A friend's response to my ideology post

I reread your last posting regarding ideology and I found myself more in agreement with it than the first time. I think what I do not like l;like is the quote from your friend making the denigration of the other is a characteristic of ideology. Ideology is simply a belief system which one uses to evaluate the world and one's place in it. All of us out ideologues. The dangers you point to our not characteristics of ideology but rather those people who use their ideology to shield them form engagement in the real world.


In fact, one of the most disturbing trends in police discourse is the use of the word "ideology" as a smear, as if those who rely on first principles and try to advance a particular world do not belong in politics. Instead, many people praise the non-ideologues "pragmatists" who do not question the fundamental premises of the welfare-warfare state but work to make the state more "efficient." that is what the end of history/end of ideology is an attempt to say that the question other legitimacy of the American social-democratic, mixed-economic, world empire is settled and all that remains to be done is spread it throughout the world and tinker around the edges to enhance its' efficacy. Well I, for one, prefer to remain a no comprising libertarian ideologue!

Is she wierd? Is she white? Is she promised to the night?

When pride lacks acknowledgment, it becomes pain.

Elizabeth Gonzales talks about the "pain and pride of community college". It would be easy for a Randian to chastise her for feeling insecure about it in the first place without obviating the stress of the environment that makes such insecurity easier. I won't bother with that kind of "virtue of self-obession" talk. What I would tell, Gonzales, however, is that I know at least 8 people in Ivy League graduate programs whose prior education was limited to community college. Don't ever be ashamed of where you are-- be ashamed only for allowing it to condition your dreams and aspirations.

The intractable debate on abortion continues

According to a recently-released study, abortions in the United States have been declining for the past decade. This trend does not hold among minority women, however-- a rather disappointing exception.

Michael Schwartz, Concerned Women for America’s vice president’s for government relations, disagrees with those who assert that welfare reform is the culprit. According to Schwartz, "the most apparent reason for the increase in the abortion rates among the poor—and especially among poor minorities—is the marketing strategies of the abortion industry."

The recent passage of the Abortion Non-Discrimination Act (ANDA) on September 25 in the US House of Representatives (by 229-189) certainly adds to the pro-life scoreboard. The bill contains a conscience clause that would shield health care providers from government coercion to perform or participate in abortions.

Human rights talk by day, human rights violations by night

Sorry boys, but that East European hooker you picked up on your high-school class trip was NOT a feminist. And you did her no liberating favors through your transaction. Sexual slavery in Europe is not getting any better. What used to be free-lanced prostitution now comes under the form of sexually-trafficked females from failed (if not just transitioning) states. Profits are estimated at $9 billion a year-- no small fee.

The consequences for the reproductive health of Albanian women stun the imagination. Men who engage in sexual encounters with prostitutes often take various diseases home as a gift to their faithful wives. You can't understand the horrifying extent of it until you speak to some Moldovan prostitutes in Poland or Romania. Often, it is the very NATO troops that have been stationed there to protect civilians that are the greatest proportional consumers of services sold by trafficked women. If you know a nice young man who visits Europe for the cheap prostitutes, remind him that he is not paying them for their sex. Mostly now, he is probably paying their master for rent.

Forget French-- talk some "universal grammar" to me.

I can't get enough of the buzz surrounding Stephen Pinker's new book in evolutionary biology. The New York Times describes Pinker's position as follows:

Pinker sees human nature as largely inscribed by indelible genes. He marshals evidence from empirical studies showing, for instance, that individuals living in disparate cultures display the same repertory of emotional expressions. Angry scowls, happy smiles, the arched eyebrow of disbelief, the wrinkled brow of perplexity and scores of other facial signs are universal. They cannot have arisen from a common cultural heritage but must, Pinker argues, stem from the genetic heritage of a small group of humans that left Africa about 100,000 years ago and slowly populated all regions of the world.

Pinker links common expressions to common evolution by using a linguistic theory developed by fellow MIT professor, Noam Chomsky, called "universal grammar". This theory holds that there is a "deep grammar" embedded in genetically determined brain structures, which form our syntactical abilities and influence our communicative mediums. Chomsky's theory has been criticized on the grounds of overlooking human genetic variability. Whether you like him or not is irrelevant to the acknowledgement of Pinker's ground-breaking capacity to shake the world of cognitive and behavioral science to the core.