9thdoctor

I agree it doesn't debunk Cialdini's message, I was just explaining why I don't seem to have finished it the first time around. This book has been recommended on this site quite a few times and I must have bought it (from Audible) some years ago after someone raved about it here. As I've said before, it's not a topic that normally turns me on. Obviously I'd completely forgotten the author's name etc. I went to buy it again, and Audible showed that it was already in my library. I started it back up and it picked up where I'd left off, in the part about the Genovese case. BTW, what's been debunked about that case is that no one called for help. There were multiple calls to the police, and they didn't respond. I'm still going through Pre-suasion now, and it's very engaging. His advice for handling a police interrogation has a nice punch-line to it.

Turns out I already had it (Influence). I stopped when I got to the part about the Genovese case; it's been debunked and it gets on my nerves when people reference it, so that's probably why I dropped it. I went ahead and finished the book, and am now taking in Presuasion, which I'm finding much more interesting.

I'm going to give it a whirl.

That's one of my all-time favorites. I'm a little confused though, the Flavians came before the Antonines, and Gibbon starts with the Antonines, chronologically speaking. Though I've seen Constantine's family referred to as Flavians too, sometimes, so maybe that's what you mean. Let me get this straight, Valliant's thesis is that Christianity was an invention (by the Roman state) in the era of Constantine (early to mid 300's) or the Flavians (around 70-100)? 70-100 would jibe chronologically, that was the era of the Gospels composition.

Have you read the book Presuasion by "Godzilla"? Adams sure thinks highly of him. It's not a topic I normally take much interest in.

Have you read Win Bigly yet? I found it worthwhile. Though on audiobook, with Adams reading...he comes across as "low energy".

I think it would be fair to say Hitler was opportunistic in his approach to gays. Jews too. There was a case, and I could probably look up the name easily, of a high ranking Nazi discovering he had Jewish roots, and this spawned the line (paraphrasing): we decide who is Jewish and who is not. Dinesh's statement would have been equally valid if he'd said Jews instead of gays. Absurd.

Well come on, get the ball across the goal line before spiking it and starting the victory dance.

Now he's on the shortlist for the next Darwin Awards.

No. You posted about how you'd wasted time in the past assembling "curated and carefully selected material", then criticized me for merely providing a Wikipedia link to back up the claim that Moses's historicity is "widely rejected today". And earlier you wrote " My recommendation is don't run from the truth. That will not lead you anywhere good. The Egyptians used slaves and lots of them to build. When Moses left Egypt, he took with him two and a half million Hebrew slaves. That's right. About 2.5 million. Let that number sink in." It looks like you're claiming the 2.5 million number is "truth". And that there was a Moses. I thought I could just chime in on that without derailing the thread. BTW even Joseph Campbell (you were reading him recently as I recall) thought the Exodus story had no basis in fact (ref one of his lectures from the early 80's (and how's that for a scholarly reference?)). We've probably done about an equal amount of reading on religion. I recommend the 2 books by Carrier because I'm confident you will find some new and valuable things in them. Funny thing about Valliant, this recalls what Peikoff said about Barbara's bio: "non-cognitive".

Coming on the heels of your post about not doing people's homework for them, this is pretty rich. I suggest Richard Carrier's books Proving History and On the Historicity of Jesus. Which aren't about Moses, though there's some discussion of the topic. No, I'm not interested in reading anything by Valliant.

This story made the rounds yesterday: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/10/19/transgender-wyoming-woman-convicted-sexually-assaulting-10-year-old-girl-in-bathroom.html I found the headline objectionable, however effective it was as click-bait. This didn't happen in a public bathroom, but in a private home. If it had happened in a closet would the headline have included that detail?

The historicity of Moses (and the Exodus) is widely rejected today. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses Which is tangential to your (valid) main point about slavery in the ancient world. But I hear they had free health care.

