Prosthetic Conscience

Some of these have been stewing for a while.

• Austro-Athenian Empire » Cato Institute Publishes Leftist Screed!
  
• Petition against Larry Summers as Obama’s Treasury Secretary
  Go sign this.
• FiveThirtyEight.com: Electoral Projections Done Right: Prop 8 Myths
  

  I’ve been guilty of spreading the meme that new black and Latin@ voters were a significant part of the reason for Prop. 8’s passage. But it turns out that the main reason it passed is the aging of California’s population; new voters voted primarily against Prop 8.

• Bursting the proprietary-software bubble - at ZDNet.co.uk
  
• The Yes Men produce a fake version of the New York Times
  The Yes Men are one of the top satire/prank groups in the world today. The fake NYT is maybe a little predictable, but extremely well executed.
• The Oil Drum | A Resilient Suburbia? 2: Cost of Commuting
  The most interesting bit here is that the fixed costs of commuting (i.e., owning and maintaining a car, and parking) are more significant than the price of gasoline. If your family drives two 20-mpg cars every day, you would save more money by just ditching one of them than by replacing them with two 40-mpg cars. And the same goes for replacing your two 30-mpg cars with two 60-mpg cars.
• Against Fake Libertarian Clarity
  Self-styled libertarians tend to define ‘coercion’ in an artificially narrow sense, leading them to consider many types of coercive acts and relationships to be free.
• Philosophy, et cetera: Initiating Force
  
• Philosophy, et cetera: Property is Unnatural!
  
• The %u201CConservative%u201D Moral Sentiments: Do We Need Them?
  
• Obsidian Wings: Trusting Obama
  

  Trust, but verify?

• Facing South: Energy Watch: Ruling could disrupt plans for new coal plants nationwide
  
• News Analysis - Post-Guantánamo - A New Detention Law? - NYTimes.com
  

  What the hell is this fuckwittery? The incoming Obama administration is worried that they might have to release some prisoners when they close Guantanamo because they’re innocent?

• Vote Malik Rahim
  
• Humanitarian Imperialism: The New Doctrine of Imperial Right - Monthly Review
  

  An article by Noam Chomsky.

• A visual guide to the financial crisis
  
• Who Is IOZ?: More Notes on Libertarian Dickheads
  
• How to Run a Con | Psychology Today Blogs
  

  THOMAS (The Human Oxytocin Mediated Attachment System):

  The key to a con is not that you trust the conman, but that he shows he trusts you. Conmen ply their trade by appearing fragile or needing help, by seeming vulnerable. Because of THOMAS, the human brain makes us feel good when we help others–this is the basis for attachment to family and friends and cooperation with strangers. “I need your help” is a potent stimulus for action.

  Via Schneier on Security