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From: pennsays
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  • Didn't agree with Penn on everything, but I sure do miss him all these months later, since he's quit posting via Crackle. Most other vloggers are much more predictable. So I'll so the Shane bit - Penn - come back, Penn!

  • Spam? Usually Penn Jillette's videos are spammed by his publicist and fanboys. Anti-Semitic? Decrying apartheid/genocide committed by Israeli Zionist fanatics paid for by cynical US politicians/Big Oil has nothing to do with Jews. "We have to find a stronger word than 'atrocity' to describe what Israel is doing to the Palestinians." -- Noam Chomsky. AIPAC owns US media, but their idiot propaganda that critic of Israel = Nazi, once deeply ingrained in American culture, is fading fast.

  • Okay, what the hell. Someone's spammed the thumbs and the comment feed with mad anti-Semitic rhetoric. On a Penn Says video?

  • I'd always heard it that for long stretches of European history, into the 19th century in places, usury was so broadly defined that most of those we'd today call "venture capitalists" would be guilty, but it was considered a "blue law," so only Christians could be charged, leaving Jews to fill the niche, leaving many of them already raised into white-collar environments going into the industrial revolution.

  • Outliers? Unintended consequences? Reminds me of "The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable" by Nassim Nicholas Taleb.

  • I never liked unnecessary pride in things you couldn't have controlled, like the city you were born and raised in or the country you live in. Excessive patriotism just seems silly to me. But when you live in a culture that accommodates the straight, white man and his rights, a sense of pride in your race, gender and sexuality is necessary in order to earn that same social equality.

  • Freakonomics and SUPERFreakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner is all about those unintended consequences and its great, i highly recommend it.

  • CurtHowland is exactly correct. I agree with him almost 100%. Sadly, Youtube has this retarded policy of not letting your add your ranking to every comment. "Please wait to vote again for a few minutes". There is no valid reason for this idiotic policy, except that they want to cripple feedback, and waste the willingness of their users to use their product. Nothing is stupider than this policy.

    If I made an online product, and people wanted to use it, I'd LET THEM USE IT. Duhhr.

  • "Unintended Consequences" by John Ross.

    An awesome page-turner with plenty of little factoids for the people who don't want to live in a police state.

  • @Ebbonified The book Penn is reading, though, is called Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell.

  • Penn, please pick up the two best novels about realistic rebellion in our time, and read them, and give us your opinions on them. I can't recommend "Unintended Consequences" by John Ross, highly enough. (His essay "How Drug Laws Hurt Gun Owners" is also amazing, from "The New Prohibition" ed Bill Masters, also from Accurate Press). Also, read "Molon Labe" by Boston T. Party (violent rebellion that contains political synergy and "anarcho-zionism" or Free State Project ideas as well) 9072505503

  • @libertarianjury I'm not Penn, I just help out with the comments.

  • The "unintended consequences" of someone's 'brilliant' idea to limit children's computer time to only an hour a day, has/will resulted in many other countries' children passing us in technology.

  • Glad to know I'm not the only one that thinks this

  • @websuspect

    First you say you can't be a Jew and an Athiest. And in the next sentence you imply you can be by saying "if you are then you are also ..."

    What is it like being retarded?

  • NFL, NBA , Olympic team....unintended consequences

  • The story of Jewish immigration is more complicated than that. Every immigrant group "specialized." Jews became garment workers the way the Irish became cops and firemen.

    But the Irish cop expected his sons  to become cops. The Jewish garment worker wanted his sons to become doctors or lawyers.

    In the old country everyone followed his father's profession. So it wasn't an idea that Jews brought with them.

    It had to do with the way Jewish immigrants embraced the American Dream.

  • Israel has been committing apartheid/genocide against the Palestinians for the past 60 years. The US has funded it this atrocity in the hundreds of billions, and continues to day by day.