In the absence of evidence my mind keeps going back to the novel Black Sunday. That killer didn't have a manifesto, he just wanted to die while killing a lot of people. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sunday_(novel)

Did you have custody of the $100 starting day one? Did you actually pay the $95 at the end, or did you call your broker to have the position closed out? After which you're account balance was $5 higher.

This isn't a proper application of IRR. You may as well use IRR to calculate the return you earn when you're paid a salary. There is no investment going in. Shorting a stock means taking on a risk, but you don't have a cash outlay (beyond a nominal transaction cost).

It has arrived. It looks great. I stole a few minutes away from work to knock out the intros, but can't continue further now. On the last page of your intro underlining is misspelled as underling.

I waited until just after midnight to buy, so now it says I'll have it Friday. Amazon Prime is supposed to be 2 days. I'll let you know when it arrives.

Amazon says I can have it by Thursday. https://www.amazon.com/dp/1548486671/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1501030474&sr=8-3&keywords=barbara+branden I hate to ask, but is there an index? And was it proofed against the pagination? I, for one, really appreciate that you (and whoever else was involved) have made this available. Nathaniel's Vision of Ayn Rand too.

See the opening of her essay The Comprachicos. She translated a couple pages from The Man who Laughs there. That's obviously who I'm alluding to. Or rather, to what her critics often say. Eco never referred to Rand, not anywhere that I'm aware of. And by now I'd have come across it.

Discussions about Victor Hugo usually start with a comment by Gide who, when asked who was the greatest French poet, replied, "Hugo, hélas!" ("Hugo, alas!"). Anyone wanting to hit harder might go on to quote Cocteau: "Victor Hugo was a madman who believed he was Victor Hugo." Gide's lament meant many things, but now tends to be read as meaning Hugo (and perhaps, in particular, Hugo the narrator) is a great writer despite his innumerable defects, his bombast, his sometimes insufferable rhetoric. Cocteau's quip, however, is not quite correct: Victor Hugo was not a madman who believed he was Victor Hugo - Victor Hugo simply believed he was God, or at least his official interpreter. Umberto Eco, Hugo Hélas!: The Poetics of Excess; Inventing the Enemy p.97 Sound like a commentary on anyone else?

It's one of the all time greats. Seek out Joseph Campbell's talks on it. The recent contributions to this thread called this scene to mind.

I met Gary Hull in the mid-nineties. He was a presenter at a weekend conference I attended, it was a Lyceum one, which was Yaron Brook’s organization before he became head ARI honcho. Richard Salsman and Andy Bernstein were the other presenters. I vaguely recall meeting Yaron there (he wasn’t a known figure yet). There were upwards of a hundred attendees. I operated as something of a gadfly during the Q&A’s. I recall getting into a back and forth with Hull about the morality of violating laws. Particularly tax laws; that was the jumping off point. I made the case that it was immoral because it’s imprudent, and went on to something along the lines of a Categorical Imperative type formulation. I can’t recall the logical structure of his rebuttal, but he sharply disagreed and (naturally) got the last word. Reading about his recent troubles now…ironic is the word that comes to mind. From my limited interactions with him (which included some one on one chats during break periods) I certainly liked the guy. So I’m not gloating. I followed the links and there isn’t much information to be gleaned. Just that he was arrested in Missouri for identity theft and for being wanted in another state. The mugshot is definitely him (Cline casts doubt, but there’s no doubt in my mind). Did he get out? Can't tell. By now, probably. I did some Googling and found his Rate My Professor page. There is some amusement to be found there: http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=276534 Imagine the students he flunked reveling in schadenfreude.

I suspect the OP was composed by atlashead's alter ego: Pot-Head. And it being Sunday morning, I say why not? Share your hipiphany here, there, and everywhere. Note to PH, if you want to get a post deleted, the simplest method is to direct vulgar abuse towards the site's owner. Otherwise the worst that's liable to happen to your contribution is that it'll get moved to the Garbage Pile.

Alas, it had to happen sometime. 102 years old. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/07/arts/irwin-corey-comedian-and-foremost-authority-dies-at-102.html?_r=0