I don't think hyperinflation is likely. If anything, I think we're looking at a Japanese-style "Lost Decade", though there might even be an argument for us having been in one since the dot-com crash...

I guess it's a good thing I went quiet long enough to hear politically motivated talk from you again. Austrians use the same scapegoat every freaking time -- government is the root of all evil, every time.

In this case, I think Obama probably isn't being radical enough to try to fix things. I do think things like the stimulus are mitigating a bit of the pain (though the stimulus was never designed to be immediate, or to fully reverse the problems with the economy), but I don't expect the recovery to do more than begin in the next 9-12 months, hopefully sooner.

Most of the Keynesians out there right now are saying "too little" about the stimulus, and getting progressively less kind about debunking the talk of "green shoots" in the economy. Krugman himself is saying he's very concerned about us going into our own Japanese-style Lost Decade, where we are too timid about stimulus, and not focused enough with the type of stimulus.

The Keynesian take on inflation is that it's a concern, but one that we both can a) clearly see coming, and b) cut off by raising the interest rate at the Fed.

>> ^Enzoblue:
I like this because it gets me off my 'greed is the root of every problem ever' kick. I seem single minded on this view and need a good slap, it's getting old.


I don't follow, hombre.

I think that greed is, basically, the root of all evil, but do you mean that this video showed you another side to the story?

*And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

That was unbelievably shit. No not THE shit, just shit. This is exhibit A in how to absolutely ruin what has the potential to be a very, very good movie. Larry Charles is obviously exceedingly satisfied with himself after having made Borat and decided to make Borat 2 and call it Religulous. Every single interview in this is so entirely FUCKED by slimeball editing techniques and fast cut MTV style stock clip inserts (OOHhhhhhh!!! look at the SHINY SHINY!), that I can almost never actually tell AT ALL when the interviewee's answers were actually to the question that was just asked, or not. Any pretense of intellectual honesty (a thing that I should bloody well think a movie setting out to criticize irrationality would hold in VERY high esteem) is entirely obliterated by snide, underhanded bullshit production techniques. This movie is the "Expelled: No evolution allowed" of the secular world. I say all of this of course as a dyed in the wool, inveterate atheist. Religion, especially the more harmful flavors, deserves to be excoriated, mocked and generally devalued, but if you have to literally rearrange the words of your opponents on tape to do it, you've failed. I can't even much enjoy the parts where the religious nuts actually DO appear to make fools of themselves without any help from Charles, because I'm constantly second guessing the context. I don't blame Maher for it at all, but this was an extreme disappointment. I recommend Johnathan Miller's "A Brief History of Disbelief" or Dawkin's "The Root of All Evil?" over this turd any day.

Edd,

I never said it was "the root of all evil". Where you got that, we'll never know. You are upset with America because of its foreign policy, I presume. More government means a larger budget--and that includes military budgets. More power, more ability to abuse it. Bush could not have done what he has done in the last 8 years if the government was not the size it is today. A large part of that was due to the policies of FDR--enacted some 70 years prior. By electing Obama, you can be rest assured the government will be even larger in the future. If you think America is bad today--just wait a few decades. I know its hard to have vision that far because thats almost half your lifetime, but history doesn't reduce itself to your lifespan.

On the bright side, you have a few decades to figure out an answer to the question "Why didn't you do anything, grandpa" when your children's children come to you crying.

First of all, congratulations, America! That's not just a sigh of relief we just had, it's a breath of fresh air, too. Thank you. Thank you very much, I really mean it.

^ But imstellar28, what are your alternatives? Seems what you're getting at is a call to bring the country down (even further) in order for its future presidents to not be able to fuck everything up as effectively as Bush did?
And pardon me, but merely stating that "increasing the "size" of the government" is the root of all evil sounds rather dumbed-down, does it not? I'm sure I don't need to tell you it's not all that simple.

P.S. Also, I'm quite sure I'm not the fist to ask - what happens to the Election08 channel now?

Anyway, again - thank you US citizens - most of all for NOT electing McCain/Palin.

^ You used a lot of words to put forward no logical argument, just a lot of "nyah nyah, I think you're wrong".

You say: Europe is choking to death from socialism.

I say: Check your facts again, Europe is excelling, and we're declining, and between the two, we're vastly closer to libertarian philosophy.

You say: Monopolies don't/can't exist.

I say: Google Enron and California. When's the last time you saw a small, independent grocery store?

You say: I'm arrogant and ignorant for denying that inflation is unconstitutional.

