Did you need the lyrics for the Pancho and Lefty YouTube we posted yesterday? Here they are.
The oxytocin receptor and prosocial behavior. It would be interesting to see whether bloggers are low in these receptors.
The shot that changed Germany. It should be a big story in Germany - and in all of Europe.
Wilkinson on Sotomayor: People going crazy on cue
The Hugging Crisis in our schools.
Are we ready for Men's Studies yet?
Iron Laws of political economics, including:
There is no form of market failure, however egregious, which is not eventually made worse by the political interventions intended to fix it.
Maybe we should get rid of all of those terrible crosses at Arlington, too. Meanwhile in Euroland, French author faces jail for offending Islam. They are trying to re-live the Dark Ages. Thus far in the US, still no laws against offending religions.
California pols refuse to explain why their state needs hysterical spending growth
How did Socialist Nazy Germany pay for their Social Security programs?
Insty:
PEOPLE TEND TO REBEL AGAINST EXCESS NANNYING, EVEN WHEN THE NANNIES ARE RIGHT: Healthy Lifestyles On Decline In United States. Then, of course, there’s the way the advice tends to change over time.
From Gaghdad Bob (h/t Dr. Sanity's Leftism Aims Low)
Liberty is not a built in -- much less universal -- value, and I think you can see how this is a major part of understanding the motivations -- or shall we say, the deep structure -- of leftism. Classical liberals wonder why leftists don't value freedom, but they shouldn't.
Rather, the question is why we do value it, because it is an obvious aberration in the human race. Most humans value security over liberty, predictability over change, conformity over individuality, and authority over self-rule. So when we see that leftists hate freedom and progress but love authority and comformity, we shouldn't be the least bit surprised, for it is true of most rank-and-foul humans. Political correctness, statism, micromanagement of our lives -- these are all the natural consequences of a dread of liberty.
To finish up with Prager's thought, he noted that it was God who wanted humans to have freedom, not humans. For the vast majority of human beings, liberty is not a particularly important value, much less the most important one. They would just as soon barter it away for security, as they have done in western Europe.
Can you spot the billionaire? From Boudreaux:
Nora ____ e-mailed me earlier today; she was terse: "How do you sleep at night justifying policys [sic] that make incomes more unequal???"
My first response is to say "grow up." As long as Mr. Smith earns his income rather than steals it, Mr. Jones ought not care. Envy is an ugly sentiment, and becomes ghastly and dangerous whenever it is manifested in government policies.
But my more measured response is here.
