Andrew Sullivan's Blog, page 2787

Marijuana Prohibition And "Racism Without Racists"

The NAACP endorsed California's marijuana legalization bill last week. A report on marijuana arrests among minorities explains their rationale:

Young blacks and Latinos use marijuana at lower rates than youngwhites. So why are police in California arresting young blacks andLatinos at higher rates than young whites, and at greater numbersthan their percentages of the population? Based on our studies ofpolicing in New York and other cities, we do not think the arrestsare mostly a result of...

Should We Pray For Hitch? Ctd

A Professor of Cancer Biology writes:

I would say that it's OK to pray for Hitch as long as you don't tell him. To
tell him you are praying would be malicious. The STEP trial established that
intercessionary prayer per se was ineffective either positively or
negatively as long as the patients don't know about it. However, patients
who know that they are being prayed for do measurably worse than the
unprayed or ignorant of prayer.

Prayer - Christianity - Religion and...

The View From Your Window

Savannah, Georgia, 9.47 am

Georgia - United States - University of Georgia - Damon Evans - Driving under the influence

Why Do Middle-Age Men Cheat?

Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jethá continue to plug their book on the evolution of human sexuality. On infidelity:

With the caveat that every situation is different, one factor we think deserves more attention is the role of testosterone(T) in middle-aged men's eroticism. In their twenties, men's T levelsbegin a long decline, often experienced as diminished passion and appetite for life. Suppressed T levels are associated with depression, heart attacks, dementia,and overall mortality rates...

Why People Fall For Horoscopes

It's biologically ingrained:

The tendency to believe vague statements designed to appeal to
about anyone is called the Forer Effect, and psychologists point
this phenomenon to explain why people fall for pseudoscience
biorhythms, iridology and phrenology or mysticism like
numerology and tarot cards.

The Forer Effect is part of larger phenomenon psychologists refer toas subjective validation, which is a fancy way of saying you are farmore vulnerable to suggestion when...

The Cognitive Surplus

Clay Shirky explains it:

cognitive surplus - Clay Shirky - Cognitive Surplus Clay Shirky - History - Facebook

Small Solutions To Big Problems

Rory Sutherland is mostly on point:

Rory Sutherland - Television - Advertising - Programmes - Father Ted

A Poem For Sunday

 If Homelessness Were Genetic

by Sean Spence.

If homelessness were genetic,

And mumble.

If homelessness were genetic

Girls with braces on their teeth

While dancing (slowly)

Meanwhile, upstairs, in the offices
Secretaries in long...

The Definition Of Free Will

Scott Adams coins a new one:

Suppose we define a creature to haveconsciousness and free will if it demonstrates the ability to use theexternal world to reprogram its own brain toward specific ends. By thisdefinition, reading a book in order to change one's mood or gain datawould be an example of both consciousness and free will. But a monkeyusing a stick as a tool to get bugs would be nothing more than eating.The monkey is not trying to become a smarter or happier monkey; he'sjust feeding his ...

Happy 4th

The Dish is actually going to take a brief breather this holiday weekend. But one small program note on this day, given the media debates of the last few weeks.

I believe the blogosphere first truly gained traction in America for a good reason. There is something about blogging's freedom from the constraints of conventional journalism that captures an American ideal: civic engagement totally free of anyone else's influence. It is an ideal of a fourth estate hostile to authorities public and p...