I’m like a partial libertarian. I’m libertarian on market issues, neocon on fed and fiscal policy, and right of center on social and foreign policy issues. I also consider myself to be a utilitarian pragmatist, meaning I believe in policy that maximizes the creation of…
You know you’re in the slow news zone when the biggest story is about deflated footballs. 2015, like 2014, promisses to be another soporific year, with lots of of contrived outrage over things that aren’t that big of a deal. I long for a return…
In response to Andrew Sullivan’s retirement from blogging, a poster on iSteve writes: Not sure how I feel about this. Sullivan is easily amongst the sanest liberal bloggers/pundits (a couple months ago he marked the 20th anniversary of The Bell Curve by re-endorsing the idea…
Wow, That Was a Horrible Decade Was it really that terrible? Let’s look at the positives: America solidified its position as a global economic and military superpower, with China in second place. We saw the rise of web 2.0, Google, Apple, Uber, Tesla, and Snapchat….
In an earlier article, The Abortion Plan, I discussed how abortion can be justified from a utilitarianism/pragmatist perspective, without necessarily turning it into a left/right issue. From slatestarcodex.com comments, this issue came up again. “parents who get abortions are parents who can’t afford children, so…
With over 74 million iphones sold in a single quarter, Apple reports it’s biggest earnings ever, proving once and for all that there is no recession or crisis in large cap technology. The people who are buying iPhones, uploading pictures to Facebook, tweeting, and take…
From La Times Why we need to address population growth’s effects on global warming Few of them can forget the backlash after then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in 2009 that it was strange to talk about climate change without mentioning population and family…
Don’t Count Out the Anti-Establishment Republicans Bush and Romney are marquee names in U.S. politics and the Republicans haven’t nominated an anti-establishment candidate since Barry Goldwater more than a half century ago. Yet there is an equally interesting, and perhaps as important, struggle for the…
We’re living in crazy, weird, more unequal times. Theoretical physics, IQ, coding, finance and economics is more important than ever. The left said Instagram was a bubble when Facebook acquired it in 2013 for $1 billion; now Instagram is worth $30 billion. But web 2.0…
Economic and demographic factors are blame for the chronic sluggishness of Europe and Japan. America has the huge baby boomer and millennial population whereas Japan has shrinking population and poor demographics. Americans consume more. American monetary policy more proactive and aggressive. America has much less…