Mario Piperni dot Com

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This stuff might be a little heavy for a Friday but here it is anyway.  Paul Krugman…

When I was young and naïve, I believed that important people took positions based on careful consideration of the options. Now I know better. Much of what Serious People believe rests on prejudices, not analysis. And these prejudices are subject to fads and fashions.

Krugman stated his belief in reference to those who believe in fiscal austerity at a time of economic depression.  I’m not quite sure that sentiment on Serious People could be applied generally.  Politicians aside (who I don’t recognize as Serious People although they should be), I’d like to think that Serious People do think things out and while they may disagree on issues with other Serious People, their conclusions are based on a sound basis of facts.

(pause as I reread what I just wrote…)

OK. On a bit more reflection, I’m not sure I agree with me.  Either that or the list of Serious People is a really small one probably limited, for the most part, to those in the scientific community.  For everyone else, prejudices do form some basis for our beliefs.  And if that is true, then the difference between THE REALLY Serious People and the NOT REALLY Serious People is the degree to which they allow their prejudices (in place of hard facts) to taint and alter their beliefs.

As I said, this might be a little too heavy for a holiday weekend.  Happy Friday.

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Here’s a thought: if the health care bill is successful in getting another 30 million people insured, there is a possibility that the number of abortions might actually decrease.  Among the many reasons women choose abortion, one has to be the high cost of childbirth.

A quick look at the numbers indicate that the average cost of an uncomplicated childbirth is about $9000 and can easily climb to $40,000 and more for premature or complicated births.  Compare that to the cost of an abortion which can cost anywhere from $350 to $750.  It is not hard to imagine that for some uninsured women, opting for an abortion is almost a necessity when, everything else being equal, they might very well have had the baby if not for the cost.

And yes, I understand that there are a multitude of other issues involved here (e.g. why are uninsured women getting pregnant, etc.) but the fact remains that one can’t legislate common sense or responsibility. So if one is serious on wanting to reduce the number of abortions, then fixing the health care system and getting everyone insured can only help.

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Interesting article in the Economist which explores the reasons some of the world’s 6000 languages are more difficult to learn than others. German, for example,

…has three genders, seemingly so random that Mark Twain wondered why “a young lady has no sex, but a turnip has”. (Mädchen is neuter, whereas Steckrübe is feminine.)

or Chinese…

Mandarin, the biggest language in the Chinese family, has four tones, so that what sounds just like “ma” in English has four distinct sounds, and meanings. That is relatively simple compared with other Chinese varieties. Cantonese has six tones, and Min Chinese dialects seven or eight.

The winner for hardest language appears to be Tuyuca, spoken in the eastern Amazon.

Tuyuca requires verb-endings on statements to show how the speaker knows something. Diga ape-wi means that “the boy played soccer (I know because I saw him)”, while diga ape-hiyi means “the boy played soccer (I assume)”. English can provide such information, but for Tuyuca that is an obligatory ending on the verb. Evidential languages force speakers to think hard about how they learned what they say they know.

When reading this, I was instantly struck with the thought of what politics would be like if all politicians were forced to speak evidential language.  No doubt, there would be exploding heads everywhere.

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A reader writes:

“10 million people may be fooled by a lack of facts, mainly because he [Glenn Beck] appeals to a gut emotion. What he says “feels right” to them. But the same is true for Obama supporters. The facts demonstrated that he had insufficient qualifications for the presidency, but because his words resonated with the feelings of people who lacked access to those facts, he was elected. That group of people terrifies me much more than Beck’s 10 million. I can tune out Beck. The president establishes policies and regulations that affect my life in realtime.”

A few points…

A)  Yes, Beck appeals to a gut emotion.  It’s what you get when one premises most of what they say with “If you honestly love your country…” or “If you believe in freedom…”.  When one does that, then it gives credence to almost anything one chooses to say in the rest of the statement.  It could be a total fabricated lie (most won’t bother to fact-check, so why not). It doesn’t really matter, you’ve got your listener hooked.  The part that rings out is that yes, dammit, you love your country and you believe in liberty!

Selling propaganda and lies by means of appealing to people’s sense of patriotism and basic fear of loss of liberty is an old game.  Hitler’s rose to power in large part because he was a master at zeroing in on German’s basic love of country and was able to make the most of the humiliation and defeat many felt over the Treaty of Versailles.

B)  I would ask the reader above, what “facts” do you think that Obama supporters lacked?  His true place of birth? I can’t imagine a presidential candidate I knew more of than Barack Obama.  I remember one of the networks sending over a film crew to Indonesia to check out the school Obama attended as a child.  Sheesh.

In the eyes of conservatives, Obama’s greatest fault (and the only one that really counts for them) is that he’s not a conservative.

C)  If anyone believes that much of anything would be different with the political climate in this country should Hillary have won, they just don’t get it.  With the exception of the birther movement and the racists on the far right, nothing would change.  Repubs are simply not interested in moving the country forward with a liberal in the White House. That is clear.  Obama, Hillary, Edwards, it doesn’t matter which Democrat would have won…the rhetoric from the right would have been identical.

It’s not about health care or the economy or Afghanistan…it’s about regaining power. That’s all that counts for repubs and most conservatives. Once you grasp that concept, understanding why they speak the crap they do becomes a piece of cake.

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