Category Archives: culture

The ends of liberty

Posted on October 28, 2009 by David Hume

In Reason, Are Property Rights Enough? Should libertarians care about cultural values? A reason debate. If politics are dispositions, then at the end of the day they still have to “point” to the “Good Life.” The norms that one’s ideology … Continue reading →

Posted in culture, data | 12 Comments

Protestants like Israel; Midwesterners not so much

Posted on October 27, 2009 by David Hume

At The American Scene there’s a post about WASPs and their relationship to Israel. Of course, that begs the question, what do you mean by WASP? WASP = White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, but that is a plain and broad-church definition which … Continue reading →

Posted in culture, data | Tagged , , | 8 Comments

The shoe on the other foot

Posted on October 25, 2009 by David Hume

Arnold Kling recently mentioned he was reading Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815. A little over halfway through the book, I am struck again by the historical contingency of particular foreign & social policy outlooks. For … Continue reading →

Posted in culture | Tagged | 6 Comments

Capitalism’s lost social capital

Posted on October 21, 2009 by David Hume

A few years ago Francis Fukuyama wrote Trust: The Social Virtues and The Creation of Prosperity. The short of it is that modern economies tend to be “high trust,” you can rely on more than simply your family to get … Continue reading →

Posted in culture, economics | Tagged , , | 33 Comments

What We Do, Not What We Say

Posted on October 21, 2009 by Bradlaugh

From an academic friend who knows a very great deal indeed about polls, voting, and public opinion (as in: he’s written books about them). There are two ways to find out what people think, believe, want, and like:  (1) Ask … Continue reading →

Posted in culture, data, politics | 12 Comments

Cultural Adjustment

Posted on October 21, 2009 by Bradlaugh

Here’s a little gem of multi-culti lunacy from the newspaper you have never, ever seen anyone reading: In Ohio, officials designing a seat-belt campaign aimed at the state’s large Somali refugee population wanted to adapt the popular “Click it or ticket” slogan … Continue reading →

Posted in culture, law | 29 Comments

It’s not always better in Europe (?)

Posted on October 20, 2009 by David Hume

Matt Yglesias makes an observation that many colored people I have known have made (including family members): There’s often a kind of conventional idea on the left that the United States is an unusually racist society. And I think there’s … Continue reading →

Posted in culture | Tagged | 10 Comments

Lions and Christians

Posted on October 20, 2009 by Bradlaugh

Intelligence Squared is a privately-funded outfit staging debates in London. You can get a sample of the kinds of topics they debate from their home page. Free-market capitalism is so 20th century The threat to our civil liberties from an overmighty … Continue reading →

Posted in culture, philosophy | 11 Comments

Book Stuff

Posted on October 19, 2009 by Bradlaugh

Some book stuff: (1) Are there any WAD blogs? people are asking me.  Well,  I’m running one on my own website here, and there’s some to and fro about the book on one of the Amazon history forums here. (2) The Russian translation of Prime Obsession … Continue reading →

Posted in culture, Odds & Ends | 6 Comments

The Blue-Collar Gospel

Posted on October 19, 2009 by Bradlaugh

Here, from America’s Newspaper of Record, is a story that touches my heart. Blue-collar work, whether it’s planting shrubs, pounding nails, tuning engines or laying bricks, can be just as rewarding as carrying a briefcase. In fact, it can be a whole … Continue reading →

Posted in culture, Odds & Ends | 21 Comments