Some Questions

 

Some Questions

There are no tractor tires available in the U.S.

My peers and I are often told that we are the future leaders of America. We may be the future decision-makers, but most of us aren’t leaders. Our principal concern is becoming members of the American elite, with whatever compromises, concessions, and conformity that requires. The inability of Harvard students to question or oppose these irrational bureaucratic excesses bodes ill for our ability to meet future challenges.--Julie Hartman

A commercial for the NYT, which appeared online and in public spaces last week, features a subscriber called Lianna listing a few of her favourite things. Rather than raindrops on roses and warm woollen mittens, she mentions ‘Breaking the Binary’ and ‘Heritage in Rich Hues’. And then, shortly after, she is seen in a field, wearing a sort of wizard’s cape and flourishing a wand, ‘Imagining Harry Potter Without its Creator’.
In a sense this should not surprise us. Rowling has been in the crosshairs of East Coast elite opinion for a couple of years now. Indeed, given the degree to which her integration of ancient lore, magic and mythology with her own fantastical imagination won Rowling her pre-eminent place in the hearts of millions of young readers worldwide, it’s remarkable that her continuing ability to trend on Twitter rests primarily on her insistence on a position that would have been regarded as utterly banal in any other time. Namely, that the word ‘woman’ refers primarily to a state of biological being, rather than a state of mind.--from an article by Simon on creativity

A paper evaluates the impact of a sudden and unexpected nation-wide alcohol sales ban in South Africa. "We find that this policy causally reduced injury-induced mortality in the country by at least 14% during the five weeks of the ban. We argue that this estimate constitutes a lower bound on the true impact of alcohol on injury-induced mortality. We also document a sharp drop in violent crimes, indicating a tight link between alcohol and aggressive behavior in society. Our results underscore the severe harm that alcohol can cause and point towards a role for policy measures that target the heaviest drinkers in society."

Fed. judge holds that Fairfax County, Virginia violated 14A by changing its high-ranked magnet school’s admission policies to decrease the proportion of Asian-American students. Strict scrutiny applies, and racial balancing is not a compelling interest

From a review of McClosky's trilogy: In Bourgeois Dignity: Why Economics Can’t Explain the Modern World (2010), McClosky investigates the many other causal factors that have been offered as explanations for the Great Enrichment—geography, institutions, capital, culture, foreign trade, colonialism, slavery—and argues that even in combination they are not sufficient to account for the 300-fold improvement in living standards that we have experienced.
In the final volume, Bourgeois Equality: How Ideas, Not Capital or Institutions, Enriched the World (2016), she expands this argument and emphasizes the liberal egalitarian implications of the spread of bourgeois ideas. The belief spread that ordinary people have equal liberty and inherent dignity, and should be free to “have a go” and try out new ideas. This freedom to choose, to experiment, and to innovate is morally proper and, over time, materially fruitful for individuals and for the societies composed of them. Without an ethical framework that honours hard work and industrious creativity, the Great Enrichment could not have happened.