Curt Doolittle

Form: Quote Commentary

  • CREATES JOBS? My friend Sam Hughes +Gmailed me about this unpublished TED talk.

    http://www.upworthy.com/breaking-you-know-that-nick-hanauer-ted-talk-you-werent-supposed-to-see-here-itWHO CREATES JOBS?

    My friend Sam Hughes +Gmailed me about this unpublished TED talk. And it’s actually true. But misleading. Yes, the super-rich do not create jobs, the middle class creates jobs. However

    a) The middle class ‘hires’ the super rich to protect them from the government. And it works.

    b) The ‘Rich” are almost universally (above 90%) members of the middle class who made their money in small and medium business.

    I don’t support the super rich. I support active constraint, and even dissolution, of the government.

    Source date (UTC): 2012-08-16 15:57:00 UTC

  • get academic-y about it, Romney is being “conceptually fuzzy” with his terms.”Co

    http://drezner.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/08/02/mitt_romney_is_living_every_social_scientists_nightmare”To get academic-y about it, Romney is being “conceptually fuzzy” with his terms.”Complete nonsense. A population’s formal institutions are a reflection of it’s informal institutions. It’s informal institutions reflect it’s notions of property rights. – where property rights in this case includes several property, familial property, communal property, and cultural norms: morals, ethics, manners and rituals.Romney is a CONSERVATIVE. Conservatives think in terms of, and give higher priority to, moral capital: norms. His framework is that framework. And in that framework he is speaking quite clearly, and accurately, to his audience.

    Source date (UTC): 2012-08-03 01:50:00 UTC

  • “DIRTY STORY” By John Patrick Shanley, Directed by Valerie Curtis The Intiman Th

    “DIRTY STORY”

    By John Patrick Shanley, Directed by Valerie Curtis

    The Intiman Theater

    An allegorical story with four characters representing the Jews, the Palestinians, the Americans and the English. Starts out well, perhaps even deep, which gives the audience hope that something good might follow. But then rapidly devolves into freshman level writing, and embarrassing attempts at slapstick and farce. Humor is a very hard thing. And some subjects make it even more difficult.

    The best thing I can say is that the actors did an exceptional job with material unbefitting either the author or the subject. The cartoonish representation of each position, provided little humor and even less insight into the plight of each, and served to reinforce stereotypical falsehoods rather than provide solutions. In particular it represents the USA as an ignorant buffoon rather than a distant country desperately trying to drag ancient peoples with mortal feuds into the modern world of cooperative consumerism, entirely for their benefit, but entirely against their wishes, using every possible device available. And of course, the author then throws the usual gratuitous, false and apologetic homage to the most primitive ambitions.

    I am too respectful of actors to walk out on a play except at intermission. But the last half hour was so painfully tedious, common and predictable that I desperately wanted to, and literally counted down the minutes to the end. I estimated the theatre’s take for the evening at $750. A pittance. And the economist in me argues that at least we’re keeping people off the streets. But I’m not sure it’s worth it for this kind of fare. Walking the streets would undoubtably be better for both mind and body.

    Source date (UTC): 2012-08-03 01:14:00 UTC

  • FOR THE NEXT BUBBLE TO BURST? “Facebook will become the poster child for the cur

    http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-real-crash-is-dead-ahead-as-2008-is-forgotten-2012-07-31READY FOR THE NEXT BUBBLE TO BURST?

    “Facebook will become the poster child for the current social-media bubble, ..just as Pets.com was for the dot-com bubble.” – Economist Gary Shilling in his latest Forbes column.

    “Wall Street is repeating the 2000 dot-com crash as today’s social-media bubble crashes and burns.”

    – TOLD YA’ SO –

    And when I said in 2007, that the crash would be structural, would last through 2014, and that we’d have a brief respite before the boomer crash hit somewhere around 2017-2020, I got so much crap for it from every corner. But economics is driven by demographics. It’s a function of human capital. Plain and simple. The composition of your population matters. And the metrics of the postwar era are fanciful products of accidental circumstance not to be repeated – not the product of policy.

