I looked in on the comments to an earlier post and saw the argument over the existence of morality as more than a subjective being discussed. We’ve been over this territory, but I think a twist is possible.
This time we’ll put the burden on the relativists (or whatever they want to be called): please give your evidence that there is no absolute right or wrong.
Baylor’s Board of Regents looked at three finalists for the top job and essentially took a pass. No to Don Powell, head of the FDIC. No to interim pres. Bill Underwood (who withdrew). And apparently no to Linda Livingstone from the Pepperdine school of business. So, here we are back at square one. They made a neat troika of right (Powell), left (Underwood), and middle (Livingstone).
As a constant follower/commentator on the Baylor situation, I read the latest installments of Baylor Truth with great interest. The last two posts are particularly compelling. The first links to a Baylor students blog that chronicles the success of Robert Sloan’s policies. The second carries the text of an email from a reader who offers a solution to the current leadership vaccuum: Bring Robert Sloan back to the president’s office and admit his resignation was a matter of transitional board instability.
It’s not such a far-fetched idea. Sloan is still on campus as the chancellor of the university. He’s in his fifties and has years to give.
Another alternative would be to invest the chancellor’s office with the presidential powers and make the president more of a chief of operations.
Being the top officer at Baylor during the implementation of an ambitious and ground-breaking vision is not going to be easy going for anyone. Asking a new person to come in and deal with a board that is divided, but improving may not be fair. Asking Robert Sloan to come back and finish what he started may be the only thing that is fair.
Pro-lifers used to have fun (of the pissed off sort) pointing to formerly anti-abortion Democrats who switched positions upon announcing presidential campaigns. You know, Edward Kennedy, Jesse Jackson, Al Gore . . .
Now, we can chart the same transformation when it comes to supporting presidential nominees for cabinet and court jobs.
Senator Evan Bayh (the “moderate” Democrat capable of winning in a GOP state like Indiana) has well-known presidential ambitions. Viewing the Dean-ization of the Democratic party, Bayh made the “principled” decision to vote against Condoleezza Rice for Secretary of State and now is rejecting John Roberts for the Supreme Court.
One suspects Bayh may not have plans to run for Senate again in Indy-land, because this is not his usual position on the political spectrum. Looks like Bayh is making sure Kos and Company know he’s already in the bag and is nobody’s New Democrat.
I just heard that Don Adams (Maxwell Smart of Get Smart) is dead.
All I can think about is my dad imitating one of the scenes from the show:
“Not Craw, CRAW!”
Prior to PC, which really does have its uses, it was considered hilarious to have an Asian villain completely incapable of pronouncing his evil name. And, in fact, it was quite funny.
(He was The Claw, just in case you needed a little help getting up to speed.)
Hugh Hewitt astounded me with his consistent confidence that Bush would beat Kerry more easily than expected.
Here’s his latest and my usual pessimism is rebelling:
The presidents’ opponents have been declaring him down and out since the fall of ’00. Keep the clippings handy for election night ’06.
I hope he’s right and I’m wrong. I’m expecting an election night more like the disappointment of 1998.
We all remember Irving Kristol’s great line:
What do you call a liberal mugged by reality? A conservative.
But I’m already a conservative and I got mugged by reality last night.
Just after dinner there was a knock at the door. A very down on his luck looking African-American man stood there when I opened the door, expecting a package for my son. He explained he was looking for work. I offered to let him wash my car and planned on overpaying him. I told him to meet me in the backyard.
After I brought him a bucket, soap, rags, etc., he asked for a cold drink and to come in and use the bathroom. I was worried about letting him in to use the bathroom because he had a cough and I have a six month old and a three year old. I got him the drink and told him frankly about my concern with contagious illness. He said it was asthma. Didn’t sound like asthma to me, so I put him off and went back in the house to consult with my wife about it.
Looking out the window, I could see the man was beginning to wash the car. A flash of blue caught my eye out the side window and I noticed two police officers, one male and one female, walking into my backyard. When I got to the backyard, the man was talking to the cops. I approached and told the officers I had hired this man to wash the car. They explained a neighbor had called. He walked back to the car and began working again, but the officers didn’t leave.
