Is passivity always the best response to aggression? Dr. Helen discusses
Ace claims Dems will trade deaths for votes.
Will the US Survive until 2022? Derbyshire at New English Review. Among other things, he discusses multi-ethnic nations, and central govt incompetence. A quote:
Certainly our federal government inspires little confidence. I have a sheaf of credit cards in my wallet, any one of which my local merchants can validate with a quick swipe. Why cannot a prospective employee’s social security card similarly be validated? Because private corporations are approximately 100,000 times better—more efficient, more capable—of doing anything than is the government.
In the 1990s I had a job which required me to make occasional phone calls to banks and investment houses, and also to the offices of federal regulatory agencies like the FDIC in Washington. To call a private company with a request, then to call a government agency, was to step through a horological time warp. A business would deal with me more or less well (sometimes less well, to be sure), usually in a single call. To get the equivalent response from a government agency needed a whole week of calls. If anyone picked up the phone at all, I would hear a slow, indifferent voice, irked at having its game of Solitaire interrupted, saying: “She ain’t here today… Oh, he left early…” Would my contact be in the office next day? “Hard to say… I guess…”
Are humans becoming smarter and more moral? Kling thinks so. I'm a skeptic, but he makes the case at TCS. A quote:
But perhaps the focus on scientific ideas still misses a key component of economic growth: improvements in the human species. As we get wealthier, we also become enhanced physically, cognitively, and morally, leading to a virtuous cycle of improvements to the standard of living. As the economy improves, human cognitive ability and moral reasoning improves, which helps markets to work better and makes the process of innovation more productive, leading to greater wealth, more mental and moral development, and so on.
