Assorted links

by  Tyler Cowen in

1. Bathroom breaks for Wimbledon (surprisingly complicated questions).

2. Eight-minute video on the cinema of Michael Bay.

3. The journalism of García Márquez.

4. Matt now has a blog-like entity on Vox.

5. How old were the Founding Fathers in 1776?

6. Jeremy Bentham’s scathing critique of the Declaration of Independence.

7. Zoo animals and their discontents.

Comments

Frank Somatra

Link 4 appears wrong

Brian Donohue

#4. Great link.

#6. OT. Gary Wills, In Lincoln at Gettysburg' argues persuasively that The Gettysburg Address represents the culmination of Lincoln's vision of elevating The Declaration and holding up its aspirational ideals as the key American founding document, in contrast to the compromised law of the land- i.e. the Constitution.

Brian Donohue

oops...not #4. #5 was a great link.

lloydr

#5 .... Betsy Ross was a Founding-Father ?

The young ages are much less notable when considering the average adult of that American period rarely lived to age 40.

Mark Thorson

That's average age, which is highly skewed by infant and child mortality. My sister became a Mormon and compiled a family geneaology. Nearly all of my ancestors from that time period lived past 70 and many lived past 80.

Apeman

Preach it. This is one misunderstanding of history that really bugs me. The idea that everyone's life was nasty and short back then has little bit of truth to it, but it is mostly myth.

Marie

+++++++++++++++++!!!!!!

prior_approval

Oddly, I've walked through several New England graveyards - anecdata of course - and most people buried in them during the later 1700s and early 1800s were nowhere near 70. It's quite noticeable, actually - at least when looking at gravestones in places like Salem/Marblehead/Swampscott/Peabody/Danvers/Lynn/Beverly.

Of course, looking at gravestones in a cemetary has its own problems with survivor bias.

mkt

Wills' book is great. I came across it in a library and read a good deal of it just standing there at the stacks, it was so interesting (and short).

I disagree about #5; I think it's a silly list. People like Madison, Monroe, and Hamilton were, as their ages imply, relative youngsters and played only small roles in the revolution. After the Revolutionary War, they were reaching their adult primes and played key roles in designing the constitution, serving in the cabinet, eventually becoming president, etc. But they were older at that point. In 1776 they were quite young, and played exactly the minor roles that one would expect. E.g. none of the youngsters in the first group signed the Declaration of Independence. IIRC Jefferson at age 33 was one of the younger members of the Continental Congress. IOW, the founding fathers were pretty much exactly the age that we'd expect the political leadership to be, with the youngsters among them playing junior roles during the early years of the revolution.

Whittemore on the other hand I had not known about and his story is splendid. Even so, the article says that he was wounded in an "early skirmish". According to wikipedia, Whittemore was fighting in the Battles of Lexington and Concord! "Early skrimish" indeed.

I don't know anything about the website that published that article, but their sense of history seems to be lacking.

Brian Donohue

Yeah, but chief author of the Declaration at age 33 is a prodigious accomplishment. I mean, they set the minimum for
President at 35.

And Hamilton in particular was Washington's right arm from early in the War. Overall, it was a pretty youthful group.

Tununak

#7: already covered in Creature Comforts.

anon

5. How old were the Founding Fathers in 1776?

One of the most significant and underrated of the Founding Fathers was 50 in 1776: George Mason

Dan

Link 4 was probably supposed to go here.

Dan Weber

Who is "Matt"? Matt Levine?

Michael B Sullivan

Matthew Yglesias

ummm

I wonder if it's possible to be a utilitarian conservative

Marie

I'll bite, why not?

The Other Jim

>(surprisingly complicated questions).

There are explicit rules governing bathroom breaks. How is this complicated?

David

A respectful submission to "sentences to ponder":

Meanwhile, at Guantánamo Bay, real-live detainees are now petitioning the court for the same personhood status as Hobby Lobby so that they too may exercise religious freedom. (Dahlia Lithwick)

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2014/07/wheaton_college_injunction_the_supreme_court_just_sneakily_reversed_itself.single.html

anon

While they are at it, maybe they could petition for green cards and citizenship.

Dan Weber

And the right to not be in Gitmo.

