Illusions and personal decision-making

Behavioral economist Dan Ariely uses classic visual illusions and his own research to show that we are often not in personal control of our own-decision-making. Outside factors often compel our decisions, even though we always insist that we are always in control or our choices. The organ donation and ibuprophen examples are phenomenal. He also advocates a method for bar-hopping. Fun-filled and educational talk. The serious message is that we need to understand our vulnerabilities as "rational" people and then build our way around these vulnerabilities. This talk thus has implications for those who believe whole-heartedly in free will.

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Meet the founder of Conservapedia

Stephen Colbert recently interviewed Andy Schlafly, founder of Conservapedia. Learn how Jesus was a big free-market advocate:

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Andy Schlafly
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full EpisodesPolitical HumorU.S. Speedskating
What's really amazing is that Schlafly doesn't seem to realize that he has just been publicly crowned as a huge fool by Colbert. Schlafly lives in a tiny world where it doesn't bother him to portray his site as a "Wiki" even though it is heavily censored, as shown by his refusal to answer Colbert's serious line of questions.

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A proposed media shield law protects bloggers like Ben Franklin and Thomas Paine

The Senate Judiciary Committee has approved its version of a "media shield law," designed to protect the confidential sources of journalists. The law now moves to the full Senate, and it would need to be reconciled with a similar bill in the House before being presented to Barack Obama. The passage of a media shield bill is critically important, in that the threat of imprisonment for refusal to comply with subpoenas discourages journalists from covering numerous serious issues. According to Huffpo, the bill not only protects full time journalists, but "uses a broad definition of journalists by including bloggers, citizen journalists and freelancers." According to the Examiner,

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) endorsed the "carefully crafted" bill's inclusion of bloggers, and hailed Benjamin Franklin for his "anonymous blogs" that explained "the reasons why this country should exist." Pamphleteer Thomas Paine likewise got a few mentions as the senators debated whether to define a journalist as someone employed by a mainstream organization.
The protection allowed by this version of the bill are not absolute; they can be overridden:
With the exception of national security cases, the bill establishes a balancing test to determine whether a reporter must reveal their source. A federal judge would weigh the public's right to know versus national security claims made by the government.
The burden of proof depends on whether the case from which the subpoena is issued is a criminal case or a civil case. In criminal cases, the journalist would have to show that guarding the anonymity of sources is in the public interest. In non-criminal cases, the government bears the burden of showing that disclosure of a confidential source outweighs the public interest in news-gathering. I was elated to see that bloggers and citizen journalists are being considered for this protection, especially given the fact that so much important information being published these days is by people who are not full-time professional journalists. And see here for an illustration of the problem with mainstream" journalists." For a related post, see these three short videos featuring John Nichols and Robert McChesney, the founders of Free Press (from the 2008 National Conference for Media Reform), discussing the role of citizen journalists, among many other important media reform topics).

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Aggressive journalists desperately needed.

Glenn Greenwald asks why there aren't more journalists willing to conduct hardball interviews of politically powerful guests. What he has in mind is the kind of interrogation Rachel Maddow expertly conducted with an anti-gay blowhard. Greenwald sets forth the particular strategies that made Maddow's interview effective. For example, where the guests opinions are not entitled to respect and deference, don't give any. Key quote:

Just imagine how much better things could be if our political leaders were routinely subjected to the kind of surgically probing, lie-exposing interrogation which Rachel imposed on her homosexual-converter guest. But the reasons they almost never are speak volumes about our media stars and their true function.

Continue ReadingAggressive journalists desperately needed.