Monday, December 21, 2009
Top 10 Philosophical Problems of the 21st Century
Some of these are among my personal favorites. Curiously, number one is an issue we debate all the time, in different variations, in LD. Link.
Women suck at math in all cultures
Well, that's not really true. Anyone who knows the history of my team will attest to its falseness. What is true is that women's skills are adversely affected by many cultures, not just the US.
"When parents are asked to estimate their child’s math talent, they estimate higher numbers for their sons than their daughters despite similar grades in school,” Hyde says. Teachers and guidance counselors share this bias, which is why math has served as a filter to keep young women out of science, technology, and engineering. More...
"When parents are asked to estimate their child’s math talent, they estimate higher numbers for their sons than their daughters despite similar grades in school,” Hyde says. Teachers and guidance counselors share this bias, which is why math has served as a filter to keep young women out of science, technology, and engineering. More...
Friday, December 18, 2009
Iranian pride v. sanctions
Nice useful blog piece:
Sanctions occupy a peculiar mental space in the Iranian psyche. Despite the increase in international political pressure following the June 2009 presidential elections, Iran is standing firmer than ever. The diplomatic line now coming from Tehran is that it will not alter its progress – at any price. More than this, many in the regime believe that by continuing enrichment the Islamic republic shows it can withstand adversity. Its achievements are therefore all the more important, and worth defending.
Professor Ali Ansari of St Andrews University outlines the problem: "The west is in a difficult position. The sanctions do have an effect on Iran. But as soon as this is said publicly – which is necessary to keep the hardliners who want to bomb Iran at bay – it just makes the Iranians determined to show them that sanctions are not working."
Iranian pride, now invested so heavily in its display of technological achievement – will not bow to “imperialist pressure”. Once again the world is trying to “cheat” Iran – this time out of its legitimate right to nuclear technology. It will not succeed. More...
Sanctions occupy a peculiar mental space in the Iranian psyche. Despite the increase in international political pressure following the June 2009 presidential elections, Iran is standing firmer than ever. The diplomatic line now coming from Tehran is that it will not alter its progress – at any price. More than this, many in the regime believe that by continuing enrichment the Islamic republic shows it can withstand adversity. Its achievements are therefore all the more important, and worth defending.
Professor Ali Ansari of St Andrews University outlines the problem: "The west is in a difficult position. The sanctions do have an effect on Iran. But as soon as this is said publicly – which is necessary to keep the hardliners who want to bomb Iran at bay – it just makes the Iranians determined to show them that sanctions are not working."
Iranian pride, now invested so heavily in its display of technological achievement – will not bow to “imperialist pressure”. Once again the world is trying to “cheat” Iran – this time out of its legitimate right to nuclear technology. It will not succeed. More...
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Homosexuality punishable by death in Uganda
We haven't posted about this abomination, but you should be aware of it.
In Uganda, homosexuality is already punishable by life imprisonment. However, a Bill that was put before parliament in October this year, makes homosexuality punishable by death in certain circumstances – e.g., if you are gay and HIV positive. More...
In Uganda, homosexuality is already punishable by life imprisonment. However, a Bill that was put before parliament in October this year, makes homosexuality punishable by death in certain circumstances – e.g., if you are gay and HIV positive. More...
Food stamps
Do we believe that the poor are too dumb to eat well, or that they don't deserve to eat well?
Anti-poverty programs in this country currently operate from the premise that poor people cannot be trusted with cash benefits and as a result such programs come with strict eligibility and performance requirements. Food stamps (now known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) have been politically sustainable precisely because they are not cash transfers, and thus can’t be “misspent” by the “idle,” “improvident” or “uneducated” poor people to whom they are given. Why, then, the furor over reform proposals that would allow the food stamp program to favor — even subsidize — the purchase of healthy foods like fresh fruits and vegetables over snacks and soda? Could this controversy result from a belief on the part of pundits and policy makers that being poor in America means acquiescing quietly to a substandard diet? More...
Anti-poverty programs in this country currently operate from the premise that poor people cannot be trusted with cash benefits and as a result such programs come with strict eligibility and performance requirements. Food stamps (now known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) have been politically sustainable precisely because they are not cash transfers, and thus can’t be “misspent” by the “idle,” “improvident” or “uneducated” poor people to whom they are given. Why, then, the furor over reform proposals that would allow the food stamp program to favor — even subsidize — the purchase of healthy foods like fresh fruits and vegetables over snacks and soda? Could this controversy result from a belief on the part of pundits and policy makers that being poor in America means acquiescing quietly to a substandard diet? More...
Monday, December 7, 2009
Poverty and rights
A hardy perennial here. This article is on the causes of poverty around the world. (Useful for Jan-Feb?)
If you want to avoid poverty and join the middle class in the United States, you need to complete high school (at a minimum), work full time and marry before you have children. More...
If you want to avoid poverty and join the middle class in the United States, you need to complete high school (at a minimum), work full time and marry before you have children. More...
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
The Swiss ban minarets
You should at least be aware of this story. Switzerland is one crazy place. Their record on women's rights is atrocious, for instance, but on gay rights they're leaders. Go figure.
So the Swiss have voted to ban the construction of new minarets, while assuring their Muslim brothers and sisters that this rebuke shouldn't be confused with a ban on the construction of mosques. Doubtless reassuring to a religious minority. And, they hasten to add, it most certainly isn't directed at Islam in particular but at Islam's rather un-Swiss architectural tastes. More...
So the Swiss have voted to ban the construction of new minarets, while assuring their Muslim brothers and sisters that this rebuke shouldn't be confused with a ban on the construction of mosques. Doubtless reassuring to a religious minority. And, they hasten to add, it most certainly isn't directed at Islam in particular but at Islam's rather un-Swiss architectural tastes. More...
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
The US just loves to put people in prison
A nice piece from the P.A.P. blog, which I am sometimes tempted to steal wholesale. There's a general note or two on prisons, and then the kicker:
The prison boom has high costs for all of us. A new prison opens somewhere in the United States every week. Imprisoning a human being in this country costs a minimum of $20,000 a year, far more than tuition at any of our state universities. National spending on prisons and jails was $7 billion in 1980; it is $60 billion today. Several states now spend more on state prisons than state colleges. We literally cannot afford our political addiction to incarceration. More...
The prison boom has high costs for all of us. A new prison opens somewhere in the United States every week. Imprisoning a human being in this country costs a minimum of $20,000 a year, far more than tuition at any of our state universities. National spending on prisons and jails was $7 billion in 1980; it is $60 billion today. Several states now spend more on state prisons than state colleges. We literally cannot afford our political addiction to incarceration. More...
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Rorty and human rights
You can't make a logical argument to convince people to uphold the human rights of others, says Richard Rorty. There's a better way to do it. Think narrative/performative.
Richard Rorty has an interesting take on human rights. If we want universal acceptance of and respect for human rights, we shouldn’t try to argue about it. We shouldn’t attempt to work out rational justifications of human rights, or arguments that will convince people that human rights are a good thing. Instead, according to Rorty, we would achieve better results if we try to influence people’s feelings instead of their minds. And the best way to do that is by telling sentimental stories like “Uncle Tom’s cabin” or “Roots” etc., or by making political art. Such stories and art make the reader sympathize with persons whose rights are violated because they invite the audience or the reader to imagine what it is like to be in the victim’s position. More...
Richard Rorty has an interesting take on human rights. If we want universal acceptance of and respect for human rights, we shouldn’t try to argue about it. We shouldn’t attempt to work out rational justifications of human rights, or arguments that will convince people that human rights are a good thing. Instead, according to Rorty, we would achieve better results if we try to influence people’s feelings instead of their minds. And the best way to do that is by telling sentimental stories like “Uncle Tom’s cabin” or “Roots” etc., or by making political art. Such stories and art make the reader sympathize with persons whose rights are violated because they invite the audience or the reader to imagine what it is like to be in the victim’s position. More...
A billion hungry people
This is general background that you should have under your belt. People are starving, and probably governments are to blame (theirs and ours).
'The number of people who do not get enough food energy, averaged over one year, to both maintain productive activity and maintain body weight’ is now over one billion.' The reasons for this rise are complex... Caroline Boin, a project director at International Policy Network, puts the blame squarely at the feet of governments. ‘Barriers to trade are four times higher in developing countries than in high-income countries. Farmers are hit especially hard: overall, African farmers pay 60 per cent more in export taxes than other African businesses. More generally, many developing country policies have disadvantaged and exploited their agricultural sectors, in order to subsidise more grandiose urban activities. Food marketing boards and heavy tariffs on the agriculture sector have deterred investments that would have increased agricultural output.’ While developing-world government policies have stifled agricultural development, they are often inspired by Western organisations. ‘Despite the widespread failure of protectionist policies in agriculture, many Western NGOs continue to support the idea of self-sufficiency and protectionism. They argue that developing countries, which are so reliant on agriculture, should be able to protect themselves from the vagaries of the market. But as appealing as these ideas may seem, they are at complete odds with reality.’ More...
'The number of people who do not get enough food energy, averaged over one year, to both maintain productive activity and maintain body weight’ is now over one billion.' The reasons for this rise are complex... Caroline Boin, a project director at International Policy Network, puts the blame squarely at the feet of governments. ‘Barriers to trade are four times higher in developing countries than in high-income countries. Farmers are hit especially hard: overall, African farmers pay 60 per cent more in export taxes than other African businesses. More generally, many developing country policies have disadvantaged and exploited their agricultural sectors, in order to subsidise more grandiose urban activities. Food marketing boards and heavy tariffs on the agriculture sector have deterred investments that would have increased agricultural output.’ While developing-world government policies have stifled agricultural development, they are often inspired by Western organisations. ‘Despite the widespread failure of protectionist policies in agriculture, many Western NGOs continue to support the idea of self-sufficiency and protectionism. They argue that developing countries, which are so reliant on agriculture, should be able to protect themselves from the vagaries of the market. But as appealing as these ideas may seem, they are at complete odds with reality.’ More...
Voting felons
This was a topic a while ago, and a pretty interesting one.
Taking away someone’s human rights can only be done for a good reason, for example if this is necessary in order to protect other people’s rights. So we can imprison people and take away their freedom of movement if there is no other way to protect the security and property of other people. However, I always failed to understand the benefits of taking away prisoners’ right to vote. And completely incomprehensible is the permanent disenfranchisement after a felony conviction. The reason can’t be because they’re not worthy to vote. I can think of many other people who could be considered not worthy to vote. If we go down that road, we might as well abolish democracy altogether and hand over power to the intellectual and virtuous elite, if such a thing exists. More...
Taking away someone’s human rights can only be done for a good reason, for example if this is necessary in order to protect other people’s rights. So we can imprison people and take away their freedom of movement if there is no other way to protect the security and property of other people. However, I always failed to understand the benefits of taking away prisoners’ right to vote. And completely incomprehensible is the permanent disenfranchisement after a felony conviction. The reason can’t be because they’re not worthy to vote. I can think of many other people who could be considered not worthy to vote. If we go down that road, we might as well abolish democracy altogether and hand over power to the intellectual and virtuous elite, if such a thing exists. More...
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Assisted suicide
The ultimate act of autonomy is a hearty perennial in debate circles. And it's legal, in some places. The problem becomes that AS becomes an option only for the rich.
Class discrimination is one of the problems arising from the policies of many countries: by outlawing the practice of assisted suicide, against sound moral arguments, they force people to go abroad to find an expensive solution in more liberal countries (such as Switzerland). Poor people wanting to exercise their right to self-determination, are stuck with the “cheap and dirty” solutions or with no solution at all if they are incapacitated and can’t take matters into their own hands. More...
Class discrimination is one of the problems arising from the policies of many countries: by outlawing the practice of assisted suicide, against sound moral arguments, they force people to go abroad to find an expensive solution in more liberal countries (such as Switzerland). Poor people wanting to exercise their right to self-determination, are stuck with the “cheap and dirty” solutions or with no solution at all if they are incapacitated and can’t take matters into their own hands. More...
The Vatican discusses ETs
Ultimately, the chief theological question for believers would be whether their deity had arranged for a separate salvation (whatever that is) of intelligent aliens or should they be proselytized? More...
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Executing gays in Uganda
Well, that headline speaks for itself.
“Carnal knowledge against the order of nature” – as homosexuality is termed in Ugandan law – is already punishable with life imprisonment. However, if passed, the new bill will widen the scope, including promoting homosexuality, aiding and abetting homosexuality and keeping a house “for purposes of homosexuality”. This means that the relatives and friends of gay couples could face execution if they allow them to stay in their homes. More...
“Carnal knowledge against the order of nature” – as homosexuality is termed in Ugandan law – is already punishable with life imprisonment. However, if passed, the new bill will widen the scope, including promoting homosexuality, aiding and abetting homosexuality and keeping a house “for purposes of homosexuality”. This means that the relatives and friends of gay couples could face execution if they allow them to stay in their homes. More...
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
NPR on women in college
And getting more (and dumber) men in to join them. One interesting sidebar (undeveloped in the story) was that all those women in the imbalanced ratios were somehow driving the poor guys hormone crazy, explaining their bad grades. Nice try.
Today women earn about 60 percent of all bachelor's degrees. The concern is that some colleges are so worried about becoming overwhelmingly female that they are discriminating against qualified women and choosing less qualifed males. More...
Today women earn about 60 percent of all bachelor's degrees. The concern is that some colleges are so worried about becoming overwhelmingly female that they are discriminating against qualified women and choosing less qualifed males. More...
Women's rights were a joke?
Literally. This is a fascinating anecdote worth following up on.
The U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964 was drafted for the purpose of eliminating racial discrimination in employment, but it was amended during the Congressional debate to prohibit discrimination against women as well. However, as N.Y. Times columnist Gail Collins points out in her brilliant new book, that amendment was added to the Bill by arch-segregationist Congressman Howard Smith from Virginia in a whimsical effort to make the whole thing unpalatable to his mostly-male colleagues in the House of Representatives. But to his surprise, the Civil Rights Act passed anyway. This was the most important single step on the road to equal rights for women in America, and it came about as the result of a joke. More...
