One thing that bothers me about the war between Hamas and Israel is the large number of manifestly dumb beliefs that pervade the discourse. This is also true about Israel itself. Here’s a list of a few, all them wrong and all of them easily refuted. A two-state “solution” will end Palestinian terrorism towards Israel […]
Arrant misconceptions about the war and Israel
Arrant misconceptions about the war and Israel
24 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economic history, International law, law and economics, liberalism, politics - USA, property rights Tags: free speech, Gaza Strip, Israel, Middle-East politics, political correctness, regressive left, war against terror
Canadians deplatform championship cyclist because she was an Israeli who served in IDF
23 Feb 2024 1 Comment
in law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics Tags: free speech, Gaza Strip, Israel, Middle-East politics, political correctness, regressive left, war against terror
I am so bloody sick of the kind of hatred instantiated in this article, where someone gets deplatformed not because of what they were going to say, which is bad enough, but simply because of who they are. From Cycling magazine we get a disgusting tale of a championship cyclist booted out of an International […]
Canadians deplatform championship cyclist because she was an Israeli who served in IDF
Texas professor fired, then reinstated after a lawsuit, for teaching that chromosomes determine human sex
23 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of bureaucracy, economics of education, gender, health economics, labour economics, law and economics, politics - USA, Public Choice Tags: Age of Enlightenment, employment law, free speech, political correctness, regressive left, sex discrimination
In general, one can’t say that chromosomes “determine sex” in animals, as there are other genetic or environmental features that determine what sex an individual becomes. As Coyne and Maroja (2023) note: Different sexes can determined during development bybe based on different chromosomes and their genes (e.g., XX vs. XY in humans, ZW vs. ZZ in birds, […]
Texas professor fired, then reinstated after a lawsuit, for teaching that chromosomes determine human sex
Bari Weiss interviews Roland Fryer
22 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, discrimination, econometerics, economic history, economics of crime, economics of education, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, occupational choice, politics - USA, poverty and inequality Tags: academic bias, crime and punishment, free speech, law and order, political correctness, racial discrimination, regressive left
A lot of readers and heterodox colleagues have sent me this link to Bari Weiss’s interview with Harvard economics professor Roland G. Fryer, Jr., often accompanied by big encomiums. Despite my unwillingness to watch long videos, I did watch all 77 minutes of it. Unfortunately, I wasn’t mesmerized, or even much interested. There are interesting […]
Bari Weiss interviews Roland Fryer
Māori force indigenous prayer on secular district-council meeting
20 Feb 2024 1 Comment
in economics of religion, politics - New Zealand Tags: Age of Enlightenment, free speech, Freedom of religion, political correctness, regressive left
Meanwhile, the fun continues in New Zealand, as this article from Te Ao, which conveys Māori news, attests. In fact, there’s a video, so you can see the whole episode, as well as a transcript of the video. Here’s what happened: A local district council met and one of the participants wanted to recite a […]
Māori force indigenous prayer on secular district-council meeting
Critic of “Woke Kindergarten” suspended
15 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of education, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA Tags: free speech, political correctness, regressive left
Remember “Woke Kindergarten”, a lesson plan for teachers to use in instructing propagandizing students in Hayward, California (see posts here and here)? The program was designed by an extreme “progressive” named Akiea “Ki” Gross, who was given $250,000 in taxpayer money by the school. And, lo and behold, performance in English and math actually dropped […]
Critic of “Woke Kindergarten” suspended
Weaponizing ‘The Science’
14 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of education, economics of information, economics of media and culture, health economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA Tags: Age of Enlightenment, conjecture and refutation, free speech, philosophy of science, political correctness, regressive left
Pielke Jr. argues like this: “The notion of consensus-as-truth has been operationalized in various forms: journalistic “fact checkers,” academic “misinformation” researchers, and content moderation on social media platforms. The practical effect is the creation of self-appointed arbiters of truth — journalists, academics, social media platforms, and even governments — who render judgments on acceptable and unacceptable speech according to conformance with an acceptable view.”
