Coachean Feed

Does Peter Parker Have a Moral Responsibility to Be Spider-Man?

2010-08-25T13:42:00.001-04:00

Does Peter Parker Have a Moral Responsibility to Be Spider-Man?

Got Rand?

2010-05-26T11:37:00.002-04:00

I'm no fan of Ayn Rand for a boatload of reasons, including the fact that, as a novelist, she was the pits. If you're interested in the lady, this article in The Nation is a must read.

Burqas in France

2010-05-25T17:01:00.001-04:00

Best article I've seen in a while, from a Hindu woman. "French lawmakers recently voted for a non-binding resolution condemning the burqa because they see in it not an expression of personal piety—but a message of religious fundamentalism meant to insult French secularism." More...

So much for the vaccination topic

2010-05-25T16:55:00.001-04:00

In January the United Kingdom's General Medical Council ruled that physician Andrew Wakefield's 1998 research allegedly linking autism to the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine (MMR) was conducted "dishonestly and irresponsibly." More...

Innate morality

2010-05-07T12:04:00.001-04:00

Holy Cannoli: "A growing body of evidence, though, suggests that humans do have a rudimentary moral sense from the very start of life. With the help of well-designed experiments, you can see glimmers of moral thought, moral judgment and moral feeling even in the first year of life. Some sense of good and evil seems to be bred in the bone." More...

Liberty and the Supreme Court

2010-05-06T12:02:00.000-04:00

An enlightening piece on SCOTUS. "When America’s Founders thought of liberty, however, their minds did not gravitate to a bill of rights, much less to the Supreme Court as guardian of the lonely dissenter. One reason is that the Founders understood liberty to be mainly a community’s right to govern itself according to laws made by representatives caring for the public weal. Individuals enjoyed the manifold blessings of living in such a regime. Some had the further satisfaction of participating in this collective self-governance by the leave of no man, as equal and independent citizens." More...

Racism and capital punishment

2010-05-04T12:27:00.000-04:00

"There are many things wrong with capital punishment in the U.S. (and with capital punishment as such), but the most obvious thing is the blatant racism of it all. A black person in the U.S. is almost 4 times more likely to be executed." More...

Freedom from religion

2010-05-03T13:56:00.001-04:00

A useful National Review article for CatNats Pfffters: "Many Americans are puzzled and angry about the judicial assault on religion, morality, and common sense that has been going on for the past few decades. People wonder, for example, how the First Amendment (which guarantees freedom of religion as well as separation of church and state) could possibly require the expulsion of religion from public life, or outlaw prayers at high-school football games and graduation ceremonies. To answer questions like these, one must understand how federal judges got the power to make such controversial political decisions in the first place, and how the judges used that power to bludgeon the American citizenry into believing that their power was legitimate." More...

Why Kevin Keller matters

2010-04-27T12:29:00.001-04:00

Exactly: "The significant distinction here is that, unlike superhero comics, Archie comics are specifically aimed at kids (well, and at aging collectors who remember reading them as kids, but the kids are the primary audience): They're a fantasy about what high school will be like. That's why the addition of Kevin to the series' endless comedy of desire and disdain is welcome and long overdue. The social fabric of high school is going to include gay people, and the sooner kids (and aging collectors) take that as much for granted as they do the Archie/Betty/Veronica love triangle, the better." More...

The membership theory of poverty

2010-04-26T12:07:00.001-04:00

"The group membership theory of poverty states that some people are poor because of the dynamics of the group(s) to which they belong. The groups may be residential areas (“ghettos”), schools, ethnic groups, workplaces etc. Poverty in this sense is “contagious”, hereditary, and self-perpetuating. It’s an example of a poverty trap." More...

The end of national prayer day. Thank God!

2010-04-25T13:38:00.002-04:00

There actually is a Freedom from Religion Foundation, CatNat Pfffters! Thank them for this: Judge Crabb explained her decision by stating that “…[the National Day of Prayer's] goes beyond mere ‘acknowledgement’ of religion because its sole purpose is to encourage citizens to engage in prayer, an inherently religious exercise that serves no secular function in this context.” More...