The female officer talked on the radio, while the male officer told me I’d made a mistake. He said the odd jobs request was a common tactic for casing a house for later burglary. When I told him the man had asked to come inside, he said that was likely part of the plan. The female officer said something I didn’t quite catch and the male officer said, “It’s him.”
Meanwhile, a third officer walked up. At this point, I noticed all three were wearing bulletproof vests under their clothes. I asked if the man washing my car was wanted for a crime. The radio spoke up again, but I couldn’t understand it. One of the officers said the man had a felony warrant, probably for burglary. I half-wondered whether the man would attempt flight or resist arrest.
They approached the man I’d hired and put cuffs on him. He protested, but they said they couldn’t take a chance. He asked if he could finish the job. They said no. I felt terrible that he had worked while the police officers waited to hear whether they should arrest him. I told them I wanted to pay him. I offered the money and the policeman put it in the man’s pocket. He thanked me. They went off. The whole thing was very quiet and calm.
I stood there feeling like an idiot for possibly putting my family in danger, but my instinct was to give the man a job and try to help him. Had I done the wrong thing? I don’t know and still don’t.
Tlaloc (whoever he may be in real life) is the most prolific commenter at this website. In the Bizarro world, Reform Club is run by him and James Elliott.
What has to be up for discussion is the question of what is an anarchist? Tlaloc has proclaimed himself to be one, but has consistently favored government solutions over free and independent human action in case after case after case.
I guess the question I have to ask is one immortalized by the great Robert P. George:
“What’s wrong with acts of capitalism between consenting adults?”
Especially as far as it concerns an anarchist. Even if the state withers away or is blown away by revolution and not replaced, one imagines people will still buy and sell and will do so very freely with no regulating leviathan around.
Actually, it’s Jordan Ballor v. Andy Crouch, but they serve as proxies for their respective employers. I think this post is very interesting and shows a healthy debate among what we might term center-right Christians on global warming.
P.S. Saw part of a really wretched Robert Altman film predicting a frozen future. Yes, remember we used to worry about global cooling back in the day. Paul Newman starred in this turkey titled Quintet.
Thanks to the Reform Club, I met a couple of professors online who also blog: Michael DeBow of Samford University (Law and Economics) and Joseph Knippenberg of Oglethorpe University (Political Theory). DeBow blogs at Southern Appeal and Knippenberg blogs for the Ashbrook Center’s No Left Turns. These are happy alliances for an aspiring academic.
Professor DeBow will be lecturing at Oglethorpe in Atlanta today as part of the Constitution Day festivities. I’ll be there to meet the profs in the flesh for the first time. If there are any Reform Club or Southern Appeal readers who will be attending, be sure to say “Hi.”
I’ve been thinking a lot about those people in the Superdome who have now become a human herd moved from one massive venue to the next.
I agree with those who say that the trouble these people have endured is a scandal and a terrible comment on race relations. No question about it. However, the discomfort caused means we have to wonder what is wrong with this picture.
Think about it. We are looking at a group of people who literally were unable to get out of town. Many of them may have no family ties outside of the city. Many have probably lived in a welfare culture for decades, born and raised. Such persons have been robbed of their basic human dignity. This is a group of people who have been socially engineered into passivity and helplessness. The possibilities for sociological study are astounding. How many of them have ever held a job, have ever left the city of New Orleans, have ever left their state, have ever drawn a check from any entity other than a government agency? How many have any family member in a position to help?
Once you consider it, this is an unacceptable existence for anyone and we should not settle for it. Before 9-11, we were hearing story after story of the amazing successes due to welfare reform. We heard about people who held jobs for the first time, people who had pride in accomplishing something on their own for the first time, and children who could view their parents as role models for living a broader life for the first time. We heard about former Clinton officials who resigned in protest over welfare reform and now strongly endorsed it.
