Monthly Archives: January 2017

Rules for a constitutional crisis

Rules for a constitutional crisis “What a good lawyer does is tell a story that persuades. Not by hiding the truth or exciting the emotion , but using reason, through a story, to persuade. When it works, it does something to the people who experience this persuasion. Some, for the first time in their lives, […]

Christians were strangers

Christians were strangers How an obscure oriental cult in a corner of Roman Palestine grew to become the dominant religion of the Western world: “As most people know from their own experience, intellectual differences can harden into intractable convictions for all sorts of non-intellectual reasons. Patronage, factionalism, political advantage, social cliquishness can all play a […]

The Data That Turned the World Upside Down

The Data That Turned the World Upside Down “Nix shows how psychographically categorized voters can be differently addressed, based on the example of gun rights, the 2nd Amendment: “For a highly neurotic and conscientious audience the threat of a burglary—and the insurance policy of a gun.“ An image on the left shows the hand of […]

A new idea

A new idea from: January 28, 2017 at 10:24AM

An argument for eliminating the corporate income tax

An argument for eliminating the corporate income tax “The corporate tax comes, I think, from fundamental misconceptions. The first is that corporations are somehow like people, who when taxed bear some burden. No, corporations are just shells or buckets of money, people pouring money in or taking it out bear the entire burden.”

recency Illusions

recency Illusions from: January 26, 2017 at 10:09PM

Latte pappas

Latte pappas from: January 26, 2017 at 10:07PM

The Great Unbundling

The Great Unbundling from: January 26, 2017 at 09:50PM

The Politics of Single Issue Abortion Voters

The Politics of Single Issue Abortion Voters “Some, maybe even many, Trump voters acknowledged all these negative things and justify their vote by saying that Trump was the lesser evil–I actually think that is more honest even if I think they are wrong about which evil was lesser. At least they admit to there being […]

Authoritarians Distract Rather than Debate

Authoritarians Distract Rather than Debate from: January 26, 2017 at 09:38PM

Sports and Media

Sports and Media from: January 26, 2017 at 08:57PM

Strangers in Their Own Land: The ‘Deep Story’ of Trump Supporters

Strangers in Their Own Land: The ‘Deep Story’ of Trump Supporters from: January 26, 2017 at 08:21PM

Are women chess players intimidated by male opponents? Part II

Are women chess players intimidated by male opponents? Part II from: January 26, 2017 at 07:34PM

THE FUTURE OF LIBERALISM AND THE POLITICIZATION OF EVERYTHING

THE FUTURE OF LIBERALISM AND THE POLITICIZATION OF EVERYTHING “ Liberalism emerged historically as a means of enabling fruitful cooperation among people of divergent backgrounds and belief systems. Liberal norms were discovered, not invented, through a process of social evolution. Forgetting this can lead one to overestimate our ability to redesign society, even along more […]

This is your morning

This is your morning A Nigerian-American moves back to Nigeria: “‘When you wake up, that is your morning.’ She continues: ‘You know Igbo is full of proverbs, right? It’s how we say it is never too late to do your own work, or achieve what you have to achieve. Everybody’s timing is different.’”

Five-month-old babies know what’s funny

Five-month-old babies know what’s funny “Like children and adults, infants appear to rely on two key features to detect funniness. First, humour nearly always requires a social component. Using naturalistic observations, the psychologists Robert Kraut and Robert Johnston at Cornell, and later the neuroscientist Robert Provine at the University of Maryland, discovered that smiling is […]

How Louis CK Tells A Joke

How Louis CK Tells A Joke January 22, 2017 at 06:04AM

The Threat of Moral Authority

The Threat of Moral Authority “When Trump dismissed Lewis as ‘all talk, talk, talk,’ he dismissed the value of moral politics in general, and in particular the basic conversation about right and wrong in which Lewis is engaging. In supporting Lewis, it’s important to recognize not only his personal history but the rhetorical history of […]

The UBI Bait and Switch

The UBI Bait and Switch “Just in case its intentions weren’t apparent, the government reaffirmed that the “primary goal of the basic income experiment is related to promoting employment.” As far as Centre was concerned, there was no reason to include low-earning adults already working or adults out of the labor force for reasons other […]

George Lakoff: How the Democrats Helped Elect Trump

George Lakoff: How the Democrats Helped Elect Trump “…he has the whole strict-father thing, moral hierarchy. If you have strict-father morality what that says is it’s your concern alone that matters, reteaching individual responsibility. That means responsibility for yourself, not social responsibility. Not caring about other citizens; that’s weak. You should care about yourself; that’s […]