Reminder that the deadline for the Molinari Society’s call for papers is tomorrow.
Tag Archives | Left-Libertarian
28 Years Later; or Hey Hey Goodbye
Explaining why this is such a good thing would take a post far longer than I have time for right now.
Deep Threat, Part 2
Thanks to a reader’s email note, I learn that my recent post on bin Laden’s possible porn stash has been quoted in The Independent and The Week.
From a Google search, I learn that the quote has since propagated far and wide.
I also learn, to my surprise, that I am a “mainstream blogger.”
You Wanna Bet?
Betting is the replacement for dueling.
It’s not a perfect replacement, of course. (Nothing is a perfect replacement for anything else.) It only applies in certain cases. But what it has in common with dueling is the challenge either to back up one’s opinion or retract it. In that sense, it serves a similar social function, and gives the challenger a similar feeling of satisfaction. And in addition to being (obviously) morally preferable to dueling, a challenge to wager also makes more sense epistemically. When a challenge is accepted, the outcome of the wager can show who’s right, whereas the outcome of a fight doesn’t (unless the wager is about relative fighting prowess, but in that case the duel just is a wager). And when a challenge is refused, well, fear of being refuted is an epistemically relevant reason to retract an opinion, while fear of being killed is not.
Viking Cinema, Part Tveir
In my discussion of Thor yesternight, I forgot to mention the film’s surprisingly antiwar politics. I can’t go into details without spoilage, so I’ve once again relegated them to the comments section.
SPOILER WARNING:
Wichita = Gallifrey?
Randall Holcombe, discussing the FSU funding flap, writes (inter alia) that “Charles Koch is well-known for supporting libertarian causes.”
That wording tickled my funny bone, because of its similarity to a Doctor Who villain’s famous reference to “the Doctor’s long association with libertarian causes.”
[To the humour-challenged: No, I am not making either a pro-Koch or an anti-Koch point in this post. Sometimes a joke is just a joke.]