Walter In Denver

Red Meat!

RU Sirius asks several luminaries, “Do we live in a fascist state? Why, or why not?”

The responses range from preposterous to thought provoking. Interesting point to me is the difficulty of defining the term. The U.S. has flirted with various fascistic ideas of governance for generations now, and not just from conservative politicians. Part of the problem some have with defining fascism is its close association with socialism, which gives modern leftists some problems. Scott J. Thompson (in the same article) points out Mussolini's first fascist platform-

…it proposed women’s suffrage and the vote at 18, abolition of the upper house, convocation of a constituent assembly to draft a new constitution for Italy (presumably without the monarchy), the eight-hour workday, worker participation in “the technical management of industry,” the “partial expropriation of all kinds of wealth” by a heavy and progressive tax on capital, the seizure of certain Church properties, and the confiscation of 85 percent of war profits.

A pretty good leftist platform. Thompson adds, "The problem is that particular examples of what is generically called “fascism,” such as Mussolini’s Partito Nazionale Fascista (PNF) and Hitler’s NSDAP, continually redefined themselves: on the road to power, in power, and at war."

My view: If the American Right ever establishes a fully fascistic government (not likely, not impossible) it will be done using the governmental institutions created by the Left. That's one of the reasons distinctions of Left and Right mean little.

More reading

Here's a fun new blog, Overcoming Bias, purposed as:

How can we better believe what is true? While it is of course useful to seek and study relevant information, our minds are full of natural tendencies to bias our beliefs via overconfidence, wishful thinking, and so on. Worse, our minds seem to have a natural tendency to convince us we that are aware of and have adequately corrected for such biases, when we have done no such thing.

In this forum we discuss whether and how we might avoid this fate, by spending a bit less effort on each specific topic, and a bit more effort on the general topic of how to be less biased. Here we discuss common patterns of bias and self-deception, statistical and other formal analysis tools, computational and data-gathering aids, and social institutions which may discourage bias and encourage its correction. Other topics may be discussed to the extent they exemplify important biases and correction issues.

Here's an interesting post, Are The Big Four Econ Errors Biases? Including:

Consider how differently the public treats physics and economics. Physicists can say that this week they think the universe has eleven dimensions, three of which are purple, and two of which are twisted clockwise, and reporters will quote them unskeptically, saying "Isn't that cool!" But if economists say, as they have for centuries, that a minimum wage raises unemployment, reporters treat them skeptically and feel they need to find a contrary quote to "balance" their story.

I see the same pattern with my students - they'll easily believe physics claims, but are very reluctant to entertain standard economics claims. They come to class with strong incorrect preconceptions about the social world. As Caplan emphasizes, the publics' problem with economics is not the things they don't know, it is the things they know that ain't so; they act not ignorant but cocksure of error.

The reasons for this resistance are not entirely clear, but one plausible theory is that people want to believe certain things about the social world, regardless of whether those things are true. For example, we want to believe foreigners are out to get us, as this makes us seem more loyal to non-foreigners. If this theory is correct, then these four big errors are four big biases.

Enjoy.

It Gets Worse

Yes, this blog has become all Balko, all the time, but the Atlanta story can't be ignored.

It just keeps getting worse. I mean worse for the police. Ms. Johnstone is now dead by several days. I presume it's getting no worse for her.

Friday Forgotten Tragedy: Boston Molasses Flood

Oh, look! It's a new regular feature, where we discuss a historical event (an historical event?) now largely forgotten.

And if you don't live in the Boston area you might not know about the molasses flood of January, 1919. Back then molasses was a more prominent industrial product, and the Purity Distilling Company built a tank in Boston which held about 2.3 million gallons of the stuff. One unusually warm winter day the tank burst, let loose a 15 foot wave of goo, and drowned 21 people. Imagine explaining that at the pearly gates...

Image and more found at this Wikipedia link.

Certain Things Are Inexcusable

Narcotics officers in Atlanta shot and killed a 92 year old woman while executing a no-knock raid. Radley Balko has multiple updates, starting on November 21st.

Hey, it's your drug war. Do something about it.

Like Certain TV Preachers

John Edwards is a sanctimonious hypocrite.

He is still my least favorite Senator, except for McCain. Oh, and Lieberman. And Lott, Kennedy, Santorum, Stevens ... they pretty much all stink, huh? The difficulty would be in finding a good one.

