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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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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06.19.09
Posted in Current Events, Politics at 11:08 am by madcap
Photo by Gary Godfrey
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06.16.09
Posted in Culture, Current Events, Economics, Politics at 11:40 pm by madcap
I’m just catching up with Nico Pitney’s live-blog of the ongoing protests in Iran. (Funny enough, I’m seeing him being interviewed by Rachel Maddow in a repeat of today’s show right now.)
In his 2:21PM ET entry, Nico reports a reader’s communication with family in Iran, an excerpt of which follows:
He said that probably half the stores are closed, but that unemployment is 40% anyway, so its not like protestors have anything better to do. These people are mostly young, unemployed, have poor access to higher education, and no foreseeable future prospects.
My thoughts while reading this were (in this order):
- 40% unemployment?! No wonder they’re rioting!
- It’s about time we saw some masses of young, unemployed, under-educated men in the Middle East with no future prospects fighting for the forces of good. In that respect, I guess thanks are deserved to Iran’s oppressive theocrats.
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06.14.09
Posted in Current Events, Politics at 9:25 pm by madcap
Twitter was all aflutter yesterday with criticism of CNN for its lack of coverage of the on-going protests in Tehran (see #cnnfail and
#IranElection on Twitter, also this article from the NY Times).
Howard Kurtz, of CNN’s Reliable Sources offered a defense CNN via Twitter itself:
Maybe CNN should have taken CNNi feed last evening. But it was middle of the night in Iran, and even journalists have to rest sometimes.
Howard Kurtz, via Twitter
If you ask me, CNN should take CNNi feed every day, all day(*).
(*) Except for the cricket scores. They can leave those out. 
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