Secular

Three interesting pieces on religion. An interview with Sadanand Dhume on the death of pluralism in Indonesia, wherein he defines secularism. Liberhan, and the pseudo-seculars, and the “pseudo-moderates” should take note- What are your thoughts on secularism in India. I am a secularist in the Kemalist tradition or the French laïcité tradition. This means a [...]

Dodonomics: The prostitute and the baby-sitters’ club

The Mises blog links to this “brain teaser”- It is the month of August; a resort town sits next to the shores of a lake. It is raining, and the little town looks totally deserted. It is tough times, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit. Suddenly, a rich tourist comes to town. [...]

Peerage

Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful- “Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?” wondered Juvenal: Who watches the watchmen? But the beauty of the climate-change tree-ring circus is that you never need to ask “Who peer-reviews the peer-reviewers?” Mann peer-reviewed Jones, and Jones peer-reviewed Mann, and anyone who questioned their theories got exiled to the unwarmed wastes of Siberia. The “consensus” [...]

“Consciousness of consciousness”

A somewhat old Discover Magazine interview with Gerald Edelman- Before talking about how this relates to consciousness, I’d like to know how you define consciousness. It’s hard to get scientists even to agree on what it is. William James, the great psychologist and philosopher, said consciousness has the following properties: It is a process, and [...]

Common cause? Lost cause

A lot has been written about “Climategate” and if anyone has missed any part of it, they could start with this, this, and this. Mann’s and Jones’ emails about keeping skeptics out by “redefining” peer-review, and by “stop[ping to] consider” a particular journal as “legitimate” are here and here. The left has achieved mastery over [...]