Flemming Rose fights for freedom

As his Wikipedia entry states, he is cultural editor at the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. He was principally responsible for the publishing of the cartoons that initiated the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy. The Boulder Objectivist Club sponsored his talk at the University of Colorado, and I was quite impressed by it. In short, Rose said did not anticipate a controversy when he published the cartoons, as they were not intended to offend. He was countering what he perceived as self-censorship in response to intimidation by what many call religious extremists (or what others might call consistent with scripture.)

What follows are some ideas Rose related. Since I am not too familiar with this issue, I may not be as precise and accurate as I’d like in paraphrasing them. One of his main points was the notion of “peaceful coexistence” of secular and religious states, proposed by some Muslims is disingenuous, as if some had their way, everyone would live under a theocracy. He also stressed the distinction between tolerance and respect for other people’s ideas and values: the former is essential to a free society, while requiring the latter, well, intolerant to say the least. Rose compares the situation of Muslims in Europe, that is, those who portray themselves as weak victims, to the play Mr. Biedermann and the Arsonists, where criminals use the trust and guilt of their victims against them.

Ari Armstrong has posted a good summary of the talk, as well as its complete audio. Rose’s article in the Washington Post, Why I Published Those Cartoons, is also worth reading. I admire Mr. Rose for his using his position as a journalist to further the the cause of individual freedom.

Milton Friedman: champion of individual freedom

Last night on the way to a debate on gun prohibition (which I had intended to write about this evening) my friend Ralph and I were talking about effective ways to advance pro-freedom policies in a culture dominated by misguided and counter-productive government interventions into peoples lives. I expressed my concern that it was easy to ignore how basic economic principles can guide our activism.

Simply put, we need to create the right incentive structures. Or more simply put – appeal to people’s self-interest. I mentioned to Ralph how eloquently Patri Friedman, Milton Friedman’s grandson, paraphrased his brilliant father, Law Professor David Friedman, author of the fantastic book The Machinary of Freedom: A Guide to Radical Capitalism. Patri was explaining why government services are so poor by viewing governments as a service industry. From there, Patri proposed a way to lower the barrier to entry into the “government services business,” and allow customers to change providers. Just as in any other industry, this will result in a better product.
As I was saying, we soon remarked at our surprise that Milton Friedman was still alive and writing. I had read a feature on him just a few weeks ago, and bookmarked a page of interviews with him.
Little did we know that he had been hospitalized a few days ago. Upon receiving the news via e-mail I got a bit choked up, and continue to do so as I read about his accomplishments, academic and popular influence, sense of humor, and principled commitment to individual liberty and choice. And if the accomplishments of his sons and collaboration with his wife are any indication, Milton Friedman was also successful as a father and husband.

The Cato Institute has honored his life, and Ed Crane’s podcast is worth listening to. My father sent me a link to The New York Times obituary, which I’ve easily republished here thanks to the Google’s wonderful Docs and Spreadsheets. Incidentally, Patri works for Google, and has posted a few fine videos on his blog.

Milton Friedman is a hero of mine. I would consider my life a success to the extent that I can match his level accomplishment, and perhaps more importantly, do so with his characteristic passion, rigor, enthusiasm, and warmth.

* This story about Friedman’s tennis game is also quite nice.

Roger Ebert writes from rehab

Roger Ebert’s update on his recovery from salivary cancer exuded optimism, enthusiasm, and gratitude.   I very much admire him for that.

spontaneous order

In the spirit of appreciating when things work, even the very little things…
Last night I was next in line at OfficeMax between the only two open registers.  I figured it was silly to choose a line when I could straddle them and go to the one that’s available first.  To make my intention clear I stood back a few steps and toward the midpoint between the registers, hoping that if any customers approached, they would get the idea, even though OfficeMax doesn’t operate that way.  Two guys come up speaking a foreign language to each other, choose a line, then look at me, realize what I was doing, and back off to give space.  I don’t think we even exchanged words until I thanked them.

Now if only traffic could work that way when merging lanes.  What can you do about the drivers who merge late by passing 20 or 30 cars, and then having the nerve to try to get in?

New article published

A academic journal article based on my research was recently published in Chemistry of Materials. As second author, I contributed the numerical simulations confirming the results, for example, those shown in the plot below. I’m proud of this work, as I put a fair amount of time into learning the details and traps of the wonderful software behind it. Yet, I do not feel the same type of ownership of this work, as I do my previous ones, since it was a collaborative effort and not my idea. Still, the collaboration worked out quite well, and it was nice to contribute to some experimental work. As first author, Zachary Sechrist put much effort into the experiments and laborious writing and revising of the paper. Thanks, Zach!

