Daily Archives: June 30, 2009

Principled Stands on Abortion 1

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Follow this link to the letter that Joseph Girard wrote to the editor of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette. They headlined the letter with the title, “Pro-life is about human rights”

Follow this link to the letter to the editor that I wrote in response or read below.

I applaud a letter writer from Worcester who takes a principled stand without exception for the human rights of the fetus (Telegram & Gazette, June 22). I presume that he would also stand by the principle, without exception, for the human rights of women.

What I would like the antiabortionists to explain is how they remain true to both principles, without exception, when there is a conflict between the two. Clearly an exception has to be made on one or both principles.

Only when antiabortionists recognize this conflict can there be any point in having a discussion.

Follow this link to the Dianne Williamson column titled, “Another rigor of priesthood ends in scandal” . This is the one that Joseph Girard says prompted his letter.

Paul Samuelson Interview in The Atlantic

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On 17 June 2009, Coner Clarke (The Atlantic) posted a two-part interview with famed 1970 Nobel economist, Paul Samuelson.  Samuelson is one of the people that brought Keynesian economics to US undergraduates for a number of decades through the many editions of his introductory text, Economics.  Furthermore, he led the march to mathematical economics, initially through his Harvard PhD dissertation (published in 1947 as a book), Foundations of Economic Analysis.

At 94, he remains as sharp, witty, sarcastic, and (at times) obscure as when I took his doctoral course in 1979.

Here are the links to Part 1 and Part 2 of the interview.

He believes that many of today’s “younger” economists lost sight of Keynes’s intuitions until the current financial crisis brought them to the fore.