I <3 Public Intellectuals
"Normally, "black responsibility" is a forbidden phrase for a black leader -- not because blacks reject responsibility, but because even the idea of black responsibility weakens moral leverage over whites. When Mr. Obama uses this language, whites of course are thankful. Black leaders seethe."
- Shelby Steele, Why Jesse Jackson Hates Obama.
Just stunningly good writing. And the profound and enlightened content in so many books and articles today is just mind blowing - science and reasoning are being applied to human concerns everywhere you look, by people capable of truly wonderful things. I've been reading John McWhorter (Losing the Race: Self-Sabotage in Black America and Winning the Race: Beyond the Crisis in Black America), Barbara Oakley (Evil Genes: Why Rome Fell, Hitler Rose, Enron Failed and My Sister Stole My Mother's Boyfriend), Christopher Hitchens, lots of beautifully rich stuff on WSJ's Opinion Journal, As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl by John Colipinto, and a devastatingly sad book on the consequences of Franklin Roosevelt's horrific and blithe ignorance of economics and the suffering caused by his insistence on blaming business for everything, with nary a thought to validating the presumed rational basis for his own course of actions (FDR's Folly: How Roosevelt and his New Deal Prolonged the Great Depression).
I'm looking forward to Michael Shermer's Mind of the Market: Compassionate Apes, Competitive Humans, and Other Tales from Evolutionary Economics and about 15 others I picked up over the last three conferences I've been to: the Libertarian National Convention in Denver at the end of May, the Atlas Society's/Objectivist Center's Summer Seminar in Portland, OR, at the end of June, and the Freedom Fest in Las Vegas, last week. The Freedom Fest had an amazing line-up: Steve Forbes with his Flat Tax Revolution, Christopher Hitchens with God Is Not Great, Charles Murray (upcoming Real Education: Four Simple Truths for Bringing America's Schools Back to Reality), Michael Shermer, Jeremy Siegel (the Wizard of Wharton), David Friedman, Dinesh D'Souza, David Boaz, the current director of FIRE, Mary Ruart, Bob Poole, and many others I'm just learning of who are doing incredibly rational, energetic, efficient work for the many, many good causes for fairness, rationality, better education, common understanding of the human condition through more effective methods and practices, and freedom for innovation. The concepts were flying; I loved it so much!
Briefly, in other news, I've been petitioning to put Ward Connerly's (Creating Equal) anti affirmative-action measure on the ballot in Missouri and Nebraska (ballot measures known as the Missouri and the Nebraska Civil Rights Initiative, respectively). I really enjoyed the Nebraskaness of Nebraska. Now there's the heartland, land of pioneers. Believe me: black people who live in Nebraska know how to get along with white people. And since you're wondering: approval in both states I put at around 75% of the people who stopped to listen. Minorities approved at pretty much the same rate (and not one was rude, which is more than I can say for whites). A poll put overall approval at 71% in Nebraska, so I was pleased my estimate was good. We did not get it on the ballot in Missouri, having more signatures than required but standing to lose many through challenges of every imaginable kind; and we did succeed in Nebraska. I discovered (by studious postcard shopping) that Nebraska's state motto is "Equality Before the Law." Those honest Cornhuskers! Nebraska is not a racist state, and it's not a PC-overrun state. Still, the measure to end racial preferences should be on the ballot and go into law:
To prohibit discriminating against or granting preferential treatment to anyone on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of public employment, education, or contracting by the state or any of its institutions.
(And I just have to share some silliness for dessert: Spoonerisms.)
- Shelby Steele, Why Jesse Jackson Hates Obama.
Just stunningly good writing. And the profound and enlightened content in so many books and articles today is just mind blowing - science and reasoning are being applied to human concerns everywhere you look, by people capable of truly wonderful things. I've been reading John McWhorter (Losing the Race: Self-Sabotage in Black America and Winning the Race: Beyond the Crisis in Black America), Barbara Oakley (Evil Genes: Why Rome Fell, Hitler Rose, Enron Failed and My Sister Stole My Mother's Boyfriend), Christopher Hitchens, lots of beautifully rich stuff on WSJ's Opinion Journal, As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl by John Colipinto, and a devastatingly sad book on the consequences of Franklin Roosevelt's horrific and blithe ignorance of economics and the suffering caused by his insistence on blaming business for everything, with nary a thought to validating the presumed rational basis for his own course of actions (FDR's Folly: How Roosevelt and his New Deal Prolonged the Great Depression).
I'm looking forward to Michael Shermer's Mind of the Market: Compassionate Apes, Competitive Humans, and Other Tales from Evolutionary Economics and about 15 others I picked up over the last three conferences I've been to: the Libertarian National Convention in Denver at the end of May, the Atlas Society's/Objectivist Center's Summer Seminar in Portland, OR, at the end of June, and the Freedom Fest in Las Vegas, last week. The Freedom Fest had an amazing line-up: Steve Forbes with his Flat Tax Revolution, Christopher Hitchens with God Is Not Great, Charles Murray (upcoming Real Education: Four Simple Truths for Bringing America's Schools Back to Reality), Michael Shermer, Jeremy Siegel (the Wizard of Wharton), David Friedman, Dinesh D'Souza, David Boaz, the current director of FIRE, Mary Ruart, Bob Poole, and many others I'm just learning of who are doing incredibly rational, energetic, efficient work for the many, many good causes for fairness, rationality, better education, common understanding of the human condition through more effective methods and practices, and freedom for innovation. The concepts were flying; I loved it so much!
Briefly, in other news, I've been petitioning to put Ward Connerly's (Creating Equal) anti affirmative-action measure on the ballot in Missouri and Nebraska (ballot measures known as the Missouri and the Nebraska Civil Rights Initiative, respectively). I really enjoyed the Nebraskaness of Nebraska. Now there's the heartland, land of pioneers. Believe me: black people who live in Nebraska know how to get along with white people. And since you're wondering: approval in both states I put at around 75% of the people who stopped to listen. Minorities approved at pretty much the same rate (and not one was rude, which is more than I can say for whites). A poll put overall approval at 71% in Nebraska, so I was pleased my estimate was good. We did not get it on the ballot in Missouri, having more signatures than required but standing to lose many through challenges of every imaginable kind; and we did succeed in Nebraska. I discovered (by studious postcard shopping) that Nebraska's state motto is "Equality Before the Law." Those honest Cornhuskers! Nebraska is not a racist state, and it's not a PC-overrun state. Still, the measure to end racial preferences should be on the ballot and go into law:
To prohibit discriminating against or granting preferential treatment to anyone on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of public employment, education, or contracting by the state or any of its institutions.
(And I just have to share some silliness for dessert: Spoonerisms.)