08.15.10
Posted in Current Events, Patriotism, Politics, Religion at 6:12 am by madcap
I agree with much of what Sam Harris writes. When I don’t agree, it’s usually a question of degree. For instance, Harris recently ignited debate at his TED talk, in which he advocated science as an arbiter of moral decisions. While I support this effort in principle, I fear Harris is a bit too optimistic on the prospects of science to develop from a historically descriptive practice to a normative one, or, to put it another way, to rise above Hume’s (in)famous “is-ought” problem. In fact, one could review history and make a plausible case that science is often at its worse when it is used prescriptively. (The expected counterargument is that those examples are not examples of science, but pseudoscience used to further decidedly non-scientific agendas.)
I am not writing this to debate science’s role in morality, though. I believe a thoughtful debate can be had there. Rather, I am reacting to Harris’ recent article, Ground Zero Mosque from The Daily Beast. His first two sentences perhaps best sum up his position:
Should a 15-story mosque and Islamic cultural center be built two blocks from the site of the worst jihadist atrocity in living memory? Put this way, the question nearly answers itself.
Harris’ answer, in case the obviousness escaped you, is no.
Read the rest of this entry »
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01.12.10
Posted in Culture, Philosophy, Politics, war at 12:43 am by madcap
Conor Friedersdorf responds to Jonah Goldberg’s continuing attempts to frame the debate over water-boarding as a debate over semantics: Talking Over Torture | The American Scene
Goldberg is absolutely wrong to argue that there are no good responses to the ticking time bomb scenario. Perhaps he means that he chooses to pretend like nobody is making them. This makes sense, since the neocon crowd is quite adept at plugging their ears and yelling their mantras (not to mention running their own cable news networks) in order to drown out any opposing viewpoints. In fact, Friedersdorf’s analysis, as well as the comments of Mike Farmer’s above, provide two excellent responses to the ticking time bomb scenario.
I humbly offer a third Read the rest of this entry »
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11.04.09
Posted in Religion at 10:46 pm by madcap
As The Onslaught Continues - The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan
I was reading the above article by Andrew Sullivan, and I got to thinking: the Vatican is welcoming all the misogynists and homophobes in the Anglican community to rejoin the Catholic church… how about the remaining Anglicans invite all the priests who’d like to get married or come out of the closet over to their side*. The Vatican gets the congregations, the Anglicans get the clergy. Sounds like an even trade to me.
* They can keep the pedophiles.
Update: Apparently, Dawkins beat me to it.
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10.16.09
Posted in Current Events, Economics at 10:08 am by madcap
A reader spars with Andrew Sullivan over which administration(s) deserve credit for the Dow hitting 10,000: The Daily Dish - Dissent of the Day
Allow me to offer a different dissent:
In 1999, when the Dow hit 10,000, the unemployment rate was 4-4.5%. In 2009 when the Dow hit 10,000, the unemployment rate was 9.5%.
Let’s not start uncorking the champagne just yet.
Most Americans don’t enjoy a lot of benefit directly from the stock market. Even for those of us who have significant savings there, it’s mostly tied up in retirement accounts.
Yes, growth can lead to jobs. But it doesn’t necessarily have to. And until it does, the recession will not be over for most people, especially those looking for a job. So why don’t we all sit back, take down the “Mission Accomplished” banner hanging over Wall Street, and maintain a little bit of cautious optimism instead?
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09.16.09
Posted in Politics at 12:01 am by madcap
There seemed little question after the argument in an important campaign finance case at the Supreme Court on Wednesday that the makers of a slashing political documentary about Hillary Rodham Clinton were poised to win. The open issue was just how broad that victory would be.
Justices Are Pressed for a Broad Ruling in Campaign Case - NYTimes.com
The idea that corporations or other groups have constitutionally-protected rights by way of their corporate personhood is ludicrous on the face of it. Corporate personhood is a legal fiction that is convenient for business matters (esp. contract law and torts), but ought not be taken too far.
If we discard the notion that corporations have constitutional rights above and beyond the rights of their human constituents, then we can see that Congress should have broad leeway in regulating corporate participation in our political process.
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