On 1984 and Brave New World

 "What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one." - Neil Postman

The witch hunters are banning books; a drugged-up, hyper-entertained Idiocracy will render them unwanted.

Some Poor Realities

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/10/02/business/how-health-care-affects-income.html

The income estimates do not include unreported income, prevalent at the low and high ends of the scale. It also skips the value of services provided to our 2 million prisoners. By the way, the CBO is now basing its income estimates on the methodology exemplified in the graph. But, by including Medicare and Medicaid benefits as income, it completely alters the picture of inequality--and pushes the real working class to the bottom of the income pyramid.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/11/opinion/americas-ineffective-antipoverty-effort.html

A Republican doing what Republicans do not like to do: thinking seriously about reform of the welfare state, rather than wallowing in the idealistic rhetoric of abolition. The crux of his argument: "We can start by measuring outcomes (results) rather than inputs (how much money can we throw at the problem). Our effectiveness should be assessed, in part, by the per-person cost of moving individuals from dependency to self-sufficiency."

Mad Monstrosities

A book review/essay after my own taste (and talent)--though I think old Posner would have done well to make mention of Zamyatin's "We", an embarassing omission:

http://www.powells.com/review/2003_09_18

The piece is more about the possible forms and causes of a future dystopia than the novel "Oryx and Crake." It also presents spoilers about that worthy novel. He considers several variations on the theme The Extinction of Humanity by Technology. This theme is reconsidered in more detail in his later book "Catastrophe," which was reasonably good and also discussed some possible natural catastrophes. On this subject, Posner knows what he is talking about and the linked essay is definitely worth reading for all and sundry.