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173Movie Review of: Temple GrandinLiberty 1. 2011.In this essay, I review an extraordinary bio flick, Temple Grandin. Temple Grandin is a professor of animal science, and to achieve her distinguished career she had to deal with her autism. The film explores what it is to suffer this disease, but it also explores her extraordinary work involving making slaughterhouses more humane.
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169Book review of: P. Kitcher, Abusing Science: The Case Against Creationism (review)California Review (November). 1985.
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168Book review of: H. Johns and P. Omerod, Happiness, Economics, and Public Policy (review)The Independent Review 14 (3): 458-460. 2010.
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166Book review of: M. Schagrin, R. Dipert, and W. Rapaport, Logic: A Computer Approach (review)Philosophia 17 (4): 557-558. 1987.
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162Book review of: F. Schauer, Profile, Probabilities, and Stereotypes (review)Academic Questions 17 (2): 80-84. 2004.
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154Book review of: A. Grunbaum, The Foundations of Psychoanalysis (review)California Review (June). 1985.
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151Fighting Fire With Fire I: Using Film to Counter Film PropagandaPropaganda: Journal of Communication Studies 3 (1): 49-67. 2023.In this article, I explore how efficacious film can be in countering propaganda in film. To set up the discussion, I first sketch out a simple theory of propaganda, under which propaganda can be ranked from completely rational to very irrational, on six different dimensions. These are the degrees to which the propaganda is: evidence-based; truthful; broadly logical; transparent; properly targeted; and transparent. I then review in detail the main propaganda film, Gasland. This film was a highl…Read more
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150Book review of: W. Smith, A Rat is a Pig is a Dog is a Boy: The Human Cost of the Animal Rights Movement (review)Liberty (September): 47-48. 2010.
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139Erotetic Logic as a Specification Language for Database QueriesDissertation, Kansas State University. 1987.
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138Movie review of: The CartelLiberty 44-45. 2010.This essay is my review of Bob Bowden’s excellent documentary The Cartel. It is a powerful indictment of public schools and public school teachers’ unions. In a crucial part of the film, we see minority parents at a charter school lottery. Charter schools, like voucher private schools, give parents school choice—although charter schools are public schools technically, but run fairly independently. They are so popular, and the school districts allow so few of them, that parents must apply by lott…Read more
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132Movie review of Cool ItLiberty 11. 2010.This essay is my review of Bjorn Lomborg’s delightful documentary film Cool It. Lomborg believes that there is indeed anthropogenic global warming, but that it doesn’t constitute the grave and imminent threat to humanity that people such as Al Gore think it does. The focus of the documentary is the refutation of Al Gore’s award-winning film (An Inconvenient Truth). But Lomborg also puts the focus on how best to use scarce resources to help humanity.
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131Book review of: C. Robinson, Arthur Seldon: A Life for Liberty (review)Liberty (November): 42-43. 2009.
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126Fighting Fire with Fire II; Countering Film Propaganda with Video PodcastingPropaganda: Journal of Communication Studies 3 (2): 95-123. 2023.In a prior article for this journal (Jason 2023), I explored the effectiveness of using film to counter propaganda in film. In this piece, I want to explore the use of video podcasts to counter propaganda in film. I begin by summarizing the theory of propaganda I am introduced earlier, by which propaganda can be reasonable or deceptive on six different scales. I then summarize the 2022 Netflix documentary series Meltdown, about the accident at the nuclear power …Read more
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125Movie review of: GoodLiberty 11. 2010.In this essay, I review the movie Good. Good tells the story of the moral corruption of its protagonist, a writer, who is seduced by blandishments and material rewards given to him by the Nazi regime. It is a nice illustration of corruption—the degradation of character wrought by the desire for wealth and fame—what Aristotle would call “pleonexia.”
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108Book review of: O. Gersemann, Cowboy Capitalism: European Myths, American Reality (review)Liberty (August): 37-41. 2005.This essay is my review of Olaf Gersemann’s book, Cowboy Capitalism: European Myths, American Reality. Gersemann was a reporter for Germany’s largest business weekly magazine, and he came to America to write an expose of the weakness of the American economy. What he found instead—and argued in detail—is that the American economy was robust, for better off than commonly believed in Europe. I finish the review by pointing out some things he overlooked, such as the fact that the U.S. has paid and c…Read more
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99Moderating Racism: The Attempt to Restrain Anti-Japanese Racism in World War II Propaganda FilmsReason Papers 44 (1): 92-106. 2024.In this essay, I want to explore one of the most ironic episodes in the history of propaganda, the attempt by various federal agencies to moderate American WWII anti-Japanese propaganda films. My texts will be four films, two produced by the military, and two by Hollywood: December 7th (1943), directed by Gregg Toland and revised by John Ford; Air Force (1943), directed Howard Hawks; Know Your Enemy: Japan (1945), directed by Frank Capra; and Betrayal for the East (1945), directed by William Ber…Read more
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98Book review of: J. Simon, A Life Against the Grain: The Autobiography of an Unconventional Economist (review)Liberty (September): 46-50. 2004.
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39Book review of: D. N. Walton, Logical Dialogue-Games and Fallacies (review)Philosophia 17 (1): 97-99. 1987.
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29The Critical Thinking BookBroadview Press. 2022._The Critical Thinking Book_ covers not only standard topics such as definitions, fallacies, and argument identification, but also other pertinent themes such as consumer choice in a market economy and political choice in a representative democracy. Interesting historical asides are included throughout, as are images, diagrams, and reflective questions. A wealth of exercises is provided, both within the text and on a supplemental website for instructors. The author also offers additional exercis…Read more
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20Debating brain drain: May governments restrict emigration? Gillian Brock and Michael Blake new York: Oxford university press, 2015; 304 pp.; 24.95 (review)Dialogue 56 (1): 196-198. 2017.