Kevin Keller is gay

2010-04-23T09:16:00.001-04:00

Of such is revolution truly made. Kevin Keller is a character in Archie comics. Link.

Free speech and dog fights

2010-04-22T12:25:00.003-04:00

"This law contains within itself a regressive, anti-democratic, anti-freedom germ. It implies that it is up to the state to declare what is a worthy object of expression and what is not. Which is why this week’s US Supreme Court ruling, declaring the law unconstitutional insofar as it violates the First Amendment, is so welcome." More...

How often does SCOTUS go 8-1? Once again the content of speech doesn't matter (for the most part). Read the actual decision from Roberts and Alito's objections if you really want to understand it.

A good rule of thumb

2010-04-21T12:15:00.003-04:00

Never lend books to John Stuart Mill. Especially if it's a manuscript you've just finished writing. Read about it here.

Racism and prisons

2010-04-21T12:04:00.001-04:00

"When pushed to explain this racial disparity, most people take comfort in the popular myth of American justice--that only the guilty get arrested, charged, and incarcerated. It's obvious: more blacks than whites are arrested and put in jail because they commit more crimes. Americans can't conceive of it any other way because racism is the issue we refuse to acknowledge." More...

The article is anecdotal, but true.

Race and unemployment

2010-04-19T11:16:00.001-04:00

Are you surprised by this? "The experiment recruited white, black, and Latino job applicants, called testers, who were matched on demographic characteristics and interpersonal skills. The testers were given equivalent resumes and sent to apply in tandem for hundreds of entry-level jobs. Our results show that black applicants were half as likely to receive a callback or job offer relative to equally qualified whites." More...

From the ever-reliable P.A.P. blog.

McLuhan

2010-04-15T11:38:00.002-04:00

Do people still read McLuhan? They should. Start with this prescient video if you want to know why.

Against capital punishment

2010-04-14T12:18:00.002-04:00

"Is there something inherent in capital punishment, in the very nature of it, that justifies its abolition?" A rather traditional argument, courtesy of the P.A.P. blog, looking not at its failings to retribute, deter, etc. Mark my words: this resolution will come up again and again. Retributive justice is just so core to LD.

Commemorating the Confederacy? Not a good idea.

2010-04-08T13:20:00.003-04:00

Confederate Vice President Alexander H. Stephens ... bluntly declared that slavery was "the immediate cause of the late rupture and the present revolution." He said the United States had been founded on the false belief that all men are created equal. The Confederacy, in contrast, had been "founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the Negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural moral condition."

Reason is running this because the Governor of Virginia, recently declaring April to be Confederate History Month, somehow managed to completely forget about slavery. "Oh, that old thing!" More...

Net neutrality

2010-04-07T13:15:00.000-04:00

You need to care about this. "The ruling would allow Comcast and other Internet service providers to restrict consumers' ability to access certain kinds of Internet content, such as video sites like Hulu.com or Google's YouTube service, or charge certain heavy users of their networks more money for access. Google, Microsoft and other big producers of Web content have argued that such controls or pricing policies would thwart innovation and customer choice." More...

Equality of opportunity

2010-04-07T12:36:00.003-04:00

"Equality of opportunity is different from equality of outcome: most of us don’t think it’s a good idea to strive towards equality of outcome in most spheres of life. We’re quite happy to accept that some people earn less money, have less vacation time, have lower social status and recognition levels and have more uncomfortable, dangerous, or physically draining work etc. What we don’t accept is that those outcomes are predetermined by the family they happen to be born in, by discrimination they suffer or by other instances of bad luck." More...

The article cites Reinhold Niebuhr, if you're interested.

Stereotype threat

2010-04-05T16:30:00.002-04:00

"There’s an interesting phenomenon called the stereotype threat, or, in other words, the threat of stereotypes about one’s capacity to succeed at something: when the belief that people like you (African-Americans, women, etc) are worse at a particular task than the comparison group (whites, men, etc) is made prominent, you perform worse at that task." In other words, if you think that you're a part of the wrong sort, you'll act accordingly and doom yourself to failure.

