosecutors argue for stricter sentences for people with no scruples.
The Regulation of Opinion
“What we’re learning here is really the bedrock difference between the United States and the countries that are in a broad sense its legal cousins,” Mr. Steyn added. “Western governments are becoming increasingly comfortable with the regulation of opinion. The First Amendment really does distinguish the U.S., not just from Canada but from the rest [...]