Repeat It, Again

Libertarian is not conservative. Ditto free market advocacy. Jacob Sullum points out the grating error in the NY Times' way of thinking, this time in Milton Friedman's obit:

I suppose it was inevitable that the New York Times obituary for Milton Friedman would describe his views as "conservative," but it's still a bit depressing. To be fair, the headline accurately calls Friedman a "free-market theorist," and the word libertarian even makes an appearance (in the 16th paragraph and the subhead preceding it). But the Times also says Friedman flew "the flag of economic conservatism," describes the the Chicago School of economics as "conservative," says Friedman "helped ignite the conservative rebellion after World War II," and calls him a "guiding light to American conservatives." The general impression is that Friedman was a conservative with eccentric views about drug policy.

So in what sense was Friedman conservative? Was it conservative to advocate laissez faire in the wake of the New Deal and World War II, when the consensus on the left and the right was that managing the economy was one of the government's main tasks? Was it conservative to oppose Keynsianism when everyone was a Keynesian? For that matter, is there anything less conservative than the creative destruction of the free market?

Sullum's headline; "Alert the Times: Milton Friedman Was a Liberal."

Yes. Perhaps the greatest liberal of the twentieth century. A shame he's not recognized as any sort of liberal at all by mainstream opinion.

Milton Friedman

The internet makes the world smaller. I'm reminded of this when I click over to David Friedman's blog and first see the news of his father Milton's death, in the form of an apt verse.

Milton Friedman was perhaps the greatest of the libertarians. Not only was he a man of great thought and ideas, he had much influence on making those ideas reality. Most importantly, he was right. At David's blog, commenter Roland Patrick writes:

In the last 25 years there have been only two (short and mild) recessions. In the previous 25 years there were six, and several of them quite severe.

The difference is in the one quarter century Milton Friedman was considered an eccentric. In the other, his way of thinking about the Quantity Theory dominated the Fed's thinking.

More generally, he promoted the idea of individual freedom and responsibilty as the driving force to an economy.

That's A Rock

Both the Denver dailies carried the story of the latest addition to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science's mineral collection. Here it is-

It's from Mount Antero in central Colorado. The blue prisms you see sticking up out of the host rock are gem aquamarine. I've seem hundreds, maybe thousands of specimens from Mount Antero (I just mentioned some a few weeks ago) but I've never seen anything that aproaches this. Just breathtaking. And since it's now in the museum I'll make the trip to see it in person soon.

Here's a closeup-

The prospector who found it says he made a sum in the low six figures from this. I say he's selling it cheap.

Both images from the Denver Post article.

Crystal Ball

Wednesday's post-election trading on Wall Street was mostly positive, but there was at least one exception, drug companies. Economist Greg Mankiw predicts, "The Dems will likely give us lower drug prices and less research into new drugs. Good news if you plan to be sick soon. Bad news if you plan to be sick in the more distant future."

Jim Henley Has An Opinion

It goes like this:

If you insist on a single reason to rebuke the GOP at the polls today, here it is: In late 2001, some libertarians hoped that the New Seriousness after September 11 would lead to government setting new priorities. With a real threat to deal with, surely the government would have less time and energy to spare for drug wars and pornography crusades. What actually happened was that government, under the Republican Party, has used draconian laws ostensibly drafted to “fight terror” to ramp up programs against drugs, pornography and online gambling of all things. These are not people you want to have practically unchecked power.

Well, yeah. What strikes me about the developments of the last few years is how it leaves a significant portion of the American electorate without representaion in the major parties. Half of eligible voters stay home historically, but now a large block of voters, those who prefer limited government have no where to turn. We can stay home, too.

Observed, Again

Years ago I noticed an inverse relationship between the physical attractiveness of a musician and the quality of that musician's music. That's not uniform, of course there are rare exceptions.

Tonight I had the misfortune of watching the CMA awards on TV. I saw lot of very pretty people.

Socialized Euthanasia

How's this?

ONE of Britain’s royal medical colleges is calling on the health profession to consider permitting the euthanasia of seriously disabled newborn babies.

The proposal by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecology is a reaction to the number of such children surviving because of medical advances. The college is arguing that “active euthanasia” should be considered for the overall good of families, to spare parents the emotional burden and financial hardship of bringing up the sickest babies.

(Emphasis mine)

No mention of how the national healthcare system suffers financial hardship in caring for sick babies. That would be crass. But it must have crossed someone's mind.

Losing

Dr. Eamonn Butler:

When I worked on Capitol Hill in the 1970s, I remember a constituency newsletter from one of our congressman. It was winter, and he was commenting how kids were tobogganing down the hill, in the grounds of the Capitol itself. It was the mark of a free society, he argued that ordinary people were welcome to go right up to the seat of government itself. By contrast, you would not get anywhere near the legislators of the totalitarian regimes that then ruled a third of the planet.

