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.

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...