We have got to get back to addressing this situation. The War on Poverty failed — possibly made things much worse — and we must once again get people out of this institutional lifestyle where they are so terribly encapsuled in hopelessness and passivity.It’s time to bring welfare reform and school choice back out of the closet. We’ve seen the cost of not moving forward with a better solution.
In the last post, one commenter (Tlaloc) came down hard on the tobacco companies. Another commenter (Classical Liberal Anonymous) asked Tlaloc whether he was engaging in a moral argument. This was interesting because Tlaloc has generally thrown bombs at notions of foundational morality despite frequently engaging in moral argument. Tlaloc, perhaps sensing the implications, carefully distinguished his moral argument from any endorsement of universal moral values.
So, let’s work it out. The basic allegation by Tlaloc seems to be that the tobacco companies have immorally lied for profit and have sold an addictive drug for profit. The basic rules being put forth seem to be:
1. It is wrong to lie without a compelling justification (such as to save a life — e.g. lying to the Nazi S.S. about the Jew hiding in your closet). Lying for mere monetary profit is particularly bad.
2. It is wrong to subject others to the harm of unhealthy addiction for the sake of personal enrichment. It is further wrong to lie about the fact that one is doing that.
Now, here’s the money question. Why wouldn’t these rules stand up as universal moral values? When would it ever be right to lie for profit without any compelling justification? When would it ever be right to subject others to addiction for no better reason than to get rich?
Once again, Jennifer Tilly has won a major poker tournament, her second in a few months. But she has only been playing for one year, since her boyfriend has been Phil Laak, the poker great. It is absolutely stunning to reach this level of dominance in a sport whose participants take it deadly seriously – and in such a short time. This is real quality insight into a person’s intelligence and ability, something no publicist can fake.
Of course it helps that she is unbelievably wealthy, since she received a percentage of The Simpsons in her divorce from its creator, Sam Simon. Still, that may make you a cooler bettor, but you can’t be a consistent champion like this without spectacular skills.
Brava, Jennifer!
Louisiana native Fred Smith, the man who combined free market policy analysis with performance art to create the Competitive Enterprise Institute, offers some wise words on the rebuilding of New Orleans.
Personal note: I’ve been a member of a lot of odd sets, from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers to Our Lady’s Rosary Makers. One of the most enjoyable and rewarding, and certainly the one with the most eminent fellow members, is “People Who Used to Work for Fred Smith.” Only there can I presume to have something substantially in common with the likes of Jonathan Adler, Sasha Volokh, and Michael Fumento.
In today’s edition of Tech Central Station, Dr. Roy Spencer, Principal Research Scientist at the University of Alabama and one of the world’s top climatologists, considers the arguments that global warming is causing more frequent and intense tropical storms:
There is some recent research that suggests that of all Atlantic and West Pacific tropical cyclones measured since the 1970′s, a warming trend in sea surface temperatures has been accompanied by stronger and longer-lived storms. In fact, the increase in the total power generated by the storms that the study computed was actually much larger than could be accounted for by theory, suggesting changes in wind shear or other processes are operating in addition to just increased temperatures. (Unpublished results by the same researcher suggests, however, that this trend was not apparent in land falling hurricanes since the 1970′s).
Given the recent work, how should we view the role of global warming? First, we know that category 4, and even category 5, storms have always occurred, and will continue to occur, with or without the help of humans, as the above examples demonstrate. Therefore, if we are prepared for what nature can throw at us, we will be prepared for the possible small increase in hurricane activity that some studies have suggested could occur with man-made global warming. To suggest that Katrina was caused by mankind is not only grossly misleading, it also obscures the real issues that need to be addressed, even in the absence of global warming. From a practical point of view, there is little that we can do in the near term to avert much if any future warming anyway, no matter what you believe that warming will be, including participating in the Kyoto Protocol. So why even bring it up (other than through political, philosophical, or financial motivation)?
Rich! We’re rich I tell ya!
That is, if the enviro-donkies don’t prevent us from tapping the vein.
