Interesting Links for 31-1-2011

[andrewducker]

• God Is In The TV interview the ever fabulous Hannah Werdmuller
  (tags: HannahWerdmuller music interview)
• 750,000 more people 'to pay higher rate of tax' (and 500,000 to stop paying income tax at all)
  (tags: tax uk)
• MAXO signals - a solution to the Fermi Paradox by Charlie Stross
  (tags: charlesstross writing scifi)
• Battlestar Choclactica. This is why the Cylons were chasing it. They were desperate for chocolate.
  (tags: battlestar bsg chocolate)
• Note: If you are impressed by a female science blogger do not convey this by telling her her tits are gorgeous...
  (tags: gender science sexism blogging feminism)
• This Is Your Artistic Brain on Drugs
  (tags: art drugs)
• Why one wife now chooses to shop alone
  (tags: shopping funny)
• Tiny Adorable Animals That Will Make You Squee
  (tags: cute animals)
• Myths RETOLD: A VERITABLE SMORGASBORD OF MYTHOLOGY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND AWESOME!
  (tags: mythology funny)
• Juden raus (Jews Out!) a boardgame from 1930s Germany.
  (tags: germany boardgames Jews)
• Ignosticism. I keep encountering this, and then forgetting about it. Which is a shame, as it's a very useful position.
  (tags: ignosticism religion knowledge)
• Ayn Rand Received Social Security, Medicare
  (tags: aynrand objectivism politics funny)

Comments

[anton-p-nym.livejournal.com]

It's certainly not hypocritical if you use as Rand's premise, "maximising one's personal gain is the only good."

However, arguing for the superiority of minarchist/anarchocapitalist societies while suckling at the teat of the nanny state certainly strikes those of us who don't accept the above premise as hypocritical. Rand wasn't using Social Security and Medicare out of a principled stand, but out of dire personal need... a strong argument against the superiority of minimialist/anarchocapitalist society.

-- Steve's a strong believer in social safety nets, because one can be more creative and innovative when a single failure doesn't lead to utter destruction. You get greater successes when rewarding successes than you do when penalising failures.