Posts tagged ‘Cults’

Imperial Presidency = Bad for Civil Liberties

Gene Healy has been one of the more prominent and consistent critics of presidential power going back to the Clinton administration. (Disclosure: Healy is a friend and a former colleague.) In 2000 Healy, vice president of the libertarian Cato Institute, authored the study “Arrogance of Power Reborn: The Imperial Presidency and Foreign Policy in the Clinton Years.” In 2006, Healy and fellow Cato scholar Tim Lynch set their sights on President Bush with Power Surge: The Constitutional Record of George W. Bush.

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Posted 2013/03/30, 6:57 am  ·  Category: Aristocracy, Corruption, Cults, Moral Preening, Ozymandias, Philosopher Kings, Public Policy, Statolatry, Tyranny ·  Comments Off on Imperial Presidency = Bad for Civil Liberties

If you were very angry or very happy after the election, you might be in a cult

Partisan defenders of irrational positions get rewarded by their brains in the same way drug addicts get rewarded by addictive drugs.
. . .
The feeling of partisan loyalty is an obstacle to rational thought. Abandon your partisan loyalties and the effect will be to boost your ability to understand political events.

Also, distrust the most partisan commentators who defend the leaders of their factions. Their odds of making sense and being correct are lower than for less partisan commentators.

Addicts of partisanship need treatments that will prevent them from getting high from defending their tribes.

“Political Partisans Addicted To Irrational Defense Of Their Tribes” (should read: “Political Partisans Addicted To Irrational Defense Of Their Cults”)

See, e.g., “Obama Wins 8 of 10 Wealthiest Counties in US“:

The 10 richest counties accounted for 1,337,700 votes, or about 1.1 percent of the national popular vote.

In the richest, Massachusetts’ Nantucket County, where average annual household income is over $137,000, Obama won by 63 percent to Romney’s 36 percent with all precincts reporting. The richest county in Romney’s home state is also where, just prior to accepting the Republican nomination, the former Massachusetts governor held a $75,000-per-person dinner fundraiser.

In none of the richest counties was the margin of victory wider than in California’s Marin County, just north of San Francisco, where the president won by 74 percent to 23 percent, with all precincts reporting. In Marin, the average annual household income is $128,544.


Ooooh! Telekinesis!

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Posted 2012/11/08, 7:27 am  ·  Category: Cults, You Can't Fix Stupid ·  Comments Off on If you were very angry or very happy after the election, you might be in a cult

Obama Kids: Sing for Change (Pyongyang Remix)

Hat tip Nick Gillespie

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Posted 2012/09/20, 2:57 pm  ·  Category: Caution, Cults, Tyranny ·  Comments Off on Obama Kids: Sing for Change (Pyongyang Remix)