Curt Doolittle

Source: Facebook

  • “The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really k

    “The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.” – Hayek

    Source date (UTC): 2012-03-15 22:29:00 UTC

  • THE PAINFUL EXPLANATION 1. Low IQ puts people at risk of poverty 2. Virtue can c

    THE PAINFUL EXPLANATION

    1. Low IQ puts people at risk of poverty

    2. Virtue can compensate for low IQ

    3. The welfare state removes incentives for virtuous behavior

    Source date (UTC): 2012-03-13 05:02:00 UTC

  • WILLIAM TELL An Example Of The Virtue Of Violence William Tell, came from the to

    WILLIAM TELL

    An Example Of The Virtue Of Violence

    William Tell, came from the town of Bürglen, and was known as a strong man and an expert shot with the crossbow. In his time, the Habsburg emperors of Austria were seeking control of Uri.

    Albrecht (or Hermann) Gessler, the newly appointed Austrian Vogt of Altdorf, raised a pole in the village’s central square, hung his hat on top of it, and demanded that all the townsfolk bow before the hat.

    On 18 November 1307, Tell visited Altdorf with his young son and passed by the hat, publicly refusing to bow to it, and so was arrested.

    Gessler — intrigued by Tell’s famed marksmanship, yet resentful of his defiance — devised a cruel punishment: Tell and his son would be executed, but he could redeem his life by shooting an apple off the head of his son, Walter. And, in a single attempt. Tell split the apple with a bolt from his crossbow.

    But Gessler noticed that Tell had removed two crossbow bolts from his quiver, not one. Before releasing Tell, he asked why. Tell replied that if he had killed his son, he would have used the second bolt on Gessler himself. Gessler was angered, and had Tell bound. He was brought to Gessler’s ship to be taken to his castle at Küssnacht to spend his newly won life in a dungeon. But, as a storm broke on Lake Lucerne, the soldiers were afraid that their boat would founder, and unbound Tell to steer with all his famed strength. Tell made use of the opportunity to escape, leaping from the boat at the rocky site now known as the Tellsplatte (“Tell’s slab”).

    Tell ran cross-country to Küssnacht, and as Gessler arrived, Tell assassinated him with the second crossbow bolt along a stretch of the road cut through the rock between Immensee and Küssnacht, now known as the Hohle Gasse.

    Tell’s blow for liberty sparked a rebellion, in which he played a leading part. That fed the impetus for the nascent Swiss Confederation. He fought again against Austria in the 1315 Battle of Morgarten.

    Source date (UTC): 2012-03-12 01:52:00 UTC

  • EXOTICS I love the Ferrari. But if a boat is a hole in the water that you pour m

    EXOTICS

    I love the Ferrari. But if a boat is a hole in the water that you pour money into, then the Ferrari is a hole in the pavement that serves the same purpose. And I get pretty tired of an oil change that costs 3K. Just annoys me.

    The Porsche’s on the other hand, are as close to bullet proof as a car can be. (If only the cabin was wider…) If I didn’t have to replace the front spoiler every six months it’d be a perfect car.

    Source date (UTC): 2012-03-11 17:52:00 UTC

  • 42,000 WORDS AND COUNTING The Glossary of Political Economy on capitalismv3.com

    http://www.capitalismv3.com/menu/glossary/AT 42,000 WORDS AND COUNTING

    The Glossary of Political Economy on capitalismv3.com is up to 125 pages. I’ll guess it’s 70% complete. Unfortunately what’s left is the hard work.

    Building Propertarianism one brick at a time.

    Source date (UTC): 2012-03-11 17:38:00 UTC

  • OUR REGALIA IS OUR IDENTITY “Our Regalia is our identity. Our everyday clothing

    OUR REGALIA IS OUR IDENTITY

    “Our Regalia is our identity. Our everyday clothing is our costume. The costume we wear to avoid standing out in the marketplace. The marketplace that requires we conform. ” – BadEagle.