I say: "To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;" from Article I, Section 8.

(and frankly, it was a straw man argument on your part -- I'm not opposed to the gold standard, I just don't think it's unconstitutional, nor that fiat currency is the Root of All Evil)

You say: [Democrats] don't [like the free market], you don't even know what it is.

I say: One of 'em just won the Nobel prize in economics. Someone notify the Nobel Foundation!

You say: Regulation of banks with pesky laws is impossible, so let's get rid of them so that people are forced to police the banks themselves.

I say: Why stop there? Why not get rid of property laws too, and let people engineer their own way of defending their property from thieves?

Let's tone down the level of demagoguery. I'm just as capable of calling you a an arrogant, ignorant fool, but somehow I doubt that will make you more receptive to an opposing view.

Maybe a few beers would help, but given the size of the rant, I'm not sure there are enough beers out there to do the job.

This has got to be a hard time for Libertarians -- even the Republicans have abandoned conservative economic principles, and the country seems to be swinging the way of the (moderate) Democrats.

I just looked at one of this guy's other videos (of his son at 4 playing counterstrike) and he has this comment on it:

For those who feel the need to post "bad parent" comments, get a life. There is no evidence that playing this type of game does anything but improve hand eye coordination. My son is a social and academic achiever at the top of his class. He knows the game is pretend.

To me, this is no different than playing "cops and robbers" with cap guns as I did as a child.

He is so wrong.

Firstly, to say his son is a 'social and academic achiever at the top of his class' WHEN HE IS 4? His at pre school for god's sake, they don't do tests, they don't have a 'top of the class'... geeze. And what does he mean by 'social achiever' anyway? One of those kids that is in the 'gang' of thugs that so often exist in pre schools... yeah, I'd be so proud to have my kid in one of those.

And I'm not one of these people who say games are the root of all evil, and protect our children etc. etc. BUT there are appropriate ages to introduce your kids to violent play, and shooting people in a game which shows death and blood, and really... you think that 4 is that age.

Well, good luck to you sir... but then you are the sort of person who finds this amusing... so... yeah, I'm sure those kids of yours will make you so proud.

Still, I'm going to upvote this video, as I'd love to see some videosift discussion on it.

>> ^Morganth:
I hate to point out that pretty much every post here except for spoco2's is both angry and hostile. Don't you still have a right in America (I'm assuming most of you are Americans) to teach your children what you believe?


I think what really irks people though is that aside from things like 'belief' whereby you are merely passing on a world view, even though it can be different to yours (belief in a god, capitalism is king, socialism is the root of all evil etc.), this is taking that a step further.

They completely disregard the hundreds of years of empirical measurement, scientific process, and just plain reasoning and say "Nope, some book says this, we're going to ASSUME it's meant to be taken 100% literally, and say all that hard work and evidence are lies".

And rather than just believing that themselves, they FORCE those LIES on small children, crushing their powers of critical thought.

It's really painful to watch, painful to see them in a place of such knowledge and yet see them (literally) turn their back on science.

I sympathize with those who get angry, I really do, because the more of these people there are, the more kids that are brought up this way, the worse the world will be as people are taught to blindly accept things and not critically observe and question.

>> ^Peroxide:
I have yet to see a video related to atheism in which both sides are presented by beings of equal intelligence and scholarly knowledge.


Took a while, but I re-found the one video I saw that did satisfy your conditions of both sides being fairly equal intelligence and scholarly knowledge. It's the uncut 'The Root of All Evil? - Uncut Interview', on youtube in 7 different parts and a little over an hour long.

Search listing the 7 parts here.

I highly recommend watching it, but it is uncut and thus the audio volume varies, etc. However, because it is uncut it's better as there is no manipulation through editing to modify the view of either speaker.

"We are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further" Richard Dawkins

I think this quote originally came from his documentary "The Root Of All Evil?"

I think its a Dawkins quote, I wasnt sure, so I forgot to actually name my source, I know he uses it in "Root Of all Evil?" When he talks about Bertrand Russells orbiting teapot, but I dont think its a Russell quote, and Dawkins usually makes it clear if he's quoting.

In reply to this comment by benjee:
Also, the conclusion to Richard Dawkin's The Root Of All Evil - Part 2: The Virus Of Faith on Google Video, this is the source material for his book: The God Delusion.

