OK. Never mind that refering to our parents as "retarded" and "almost another species" (based on small and likely statistically insignificant differences in IQ tests that are not consistent across time anyway) and describing our relationship as an "intergenerational war" is frighteningly similar to the rhetoric used to justify racism, sexism, and NAZI'ism (why Stef has such a blind spot for his naked hatred for parents in general, I don't know...it's like Hitler saying, "I don't 'hate' Jews, I just want to help them get to heaven"), but the evidence of the Flynn effect falls far short of the claims Stef was making, and Flynn himslef would argue against them. Furthermoe, IQ is not like the Richter scale, 110 is not ten times smarter than 100. I have been repeatedly tested for IQ, I was a member of my college chapter of MENSA. The result has varied from 134 to 138. Does that mean I was 4 orders of magnitude smarter when I got the 138 than when I scored 134? This is straight out of "Bell Curve," and then, for christ sake, TV sitcoms? How stupid does he think his listeners are?

More later. But man, I was blown away by the underwhelmingness of it...

You listen because..?

It's fun for me. I take a perverse joy in being irritated. What can I say?

What are you looking for there - truth? happiness? philosophy? Makes no sense. But I think I can remember the feeling. When I was splitting with my 1st wife - it was so very hard to let go. I knew she must go, but I kept calling her back, and that went on and on, and I ended up wasting so much time of my life I'll never get back.

I would recommend switching to some other podcast, there's a bunch of them out there.

Yeah, yeah. You're probably right, but I guess the more I listen, the more sure I become that he's really lost his marbles. Still, sometimes I hope to pry a little nugget of truth or value from Stef's ranting. But mostly, it's a morbid fascination, like watching a train wreck in slow motion.

And, BTW, I have been surveying the vast assortment of other podcasts on philosophy, Austrian economics and current events. I'm impressed with the Complete Liberty Podcast, which is really an audio book divided up into chapters and published through iTunes as a podcast. Check it out. It's a good one, especially as a reference or introduction for the uninitiated, though it's so well written that it's a joy for even longtime anarcho-capitalists.

Also, time permitting, I'm working on producing some of my own podcasts, that might be offered via LM, either through the "Output" sub-forum or through a seperate area for AV content (if Conrad likes 'em enough ).

I got a new iPod, and even though I can finnegal downloading and listening to them, I don't and wont have any on this new machine. It's a step in the right direction.