The article gives nice facts and figures, and even draws on Foucault. From the P.A.P. blog.

Morality is flim-flam

2010-04-05T16:01:00.002-04:00

"Morality – that is, morality as a social institution, consisting in the feeling of certain emotions and the transmission of tendencies to experience those emotions -- has survival value. Those groups that have it are more likely to survive than those that lack it, even though individuals within moral groups might be made individually worse off through acting in accordance with morality than against it." I always love a good morality discussion apart from religious dictates. Have at the commentary here (with a link to the original).

Philip Pullman nails free speech

2010-03-30T12:24:00.001-04:00

From a clip via Boing Boing

Malthusian numbers

2010-03-30T10:08:00.002-04:00

"Hawking declares that, 'in the last 200 years, population growth has become exponential… The world population doubles every forty years.' But this is nonsense. For a start, there is no exponential growth. In fact, population growth is slowing. For more than three decades now, the average number of babies being born to women in most of the world has been in decline... Here are the numbers. Forty years ago, the average woman had between five and six kids. Now she has 2.6. This is getting close to the replacement level which, allowing for girls who don’t make it to adulthood, is around 2.3.... Half the world already has a fertility rate below the long-term replacement level. That includes all of Europe, much of the Caribbean and the far east from Japan to Vietnam and Thailand, Australia, Canada, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Algeria, Kazakhstan, and Tunisia.

If you need some numbers to add to your refutations of Malthus, who simply should not be run, period, read this article.

A short history of the Congo

2010-03-29T14:06:00.001-04:00

This has to be the most depressing timeline ever. You get the impression that, if any new technology comes along, this region will prove rich in the natural resource required to manufacture it, and, as a result, all hell will break loose. Link.

"Caveman" revisited: Fountain

2010-03-28T15:48:00.002-04:00

“Whether Mr Mutt with his own hands made the fountain or not has no importance. He CHOSE it.” And what happened afterward to, perhaps, the single most important work of art in the 20th century. Find out here.

If corporations are people, maybe animals are too

2010-03-26T15:49:00.003-04:00

"Should animals, like indigent criminal defendants, be provided with legal representation by the state? It could happen. As Time has reported, on March 7, voters in Switzerland will decide whether to give 'domestic creatures . . . the constitutional right to be represented by (human) lawyers in court.' More...

I'm imagining that, before long, we will be seeing some serious LD rezzes on animal rights, although I don't think we'll select them to debate them because, at their root, they're a little bizarre. Still, the issues are fascinating.

Need to refute Malthus?

2010-03-26T12:34:00.002-04:00

"Malthus, a man who, not to put too fine a point on it, was the scum of the Earth, who thought poor people should be deprived charity and healthcare and if they died as a result, well good, since they have ‘no claim of right to the smallest portion of food’." That Malthus? Well, you could do worse than this article. What interests me about Malthusianism is that someone could run theories that are empirically disproven, and get away with it. You've got to love debate: Tabula rasas gone wild!

Aff-Act

2010-03-25T08:51:00.001-04:00

Most people are probably finished with this rez, but if not: http://money.howstuffworks.com/personal-finance/college-planning/admissions/race-college-admissions.htm

And therefore, 14% of any population is idiotic

2010-03-24T13:12:00.000-04:00

"24 percent of Republicans (14 percent overall) say that Obama 'may be the Antichrist.' What else do Republicans believe? Link.

By the way, Dick Cheney is the Antichrist. I thought everybody knew that by now.

Ada Lovelace

2010-03-24T12:30:00.000-04:00

We would be remiss not to note this woman today. You could start here.

Innate morality v. social norms

2010-03-24T12:03:00.002-04:00

Okay, it's not throwing the fat guy in front of the trolley, but it's interesting: "modern prosociality is not solely the product of an innate psychology, but also reflects norms and institutions that have emerged over the course of human history." That's from a precis here; there's an analysis here.

In other words, cultural development affects moral judgment. You learn something every day.