The U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964 was drafted for the purpose of eliminating racial discrimination in employment, but it was amended during the Congressional debate to prohibit discrimination against women as well. However, as N.Y. Times columnist Gail Collins points out in her brilliant new book, that amendment was added to the Bill by arch-segregationist Congressman Howard Smith from Virginia in a whimsical effort to make the whole thing unpalatable to his mostly-male colleagues in the House of Representatives. But to his surprise, the Civil Rights Act passed anyway. This was the most important single step on the road to equal rights for women in America, and it came about as the result of a joke. More...
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Rampant Rand (again)
This article in Reason is perhaps the best I've read in summing up her ladyship.
While complaints about Rand’s prose and character development are perennial, the nub of Atlas hatred isn’t literary: It’s the idea that Rand’s work is positively evil, celebrating a raw selfishness and glorying in a lack of compassion for anyone who fails to be a heroic producer, or even so much as disagrees with any aspect of Rand’s complicated system of epistemology and ethics. As Gore Vidal wrote in Esquire back in 1961, Rand’s “ ‘philosophy’ is nearly perfect in its immorality, which makes the size of her audience all the more ominous.” More...
While complaints about Rand’s prose and character development are perennial, the nub of Atlas hatred isn’t literary: It’s the idea that Rand’s work is positively evil, celebrating a raw selfishness and glorying in a lack of compassion for anyone who fails to be a heroic producer, or even so much as disagrees with any aspect of Rand’s complicated system of epistemology and ethics. As Gore Vidal wrote in Esquire back in 1961, Rand’s “ ‘philosophy’ is nearly perfect in its immorality, which makes the size of her audience all the more ominous.” More...
Would Scalia dissent on Brown v Board?
I love this sort of article.
Brown presents originalists with a problem. The weight of the historical evidence is that the people who drafted, proposed and ratified the 14th Amendment from 1866 to 1868 did not believe themselves to be doing away with segregated schools. Yet Brown is widely thought to be a moral triumph. A theory of constitutional interpretation that cannot account for Brown is suspect if not discredited. Originalists hate the subject. Justice Scalia has called it “waving the bloody shirt of Brown.” More...
Brown presents originalists with a problem. The weight of the historical evidence is that the people who drafted, proposed and ratified the 14th Amendment from 1866 to 1868 did not believe themselves to be doing away with segregated schools. Yet Brown is widely thought to be a moral triumph. A theory of constitutional interpretation that cannot account for Brown is suspect if not discredited. Originalists hate the subject. Justice Scalia has called it “waving the bloody shirt of Brown.” More...
Monday, November 9, 2009
Cap Pun -- deterrence fails
Deterrence doesn't work. I'm shocked, shocked to hear it, but most people believe it (including those who support CP). This paper is the latest.
The findings demonstrate an overwhelming consensus among these criminologists that the empirical research conducted on the deterrence question strongly supports the conclusion that the death penalty does not add deterrent effects to those already achieved by long imprisonment. More...
The findings demonstrate an overwhelming consensus among these criminologists that the empirical research conducted on the deterrence question strongly supports the conclusion that the death penalty does not add deterrent effects to those already achieved by long imprisonment. More...
Thursday, November 5, 2009
The Declaration then the Constitution
Lincoln was a key figure in making the Declaration a key document in our understanding of our nation. American Scripture makes this case well. Meanwhile, this article is a good application.
Equal rights and the consent of the governed are the principles that make self-government intelligible in the first place. Without them, of course, there are no real limits to what majorities can enact, including doing away with democratic rule... Once "all men are created equal" is dispensed with, once it is no longer held to apply to a certain group of people, what might limit the arbitrary rule of a few, or one, over other groups without their consent? More...
Equal rights and the consent of the governed are the principles that make self-government intelligible in the first place. Without them, of course, there are no real limits to what majorities can enact, including doing away with democratic rule... Once "all men are created equal" is dispensed with, once it is no longer held to apply to a certain group of people, what might limit the arbitrary rule of a few, or one, over other groups without their consent? More...
Social justice
This is a phrase with a unique meaning that might not be obvious.
But what is social justice? I’m not naïve. From Sharpton to Wright social justice has come to means redressing the wrongs of the past in the form of government benefits or reparations. The expression has a hint of retribution as in “you owe us.” In actuality, the words haven’t any real meaning. There are always those who grieve, and as long as the government attempts to satisfy those with a gripe, the plaintive cry for social justice will have irresistable appeal. More...
But what is social justice? I’m not naïve. From Sharpton to Wright social justice has come to means redressing the wrongs of the past in the form of government benefits or reparations. The expression has a hint of retribution as in “you owe us.” In actuality, the words haven’t any real meaning. There are always those who grieve, and as long as the government attempts to satisfy those with a gripe, the plaintive cry for social justice will have irresistable appeal. More...
Best autism article I've seen in a while
Since the subject comes up (and, hopefully, quickly goes down) in Nov-Dec, how about a seriously realistic lecture on the subject? You might find fodder here for half a dozen future topics.
This is not to dismiss the importance of continuing to pursue research in genetics and neuroscience: this is far more likely to yield long-term results than chasing vaccines or any of the other toxic fantasies of the environmentalists. It is simply to recognise that for individuals and families affected by autism today the pursuit of ‘cause and cure’ misses the point: we need interventions that will make life better for people with autism in the here and now. More...
This is not to dismiss the importance of continuing to pursue research in genetics and neuroscience: this is far more likely to yield long-term results than chasing vaccines or any of the other toxic fantasies of the environmentalists. It is simply to recognise that for individuals and families affected by autism today the pursuit of ‘cause and cure’ misses the point: we need interventions that will make life better for people with autism in the here and now. More...
Infallible search by canines
It's always something. I had no idea that SCOTUS thought dogs were invincible. They've been reading too many comic books or something.
In Caballes v. Illinois, the 2005 Supreme Court decision that upheld the use of drug-sniffing canines during routine traffic stops, dissenting Justice David Souter noted that "the infallible dog...is a creature of legal fiction." Since false "alerts" seem to be fairly common, Souter warned, it's not safe to assume that signals from police dogs reliably indicate the presence of illegal substances, a premise underlying the Court's conclusion that a dog sniff does not count as a "search" for Fourth Amendment purposes. More...
In Caballes v. Illinois, the 2005 Supreme Court decision that upheld the use of drug-sniffing canines during routine traffic stops, dissenting Justice David Souter noted that "the infallible dog...is a creature of legal fiction." Since false "alerts" seem to be fairly common, Souter warned, it's not safe to assume that signals from police dogs reliably indicate the presence of illegal substances, a premise underlying the Court's conclusion that a dog sniff does not count as a "search" for Fourth Amendment purposes. More...
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Damned lies
P.A.P.'s articles on statistics are always enlightening.
A certain company discovered that 40% of all sick days were taken on a Friday or a Monday. They immediately clamped down on sick leave before they realised their mistake. Forty percent represents two days out of a five day working week and is therefore a normal spread. Nothing to do with lazy employees wishing to extend their weekends. They are just as sick on any other day. More...
A certain company discovered that 40% of all sick days were taken on a Friday or a Monday. They immediately clamped down on sick leave before they realised their mistake. Forty percent represents two days out of a five day working week and is therefore a normal spread. Nothing to do with lazy employees wishing to extend their weekends. They are just as sick on any other day. More...
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Rampant Rand
Ayn Rand is all over the place these days, thanks to a couple of new biographies. Breaking with (my personal) tradition, how about saying something nice about the woman?
It used to be commonly said that “Until Robinson Crusoe is joined by Friday there is no need for ethics on a desert island.” Rand replied that it was on a desert island that ethics was most needed because on a desert island you cannot free ride on the virtues of others; if you are to survive you must yourself exercise the virtues of rationality, independence, and productiveness. As her reply indicates, Rand was an exponent of virtue ethics, the Greek/Aristotelian idea that ethics is about how one should live. Indeed, although she does not get much credit, Rand is the most prominent and lucid, contemporary exponent of virtue ethics. More...
It used to be commonly said that “Until Robinson Crusoe is joined by Friday there is no need for ethics on a desert island.” Rand replied that it was on a desert island that ethics was most needed because on a desert island you cannot free ride on the virtues of others; if you are to survive you must yourself exercise the virtues of rationality, independence, and productiveness. As her reply indicates, Rand was an exponent of virtue ethics, the Greek/Aristotelian idea that ethics is about how one should live. Indeed, although she does not get much credit, Rand is the most prominent and lucid, contemporary exponent of virtue ethics. More...
Monday, November 2, 2009
Nov-Dec, from Wired
Wired chimes in on the autism "debate."
This isn’t a religious dispute, like the debate over creationism and intelligent design. It’s a challenge to traditional science that crosses party, class, and religious lines. It is partly a reaction to Big Pharma’s blunders and PR missteps, from Vioxx to illegal marketing ploys, which have encouraged a distrust of experts. It is also, ironically, a product of the era of instant communication and easy access to information. The doubters and deniers are empowered by the Internet (online, nobody knows you’re not a doctor) and helped by the mainstream media, which has an interest in pumping up bad science to create a “debate” where there should be none. More...
This isn’t a religious dispute, like the debate over creationism and intelligent design. It’s a challenge to traditional science that crosses party, class, and religious lines. It is partly a reaction to Big Pharma’s blunders and PR missteps, from Vioxx to illegal marketing ploys, which have encouraged a distrust of experts. It is also, ironically, a product of the era of instant communication and easy access to information. The doubters and deniers are empowered by the Internet (online, nobody knows you’re not a doctor) and helped by the mainstream media, which has an interest in pumping up bad science to create a “debate” where there should be none. More...
Religion meets germs
If you followed my series on religion last week, and you've been researching for Nov-Dec, you're in for a treat.
Faith is about an individual's personal relationship to God, but worship is a contact sport. Since before the dawn of history people have been gathering for religious rituals, to pray and to praise together -- and for just as long they have been spreading disease through their interactions. Hence the growing alarm among religious leaders and congregants alike over the possibility of a swine flu epidemic. It is a concern that runs across national and religious boundaries. More...
Faith is about an individual's personal relationship to God, but worship is a contact sport. Since before the dawn of history people have been gathering for religious rituals, to pray and to praise together -- and for just as long they have been spreading disease through their interactions. Hence the growing alarm among religious leaders and congregants alike over the possibility of a swine flu epidemic. It is a concern that runs across national and religious boundaries. More...
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Weird flu shot reaction
Take this from the source, and come on, you really can't debate it, but, well, it's the weirdest thing I've seen today, and I've seen plenty of weird things (I'm a debate coach). It's a woman who can only walk backwards: Link. The good news is, at least she didn't get the flu.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Consequences of the anti-vaccine movement
Vaccinations down, disease up. Duh.
The Times found that even though only about 2 percent of California’s kindergartners are unvaccinated (10,000 kids, or about twice the number as in 1997), they tend to be clustered, disproportionately increasing the risk of an outbreak of such largely eradicated diseases as measles, mumps, and pertussis (whooping cough). The clustering means almost 10 percent of elementary schools statewide may already be at risk. More...
The Times found that even though only about 2 percent of California’s kindergartners are unvaccinated (10,000 kids, or about twice the number as in 1997), they tend to be clustered, disproportionately increasing the risk of an outbreak of such largely eradicated diseases as measles, mumps, and pertussis (whooping cough). The clustering means almost 10 percent of elementary schools statewide may already be at risk. More...
Why doesn't Justice Thomas talk?
He already knows what he needs to know.
Thomas—who hasn't asked a lawyer a question during arguments in nearly four years—said he and the other eight justices virtually always know where they stand on a case by reading legal briefs before oral arguments. "So why do you beat up on people if you already know?"More...
Thomas—who hasn't asked a lawyer a question during arguments in nearly four years—said he and the other eight justices virtually always know where they stand on a case by reading legal briefs before oral arguments. "So why do you beat up on people if you already know?"More...
Discussion of the value of democracy
There's plenty on this subject at P.A.P., but it is soooo useful to us that it makes sense to keep pointing it out. Here, a consequential and a deontological take. (Those heres are all url links.)
An instrumental justification of democracy can take many different forms, depending on the ultimate goal that is supposed to be promoted by democracy. The most common forms are:
Democracy promotes prosperity, economic growth and poverty reduction. Read more here and here.
Democracy promotes peace (internally and externally). See here, here and here.
Democracy leads to better political decisions. See here, here and here.
Democracy leads to less repression and more respect for human rights. See here, here, here, here and here.
...
The non-instrumental justification, the one that says that democracy is good, not because of what it produces, but because of what it is, is also very interesting and persuasive. More...
An instrumental justification of democracy can take many different forms, depending on the ultimate goal that is supposed to be promoted by democracy. The most common forms are:
Democracy promotes prosperity, economic growth and poverty reduction. Read more here and here.
Democracy promotes peace (internally and externally). See here, here and here.
Democracy leads to better political decisions. See here, here and here.
Democracy leads to less repression and more respect for human rights. See here, here, here, here and here.
...
The non-instrumental justification, the one that says that democracy is good, not because of what it produces, but because of what it is, is also very interesting and persuasive. More...
Causality and correlation
This article is a good reminder that you need a link. And it also includes my favorite xkcd strip of all time.
“Omitted Variable Bias“, a type of statistical bias that illustrates this problem. Suppose we see from Department of Defense data that male U.S. soldiers are more likely to be killed in action than female soldiers... So there is a correlation between the gender of soldiers and the likelihood of being killed in action. One could – and one often does – conclude from such a finding that there is a causation of some kind: the gender of soldiers increases the chances of being killed in action... However, it’s here that the Omitted Variable Bias pops up. The real cause of the discrepancy between male and female combat mortality may not be gender or a gender related thing, but a third element, an “omitted variable” which doesn’t show in the correlation. More...
