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Yes, it’s eminently so, and that’s the thorny issue here: how to resolve the scientific incongruities without getting into murky waters. As an aside, Murray seems to have been particularly ill-suited for the task of defending the book’s scientific findings: Herrnstein, a professor of psychology...

People often react most defensively when challenged not on their firmly held beliefs but on beliefs they wish were true but suspect at some level to be false. This is the psychology behind the controversy that ensued after "IQ" in 1971 and The Bell Curve in 1994. On each occasion intemperate...

I did actually revisit the Bell Curve discussion earlier this month, thanks to this old interview with Charles Murray (such great enunciation!). But that’s neither here nor there. This new Slate series I have been reading is interesting since the writer, William Saletan, is an avowed...

I’m not really questioning your questioning the definition of health. It’s more where some of you seem to be driving at; there’s always a disquieting undercurrent of pro-drugs bunk whenever health is discussed here. It’s fairly common knowledge that, as with much everything else, our conception...

Sorry if I come across as a little harsh, but the combination of an already present depression and rash ideas about the redundancy of any concept of health seems a particularly nasty one. Common sense folks!

Surely this health (‘health’ ... phooey!) discussion is some kind of arsy-versy in-joke. Nothing is healthy, so everything previously thought of as unhealthy is — here’s the kicker — equally as healthy! It’s a wash! I wonder who the joke is on ...

Here we go again ... However much I dislike Zhao’s way of phrasing his displeasure, you know, and I know, that his beef is very different to some hippie-ish ‘bad vibes’ rant. It has to do with the way some people gratuitously flaunt their supposed depression, to the detriment of their kith and...

Thanks for the links Vimothy! I have probably read about half of them now. Dave Kilcullen seems an able and intelligent man. Very impressive.

Zhao has been OTM for most of this thread, and above — depressingly so. The don’t-be-so-inconsiderate/don’t-be-so-ignorant/don’t pick-on-those-who-suffer cards always work a treat whenever this affliction is questioned ever so slightly, so I’m not surprised some people here were quick to play...

I don’t know about the rest of Europe, but the prisons in Scandinavia are almost luxurious (and, as some notorious incidents have indicated, coveted by criminals abroad). Also, as I have written before, life sentence mostly means about 20 comfy years behind bars in practise. The public discourse...

In Mr BoShambles defence (not that he cannot defend himself), most economists are still much more sceptical of tarifs and other trade barriers than are laymen, to say nothing of politicians. That’s the somewhat sticky part: it probably wouldn’t. Certainly not short-term, anyway. Long-term? It’s...

Yes, the pictures were not particularly funny, but the decision to publish them had nothing to do with their possible artistic qualities and everything to do with their being a means for examining the frontier of free speech. They were meant to provoke, obviously, but more than anything they...

I have been thinking about this, and I like its implication less and less the more I ponder it. While the use of ‘civilized’ to describe a personal assessment does not normally bother me, I kind of have a problem with its use in this context since your stance highlights the exact hazy moralizing...

The horror! I’m not going to bore you again with the merits on working out ... but, like Eric, I easily fall asleep. It takes 5 minutes tops. I sleep 8 hours a night. The people who proud themselves on getting so much done because they sleep so little are full of it, as far as I’m concerned...

Fuzz, fuss, whatever! :D

No, but I would be interested in reading them if such exist. As I said, your theory sounds sound.

The United States?

The mirror theory is nice, Noel, but has any sort of such causality ever been uncovered? I don’t like the tit for tat argument at all, even though Bruno is totally right in saying that I would probably invoke it if I were the plaintiff. It’s also strangely unchristian (turn the other cheek...

Everyone gets so animated whenever this topic is talked over, and personally I’m at some difficulty to see why. I’m against it, but not really passionately, I cannot say. The two main objections to it I can think of at moment are as follows: 1. If all of the countries in the West were to agree...

That will be fine. Looking forward to it!