Profile of Justice Stevens

2010-03-22T12:08:00.000-04:00

From the New Yorker. If you care about SCOTUS, read it. Link.

I'd like to ignore Texas, but

2010-03-18T21:46:00.000-04:00

Since TJ is a personal hero of mine, and, last I heard, the main author of the Declaration of Independence, I'm just a little taken aback. "Thomas Jefferson no longer included among writers influencing the nation’s intellectual origins. Jefferson, a deist who helped pioneer the legal theory of the separation of church and state, is not a model founder in the board’s judgment. Among the intellectual forerunners to be highlighted in Jefferson’s place: medieval Catholic philosopher St. Thomas Aquinas, Puritan theologian John Calvin and conservative British law scholar William Blackstone. Heavy emphasis is also to be placed on the founding fathers having been guided by strict Christian beliefs." WTF? Next up, dentists will start asking for George Washington to be removed from the founders because he had a bad set of false teeth.

We should all be in a DNA database?

2010-03-18T21:21:00.002-04:00

Nice fodder for a debate topic? "The goal of such a database is to help the police fight crime by better enabling them to find perpetrators who leave DNA traces at the scenes of their misdeeds...The main ACLU objection is: In America, people are presumed innocent until proven guilty. Thousands of people are arrested or detained every year and never charged with a crime. Housing a person’s DNA in a criminal database renders that person an automatic suspect for any future crime – without warrant, probable cause, or individualized suspicion." More.

Kant on meat

2010-03-17T12:57:00.000-04:00

Another Kant article, this time on animals. It's a marvel of rationalization! "In his ethical theory Kant makes it quite clear that animals are means rather than ends... Since animals are means and not ends, Kant claims that we have no direct duties to animals...Given this view, it would seem that Kant would not be very concerned with how animals are treated. After all, they would seem to be mere things. Oddly enough, Kant argues that we should treat animals well. However, he does so while also trying to avoid ascribing animals themselves any moral status. Here is how he does it (or tries to do so). "Article.

I knew Kant, and you're not him!

2010-03-17T12:24:00.000-04:00

"We cannot expect ordinary people to be better philosophical moral reasoners than Kant. Kant’s philosophical moral reasoning appears mainly to have confirmed his prejudices and the ideas inherited from his culture. Therefore, we should be nervous about expecting more from the philosophical moral reasoning of people less philosophically capable than Kant."

Want to "be dissin' on Kant"? Read this in The Splintered Mind. Watch out for naughty bits.

Stanford Encyc on feminism/objectification

2010-03-17T11:59:00.001-04:00

"The majority of the thinkers discussing objectification have taken it to be a morally problematic phenomenon." Yep. Good stuff all around for a philosophical understanding of feminism. Article.

Taxing Coke (the beverage) isn't enough

2010-03-10T12:48:00.001-05:00

"The federal government already has a tax policy affecting what we eat, and it dramatically distorts the price of our food ... and the size of our waists." This isn't an insignificant thought regarding your tax dollars at work. Check it out: link.

Heidegger

2010-03-09T17:35:00.000-05:00

Everyone's favorite Nazi. This is probably most of what you need to know: Heidegger tells us that "the Nothing noths." "Noths" being a word Heidegger has made up, it is hard to know what it means. Aside from which, it is hard to understand why he was an enthusiastic supporter of the Nazis in the 1930s, why he continued to support them during the Second World War, and why he even refused to condemn the ideology afterwards. "We should not be surprised that Heidegger was for a short period a Nazi, not because anything in Sein und Zeit entails National Socialism but because nothing in Sein und Zeit could give one a standpoint from which to criticise it or any other irrationalism." More...

I would say that, given Heidegger's impenetrability, it's good to know that his politics allow us to skip him completely. Noth this, bub!

Gendercide

2010-03-09T16:31:00.001-05:00

Perhaps as many as 100 million girls have disappeared in the last decades because of selective abortions encouraged by new medical technology (ultrasounds and fertility technology), childhood neglect of girls (nutritional, educational neglect and neglect in health care), prejudice, preference for male offspring and population policies such as the “one child policy” in China. More from P.A.P. Author Spagnoli isn't strident, but there's sad and important material here.

