I Love Hugs Like That
AdamSmithee on emergency:#
Another gem from this report from Davos is Bono saying Africa "is not a cause, it is an emergency". Since when did poverty, which afflicts a smaller proportion of the world's population than at any time in human history, become so immediately urgent? This is emblematic of the hysteria over development being driven by short-term political interests and the arbitrary deadline of the MDGs. Poverty is horrible, and we must do what we can to fight it, yes. But it's simply not an emergency, which implies "do what you can now, damn the long-term consequences". Sound like anything familiar?
Aaron Swartz quotes some surprising things John Locke said:#
And despite himself being persecuted for his political ideas, Locke did not believe that anyone else deserved to talk about the government. His Constitution outlawed those who "speak anything in their religious assembly irreverently or seditiously of the government or governors, or of state matters." It protected "speculative opinions in religion," but not political opinions. "Locke would not even have permitted people to discuss public affairs," Leonard Levy observes. His constitution provided further that "all manner of comments and expositions on any part of these constitutions, or on any part of the common or statute laws of Carolines, are absolutely prohibited."
Of course, this is not surprising from one who had commented that the "day-labourers and tradesmen, the spinsters and dairymaids" must be told what to think; "The greatest part cannot know and therefore they must believe."
Our hero, John Locke.
Alexander Payne writes a very humorous post:#
But there's no protocol for blog romance, in the social and technical senses. On the social tip, it's sleazy to write your favorite blogger and profess your interest; reader-author interaction usually stops at comments, and even there certain limits are typically observed. On the technical end, there's no way to easily find other bloggers who are, if you'll excuse the crass phrase, "on the market," though the worth of a mechanism to allow this (TrackLove? LoveBack? BabyGotBack?) is highly suspect.
Asians, Do they all look the same?#
Dave Winer on category guilt.#
I've seen the same thing. I have a very easy category routing system built-in to my blogging software. To route an item to a category, I just right-click and choose a category from a hierarchy of menus. I can't imagine that it could be easier. Yet I don't do it.
It's also very easy to add a new category, or to even reorganize my whole taxonomy. Never do those things either.
Don Boudreaux writes about how poverty has been eliminated in America.#
My second reaction is: At least in the United States, we have not only alleviated poverty — Would even Edwards insist that America's poor are today no better off than they were 100 or even 50 years ago? — we have eliminated poverty.
I stand by both of my reactions. But I know that the second one is especially controversial. We have indeed eliminated poverty in the United States. By historical standards, no one — not a single person in our civilization — lives in poverty. (I suspect there are a handful of people who voluntarily live like hermits in the wilderness of places such as Montana or North Carolina's mountains. These people might well live in deep material poverty, but they live this way by choice — by choosing to remove themselves from our commercial civilization.)
I thought about this yesterday. On my way to my language class a girl on the street was asking people if they would "like to help save The Children." So, I asked her, "Which children?" "Children in America, you may be surprised to learn that there are starving, impoverished children in America." Her and I had a chat in which I explained what Don explains. In the end, she agreed that if you are going to help children, you should help children who are actually impoverished, not those in America.
It was a bizarrely successful conversation.
Tyler Cowen hypotheses why America has poor raw ingredients.#
5. It can take hours to make a really good mole sauce. America has high wages, nighttime shopping, plus the best TV shows in the world. The opportunity cost of good cooking and fine, slow dining is very high here.