Curt Doolittle

Form: Quote Commentary

  • on Reason

    http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/philosophy/people/associates/miller/lfd-.pdfMiller on Reason

    Source date (UTC): 2015-01-26 21:27:00 UTC

  • to explain away the limits that Chinese language placed upon its thinkers. I onl

    http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/samples/cam032/99032284.pdfTrying to explain away the limits that Chinese language placed upon its thinkers. I only studied a little chinese, and only one year of chinese history, and it was a very long time ago. But it is very hard to listen to even second generation immigrants speak and not grasp the very great difference between the precision of the english (or even ancient greek) language, and Chinese.

    We are all prisoners of our languages.

    Source date (UTC): 2015-01-25 13:11:00 UTC

  • but fun article with some stats that suggest we have far less sex than we say th

    http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/25/opinion/sunday/seth-stephens-davidowitz-searching-for-sex.htmlWeak but fun article with some stats that suggest we have far less sex than we say that we do.

    Source date (UTC): 2015-01-25 12:04:00 UTC

  • what … neoconservatives and …. conservatives would have us believe (e.g., he

    http://www.theoccidentalobserver.net/2015/01/our-white-common-law/”Despite what … neoconservatives and …. conservatives would have us believe (e.g., here), ordered liberty existed in Europe prior to our forefathers’ adoption of Judeo-Christianity, and our contemporary legal system arguably has significantly more in common with the legal ideals of pagan Europe than anything coming out of the Levant in ancient or modern times. Simply said, the proposal that Judeo-Christian law constitutes the basis of modern American law is nothing more than a propagandist fiction—that is, the European conceptualization of rights and obligations was formed independent of and not because of Judeo-Christianity. Virtually all legal procedures and rights in use and recognized, respectively, today are of European and not Judeo-Christian origin.” http://www.theoccidentalobserver.net/…/our-white-common-law/

    Source date (UTC): 2015-01-24 17:33:00 UTC

  • LIBERTARIANISM’S PROHIBITION FALLACY : PROHIBITION WAS A SUCCESS —“…alcohol

    LIBERTARIANISM’S PROHIBITION FALLACY : PROHIBITION WAS A SUCCESS

    —“…alcohol consumption declined dramatically during Prohibition. Cirrhosis death rates for men were 29.5 per 100,000 in 1911 and 10.7 in 1929. Admissions to state mental hospitals for alcoholic psychosis declined from 10.1 per 100,000 in 1919 to 4.7 in 1928.

    Arrests for public drunkennness and disorderly conduct declined 50 percent between 1916 and 1922. For the population as a whole, the best estimates are that consumption of alcohol declined by 30 percent to 50 percent.

    Third, violent crime did not increase dramatically during Prohibition. Homicide rates rose dramatically from 1900 to 1910 but remained roughly constant during Prohibition’s 14 year rule. Organized crime may have become more visible and lurid during Prohibition, but it existed before and after.

    Fourth, following the repeal of Prohibition, alcohol consumption increased. Today, alcohol is estimated to be the cause of more than 23,000 motor vehicle deaths and is implicated in more than half of the nation’s 20,000 homicides. In contrast, drugs have not yet been persuasively linked to highway fatalities and are believed to account for 10 percent to 20 percent of homicides.

    Prohibition did not end alcohol use. What is remarkable, however, is that a relatively narrow political movement, relying on a relatively weak set of statutes, succeeded in reducing, by one-third, the consumption of a drug that had wide historical and popular sanction.”—

    NYT / Mark H. Moore; Mark H. Moore,

    professor of criminal justice at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

    Published: October 16, 1989

    Source date (UTC): 2015-01-24 11:08:00 UTC

  • “Eastern Slavs: Respectable IQs similar to Mediterranean Europeans, as are machi

    —“Eastern Slavs: Respectable IQs similar to Mediterranean Europeans, as are machismo levels, but significantly less exposure to agriculture. And a lot more alcohol. So as expected, homicide rates amongst South Slavs, e.g. Serbs and West Slavs, e.g. Poles are now pretty low – almost as low as in Western Europe proper (though against that you have to adjust for them having far fewer Third World immigrants). The East Slavs and Balto-Finnish groups, however, are still in the grip of a strong if receding alcohol epidemic, so their homicide rates are considerably inflated, if to nowhere near African or Latin American levels. Even in Russia itself, homicide rates amongst ethnic Russians veer higher as you go north, where Slavic Russians admixed with Balto-Finns. The Balto-Finns were the last major European ethnic group to adopt agriculture. (While the alcohol epidemic as of today is less severity in Estonia or Latvia than in Russia, to say nothing of Finland, that is a function of their greater socio-economic progress).”—

    Source date (UTC): 2015-01-24 05:48:00 UTC

  • LIBERTARIANISMS FRONTIER FALLACY —“19th century frontier Americans: Had extrem

    LIBERTARIANISMS FRONTIER FALLACY

    —“19th century frontier Americans: Had extremely high homicide rates. In his book The Better Angels of Our Nature, Steven Pinker gives homicide rate figures of 50/100,000 for Abilene, Kansas, 100/100,000 for Dodge City (no wonder you want to get the hell out of it), 229/100,000 in Fort Griffin, Texas, and 1,500/100,000 (sic) in Wichita. Back then, apart from being a bit less intelligent than today (Flynn Effect), Americans were also far more alcoholic. This is little known now, but back then, the US was known as the “Alcoholic Republic,” with alcohol consumption per capita being roughly twice what it is today despite much lower incomes. The frontier towns would not only have been more alcoholized than average, but were also extremely macho, explained in theory by the high male-to-female ratio,”—

    Source date (UTC): 2015-01-24 05:15:00 UTC

  • Intuitionism: A Structural Critique | Danny Frederick – Academia.edu

    https://www.academia.edu/7706184/Ethical_Intuitionism_A_Structural_CritiqueEthical Intuitionism: A Structural Critique | Danny Frederick – Academia.edu

    Source date (UTC): 2015-01-22 18:23:00 UTC

  • Keynesian shell game

    http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2015/01/the_keynesian_s.htmlThe Keynesian shell game

    Source date (UTC): 2015-01-22 11:53:00 UTC

  • RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS On my way to work this morning my husband Bart called me

    RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS

    On my way to work this morning my husband Bart called me to tell me I had left my breakfast smoothie on the counter.

    Rushing, I was mad now, and would eventually be hungry…so I stopped at the Dunkin’ Donuts near school to grab a bite to eat instead. And although I sat in the drive-up line, fuming to myself, when I pulled up to the window to pay, the cashier said, “Um, the person ahead of you paid your bill.”

    Mood adjusted.

    Source date (UTC): 2015-01-22 08:16:00 UTC