Teaching the so-called controversy, again

2010-03-04T12:29:00.002-05:00

I mean, it's only a "theory." Then again, "It is not the role of public schools to confirm the religious beliefs of their students." Ronald Bailey in Reason solves the problem of people who want science v. people who want religion. Link.

Refugee facts

2010-03-03T14:00:00.001-05:00

Interesting maps (after the first two charts) showing where refugees come from, and where they go.

In defense of blowing each other's brains out

2010-03-03T13:30:00.000-05:00

Reason Magazine, a libertarian rag that I actually enjoy reading, provides arguments in favor of incorporation here. If guns are so great, why can't I fly to WDW with one strapped into my belt? Or at least sail through "It's a Small World" with one, as my daughter suggests? But then again, I definitely need one around the house for defense. My cat likes to bite? Ka-boom, kitty!

The fact that people like something or want something doesn't make it a right. And something that was a daily requirement over two hundred years ago is not necessarily a daily requirement today just because it was one then. In other words, either the law is an ass, or 5 of the Supes. Pick one.

The right to blow each other's brains out

2010-03-03T12:55:00.002-05:00

It looks like SCOTUS wants to incorporate the second amendment. Bam!

Freedom of high school speech

2010-02-17T11:01:00.001-05:00

In a way, there goes the neighborhood. "Katherine Evans, now 19 and attending college, was suspended in 2007 from Pembroke Pines Charter High School after she used her home computer to create a Facebook page titled, 'Ms. Sarah Phelps is the worst teacher I've ever met.' In his order, Garber found that the student had a constitutional right to express her views on the social networking site. More...

The new Jim Crow

2010-02-16T11:19:00.002-05:00

The racial aspects of the criminal justice system are not new to us, but the numbers in this article are quite depressing.

Crime rates have fluctuated over the past few decades -- and currently are at historical lows -- but imprisonment rates have soared. Quintupled. And the vast majority of that increase is due to the War on Drugs, a war waged almost exclusively in poor communities of color, even though studies consistently show that people of all colors use and sell illegal drugs at remarkably similar rates. In fact, some studies indicate that white youth are significantly more likely to engage in illegal drug dealing than black youth.

That is not what you would guess, though, when entering our nation's prisons and jails, which are overflowing with black and brown drug offenders. More...

The sweet smell of doing the right thing

2010-02-14T11:14:00.001-05:00

A team of researchers found that when people were in a room recently spritzed with a citrus-scented cleanser, they behaved more fairly when playing a classic trust game. In another experiment, the smell of cleanser made subjects more likely to volunteer for a charity.

The findings suggest that simply smelling something clean makes people clean up their behavior - that a smell can provoke a mental leap between cleanliness and morality, making people think differently about the world around them. More...

Physiological aspects of morality are intriguing to the consilient set.

Pink ouija boards

2010-02-12T13:00:00.001-05:00

"Phelan, who has never played the game, said the Bible explicitly states "not to mess with spirits" and that using a Ouija board will leave a person's soul vulnerable to attack." More...

May the lord have mercy on our heathen souls. Especially girls' heathen souls. (What's the boys' version like, anyhow?)

Genetic testing before procreation

2010-02-09T21:30:00.001-05:00

"Counsyl, a genetic testing startup company is now offering prospective parents what it calls a 'universal genetic test' that aims to let them know how their genes might combine to produce genetic disease in their offspring." Wow. I can see all sorts of ramifications to this, but maybe I've just been debating too long. And Steven Pinker and his wife are the poster children for it! Link.

Corporate speech again

2010-02-09T21:00:00.000-05:00

Many of us were taken aback by the recent court ruling, including apparently th President, but you might want to read this before coming to any conclusions.

"This line of attack demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of both the nature of corporations and the freedoms protected by the Constitution, which is exemplified by the facile charge that “corporations aren’t human beings.”

