Worth Reading for May 2007

5/30 The Skeptical Optimist has a good post on not falling for the single scenario gambit. Professor Jeff Cornwall on not socializing entrepreneurship. At Café Hayek, a reminder that many businesses are opposed to free markets. And here is the one-minute case for profit, part of a great idea of a series.

5/28 The evolution of the climate change debate: Not PC reports on former warmists now cooling their jets, so to speak. Robert Bidinotto has a good visual on the long view on climate change. From the Great White North of Canada, indoctrination in the schools. And Glen Whitman on putting one’s money where one’s mouth is and making: meaningful bets on climate change.

5/26 Shawn Klein asks: Why are the Nazis the epitome of evil while the Communists “have body counts that are orders of magnitude larger”? John Enright also has part of the answer, nicely connecting the nature-versus-nurture debate to different kinds of genocide.

5/25 Race-conscious art funding: Nathalie Rothschild asks, “Can’t non-white people ever just make art?” And Christina Hoff Sommers has a strongly-written piece on Western feminism and its response to the subjugation of Islamic women.

5/24 Practical politics for advocates of the free society: Cato’s David Boaz reports on a Gallup poll showing that 27% of Americans are “conservative,” 24% are “liberal,” 20% are “libertarian”, and 20% are “populist.” Which leads to a Prometheus Institute editorial on why American libertarians should work within the two-party system. By contrast, Rossputin argues that voting libertarian is not a waste.

5/22 Some hotels now have a 13th floor. (Thanks to Carl for the link.) And as we move erratically into the modern world, John Stossel has advice on how to worry about the right things.

5/21 Graduating students: tips on resumé design. The BusinessPundit has tongue-in-cheek advice on how to sound more important than you are. More seriously, here’s a good list of attitudes and habits of creative individuals. And another good list: executives pick the best business books of all time. (Via The Atlasphere.)

5/19 Dan Klein explains why economists must pay more attention to the distinction between free choice and coercion. (Via Agoraphilia.) And Hans Rosling goes after cotton subsidies in
the Soviet Republic of Texas.

5/17 Street dance and cutting-edge advertising. Here are some visually-striking ads on busses. Finally—this line is too good to resist: How Hollywood saved Zen Buddhism.

5/15 Glen Whitman has two, uhhh, romantic posts about the Annual Rite of Overdue Dumping, the Spring Mating Season, and why some people stay in relationships Long Past Their Expiration Date.

5/14 Homework for advocates of limited government: a provocative list entitled “Government Success Stories.” How many of the historical claims are true? How many functions would be, as the author claims, impossible free markets to accomplish? How many would the government do better than a free market would? How many actually involve legitimate government functions? (Thanks to Eric for the link.)

5/11 Night shots of Yokohama, Japan. And here are ten striking designs for futuristic hotels. And Michael Blowhard and his wife visit the new, cool Pittsburgh and the semi-Warhol-ish Warhol Museum.

5/10 Ilya Somin has a thought-provoking post: Do we need tenure to protect academic freedom? And an article in The Washington Post article on the state of charter schools. (Via Mark Lerner.)

5/9 Russell Roberts interviews John Allison on sound banking strategies, pride, justice, and Atlas Shrugged.

5/8 The last sentence of this essay comes out of nowhere, but Theodore Dalyrymple has a good comparison of Karl Marx and Sayyid Qutb. (Thanks to Carl for the link.) And worth reading again is Virginia Murr on Sayyid Qutb, Islamism, and Al Qaeda. Here is more on the pomo-left/theocracy connection: Foucault and the Ayatollah. (Via David Thompson, who has a post on the, ummm, interesting radical cyber-feminist, Carolyn Guertin and a strong connection to an important book here.)

5/7 A cool old thing: a recently-found 2nd- or 3rd-century commentary on Aristotle. And a cool new thing: recent photos of Jupiter.

5/5 Will we catch up with the eastern Europeans? Now the Czechs have also adopted the flat tax. And economics professor Don Boudreaux has a list of his ten favorite economic books of all time.

5/4 Speech Code Sensitivity-Police Warning: Do not hurt anyone’s feelings at Texas A&M University. Ten (hilariously?) crazy lawsuits. And for some reason this amused me: Nietzsche’s typewriter. (Thanks to Joe H. for the link.)

5/3 Taxes, debt, and monetary policy: Professor George Bittlingmayer discusses the years 1905-1935 and several hypothesis about the causes of the Great Depression. And here is a good visual on who owns the U.S. national debt.

5/2 Stephen Browne’s review of Thomas Sowell’s A Conflict of Visions, which is now out in a new edition.

5/1 Dysfunctionalities of the mixed economy: Andy Morriss on politicians and creative rent extraction. Microsoft joins the party in using antitrust as a weapon against its competitors. And what is the effect of taxation on CEO compensation?