Re: Raising Kids in Cages

Jamie — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 17:47:40 -0000

I think that your point is right to a certain extent. But there needs to be gradations of exposure, at the children's different maturity levels, and that has to be subject to the parents' judgment. For example, my 14 year old may be ready to rebut the polygamist's argument with some basic concepts about the benefits of monogamy, but I would rather not put my 8 year old in that situation.
Every kid gets released into the real world eventually, so it's really just a matter of the kids getting exposed sooner or later, and the parents have to decide when is too soon.

Re: What’s Wrong With Energy Independence? David Henderson’s Glad You Asked.

Jamie — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 23:38:53 -0000

Yes, 'energy independence' is a silly concept.
The correct way to think about oil and geopolitics is 'pricing'. High oil prices prop up the Russian, Venezuelan, Iranian and Saudi regimes. If the US were to substantially lower its oil consumption, the global price of oil would drop (we are seeing a temporary version of this thesis now due to the global economic situation). In that case, those regimes would have to make changes in order to deal with substantially lower oil revenues.
Now, I am not one that thinks we'd get a Saudi democracy with lower oil prices. Syria, Egypt and Pakstan do not have substantial oil reserves, and they're hardly models of Jeffersonian constitutionalism. But there is a respectable foreign policy school of thought that says permanent lower oil prices=reforms in Russia, Saudi Arabia, makes the Iranian mullahs look less beneficient, etc. If a cut in US oil consumption could reach that goal (assuming that Chinese/Indian growth does not overwhelm any cut in US oil consumption) then there is a foreign policy case for decreasing our oil consumption.

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Re: Raising Kids in Cages

Re: What’s Wrong With Energy Independence? David Henderson’s Glad You Asked.