Michael Tomasky: Intellectual consistency can be overrated | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

Michael Tomasky: Intellectual consistency can be overrated

Conservatives, and libertarians, seem to think that we have regulations in this society because we have a bunch of underemployed pencil pushers sitting around dreaming up ways to make small business people's lives miserable.

It's ridiculous. We have regulations because throughout history people in various pursuits did really sleazy and unethical things. They swindled investors, they dumped toxins into bodies of water, they made children work long hours for slave wages. Et cetera. And so laws were passed and regulations were written.

Saudi police 'stopped' fire rescue

BBC News | MIDDLE EAST | Saudi police 'stopped' fire rescue: "Saudi Arabia's religious police stopped schoolgirls from leaving a blazing building because they were not wearing correct Islamic dress, according to Saudi newspapers."

As a result, 15 girls died.

A Religious War in Israel’s Army - NYTimes.com

A Religious War in Israel’s Army - NYTimes.com. "The publication late last week of eyewitness accounts by Israeli soldiers alleging acute mistreatment of Palestinian civilians in the recent Gaza fighting highlights a debate here about the rules of war. But it also exposes something else: the clash between secular liberals and religious nationalists for control over the army and society."

Religious warriors are scary regardless of their religion.

YouTube - Benoit Mandelbrot thinks we're all screwed

YouTube - Benoit Mandelbrot thinks we're all screwed

Among other interesting insights in this piece is the identification of efficiency as one of the causes of fragility in the system. In turn, this is a "Tragedy of the Commons" problem - it is in the interest of individual firms to be as efficient as possible but that may cause small problems to have large negative consequences on the rest of us. Is it a job for government to ensure that there is slack in the system?

YouTube - Atheist IQ - Faith vs Reason

YouTube - Atheist IQ - Faith vs Reason Is religious belief negatively correlated with intelligence? You decide.

The Investment Deficit in America | OurFuture.org

This is why Reaganomics destroyed America. (And why the middle class is shrinking.)

The Investment Deficit in America | OurFuture.org: "Previous generations of Americans built interstate highways and transcontinental railroads. Now we sit in traffic."

The GOP's McCarthy gene

The GOP's McCarthy gene - Los Angeles Times: "the real father of modern Republicanism is Sen. Joe McCarthy, and the line doesn't run from Goldwater to Reagan to George W. Bush; it runs from McCarthy to Nixon to Bush and possibly now to Sarah Palin."