Flushing out questions / notes in advance of interviews.

My interviews are extremely informal. You don’t need to prep anything. Please interrupt me. We don’t need to stick to any outline. We can talk about whatever you want. If I ask a question you don’t want to answer, no problem. We can talk as long or as briefly as you want. I’ve done 15 minutes, I’ve done 3.5 hours. It’s completely up to you. We can cut whatever parts of the recording you want, just let me know.

That said, people ask me for outlines of what I want to talk about, so hopefully this page serves that function. A rough sketch of my thoughts / questions I’ll probably ask.

Next Time, w/ Chris Hoover

  • Jay pushing back on ~”billionaires don’t bother me. I would be wrong for me to take the money they’ve earned by force (taxes). I haven’t earned it.”
  • We both agree the Elysium universe is unethical? It’s slavery, right? Which is wrong? If not UBI / minimum wages / socialized medicine/food/health care, what solution do you propose?
  • Jay thinks affirmative action is a necessary evil in some cases. Chris thinks it’s always racism? Walter Williams: Suffer No Fools says Jay is wrong. And Jay feels very uncomfortable disagreeing with an African American on this topic. :) According to Walter, affirmative action has been doing more harm than good since 1965.
  • Jay is driven by population statistics (Utilitarianism). Chris is driven by individual rights? Isn’t that a priviledged perspective of those who have managed to make it thinking everyone else should be able to as well?
  • Biden scares Chris like Trump scares Jay? Talk me through that.

Brexit, Finland doesn’t exist w/ Daniel Bougourd

Uncivil Disobedience

HI-PHI NATION S3E8 Uncivil Disobedience

In Australia, vegan and animal liberation activism has recently become intense and disruptive, invading farms, restaurants, and city centers. They’re doing everything from rescuing animals to blocking traffic, and occupying steakhouses. Some argue that these new activists are needlessly victimizing innocent farmers, business owners, and consumers. Others argue that the activists are only doing what’s necessary to stand up for the innocent victims of farmers, business owners, and consumers.

Nick: Listened to the Hi-Phi pidcast. And boy do I not like Peter Singer now. Jay: oh? oooo can I interview you about that for Jay Flaunts His Ignorance? I’ll need to re-listen to it I need a transcript so I can jump to the Singer bits ah. 39:40 this would make a great episode – you and me talking through this Nick: Woof, idk if I’ve got the gumption to critique Singer on a public forum, haha I can’t really articulate my counterargument at the moment. Beyond not liking his materialism. I feel like I’d need to do a lot of research and thinking before I’d feel comfortable offering a public comment, and I don’t have the capacity for that atm Jay: ah. Flaunting My Ignorance is my brand, so prep sounds like work. no way José!! 😉 Nick: Hahaha, it is in the name of the podcast. But, for my part (and this Academia Nick talking), I don’t think I’d be comfortable deconstructing philosophical ideas that I’m not yet fluent in. Once I learn more about nonviolence, noncooperation, and also once I have more solidified theories about the applications of postmodernism to the anticapitalist struggle (I took great umbrage with Singer’s analysis that animal exploitation occurs within a Soviet context), I’d feel more confident to speak about the topic.

The Problem of Evil

I love the Drunk Ex-Pastors podcast. I’m extremely happy that in episode #30 at 1h 5m Christian gets angry about God sending people to hell. This outrage was entirely missing from episode #29 at 28m when you listened to what Stephen Fry would say to God if he met him. Stephen Fry’s angry “how dare you” challenge to God is exactly what I would say to God. Did you listen to the atrocities of nature Stephen Fry listed? Did you think about those? If God exists then it seems to me that anger is exactly the correct response to the suffering of millions of innocent people.

Lucky for me I’m an atheist, so there is no God. So… problem solved.

Love the podcast. Thanks guys, keep it up. :)

Update: In #32 at 56m they play, respond to the voicemail I left them (above). They straw-manned me a bit, but I appreciate them taking a stab at it. :) I should probably find someone to talk through my actual position on this topic…

Friedman v. Steel - Nebraska Open Records Case

Bruce Friedman is a 25 year IT veteran, primarily in infrastructure engineering and architecture. Also a father of 9, an avid proponent of open records, and a person who is patently interested in whatever the data shows, the data shows.

Bruce’s Dropbox includes “This whole process started over 4 years ago for me.docx”