prior probability

Casablanca, meet The Killers! The original Blade Runner movie (circa 1982), one of my all-time favorite films, was set in November 2019. (Shout out to my colleague and friend Daniel Nina for introducing me to this classic film so many years ago.) Enjoy!

Why do the wealthy get so many breaks from criminal prosecution? The only persons charged in the murder of law professor Dan Markel are two Hispanics and an Asian woman (pictured on the bottom row below), but according to this report in the Tallahasee Democrat:

“Prosecutors say Markel was killed as part of a murder-for-hire plot orchestrated by the family of his ex-wife Wendi Adelson. Her brother and mother, Charlie and Donna Adelson, have been implicated but not arrested in connection with the Florida State law professor’s broad daylight shooting in his Trescott Drive garage. Markel was found on July 18, 2014, with two gunshot wounds to the head and died the next day.”

What if humans were allowed to sell their blood to vampires? Would vampire slayers become extinct? I consider those questions and more in my 2014 essay “Buy or Bite?” and in this Freakonomics Radio podcast. (Here is a full list of vampire movies and TV series on Netflix, but to my knowledge, none of these pop culture classics explore vampire markets or the legalization of blood sales.)

“Do you want to be known for your writing, or for your swift email responses?” Whether you are a busy student or full-fledged academic, a start-up entrepreneur or the CEO of a Fortune 500 firm, it is essential to “just say no” to daily distractions like TV, social media, email, and other time-sucking activities. (Or at least cut down on these soul-destroying time thieves.) Or in the words of the late great Steve Jobs: “People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I’m actually as proud of the things we haven’t done as the things I have done. Innovation is saying no to 1,000 things.” Additional thoughts on the virtues of saying “no” are available here.

If so, which one? Early Wittgenstein or Late Wittgenstein or both! Two philosophers discuss these questions here, while the main case against both Wittgensteins is presented in summary fashion here. (Here is one morsel: “Wittgenstein’s reputation for genius did not depend on [his] incomprehensibility alone.”) On another note, below is a picture of Wittgenstein’s remote cabin in Norway (via Cabin Porn), where the great philosopher would spend his sabbaticals alone thinking important thoughts. Double hat tip: Brian Leiter.

Photo credit: Jon Bolstad

Was the U.S. military raid against ISIS strongman Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi illegal? After all, Congress has not authorized the use of force in Syria nor declared war against ISIS. By comparison, what if a Mexican drug cartel or an Iranian mullah ordered a hit against the president?

When poor people break the rules, overzealous prosecutors and judges throw the book at them, but when wealthy people commit even worse misdeeds, they get the proverbial slap on he wrist. What kind of bullshit justice is that?

Guess who served only 11 days …

This is what we will be viewing over the weekend; more details about this documentary are available here, via NPR.

Have you read David Leonhardt’s exposé in the N.Y. Times “The Rich Really Do Pay Lower Taxes Than You“? According to Mr Leonhardt: “For the first time on record, the 400 wealthiest Americans last year paid a lower total tax rate–spanning federal, state, and local taxes–than any other income group ….” What this selective quotation does not tell you, however, is that the overall tax rate on the richest 400 households last year was “only” 23 percent and that the top 1% paid the highest total tax rate (between 29 and 30 percent)! So, why not get rid of all taxes and replace our current complicated and convoluted system with a “single tax“? (In case you are wondering, here is a list of the 400 wealthiest Americans.)