Winston Smith, the Philosoraptor, posts a lovely little essay pointing out that the Bush Administration’s well-known contempt for scientific fact and its equally well-known willingness to invent “intelligence” to support its foreign policies are actually two instances of the same phenomenon, which the Pilosoraptor calls “Lysenkoism.” The essay is well worth a read, and Philosoraptor makes a nice ornament for any blogroll.
[I must confess to some literary jealousy here. I have long treasured the ambition of using “Eric Blair” as a pseudonym, but it never would have occurred to me to use “Winston Smith.”]
Author: Mark Kleiman
Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out.
Books:
Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken)
When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist
Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993)
Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989)
UCLA Homepage
Curriculum Vitae
Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com
View all posts by Mark Kleiman