As promised, here is a detailed rational refutation of the utilitarian concept of (Global) "Happiness Maximization" in general, and its specific variant that concludes in favor of wireheading, the cultivation of individuals in vats in a permanent state of artificially stimulated bliss.
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So I told this liberal colleague about my speaking at a Libertarian conference in Europe. They must be loaded was his immediate reaction. How much cognitive dissonance must it take to establish who's promoting the Synopsis, and who are the dissenters speaking truth to power?

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It's official: I'm an evil capitalist pig, oppressing a poor wage slave in a third world country, and dispossessing him from the productive surplus of his work for my own selfish profit!

Sure, I didn't make (and adamantly oppose ( Read more... )

Play it: And a Pony! in MP3 (take 3).
Music & Lyrics by Faré. Original insight by Gavin.

Écoutez-le: Et un poulain! en MP3.
Paroles et musique de Faré, d'après une idée originale de Gavin.
( Read the lyrics... / Lisez les paroles... )

My friend Gavin not only orks cows, he also dispenses wisdom. Tell him you want free high quality education for everyone, he'll reply that he wants free high quality education for everyone and a pony.

So you want free health care? I want free health care and a pony. You want higher minimum wages? I want higher minimum wages and a ponyYou want to ( Read more... )

J'interromps vos programmes habituels pour vous rappeler qu'aujourd'hui, nous commémorons la façon dont l'Etat nous protège de la mort violente par des criminels. Dieu-L'Etat notre sauveur. C'est clair, sans l'Etat, ce serait l'anarchie.

Dans une discussion rationnelle, chacun explore ( Read more... )

Philippe Gouillou propose des lois de discrimination positive en faveur d'une minorité défavorisée, les cons. Quant à moi, je pense qu'ils sont déjà sur-représentés parmi nos élus, et parmi les destinataires de divers privilèges légaux.

Mais il y a une minorité opprimée pour laquelle je suis prêt à me lever ( Read more... )

With Dubya promising to spend zillions of dollars to send a few privileged civil servants to Mars, I am irresistibly reminded of this quote from one of my favorite books, Teaching as a Subversive Activity, by Neil Postman (RIP) and Charles Weingartner:

Consider this ( Read more... )

By way of GNXP, here's a great speech by Michael Crichton about the intellectual fraud that is consensus science and any form of consensus being used as an argument in science.
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