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Nukes? Climate Change? Love 'Em to Death
Newsweek scribe lists a few issues pundits may misunderstand
By Drew Nelles
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Posted Apr 5, 09 6:15 PM CDT
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(Newser)
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Few so-called experts predicted the subprime meltdown or the September 11 attacks, Jacob Weisberg writes in Newsweek—so what else might the pundits be wrong about?
- Nukes are bad: An influential political scientist “argues that possessing nukes induces restraint and caution, causing irresponsible regimes to behave more responsibly.”
- Climate change = Armageddon: “Carbon emissions could make the earth more fertile and prevent harm from global cooling, which isn't caused by humans.”
- China’s rulers aren’t going anywhere: Rising standards of living, which China is seeing now, “tend to produce political discontent and have driven the democratic change throughout most of the rest of East Asia.”
- Homeownership is good: Owning a home “diminishes labor-market mobility. It encourages longer commutes. And at least one study says it makes you fat and unhappy.”
For more attacks on conventional wisdom, click the link below.