Megan McArdle: Are Liberals the Real Authoritarians? See also Ed Driscoll, with several links and excerpts on this topic.
Why Sally can’t get a good job with her college degree
Happy families know their history. See also the family meal and benefits of family dinners.
Study suggests that waiting on experiences can be pleasant, whereas waiting on things just tends to be frustrating. (But what about things that are purchased in order to have experiences?…is waiting for the delivery of a boat really that different psychologically from waiting for a boat-charter vacation?)
Pioneering 3-D printed houses in Amsterdam (with video)
Thoughts about blank-slate theory and its consequences
To train a horse and ride it to war. Thoughts on chivalry, feminism, and horsemanship.
The biology of risk. Hormones and the Federal Reserve, among other things. A couple of years ago I briefly reviewed The Hour Between Dog and Wolf, written by the author of this article, John Coates.
“Thoughts about blank-slate theory and its consequences”
I have a lovely and intelligent daughter who graduated from college with a degree in Anthropology. We were on a trip one time and I had just finished reading Steven Pinker’s The Blank Slate , in which he postulates that most behavior is genetic in origin. She was (and maybe still is) a firm believer in Stephan Jay Gould’s The Mismeasure of Man, a book the Marxists swear by. Gould was a blank slater and I had his book in my library and had read it.
She refused to read The Blank Slate. First she said she would if I read Gould’s book but then, after I explained that I had, she still refused. The lefty bubble is like steel. That was ten years ago and life has, I believe, made her much more open to other ideas.
>>First she said she would if I read Gould’s book but then, after I explained that I had, she still refused.
I dated a woman who was a Leftist. We could never agree on anything in terms of society or a worldview. Complete opposites in that respect. I had the same experience though. She would always insist I meet her halfway and read this or that, which I would. She would somehow never get around to reading anything I suggested in return. I agree, they live in an information bubble of steel.
When I was heading for divorce with my wife 25 years ago, she came home with a book called Women who love too much . I read it and it was her to a “T.” She hadn’t read it or would have seen the comparison.
We are back together now after 25 years and I tease her a little about that book. One thing it talked about was the woman who starts to arrange the man’s closet after two dates. I now mention “Arranging the closets, are you ?” and she laughs.
At that time, I tried to get her to read a book called, Why Men Are the Way They Are which went into the motivations of men who strive for success to please women, etc.
Both books are still in print and are both very good. Ferrell is still writing and working and has written other good books on relationships.
By the way, my wife was and is conservative, unlike our daughter who is evolving as life provides a postgraduate course.
Thanks. How useful and enriching your group is.
“How useful and enriching your group is.”
I hope that isn’t sarcasm. One never knows on the internet.