Category Archives: history

Property, People, Parties

Posted on 2013-05-07 by TJ

Before the Chartists, Westminster-style democracies had parliaments that unequivocally represented property. There were property qualifications for voters, much less members. The upper house represented the aristocracy, which was different from mere wealth. This is a concept Canadians may have some … Continue reading →

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Why Isn’t the Germ Theory of Disease Mentioned in Scripture?

Posted on 2013-02-24 by TJ

My text for the day will be the Gospel According to Lister, in which he recounts the revelation God gave to His beloved prophet, Pasteur: And in those days there was a great sickness in the land, and the people … Continue reading →

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Predictions

Posted on 2012-07-27 by TJ

In 1987 a group of science fiction writers and similar people were asked to predict what the future might look like in 25 years time… which is to say, in 2012 A quarter-century is in some ways not a very … Continue reading →

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Some Notes on the Higgs

Posted on 2012-07-04 by TJ

It looks very likely that the Higgs boson has been observed at CERN. There’s a lot of careful, discriminating, detailed and precise analysis to be done yet, but the data so far are consistent with a Standard Model Higgs, which … Continue reading →

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I am not making this up

Posted on 2012-01-11 by TJ

It has been ten years since the United States started openly violating its own constitution by holding innocent people in indefinite custody without trial. One of those people is Canadian child solider Omar Khadr, who has been held there illegally–against … Continue reading →

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Other People’s Lives

Posted on 2011-12-31 by TJ

I looked back at my own life a bit in the previous post. But how are the other 7 billion humans on and off this planet doing? The ones on the space station are doing pretty well, I guess. This … Continue reading →

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Mass Organized Killing, What’s It Really Good For?

Posted on 2011-12-17 by TJ

The New York Times has a brief account of a cache of secret American government documents found in an Iraqi junkyard that sheds some more light on the 2005 killing by American Marines of 24 human beings in the town … Continue reading →

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I Think Therefore I Might Be

Posted on 2011-11-30 by TJ

Having argued in favour of the ontological commitments entailed by tautologies, it behooves me to say a few words about Descartes’ famous dictum, “I think, therefore I am.” Descartes was a profoundly ignorant man, as every man of his time … Continue reading →

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General Theory of Money and Credit

Posted on 2011-11-14 by TJ

The nature of money has been a much debated topic for over a hundred years. Descriptive economics says that money has three social functions: as a unit of account, as a medium of exchange, and as a store of value. … Continue reading →

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Some Notes on Debt

Posted on 2011-10-29 by TJ

I’m reading “Debt: a history of the first 5000 years” by David Graeber, and it’s a delightful and frustrating book. Delightful because the author isn’t afraid to ask the big questions. Frustrating because despite his carefully cultivated ironic persona he … Continue reading →

Posted in economics, history, life, politics, probability, psychology | 2 Comments