“Omitted Variable Bias“, a type of statistical bias that illustrates this problem. Suppose we see from Department of Defense data that male U.S. soldiers are more likely to be killed in action than female soldiers... So there is a correlation between the gender of soldiers and the likelihood of being killed in action. One could – and one often does – conclude from such a finding that there is a causation of some kind: the gender of soldiers increases the chances of being killed in action... However, it’s here that the Omitted Variable Bias pops up. The real cause of the discrepancy between male and female combat mortality may not be gender or a gender related thing, but a third element, an “omitted variable” which doesn’t show in the correlation. More...
Friday, October 23, 2009
Hate speech
I have a feeling that the subject of hate speech will be dead thanks to the new legislation from the senate. While one reacts favorably on an intuitive level, that nagging freedom of speech issue, and the double penalties, keeps coming back.
For example, let us suppose that I am running with a friend who is openly gay and cross-dresses. As we run along someone jumps out yells “take that, skinny!” and cuts me on the arm with a knife. Realizing that the person in the skort (a running skirt) is a guy, the mugger yells “fag!” as he takes a slash at him, also cutting him on the arm. After we subdue the mugger and tie him up with my friend’s tasteful pink running scarf, the police haul him off. Because I’m a straight guy wearing shorts, my cut is a matter of assault and not a federal crime. But, since my gay friend was wearing a skort and the mugger yelled “fag”, the attack on him is now a federal crime-even though his injury is the same as mine. As such, it would seem to be unjust for the mugger to be regarded as having done something worse to my friend than to me. More...
For example, let us suppose that I am running with a friend who is openly gay and cross-dresses. As we run along someone jumps out yells “take that, skinny!” and cuts me on the arm with a knife. Realizing that the person in the skort (a running skirt) is a guy, the mugger yells “fag!” as he takes a slash at him, also cutting him on the arm. After we subdue the mugger and tie him up with my friend’s tasteful pink running scarf, the police haul him off. Because I’m a straight guy wearing shorts, my cut is a matter of assault and not a federal crime. But, since my gay friend was wearing a skort and the mugger yelled “fag”, the attack on him is now a federal crime-even though his injury is the same as mine. As such, it would seem to be unjust for the mugger to be regarded as having done something worse to my friend than to me. More...
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Cap pun bad -- the rational actor
The old deterrence arguments have their basis here.
We tend to believe that this deterrence effect correlates with the severity of the punishment. More years in prison means more deterrence. More brutal punishments – such as capital punishment – means even more deterrence. The belief in this correlation between degree of deterrence and degree of punishment rests on the “rational actor hypothesis”: people will take only those actions that produce more benefits than costs. More...
We tend to believe that this deterrence effect correlates with the severity of the punishment. More years in prison means more deterrence. More brutal punishments – such as capital punishment – means even more deterrence. The belief in this correlation between degree of deterrence and degree of punishment rests on the “rational actor hypothesis”: people will take only those actions that produce more benefits than costs. More...
Interesting way to look at human rights
We often accept that human rights are universal because they affect all of us. But there's more to it than that.
Human rights ... are omni-lateral, meaning that they are claims directed at all entities within the previous dimensions: every other human being, every state and every intermediary entity can violate our rights. That is what we mean when we say that rights are rights erga omnes. More...
Human rights ... are omni-lateral, meaning that they are claims directed at all entities within the previous dimensions: every other human being, every state and every intermediary entity can violate our rights. That is what we mean when we say that rights are rights erga omnes. More...
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Aff on Nov-Dec
This guy is soooo in favor. Good links in the article on the actual science.
No one pretends that vaccines are perfect, or 100% risk-free. But approved vaccines work. They save lives. They do not cause mercury poisoning or autism. They carry very low risks -- risks almost always worth taking. And, to top it off, vaccines have become something of a civic responsibility: they work best when everyone takes them. More...
No one pretends that vaccines are perfect, or 100% risk-free. But approved vaccines work. They save lives. They do not cause mercury poisoning or autism. They carry very low risks -- risks almost always worth taking. And, to top it off, vaccines have become something of a civic responsibility: they work best when everyone takes them. More...
Monday, October 19, 2009
Health lottery
Interesting problem. Resources are scarce, so who gets to die?
There are various ways to allocate scarce medical resources. The New York group developed a system for rationing ventilators based on the numbers of organs that were failing, and patients’ risk of dying. The idea behind it is the utilitarian principle that we should maximise the numbers of lives saved. Others favour including the age of the patient, their previous functional status, and coexisting illnesses, in order to maximise the number of quality-adjusted life years saved.
But these methods of rationing are vulnerable to an objection on the basis of fairness. Certain patients (for example the elderly or those with more severe illness) will be given no chance of having their life saved. The 80 year old with influenza has just as strong a desire that their life be saved as a 20 year old. Their right to life is equal to that of the 20 year old. But they are denied life-saving treatment in such a rationing system. More...
There are various ways to allocate scarce medical resources. The New York group developed a system for rationing ventilators based on the numbers of organs that were failing, and patients’ risk of dying. The idea behind it is the utilitarian principle that we should maximise the numbers of lives saved. Others favour including the age of the patient, their previous functional status, and coexisting illnesses, in order to maximise the number of quality-adjusted life years saved.
But these methods of rationing are vulnerable to an objection on the basis of fairness. Certain patients (for example the elderly or those with more severe illness) will be given no chance of having their life saved. The 80 year old with influenza has just as strong a desire that their life be saved as a 20 year old. Their right to life is equal to that of the 20 year old. But they are denied life-saving treatment in such a rationing system. More...
Higgs boson
This has nothing to do with debate, but it's just too interesting not to pass on.
A pair of otherwise distinguished physicists have suggested that the hypothesized Higgs boson, which physicists hope to produce with the collider, might be so abhorrent to nature that its creation would ripple backward through time and stop the collider before it could make one, like a time traveler who goes back in time to kill his grandfather. More...
A pair of otherwise distinguished physicists have suggested that the hypothesized Higgs boson, which physicists hope to produce with the collider, might be so abhorrent to nature that its creation would ripple backward through time and stop the collider before it could make one, like a time traveler who goes back in time to kill his grandfather. More...
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Hate crimes
The take on hate crime laws is that, on the neg, they are both mind-reading and unnecessary. It's also about to become law. A classic LD conundrum.
The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which President Obama plans to sign soon, is named after two men who were murdered in 1998. Shepard, a gay college student, was beaten to death in Wyoming. Byrd, a black hitchhiker, was dragged to death behind a pickup truck in Texas. Bigotry seemed to play a role in both crimes. Here is something else Matthew Shepard and James Byrd have in common: Their killers were arrested, tried, convicted, and sentenced to life in prison or death, all without the benefit of hate crime laws, state or federal. Hence it is very strange to slap their names onto a piece of legislation based on the premise that such crimes might go unpunished without a federal law aimed at bias-motivated violence. More...
The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which President Obama plans to sign soon, is named after two men who were murdered in 1998. Shepard, a gay college student, was beaten to death in Wyoming. Byrd, a black hitchhiker, was dragged to death behind a pickup truck in Texas. Bigotry seemed to play a role in both crimes. Here is something else Matthew Shepard and James Byrd have in common: Their killers were arrested, tried, convicted, and sentenced to life in prison or death, all without the benefit of hate crime laws, state or federal. Hence it is very strange to slap their names onto a piece of legislation based on the premise that such crimes might go unpunished without a federal law aimed at bias-motivated violence. More...
Organ donations
I've posted on this subject before. The moral questions just seem so...unique.
The report—co-authored by University of Pennsylvania bioethicist Arthur Caplan and three European colleagues—oddly concludes that individuals have the right to control their bodies, except when they want to sell one of their organs. Let’s be crystal clear: It is heinously wrong to treat people like slaves, coercing their labor without voluntarily agreed upon compensation. The question is: Are poor people who sell their organs coerced? More...
The report—co-authored by University of Pennsylvania bioethicist Arthur Caplan and three European colleagues—oddly concludes that individuals have the right to control their bodies, except when they want to sell one of their organs. Let’s be crystal clear: It is heinously wrong to treat people like slaves, coercing their labor without voluntarily agreed upon compensation. The question is: Are poor people who sell their organs coerced? More...
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Jury nullification
This is a hardy perennial that will certainly come up as a resolution sooner or later. This is a really good article on the subject.
If law has a moral foundation, then it would owe (at least some of) its authority to that moral foundation. This would seem to entail (with some suitable and lengthy argumentation) that any law that goes against that moral foundation would be an illegitimate law. This would clearly provide a moral basis for jury nullification. After all, if the jury has correctly discerned the law as being illegitimate (that is, it violates the moral foundation of law) then they would be in the right to refuse to apply it. Naturally, if they elected to apply it, then the folks on the jury would be acting in what would seem to be an immoral manner. More...
If law has a moral foundation, then it would owe (at least some of) its authority to that moral foundation. This would seem to entail (with some suitable and lengthy argumentation) that any law that goes against that moral foundation would be an illegitimate law. This would clearly provide a moral basis for jury nullification. After all, if the jury has correctly discerned the law as being illegitimate (that is, it violates the moral foundation of law) then they would be in the right to refuse to apply it. Naturally, if they elected to apply it, then the folks on the jury would be acting in what would seem to be an immoral manner. More...
Public opinion and gays
This is a fairly hopeful chart in its way. At least it's trending the right way.
Regarding the public’s acceptance of homosexuality as such (independent of criminalization and marriage rights), the data are still a bit disappointing. A large minority wouldn’t vote for a homosexual presidential candidate, for example. Again depending on the survey, only a small majority or a large minority thinks homosexuality is morally acceptable. But public opinion is growing more tolerant over the years: More...
Regarding the public’s acceptance of homosexuality as such (independent of criminalization and marriage rights), the data are still a bit disappointing. A large minority wouldn’t vote for a homosexual presidential candidate, for example. Again depending on the survey, only a small majority or a large minority thinks homosexuality is morally acceptable. But public opinion is growing more tolerant over the years: More...
Who said this?
“I mean lawyers, after all, don’t produce anything. They enable other people to produce and to go on with their lives efficiently and in an atmosphere of freedom. That’s important, but it doesn’t put food on the table, and there have to be other people who are doing that. And I worry that we are devoting too many of our very best minds to this enterprise.”
The answer is pretty funny.
The answer is pretty funny.
This is so much more effective than exit exams
The Ohio legislature passed a ban on corporal punishment this July, bringing the number of U.S. states that have banned corporal punishment to 30. In the other states, it’s still legal and it typically involves an administrator or teacher hitting a child repeatedly on the buttocks with a wooden “paddle” or board about 1 ½ feet long, 6 inches wide, and 1 inch thick. More...
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Why aren't more countries nuclear?
I mean, they could be if they wanted to. Given the regularity of nuke topics, you might enjoy this.
There are between 40 and 60 states with the technological capacity and economic wherewithal to build a nuclear bomb, and the vast majority of them have decided not to do so, even when there were other nuclear powers in their neighborhood. A few states have started down that road and then turned back, sometimes in the face of international pressure (Libya, Brazil, Argentina), and sometimes mostly on their own (Sweden, South Africa). [...] Iran’s own nuclear program (which began under the Shah) reflected broader security concerns and the Shah's own desire for status, and doesn't appear to have been a direct response to anyone else's bomb. North Korea’s entry into the nuclear club hasn't led South Korea, Japan, or anyone else to start a new nuclear weapons program yet. In short, people have been forecasting the rapid proliferation of nuclear weapons ever since the nuclear age began, but all of those forecasts have been overly pessimistic. More...
There are between 40 and 60 states with the technological capacity and economic wherewithal to build a nuclear bomb, and the vast majority of them have decided not to do so, even when there were other nuclear powers in their neighborhood. A few states have started down that road and then turned back, sometimes in the face of international pressure (Libya, Brazil, Argentina), and sometimes mostly on their own (Sweden, South Africa). [...] Iran’s own nuclear program (which began under the Shah) reflected broader security concerns and the Shah's own desire for status, and doesn't appear to have been a direct response to anyone else's bomb. North Korea’s entry into the nuclear club hasn't led South Korea, Japan, or anyone else to start a new nuclear weapons program yet. In short, people have been forecasting the rapid proliferation of nuclear weapons ever since the nuclear age began, but all of those forecasts have been overly pessimistic. More...
American exceptionalism
Why is the US different? Is it?
America is exceptional not because it banished evil, not because Americans are somehow more moral than anyone else, not because its founding somehow changed human nature—but because it recognized the indelibility of human nature and our permanent capacity for evil. It set up a rule of law to guard against such evil. It pitted branches of government against each other and enshrined a free press so that evil could be flushed out and countered even when perpetrated by good men. More...
America is exceptional not because it banished evil, not because Americans are somehow more moral than anyone else, not because its founding somehow changed human nature—but because it recognized the indelibility of human nature and our permanent capacity for evil. It set up a rule of law to guard against such evil. It pitted branches of government against each other and enshrined a free press so that evil could be flushed out and countered even when perpetrated by good men. More...
The Matthew effect
There's a name for everything. As Lady Day sang, them's that got will get...
The Matthew Effect – a concept invented by sociologist Robert K. Merton - is based on the following extract of the Gospel of Matthew:
For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.
This statement is intuitively convincing. Those who already have economic resources can use these to acquire even more of them, often if not by definition at the expense of those who don’t have them. More...
The Matthew Effect – a concept invented by sociologist Robert K. Merton - is based on the following extract of the Gospel of Matthew:
For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.
This statement is intuitively convincing. Those who already have economic resources can use these to acquire even more of them, often if not by definition at the expense of those who don’t have them. More...
Connection of water shortage and human rights
The Universal Declaration covers a lot of stuff, and obviously health is one of them (shades of Nov-Dec?).
