Saturday, April 09, 2005
Quoted in the Corner
An email of mine was printed in the Corner. The email was in response to this post by Brad Delong which I saw via this post from Jonah which was all kicked off from this Krugman article and this response from Jonah.
If you want to read the whole original email (the tail was cut off in the Corner), click through.
Well I am getting a PhD in electrical engineering so I guess I count.
Possible discounting information: I call myself a conservative libertarian and participate in QandO's neolibertarian alliance. However, I voted for W in 04 and campaigned pretty hard among my friends for W and have never voted for a Democrat in my life (I voted for Browne twice). I did however seriously consider voting for Boucher in 04 before I learned he voted against the ban on partial birth abortions which just appalled me.
======================
1. From libertarians, because the Republicans are really hostile to individual freedom: they want to control people's lives and boss people around.
a) That's what government does. Reps do it; dems do it. The only way you can really avoid it is by limiting the size of government (which the Dems really don't want).
b) Also while I may still be in school, I do remember Tipper leading the charge against offensive lyrics.
c) I recognize that if I'm taxed at 50%, the government is effectively controlling half of my life. Which party wants to raise my taxes and thus gain a greater control of my life?
d) Along the lines of personal freedom (where it really matters), which party is telling me that I'm too incompetent to invest my own income (with an apparent disregard to the fact that I, like millions of Americans, have an IRA and a 401K)?
2. From biologists, because Republican politicians say they don't believe in evolution.
And Democrats don't believe in genetics (see Summers).
3. From chemists and physicists, because Republican politicians pretend to believe that CO2 molecules created by human action have a different radiation-absorption spectrum than other CO2 molecules.
I have no idea where Delong is getting this, but I will point out that Dems aren't able to make intelligent tradeoffs with respect to the environment. Cripple the economy for the possibility of saving a degree? Cripple the nuclear power industry for kicks? Cripple the domestic oil industry to keep from annoying a caribou? Oh and after doing all of this, bitch about the state of the energy economy while wondering where the problems came from.
4. From all corners, because Republican politicians are the tools of lobbyists and do not respect the evidence about anything.
All politicians are the tools of lobbyists. As to the respect for evidence, I'll let your opinion duel posts speak for themselves.
5. From all corners, because Republican politicians don't understand how important investment in education is for the future of America--they have no idea where our current wealth and health really comes from.
What the f*ck is Delong smoking? Our public schools are a mess. Throwing good money after bad is a recipe for disaster and that's the Democrat proposal on education. The best thing that's happened in the school system in years is the accountability that NCLB brought in - and that's a distinctly Republican idea. And even by the metric of money for education (which I think is what Delong is getting at with "investment"), Bush has thrown an insane amount of money at education. As for where current wealth comes from, most of the Dems in Congress are socialists in all but name and would destroy the source of our wealth (the free market) in a heart beat.
================================
Really, if Delong wants to know why students are getting more liberal, he should check out his own university website (http://econ161.berkeley.edu/) where Delong posts excerpts from his political diatribes from his personal website. I find it highly inappropriate for a professor to be so brazenly political on a course website, and I suspect it's an indication of how he teaches his classes.
James Neel
personal academic site: http://www.mprg.org/people/jody/ (Look! No politics! Just academics! It's not hard to keep them separated.)
personal blog: http://www.polyscifi.blogspot.com/ (Politics on this site, but that's the purpose of the site and readers know that going in)
|
If you want to read the whole original email (the tail was cut off in the Corner), click through.
Well I am getting a PhD in electrical engineering so I guess I count.
Possible discounting information: I call myself a conservative libertarian and participate in QandO's neolibertarian alliance. However, I voted for W in 04 and campaigned pretty hard among my friends for W and have never voted for a Democrat in my life (I voted for Browne twice). I did however seriously consider voting for Boucher in 04 before I learned he voted against the ban on partial birth abortions which just appalled me.
======================
1. From libertarians, because the Republicans are really hostile to individual freedom: they want to control people's lives and boss people around.
a) That's what government does. Reps do it; dems do it. The only way you can really avoid it is by limiting the size of government (which the Dems really don't want).
b) Also while I may still be in school, I do remember Tipper leading the charge against offensive lyrics.
c) I recognize that if I'm taxed at 50%, the government is effectively controlling half of my life. Which party wants to raise my taxes and thus gain a greater control of my life?
d) Along the lines of personal freedom (where it really matters), which party is telling me that I'm too incompetent to invest my own income (with an apparent disregard to the fact that I, like millions of Americans, have an IRA and a 401K)?
2. From biologists, because Republican politicians say they don't believe in evolution.
And Democrats don't believe in genetics (see Summers).
3. From chemists and physicists, because Republican politicians pretend to believe that CO2 molecules created by human action have a different radiation-absorption spectrum than other CO2 molecules.
I have no idea where Delong is getting this, but I will point out that Dems aren't able to make intelligent tradeoffs with respect to the environment. Cripple the economy for the possibility of saving a degree? Cripple the nuclear power industry for kicks? Cripple the domestic oil industry to keep from annoying a caribou? Oh and after doing all of this, bitch about the state of the energy economy while wondering where the problems came from.
4. From all corners, because Republican politicians are the tools of lobbyists and do not respect the evidence about anything.
All politicians are the tools of lobbyists. As to the respect for evidence, I'll let your opinion duel posts speak for themselves.
5. From all corners, because Republican politicians don't understand how important investment in education is for the future of America--they have no idea where our current wealth and health really comes from.
What the f*ck is Delong smoking? Our public schools are a mess. Throwing good money after bad is a recipe for disaster and that's the Democrat proposal on education. The best thing that's happened in the school system in years is the accountability that NCLB brought in - and that's a distinctly Republican idea. And even by the metric of money for education (which I think is what Delong is getting at with "investment"), Bush has thrown an insane amount of money at education. As for where current wealth comes from, most of the Dems in Congress are socialists in all but name and would destroy the source of our wealth (the free market) in a heart beat.
================================
Really, if Delong wants to know why students are getting more liberal, he should check out his own university website (http://econ161.berkeley.edu/) where Delong posts excerpts from his political diatribes from his personal website. I find it highly inappropriate for a professor to be so brazenly political on a course website, and I suspect it's an indication of how he teaches his classes.
James Neel
personal academic site: http://www.mprg.org/people/jody/ (Look! No politics! Just academics! It's not hard to keep them separated.)
personal blog: http://www.polyscifi.blogspot.com/ (Politics on this site, but that's the purpose of the site and readers know that going in)
|
