- How Eric Hobsbawm remained a lifelong communist Richard Davenport-Hines, Spectator
- Chris Dillow’s favourite economics papers Chris Dillow, Stumbling & Mumbling
- The dark individualism of Watchmen Titus Techera, Law & Liberty
- The miracle we all take for granted Marian Tupy, CapX
Chris Dillow
Lunchtime Links
- David Reich’s essay in the New York Times on genetics, race, and IQ
- Henry Farrell’s essay at Crooked Timber on genetics, race, and IQ
- Ezra Klein’s essay at Vox on genetics, race, and IQ
- Chris Dillow’s essay at Stumbling and Mumbling on genetics, race, and IQ
- Andrew Sullivan’s essay at Daily Intelligencer on genetics, race, and IQ
Andrew’s essay is a must read. It’s careful, well thought out, and bolder than the other ones. All are well-worth reading, though.
Reich’s essay has sparked an important dialogue in the Anglo-American world (props to the NY Times). Globally, I think conceptions of race, genetics, and IQ in the non-Anglo world are based on pseudoscience (at best), so it’s nice to see this debate unfold the way it has (so far).
I don’t think any of them have done a good job grappling with Charles Murray’s argument. (More on that later.)
Thanks to Uncle Terry for bringing this to light in the first place.
Lunchtime Links
- Are there “hidden taxes” on women in the US? | Do risk preferences account for some of the gender pay gap?
- The Military Origins of Urban Prosperity in Europe | Rules of warfare in pre-modern societies
- What is the War Powers Act of 1973, and why does it matter? | Thinking about libertarian foreign policy
- American and Russian soldiers are shooting at each other in Syria | Why care about Syrians?
- State decay and “patchwork” | Laws, Juridification, and the Administrative State
- Conservatives and their contempt for detail in governance | Fascism Explained
- No, fascism can’t happen here (in the US) | The Gradual, Eventual Triumph of Liberty
BC’s weekend reads
- “What equivalent claims (if they could be established) would falsify your political position?“
- “White males may enjoy a great deal of privilege, but they still have rights, and when those rights are violated, they ought to be rectified.“
- “[…] actually, the whole country of France is like an attractive museum that would have a superlative cafeteria attached.“
- “They worked hard to look like they weren’t working too hard.“
Lunchtime Links
- Interview with a secessionist
- Ducking questions about capitalism
- The perverse seductiveness of Fernando Pessoa
- “Yet in this simple task, a doffer in the USA doffed 6 times as much per hour as an adult Indian doffer.”
- Conflicted thoughts on women in medicine
- The Devil You Know vs The Market For Lemons (car problems)
Worth a gander
- good piece of American sociology by Jeffrey Friedman (h/t Alberto Mingardi)
- Daniel Larison on the devastation in Puerto Rico
- Don Boudreaux has the best take I’ve read or heard on the Trump-pro athlete fiasco, and remember when conservatives blasted Obama for sticking his nose where it didn’t belong when cops killed a black kid in Baltimore?
- Chris Dillow explains Leftist confusion about Brexit
- smart Leftists talking about smart things (penguins, of course!)
BC’s weekend reads
- on BBC bias | fake news and political entrepreneurship
- Leftist hypocrisy at its finest | goose pimples and hypocrisy
- classical liberals and libertarians are asking the wrong question about sovereignty | myths of British sovereignty and isolation (XII)
- 4 reasons why the academy will remain mostly unwelcoming to the Right | Carlos Castaneda’s fraudulent scholarship
- Soviet ice cream | the economics of hard choices
Notes On Liberty 