Altruism & Egoism
Marc Andreessen points out a most enlightening interview in Der Spiegel of a Kenyan economist on the topic of development aid.
One might look at this as just a very bad case of unintended consequences, but I’d like to suggest that there is a deeper moral here: we need to stop assuming that altruistically motivated actions [...]
Score One for Checks and Balances
As reported by the New York Times, a federal appeals court handed down a ruling which flatly rejects the Bush administration’s assumed right to designate people as “enemy combatants” and imprison them on that basis. It’s about time.
I’m very happy that the courts have finally condemned this flagrant violation of the rule of law. I [...]
Silent Spring
Rachel Carson was born a hundred years and a few days ago. The New York Times science column has an excellent overview of how Silent Spring’s claims regarding the dangers of pesticides compare to state of scientific knowledge.
The short version: in light of the best scientific knowledge available at the time the book [...]
Egalitarianism and the Decline of Religious Belief
Phil Zuckerman (of Pitzer College) & Gregory Paul wrote an article entitled “Why The Gods Are Not Winning”, which documents the long-term decline of religion in advanced, prosperous nations. For an atheist living in the West’s most religious state, their article is a fresh breath of optimism.
The exceptional piety of America among Western states certainly [...]
Hong Kong Citizens Push to Legally Classify Bible as Indecent Material
Reposted from The Atheist Experience (see the original post):
This is hilarious. More than 800 Hong Kong citizens are pushing to have the Bible legally classified as indecent material. In actuality, this is all by way of making a point about freedom of speech and of the press. Recently a column in a university newspaper containing [...]
May Day
Distributed Republic is running a series of articles in remembrance of the victims of communism, both past and present.
Drug Laws are Arbitrary
As reported by the BBC, a recent study surveyed scientists and health experts in the UK on the comparative health risks of different recreational drugs. The study concludes that the health risks of the drugs are totally uncorrelated to their legal status. (US drug laws are broadly similar to those in the UK.)
Among the study’s [...]
The State Education Monopoly
Last week Utah passed a school voucher bill, making it the first state to take a real step towards ending the state monopoly in primary education. This story only just now came to my attention, and it seems to be getting remarkably little news coverage. Andrew Coulson has some interesting commentary on the difficulties Utah’s [...]