Indeed, I recall that ordinary citizens could not just toboggan outside the Capitol, but saunter inside, look up at the great dome, and from there wander right found all the congressional offices. In Downing Street too, we used to stroll right past Number Ten, though standing on the doorstep was frowned on by the attending, unarmed, police constable.

Now, Downing Street is gated off, and security barriers are in place, or going up, all over Washington. New anti-car-bomb barriers are being installed around the Capitol, at a very safe distance. The fences are depressingly off-putting. Particularly in the country that prided itself on its legislators' accessibility.
[...]
One aim of terrorists is to undermine our democracy. In the way we react to them, I fear that we lose some of the accessibility of our legislators which enhances it. In its defence, we all need to be on greater guard of our traditional liberties. Distant, aloof rulers have a way of overlooking the importance of such things.

Let's not even start on the impositions of airline security.

Halloween Recap

This is the best pumpkin I've seen this year.

Subarus For Kerry

Eric Scheie documents the unsavory culture of Subarus:

Now that I think about it, that's a Subaru. I don't mean this as an ad hominem attack (how can a criticism of a car be that?), but for some reason, those cars seem incapable of going fast enough to keep up with the normal rate of speed, and I've been meaning to look into the problem. Honestly, I can't tell you how many times there's been a Subaru in front of me, putt-putt-putting along, as if the poor thing can't go any faster, and just because they often have Kerry bumperstickers, that's no reason for me to impugn their owners' driving abilities or even stereotype them. Surely, there must be Subarus for Bush!

[...]I did find this rather ominous statement:

I have never seen a Bush bumper sticker on a Subaru. Is this some weird political conspiracy, that all Subaru drivers must be democrats?

Political conspiracy?

Sorry, folks, but much as I regret my tendency to get carried away, I simply can't ignore an allegation like that. I'll try to be as fair as I can, within limits, because I have been annoyed by slow-moving Subarus one time too many, and there's just something about seeing shiny new Kerry bumperstickers two years after the election right after Kerry's amazing gaffe that I find impossible to ignore.

Eric also points to this:

Maybe it's just Colorado...

One definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. In the 15 years I've lived in Colorado, I've had one, particular experience happen to me over and over again. At first I wrote it off as coincidence. Then I began to think of it as a quirk. Then I started to rant about it to my friends and they told me that I was nuts. Now I know it's true.

File this under "gross, but true generalizations." Subaru drivers are all alike. Sure, they might be different shapes and sizes and races and genders, but they all share something in common. I'm not sure if this commonality exists before they own one, or if some sort of transformation takes place once they do...but trust me, they are all afflicted similarly.

First the disclaimer...I'm sure they're good cars. Lance drives one...at least in the ads he does. And here in Colorado, where it is important to have all-wheel or 4-wheel drive, it's a practical choice...moreover it's an affordable option compared to a big, honking SUV.

Now...on to the "Subaru experience..." Whenever there is a slow-down in traffic, particularly in the left lane, historically known as the "fast" lane, it is usually the fault of a Subaru. I shit you not...I've documented it. It might be the car right in front of me or a car that is 12 cars up...but it is invariably a Subaru that you can point to for this.

This all started when I lived in Vail for 7 years. In every ski town in Colorado, you'll find 12-20 year-old Subarus living there. These old 4-bangers never die and they're usually passed on from one generation of seasonal ski bums to another for a bag of weed. There's obviously no emissions testing required for licensing in these mountain towns so they just live on with two functioning cylinders, barely breaking 45 miles an hour, for years! I thought when I moved to Denver that I'd lose sight of these little shitboxes for good.

No...they're just newer...but they still muck things up. Never mind the political statements that you typically see on their bumpers..."Imagine Whirled Peas" or "Dog is my Pilot" or "Axis of Evil" or the classic "Save Tibet." No...I'm focused on the driving behavior. It's as if it is the self-appointed duty of all Subaru drivers to enforce the speed limit for the rest of us. What else would explain it? Is there some club I'm not aware of where all Subaru drivers share secrets?

Of course - you've already guessed it - I drive a 12 to 20 year old Subaru here in Colorado, which refuses to die.

FWIW I keep it off the freeway. And I don't drive slow. I do tend to talk my way out of tickets easily enough, though.

"Gee, officer, do you really think this old thing could have been going that fast?"

No bumper stickers, either.