Monday, February 16, 2004

Never Heard of Him

Evolutionary psychology.  I don’t know much about this subject to be frank, fortunately, I found this interview, conducted by Bernard Chapin for Men’s News Daily.  The interviewee is one Dr. David Buss, who is not simply a professor, but a “Full Professor” of Evolutionary Psychology at the University of Texas.

Buss has a new tome to market, and one to reissue in accompaniment, thus the interview.  The title of the piece is “Courage, Not Denial: An Interview with Dr. David Buss,” and indeed Dr. Buss is interviewed and speaks to evolutionary psychology and some of his previous writing.  The main gist of the interview though is a defense of his studies and the sweeping research he conducted in support of his study.  I’m wondering how strong his research is if Dr. Buss states the following in regard to the conclusions drawn.

“...it met my own scientific standard for believing the hypotheses to be confirmed.”

Via Fred Lapides.

Posted by John Venlet on 02/16 at 08:09 PM
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Go West Young Man - Deconstructing the Post-Modern View of the American West

Excellent article titled The American West: A Heritage of Peace, written by Ryan McMaken and posted by the Ludwig von Mises Institute.

Via Billy Beck.

Posted by John Venlet on 02/16 at 12:12 PM
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Free Iraqi Individuals

I have not heard about this.  Have you?

In the future many observations will be made of this battle: that the Al Qaeda timed their assaults to coincide with US unit rotations through Iraq; that they chose the moment when the baton is passing from US soldier to Iraqi policeman. But if the Iraqi nation goes on to live another hundred years, it will remember this:

Officers from the 82nd Airborne Division stationed a 10-minute drive away could hear the battle clearly. They offered help but the Hammad said it wasn’t needed. The Americans did provide additional ammunition and weapons, including light machine guns. After the battle, soldiers at the civil defense base proudly displayed a light machine gun and a pair of rocket propelled grenade launchers they had captured from the attackers.

That when dying and bleeding, beset by the flower of terrorism, with pistol to set against automatic rifle and grenade, the Iraqi police did not ask for help from 82nd Airborne. They asked for ammunition.

Via Musings of The GeekWithA.45 via the Belmont Club.

Update:  Go view this photo essay, with accompanying explanation, at Dean’s World.  I’m telling ya, click over to Dean’s World and check this out!  It nicely complements the story links above.  Seriously.

Posted by John Venlet on 02/16 at 08:19 AM
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True

GOVERNMENT murdered Jesus, and the murder of innocents by government has never stopped. Let’s quit pretending otherwise.

Glen Allport in a post at Strike the Root.

Posted by John Venlet on 02/16 at 08:14 AM
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Name This Book

Razib, at Gene Expression, has a post up titled The evolution of ideas.  In the post Razib asks us to imagine certain things, which I will list below, and states “Most of you know what I’m getting at.”  He them names a book.  I evidently did not know what he was driving at because I named a different book.  Imagine the following and then name the book you think he was alluding to.

A great thinker writes a book

The book influences many individuals

Political movements start

More books are written about the great book

Politics takes on a life of its own, the ideas in the book are implemented

More books are written about the great book

Politics keeps on a movin’

More books are written about the books written about the book

Factions develop over intrepretations of the book, and the books about the book

People die over ideas encapsulated in the great book, and the books about the book

The congruence between the ideas in the great book and those of the great thinker and those of politicians implementing those ideas becomes a stretch

Posted by John Venlet on 02/16 at 08:00 AM
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“Another Great Bridge Photo”

Self explanatory.  Just click here if you would like to view.

Via Brian’s Culture Blog.

Posted by John Venlet on 02/16 at 07:49 AM
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The Continuing Debate Between Long and Bidinotto

In what Roderick Long terms his Longest Blog Entry Ever, he responds to Robert Bidinotto’s criticisms in regards to anarchy versus constitutional government.  You better grab a cup of coffee, nay a full carafe, because the post is long.

Posted by John Venlet on 02/16 at 07:41 AM
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More Edward Feser

I linked to a Feser piece the other day after stopping by PrestoPundit.  Today, Greg Ransom links to another Feser piece that’s worth taking the time to read.  It’s titled The Opium of the Professors.  The first two paragraphs of Feser’s article.

It is said of Woodrow Wilson that when asked what the purpose of a liberal education is, he replied “To make a person as unlike his father as possible.” He was, at the time, merely the president of Princeton University, and had not yet become schoolmarm-in-chief of the United States or waged the war that ended all wars and made the world safe for democracy.

But as with his better-known schemes of social uplift and gauzy internationalism, so too with his philosophy of education, Wilson was the very model of the progressive academic. Whatever bland official statement of purpose might appear in the introduction to a modern university’s college catalog, its true raison d’etre is in practice nothing other than to destroy utterly whatever allegiance a young person might have to traditional conceptions in morality, religion, politics and culture, to “do dirt” on the faith of his fathers, on his country, and on what most human beings have historically understood to be the imperatives of decency. It is, in short, to propagate Leftism.

Posted by John Venlet on 02/16 at 06:59 AM
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Time to Recalculate?

ShortNews.com reports that the Hubble telescope has discovered a new galaxy 13 billion light years from earth.  Far out.  I wonder what happens when this new information is plugged into this formula?

ShortNews.com link via Google News.

Posted by John Venlet on 02/16 at 06:50 AM
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White Folks Competing

I read about the whites only scholarship contest this morning being conducted at Roger Williams University.  I was going to pen a few words on this myself, but after reading Shonk’s post, at Selling Waves, I find I do not need to.  Shonk’s post segued into women’s suffrage and James Joyce too.

Update: Micha Ghertner at Catallarchy notes another viewpoint on this little dustup.

Posted by John Venlet on 02/16 at 06:30 AM
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Be Serious

Andrew Sullivan points to a Washington Post editorial which laments “confusion” and “fuzziness” over John Kerry’s voting record over the years in his capacity as a professional jobholder.  Andrew terms Kerry’s voting record as “dizzying.”

Granted, Kerry’s voting record may be “dizzying,” or display “fuzziness,” yet the fact remains that every politician’s voting record will display just such characteristics.  Professional jobholders will cast their votes based on a wind socks’ predominate direction at the time of the vote.

Posted by John Venlet on 02/16 at 06:03 AM
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