Curt Doolittle

Form: Quote Commentary

  • “That little militia did more for their freedom than democracy ever had. I think

    –“That little militia did more for their freedom than democracy ever had. I think that’s what I learned from watching Ukrainians revolt.”–

    Curt Doolittle

    The Propertarian Institute

    Kiev.

    Source date (UTC): 2014-02-23 08:35:00 UTC

  • IN ENGLISH. REALISTIC. (damned british left leaning, overly sentimental reporter

    http://www.theverge.com/2014/2/21/5432730/ukraine-euromaidan-protests-vice-video-documentaryRECOMMENDED: IN ENGLISH. REALISTIC.

    (damned british left leaning, overly sentimental reporter but otherwise it’s accurate)

    Source date (UTC): 2014-02-21 10:59:00 UTC

  • ECONOMISTS IN CHINA –“For most academics not in China, it is difficult for them

    http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2014/02/the-life-of-a-western-economist-in-china.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+marginalrevolution%2Ffeed+%28Marginal+Revolution%29#sthash.BTYhY3GZ.dpufWESTERN ECONOMISTS IN CHINA

    –“For most academics not in China, it is difficult for them to understand the level of scrutiny and monitoring we face on regular basis. Most professors have students assigned to monitor them and security officials approaching many people to report on our behavior. Our email is widely acknowledged, even by students, as being read. While there are some overt obvious forms of intimidation as I have detailed, much of it is also the “deal you can’t refuse” variety. There are no overt threats but the message is clear.”–

    See more at:

    Source date (UTC): 2014-02-21 09:18:00 UTC

  • “Russia is a state seeking legitimacy by establishing a culture. Ukraine is a cu

    –“Russia is a state seeking legitimacy by establishing a culture. Ukraine is a culture seeking legitimacy through statehood.”–Roman Skaskiw

    Genius. Quotable.

    Source date (UTC): 2014-02-21 08:19:00 UTC

  • BOILING THE HUMAN IN TAX –“VAT is an excellent tax. I can imagine that the [sal

    BOILING THE HUMAN IN TAX

    –“VAT is an excellent tax. I can imagine that the [sales pitch] to business went something like this: don’t worry, we are not taxing you just the consumer. The reality is that claiming even a penny back from Her Majesty is the most tedious, time destroying, unproductive waste of time. Managing all of these receipts is insulting, but I will get every penny back that my accountant allows. Her Majesty is a royal pain in the ass.”–

    Source date (UTC): 2014-02-21 07:27:00 UTC

  • UKRAINE: BBC TELLS THE SIMPLE STRATEGY : CUT OFF THE MONEY —“The business clan

    UKRAINE: BBC TELLS THE SIMPLE STRATEGY : CUT OFF THE MONEY

    —“The business clans are the Achilles’ heels of the regime. With smart sanctions, targeting financial assets and judicious visa bans, including on members of the Yanukovych family, the West could help to break the status quo in Ukraine. Big businesses need access to European markets. Further instability will devalue their assets. Cutting off European oxygen would mean that the cost of doing business under a Yanukovych presidency would be too high. This is the main leverage that the EU and the US have.”—

    Source date (UTC): 2014-02-20 17:59:00 UTC

  • BROKEN WINDOW THEORY, UPSIDE DOWN** –“If it can happen in Kiev, in other words,

    http://www.newrepublic.com/article/116655/kiev-ukraine-protests-are-vladimir-putins-worst-nightmare**THE BROKEN WINDOW THEORY, UPSIDE DOWN**

    –“If it can happen in Kiev, in other words, it can happen in Moscow.

    […] Putin sees dissent as a slippery slope. He knows the cold has never stopped a single Russian revolutionary. One day people are camping out in a snowy fountain in Moscow, the next they’ve set up camp and put up barricades in the center of town, bringing traffic to a halt, sowing chaos, and toppling the government. It is the authoritarian take on the broken windows theory, turned upside-down.”–

    My purpose in promoting the problem here in Ukraine is to advocate AGAINT endemic corruption. A free and independent Ukraine that is free of corruption, or one that is divided, is not material to me. That is a political question. The moral question is simple: the people are exploited.

