Monthly Archives: September 2009

Magical thinking watch: Housing crisis chapter

Religious goods stores have been doing a record business in St. Joseph statues.  Buried in the garden of a home for sale, the doll allegedly helps the house to find a buyer.  (We are not told where you put the icon … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 11 Comments

Eat That Apple!

Stanley Fish is not normally my favorite commentator, but his New York Times piece on curiosity today is well worth a look: …There is another tradition in which, far from being the guarantor of a better future, curiosity is a vice … Continue reading

Posted in philosophy, science | Tagged | 8 Comments

Teen birth rate, deviations from the trend….

Below in the comments I noted that a “quick & dirty” check of the data yielded an r-squared of 0.14 for the proportion of teen birth rate variance on the state level by the percentage of the state’s population that … Continue reading

Posted in data, Uncategorized | Tagged | 5 Comments

More old time religion, more teen births?

There’s a new paper out, Religiosity and teen birth rate in the United States, which describes the positive relationship between teen births and religious conservatism on the state level. How positive? Here’s the scatterplot:

Posted in culture | 23 Comments

The great Irving Kristol

Secular Right mourns the death of Irving Kristol and sends its heartfelt condolences to his family.  Kristol possessed a noble generosity and grace, not the least when cheerfully informing an interlocutor of his errors.  The irony, understatement, and cool detachment … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | 4 Comments

Choices in the non-best of all worlds

I was struck that Arnold Kling recently admitted: My preference would be market-oriented health reform and the creation of real health insurance, which is bought by individuals and covers only insurable events (unexpected high expenses). But if it comes down … Continue reading

Posted in politics | Tagged | 17 Comments

Preexisting conditions

Democrats (and some Republicans) regularly bash health insurance companies for not covering preexisting conditions.  But isn’t that like expecting a home insurance company to write a policy for fire after your house has already burned down?  Health insurance seems to … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | 36 Comments

Libertarian fanaticism or legislative fecklessness?

Mr. Hume occasionally explores the relationship between being non-religious and being a libertarian.  If the failure to ban cell phone use while driving results from libertarian pressures, you can count me out as a member.  It is incomprehensible to me … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | 24 Comments

The Commanding Heights

U.S. Is Finding Its Role in Business Hard to Unwind: But one year after the collapse of Lehman Brothers set off a series of federal interventions, the government is the nation’s biggest lender, insurer, automaker and guarantor against risk for … Continue reading

Posted in culture, economics, history, politics | Tagged | 1 Comment

Metaphorical religion

Karen Armstrong and Richard Dawkins have companion essays on the implications of evolution for religion in the Wall Street Journal.  I am not very familiar with Armstrong’s writings.  I tried her book on Islam and found it saccharine, and I … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | 5 Comments