    Source date (UTC): 2012-08-01 02:23:00 UTC

  • GROWNUP ANALYSIS OF OBAMA VS ROMNEY FOREIGN POLICY (In plain language. Accurate.

    http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/election-presidency-and-foreign-policyA GROWNUP ANALYSIS OF OBAMA VS ROMNEY FOREIGN POLICY

    (In plain language. Accurate. With a reminder of the intentional weakness of the American presidency.)

    Source date (UTC): 2012-07-31 10:10:00 UTC

  • NATURE OF EUROPEAN EXPORTS

    http://www.law.uchicago.edu/audio/bradford011812THE NATURE OF EUROPEAN EXPORTS

    Source date (UTC): 2012-07-31 01:40:00 UTC

  • TO EVOLUTIONARY CERTAINTY: We killed Off Our Competition?

    http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/27/science/cousins-of-neanderthals-left-dna-in-africa-scientists-report.htmlCLOSER TO EVOLUTIONARY CERTAINTY: We killed Off Our Competition?

    Source date (UTC): 2012-07-27 20:50:00 UTC

  • INFLUENCE OF GEOGRAPHY ON ECONOMY, POLITY, AND CHARACTER I argue frequently that

    http://www.amazon.com/dp/1400069831/ref=tsm_1_fb_lkTHE INFLUENCE OF GEOGRAPHY ON ECONOMY, POLITY, AND CHARACTER

    I argue frequently that everything boils down to geography, demographics and institutions. In that order.

    Kaplan’s book arrives in September. And despite sixty years of ignoring geography in our schools, he shows how geography still influences our economies, polities and characters, and how, because of geography, we can anticipate future conflicts.

    Source date (UTC): 2012-07-27 12:02:00 UTC

  • CASE FOR MAINTAINING AMERICAN MILITARY POWER Kagan is the greatest military hist

    http://www.amazon.com/dp/0307961311/ref=tsm_1_fb_lkTHE CASE FOR MAINTAINING AMERICAN MILITARY POWER

    Kagan is the greatest military historian alive, and likely one of the best in all of intellectual history. In this wonderful book, he cautions us not to abandon “The World America Made”. (The world the English people made, and the American people inherited upon the suicide of European civilization.) He uses the collapse of the Roman Empire, and the collapse of the European Empires to illustrate what would happen if American withdrew from her empire.

    Now, my approach is not as moralistic as Kagan’s. It’s entirely practical. That said, it is not in our interests to conduct nation building, or to subsidize Europe. In fact, my main criticism of imperialism is that we should withdraw from Europe and maintain our bases elsewhere. All that we accomplish by subsidy of Europe is to make possible the political culture there that the progressive left looks at imitating. All the while not comprehending that such a political culture is only possible under the protection of a benevolent empire like the USA.

    Source date (UTC): 2012-07-27 11:39:00 UTC

  • Rothbard Must Be Understood In His Context

    From No Comuna. A subtle criticism of criticism of Rothbard.

    Children and rights In the Ethics of Liberty Rothbard explores in terms of self-ownership and contract several contentious issues relating to the rights of children. These include women’s right to abortion, the prohibition of aggression of parents against children, as well as the question of the State forcing parents to take care of children, including those with serious health problems. He also argues that children have the right to “escape” of parents and seek new guardians so choose to do so. Suggested that parents have the right to place a child for adoption, or even sell their rights to the child in a voluntary agreement. He also discusses how the current juvenile justice system punishes children for making “adult” choices, removes children unnecessarily and against their will from their parents, often putting them under bad care. In other writings Rothbard also supports the right of children to work at any age, in part by supporting his release of parents or other authorities.

    A SUBTLE CRITICISM Rothbard was trying to create an internally consistent theory of rights. He was successful in doing so. However, as with any theory of rights, we are certainly able to bend or break those rights to suit our tastes. There is a difference between perfection and pragmatism. But one must have a theory in order to make decisions. I think it is useful to understand Rothbard in this light. He succeeded in creating an internally consistent theory of rights. If we deem it practical to violate those rights in order to achieve some good, then that is our choice.