    I DON”T think the collapse of the soviet union was a good thing. I do think that the collapse of world communism was a good thing. I wold love to see the collapse of world social democratic democracy next. And participate in that if I can.

    Source date (UTC): 2014-02-20 16:32:00 UTC

  • VANITY AND INTELLIGENCE IN THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES –“[Physical] scientists are ov

    VANITY AND INTELLIGENCE IN THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES

    –“[Physical] scientists are overwhelmingly atheist,” Dutton said. “This is predicted by their high IQ, which allows you to rise above emotion and see through the fallacious, emotional arguments.” Arguments about God are all emotional arguments, he added.”–

    I would argue, successfully I think; first, that intelligence forces a discount on the value and utility of the opinions of others.

    And second, that learning the contrarian displacement of mythos with reason and science grants one significant status signals in life.

    Unfortunately, it appears to be endemic, that very smart people rarely grasp that the dependence of the lesser intelligent, upon the opinions of others, is necessary for their ability to act by their own discretion.

    Nor do they grasp that these lesser minds cannot tell the difference between one set of snake oil salesmen and another.

    Nor do they grasp the pedagogical necessity of teaching the young through experiential analogy first – myth, and instrumental necessity second – science. And for many the instrumental – both logical and physical – is simply either unnecessary or irrelevant.

    For the average person, reliance upon the traditional and ‘time tested’ is simply THE MOST SCIENTIFIC AND RATIONAL COURSE OF ACTION available to them.

    I’m not uncomfortable stating that I discount the value of the opinions of others, and that I happily revel in the status signals that come with demonstrating one’s intelligence

    But I never make the erroneous assumption that myths and traditions and even superstitions, while ARATIONAL are irrational. They are not.

    And until each individual can experience an alternative that is superior to his myths and traditions, and the opinions of others, it is irrational to ask them to value, agree with, and adopt, what they cannot understand.

    Because if they cannot grasp it, then we are asking them to act upon FAITH in us. Rather than faith in the accumulated wisdom of centuries.

    It is a peculiar vanity of the intelligent to claim that they are the gods we should listen to.

    Myself included.

    Source date (UTC): 2014-02-18 05:58:00 UTC

  • FAVORS “ARRIVAL OF THE FREQUENT” NOT SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST. —“Study demonstr

    http://phys.org/news/2014-02-evolutionary-important-success.htmlEVOLUTION FAVORS “ARRIVAL OF THE FREQUENT” NOT SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST.

    —“Study demonstrates evolutionary ‘fitness’ is not the most important determinant of success – “By modeling populations over long timescales, the study showed that the ‘fitness’ of their traits was not the most important determinant of success. Instead, the most genetically available mutations dominated the changes in traits. The researchers found that the ‘fittest’ simply did not have time to be found, or to fix in the population over evolutionary timescales. The findings suggest that life on Earth today may not have come about by ‘survival of the fittest’, but rather by the ‘arrival of the frequent’.”–

    Source date (UTC): 2014-02-17 12:06:00 UTC

  • SKASKIW : A CONVERSATION WITH GENGHIS KHAN (important) (new development) (Proper

    http://dailyanarchist.com/2014/02/16/a-conversation-with-genghis-khanROMAN SKASKIW : A CONVERSATION WITH GENGHIS KHAN

    (important) (new development) (Propertarianism)

    Roman is a gifted writer. And in this short piece he has produced the first literary application of Propertarianism’s additions to ethics.

    Moved. Awed. Inspired.

    (PLEASE SHARE!)

    Roman Skaskiw

    Source date (UTC): 2014-02-17 03:25:00 UTC