    Crying "holocaust" and "anti-semite" at humanitarians wanting the madness to stop is Israel's and US Zionists response, as if the death of Jews slaughtered in the holocaust justifies Palestinians slaughtered by the Israeli army with US weapons.

  • Israel is a US subsidiary, paid for in the hundreds of billions in US tax dollars and unlimited military support. Without Mideast oil there would be no Israel -- US oil interests use fanatical Zionist fairytales of INVISIBLE RACIST CLOUD FATHER promising the ancestors of European Jews thousands of years ago the desert east of the Mediterranean, in order to gain a military outpost from which to take over Arab oil. Obama's running the same war Bush -- just talks a different game while killing.

  • Zionist media yells "Islamofascist" & "Scientologist" 24/7. Never criticizes Israel's Zionist fanatical government committing apartheid/genocide against the Palestinians. Humanitarian Jews everywhere including Noam Chomsky, Tony Judt, Sir Gerald Kaufman, as well as Amnesty International have condemned Israel for war crimes. They've been smeared by usual Zionist kneejerk accusation of "antisemite" and "self-loathing Jew," exploiting the memory of the holocaust to justify Palestinian genocide.

  • @mmmrazor noam chomsky? don't make me laugh.if hamas would stop the killing so would israel.it is all hamas' fault even a five year old palestinian girl knows this.hamas is to blame.

  • @mmmrazor ..."Scientologist"?

  • Comment removed

  • Beware of this man telling you to lose your culture, attacking it as worthless. All you will have left to fill the void is the empty garbage of American pop culture, as concocted by the Zionists who own Hollywood, television, newspapers, magazines, book publishing, banking, Wall Street and the White House.

    Keep your culture. Keep what is authentic in your life. Let fat fuck shills like this preach to the wind.

  • you're the type of person who doesn't want anything to change, by yelling ZIONISTS!!! you're just pushing people away from your bullshit propaganda.

    Just know that anti-semites always bite the bullet at some point, and as pop culture goes no one on earth has it locked down like america does..We are the entertainment industry just like china is world's manufacturer industry. People like you hear shit online and think it's true, I bet if you where just a bit more dumb you'd be scared of reptilians

  • I was hoping Penn had finally read the book "Unintended Consequences" by John Ross. (The one from Accurate Press, not the communist book by the same name, same author name...)

  • "You're going to get unintended consequences up the ass."

    That's so precious.

  • Why can't people just respect love of learning on its own merit?

  • There is no rational justification for Zionism, so its defenders never even try to offer one. They simply attack any who decry the suffering of maimed and killed Palestinian children, victims of Zionist atrocity. Zionism = Racism and Genocide and looting of US taxpayers' pockets.

    Penn Jillette claims to be a militant atheist, but like other loud tele-atheists on Zionist US Mainstream Media, he is a secular Jew who never mentions Zionism, like Bill Maher and Christopher Hitchens. Shills.

  • you appearently havnt seen bill's documentary Religulous where he pretty much denounces religion, a little biased yes but logic and facts trump all

  • Is it just me or does saying Zionist 20 times in a YouTube comment make you sound like a conspiracy theorist? Also props for the artificial thumbs upping, you really wanted your rhetoric to be seen!

  • It seems Penn was heavily influenced by Gerge Carlin.

  • I love you Penn lol. I've always felt that way about black pride, white pride, etc. THank you for spreading

  • Whether you like it or not, Penn, it's a fact. You don't have to like it.

  • What will be the unintended consequences of the Israeli government forcing apartheid on the Palestinian people, and the US financing it?

  • Prepare for unforseen consequences.

  • Penn mocks all religions except Zionism.

    >>>"Penn claims to be a militant atheist, yet supports the US-financed genocide of Palestinians to clear their land for Europeans who claim a lineage to mythical ancient nomads chosen by an invisible cloud father who ordered them to slaughter nonbelievers.

    Penn Jillette worships at the Church of Viacom, under multibillionaire high priest Sumner Redstone, who supports the ongoing Palestinian holocaust and media demonizing of Muslims in general."

