Read it. So videogames give us an entire generation of tank gunners, anti-aircraft missile operators, and — surgeons? *sigh*

Tyler Cowen hits some high points.

In my view anyone doing policy economics has an obligation to learn more about ethics — much more — than the guy in the street would know.  Would someone doing experimental economics feel free of the obligation to learn some empirical psychology?  Would someone doing trade feel free of the obligation to learn some trade law, some history, and some political science?  No.  What’s the difference?  Economists like to separate the “positive” and “normative” aspects of what they do, but this distinction has not much impressed the moral philosophers who have looked at it nor has it impressed Amartya Sen.  The very decision to use economic tools emphasizes some considerations and excludes others.  The final policy analysis is not just pure prediction but rather it is also an implicit presentation and weighting of both different kinds of information and different values.  So if you are doing policy economics, it is imperative that you think about ethics at a very deep level, and read widely in ethics.  You are doing ethics whether you like it or not!

Frank Fruedi of Spiked is agin it.

David Hume wrote about the tendency to jump from is to ought — but nobody reads any more.

Read it. Just in case you were wondering. I know I was.

Read it. But they’re sure as hell going to try.

Read it. Just in case you were wondering. I know I was.

Christopher Hitchens is always worth reading.

Although Steve Sailer isn’t all that impressed.

Read it.

Read it. Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.

Read it. A useful distinction, well explained.

Read it. We’re doing amazing things these days … for animals.

Read it. Pretty in pink.

Read it. Presumably the other half want to be Steve Jobs.

Read it. No word on whether it involves armored bears.

Read it. It’s still farming.

Read it. Bionic Man gets no respect.

Read it. My, what a surprise. Aren’t you surprised? I’m sure surprised.

Apparently Mencius Moldbug supports Ron Paul. With reservations.

(part 1)

(part 2)

Suppose Ron Paul is elected President. What makes you think that President Paul can fix the US Federal Government?

What makes you think that any President can fix the US Federal Government?

What makes you think that the US Federal Government can be fixed at all?

And if you don’t think it can be fixed, what do you hope to achieve by voting in its elections?

And those are good questions for everyone to be asking.

Read it.

Obama’s ‘I’m not an operating officer’ admission seems near-disastrous.

a) Obama makes the presidency sound like a grand, slo-mo transformation of vision into legislation. But there are crisis requiring quick, coordinated action, and the type of leader who can act effectively in a crisis is likely to be a good “operating officer” rather than a visionary;

b). Once you pass a law you have to implement it, which requires getting results out of the civil service departments. This would seem to be especially true of national health care. The president who ignores the bureaucracy and focuses on ‘vision’ is apt to be defeated by that bureaucracy.

c) Immersing yourself up to the elbows in the various departments is one way to find out the information that bureaucrats are unlikely to pass up the chain of command.

… I’m not saying Obama’s model of the presidency can’t work if he chooses the right “operating” officer to actually run his administration. I’m saying voters would be justified in preferring a president who was a good “operating officer.”

Read it. Of course, not (strictly speaking) true — all of the candidates are People of the Crust, it’s just the pandering that focuses on class and race.

Inside Politics.

Inside the Beltway.

Read it. Now this is just silly.

Read it. Clue: It’s more than you think.

Read it. Imagine The Terminator in High School.

You know you want one.

Read it. And it would, too.

Read it. And the hits just keep on comin’.

Watch it. This is really freaky.

Read it. My, what a surprise. Aren’t you surprised? I’m sure surprised.

Read it. Afterwards you can eat the losers. What’s not to like?

Anne Applebaum looks at the Tata Nano. Try and say that three times fast.

Read it. I’m shocked, I tell you, shocked.

Read it. For those who really truly long for a washing machine that costs as much as a small car.

Read it. Sorry to intrude geek stuff into all the doom and gloom, but this is pretty significant.

Read it. There’s a lot of old people out there. Some people think that’s a problem.

Read it. As long as politicians have access to your wallet they’re going to use tax dollars to try to buy your vote. This is not a concept difficult to comprehend.

Read it. And try to find it in the New York Times or the Washington Post.

Read it. Every now and then Bush does something sensible.

Read it. Yeah, let me know if that works.

Read it. But the surge has failed, of course. Just listen to Hillary and Barak and John, they’ll tell you straight.

Read it. Isn’t that special, as my pappy used to say.

The inimitable Mencius Moldbug is not afraid to deploy the Hot Needle of Inquiry upon appropriate occasion.

Read it. The New York Times could use the exercise.

Inside Politics.

Inside the Beltway.

Read it. Votes are more important than principles, it would appear.

David Brooks points out the problems that identity politics presents for Democrats.

Inside the Beltway.

Inside Politics.

Read it.

Read it. Now that’s comedy.

Read it. This ought to shake things up a bit.

Read it. My, what a surprise. Aren’t you surprised? I’m sure surprised.