We obviously need water to survive, and no human rights without survival. Inadequate water supplies also cause diseases, violating our right to health. We need water – and clean water - to drink, but also to eat. Or rather, to produce our food. And we need a lot. People drink on average just a few liters a day, but they consume thousands of liters a day if we count the water required to produce their food. And evidently we should count it. Many areas of the world face already now face water shortages (there’s a map here). A fifth of the world’s population already lives in areas short of water. A global water crisis waits around the corner, and one likely consequence is famine, another human rights violation. More...
We obviously need water to survive, and no human rights without survival. Inadequate water supplies also cause diseases, violating our right to health. We need water – and clean water - to drink, but also to eat. Or rather, to produce our food. And we need a lot. People drink on average just a few liters a day, but they consume thousands of liters a day if we count the water required to produce their food. And evidently we should count it. Many areas of the world face already now face water shortages (there’s a map here). A fifth of the world’s population already lives in areas short of water. A global water crisis waits around the corner, and one likely consequence is famine, another human rights violation. More...
Can you violate your own right to privacy?
Interesting meditation from talkingphilosophy.com.
On the face of it, it would seem that a person cannot violate her own right to privacy. A privacy violation would seem to require that someone acquire information that they do not legitimate have a right to know and they do so without the consent of the person. For example, someone stealing another person’s diary and reading about their secret hopes and fears would be a privacy violation. When a person knowingly reveals information about herself (such as by being very loud in public, posting it on a public blog or twittering it), then that person has obviously given consent to herself.
However, I think that a case can be made for the claim that a person can violate her own right to privacy. The first step in doing this is arguing that a person can (in general) violate her own rights. More...
On the face of it, it would seem that a person cannot violate her own right to privacy. A privacy violation would seem to require that someone acquire information that they do not legitimate have a right to know and they do so without the consent of the person. For example, someone stealing another person’s diary and reading about their secret hopes and fears would be a privacy violation. When a person knowingly reveals information about herself (such as by being very loud in public, posting it on a public blog or twittering it), then that person has obviously given consent to herself.
However, I think that a case can be made for the claim that a person can violate her own right to privacy. The first step in doing this is arguing that a person can (in general) violate her own rights. More...
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
SCOTUS = Shoot 'em up
This court obviously wants to eliminate all of us by giving us guns and letting us shoot it out. Why are conservatives so gung-ho about gun rights and so shy about, say, gay rights? We'd rather arm our gays than marry them off, I guess.
When they decided to actually start thinking about the Second Amendment again after decades of neglect, looks like this Supreme Court was serious. Hot on the heels of 2008's Heller case in which they declared that the Second Amendment does indeed protect an individual right, they have now agreed in their coming season to consider the case of McDonald v. Chicago...whether an individual's right to own guns for self-defense...also covers states and other cities with gun-control laws... {This is about] the meaning of the 14th Amendment and whether it can or should be used to thus stymie states from restricting weapons possession rights. More...
When they decided to actually start thinking about the Second Amendment again after decades of neglect, looks like this Supreme Court was serious. Hot on the heels of 2008's Heller case in which they declared that the Second Amendment does indeed protect an individual right, they have now agreed in their coming season to consider the case of McDonald v. Chicago...whether an individual's right to own guns for self-defense...also covers states and other cities with gun-control laws... {This is about] the meaning of the 14th Amendment and whether it can or should be used to thus stymie states from restricting weapons possession rights. More...
Polanski, very clearly analyzed
This works for me. 'Nuff said.
Drugging and raping a child, then leaving the country before you can be sentenced for it, is behavior our society should not tolerate, no matter how famous, wealthy or well-connected you are. More...
Drugging and raping a child, then leaving the country before you can be sentenced for it, is behavior our society should not tolerate, no matter how famous, wealthy or well-connected you are. More...
First amendment takes a hit
Poliitcal correctness is not what free speech is all about, obviously.
Does Conan the Barbarian have serious artistic value? That's one of the intriguing questions raised by a case the U.S. Supreme Court will hear next Tuesday. Because Conan includes footage of horses tripped by wires, it seems to be covered by a federal ban on depictions of animal cruelty. If so, Amazon is committing a felony by selling it, unless it could convince a jury that the 1982 epic—in which a bare-chested, codpiece-wearing future governor of California declares that the best thing in life is "to crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentation of their women"—has "serious religious, political, scientific, educational, journalistic, historical, or artistic value." By inviting jurors to be film critics, with the consequences of a bad review including up to five years in federal prison, Congress has turned the First Amendment on its head. That lamentation you hear is the dismayed cry of the Framers at the blitheness with which the people's representatives seek to crush expression that offends them and drive politically incorrect thoughts from the realm of tolerable discourse. More...
Does Conan the Barbarian have serious artistic value? That's one of the intriguing questions raised by a case the U.S. Supreme Court will hear next Tuesday. Because Conan includes footage of horses tripped by wires, it seems to be covered by a federal ban on depictions of animal cruelty. If so, Amazon is committing a felony by selling it, unless it could convince a jury that the 1982 epic—in which a bare-chested, codpiece-wearing future governor of California declares that the best thing in life is "to crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentation of their women"—has "serious religious, political, scientific, educational, journalistic, historical, or artistic value." By inviting jurors to be film critics, with the consequences of a bad review including up to five years in federal prison, Congress has turned the First Amendment on its head. That lamentation you hear is the dismayed cry of the Framers at the blitheness with which the people's representatives seek to crush expression that offends them and drive politically incorrect thoughts from the realm of tolerable discourse. More...
Monday, September 28, 2009
Muslim women oppressed?
A video on Boing Boing throws a common sense spin on things.
Muslim women are just like any other woman. We come in all shapes and sizes, and all sorts of beliefs. You can't paint us all with the same brush. I'm as American as anyone else, I watch movies, I read celebrity gossip, I shop at Victoria's Secret, I work outside the home, I'm pursuing my dreams, the only difference is that little piece of fabric I wrap around my head. Big whoop. I'm not harming anyone by wearing a piece of material on my head so what's the big deal? I myself wear the headscarf and I do so because it's something I believe is mandated in my religion. No one is forcing me and it has no political significance (I have no idea why people keep thinking it does). More...
Muslim women are just like any other woman. We come in all shapes and sizes, and all sorts of beliefs. You can't paint us all with the same brush. I'm as American as anyone else, I watch movies, I read celebrity gossip, I shop at Victoria's Secret, I work outside the home, I'm pursuing my dreams, the only difference is that little piece of fabric I wrap around my head. Big whoop. I'm not harming anyone by wearing a piece of material on my head so what's the big deal? I myself wear the headscarf and I do so because it's something I believe is mandated in my religion. No one is forcing me and it has no political significance (I have no idea why people keep thinking it does). More...
Bill Clinton on gay marriage
He did, after all, sign the DOMA, right? Well, he's changed his mind.
That our society has an interest in coherence and strength and commitment and mutually reinforcing loyalties, then if gay couples want to call their union marriage and a state agrees, and several have now, or a religious body will sanction it, and I don’t think a state should be able to stop a religious body from saying it, I don’t think the rest of us should get in the way of it. I think it’s a good thing not a bad thing. More...
That our society has an interest in coherence and strength and commitment and mutually reinforcing loyalties, then if gay couples want to call their union marriage and a state agrees, and several have now, or a religious body will sanction it, and I don’t think a state should be able to stop a religious body from saying it, I don’t think the rest of us should get in the way of it. I think it’s a good thing not a bad thing. More...
Supreme Court book review
This is a pretty interesting thesis.
He sees the justices and the people as partners in a “marriage” that bypasses the elected legislature and the president. “It frequently is the case that when judges rely on the Constitution to invalidate the actions of the other branches of government, they are enforcing the will of the American people,” he says. The marriage between the court and the people, like many enduring ones, has gradually mellowed. At first, there were occasions when the two sides clashed mightily, but over the years they’ve learned to come into equilibrium. These days, when the court gets into trouble with the public, it’s often on an issue it’s confronting for the first time. (The eminent domain case Kelo v. City of New London, for instance, provoked a populist outcry in 2005.) “What history shows,” Friedman argues, “is assuredly not that Supreme Court decisions always are in line with popular opinion, but rather that they come into line with one another over time.” More...
He sees the justices and the people as partners in a “marriage” that bypasses the elected legislature and the president. “It frequently is the case that when judges rely on the Constitution to invalidate the actions of the other branches of government, they are enforcing the will of the American people,” he says. The marriage between the court and the people, like many enduring ones, has gradually mellowed. At first, there were occasions when the two sides clashed mightily, but over the years they’ve learned to come into equilibrium. These days, when the court gets into trouble with the public, it’s often on an issue it’s confronting for the first time. (The eminent domain case Kelo v. City of New London, for instance, provoked a populist outcry in 2005.) “What history shows,” Friedman argues, “is assuredly not that Supreme Court decisions always are in line with popular opinion, but rather that they come into line with one another over time.” More...
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Begging the (human rights) questions
Interesting piece on how questions can skew answers.
Information on human rights depends heavily on opinion surveys. Unfortunately, surveys can be wrong and misleading for so many different reasons that we have to be very careful when designing surveys and when using and interpreting survey data. One reason...is the framing of the questions. Even very small differences in framing can produce widely divergent answers. And there is a wide variety of problems linked to the framing of questions. More...
Information on human rights depends heavily on opinion surveys. Unfortunately, surveys can be wrong and misleading for so many different reasons that we have to be very careful when designing surveys and when using and interpreting survey data. One reason...is the framing of the questions. Even very small differences in framing can produce widely divergent answers. And there is a wide variety of problems linked to the framing of questions. More...
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Postmodernists redux
A new series of books inspires a little rethinking of the pomos.
Whilst many are happy to take their demolition of French theory at face value, as it provides a convenient justification for not reading any of it, it is often forgotten that part of the authors' point was a plea for clearer writing among leftwing thinkers in the face of the continuing march of neo-liberalism, not simply to damn any and all contemporary thought as "fashionable nonsense", however appealing this easy gesture might be. More...
Whilst many are happy to take their demolition of French theory at face value, as it provides a convenient justification for not reading any of it, it is often forgotten that part of the authors' point was a plea for clearer writing among leftwing thinkers in the face of the continuing march of neo-liberalism, not simply to damn any and all contemporary thought as "fashionable nonsense", however appealing this easy gesture might be. More...
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Marriage in Indiana is meant to last
This speaks for itself.
An Indiana judge has turned down a divorce request from two women married in Canada, ruling that state law doesn’t give courts the authority to dissolve same-sex marriages. More...
An Indiana judge has turned down a divorce request from two women married in Canada, ruling that state law doesn’t give courts the authority to dissolve same-sex marriages. More...
Sandel's course, online
Drop everything.
Harvard University and WGBH Boston have posted online Sandel’s very popular course, “Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do?” How popular is it? Over 14,000 Harvard students have taken this course over the past 30 years. More...
Harvard University and WGBH Boston have posted online Sandel’s very popular course, “Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do?” How popular is it? Over 14,000 Harvard students have taken this course over the past 30 years. More...
The goal of education
There's some hidden material here that may lead you down an interesting Sept-Oct path.
If you ever doubted that the public schools are chiefly run for the benefit of teachers, this article will put those fond delusions to rest. Educating children is an incidental side effect of giving teachers jobs. Of course, not all school systems are as dysfunctional as New York's is, but the monopoly power of government schools cannot help but foster creeping incompetence and the growth self-justifying educational bureaucracies at the expense of educating students. More...
If you ever doubted that the public schools are chiefly run for the benefit of teachers, this article will put those fond delusions to rest. Educating children is an incidental side effect of giving teachers jobs. Of course, not all school systems are as dysfunctional as New York's is, but the monopoly power of government schools cannot help but foster creeping incompetence and the growth self-justifying educational bureaucracies at the expense of educating students. More...
Monday, September 21, 2009
Poverty vs Rights
The P.A.P. Blog supports way more rights than this blog, but this provocative material is fascinating.
Strange as it may seem to some, unemployment benefits are a human right, and rightly so in my opinion. Poverty makes rights impossible... More.
Strange as it may seem to some, unemployment benefits are a human right, and rightly so in my opinion. Poverty makes rights impossible... More.
MIT's Project Gaydar
As your data become public, the math determines who you are? The point here is not to hide one's identity, but to be aware that, if you put yourself entirely on line, your identity becomes less and less under your control.
Using data from the social network Facebook, they made a striking discovery: just by looking at a person’s online friends, they could predict whether the person was gay. They did this with a software program that looked at the gender and sexuality of a person’s friends and, using statistical analysis, made a prediction... Their computer program appeared quite accurate for men, they said. People may be effectively “outing” themselves just by the virtual company they keep... “That pulls the rug out from a whole policy and technology perspective that the point is to give you control over your information - because you don’t have control over your information.” The work has not been published in a scientific journal, but it provides a provocative warning note about privacy. More...
Using data from the social network Facebook, they made a striking discovery: just by looking at a person’s online friends, they could predict whether the person was gay. They did this with a software program that looked at the gender and sexuality of a person’s friends and, using statistical analysis, made a prediction... Their computer program appeared quite accurate for men, they said. People may be effectively “outing” themselves just by the virtual company they keep... “That pulls the rug out from a whole policy and technology perspective that the point is to give you control over your information - because you don’t have control over your information.” The work has not been published in a scientific journal, but it provides a provocative warning note about privacy. More...
Kids and tests, fairly anecdotal
There's a marginal relationship of this to Sept-Oct. Telling, but probably useless.
"Children learned and remembered an extraordinary amount of information about a school trip to a museum" even after a lengthy delay. The findings also showed that giving the children the opportunity to draw, significantly increased the amount of accurate information they recalled... These same children do poorly in recollecting information about the museum on a comprehension test designed by adults. In another words, what children learn from the museum is not in general what the adults are inclined to test them on or what the adults think they should be learning. More.
"Children learned and remembered an extraordinary amount of information about a school trip to a museum" even after a lengthy delay. The findings also showed that giving the children the opportunity to draw, significantly increased the amount of accurate information they recalled... These same children do poorly in recollecting information about the museum on a comprehension test designed by adults. In another words, what children learn from the museum is not in general what the adults are inclined to test them on or what the adults think they should be learning. More.
