Political scientist James Q. Wilson died last week at the age of 80. He was most famous for his ‘Broken Windows’ theory of urban crime that postulated that small signs of neglect in a community can be the trigger for crime, and that if the police ignore minor crimes that leads to more major crimes.
Stanford psychologist Philip Zimbardo explains the theory. [Read more…]
While most of us tend to predict the outcome of presidential elections based on perceptions of the viability of candidates and what happens to be the hot issues of the day, it is useful to bear in mind that the real professionals (like political scientists) look at different things in their crystal balls. [Read more…]
I really like Pat Robertson. Whenever something major happens, he can be counted upon to unfailingly say the wrong thing. For example, most religious people think that prayer can nudge god into overcoming the laws of nature but they also have the sense that to blame deadly natural disasters on insufficient prayer, while being a perfectly logical consequence of that belief, may sound callous and be ridiculed, and so they refrain from doing so. [Read more…]
When it comes to religions, they all have such weird beliefs that comparing them to see which ones are more bizarre is futile. Can we really say that Scientology is crazier than Islam, Mormonism than Judaism? Bahaism than Christianity? How does one measure levels of craziness to enable such comparisons? And yet, people often do make just such judgments. [Read more…]
I do not pay much attention to Rush Limbaugh. As far as I know, he has never said anything insightful and his shtick seems to be, like Ann Coulter, to say outrageous things just to gain attention. I usually just ignore them but his recent outburst against Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke, repeatedly calling her a slut and a prostitute, was quite extraordinary. I didn’t think that even he would sink so low. [Read more…]
One of the ways that political discourse is controlled is by limiting the range of options that are considered ‘reasonable’. In the case of Iran’s nuclear program, it is taken for granted that for that country to obtain a nuclear weapon means the end of the world, that the country’s leadership is committed to doing so, and so the only options are whether we should bomb them immediately or [Read more…]
In my post Lifestyles of the rich and oblivious I wrote about the complaints of people like Andrew Schiff who felt that he could not live as he wanted to in New York City on $350,000 per year. To no one’s surprise (except perhaps to people who move in the same circles) he received a huge negative backlash [Read more…]
The good officers of the Republican party in Laurens County in South Carolina have developed a checklist that they will use to see if you have the right beliefs, attitudes, and practices to be endorsed by them. The 28-item ‘Republican purity pledge as it is being called includes the following:
You must oppose abortion, in any circumstances. [Read more…]