On Myers and crackers

When I first read about P.Z. Myers’ decision to destroy a consecrated communion wafer (which he followed up with actual action), I was appalled at his lack of regard for the feelings of a billion people who had never personally offended him. I was inclined to agree with Andrew Sullivan’s characterisation of his action:

It is one thing to engage in free, if disrespectful, debate. It is another to repeatedly assault and ridicule and abuse something that is deeply sacred to a great many people.

Let me make it absolutely clear though: I never disputed he had the right to do it. However, having a right and exercising it are not the same thing. For instance, we have the right to be unfaithful to our spouse but we usually condemn those who indulge in such behavior. (This is why libertarians correctly distinguish between the legal and the moral.)

Thus, while I viewed Myers’ action as an exercise of his inalienable right to free expression, I did think it was an uncivil and hurtful act that did nothing for the cause of atheism or rationality. However the angry reaction of fundamental Catholics (who are now calling for a law against blasphemy) has tempered my view of the matter. Being nice to people is a wonderful trait but there can be no real compromise with those who believe in enforcing niceness through censorship. Unfortunately there is ample evidence that this kind of thinking is not limited to fringe groups (see, for instance some of the comments below Eugene Volokh’s post on the matter).

I am not sure what the appropriate reaction to religious fundamentalists is. Myers’ way — which I certainly sympathize with —  may not unfortunately be the most effective approach to quieten them.  However, I happily welcome attempts to convince me it is; anyone who succeeds in doing that earns a photo of me destroying a holy cracker. No kidding.

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Political freedom vs economic freedom

Scott Aaronson has a nice post in which he plots political freedom and economic freedom on a chart and concludes that while the two are definitely correlated, the correlation seems to disappear near the high-freedom areas of the chart. In fact he hypothesises there might be a ‘Pareto curve’ fitting this negative correlation between the two freedoms near the top of the scale.

Unfortunately, as I point out in a comment on his blog, his data is suspect, especially near the top end of the scale that is relevant to the Pareto curve discussion. For instance, Canada and Sweden lie near the top of the political freedom scale according to the Freedom House survey that he uses. In particular, they both have perfect scores in “freedom of expression and belief”. Of course, this is deeply flawed as both countries have insidious hate speech laws that stifle speech, especially those belonging to the far right.

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Eminently quotable nonsense

This is a voluntary fee. No one has to pay it. You only have to pay it if you choose not to use reusable bags.

— Seattle city council president Richard Conlin, who worked with Mayor Greg Nickels on the proposal to levy a 20 cent tax on shoppers at grocery, drug, and convenience stores for each paper or plastic bag they use.

Hat tip: Jacob Sullum, who points out that by the same reasoning, income tax, sales tax, tobacco tax and property tax are all ‘voluntary’.

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You cannot restrict your way into prosperity

I exaggerate not a bit when I describe the prevailing politics of L.A. to be roughly as follows: Wal-Mart and big box stores = evil, and need to be stopped at all costs. Also, we need more cheap supermarkets! Mom and pop stores need to be defended from Big Corporations, unless they sell fried chicken or used tires, or get in the way of a big development project.

 — Matt Welch, writing about his experience of dealing with Los Angeles “stakeholders” during his two-year tenure at the L.A. Times.

I highly recommend the whole article.

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Smoking pot is like child rape?

Another hard hitting article about the insane war on drugs by Jacob Sullum at Reason Hit and Run.

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Obama as constitutional law professor

Before Barack Obama decided to run for President, he spent twelve years as a highly popular lecturer at the University of Chicago law school. The New York Times has a fascinating account of Obama’s time there. (A free registration might be required to view the linked article) 

Prof. Barnett, writing at the conservative-libertarian blog The Volokh Conspiracy says that the materials show that “[Obama] is a smart guy, and an exceptionally fair-minded teacher” but “they tell us little about his core beliefs on the very sensitive issues covered by these courses.” Considering these materials are taken from courses he taught to students, I think that is a good thing.

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“World no alcohol day”

This guy needs to loosen up. Someone get him a stiff drink!