    Where is my SCA gear anyway?

    Source date (UTC): 2012-03-10 14:47:00 UTC

  • is the study of norms: existing norms, suggested norms, and the tools by which w

    http://www.capitalismv3.com/2012/03/10/nyt-followup-philosophy-needs-more-than-rebranding-it-needs-a-reformation/Philosophy is the study of norms: existing norms, suggested norms, and the tools by which we construct and deconstruct norms. And the discipline’s avoidance of the material value of norms was an abandonment of its purpose. And it’s why the discipline has lost respect of the public, and lost its relevance to contemporary society. The strange fear of empirical data is its most conspicuous failing.

    Source date (UTC): 2012-03-10 13:15:00 UTC

  • FIRE IN THE HOLE I can’t even begin to imagine how many times I’ve lit nice fat

    FIRE IN THE HOLE

    I can’t even begin to imagine how many times I’ve lit nice fat aromatic candles for an evening, and sometime later fallen asleep, only to wake up in the wee hours, when they’ve sputtered and melted, put them out and gone to bed.

    I’ve laughed at people who, with concerned paranoia, cautioned me that candles are a hazard. Especially at my log house, where there wasn’t much available to burn.

    I’ve literally had fifty candles burning at whole-house parties without incident.

    I’m not sure exactly how it started from the candle on the nightstand, but tonight the mattress, bedspring, and bedding caught fire. And we had a hard time putting it out. It spread so fast I didn’t think we could.

    I’ve had a few small obligatory kitchen fires. I’ve had the usual napkin catch on fire at the dinner table. And helped others put out tablecloths, hair, dresses and shirtsleeves. I did light an enormous rural brush fire as a kid while playing with firecrackers. But never anything really serious before — at least that I remember.

    I’ll remember this one. That gaping hole in the bedspring will remind me. And I’m not going to replace it — just so that I’m sure it does.

    Source date (UTC): 2012-03-08 22:42:00 UTC

  • HUMANITIES AND NORMS “The norms promoted by prestigious humanities departments a

    HUMANITIES AND NORMS

    “The norms promoted by prestigious humanities departments are unpalatable when not couched in euphemism, and shielded by status-affirming organizational structures.” – Anon.

    Source date (UTC): 2012-03-08 08:28:00 UTC

  • THE CONSERVATIVE STRATEGY “The conservative strategy is to starve the beast as t

    THE CONSERVATIVE STRATEGY

    “The conservative strategy is to starve the beast as the only hope of preserving their freedom and their culture. In that context, their approach is entirely rational: in the battle between the public intellectual who would undermine their culture, and the entrepreneur who would preserve it, they are funding the entrepreneur. It is an entirely rational strategy. It is absolutely straightforward. Just as it is rational that Schumpeterian public intellectuals seek to fund the state.”

    Bankrupt the state before it can bankrupt us, versus bankrupt the entrepreneurs so that we have all political power.

    Society as a collection of competing groups with different interests where the government is a referee and property rights the rules, versus society as an extension of the family wherein interests are assumed to be homogenous.

    The constrained vision of human ability where society is fragile, everything is scarce, and change should be organic because of inescapable human hubris, versus the unconstrained vision of human ability where society i stable, everything is plentiful, and change should be directed and consensual, and problems are always solvable.

    The feminine social order where the purpose of society is to produce as many children as possible, consume as much as possible, and provide the safest most nurturing world for all, versus the masculine social order where the purpose of society is to constrain the worst, concentrate resources in the best, and produce individual excellences.

    These are simply facts. Sowell was correct in stating the difference between the constrained vision and the unconstrained vision. He was insufficient in that the purpose of the social orders is secured by masculine and feminine biological preferences writ large. Nor was he, or anyone else, clear that the source of western innovation was the manorial system’s evolutionary ability to suppress the birth rates of the lower classes and in doing so create a more intelligent society capable of greater progress.

    Source date (UTC): 2012-03-08 04:30:00 UTC