Les Misérables for $5

On Clichés and Ideologies

I completed Jonah Goldberg's book and in some cases, the cliché is not so much from an ideology, but a faulty form of reasoning.  The example that comes to mind is "slippery slope".  While, the concept of a slippery slope can be true it is not necessarily true.  Cultures do change: sometimes for the better; sometimes for the worse.  We can discuss why cultures change one way or the other, and the accuracy of our diagnosis will determine how relavent the "slippery slope" argument is.  The diagnosis that violent video games cause children to act violently apparenly has no basis in reality such that the violence has decreased with the increase in video game play (or gun ownership for that matter).

Number 4 is the best news I've read all day.

http://www.dougwils.com/Politics/okay-then.html

4. The last thing to mention is the reminder that Jesus is still Lord, and the truth is still the truth. A corollary of this is that math is still math, and blind folly is still blind folly. And salvation from blind folly is still true salvation. The gospel is still the gospel, and it is still powerful to save. And nothing is more evident than that it is gospel that we need.

The Marriage Ammendment Argument I Never Heard

http://hotair.com/archives/2012/11/06/why-i-voted-yes-on-the-marriage-amendment-in-mn/

The Broken Window Fallacy Explained

Nice summary of the broken window fallacy.  Why, no, destroying things does not help the economy.  It reallocates resources from one part of the economy to another.

Peter Schiff Blog: Video: The Broken Window Fallacy Explained: Peter Schiff`s comments on the economy, stock markets, politics and gold. Schiff is the renowned writer of the bestseller Crash Proof: Ho...

Goldberg on Ideology

I have taken up the task of reading through Jonah Goldberg's The Tyranny of Clichés.  I will be posting quotes I find interesting.

"The process of deciding whether something is 'right for the times' is an inescapably ideological one." Goldberg 23

"To date I am aware of no ideological school...that claims it does not work." Goldberg 24

"An ideology, at the most fundamental level, is simply a checklist of ideas you have about the world.  Having an ideology doesn't mean you've been brainwashed, it means you've come to conclusions about how the world works at some basic level." Goldberg 32

"We learn an enormous number of important things from books...If I see a kid fuse his tongue to a frozen flagpole, I don't need to replicate the error myself to learn from the example.  Similarly, we don't all need to fight a land war in Asia or go against a Sicilian when death is on the line to avoid someone else's blunder."  Goldberg 37

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