  • For zooooperdooooper:

    I have a question....what?

  • Malcolm Gladwell is a pawn in Si Newhouse's mainstream media empire. Gladwell regularly issues prose tantamount to shamelessly and publicly sucking Jewish cultural dick. It's what he's paid to do. Clever goy.

  • What the fuck is a goy?

  • a jewish term for a non jew

    --Rick

  • Oh, nevermind. Yah, I guess he is their little goy if that's the case.

  • Malcolm Gladwell, the author of the book Penn is discussing, is a well-paid errand boy for US Mainstream Media mogul Samuel Irving "Si" Newhouse. The Newhouse family is staunchly Zionist and owns 40 "local" newspapers across the US to ensure the Zionist doctrine dominates. Penn Jillette's master, Viacom mogul Sumner Redstone, is also uber-Zionist.

    Zionism is the racist fairytale that Jews are special because they have an Invisible Cloud Father who gave them Palestine 1000s of years ago.

  • I read the book and thought it was really interesting.... on its own merit.

    Regardless of who wrote or supported it... it was well done.

  • Boston Red Sox Pride! Yankees SUCK! Just Joking LOL!

  • Way to suck Sumner Redstone's shriveled little dick, Fat Boy.

  • Why were Jews not allowed to own land? Was that law made up for no reason ?

  • Oh word.

    >>>"Penn claims to be a militant atheist, yet supports the US-financed genocide of Palestinians to clear their land for Europeans who claim a lineage to mythical ancient nomads chosen by an invisible cloud father who ordered them to slaughter nonbelievers.

    Penn Jillette worships at the Church of Viacom, under multibillionaire high priest Sumner Redstone, who supports the ongoing Palestinian holocaust and media demonizing of Muslims in general."

  • Penn Jillette is Sumner Redstone's dancing monkey shill. Viacom/CBS content shows Redstone is a bloodthirsty anti-Muslim bigot, no less guilty of war crimes than Julius Streicher was at Nuremburg.

    >>>"What will be the unintended consequences of depriving Palestinians of their homeland I wonder?

    What will be the unintended consequences of shutting out all but "cultural Jews" from mainstream media control?

    >>>"Malcolm Gladwell, btw, is a shill for his master Samuel Irving Newhouse.""

  • I also like the idea of "human pride" rather than the more base level tribal/geographic pride, the latter, of course has a risk of divisiveness, hence missing the point of elevating culture. However, race/tribal/geographic/whateve­r pride can be a nice starter, like a stepping stone; a useful tool to move beyond once we get used to it. Just a thought.

  • The Irish tendency for drunkenness: people who point that out aren't saying "the Irish are inherently prone to drunkenness", they're saying "Irish tend towards drunkenness because of cultural issues"; nothing wrong with that. The same goes for Russians. That's fine. People who go "blacks commit a disproportionate amount of crime because they're inherently prone to violence ergo blacks are inferior" are jackasses. Saying they do so because of cultural issues (ex "ghetto" culture) is factual.

  • These days, many people tend to point out statistics that often are factual (though easily misinterpreted and may be used to confirm a bias ex. "whites are better and if I see a statistic saying many blacks commit crimes, I must be right about whites" <-- logical fallacy) and use these statistics to infer that say blacks are inherently violent (while not coming out and saying it), which is as foolish as saying that the Irish are genetically prone to drunkenness.

  • The differences people like that acknowledge don't tend to be cultural. Your observations aren't racist because they have nothing to do with the say... genetic tendency of an ethnic group. Blacks tend to commit a disproportionate amount of crime in America. Does that mean they're inherently more violent? No, but people who like to "just acknowledge differences" like to tip toe toward that conclusion.

  • Jews were not allowed land? Kind of like the Palestinians are not allowed to stay on the land that's been in their famileis for millenia? And not allowed to live in thousands of cases because they are not Jewish? Yeah ok I get it.

