The new Republican platform

The fact that Herman Cain is now close to the lead, and his risible 9-9-9 plan is getting a lot of attention is really amazing, and speaks to the depth of the contempt that conservatives have for Mitt Romney, but on another level it has finally breathed life into the graveyard that is conservative economic policy.

Just think of the history. For the past 30 years conservatives have had tax cuts as their be-all and end-all remedy for every economic problem. Stuck in a recession? Cut taxes. Budget deficits? Well, tax cuts really raise revenue, so just cut them some more. Got a bit of a surplus? You guessed it, tax cuts. Alan Greenspan was even arguing back in 2000 that the primary policy problem we faced was the national debt being paid off too quickly.

But while Reagan's and Bush's tax cuts did give most of the benefits to the rich, they at least threw some scraps down the income ladder. Nowadays, though, we've got new ideas. We're going to drastically cut taxes on the rich...and raise them on the middle class and the poor! Presidential candidates are actually arguing this on national television. Conservatives have convinced themselves it's a winning grassroots strategy.

Hey, give them credit for trying. It's a bold, fresh, innovative idea that only suffers from the slight defect of being stone batshit nuts.

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Free will, part II

This post is dedicated to Mark Bedau , my philosophy professor at Reed, a great guy and a wonderful teacher, by far the least pretentious philosopher I've ever met. He is responsible for this post only insofar as he sparked my interest in the subject; its many shortcomings are mine alone. Who's ready for some unqualified philosophical rambling? I'm not going to do much more than summarize, as this is probably one of the five biggest problems in philosophy and the material quickly gets out of hand. Anyway—let's start with some terms, appropriately hefty philosophical ones. (I'm going to steal shamelessly from Wikipedia, as the free will article is very good.) Free will is "purported ability of agents to make choices free from constraints." Some call it the "ability to have done otherwise," but that definition runs into problems which I'll describe later. Determinism is the view that all events are caused by previous events, while indet...

On Refusing to Vote for Bloomberg

Billionaire Mike Bloomberg is attempting to buy the Democratic nomination. With something like $400 million in personal spending so far, that much is clear — and it appears to be working at least somewhat well, as he is nearing second place in national polls. I would guess that he will quickly into diminishing returns, but on the other hand spending on this level is totally unprecedented. At this burn rate he could easily spend more than the entire 2016 presidential election cost both parties before the primary is over. I published a piece today outlining why I would not vote for Bloomberg against Trump (I would vote for Sanders, Warren, Buttigieg, Klobuchar, or Biden), even though I live in a swing state. This got a lot of "vote blue no matter who" people riled up . They scolded me and demanded that I pre-commit to voting for Bloomberg should he win the nomination. The argument as I understand it is to try to make it as likely as possible that whatever Democrat wins t...

RIP Stephanie Chance, Niger Peace Corps volunteer

Our Peace Corps family has been suffering some tragedies lately. Stephanie Chance, a volunteer in Niger, has died of what appears to be natural causes. My thoughts are with her friends and family. Below I'm posting a letter from Director Aaron Williams. I am deeply saddened to write that Municipal Development Volunteer Stephanie Chance, an admired member of the Peace Corps family in Niger, died on Thursday, October 7, 2010. Stephanie, 26 years old, was found in her home in Zinder, and, at this time her death appears to be from natural causes. Her sudden passing is mourned by the entire Peace Corps community, including her fellow training group members, who were recently sworn in together as Volunteers on September 23, 2010. Stephanie was a native of Phoenix, Arizona, and she had arrived in Niger for training in July 2010. She had just arrived at her site in Zinder and was busy getting to know the community to help local officials better coordinate local government servi...

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