More Brains

The Zombie Karl Popper takes down economist John Cochrane once and for all:

The Phantom Menace

Brian Leiter (Prof. of Philosophy and Law at the University of Chicago) points to this interesting piece on identifying the hallmarks of fascism.  Leiter’s been following this theme  for some time now, and this is just one of many in a string that were much more prevalent during the Bush administration.  Now that we’ve had something of a political turnover, one would think that such concerns about fascism should rightly and finally be put to rest.  Looks like we can weather democratic storms relatively well, without falling into fascism.  Curiously, however, this diatribe calling for a military coup against Obama came out at approximately the same time (today) as the piece on fascism, and one ought not to discount the hysteria at the recent town hall meetings, the birther nutbaggery, the facebook poll to vote on whether the president should be assassinated, the teabagger parades, and the second coming of the right wing media.

Media Matters has the full story on the editorial calling for a military coup.  Newsmax, the conservative outlet that originally published the editorial, has since taken it down.

How Much is a Tonne?

This article on urban metabolism paints a pretty brown picture of Denver, our nearby metropolis.  To wit:

The results, which will be published in the October 1st issue ofEnvironmental Science and Technology, showed that the total emissions of the ten chosen cities varied considerably, ranging from 4.1 tonnes of carbon dioxide per person in Barcelona to 21.5 tonnes in Denver.

Small Fish

As usual, Jon Stewart presents trenchant analysis of and commentary on Sean Hannity’s recent bugaboo, the Delta Smelt:

What I appreciate about this, and what is nice about most of the humor on the Daily Show, is that the laughs depend not on silly equivocations or puns, as much humor does, but rather on identifying and calling attention to the variety of informal fallacies that politicians and political pundits employ. That’s the modus operandi of the Daily Show, and I often point out in my critical thinking classes that the best way to learn about the variety of informal (and in some cases formal) fallacies is not necessarily by sticking one’s nose in a textbook, but by watching the Daily Show.

So here, yes, the survival of salmon fisheries is a relevant fact to the allocation of water, just as Stewart notes. It’s a relevant economic fact, and it’s an equally relevant political fact. Similarly, the internal contradiction of lambasting government subsidies, while at the same time depending on government subsidies, demonstrates the inanity of Hannity’s faux stance.