"Personhood status" tends to be a giant red flag that the person doesn't know what they are talking about.

y81

Lithwick went to law school. She's writing for the rubes, not for people who know anything. Personally, I think that her sort of intellectual dishonesty pollutes our civic discourse, but polluting our civic discourse is like defecating in a sewer at this point: it doesn't do much incremental harm.

(But maybe we should be worried about incremental, i.e. marginal, harm? Whatever.)

Marie

" think that her sort of intellectual dishonesty pollutes our civic discourse, but polluting our civic discourse is like defecating in a sewer at this point."

Hah!

chuck martel

Compare the ages of the founding fathers to those of the current crop of California politicos: http://nailheadtom.blogspot.com/2012/12/californias-most-prominent-politicians.html
Why are we electing people to run the show that can't hear us and fall asleep at the dinner table?

anon

Look at the ages and time in the House of the House of Reps leadership.

Marie

I thought that said the current crop of California potatoes. I was really eager to click on that link. I'm very disappointed.

rayward

6. Present but not voting. Bentham's concern about America's invasion of Canada is interesting. Of course, America didn't invade Canada, to the disappointment of many Americans. And not a few Canadians.

chuck martel

Sadly, the oppressed Canadians have suffered under the yoke of membership in the Commonwealth for the ensuing 238 years, being deprived of the freedoms that Americans enjoy and the satisfaction of offering up the lives of 600,000 plus in the War Between the States. Pity the poor Canadians.

y81

And they have undertaken many worthwhile initiatives in those 238 years.

mulp

Yep, Canadians really suffer from the socialized medicine with its rationing of healthcare, especially the two year wait Canadians must suffer for deathbeds. If only they had been liberates by the revolutionaries, they would get instant access to deathbeds and dies two years sooner like we do.

And to think, they are not creating wealth by paying increasing prices for the same vaccines as the economies of scale in manufacturing support ever higher and higher profits and the market power to buy and eliminate competitors.

Keith

No but they suffered much worse being led by English generals in World War 1.

dearieme

But they did invade Canada a couple of times later on. No doubt that is why Canada now has nuclear bombs in containers parked in all the major American cities.

jon livesey

And not a few Canadians? Presumably that's why Canadians say that their Thanksgiving is for not being part of the US.

Tom

#2 is a very nice piece of film criticism.

chuck martel

Neither the writer of the Declaration or Bentham brought up the fact that the Enlightenment rights didn't apply to the original occupants of the 13 colonies, who were regarded by them as vermin: http://nailheadtom.blogspot.com/2013/07/orders-of-george-washington-to-general.html

Art Deco

From Gen. Washington:

The Expedition you are appointed to command is to be directed against the hostile tribes of the Six Nations of Indians

==

Neither the writer of the Declaration or Bentham brought up the fact that the Enlightenment rights didn’t apply to the original occupants

I think you mean the aboriginal occupants who'd shoved out the previous set of aboriginal occupants.

--

You never stop lying, do you?

chuck martel

Gee, I bet that you'd be a little hostile if an alien force moved into your neighborhood. In fact, aren't you a little upset by the unarmed invasion of the US from south of the border even now? If "illegal immigrants" showed up and started burning your crops and houses and imprisoning your children, assuming that you've the capacity to procreate, would you welcome them with open arms? What are all those atomic weapons stored in various places around the world to be used for anyway?

Willitts

6. You can see the arrogance dripping from Bentham's pen. Sounds like most lawyers I know: 10-year olds with an advanced vocabulary.

andrew'

I do wonder if a personality disorder helps. Just about every lawyer ive ever talked to loved stupidass confrontation.

Brian Donohue

Amen to this. A sophist with a job to do.

bob

The young ages of the founders to me calls into question our current practice of institutionalizing people for the first 22 years of their lives, then leaving them with tens of thousands of dollars in debt. James Madison never went to school until he enrolled in Princeton.

andrew'

Michael Bay is the cinematic equivalent of a research fraud.

I like that he sometimes tries (the island, pain and gain). Try more.

andrew'

He should definitely be making blockbusters with brand cache. He just shouldnt be raping them. In a perfect world he'd be first ad for Chris Nolan.

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