Well of course they aren’t — but that’s constitutionally irrelevant: Corporations aren’t “real people” in the sense that the Constitution’s protection of sexual privacy or prohibition on slavery make no sense in this context, but that doesn’t mean that corporate entities also lack, say, Fourth Amendment rights. Or would the “no rights for corporations” crowd be okay with the police storming their employers’ offices and carting off their (employer-owned) computers for no particular reason? — or to chill criticism of some government policy."

More...

Freedom of association

2010-02-09T20:30:00.000-05:00

Long ago, we had a topic about this, the right, or lack thereof, of private organizations to discriminate. The article at hand talks about England and religions, but its point is universal. "As part of this freedom of association, this freedom to give shared beliefs or interests an organisational form, others, who do not share those beliefs or interests, will be excluded... Discrimination goes hand-in-hand with freedom of association. You can’t defend one without defending the other." More...

Human rights video

2010-02-09T20:00:00.000-05:00

This is probably best for novices, early on. I found it a little dizzying, myself, but the intro was especially strong. Actually looked like a novice meeting, in a way. Link.

No link to autism

2010-02-09T19:30:00.000-05:00

"The prestigious British medical journal The Lancet is fully and formally retracting the 1998 study that sparked the autism/vaccine scare." I realize this is old news, both rez-wise and news-wise, but in case you missed it, here's the details.

Quoting Howard Zinn

2010-02-04T11:57:00.001-05:00

Revolutionary change does not come as one cataclysmic moment (beware of such moments!) but as an endless succession of surprises, moving zigzag toward a more decent society. We don't have to engage in grand, heroic actions to participate in the process of change. Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can quietly become a power no government can suppress, a power that can transform the world. More...

I'm not a great fan of Zinn's revisionist history, but this article sums up some wonderful thinking. Check out the whole thing on the Huffington Post.

Freedom for dictators

2010-02-01T20:22:00.002-05:00

Are dictators more free than their subjects? Probably not. The quote below, absent that issue, is an awfully interesting explanation of freedom, in any case.

Freedom is not only – or even primarily – the ability to do what you choose, but also the availability of significant choices. And a choice is significant when you have the ability to expand the options you can choose from and the ability to make an educated choice between expanded and examined options. More...

Rights in Florida

2010-01-29T11:56:00.003-05:00

A Florida court crossed the line by forcing Samantha Burton to be hospitalized to prevent her from smoking during her pregnancy. State courts have forced mothers who are pregnant to be involuntarily tested, hospitalized and bedridden to prevent them from engaging in a wide range of unhealthy behaviors in the past--most notably the use of illicit drugs like crack, cocaine, and alcohol. More...

I would imagine that the appeals court will ultimately reverse the first court. Still, this is a real head-shaker. Do we need to add a Florida category?

Law is not about results

2010-01-26T20:00:00.000-05:00

This article stopped me in my tracks. "If the Constitution or other laws bar the government action in question, then that's the end of the inquiry; whether those actions produce good results is really not germane." More...

Health care

2010-01-26T19:30:00.000-05:00

It comes up, and you should know something about it. How about a country by country CBA? Link.

The way of all (PF) flesh

2010-01-25T19:30:00.000-05:00

Jonathan Peele writes on the PF topic selection process, which is, apparently, franchised. Could this happen to LD?

"As has been done with increasing frequency in recent years – most recently for the November failed states topic – the NFL Executive Director has sold the topic selec tion rights to a sponsoring organization." More...

Does foreign aid work?

2010-01-21T11:21:00.001-05:00

Comparing types of foreign aid. Some interesting facts and conclusions.

From PAP: If you ask whether development aid is effective, it depends on what kind of aid you’re talking about, and on what you understand by effectiveness. If by effectiveness you mean that development aid should foster economic growth, you’re probably right to say it’s ineffective. But if you say that aid should solve some very specific problems such as a disease or the consequences of a disaster or a famine, then it can be very effective. More...

Peter Singer

2010-01-20T12:25:00.002-05:00

Watch this video, which is Singer on greed. I've never seen him before. After this, I want to see more.