Rush sez: segregate school buses
You'll have to read this a few times. Then you'll have to track it down further. It's scary.
In a remark extraordinary even by the standards of conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh, the right-wing radio heavyweight declared on his program Wednesday that the United States needed to return to racially segregated buses. Referring to an incident in which a white student was beaten by black students on a bus, Limbaugh said: “I think the guy’s wrong. I think not only it was racism, it was justifiable racism. I mean, that’s the lesson we’re being taught here today. Kid shouldn’t have been on the bus anyway. We need segregated buses — it was invading space and stuff. This is Obama’s America.” More...
In a remark extraordinary even by the standards of conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh, the right-wing radio heavyweight declared on his program Wednesday that the United States needed to return to racially segregated buses. Referring to an incident in which a white student was beaten by black students on a bus, Limbaugh said: “I think the guy’s wrong. I think not only it was racism, it was justifiable racism. I mean, that’s the lesson we’re being taught here today. Kid shouldn’t have been on the bus anyway. We need segregated buses — it was invading space and stuff. This is Obama’s America.” More...
Justice Brandeis bio
This is just a review of the book, but it has its amusement value as a stand-alone.
Brandeis thought the law an instrument of morality and progress. “Is not the challenge of legal justice to conform to our contemporary notions of social justice?” he asked in a speech just weeks before President Wilson nominated him to the court. It is all but impossible to imagine the nomination of a lawyer like Brandeis today, and it is a small miracle that he was confirmed even in his day. More...
Brandeis thought the law an instrument of morality and progress. “Is not the challenge of legal justice to conform to our contemporary notions of social justice?” he asked in a speech just weeks before President Wilson nominated him to the court. It is all but impossible to imagine the nomination of a lawyer like Brandeis today, and it is a small miracle that he was confirmed even in his day. More...
Friday, September 18, 2009
Sandel on the Today show
Good grief, he's riding the trolley: link. The prof is good; I wish this were an hour longer.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Tasers on school campuses. Middle and high school, that is.
I find this rather frightening, myself. The rights of students are curtailed to a great degree in aid of safety, of course, but somehow this doesn't sound right. 50,000 is a lot of volts.
Middle and high schools across the country are inviting Taser-toting cops on school grounds. This comes at a time when Tasers have claimed the lives of hundreds of people, including three teenagers this year alone. While heightened security might be a necessity in an age where kids smuggle deadly weapons to school, this fact alone should give parents and school officials pause. Even as school administrators and local law enforcement accept and incorporate Tasers as disciplinary measures, deploying them on school grounds is putting students at risk. More...
Middle and high schools across the country are inviting Taser-toting cops on school grounds. This comes at a time when Tasers have claimed the lives of hundreds of people, including three teenagers this year alone. While heightened security might be a necessity in an age where kids smuggle deadly weapons to school, this fact alone should give parents and school officials pause. Even as school administrators and local law enforcement accept and incorporate Tasers as disciplinary measures, deploying them on school grounds is putting students at risk. More...
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Abortion and Down syndrome
A classic, and sad, conundrum.
Will The Down syndrome Children Disappear? This is the incredibly provocative question asked by a Children's Hospital Boston researcher in a recent article published in Archives of Disease in Childhood. Given the new prenatal tests available to mothers, the author, Brian Skotko, asks, are we entering an era where slowly Down Syndrome babies will begin to be born in dwindling numbers? And is this, he asks something that we as a society would even want to happen? More...
Will The Down syndrome Children Disappear? This is the incredibly provocative question asked by a Children's Hospital Boston researcher in a recent article published in Archives of Disease in Childhood. Given the new prenatal tests available to mothers, the author, Brian Skotko, asks, are we entering an era where slowly Down Syndrome babies will begin to be born in dwindling numbers? And is this, he asks something that we as a society would even want to happen? More...
A duty to preserve African culture?
Identity politics in the US is one thing. Forced identity politics in Africa? That's something else altogether. This article discusses the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights.
The introduction of a duty to preserve a culture, particularly in Africa, is understandable given the experience of colonialism, but “understandable” doesn’t mean “OK”. People have a right to an identity, cultural or otherwise, and human rights do a great job protecting identity (there’s religious freedom, freedom of association, freedom of thought and speech, freedom of residence etc.). But there cannot be a duty to have and preserve an identity. It seems here that the language of human rights – this is after all a human rights declaration – is used to smuggle in the opinion that it is somehow OK that a cultural identity is forced on people, and that individual identities disappear into the collective. More...
The introduction of a duty to preserve a culture, particularly in Africa, is understandable given the experience of colonialism, but “understandable” doesn’t mean “OK”. People have a right to an identity, cultural or otherwise, and human rights do a great job protecting identity (there’s religious freedom, freedom of association, freedom of thought and speech, freedom of residence etc.). But there cannot be a duty to have and preserve an identity. It seems here that the language of human rights – this is after all a human rights declaration – is used to smuggle in the opinion that it is somehow OK that a cultural identity is forced on people, and that individual identities disappear into the collective. More...
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
A racist bigot whose legacy is mass murder
Okay, ban me in Boston, but this stuff bears repeating. Who are we talking about?
[His is] a silly theory with a serious lack of evidence to support it despite over a century of trying. More...
(Yep. Charlie Darwin.)
[His is] a silly theory with a serious lack of evidence to support it despite over a century of trying. More...
(Yep. Charlie Darwin.)
Where morality comes from
Those of us who worked last year on Sept-Oct (AKA throw the fat guy at the trolley) recall the moral instinct arguments (which I find pretty persuasive). Here's a different look at the sources of moral sense.
...universal concerns among children — such as a need to feel in control of one’s behavior and disapproval of harming others — shape moral development far more than cultural values do. “It’s remarkable how little cultural variation we have found in developmental patterns of moral reasoning,” says Helwig, who presented his results in Park City, Utah, at the recent annual meeting of the Jean Piaget Society. Helwig and like-minded researchers don’t assume that kids’ universal responses spring from a biologically innate moral-reasoning capacity. Instead, they say, children gradually devise ways of evaluating core family relationships in different situations. Kids judge the fairness and effectiveness of their parents’ approaches to punishing misbehavior, for example. These kinds of relationship issues are much the same across all cultures, from Helwig’s perspective. More...
...universal concerns among children — such as a need to feel in control of one’s behavior and disapproval of harming others — shape moral development far more than cultural values do. “It’s remarkable how little cultural variation we have found in developmental patterns of moral reasoning,” says Helwig, who presented his results in Park City, Utah, at the recent annual meeting of the Jean Piaget Society. Helwig and like-minded researchers don’t assume that kids’ universal responses spring from a biologically innate moral-reasoning capacity. Instead, they say, children gradually devise ways of evaluating core family relationships in different situations. Kids judge the fairness and effectiveness of their parents’ approaches to punishing misbehavior, for example. These kinds of relationship issues are much the same across all cultures, from Helwig’s perspective. More...
Monday, September 14, 2009
Predicting that you will be a criminal
This article is a bit Minority Reportish in its connotations.
With the emergence of new and powerful imaging technologies, scientists can see detailed pictures of the brain and trace activity along its neural networks. “The brain was forgotten until neuroscience techniques evolved to a level where we could, for the first time, really look at brain structure and function,” he says. “And from then on, we found that there’s certainly a brain basis to crime—that the brains of violent criminals are physically and functionally different from the rest of us.” More...
With the emergence of new and powerful imaging technologies, scientists can see detailed pictures of the brain and trace activity along its neural networks. “The brain was forgotten until neuroscience techniques evolved to a level where we could, for the first time, really look at brain structure and function,” he says. “And from then on, we found that there’s certainly a brain basis to crime—that the brains of violent criminals are physically and functionally different from the rest of us.” More...
Aesthetics
The Sanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy article on the concept of the aesthetic is somewhat heavy going, but anyone interested in theories of art (e.g., Caveman fans) might want to take a look. If nothing else, you'll like this explanation of "taste":
Mainly British philosophers working mainly within an empiricist framework began to develop theories of taste. The fundamental idea behind any such theory—which we may call the immediacy thesis—is that judgments of beauty are not (or at least not primarily) mediated by inferences from principles or applications of concepts, but rather have all the immediacy of straightforwardly sensory judgments; it is the idea, in other words, that we do not reason to the conclusion that things are beautiful, but rather “taste” that they are. More...
Mainly British philosophers working mainly within an empiricist framework began to develop theories of taste. The fundamental idea behind any such theory—which we may call the immediacy thesis—is that judgments of beauty are not (or at least not primarily) mediated by inferences from principles or applications of concepts, but rather have all the immediacy of straightforwardly sensory judgments; it is the idea, in other words, that we do not reason to the conclusion that things are beautiful, but rather “taste” that they are. More...
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Corporate speech
This issue is coming to a head. From NPR: The question always is: Who does the First Amendment apply to? Do only individuals have the right of free speech? Or does this right extend to corporations and unions as well?... Ronald Bailey replies: "Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press...." So my naive constitutional question is: What part of "no law" don't the courts, NPR, and campaign finance and speech "reformers" understand?
A good article with interesting links to sources.
A good article with interesting links to sources.
Gendercide
Some facts and figures on gendercide, the choice to bear (usually) only male children.
The word gendercide describes the results of sex-selective abortions that take place on a massive scale in some countries, particularly India and China. These abortions have led to the “disappearance” of perhaps more than 100 million girls and women (or about 1 million a year). Evidence of this can be found in the abnormal sex-ratios in both countries: More...
The word gendercide describes the results of sex-selective abortions that take place on a massive scale in some countries, particularly India and China. These abortions have led to the “disappearance” of perhaps more than 100 million girls and women (or about 1 million a year). Evidence of this can be found in the abnormal sex-ratios in both countries: More...
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Carbon problems
For the deeper diggers of PF October, carbon markets and carbon taxes.
Will government solutions to global warming be worse than global warming itself? Remember that man-made global warming is a negative externality that occurs when burning fossil fuels release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Economists define negative externality as a spillover from an economic transaction that harms parties not directly involved in the transaction. In this case, the carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere is thought to be boosting temperatures, raising sea levels, and having other effects on the climate that people must involuntarily pay to adapt to (more air conditioning, switching crops, and so forth). Thus, goes the argument, the price of fossil fuels does not reflect the full cost of consuming them. More...
Will government solutions to global warming be worse than global warming itself? Remember that man-made global warming is a negative externality that occurs when burning fossil fuels release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Economists define negative externality as a spillover from an economic transaction that harms parties not directly involved in the transaction. In this case, the carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere is thought to be boosting temperatures, raising sea levels, and having other effects on the climate that people must involuntarily pay to adapt to (more air conditioning, switching crops, and so forth). Thus, goes the argument, the price of fossil fuels does not reflect the full cost of consuming them. More...
The right to die
We used to have this as a topic every now and then. Assisted suicide is a complex issue no matter how you slice it, and it's been a while since it's been in the news. (Even John Stuart Mill had something to say about killing oneself, btw. He talked about your responsibility to others, something that most suicides don't consider.)
The arguments happening over the right to a medically assisted suicide in Montana indicate that if there is a ‘slippery slope’ - that misused and overworked metaphor repeated in the debate on assisted suicide - it is from the limited rights of those with terminal illnesses towards allowing all who feel they are suffering the right to a medically assisted suicide. More...
The arguments happening over the right to a medically assisted suicide in Montana indicate that if there is a ‘slippery slope’ - that misused and overworked metaphor repeated in the debate on assisted suicide - it is from the limited rights of those with terminal illnesses towards allowing all who feel they are suffering the right to a medically assisted suicide. More...
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Ban POTUS
I'm sorry, but this just strikes me as silly, the whole don't-let-kids-hear-the-president thing. Still, there's at least one point of view that's intelligent on the subject, and I pass it along. You should draw your own conclusions.
The medium is the message. The speech will be a pile of platitudes, not an overtly ideological address. But the exercise itself has ideological undertones, with an implicit lesson that reinforces the bipartisan cult of the presidency. The man in the Oval Office is not supposed to be the nation's chief guidance counselor or its father-in-chief, and it sends a creepy message to act as though he is. More...
The medium is the message. The speech will be a pile of platitudes, not an overtly ideological address. But the exercise itself has ideological undertones, with an implicit lesson that reinforces the bipartisan cult of the presidency. The man in the Oval Office is not supposed to be the nation's chief guidance counselor or its father-in-chief, and it sends a creepy message to act as though he is. More...
Measuring democracy
We've posted on this before, and it's always interesting.
How do we assess if a country is a democracy or not, or is more democratic than another? Or, in other words, how do we assess the “democraticness” of a country, or the level or quality of its democracy, if any? It’s obvious from this way of phrasing the question that my preferred system of measurement will not be binary or dichotomous. I want to have a measurement system that gives me more than merely an indication of the presence or absence of democracy in a country. I want a scale of “democraticness”, ranging from total absence of any elements of democracy to a perfect democracy, with as many intermediate levels as possible. How this can be done is another matter. More...
How do we assess if a country is a democracy or not, or is more democratic than another? Or, in other words, how do we assess the “democraticness” of a country, or the level or quality of its democracy, if any? It’s obvious from this way of phrasing the question that my preferred system of measurement will not be binary or dichotomous. I want to have a measurement system that gives me more than merely an indication of the presence or absence of democracy in a country. I want a scale of “democraticness”, ranging from total absence of any elements of democracy to a perfect democracy, with as many intermediate levels as possible. How this can be done is another matter. More...
On prison populations
Just the photo of California's prison alone is enough to scare you straight. But why is the US so prison-happy? And is the South all that criminal?
California’s archipelago of 33 prisons houses more than 170,000 inmates, nearly twice the number it was designed to safely hold. Almost all of its facilities are bursting at the seams: More than 16,000 prisoners sleep on what are known as “ugly beds” — extra bunks stuffed into cells, gyms, dayrooms, and hallways. [Governor Arnold] Schwarzenegger has referred to the system as a “powder keg.” More...
