Author Archives: David Hume

Richard Posner on the deterioration of the conservative movement

Out of curiosity, what do readers think about Richard Posner’s Is the Conservative Movement Losing Steam? I am personally sympathetic to Posner-style technocrats, but lack a “long view” that older individuals might have in regards to the evolution of American … Continue reading

Posted in law, politics | Tagged | 119 Comments

Politics as personal disposition

Will Wilkinson has a post up, The Caveman Roots of Liberal Democracy?, which riffed off some opinions in regards to the swing back toward “primal” values which I perceive to be the norm in modern liberal societies. Some of the … Continue reading

Posted in culture, politics, science | Tagged , , | 21 Comments

Regional differences in attitudes toward gay marriage

It looks like both Maine & New Hampshire will be taking steps toward recognizing gay marriage. If that happens only Rhode Island in New England will not recognize gay marriage. It also looks like there will be movement in New … Continue reading

Posted in politics | Tagged , , , | 33 Comments

Change does not always march in one direction

Over the past few days we have had some discussion on this weblog about the marriage of individuals of the same sex from different vantage points. As an empirical matter I think Andrew Stuttaford is correct to predict that this … Continue reading

Posted in culture | Tagged , | 36 Comments

Pakistan is already an Islamic State

So claims Ali Eteraz: Most people in the world, including some Pakistanis, live under the illusion that the country is secular and just happens to have been overrun by extremists. This is false. Pakistan became an Islamic state in 1973 … Continue reading

Posted in politics | Tagged , | 7 Comments

Gay marriage attitudes by the numbers

I know there are plenty of polls in regards to gay marriage, but I don’t ever see them broken out by religious attitudes. So I looked at the GSS at the MARHOMO, “Homosexuals should have right to marry,” variable for … Continue reading

Posted in politics, Uncategorized | Tagged , | 10 Comments

A non-secular past, present and future

In the comments below I engaged in a little bit of glib dismissal in regards to the contention that a secular society is not sustainable. The issue though need some elaboration. I agree with John Derbyshire when he says: Mark: … Continue reading

Posted in culture | Tagged , | 23 Comments

The World Values Survey

About six months ago I mentioned the General Social Survey. Have a question about public opinion & correlations? Poke around, don’t let your opinion or impression be the last word!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Atheism, religion and politics

At ScienceBlogs I look at World Values Survey data and compare secular and conservative East Asian nations to the religious but liberal United States. I conclude (after looking over data tables): My point here is rather simple: increased secularism in … Continue reading

Posted in data | Tagged , , | 9 Comments

The religious support for neoliberalism?

Over at TMP Cafe there is a discussiona bout Red State, Blue State.  This post has an interesting snippet: …But before we grab on to such a U.S.-centric explanation, it is worth noting that John Huber and Piero Stanig have … Continue reading

Posted in culture | Tagged , , | 5 Comments