Democracy on the decline

2010-01-20T12:16:00.001-05:00

From PAP: According to the latest report by Freedom House, 2009 marked the fourth consecutive year in which democracy suffered a decline—the longest consecutive period of setbacks in the nearly 40-year history of the report. These declines were most pronounced in Sub-Saharan Africa, although they also occurred in most other regions of the world. More...

Fascinating map of the Balkans

2010-01-20T11:51:00.002-05:00

I found this while aimlessly surfing through Wikipedia. You watch the Balkans balkanize through the years. Amazing! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balkanization

More on meth

2010-01-14T12:21:00.001-05:00

As a therapist working in a drug and alcohol treatment program at an HIV/AIDS clinic, I can assure you this menace is anything but conquered. More...

Speed still kills

2010-01-14T12:17:00.001-05:00

Not debate-oriented. More like a PSA, from A Sullivan.

It is not a recreational drug; it is death. There needs to be more funded treatment centers, more outreach to the communities that are most vulnerable. More...

Don't blame me

2010-01-14T10:17:00.002-05:00

This week will now take place next week, podcastwise. But at least there's a new poll. Link.

Doctorow on copyright

2010-01-14T09:05:00.002-05:00

Cory Doctorow is a most vocal proponent of open rights to intellectual property, and this piece provides some good points on his side.

The vast majority of the culture swept into this 20th century black hole was not commercially available and, in most cases, the authors are unknown. The works are locked up -- with no benefit to anyone -- and no one has the key that would unlock them. We have cut ourselves off from our own culture, left it to molder -- and in the case of nitrate film, literally disintegrate -- with no benefit to anyone. More...

We also live in a bizarre country

2010-01-13T12:53:00.000-05:00

Read this one after the previous one: Link.

We live in a bizarre world

2010-01-13T12:48:00.000-05:00

A Sudanese woman who wore pants in public was fined the equivalent of $200 but spared a whipping on Monday when a court found her guilty of violating Sudan’s decency laws. More from P.A.P....

This is the headline of the year!

2010-01-13T12:30:00.001-05:00

Freemasonry Symbols Found In Lincoln-Douglas Debate Site, Book Reveals

Fortunately (unfortunately?), it's Abraham L and Stephen D, not the Glenbrooks or something. Link.

The moral and constitutional case for a right to gay marriage

2010-01-11T19:30:00.001-05:00

I can't say I ordinarily follow the NY Daily News, but this piece is absolutely to the point.

"To pass constitutional muster, racial discrimination had to survive strict scrutiny' by the courts. Government had to demonstrate a compelling need for its regulations, show they would be effective and narrowly craft the rules so they didn't sweep more broadly than necessary. That same regime should apply when government discriminates based on gender preference. No compelling reason has been proffered for sanctioning heterosexual but not homosexual marriages. Nor is a ban on gay marriage a close fit for attaining the goals cited by proponents of such bans. If the goal, for example, is to strengthen the institution of marriage, a more effective step might be to bar no-fault divorce and premarital cohabitation. If the goal is to ensure procreation, then infertile and aged couples should be precluded from marriage."

More....

Democracy can't work here

2010-01-11T19:30:00.000-05:00

P.A.P. brings up interesting anti-democracy arguments.

"In discussions about the promotion of democracy in those parts of the world where it hasn’t been (firmly) established yet, the sceptical side of the argument usually advances either or both of the following positions:

Democracy is a political form typical of the West and undesirable or impossible elsewhere.
Democracy is a political concept which is defined in different ways according to the culture in which it is applied. When promoting democratic government in certain places, we are in fact promoting standard Western democracy when we should in fact be promoting something quite different."

More...

Great quote via A Sullivan

2010-01-08T11:37:00.000-05:00

"To do evil a human being must first of all believe that what he’s doing is good . . . Ideology—that is what gives evildoing its long-sought justification and gives the evildoer the necessary steadfastness and determination. That is the social theory which helps to make his acts seem good instead of bad in his own and others’ eyes, so that he won’t hear reproaches and curses but will receive praise and honors. That was how the agents of the Inquisition fortified their wills: by invoking Christianity; the conquerors of foreign lands, by extolling the grandeur of their Motherland; the colonizers, by civilization; the Nazis, by race, and the Jacobins (early and late), by equality, brotherhood, and the happiness of future generations. — Alexandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago.

