from David Lillis, John Raine, Peter Schwerdtfeger, Rex Ahdar, Cathy Downes The recent news that GeoNet has been merging science with the myth, mysticism and legend of Māori traditional knowledge in their 2024 Geohazard Information has provoked a scathing response from international commentator, Professor Jerry Coyne (University of Chicago). This follows close behind publicity around…
Restoring the Standing and Reputation of Science in New Zealand: a Letter to the Coalition Government
Restoring the Standing and Reputation of Science in New Zealand: a Letter to the Coalition Government
04 Aug 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of education, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: conjecture and refutation, philosophy of science
Men less self-controlled than dogs?
03 Aug 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, economics of religion, law and economics, liberalism Tags: women's liberation
A taxi driver in Sydney told us he was fasting for Ramadan and it was harder in the southern hemisphere when it was summer when the time between sunrise and sunset was longer. Discussion continued on what was required of a good Muslim and got on to why women are required to cover up. He […]
Men less self-controlled than dogs?
Racism is racism
02 Aug 2024 Leave a comment
in discrimination, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: free speech, political correctness, racial discrimination, regressive left
Some Labour and Maori Party MPs have been making appalling personal attacks on Act MP Karen Chhour: The minister has been under pressure from opposition parties over contentious policies including the re-introduction of boot camps and the repeal of Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act – removing treaty obligations from the law. But Chhour […]
Racism is racism
RODNEY HIDE: Endless repetition makes lies truth
02 Aug 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights Tags: criminal deterrence, free speech, law and order, political correctness, regressive left, sex discrimination
The Ardern years continue to blight the nation. It’s not just the destructive policies and debilitating debt but the lasting dysfunctional governance both public and private that routinely lies to us and infantilises us. The legacy media are gone. They are now pimps for government and corporate propaganda. Endless repetition makes lies truth, with dissent…
RODNEY HIDE: Endless repetition makes lies truth
Don’t Mess with Texas: Fifth Circuit Rules Against the Biden Administration in Buoy Dispute on Southern Border
02 Aug 2024 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, defence economics, income redistribution, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, property rights, Public Choice Tags: 2024 presidential election, economics of immigration
Texas won a big victory in the United States Court of Appeals in the long struggle over floating buoy barriers in the Rio Grande River to help block unlawful migration. In United States v. Abbott, the court ruled 11-7 in an en banc decision against the Biden Administration over the barrier. It is an interesting decision […]
Don’t Mess with Texas: Fifth Circuit Rules Against the Biden Administration in Buoy Dispute on Southern Border
Bakersfield College Agrees to $2.4 Million Settlement in Free Speech Case
02 Aug 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of education, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA Tags: academic bias, free speech, political correctness, regressive left
Last year, we discussed the free speech case of Matthew Garrett, formerly a tenured history professor at Bakersfield College who was investigated and disciplined after he questioned the use of grant money to fund social justice initiatives. Bakersfield College has one of the worst records on free speech in higher education and has been repeatedly […]
Bakersfield College Agrees to $2.4 Million Settlement in Free Speech Case
Unsettling the settler colonial university: a “feminist decolonization” of higher education in New Zealand
01 Aug 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of education, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: Age of Enlightenment, conjecture and refutation, free speech, philosophy of science, political correctness, regressive left
This link was sent to me by a despondent (and of course anonymous) New Zealander with the comment, “This is now unstoppable in NZ.” It’s from the Times Higher Education site, and the authors are Mahdis Azarmandi and Sara Tolbert, both on the Faculty of Education of New Zealand’s University of Canterbury. Click screenshot to […]
Unsettling the settler colonial university: a “feminist decolonization” of higher education in New Zealand
Venezuela under “Brutal Capitalism”
31 Jul 2024 Leave a comment
in development economics, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, economics of crime, growth disasters, income redistribution, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking, resource economics Tags: Venezuela
Jeffrey Clemens points us to some bonkers editorializing in the NYTimes coverage of the likely stolen election in Venezuela. The piece starts out reasonably enough: Venezuela’s authoritarian leader, Nicolás Maduro, was declared the winner of the country’s tumultuous presidential election early Monday, despite enormous momentum from an opposition movement that had been convinced this was […]
Venezuela under “Brutal Capitalism”
US attempt to “braid” indigenous knowledge with modern science collapses and is abandoned by the National Academies
29 Jul 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of education, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA Tags: conjecture and refutation, philosophy of science
Last October I posted a critique of a new National Science Foundation (NSF) initiative designed to combine indigenous knowledge with modern science—in the U.S. this time, and to the tune of $30 million. The NSF was very optimistic, as you can see from the article below in Science (click to read; see also a similar […]
US attempt to “braid” indigenous knowledge with modern science collapses and is abandoned by the National Academies
28 Jul 2024 Leave a comment
in defence economics, laws of war, liberalism, sports economics, war and peace
Anti-Free Speech Laws Hit New Heights in Italy: Reporter Fined for “Body Shaming” Prime Minister Meloni
25 Jul 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics, property rights Tags: free speech, Italy, political correctness, regressive left
I have long been critical of the erosion of free speech in Italy and other Western European countries, including the use of criminal libel laws against critics of the police or government. This week a Milan court has ordered a journalist to pay Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni damages of 5,000 euros ($5,465) for making […]
Anti-Free Speech Laws Hit New Heights in Italy: Reporter Fined for “Body Shaming” Prime Minister Meloni
Doctors Without Borders Accused of violating its own policy of political neutrality to impugn Israel, and my cessation of donations
24 Jul 2024 Leave a comment
in defence economics, health economics, laws of war, liberalism, Marxist economics, war and peace Tags: Gaza Strip, Israel, Middle-East politics, regressive left, war against terror
A while back I was a big fan of Doctors without Borders (or “MSF”, for “Médecins Sans Frontières”). It was put in my will to get a big bequest, and when I auctioned of a copy of Why Evolution is True, autographed by many famous scientists and nonbelievers, and illustrated and illuminated by Kelly Houle, […]
Doctors Without Borders Accused of violating its own policy of political neutrality to impugn Israel, and my cessation of donations
Dawkins talks to Kathleen Stock
24 Jul 2024 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of education, gender, health economics, labour economics, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA Tags: Age of Enlightenment, conjecture and refutation, free speech, gender gap, philosophy of science, political correctness, regressive left, sex discrimination
Here we have a 55-minute (remote) conversation between Richard Dawkins and Kathleen Stock conducted during the “Dissident Dialogues” conference in NYC last May. Here’s a précis of Stock’s background from Wikipedia: Kathleen Mary Linn Stock OBE is a British philosopher and writer. She was a professor of philosophy at the University of Sussex until 2021. She has published academic […]
Dawkins talks to Kathleen Stock
Hollywood evidence on McCarthyism
21 Jul 2024 Leave a comment
in economic history, economics of media and culture, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, movies, politics - USA Tags: free speech, political correctness, regressive left
There is a new NBER working paper on this topic by Hui Ren Tan and Tianyi Wang, here is the abstract: We study a far-reaching episode of demagoguery in American history. From the late 1940s to 1950s, anti-communist hysteria led by Senator Joseph McCarthy and others gripped the nation. Hundreds of professionals in Hollywood were […]
Hollywood evidence on McCarthyism
Lessons from the UK
21 Jul 2024 Leave a comment
in income redistribution, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: British politics
There are many lessons for New Zealand in last week’s British election result, which saw the 14-year reign of the Conservative Party ending in a crushing defeat. While the number of seats won by Labour appeared to indicate a huge swing to the left in support of Sir Keir Starmer’s Party, that isn’t the case […]
Lessons from the UK
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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