Came across this book review Why Biology Is Not Destiny, which falsely claims that any physical signifiers of IQ has been debunked or discredited. Harden is right that such assertions are controversial, but they’re nothing new. The idea of a biological hierarchy of intelligence arose alongside the first theories of human evolution. It never goes… Continue reading IQ science has not been debunked

Noam Chomsky managed to piss off just everyone over the weekend by arguing that “Ukraine must make concessions to Russia’s demands”. This went against the prevailing left-left narrative of Ukraine being the helpless victim. Many mainstream conservatives, who also support the war, also pushed back. It doesn’t really matter what Chomsky’s opinion is. He has… Continue reading The ‘Marketplace of Ideas’ Bites Back

I have been thinking about the issue of mass incarceration. A common complaint by the left but also civil libertarian types is that America incarcerates too many people. Indeed, the incarceration rate in America has surged, starting at around the early to mid 80s with the war on drugs. An estimated 5% of all Americans… Continue reading Some thoughts on mass incarceration: why cost is not the issue

As predicted earlier this year, Elon Musk’s brand continues to surge, having made an offer to buy Twitter for $43 billion. He is more widely followed than probably anyone, save for maybe a handful of political and religious leaders. Elon was already a big deal in 2018, but his brand has really exploded post Covid.… Continue reading Musk, Twitter, and the Era of Billionaires and its implications

The Consumer Price Index rose 8.5% in the year through March, the government announced Tuesday. The CPI index is at 287, you can see how starting around 2021 it began to diverge from the underlying trend. It’s about 6% higher than predicted by the trendline. But much longer term it looks like a blip (as… Continue reading Inflation at 8%, analysis

In 2019, an hour into his now infamous debate with Slavoj Zizek, Jordan Peterson is asked by Dr. Zizek who the ‘post-modern neo Marxists’ are. Surely if this group is to blame for the decline of Western civilization and the infantilization of academia, he would be able to identify at least a few prominent living… Continue reading Who are the woke? If you don’t know, that is the point

When he’s not pushing women’s weights at the gym or losing his temper on Twitter, he’s still pushing his useless/scam ‘Real World Risk Institute’ mini-certificate program on his followers: Friends,#RWRI 17 is open for applications, July 11-22. We are accepting scholarships.https://t.co/MOQV9ANkLy — Nassim Nicholas Taleb (@nntaleb) April 4, 2022 I wrote about this in 2016… Continue reading Real World Risk Institute, a follow up

There has been talk of Russia somehow undermining the Petro dollar. Vladimir Putin’s insistence that “unfriendly” nations pay in rubles for natural gas is just the beginning of a Russian export policy that will see fewer U.S. dollars being used in transactions for goods, especially for energy, according to the Kremlin. Russia demanding Rubles does… Continue reading Russia not a threat to dominance, importance of US dollar

A recurring theme of this blog is to try to understand what makes some opinions are better than others. It’s assumed that because opinions are subjective that that it should be hard to quantify a good opinion from a bad one, but I believe such a distinction is possible. This is sorta subjective, but from… Continue reading Good opinions and IQ

Interesting new blog/e-magazine I came across Compact Mag. Hat tip to Oliver Lee Bateman, who recently published an article there and brought the website to my attention. Only the Economic Left Can Beat the Woke I think there is a recent tendency to treat the woke-left and the ‘anti-idpol-left’ (or the so-called economic-left) as being… Continue reading Not so distinct