Link.

Test

2010-01-07T09:23:00.001-05:00

What shows, if anything, in Twitter?

NCFL changes LD dramatically?

2010-01-06T19:30:00.003-05:00

Hardly.

Two LD issues were brought before the board. The elimination of lag pairing failed miserably (or words to that effect). And good old fashioned disclosure remains punishable by 500 years in Purgatory. There's also some resolution discussion; don't read it on an empty stomach.

Full report here, via the PFDebate Blog.

Same sex marriage vs. incest

2010-01-06T19:30:00.001-05:00

Guess who wins!

Link.

Scalia, yet again

2010-01-06T19:30:00.000-05:00

I can't get enough of the man: link.

Forced democracy?

2010-01-04T12:21:00.002-05:00

The ever-reliable P.A.P. blog discusses the down sides of getting democracy in places where it isn't.

If people want to have democracy, then it is of course possible and acceptable, maybe even necessary to assist them and to help them in their struggle against their government. But can we promote democracy if the people of a country do not want to have a democracy? Is it not undemocratic to force someone to be democratic? On the one hand, democracy implies respect for the will, the choice and the consent of the people. But, on the other hand, if we want to create democracy with undemocratic means, we have the analogy that peace is not always restored with peaceful means either... Does democracy not imply the right of the people to decide against democracy and to choose something else? More...

Iranian sanctions and Jan-Feb

2010-01-03T14:40:00.001-05:00

Jim Anderson does an interesting post on both sides, vis-a-vis Iran. Check it out.

Gay rights support

2010-01-01T09:01:00.001-05:00

Andrew Sullivan reposts an important article about the growing support for gay rights.

If you think that the Vietnam war took around 60,000 young American lives randomly over a decade or more, then imagine the psychic and social impact of 300,000 young Americans dying in a few years. Imagine a Vietnam Memorial five times the size. The victims were from every state and city and town and village. They were part of millions and millions of families. Suddenly, gay men were visible in ways we had never been before. And our humanity - revealed by the awful, terrifying, gruesome deaths of those in the first years of the plague - ripped off the veneer of stereotype and demonization and made us seem as human as we are. More, actually: part of our families. More...

Guns

2010-01-01T08:42:00.003-05:00

I spent New Year's Eve arguing guns with people who seem to believe that increased firepower <> increased effect. Knives kill people too, in other words.

Give me a break.

And give them this video, best ad of the year from Andrew Sullivan. Link.

Women suck at math in all cultures

2009-12-21T20:58:00.002-05:00

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...

Iranian pride v. sanctions

2009-12-18T10:50:00.001-05:00

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...

Homosexuality punishable by death in Uganda

2009-12-10T19:30:00.003-05:00

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...

Rosa Parks

2009-12-10T19:30:00.002-05:00

Some interesting images here.

Food stamps

2009-12-10T19:30:00.001-05:00

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...

Poverty and rights

2009-12-07T12:29:00.002-05:00

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...

The Swiss ban minarets

2009-12-02T19:30:00.000-05:00

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...

The US just loves to put people in prison

2009-12-01T19:30:00.000-05:00

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...

Rorty and human rights

2009-11-24T19:30:00.002-05:00

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...

A billion hungry people

2009-11-24T19:30:00.001-05:00

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...

Voting felons

2009-11-24T19:30:00.000-05:00

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...

Assisted suicide

2009-11-18T19:30:00.001-05:00

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...

The Vatican discusses ETs

2009-11-18T19:30:00.000-05:00

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...

Executing gays in Uganda

2009-11-17T19:30:00.000-05:00

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...

NPR on women in college

2009-11-11T19:30:00.001-05:00

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...

Women's rights were a joke?

2009-11-11T19:30:00.000-05:00

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...