California’s archipelago of 33 prisons houses more than 170,000 inmates, nearly twice the number it was designed to safely hold. Almost all of its facilities are bursting at the seams: More than 16,000 prisoners sleep on what are known as “ugly beds” — extra bunks stuffed into cells, gyms, dayrooms, and hallways. [Governor Arnold] Schwarzenegger has referred to the system as a “powder keg.” More...
Friday, September 4, 2009
For Oct PF, meet Mr. Chomsky
This Chomsky article will enlighten people, a bit, on the UN and world poverty. And on poverty in general. Very interesting.
On June 11 the Financial Times reported, “the United Nations’ World Food Programme is cutting food aid rations and shutting down some operations as donor countries that face a fiscal crunch at home slash contributions to its funding.” Victims include Ethiopia, Rwanda, Uganda, and others. The sharp budget cut comes as the toll of hunger passes a billion—with over one hundred million added in the past six months—while food prices rise, and remittances decline as a result of the economic crisis in the West...
The “devastating news” released by the World Food Programme barely even reached the level of “mere ‘news.’” In The New York Times, the WFP report of the reduction in the meager Western efforts to deal with this growing “human catastrophe” merited 150 words on page ten under “World Briefing.” That is not in the least unusual. The United Nations also released an estimate that desertification is endangering the lives of up to a billion people, while announcing World Desertification Day. Its goal, according to the Nigerian newspaper THISDAY, is “to combat desertification and drought worldwide by promoting public awareness and the implementation of conventions dealing with desertification in member countries.” The effort to raise public awareness passed without mention in the national U.S. press. Such neglect is all too common. More...
On June 11 the Financial Times reported, “the United Nations’ World Food Programme is cutting food aid rations and shutting down some operations as donor countries that face a fiscal crunch at home slash contributions to its funding.” Victims include Ethiopia, Rwanda, Uganda, and others. The sharp budget cut comes as the toll of hunger passes a billion—with over one hundred million added in the past six months—while food prices rise, and remittances decline as a result of the economic crisis in the West...
The “devastating news” released by the World Food Programme barely even reached the level of “mere ‘news.’” In The New York Times, the WFP report of the reduction in the meager Western efforts to deal with this growing “human catastrophe” merited 150 words on page ten under “World Briefing.” That is not in the least unusual. The United Nations also released an estimate that desertification is endangering the lives of up to a billion people, while announcing World Desertification Day. Its goal, according to the Nigerian newspaper THISDAY, is “to combat desertification and drought worldwide by promoting public awareness and the implementation of conventions dealing with desertification in member countries.” The effort to raise public awareness passed without mention in the national U.S. press. Such neglect is all too common. More...
Defense spending in the US
Any topic with international connotations will probably be able to use this chart. Internalize it, meanwhile, and think about what it really means.
More on the Hillary movie
This article in Reason excellently pits Freedom of Speech against McCain-Feingold.
So what should the Supreme Court do here? In a 1789 speech advocating the addition of the Bill of Rights to the Constitution, James Madison famously described the judiciary as "the guardians of those rights...an impenetrable bulwark against every assumption of power in the legislative or executive." By defending the First Amendment against the creeping depredations of so-called campaign finance reform, the Supreme Court will be doing its constitutional duty. More.
There's also an interesting follow-up article here.
So what should the Supreme Court do here? In a 1789 speech advocating the addition of the Bill of Rights to the Constitution, James Madison famously described the judiciary as "the guardians of those rights...an impenetrable bulwark against every assumption of power in the legislative or executive." By defending the First Amendment against the creeping depredations of so-called campaign finance reform, the Supreme Court will be doing its constitutional duty. More.
There's also an interesting follow-up article here.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Interesting meditation on property rights
Why, if at all, are we entitled to the fruits of our labors?
Talking about property rights, Chris refers to one common justification for property: namely, that 'creating something generates rights over it'. There's no doubt that it's a widely shared moral intuition. If I fashion an old piece of wood into an intricate sculpture, whose should the sculpture be but mine? If you spend long days writing a literary masterpiece, are you not a proper beneficiary of its publication and sale? What is less clear is why we think the creation of the object generates an entitlement on the part of its creator. Is this because it's he or she that's put in the effort, and so deserves the reward? Or is it because, independently of how much effort has been expended, something of the person is thought to be, loosely, 'in' the object created? Neither answer is unproblematic in its implications. More...
Talking about property rights, Chris refers to one common justification for property: namely, that 'creating something generates rights over it'. There's no doubt that it's a widely shared moral intuition. If I fashion an old piece of wood into an intricate sculpture, whose should the sculpture be but mine? If you spend long days writing a literary masterpiece, are you not a proper beneficiary of its publication and sale? What is less clear is why we think the creation of the object generates an entitlement on the part of its creator. Is this because it's he or she that's put in the effort, and so deserves the reward? Or is it because, independently of how much effort has been expended, something of the person is thought to be, loosely, 'in' the object created? Neither answer is unproblematic in its implications. More...
Who can say what, politically? It's still being determined
The theme of unfair advantages seems strong lately, which is what this is really about. This is in reference to the case of the anti-Hillary documentary. It will explain the situation if you're unclear on it.
"When the government of the United States of America claims the authority to ban books because of their political speech," says Citizens United, " something has gone terribly wrong."... The government cannot create a pure, balanced, undistorted political debate; all it can do is introduce new distortions. And as bad as distortions caused by wealth (or visibility or good looks or charisma) might seem, distortions imposed by force are worse, which is why the Constitution forbids them. More...
"When the government of the United States of America claims the authority to ban books because of their political speech," says Citizens United, " something has gone terribly wrong."... The government cannot create a pure, balanced, undistorted political debate; all it can do is introduce new distortions. And as bad as distortions caused by wealth (or visibility or good looks or charisma) might seem, distortions imposed by force are worse, which is why the Constitution forbids them. More...
The animated Howard Zinn
What more can we say? Although I'm personally not a Zinn fan, what I would call his critique of US history is pretty popular with an awful lot of people. Anyhow, check it out.
Alan Turing
This is just sad.
Just about anyone in analytic philosophy is familiar with the work of Alan Turing, who is a central figure in the development of the theory underlying modern computers. In addition, he was pivotal in the breaking of the Enigma Code in WWII. And the treatment he received, which almost certainly led to his suicide, is shocking... More.
Just about anyone in analytic philosophy is familiar with the work of Alan Turing, who is a central figure in the development of the theory underlying modern computers. In addition, he was pivotal in the breaking of the Enigma Code in WWII. And the treatment he received, which almost certainly led to his suicide, is shocking... More.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Women and Wikipedia
I have no idea what this means, but it's rather startling.
Women are consummate content creators online. From technology mavens like Google’s Marissa Mayer to influential mommy bloggers, and even YouTube stars like iJustine, females have played a significant role in shaping web trends. That’s why we’re slightly surprised by a revealing study conducted by the Wikimedia Foundation. Their research found that only 13% of Wikipedia contributors are women. More...
Women are consummate content creators online. From technology mavens like Google’s Marissa Mayer to influential mommy bloggers, and even YouTube stars like iJustine, females have played a significant role in shaping web trends. That’s why we’re slightly surprised by a revealing study conducted by the Wikimedia Foundation. Their research found that only 13% of Wikipedia contributors are women. More...
Meritocracy
Sort of as a subnote to the recent post on economic advantages, there's an amazing rant on Salon by Glenn Greewald about other unearned advantages. Makes you think, again.
Liz Cheney is really the perfect face of Washington's political culture, a perfect manifestation of all the rotting diseases that define it and a pure expression of what our country has become and the reasons for its virtual ruin. She should really be on every political TV show all day every day. It's almost as though things can't really be expressed thoroughly without including her. More...
Liz Cheney is really the perfect face of Washington's political culture, a perfect manifestation of all the rotting diseases that define it and a pure expression of what our country has become and the reasons for its virtual ruin. She should really be on every political TV show all day every day. It's almost as though things can't really be expressed thoroughly without including her. More...
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Wealth inequality
As the post says, not the worst inequality in terms of morality, but interesting.
People who have wealth have an advantage in gathering the information necessary to increase their wealth; they have networks of other wealth holders who can improve their access to opportunities for wealth acquisition; they have advantages in gaining advanced professional and graduate training that increase their likelihood of assuming high positions in wealth-creating enterprises; and they can afford to include high-risk, high-gain strategies in their investment portfolios. So there is a fairly obvious sense in which wealth begets wealth... More.
People who have wealth have an advantage in gathering the information necessary to increase their wealth; they have networks of other wealth holders who can improve their access to opportunities for wealth acquisition; they have advantages in gaining advanced professional and graduate training that increase their likelihood of assuming high positions in wealth-creating enterprises; and they can afford to include high-risk, high-gain strategies in their investment portfolios. So there is a fairly obvious sense in which wealth begets wealth... More.
Monday, August 31, 2009
On big government
This comes from a critique of Ted Kennedy. Those who know me know I am quite wingnut in my liberalism, so it brings up points interesting to ponder.
Kennedy championed a plethora of liberal causes that are surrounded by an aura of nobility: the defense of the poor, the disabled and the sick, the rights of women and minorities. Yet many of the measures he supported are prime examples of the discrepancy between idealistic causes and unintended effects. Thus, the vast majority of economists agree that increasing the minimum wage—one of the legislative achievements with which Kennedy is credited—leads to increased unemployment among the most vulnerable portion of the labor force, pricing the least skilled workers out of the labor market. Affirmative action, which Kennedy helped uphold on the federal level, tends to result in race discrimination against working-class whites (and, in many cases, Asians as well) and often backfires against its supposed beneficiaries as well. Some of Kennedy's other noble causes have been largely symbolic: thus, the Violence Against Women Act and hate crimes legislation create federal penalties for offenses that are already criminally prosecuted by the states. More...
Kennedy championed a plethora of liberal causes that are surrounded by an aura of nobility: the defense of the poor, the disabled and the sick, the rights of women and minorities. Yet many of the measures he supported are prime examples of the discrepancy between idealistic causes and unintended effects. Thus, the vast majority of economists agree that increasing the minimum wage—one of the legislative achievements with which Kennedy is credited—leads to increased unemployment among the most vulnerable portion of the labor force, pricing the least skilled workers out of the labor market. Affirmative action, which Kennedy helped uphold on the federal level, tends to result in race discrimination against working-class whites (and, in many cases, Asians as well) and often backfires against its supposed beneficiaries as well. Some of Kennedy's other noble causes have been largely symbolic: thus, the Violence Against Women Act and hate crimes legislation create federal penalties for offenses that are already criminally prosecuted by the states. More...
Short Sandel interview
There's not much here, although the book, Justice, is obviously intriguing to those of the LD persuasion. I like his take on writing so that people can understand him. Case writers take note!
Your book is completely free of cant, but still rigorous. What do you think accounts for some philosophers' dependence on jargon and impenetrable language?
I don't think philosophy should be seen as a medicine that is good for you but hard to choke down. My goal was to bring out the excitement of moral and political philosophy—to make it accessible and inviting without cheating the ideas. Some branches of philosophy are technical and remote from everyday experiences. But political philosophy is about how we think and act as citizens. It needs to reach beyond the academy and connect with the experience of ordinary citizens. More...
Your book is completely free of cant, but still rigorous. What do you think accounts for some philosophers' dependence on jargon and impenetrable language?
I don't think philosophy should be seen as a medicine that is good for you but hard to choke down. My goal was to bring out the excitement of moral and political philosophy—to make it accessible and inviting without cheating the ideas. Some branches of philosophy are technical and remote from everyday experiences. But political philosophy is about how we think and act as citizens. It needs to reach beyond the academy and connect with the experience of ordinary citizens. More...
Friday, August 28, 2009
Realism
Catch some good material on Realism over at foreignpolicy.com.
Americans agree that foreign-policy goals should be achievable -- that the United States should match its ends with its means. What sensible person could argue with that? That is simply pragmatism. But "realism" as a doctrine (I'll spare you the quote marks henceforth) goes much further: In the words of one leading realist, the principal purpose of U.S. foreign policy should be "to manage relations between states" rather than "alter the nature of states." More...
And followup articles here.
Americans agree that foreign-policy goals should be achievable -- that the United States should match its ends with its means. What sensible person could argue with that? That is simply pragmatism. But "realism" as a doctrine (I'll spare you the quote marks henceforth) goes much further: In the words of one leading realist, the principal purpose of U.S. foreign policy should be "to manage relations between states" rather than "alter the nature of states." More...
And followup articles here.
Thomas Paine
Paine is one of the wackiest of the figures in early American history. If you're not up on him, here's your chance.
Depending on whom you ask, he was either an uncompromising free-thinker who made possible the popular embrace of the Declaration of Independence, or "a filthy little atheist," as Teddy Roosevelt once described him. More...
Depending on whom you ask, he was either an uncompromising free-thinker who made possible the popular embrace of the Declaration of Independence, or "a filthy little atheist," as Teddy Roosevelt once described him. More...
Gay adoption
Florida has a great history (not) on civil rights. I love this one, about why gays can't adopt.
Yesterday the state tried to convince an appeals court that Lederman erred, arguing that the ban is justified by higher rates of breakups, psychiatric problems, and domestic violence among gay couples. Lawyers for Martin Gill, a gay man who is seeking to adopt two foster children he has been raising for five years, disputed the statistics and argued that, in any event, "group generalization makes no sense," since the government can, should, and does evaluate would-be adoptive parents as individuals. More...
Yesterday the state tried to convince an appeals court that Lederman erred, arguing that the ban is justified by higher rates of breakups, psychiatric problems, and domestic violence among gay couples. Lawyers for Martin Gill, a gay man who is seeking to adopt two foster children he has been raising for five years, disputed the statistics and argued that, in any event, "group generalization makes no sense," since the government can, should, and does evaluate would-be adoptive parents as individuals. More...