This is a great film in the sense of showing how extreme religion is the root of all that is bad in the world; however I am not an atheist. There is one thing that this film does not address and that is spirituality and how pure spirituality is. For instance religion can only be good by someone with wisdom. Spirituality is the essence of wisdom and don't confuse wisdom for intelligence. Only when wisdom and intelligence are brought to oneself hand in hand one can find enlightenment, but also maintaining innocence like a child. Now true spirituality, which is common amongst many Guru's and Yogi's in India such as Sri Sri Ravi Sankar (www.srisri.org) unites all people of all religions to one God threw meditation, which is peaceful and embraces what love is all about and cares for everything in this world where as religion does not. These religions that are all segregated are evil because of their belief that one is better or truer than the other. Evolution is also real, but the only thing I would challenge Mr.Dawkin's on is the power of spirituality and if you don't meditate you'll never know who God is. God can only be experienced threw meditation and those who think otherwise have a distorted view of this world, but all life is about is experience and for those that wonder why all these bad things happen around the world and God hasn’t helped, it is because he gave us free will to choose and we have done as we please threw control. Also the bible, some of it may have value, but don't think that it's original; the original bible has been changed by the church in order to control people. Another thing is that Jesus,Mohammed,Khisna etc were just messengers of God with divine power. When churches just praise Jesus this is wrong in their sense because most people think Jesus was the one true son of God when in fact we all are and Jesus, Mohammed, Khrisna etc were true representatives of what God is. You should be praising the almighty creator because Mohammed, Jesus Khrisna etc simply were enlightened at birth and enlightenment lead to their miracles, but we can all do this if you find enlightenment and I am not a hypocrite because I have not found full enlightenment yet, but full enlightenment may bring about powers that are divine. One other thing the only religions I have more respect for are those such as the native american religions that are more pure with the earth and Budhism, because they are not a typical religions and they are based on more spirtual values, again those are the only ones I know from studying and there maybe more religions that have a sense of spituality. So if you have no idea what I have just written you are distorted from society, materialism etc and maybe you should try some Kundalini Yoga to help get you back on track or take the art of living course by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and you may start to understand what the word love means.

See a dialog between Dawkins and Christian skeptic Alistar McGrath

This interview, as well as all the other interviews done for "Root of all evil?" has been released in uncut versions on DVD, available at http://richarddawkins.net/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=6

And speaking of Alister McGrath, one thing to his credit is that he seems to be in the outnumbered category of apologists who doesnt lie about, misunderstand and misconstrue every argument Dawkins makes, but at the heart of all of his arguments its just all wishful thinking, he feels "God" gives life meaning and purpose, therefore it must be true in some sense.. A clear betrayal of reason. You can see it in nearly every question from dawkins "I think you raise an extremely interesting point" , "thats definitely something that should be discussed" etc, and then he evades answering the question and simply repeats how he feels better about life because of the christian perspective.

Dawkins tries for a full hour to get him to answer WHY his(Dawkins) descriptions of the God hypothesis is wrong or misunderstood, and McGrath bounces around the questions with his faith-based wishes.

he will continue to miss the important point that religion and its beliefs are just one of many excuses mankind uses to justify atrocity and inhumanity to fellow human beings.

I'm betting not a single viewer of these videos became an atheist because of them. Dawkins is no Guitar Hero.

Did any of you two even watch this before posting? This clip focuses on the scams of astrology, new age, psychics, cold reading, dowsers and other nonsense, and leaves your imaginary friend completely be.

That being said, I dont think Dawkins/atheism videos convert people on the spot either, but I think Dawkins views are very, very far from persephones "microscopic view on humanity" (please see "Queerer than we can suppose" to see how "dogmatic" RD really is.. : http://www.videosift.com/video/Richard-Dawkins-TED-The-Strangeness-of-Science-22-min(and no there are no atheist "preaching" there either))

You also probably judge him from the title of "Root of all Evil?", a title he objected to, and has ever since tried to distance himself from, he did get the question mark in there, but I guess thats not enough for people who only reads by title.. Dawkins has never actually claimed religion truly is the root of all evil, what he does say its that it does little good and much harm.

I cant speak for Dawkins, but if I could change the title slightly, I'd perhaps call it "The root of just evil" because I cant see anything good thats ever come from believing incredibly arrogant, ignorant things about the way the world works, nor have I ever seen a good deed committed in the name of these ideas that are not -or could just as well be- a result of genuine human solidarity and a reasoned view on things.

If we humans didnt know right from wrong innatley, we would have no way to distinguish between the best ideas of Jesus and the worst of Hitler..

But when we hear stuff like "love thy next as yourself" or "do onto others" etc, it rings like music in our ears, because we already know it.