Here’s a little taste of the big story:
The United States has an oil reserve at least three times that of Saudi Arabia locked in oil-shale deposits beneath federal land in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, according to a study released yesterday.
(HT: Instapundit)
Dereliction of my duty, you say? Perhaps you are right.
I have been remiss in not alerting my friends to the story that I reported in today’s American Spectator. It takes us out a half-step ahead of the loop, while TV is still walking us through the gasping-but-not-grasping stage of gawking at the events. The stories usually emerge some time later, as selves are progressively collected. Here is a tale of woe, of awe, of horror, of desperation and, eventually of courage and heroism, even flashes of joy.
A human episode.
What was the big deal with Copernicus and Galileo, really? I mean, if you live on the Earth’s surface, what difference does it make if the earth or the sun or some other spot is the center of the universe? What difference does it make if the sun and planets move around the Earth in epicycles on crystal spheres or if Tycho Brahe was right and Kepler was wrong. You can hold these views and still explain anything you’d be likely to observe. Stick ellipses on Tycho and you can even explain the phases of Venus. There really is no reason for such a person to prefer modern cosmology to Ptolemy, is there?
In fact, there’s a good reason for such a person to reject modern cosmology. The Ptolemaic system doesn’t require you to accept the obviously ludicrous notion that the earth is moving. Only some ivory tower mooncalf, with no knowledge of the real world, could possibly believe a theory that requires the obviously still and solid world to be hurtling through space.
Now replace “Copernicus and Galileo” with “modern economists” and “Ptolemy” with “certain commenters in the ‘I Am Speechless’ threads” and I think you’ll see where I’m going.
There is, really, no reason for the vast majority of people, even successful business people, to think in the way economists think. It is not necessary for them to interpret the world with our concepts in order to make and sell products. They can happily take as given and fixed all the information that economists know is being constantly generated and recalibrated through interactions in the market. They can make decisions using this information, without being aware of their own role in changing and generating new information.
They can even believe they are putting one over on their customers — that they are, for instance, selling them goods purposely designed to wear out “too fast” and thereby sell more and earn more than if they made the sturdy, quality products the customers really want. They can believe this even while the relative prices for durable and disposable goods are reflecting consumers’ time preferences and discount rates with exquisite precision, leading the businessman to supply exactly the mix of goods the consumers desired.
I’ve never quite understood, though, what was the point of getting so shirty when economists explain what’s really going on. But then, Galileo got a few goats in his day too.
In his latest column, the Boston Globe‘s Jeff Jacoby writes about the conclusion of Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza, and what it means:
In a videotape circulated by Hamas this week, archterrorist Mohammed Deif vowed that Israel’s departure from Gaza would mean more of the same.
“Today you leave Gaza in humiliation,” he taunted the Israelis. “You are leaving hell. We promise that tomorrow, with Allah’s help, all of Palestine will be hell for you.” For the umpteenth time, an Israeli government spokesman urged the Palestinian Authority to disarm and dismantle Hamas, as required by the international “road map” it has agreed to.
If Jacoby is correct, as I believe him to be, the implications regarding U.S. efforts in Iraq are clear.
The recovery of survivors from New Orleans has left a lot to be desired. A friend wrote me outraged that babies are dying for lack of adequate food, shelter, etc. How can this be in the richest, most creative, most powerful nation in the world?
I think the answer is as follows: We haven’t had a disaster like this in a long, long time and when it happened in the past, the vast majority of victims died rather than surviving. We have not been faced with something of this magnitude spread over such a great geographic area, probably ever. Certainly, we haven’t seen a major inner city area suddenly and violently reclaimed by nature.
FEMA probably had enough water, food, drugs, and bandages ready, but not the kind of massive mobilization of search and rescue workers needed for a disaster like this. It was simply incomprehensible.
We don’t keep an army of rescue workers waiting around for something like Katrina. I’m not sure we could even afford to do so. But the situation is grave and what must be considered is something new. We can’t let the victims die. We have to mobilize. That means it may be time to consider conscription of boats, buses, helicopters, etc. Maybe even the conscription of men if volunteers can’t be found. I know I’m offending libertarians. But it may be time to think on those lines. Actually, it simply is time.
