Curt Doolittle

Form: Question

  • Q: WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE? (ethics) a) Do unto others as you would have done unt

    Q: WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE?

    (ethics)

    a) Do unto others as you would have done unto you. VS Do not to others that which you would not have done to you.

    b) Freedom to do what one wishes as long as he harms no other. VS Freedom from constraint by others on what one can do as long as he harms no other.

    c) An in-group requirement for production. VS An in-group prohibition on free riding.

    d) The requirement for fully informed, warrantied, voluntary exchange, free of externalities. VS The prohibition on criminal, unethical, immoral and conspiratorial actions.

    e) Requirement for mutually beneficial cooperation VS Prohibition on parasitism.

    ANSWER? (‘Cmon. You can do it. Be brave.) 🙂

    Source date (UTC): 2014-04-27 03:42:00 UTC

  • If the president can nullify laws, then why can’t the states? or cities? or coun

    If the president can nullify laws, then why can’t the states? or cities? or counties?

    I need a stuffed animal called ‘nullify’ that I can hug at night.

    Source date (UTC): 2014-04-24 23:12:00 UTC

  • DIVIDENDS AND TRANSPARENCY? Don’t dividends solve the problem of creating transp

    DIVIDENDS AND TRANSPARENCY?

    Don’t dividends solve the problem of creating transparent data better than taxation does, because the incentives are aligned? Taxes distort information gathering, distort incentives, and distort the economy. Don’t dividends do the opposite? I’d rather have dividends and no corporate taxation on dividends, and taxation only upon personal income, if I were interested in providing informational transparency without the tragic incentives of corporate taxation.

    —“Taxation is not only a way of requiring all citizens to contribute to the financing of public expenditures and projects and to distribute the tax burden as fairly as possible; it is also useful for establishing classifications and promoting knowledge as well as democratic transparency.”—

    Piketty, Thomas (2014-03-10). Capital in the Twenty-First Century (Kindle Locations 297-299). Harvard University Press. Kindle Edition.

    Source date (UTC): 2014-04-24 13:08:00 UTC

  • SANCTIONS I am not getting good info here. But do I correctly interpret that the

    SANCTIONS

    I am not getting good info here. But do I correctly interpret that the threat of further sanctions on Russia are working? I mean, the States is planning to cut Russia out of the international finance system. It will be nearly impossible for Russian firms to do business without the very high cost of circumventing that system (doing everything in cash with people who will accept their currency). Russian growth has dropped to zero in just two months.

    I mean, if I’m Putin, and I think I can do it quickly, I take the hit and do it anyway, and apologize afterward. But if the Ukrainian’s run a civil war and it’s protracted, then it’s pretty unlikely that the Russian government can tolerate the economic isolation, without severely affecting the citizens.

    Source date (UTC): 2014-04-18 07:18:00 UTC

  • Curt, is this legit? Yikes

    Curt, is this legit? Yikes.

    Source date (UTC): 2014-04-17 15:04:00 UTC

  • POLITICAL BIAS AS BRAIN DAMAGE? Libertarianism and progressivism as brain damage

    POLITICAL BIAS AS BRAIN DAMAGE?

    Libertarianism and progressivism as brain damage and underdevelopment?

    If you make a male out of a female by in-utero brain damage, and the growth of compensatory brain structures, that deprive the male of experiential empathy and exaggerate physicality. Then why is not libertarian moral bias just additional brain damage that also limits moral empathy? Why is not progressive bias a failure to masculinize the brain structure? And is conservatism then the only normal? Thats what science would suggest.

    Progressives have been trying to use findings of cognitive science to demonize conservatives. But it turns out that it’s Progressives who demonstrate brain damage (or more likely, inadequate brain development). Libertarians as well, although I find that with libertarians I an explain it as the product of behavioral abilities. And I suspect that I can explain progressive ‘brain damage’ as the product of their abilities. 😉

    Source date (UTC): 2014-04-17 07:58:00 UTC

  • OK. GEEK HELP WANTED. MAC BUYING DECISION QUESTION. Upgrade HW or Buy New? I use

    OK. GEEK HELP WANTED. MAC BUYING DECISION QUESTION.

    Upgrade HW or Buy New?

    I use two Macbook Pro’s. A 17″ and a 15″ from mid 2010. (I take good care of my equipment.) Both have 8GB of RAM and 500GB HD’s. The 15″ looks brand new. The 17″ has little a bit of wear (one little dent on the side) from life in my backpack; and the battery is going and needs to be replaced. But for all intents and purposes they are adequate machines for a guy who basically writes for a living. (Albeit, I have 50 browser instances open at any given time.) And yes, I use both at the same time. Almost always.

    The last release of OSX was optimized for SSD’s and drive performance has been an issue for me. I was going to upgrade BOTH of the laptops to 500GB or 1TB SSD’s, and replace the battery in the 17″. That’s just over $1.3K in cost.

    The new Macbook Pro 15″ comes with the Retina display, 16GB of RAM, an SSD, and battery life is on the order of 8 hours. And it’s about $3K.

    So, given that I am wired to these machines full time: do I go for the Retina display, the extra RAM, the performance and the battery life, and spend another $1.6k – and then use a new one, and the 15″, and leave my 17″ at the office. Or do I just save myself some cash and and upgrade machines from 2010 because they’re largely adequate for what I do?

    Source date (UTC): 2014-04-16 09:06:00 UTC

  • What is the name of the elegant older gentleman who runs the libertarian Salon i

    What is the name of the elegant older gentleman who runs the libertarian Salon in London?

    Source date (UTC): 2014-04-13 03:07:00 UTC

  • Can you buy Borjomi or the equivalent in the States? ‘Cause I’m addicted to the

    Can you buy Borjomi or the equivalent in the States?

    ‘Cause I’m addicted to the stuff now.

    (FYI: Think lightly carbonated water with salt. CocaCola products have a lot of salt in them, and that’s why Dasani water tastes pretty good. But Borjomi is much saltier. It’s the hangover drink of choice here in Kiev. Can’t imagine that it’s readily available in the states.)

    Source date (UTC): 2014-04-01 07:42:00 UTC

  • Don, How does one know when he has transitioned from conscious incompetence to u

    Don,

    How does one know when he has transitioned from conscious incompetence to unconscious competence?

    If the mirror always lies, them we can always outwit the mirror. 😉

    Source date (UTC): 2014-03-23 10:16:00 UTC