At My Real Job: Death and Dignity
Cato Unbound this month features a discussion on terminal illness, the medicalization of death, and physician-assisted suicide. There is of course no shortage of controversy on this long-simmering issue.
Monthly Archive: December 2012
People aren’t very good at making decisions
On Opposite Day, we do our best to argue in service of a position that, under normal circumstances, we argue against. Coke people might sing the praises of Pepsi, Cat people might talk about...
Is Unbundling the University Such a Bad Thing?
I agree with Aaron Bady that a strain of overwrought techno-utopianism cripples Clay Shirky’s analsysis of higher education in key places. Reading “Napster, Udacity, and the Academy,” it is at times almost impossible to stomach Shirky’s disingenuous...
2012-13 College Football Bowl Season Preview
Last year, I posted the bowl preview I always write for a friend. Since I wrote it again this year, I figured I’d post the new version. I tried to edit for a more...
A Call for Prayers and Best Wishes
My most beloved home town of Portland is reeling tonight. Late this afternoon an unidentified man entered the Clackamas Town Center Mall with a semi-automatic weapon and opened fire. As we Portlanders well know,...
We Give Until We Can Give No More
Note: This post is part of our League Symposium on Charity. Here is the introductory post for the Symposium. Here is a list of all posts so far. This post brings us to the end of...
Rod Dreher needs to shut up.
Dreher, today: [I] struggle. Here is my contemplative prayer life, in a nutshell. In the past, when I’ve been able to overcome my own “Squirrel!” tendencies, and give myself over to the meditative Jesus Prayer, I...
The Hypocrisy of Hollwood as a Model for American Society
For those unaware, the porn industry has gone in a humorous direction in recent years and parodies have become a popular sub-genre. Porn versions of The Avengers, Batman and Cheers have all made their...
How to Find Where You Are from the Sun: the basic principle.
A Davis Mark 3 “emergency sextant” is all you really need. How to Find Where You Are from the Sun is the title of George Buehler’s slender but utterly worthwhile pamphlet on basic celestial...
Conservatives’ Jim DeMint Problem
In service of defending his proposition that departing far-right Senator Jim DeMint is a “hero” whose record is one libertarians should celebrate, Washington Examiner‘s Tim Carney makes an argument that many on the left’ll find surprisingly agreeable....
Taxpayer-Directed Welfare
by James Hanley Way back when I was in graduate school, a couple of my students started talking to me about their experiences in student government. Their chief complaint was that they had no...
Constructing the Original Position 1: On Society and Justice
This is the first post in a series on constructing the original position. The introductory post is here. Look here for the rest of the posts in this series. The original position is first and foremost a...
Considering the Corruption of Charitable Sentiments
Note: This post is part of our League Symposium on Charity. Here is the introductory post for the Symposium. Here is a list of all posts so far. When THQ, a company which publishes...
Two Lesser Known Freedom of Speech Cases
When I was a kid, maybe eight years old, I asked my father “Why don’t doctors advertise?” My fathers answer, as best I can recall, was that doctors had, as a profession, decided that...
The Arab Winter: amateur hour in Cairo
Precis: Egypt’s new constitution is a contradictory mess. Mohamed Morsi has made an autocratic botch of his slim mandate. The Egyptian military council (SCAF) bides its time, appointing regional governors, conducting secret trials, its...
What risk management has taught me about the Trayvon Martin shooting
One of the byproducts of having spent the past two decades in risk management is that, for better or worse, I tend to view everything I see in the news through that lens. This...
Someday you will be dead too.
Three generations of my wife’s kin enjoying a grey Decemeber day on MON TIKI Our daughters are dancing in the local production of The Nutcracker, and last night some of my wife’s family came...
Constructing the Original Position from Scratch 0: Introduction
This is the Introductory post in a series of posts on Constructing the original position. Look here for the rest of the posts in this series Hi all. I have finished the first draft...