    ABC/Disney, CBS/Viacom, NBC, Fox, Time Warner, CNN are all controlled by the tribe of cultural Jews. Penn Jillette earns his livelihhood from being an errand boy for that tribe.

  • What will be the unintended consequences of depriving Palestinians of their homeland I wonder?

    What will be the unintended consequences of shutting out all but "cultural Jews" from mainstream media control?

    >>>"Malcolm Gladwell, btw, is a shill for his master Samuel Irving Newhouse."

  • It gets worse. In the middle ages the Catholic church prohibited usury (banking). As a result ordinary folks couldn't be bankers...the first two major bankers in Western Europe were the Knights Templar and Jews. Nobles liked to borrow money but hated paying it back. As a result, the knights templar were extirminated and the nobles encouraged the antisemitism that survives to this day.

  • If you do not want to be in the tribe of the "cultural Jews" then why are you a "cultural Jew?" Why are you an executive of a corporation in the mainstream media? Cliche much?

    Why is your Viacom master Sumner Redstone trying to seize control of YouTube and Google, companies so far successful at wresting control of public information away from mainstream media, controlled by the tribe of "cultural Jews?"

    Malcolm Gladwell, btw, is a shill for his master Samuel Irving Newhouse.

  • Obvious.

    >"If you know there is no God, then it follows that you know there is no legitimate reason for the existence of the state of Israel. Indigenous Palestinians should be displaced & slaughtered because some white Europeans claim a special connection to their land based on an ancient fairytale?

    Fake atheists like Penn Jillette are Sumner Redstone's dancing monkeys. He wants Muslims, Christians, Hindus, etc. to give up their faith, but never says there's anything wrong with Judaism."

  • Penn claims to be a militant atheist, yet supports the US-financed genocide of Palestinians to clear their land for Europeans who claim a lineage to mythical ancient nomads chosen by an invisible cloud father who ordered them to slaughter nonbelievers.

    Penn Jillette worships at the Church of Viacom, under multibillionaire high priest Sumner Redstone, who supports the ongoing Palestinian holocaust and media demonizing of Muslims in general.

  • The Irish had no restrictions on land? Irish were not allowed to own a horse worth more than £3! You had to be protestant to buy land (which ment that 99.9% of the Irish could not own land unless they owned it before the English invasion) why do you think they left Ireland? The Holocaust was nothing compared to the 800 years of oppression suffered in Ireland at the hands of the British. Oh and still no apology has been made!

  • Check out Malcolm Gladwell on PaddleBattle(dot)com.

  • You seemed to be accepting an argument based on how it made you feel there, Penn. Bad skeptic!

  • America's government expects thousands of years of Iraqi culture to turn on its head and reject tribalism while, at the same time, tribalism is promoted at the Federal level. I don't always agree with Penn but this is good stuff. We can't discredit the theology of Obama's church because of tribalism but there would be hell to pay if any of his white opponents were members of the Christian Identity movement. All of this multi-cultural hyphenated American BS is nothing but tribalism.

  • I like babble. I use it in the bathtub..

  • The what are your comments on the best novel of libertarian revolution of all time, "Unintended Consequences"? Surely, you've read this book, by John Ross, from Accurate Press! I'd also like to get an idea of how you prioritize what you read. It seems you are unaware of much of my "required reading library"... Have you read "Engines of Creation" by K. Eric Drexler? How about "The First Immortal", by James Halperin? You'd love them and they're both free online. Check out KurzweilAI first..

  • this guy rocks

  • Comment removed

  • The Jewish lawyer thing is fascinating; Rod Steiger had a great soliloquy in "The Pawnbroker" that made pretty much the same point.

  • Tribalism is natural.

  • what about jugglers pride, you fucking hippy crit ;p lvya

  • What about your lack of intellectual thought, you fucking neaderthal "hypocrit".

