Michael Steele and Social Information Cascades

Earlier today, former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele was elected the next RNC Chairman.  Going forward, I think this choice is good news because Steele was considered to be somewhat less conservative than his opponents and perhaps somewhat more open to concerns that the Republican Party has veered to far to the right. I’m sure [...]

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Guantanamo Bay and the False Choice About Our Security

Matthew Yglesias posted earlier today that Navy Commander Kurt Lippold, who was the commander of the USS Cole when it was attacked by Al Qaeda in 2000, has sharply criticized President Obama’s executive order to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility.  Here is Commander Lippold’s statement: ”We shouldn’t make policy decisions based on human rights [...]

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On the Importance of Words

One of the things that bothered me most during the presidential campaign was the way Obama’s opponents and their supporters–first the Clintonites, then Republicans–slandered “words.”  It made sense, I suppose, for Clinton to contrast Obama as a “man of words” with herself as a “woman of deeds.”  In that sense, the undertone is that Obama [...]

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The Consequences of Thinking Like an Economist

The Situationist today highlighted the work of Stephen Marglin, a Harvard economist who will be presenting at the upcomming Project on Law and Mind Sciences conference.  I haven’t encountered Marglin before, but his recent book sounds very interesting: Economists celebrate the market as a device for regulating human interaction without acknowledging that their enthusiasm depends [...]

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Some Worthless Free Market Talk

Andrew Sullivan lets his inner conservative out for air: My fundamental concern with the stimulus is that its spending be focused directly on real investment and immediate demand and that it be swiftly followed by a brutal assault on long-term entitlement and defense spending. We need to take a machete to social security and Medicare [...]

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The Pervasiveness of Political Hypocrisy

An emerging conservative meme in the early hours of the Obama Administration is attacking the President or his supporters for actions that, had they been performed by George Bush, would have been roundly criticized on the left.  Beyond Obama, the charge of hypocrisy has been leveled at the corruption of Ron Blagovich and Charlie Rangel [...]

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Reductionism, Neuroscience, and A New Everything

Jonah Lehrer highlights an interesting response by physicist Stuart Kaufman to the Brockman challenge question at Edge: “what will change everything?” Reductionism has reigned as our dominant world view for 350 years in Western society. Physicist Steven Weinberg states that when the science shall have been done, all the explanatory arrows will point downward, from [...]

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Plane Crashes and Economic Intuition

I don’t consider myself to be afraid of flying, but, like most people, it certainly stresses me out more than the statistically more dangerous activity of driving on a highway.  Which is why, after hearing the news of US Airways Flight 1549′s detour into the Hudson a few days before I would be flying home [...]

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Well, That Was Quick

I’m getting ready to board a plane back to Massachusetts (from San Juan), where Weather.com tells me it is exactly 0 degrees. President Obama couldn’t have waited a few days to fix global warming? Regular posting should resume tomorrow.

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This Blog is Not Dead

I’m going on vacation until the 21st without my computer, so this blog will probably be dormant for a week or so.  I don’t really have a readership in any sense yet, so I’m not sure if that will matter to anyone.  If you happen across dlPFC this week and like what you see, though, [...]

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