280 Z, Yeah.

A few weeks ago I was at a red light when a man driving a Datsun (not Nissan) 280 Z pulled up in the lane to my left. It was silver with shiny chrome hubcaps, and was in excellent condition. According to a Wikipedia page, this car was produced between 1976 and 1978. I looked the car back and forth (so to speak), & thought, or even said to myself, “Yeaaahh,” in a very satisfied way. I suppose that, in an instant, I had recognized a thing of beauty and accomplishment of maintaining it (not to mention nostalgia). Then, perhaps feeling the pride the driver must have in it, I made eye contact, nodded, and gave him a thumbs up, which he returned. A fine moment.

Jonathan Richman, NPR’s Marketplace, Walmart, Eagles

This is not the first post of this nature. Anyway, the show included a riff from Jonathan Richman’s “Lonely Little Thrift Store” after a segment on Walmart’s banking service. Good choice! They’ve used this riff before, and the album is sold on the Public Radio Music Store. Speaking of Walmart, I again saw South Park’s Something Wallmart this Way Comes, fabulous social commentary. Still, I should get around to reading Walmart & the Politics of American Retail. Back to radio, I’ve noticed my growing distaste for songs by The Eagles. I can’t think of another band that makes me change the radio station faster and more decisively.

An OCD moment

After meeting a friend for lunch I returned to my car to find the meter still had 12 minutes remaining. It occurred to me how absurd it would be to stick around for that time to “get the most for my money,” but still, I had the thought, which is both amusing and disturbing. Later in the day I watched an episode of Monk, where Monk (the “Obsessive Compulsive Detective”) solved the case during a therapy session and told the therapist he had to go, and would add on the 20 minutes the next week. The therapist said he couldn’t do that and alas, Inspector Monk was stuck for a few comic moments. Wow. As Homer Simpson said, “It’s funny because it’s true.”

One of my pages linked on a Wikipedia entry

Woohoo! I was reading about Robert Cialdini’s idea of commitments “growing their own legs”, and found that on his entry on Wikipedia had a link to an interview with him that I had posted on my page. It was originally at another site, but was taken down a few years ago. Since link was to my University of Colorado account, and that will be gone soon, I updated it.

The concept of a decision’s “growing its own legs” is powerful. This page has many excerpts from Cialdini’s Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion on the subject. Briefly, it’s the idea that if you initially make a decision D1 for reason R1, then your mind comes up with other reasons (“legs”, that hold up D1) to justify the decision so that even when R1 no longer applies, you still think D1 is a good choice because of all the other reasons “legs” you’ve come up with.

In the book he suggests (if I recall correctly) asking yourself “Knowing what I know now, would I make the same decision again?” The above page quotes him: “Accumulating psychological evidence indicates that we experience our feelings toward something a split second before we can intellectualize about it. My suspicion is that the message sent by the heart of hearts is a pure, basic feeling. Therefore, if we train ourselves to be attentive, we should register it ever so slightly before our own cognitive apparatus engages.” Sounds like what Malcolm Gladwell talks about in Blink.

Braille PDA and hooray for insurance!

Yesterday I saw a blind man on the Metro with a device I’d never seen before. I figured it was a Braille e-book reader, but when I asked him, he said it was a PDA with which he could read his e-mail. Impressive. I found one on-line by Googling “Braille PDA.” Approaching him was odd, as I could not make eye contact, and since the train was moderately crowded, I wonder if he knew someone was approaching him to ask a question. I felt a little scared approaching him, actually, but knew I’d regret not asking him a simple question. I mean, why treat him any differently? Alas, when I asked him, I said that I’d never seen anything like that before, but I think he took it as an idiom.

Tonight I locked my car keys in my trunk after returning from Trader Joe’s. See, the bag fell over and the bananas were caught under the softball bat. So I tossed whaetevr was in my left hand, hat and keys, apparently, into the trunk. Doh. My national insurance company dispatched a local locksmith who arrived within an hour. (Free-markets at work!) He had some nifty tools. The method that worked involved … wait a second … should I be writing this? Well, there is lockpicks.com, which has many tools. Take your pick. It was almost worth the slight panic and hassle of locking the keys in the trunk in the first place.