  • i guess your to fucking dumb to understand sarcasm! go fight with someone else, douche bag! don't lvya moron

  • You could make a sacrifice to the god of intelligence, he may have some mercy on you. *laugh*

  • "Unintended" doesn't mean "Unpredictable". None of the fine politicians who supported and promoted Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac "intended" to create a financial catastrophe. But it was entirely predictable, and in fact was predicted for years.

    New prediction: in a few years, Congress will hold hearings to get to the bottom of the graft and corruption in the companies that receive our tax dollars to create "green" energy. .

  • In government there is no such thing as unintended conseqences the always know what there doing. Looking like idiots is a cover. There cowards who don't take praise or ridicule well.

  • Not being able to own land or posses farming skills seems to be a positive thing. Yet made out to be a negative one. (?)

  • The Aggravator says Penn is a babbling idiot.

  • Unintended consequences? The Gov creates the most intended consequences on earth. The Gov's ability to make fools like you think like that is evidence. The Gov is controlled by men that are the very flesh puppets of Evil. Everything it does is with intended consequences.

  • I have black pride. There's people w/brown skin, most of which claim cultural heritage from Africa, and define/describe themselves as "black," about whom I feel pride.

    I'm proud to be human because of people like MLK and Sidney Portier and Maya Angelou & I'm super thankful for George Washington Carver cuz I REALLY dig peanut butter and he made peanuts popular and stuff.

    I'm not "black" but I'm proud to be part of a species that includes all these wonderful people. ..Redheads are nice too. =)

  • I like alot of what you have to say but I dont think reality depends on what you are comfortable with and what you are not.

    Unless you want to completely reject any notion of Evolution you simply can not argue that all Races and Ethnicities with all of their subsets are exactly the same in Mental or Physical Capabilities.

    If they are then Evolution is false and I dont believe it is.

  • i totally agree.

  • You totally agree with Penn or was that directed toward my comment?

  • I think the fallacy is in thinking that there are discreet races and ethnicities.

  • No fallacy involved there are in fact distinct races of Human just as there are subsets of other Species.

    As cultures mix and people interbreed that may become less and less the case atleast in multi cultural societies but currently its very true.

  • Yes there is indeed differences in the morphology and some distinct environmental advances.

    But the biological differences are minor, because there isn't and has not been a evolutionary incentive for any major difference is physiology or cognition.

    Any major difference between humans in the world is probably due to postnatal environmental and nutritional circumstances.

    And cultural differences are due to environmental circumstances influencing agriculture and resultant infrastructure.

  • Actually the difference between one race to another is about .3% which yes sounds very small unless you factor in that the difference between Chimps and Men is about 1.0%. If 1.0% can make the difference between a Chimp and a Man then .3% could actually make a much bigger difference than you think or are atleast willing to admit to under the constraints of Political Correctness.

    The Brain is just as physical as the body and would be just as different as our physical differences.

  • Well, it is always possible(if not downright certain) that I'm atleast somewhat wrong.

    However the brain is the portion of our bodies most able to adapt and re-structure itself. Infact from what I understand emotions are actually the brain re-routing itself for a moment.

    Also another important factor is that what do the .3% actually do? What do they influence in a human. How much of it is so called "junk dna"?

    In the end I haven't seen any science on the matter to have a real opinion on it.

  • My arguements are logical and sound although unpopular because of their possible social implications.

    The bottom line is people dont not like to accept things that make them feel uncomfortable and I cant force them to all I can do is continue to tell it like it is and let the chips fall where they may.

  • Almost all of your DNA is complete crap, junk, and useless.

  • Yeah the differences are small.

    Now if there was a tribe that was secluded from the rest of the population for thousands and thousands of years there would be huge differences.

    But thats not the case because humans have mixed and conquered one another. And since diffrent tribes had to compete against one another and mix im guessing that helped evolution.

    If there was a pure blood tribe that broke off from the rest of the population they would probably end up sub human.

  • You might think this is not true today because you see diffrent cultures and skin color.

    But we all share the same DNA because every tribe has mated with the tribe next to them. Eventually DNA from tribe A ended up in Tribe C From Tribe B.