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Foreskins
It's always something. The CDC has come out with the idea that we should require circumcisions. In response, certain folks have gone ballistic.
From The Daily Dish: The procedure is only "controversial" because people have emotional, psychological and religious reactions to it. Scientifically speaking, it's not remotely controversial. The anti-circumcision sites always refer to the American Academy of Pediatrics' 1999 policy statement on circumcision, which declined to recommend the procedure. But that statement was issued before the most compelling studies emerged about the role circumcision plays in reducing the risk for transmission of HIV and other STD's. More...
From The Daily Dish: The procedure is only "controversial" because people have emotional, psychological and religious reactions to it. Scientifically speaking, it's not remotely controversial. The anti-circumcision sites always refer to the American Academy of Pediatrics' 1999 policy statement on circumcision, which declined to recommend the procedure. But that statement was issued before the most compelling studies emerged about the role circumcision plays in reducing the risk for transmission of HIV and other STD's. More...
Hollywood images lead to thumbs-up for torture?
Interesting thought: Hollywood portrays torture positively, so people condone it in real life.
For example: Harrison Ford in the Tom Clancy movies would never torture wholly innocent and underserving victims for the same reasons he wouldn't beat his kids or hurl racial epithets at black people. But given sufficient time to lay out the context and inform the viewers of the stakes, as well as Ford's motives, the audience not only understands but applauds his actions. More...
For example: Harrison Ford in the Tom Clancy movies would never torture wholly innocent and underserving victims for the same reasons he wouldn't beat his kids or hurl racial epithets at black people. But given sufficient time to lay out the context and inform the viewers of the stakes, as well as Ford's motives, the audience not only understands but applauds his actions. More...
Monday, August 24, 2009
Required reading on Women's Rights
This week's Sunday Times Magazine finally had something important in it aside from the puzzles: Why Women's Rights are the Cause of Our Time (via).
Child poverty
Another Human Rights Map, Child Poverty in the US. The facts here are stupefyingly depressing. The Federal Poverty Level is $20M a year? Makes one feel decidedly rich by comparison.
Men are genetically predisposed to do math
And, of course, women are not.
Needless to say, we find this hard to believe. The data also find it hard.
A surprisingly large number of people are willing to uncritically accept the idea that boys outperform girls at the top end in maths performance, and that this is genetically determined (despite problems for it that we’ve noted before). Rob has pointed us to this very interesting article about cross-cultural variation. One fascinating thing is that some of the best countries for girls’ performance are Islamic ones. More...
Needless to say, we find this hard to believe. The data also find it hard.
A surprisingly large number of people are willing to uncritically accept the idea that boys outperform girls at the top end in maths performance, and that this is genetically determined (despite problems for it that we’ve noted before). Rob has pointed us to this very interesting article about cross-cultural variation. One fascinating thing is that some of the best countries for girls’ performance are Islamic ones. More...
Saturday, August 22, 2009
The woman (?) runner
As Conor Clarke says, all they have to do is look. (Actually, Irving Berlin said that, but Clarke says roughly the same thing.) But what do genetics say about equality?
But there is one general point to make about this kind of story, and I think it's an important one. If it turns out that the young woman has a muddily advantageous genetic composition, we would all consider it "unfair" to the other young women against whom she competes. After all, the outcome of a competition like running is supposed to be determined by training and grit, not the utterly arbitrarily presence of an extra gene.
And yet that intuition is impossible to extend. More...
But there is one general point to make about this kind of story, and I think it's an important one. If it turns out that the young woman has a muddily advantageous genetic composition, we would all consider it "unfair" to the other young women against whom she competes. After all, the outcome of a competition like running is supposed to be determined by training and grit, not the utterly arbitrarily presence of an extra gene.
And yet that intuition is impossible to extend. More...
Sad education fact
A chart pointed at no particular problem for debaters except the loss to humanity in general when people are not educated.
Although there has been some progress in the proportions of children of primary school age actually receiving and completing primary education, some 101 million children worldwide are still denied this right. Not surprisingly, most of these children live in developing countries. More...
Although there has been some progress in the proportions of children of primary school age actually receiving and completing primary education, some 101 million children worldwide are still denied this right. Not surprisingly, most of these children live in developing countries. More...
Hobbes and language
Maybe the social contract is an agreement to define words the same way?
Birds do it, bees do it. Why can’t humans live together peacefully outside a coercive political order? Thomas Hobbes offers as one part of the explanation, that such creatures “want that art of words by which some men can represent to others that which is good in the likeness of evill; and evill in the likeness of good… discontenting men, and troubling their peace at their pleasure.” (L 17) Indeed, the human art of words opens a Pandora’s box of sources of conflict—conflict over what is “yours” or “mine”, “right or wrong”, “reasonable” or “unreasonable”, “orthodox” or “heretical”—as passion-tinged and indexical uses of terms make for a babel that ensures not just a failure to communicate, but a war of all against all. More...
Birds do it, bees do it. Why can’t humans live together peacefully outside a coercive political order? Thomas Hobbes offers as one part of the explanation, that such creatures “want that art of words by which some men can represent to others that which is good in the likeness of evill; and evill in the likeness of good… discontenting men, and troubling their peace at their pleasure.” (L 17) Indeed, the human art of words opens a Pandora’s box of sources of conflict—conflict over what is “yours” or “mine”, “right or wrong”, “reasonable” or “unreasonable”, “orthodox” or “heretical”—as passion-tinged and indexical uses of terms make for a babel that ensures not just a failure to communicate, but a war of all against all. More...
Friday, August 21, 2009
Immigrant narrative from Slate
Another piece for our PF brethren. It's mostly just narrative value, but I worry that we might argue immigration from just the point of view of the place they immigrated to, and not who they are themselves.
Moving migrants across the border and into the United States has become so profitable that even Mexico's narcotraffickers have become involved. Drivers use a single twisting dirt road, rutted with pot holes, to bring their human cargo the 60 miles from Altar to the border town of Sasabe. The road, referred to by local media as the "route of death," is controlled by local narcotraffickers.
According to Enriquez, the cartels have consolidated their control over the area in the last three years. They levy a tax of roughly 50-150 pesos (about $4-$12) on every migrant shipped north; those from countries other than Mexico pay more. Grupos Beta estimates that as many as 500,000 migrants are moved through Altar on the way to the United States during the busiest years. This "tax" represents an incredible source of extra income. Once the migrants reach Sasabe, they set out for various points east and west, obscure desert outposts where the U.S. Border Patrol has a light presence. They wait for the sun to set and begin their march into the United States with the arrival of a cool night breeze. More...
Moving migrants across the border and into the United States has become so profitable that even Mexico's narcotraffickers have become involved. Drivers use a single twisting dirt road, rutted with pot holes, to bring their human cargo the 60 miles from Altar to the border town of Sasabe. The road, referred to by local media as the "route of death," is controlled by local narcotraffickers.
According to Enriquez, the cartels have consolidated their control over the area in the last three years. They levy a tax of roughly 50-150 pesos (about $4-$12) on every migrant shipped north; those from countries other than Mexico pay more. Grupos Beta estimates that as many as 500,000 migrants are moved through Altar on the way to the United States during the busiest years. This "tax" represents an incredible source of extra income. Once the migrants reach Sasabe, they set out for various points east and west, obscure desert outposts where the U.S. Border Patrol has a light presence. They wait for the sun to set and begin their march into the United States with the arrival of a cool night breeze. More...
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Deep background on judicial power
This article talks about where the courts ought not to go, especially into areas of foreign policy, about which they may be ill-informed. It's worth a look.
The present expansion of judicial power began after World War II, when the Supreme Court found a new meteor in the vindication of individual rights and liberties. In a series of epic decisions, the Warren Court outlawed segregation, expanded free speech and the rights of criminal defendants, and created a right to privacy that is not found in the text of the Constitution. Some of these cases certainly were correctly decided—the Constitution's text, for example, never supported a rule of "separate but equal" segregation. However, the courts quickly moved beyond saying what the law is, in the Marbury court's phrase, to devising elaborate enforcement schemes that brought judges, among other things, into the business of supervising school districts and effectively determining how federal and state prisons must be designed. More...
The present expansion of judicial power began after World War II, when the Supreme Court found a new meteor in the vindication of individual rights and liberties. In a series of epic decisions, the Warren Court outlawed segregation, expanded free speech and the rights of criminal defendants, and created a right to privacy that is not found in the text of the Constitution. Some of these cases certainly were correctly decided—the Constitution's text, for example, never supported a rule of "separate but equal" segregation. However, the courts quickly moved beyond saying what the law is, in the Marbury court's phrase, to devising elaborate enforcement schemes that brought judges, among other things, into the business of supervising school districts and effectively determining how federal and state prisons must be designed. More...
Freud
I like to think of myself as one of the first post-Freudians, but that's neither here nor there. In our world view, we see Freud as, well, wrong, but his influence has been enormous. Also, it's clear from learning about him how assigning constructs to difficult realities helps us understand those realities better even if the constructs are wrong. If you're interested in the Weiner schnitzel, check out this lecture on YouTube.
The culpability of autonomous machines
Yeah, it's golden age science fiction stuff, but it's now real enough to engage the Royal Academy of Engineering.
Automation can create hazards as well as removing them. How reliable does a robot have to be before we trust it to do a human's job? What happens when something goes wrong? Can a machine be held responsible for its actions? More...
Automation can create hazards as well as removing them. How reliable does a robot have to be before we trust it to do a human's job? What happens when something goes wrong? Can a machine be held responsible for its actions? More...
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Scalia says: Execute the innocent
Well, he sort of says that. This Conor Clarke post dives into the middle of the discussion, but it's interesting. There's back links in the post to the original materials.
Procedural rights normally aren't things that stand or fall depending solely on the outcomes they generate. More...
Procedural rights normally aren't things that stand or fall depending solely on the outcomes they generate. More...
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
For those on the PF trail this September
Benefit to legalizing undocumented workers:
A new study from the libertarian CATO Institute concludes that legalizing the more than eight million undocumented workers in the United States would have significant economic benefits for the country, while simply enhancing border enforcement and applying restrictive immigration laws would actually hurt the U.S. economically. More...
A new study from the libertarian CATO Institute concludes that legalizing the more than eight million undocumented workers in the United States would have significant economic benefits for the country, while simply enhancing border enforcement and applying restrictive immigration laws would actually hurt the U.S. economically. More...
What snacks do they serve at dogfights, anyhow? Do we want to know?
Peter Singer, commenting on the signing of Micheal Vick, cast a stone or two at the rest of us. Here's a little commentary on the issue.
It is an empirical fact that both dog-fighting and factory farming subject non-human animals to incredible cruelty. I suspect people will grant this in the case of dog-fighting, but will, if my students are any indication, be reluctant to admit this about animals in factory farms. I’m not going to try to defend the empirical facts. Some quick research will support these facts. More...
It is an empirical fact that both dog-fighting and factory farming subject non-human animals to incredible cruelty. I suspect people will grant this in the case of dog-fighting, but will, if my students are any indication, be reluctant to admit this about animals in factory farms. I’m not going to try to defend the empirical facts. Some quick research will support these facts. More...
Monday, August 17, 2009
Women paid less than men
That's the belief, of course. Maybe the facts aren't as dismal as one thinks. Statistics can so easily be manipulated.
These wage ratios are calculated from government data and do not take into account differences in education, job title and responsibility, regional labor markets, work experience, occupation, and time in the workforce. When economic studies include these major determinants of income, rather than simple averages of all men and women’s salaries, the pay gap shrinks even more. More...
These wage ratios are calculated from government data and do not take into account differences in education, job title and responsibility, regional labor markets, work experience, occupation, and time in the workforce. When economic studies include these major determinants of income, rather than simple averages of all men and women’s salaries, the pay gap shrinks even more. More...
Who owns Superman?
If you've followed this story, you know that once upon a time the creators of Superman owned, well, squat. Then things changed. It's a matter of intellectual property going to the creator versus the publisher. Judge for yourself.
....on Wednesday, Judge Stephen Larson awarded the Siegel family rights to more additional works, including the first two weeks of the daily Superman newspaper comicstrips, as well as the early Action Comics and Superman comicbooks. What this means is that the Siegels now control depictions of Superman’s origin story. Everything from the planet Krypton, his parents Jor-L and Lora, the launching of the infant Kal-L into space by his parents as Krypton is destroyed. More...
....on Wednesday, Judge Stephen Larson awarded the Siegel family rights to more additional works, including the first two weeks of the daily Superman newspaper comicstrips, as well as the early Action Comics and Superman comicbooks. What this means is that the Siegels now control depictions of Superman’s origin story. Everything from the planet Krypton, his parents Jor-L and Lora, the launching of the infant Kal-L into space by his parents as Krypton is destroyed. More...
Friday, August 14, 2009
Freedom of expression in China
There's been a couple of items this week, sourced out from this article. In the main, the thought seems to be that money trumps everything, sooner or later. Cap good? Maybe.
China has dropped plans to require “anti-pornography” (read “anti-political-freedom”) software on personal computers...Among the pressures that got the government to abandon this plan was an American threat to use international trade law against it. More.
China has dropped plans to require “anti-pornography” (read “anti-political-freedom”) software on personal computers...Among the pressures that got the government to abandon this plan was an American threat to use international trade law against it. More.
Anti-gay feelings
There's a surprising depth to these comments from Andrew Sullivan.
Campaigns against gay rights, gay people, and gay sex thus have a lot of the structural elements of other forms of crusading against sexual excess or immorality, but they’re not really asking most people to do anything other than become self-righteous about their pre-existing preferences. More...
Campaigns against gay rights, gay people, and gay sex thus have a lot of the structural elements of other forms of crusading against sexual excess or immorality, but they’re not really asking most people to do anything other than become self-righteous about their pre-existing preferences. More...
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Women get final parity at Olympics?
From Feminist Philosophers:
Women’s boxing is looking set to be introduced in the London 2012 Olympics. This will mean that the last Olympic men-only sport will be so no more. Hooray! (Even bigger hooray if the story didn’t involve people hitting each other but what can you do hooray!) More...