Throughout the coverage of the disaster that has befallen New Orleans, it seems one thing has been assumed throughout: the rebuilding of New Orleans. Much depends on how long it will take to get rid of the water, engage in massive repair and new construction, and how much of the city’s tax base sticks around.
The reality is that the entire professional class or a large portion thereof will relocate because they are unable to wait for the new city to rise. Many businesses will take a hard look at the New Orleans operation and decide they can’t let resources like fallow that long. Expect a major migration of many branch offices and probably some headquarters locations.
Even the poor citizens of the town whom we have seen engaged in remarkable suffering as all rescue efforts pale before their plight may never come back to town. As many of them are long term clients of government programs, they will probably have the option to spend time in ultra-ultilitarian state and federal camps or to resettle elsewhere with the help of social workers and/or family members in other cities.
Unless someone can show me otherwise, I don’t think there should be any assumption that New Orleans is going to continue as a major metropolitan area in the United States. It may just be a ghost living a marginal existence. Galveston never truly recovered from the great hurricane that leveled the town and killed so many. New Orleans may not rise even so high as the old Wall Street of the West on the Texas coast.
As Hunter Baker posted below, Jude Wanniski unexpectedly passed away Monday afternoon after he suffered a massive heart attack. I’ve heard our esteemed co-blogger Alan Reynolds tell many stories about Mr. Wanniski and Polyconomics, but I’ll let Alan tell those stories himself if he’s so inclined. I want to tell a story about the effect a small group of men, including Alan and Jude, had on my generation of economists, social scientists, and policymakers.
When I started graduate school in the fall of 1980, it looked very much as though the country would be run by Jimmy Carter for four more years. When I looked back over my life from what then seemed the impossibly mature vantage point of 22 years on earth, I saw little but anxiety, conflict, and pessimism. I started paying attention to the outside world at about age ten, so my memories were bookended by Soviet tanks in Czechoslovakia and Soviet tanks in Afghanistan. Sandwiched in between were domestic political assassinations, oil embargoes, hostages in Iran, Watergate, double digit inflation, double digit unemployment, and the bankruptcy of New York City. I don’t even remember now why I wanted to be an economist then. Economists were responsible for the splitting of ever smaller pies at home, and negotiating surrender to whichever economy would overtake us abroad.
Then Reagan beat Carter at the last minute. And we discovered that some of our professors were closet free market libertarians. Austrian School, even, a couple of them. They started lobbing ideas among themselves, and then at us, that first seemed silly, and then subversive. Critiques of Keynes, Samuelson, Kuznets, and Myrdal that undermined everything we’d learned as undergrads. Hints that macroeconomics would never be intellectually solid until it was reintegrated with microeconomics. Proposals that all sorts of behavior, not just commerce, could be explained with economic principles.
We starting passing a few books around among ourselves, on the QT; we were a little abashed that we were studying popular works instead of articles from JPE and Econometrica. But the stuff made sense, and kept on making sense the farther we pushed it: Thomas Sowell’s Knowledge and Decisions. George Gilder’s Wealth and Poverty. Julian Simon’s The Ultimate Resource. But before all those, anticipating them and paving the way, was Jude Wanniski’s The Way the World Works. These books opened our eyes to an economics that was hopeful and exuberant, that placed human creativity at the center of wealth creation, and that gave the economist something valuable to do: help arrange civil society so that creative force can be free to make things better.
And things did get better, all through the 1980s. It was men like Alan Reynolds and Larry Kudlow who gave us the proof that Sowell and Gilder and Wanniski were right, by putting those ideas to work during the Reagan years.
Twenty-odd years later, even though I’ve spent few of those intervening years working as a professional economist, I’ve never again forgotten why I wanted to be an economist in the first place. Rest in peace, Jude Wanniski. Your place in this world is secure, go forth into the next.