    Some suggest Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons interbred or never went extinct and the DNA was absorbed and disappeared.

  • I'm not arguing that human beings are all genetically the same, I'm just saying that a Greek is likely to be as genetically similar to a Mongolian as to another Greek. Humans don't cleave neatly into discreet groups, they are on a genetic continuum, and you can't really draw a line somewhere. Travel is much faster these days, but the fact is that people travelled far and wide even in ancient times, and bred with populations far from their homes.

  • Well what you are saying simply isnt true. The reason why family members look alot alike is because of shared DNA and the reason why people in Japan look like eachother and not someone Europeans is because of shared DNA.

    The History Channel and other various Organization for a Reasonable Fee can actually tell you what your Ancestry is and if you are of Mixed Ancestry they can actually tell you the Percentages% of each.

    Continued...........

  • Any Anthropologist will tell you that there are 3-Major Variations when it comes to Skull Shapes: Caucaziod, Negroid, Mongoloid.

    Caucazoid: More round in over all shape.

    Negroid: More Long and sloped in shape.

    Mongoloid: More Flat in the back and Face in shape.

    I saw a Anthropologist on PBS discuss this not 3-5 Months ago in fact the guy was a Liberal and was upset that past Anthropologists had pointed out and studied the differences.

    DNA causes differences your arguement is wrong.

  • It does... but we have to treat people on an individual basis. Racism is one of the most base forms of collectivism.

  • Simply acknowledging that there are difference based on race isnt racism its the very definition of an Evolutionist.

    Yes I agree its best to judge people on individual merrit as much as possible.

  • Yes, but folks who are "just acknowledging differences" tend to have a racist tinge to them... in fact, you'd be one of the few (I'm assuming that one... largely because liberals tend to be more racist, though they're rather discreet and use "welfare"); they have the audacity to call themselves "race realists". I too acknowledge there are differences, but on an evolutionary scale the differences are pretty much unnoticeable and negligible. And I don't subscribe to this "Evolutionist" thing.

  • I was just talking about this in school today, how can you be proud about a think you didn't pick to be or a place you didn't chose to be born in?

  • penn kicks ass i am subscribing

  • Did your girlfriend ask "Are you a magician?"  when she couldn't find your penis?

  • oooh look out, i just offended a penn and teller fan. better go run and hide

  • Just like your girlfriend is on the look out for your tiny penis. PWNAGE!

  • So Penn, can it be thusly said that you don't consider yourself an American anymore? Or more specifically a proud American?

    If you don't then fine, but if you do; Then you are merely taking a whole new level of American cultural imperialism. And I have a problem with that.

    And I would argue that there is nothing inherently negative about culture or history(if you count these as tribalism). I am interested in where you are from not because I care where you are FROM, but because I care about YOU

  • He has a problem with people defining themselves by where they are born or who their ancestors were.

  • Personally I don't have a problem with that if it's not the central definition of the person. Since those things did without doubt help define that person.

    The real problem to me is when people define and/or divide other people by those factors.

    And overstate the importance of those factors, when infact the type of music you listen to can influence your behaviour more than the country or culture you happened to be born in.

    I'll explain the American cultural imperialism bit in a few. -

  • And unto the explanation of the cultural imperialism bit. I feel that it needs a bit of clarification.

    What I meant by that is if you don't allow people to define themselves as say coming from Europe, but you can define yourself as an American or a proud American.

    You are essentially saying that only the American culture has any merit. Or the alternative interpertation of it is that one would reject tribalism, but still accept nationalism. Wich is worse. I shall explain the 'why?' of it next.

  • Now if you reject tribalism and still accept nationalism, you are essentially saying that any given nation should contain only one sort of people.

    Now then you can say one of two things; Either any given group of people gets a piece of their own from the nations landmass. Or the people who do not conform have to be dealt with.