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Mandatory health insurance does not work

There are many good arguments libertarians put forward against the idea of mandating universal health insurance (either through single payer or a Massachusetts style measure).

It is morally wrong to coerce some people to disproportionately pay for others’ costs or to tell someone who decides to take his chance that he cannot do it.

A mandate would almost surely be accompanied by excessive regulation which would adversely affect medical research and the quality of healthcare provided.

It will encourage the passage of nanny-state laws designed to compel people to stay healthy.

Despite these flaws, it was assumed that such a measure would at least reduce medical costs and thus make life better for a lot of people. However it now appears that even this economic rationale does not hold good.

Of course, the linked article of course only looks only at the Massachusetts model but it seems extremely likely that the same problems will arise in any similar scheme.

So what’s the best solution? I don’t have a completely satisfactory answer; check out, however, Milton Friedman’s short essay on the topic.

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The nature of morality

Earlier today, Eliezer Yudkowski wrote the final post of his long series of articles on the nature of morality which I had blogged about here.

Eliezer’s basic point, which I agree with, is that morality is subjectively objective. For more, go over to his blog. Be warned though, it will require time and effort.

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Liberty is a fictional figure

I agree with Aristotle the Geek; some people really don’t get it.

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Wrong in the right direction

“The (top-billed) Libertarians are wrong, just like everyone else, but they are wrong in the right direction to correct several major problems.  When the country becomes too deregulated, I’ll let you know.”

 — Eliezer Yudkowsky

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Parallel terrors

At least thirty-seven people are dead in a series of horrific blasts in Ahmedabad, India.

Iran is going to hang thirty people tomorrow.

At first sight, the situations look dissimilar. The people dead in Ahmedabad are innocent victims of terror, their lives snuffed out brutally and callously by vengeful terrorists. The Iranians who will die tomorrow have undergone a trial according to the laws of their land and their executions will be lawful affairs handled by dignified government officials.

Yet, as the CNN report makes it clear, quite a few of the Iranians who have been sentenced to death are simply guilty of “being a public nuisance while drunk (or) being involved in illegal relationships — relationships between men and women who are not married to each other.”

Makes me wonder if the cloak of government authority really makes their deaths any more legitimate.

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Randy Pausch’s last lecture

Randy Pausch died yesterday.

He was Professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University and achieved worldwide fame for his September 2007 ‘last lecture’ — a warm, funny, inspirational 76 minute talk about achieving your childhood dreams and enabling others to do the same. Though the talk was really aimed at his kids, it has, over the last ten months, been viewed by over 6 million people.

I won’t say watching the video will change your life — no lecture has ever done that — but I do think you’ll be passing on something wonderful and precious if you don’t.

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The hidden force behind ideology?

Tyler Cowen suggests that for many people, “the real force behind a political ideology is the subconsciously held desire that a certain group of people should not be allowed to rise in relative status.”

Take the so-called “right wing.”  I believe that some people on the right do not like those they perceive as “whiners.”  They do not want these whiners to rise in relative status.  That means they must argue against the whining and also they must argue against the presuppositions behind the whining.

If the whiners say that times are bad, the rebuttal is that times are pretty good or times will become better again.  But if the whiners want to increase government benefits (perhaps there is a victim to whine about), we hear about the need to tighten our belts and all the talk about good times is, at least temporarily, muted.  Fiscal discipline is now in order.

Take the so-called “left wing.”  Some of these people favor a kind of meritocracy.  They feel it is unfair that money so determines access in capitalist society and they do not want the monied class to rise in relative status, certainly not above the status of the smart people and the virtuous people.  It is important to fight for the principle that the desires of this monied class have a relatively low priority in the social ranking. 

Fits in with my long held view that ideologies (and many other things, including degree of faith) are to an extent preprogrammed by personality or temparament (which certainly express themselves through the manner of emotional response to other people).

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More on the Scrabulous story

I had written earlier about the Scrabble vs Scrabulous saga. There is a post on the same topic at Reason Hit and Run today, with an interesting discussion below.

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