Jimmy Carter On Losing His Religion

The Article: Losing my religion for equality by Jimmy Carter in The Age.

The Text: I HAVE been a practising Christian all my life and a deacon and Bible teacher for many years. My faith is a source of strength and comfort to me, as religious beliefs are to hundreds of millions of people around the world. So my decision to sever my ties with the Southern Baptist Convention, after six decades, was painful and difficult. It was, however, an unavoidable decision when the convention’s leaders, quoting a few carefully selected Bible verses and claiming that Eve was created second to Adam and was responsible for original sin, ordained that women must be “subservient” to their husbands and prohibited from serving as deacons, pastors or chaplains in the military service.

This view that women are somehow inferior to men is not restricted to one religion or belief. Women are prevented from playing a full and equal role in many faiths. Nor, tragically, does its influence stop at the walls of the church, mosque, synagogue or temple. This discrimination, unjustifiably attributed to a Higher Authority, has provided a reason or excuse for the deprivation of women’s equal rights across the world for centuries.

At its most repugnant, the belief that women must be subjugated to the wishes of men excuses slavery, violence, forced prostitution, genital mutilation and national laws that omit rape as a crime. But it also costs many millions of girls and women control over their own bodies and lives, and continues to deny them fair access to education, health, employment and influence within their own communities.

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Noam Chomsky On Ron Paul’s “Savagery”

A man in a coma dies because he doesn’t have health insurance and that’s a tribute to our liberty? Only in Ron Paul’s version of reality.

Bush, Obama, And Benghazi Hypocrisy

Because all of a sudden, the GOP gives a shit about our actions abroad.

How Game Theory Explains DC Gridlock

The Article: How Game Theory Explains Washington’s Horrible Gridlock by Mohamed A. El-Erian in The Atlantic.

The Text: Again and again while trying to understand the fiscal machinations of Congress, I find myself referring to a simple analytical approach acquired at university: game theory. The construct, popular among economists, sheds light both on what has happened in Washington and on how the bargaining power of its negotiating parties may evolve over time. And it points to less-than-reassuring prospects if the overriding objective is — as, certainly, it should be — to improve America’s economic outlook in a meaningfully and sustainable manner in the years ahead.

An important aspect of game theory sets out conditions under which negotiating parties end up cooperating well, and why they fail to do so. It does so based on analyzing what drives individuals in the majority of bargaining situations: incentives, access to information, initial power conditions, the extent of mutual trust, and accountability enforcement.

This intuitive framework provides immediate insights into why members of Congress find it so difficult to come up with a coherent fiscal approach — or, indeed, a coherent approach on virtually anything. Simply put, good cooperative outcomes are unlikely to emerge when, as is the case on today’s Capitol Hill, individual and collective incentives are misaligned, access to information is asymmetrical, relative power is fluid, each party doubts that the other will deliver on their commitments, and there is no way to enforce credibility.

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Bertrand Russell On Why He’s Not A Christian

Well said: “[Christians] could probably find a common morality if they dropped this irrational, traditional taboo morality that comes down from savage ages…what is imposed upon you from outside doesn’t matter. It doesn’t count.”