Women’s boxing is looking set to be introduced in the London 2012 Olympics. This will mean that the last Olympic men-only sport will be so no more. Hooray! (Even bigger hooray if the story didn’t involve people hitting each other but what can you do hooray!) More...
Implicit biases
This article (and the linked article) opens up some interesting lines of thought about our social expectations.
In the US, and presumably the UK and elsewhere, race, ethnicity and gender automatically trigger in-group/out-group classifications. And most unfortunately, “In general, people retain information in a more detailed fashion, remember more positive information, and are more forgiving of behaviors for ingroup compared to outgroup members.” More...
In the US, and presumably the UK and elsewhere, race, ethnicity and gender automatically trigger in-group/out-group classifications. And most unfortunately, “In general, people retain information in a more detailed fashion, remember more positive information, and are more forgiving of behaviors for ingroup compared to outgroup members.” More...
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Anti-Pollan
I'm a big fan of The Omnivore's Dilemma, but on the other hand, it's nice to know that somebody is pointing out that industrial food production actually has a few pluses.
From Andrew Sullivan: The romanticism of some industrialized food opponents can be naivete. I love organic produce as much as the next foodie, but it would be nice if food critics addressed the economic consequences of "sustainability" gone too far... More.
From Andrew Sullivan: The romanticism of some industrialized food opponents can be naivete. I love organic produce as much as the next foodie, but it would be nice if food critics addressed the economic consequences of "sustainability" gone too far... More.
We reveal ourselves in our actions, not our words
This is a brief post on actions versus words. For all of those who throw around the word/concept of discourse, there's this quote from Montaigne: "The true mirror of our discourse is the course of our lives."
Autonomy in moral and political philosophy
The Stanford Encyclopedia takes on individual autonomy. It's nice to have a source for something we argue so regularly.
SE: Individual autonomy is an idea that is generally understood to refer to the capacity to be one's own person, to live one's life according to reasons and motives that are taken as one's own and not the product of manipulative or distorting external forces. It is a central value in the Kantian tradition of moral philosophy but it is also given fundamental status in John Stuart Mill's version of utilitarian liberalism (Kant 1785/1983, Mill 1859/1975, ch. III). Examination of the concept of autonomy also figures centrally in debates over education policy, biomedical ethics, various legal freedoms and rights (such as freedom of speech and the right to privacy), as well as moral and political theory more broadly. More...
SE: Individual autonomy is an idea that is generally understood to refer to the capacity to be one's own person, to live one's life according to reasons and motives that are taken as one's own and not the product of manipulative or distorting external forces. It is a central value in the Kantian tradition of moral philosophy but it is also given fundamental status in John Stuart Mill's version of utilitarian liberalism (Kant 1785/1983, Mill 1859/1975, ch. III). Examination of the concept of autonomy also figures centrally in debates over education policy, biomedical ethics, various legal freedoms and rights (such as freedom of speech and the right to privacy), as well as moral and political theory more broadly. More...
No God in prison?
I love this. Apparently the warden of this prison didn't want any mention of God in the prisoners' mail. There's laws against that sort of thing (censorship, that is). One mention is made of complaints from an inmate's mother whose correspondence with her son was cut into "something resembling Swiss cheese" because of her frequent biblical references. More...
Back in business
We should begin refeeding the masses tonight. Don't eat any cookies in the meanwhile. You don't want to spoil your appetite.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Lab rat rights
I cite articles about animal rights because I think it is an important issue, regardless of your position on the subject, because merely thinking about it forces you to also think about human rights. The numbers here are surprising.
Last year, 3.6 million animals were used in medical research in the UK, whereas more than 200 million animals were raised for the meat trade, many of which were in factory farms. Thus, animals in research are only a tiny fraction of animals raised for human use: for every research animal, there are 50 animals in the meat industry. Moreover, the case against factory farming is much stronger than the case against animals in research... Compared to the research industry, the meat industry thus involves more than 50 times as many animals, whose presence contributes much less to human welfare, and who arguably suffer more as well. More...
Last year, 3.6 million animals were used in medical research in the UK, whereas more than 200 million animals were raised for the meat trade, many of which were in factory farms. Thus, animals in research are only a tiny fraction of animals raised for human use: for every research animal, there are 50 animals in the meat industry. Moreover, the case against factory farming is much stronger than the case against animals in research... Compared to the research industry, the meat industry thus involves more than 50 times as many animals, whose presence contributes much less to human welfare, and who arguably suffer more as well. More...
Measuring democracy
Over the years we've kicked the concept of democracy around a lot. The thing is, it is not a static concept easily defined, but some form of government somewhere on a very broad spectrum.
What I want to do here is highlight the pros and cons of two extremely different approaches: the minimalist and the maximalist one. The former could, for example, view democracy as no more than a system of regular elections, and measure simply the presence or absence of elections in different countries. The latter, on the other hand, could include in its definition of democracy stuff like rights protections, freedom of the press, division of powers etc., and measure the presence or absence of all of these things, and aggregate the different scores in order to decide whether a country is democratic or not, and to what extent. More...
What I want to do here is highlight the pros and cons of two extremely different approaches: the minimalist and the maximalist one. The former could, for example, view democracy as no more than a system of regular elections, and measure simply the presence or absence of elections in different countries. The latter, on the other hand, could include in its definition of democracy stuff like rights protections, freedom of the press, division of powers etc., and measure the presence or absence of all of these things, and aggregate the different scores in order to decide whether a country is democratic or not, and to what extent. More...
The Obama Doctrine
Etzioni on BHO's foreign policy vs the previous administration's. This piece is a good summary.
Obama has laid out a strong new normative foundation for his foreign policy. He seeks to promote peace and security but leave democratization and liberalization to the people who find their regimes oppressive. This is in direct contrast to the Bush Neocon thesis that forced regime change is essential because only democracies are reliable partners in peace. More...
Obama has laid out a strong new normative foundation for his foreign policy. He seeks to promote peace and security but leave democratization and liberalization to the people who find their regimes oppressive. This is in direct contrast to the Bush Neocon thesis that forced regime change is essential because only democracies are reliable partners in peace. More...
That vicious professor from Harvard? Oh, right. He's black. He probably is vicious.
You've probably seen something about this already, but I am rather stunned by the story of Professor Gates, of all people, suffering this indignity.
A police officer was standing on his porch and asking him to come out of the house. "Instinctively, I knew I was not to step outside," Gates said, describing the officer's tone as threatening. Gates said the policeman, who was in his 30s and several inches taller than him, followed him into his kitchen where Gates retrieved his identification. "I was thinking, this is ridiculous, but I'm going to show him my ID, and this guy is going to get out of my house," Gates said. "This guy had this whole narrative in his head. Black guy breaking and entering." More...
A police officer was standing on his porch and asking him to come out of the house. "Instinctively, I knew I was not to step outside," Gates said, describing the officer's tone as threatening. Gates said the policeman, who was in his 30s and several inches taller than him, followed him into his kitchen where Gates retrieved his identification. "I was thinking, this is ridiculous, but I'm going to show him my ID, and this guy is going to get out of my house," Gates said. "This guy had this whole narrative in his head. Black guy breaking and entering." More...
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Do animals have any legal recourse against human beings?
I find animal rights fascinating. Try following along with this story of the beagles that glow in the dark.
Ruppy the ruby puppy is a transgenic animal whose belly and paws glow under ultraviolet light thanks to genetic code from sea anemones...The most striking thing about Ruppy is how little attention she attracted from animal rights activists. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals made no comment. Nor did the Humane Society, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, or such beast-friendly philosophers as Peter Singer and Matthew Scully... You might attribute the blasé activist reaction to the built-in ethical dilemmas of Ruppy’s case. To argue that the scientists have mistreated these dogs you’d need to establish that the beasts would have been better off not existing in the first place. The concept of wrongful life has actually been litigated in the court of human behavior, with mixed results. More...
Ruppy the ruby puppy is a transgenic animal whose belly and paws glow under ultraviolet light thanks to genetic code from sea anemones...The most striking thing about Ruppy is how little attention she attracted from animal rights activists. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals made no comment. Nor did the Humane Society, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, or such beast-friendly philosophers as Peter Singer and Matthew Scully... You might attribute the blasé activist reaction to the built-in ethical dilemmas of Ruppy’s case. To argue that the scientists have mistreated these dogs you’d need to establish that the beasts would have been better off not existing in the first place. The concept of wrongful life has actually been litigated in the court of human behavior, with mixed results. More...
Pfizer political contributions
What does this mean? Pfizer switches parties?
There has to be some way this works into the potential 2009-10 rezzes.
There has to be some way this works into the potential 2009-10 rezzes.
Hate speech
Ah, those wacky Canadians. They have a different view of hate speech from the US. Illuminating.
Hate speech in the U.S. can only be punished when it is likely to incite imminent lawless action... In Canada, however, it’s not the likelihood of actual harm than can turn speech into prohibited hate speech. The expression of hatred, irrespective of the possible consequences of this expression, is considered a crime. The content itself is the crime, not where it may lead. More...
Hate speech in the U.S. can only be punished when it is likely to incite imminent lawless action... In Canada, however, it’s not the likelihood of actual harm than can turn speech into prohibited hate speech. The expression of hatred, irrespective of the possible consequences of this expression, is considered a crime. The content itself is the crime, not where it may lead. More...
Obscenity in print
Free speech nowadays means free publication of pretty much anything. It was not only so. The legal complications of the Lady Chatterley's Lover case are instructive.
[Lawyer] Rembar mulled over a question that [Justice] Brennan apparently hadn’t considered: What if a book met the standards of obscenity yet also presented ideas of “redeeming social importance”? By Brennan’s logic, wouldn’t it qualify for the First Amendment’s protection after all?
On a sheet of paper, Rembar drew two slightly overlapping circles. He labeled one circle “Material appealing to prurient interests.” He labeled the other “Material utterly without social importance.” By Brennan’s reasoning, only material that fell inside both circles — that was both prurient and worthless — should be denied the privileges of free speech. More...
[Lawyer] Rembar mulled over a question that [Justice] Brennan apparently hadn’t considered: What if a book met the standards of obscenity yet also presented ideas of “redeeming social importance”? By Brennan’s logic, wouldn’t it qualify for the First Amendment’s protection after all?
On a sheet of paper, Rembar drew two slightly overlapping circles. He labeled one circle “Material appealing to prurient interests.” He labeled the other “Material utterly without social importance.” By Brennan’s reasoning, only material that fell inside both circles — that was both prurient and worthless — should be denied the privileges of free speech. More...
How to talk fast and influence people
Ryan Ricard posts on talking fast. He's got it right. I think it's especially important for speakers to realize that, as they speed along, we may only be getting half of what they're saying, which is enough for us to misunderstand it, but not enough for us to yell "Clear!" The fastest speakers I have known have been as clear as the proverbial bell, and I was able to flow them 100%, and my flows would look like the Encyclopedia Britannica because they were so chocked to the gills with information. You have to be fast AND clear. Fast without clear is deadly.
Who is the author of the book the author wrote?
Hemingway's A Moveable Feast is being republished in a new edition that A.E. Hotchner, a writer himself and a friend of EH, claims is not only not true to EH's intentions, but downright unethical.
All publishers, Scribner included, are guardians of the books that authors entrust to them. Someone who inherits an author’s copyright is not entitled to amend his work... Ernest was very protective of the words he wrote, words that gave the literary world a new style of writing. Surely he has the right to have these words protected against frivolous incursion, like this reworked volume that should be called “A Moveable Book.” More...
All publishers, Scribner included, are guardians of the books that authors entrust to them. Someone who inherits an author’s copyright is not entitled to amend his work... Ernest was very protective of the words he wrote, words that gave the literary world a new style of writing. Surely he has the right to have these words protected against frivolous incursion, like this reworked volume that should be called “A Moveable Book.” More...
Monday, July 20, 2009
Postmodern fiction reading list
Yep. Really. From the L.A. Times. And, by golly, it's not only an interesting list, but there's some good books on it.
Sometimes you need to read something other than Kant, you know?
Sometimes you need to read something other than Kant, you know?
Jerry Lewis knows profundity when he reads it
Want scary? Celebrities comment on Ayn Rand.
Sample quote from Mr. Lewis: The Fountainhead is "a very profound book...Makes you think!" Yeah, that it does, Jerry.
Sample quote from Mr. Lewis: The Fountainhead is "a very profound book...Makes you think!" Yeah, that it does, Jerry.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Philosophy for beginners podcasts
These five lectures are right up my alley. Plus there's links to a million other philosophy podcasts.
Just give me more hours in the day, please...
Just give me more hours in the day, please...
Self-assisted suicide
Here's a subject we haven't seen in a while, but in addition to its intrinsic issues, it relates to other rights we have, or don't have, over our selves. Mill, by the way, talks about our connections to others as undermining the idea that we could harm ourselves without cost.
Why should there be a moral right to end your life? We own our own body. Our body is part of our private property. It is something that is ours; it is the thing par excellence that is our own. It is not common to several people and it cannot be given away. It cannot even be shared or communicated. It is the most private thing there is. Owning our body means that we are the master of it. Other people have no say in the use of our body; they should not use it, hurt it or force us to use it in a certain way. This underpins the security rights such as the right to life, the right to bodily integrity, and the prohibition of torture and slavery. But it also implies the right to self-determination, and therefore, the right to die. More...
Why should there be a moral right to end your life? We own our own body. Our body is part of our private property. It is something that is ours; it is the thing par excellence that is our own. It is not common to several people and it cannot be given away. It cannot even be shared or communicated. It is the most private thing there is. Owning our body means that we are the master of it. Other people have no say in the use of our body; they should not use it, hurt it or force us to use it in a certain way. This underpins the security rights such as the right to life, the right to bodily integrity, and the prohibition of torture and slavery. But it also implies the right to self-determination, and therefore, the right to die. More...
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