Weaponizing ‘The Science’
“Punishment” for protestors who break University of Chicago regulations: a light tap on the wrist at best
13 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economics of crime, economics of education, law and economics, laws of war, politics - USA, war and peace Tags: free speech, Gaza Strip, Israel, Middle-East politics, regressive left, war against terror
A while back, 26 pro-Palestinian protestors at the University of Chicago, along with two faculty members, were arrested and booked for holding an illegal sit-in in the admissions office. Later on, the city of Chicago dropped the charges of criminal trespass (I don’t know why this happened), and up to now I haven’t been able […]
“Punishment” for protestors who break University of Chicago regulations: a light tap on the wrist at best
The U.S. follows New Zealand: let’s teach indigenous “ways of knowing” in the science classroom!
13 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of education, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA Tags: Age of Enlightenment, free speech, political correctness, regressive left
The virus that has long infected New Zealand—the argument that indigenous “ways of knowing” should be taught alongside science in the science classroom—has now spread to America, with the help of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and its flagship journal, Science, often regarded as one of the world’s most prestigious venues. […]
The U.S. follows New Zealand: let’s teach indigenous “ways of knowing” in the science classroom!
Jon Haidt goes after DEI
13 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, economics of education, economics of media and culture, income redistribution, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, Public Choice Tags: Age of Enlightenment, free speech, political correctness, regressive left
A lot of academics who haven’t previously gone after DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) initiatives are coming out of the woodwork to criticize the philosophy and actions of DEI. New critics include Steve Pinker, who, in his Boston Globe article on how to fix the problems of Harvard, included “Disempowering DEI” as one of the […]
Jon Haidt goes after DEI
Pinker on “What’s wrong with our universities”
11 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, economics of education, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, property rights, Public Choice Tags: Age of Enlightenment, free speech, political correctness, regressive left
Here’s a new one-hour interview of Steve Pinker by John Tomasi, inaugural president of the Heterodox Academy. Here are the YouTube notes: Are our higher education institutions still nurturing true intellectual diversity? Our guest today is Steven Pinker, a cognitive scientist at Harvard, and today, we’ll be exploring the growing concerns within higher ed that […]
Pinker on “What’s wrong with our universities”
CHRIS TROTTER: Are you a leftist?
10 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in constitutional political economy, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA Tags: free speech, political correctness, regressive left, The fatal conceit, unintended consequences
Chris Trotter writes – THERE WAS A TIME when a leftist’s definition of “leftism” corresponded pretty closely to everybody else’s definition. The term identified a coherent worldview – to the point where knowing where someone stood on one issue enabled them to predict with surprising accuracy where they stood on a host of others. If […]
CHRIS TROTTER: Are you a leftist?
Jury finds in favor of Michael Mann in defamation lawsuit against Mark Steyn, Rand Simberg
09 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, energy economics, environmental economics, global warming, law and economics, politics - USA, property rights Tags: defamation, free speech, regressive left
The jury awarded Mann $1 in compensatory damages from each plaintiff. It also awarded $1,000 in punitive damages from Simberg and $1 million from Steyn.
Jury finds in favor of Michael Mann in defamation lawsuit against Mark Steyn, Rand Simberg
CNN is confused about sex
02 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in discrimination, gender, health economics Tags: Age of Enlightenment, free speech, gender gap, political correctness, regressive left, sex discrimination
Here’s a headline at CNN Health that is seemingly confused about what a “woman” is. Note that the word, which means “adult human female” appears blatantly in the headlines, but perhaps the headline writer was ideologically different from the authors: (click on screenshot to read) This is the gist of the article, and, indeed, […]
CNN is confused about sex
Māori official in New Zealand’s Coast Guard insists that prayer to a god is the key to reducing drowning
30 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of religion, transport economics Tags: Age of Enlightenment, free speech, Freedom of religion, political correctness, regressive left
This very short article appeared in Waatea News, which I gather is a purveyor of news related to the Māori of New Zealand. (It also runs, I believe, the country’s only Māori radio station.) I’m putting it up for one reason, and then we’ll get a break from the Kiwis and the iwi for a […]
Māori official in New Zealand’s Coast Guard insists that prayer to a god is the key to reducing drowning
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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