    Due to human nature the former option is most likely not going to work and would recress to the second option anyways. And I think we know where that option goes. cont->

  • Finally I would like to clarify my position on the matter; By and large I agree with Penn, it is indeed foolish to cling to tribalism.

    But he didn't make his position really clear to me, wich is why I asked for a clarification.

    Now I think that if you outright reject peoples background you risk the problems I mentioned above.

    I feel that a persons background is a part of what makes that person unique and if I reject that I reject also that persons uniqueness and therefor value! Just my 0,2 E

  • That is very interesting!

  • I totally agree and I tend not to subscribe to tribalist thinking either. My ex-girlfriend was obsessed with the fact that she was native american even though it was only 1/16th of her bloodline. She thought it made her more creative. Anyway, love the Penn Says videos.

  • Nice video, Penn. I didn't know any of this either. Our history education sucks in America. It sucks badly.

  • Why not be proud of the country you live in. Yes we are all human but it goes much deeper than that. Only someone who is NOT proud would think differently.

  • Why would you be proud of something simply because of the circumstances of your birth?

  • Why not be proud of who you are. You are you. If you cant be proud of who and what you are then its a very sad life you live.

    Should we all be drones ?

    While i agree with integration i don't think we should go as far as dismissing our heritage.

  • Tribalism really annoys me aswell. When people refer to teams they follow as "we" it bugs the hell out of me.

    Almost everyone here in Ireland will tell you they hate "the English"...none that I have questioned can give a reasonable answer. Its usually "cause I'm Irish"

  • i disagree about your views the "tribal" pride.. i think its a healthy thing to be proud of your heritage.. however there are who take that pride to an unhealthy level known as racism.

  • Moderates make the world safe for extremists.

  • On your last point, yes the road to hell is being paved.

  • It's funny, I love the stories of my ancestors. I hear about the heroes and the villains, and I feel a connection. I am a long distanced Scot, and it makes me proud.

  • Not all Jews are smart or well educated I guess. But I have not run into many who are not? Go figure.

  • AMEN!

  • I second Penn's notion that this stimulus package will be a textbook example of the law os unintended consequences, simply because most politricksters don't read enough of the bills they vote on.

  • THAN SHALOMMMM TO YOU TO

  • interesting

  • I didn't know about that law, either. Wow. That makes a lot more sense than a "rule" that they specifically value education across the board. Thanks for the informative blog!

  • That is so insightful.

    Problem Reaction Solution. Research this concept, and even more might come to light.

  • Penn is good man.

  • In his book "The Audacity of Hope", there's a section in the chapter "Faith" where Obama lists things he's skeptical of in his faith and then goes on to say: "This is not to say that I'm unanchored in my faith. There are some things that I'm absolutely sure about—the Golden Rule, the need to battle cruelty in all its forms, the value of love and charity, humility and grace." That's basically a humanistic philosophy. It doesn't even mention a god or any other supernatural thing.

  • I've always felt the same way about race pride, how can you be pride of something you never had a chance to choose from.

  • Discrimination against Jews is largely responsible for their being forced into upper middle class jobs. Jews could loan money to Christians because medieval christianity forbade christians to lend to another christian. The anti-land owning extended throughout Europe, and forced the Jewish communities tighter together. Which of course led to more anti-semitism.

  • Well, I'll be goober damned . . . never really dwelt much on the whys and how-fors, it was just a constant that Jews were well versed in law, and the Irish had a green (mwahah, how I amuse myself) thumb. And then the former gets demonized for the fact that they picked up the ball in the only career fields they had open to them and ran with it?!? What a load of dingos' kidneys.

  • In the early days of Church rule, Jews were forbidden from owning land and that law remained. In those days, even to own shops was not allowed and the only real occupation that the Jews could have worked with was loaning money.

    Consequently, centuries later, the image of the Jew taking "your" money away was so well entrenched in Christian society that it was easy for local rulers to point their finger at the "wealthy" Jew to blame.

  • Just another right wing douche bag trying to rationalize away.

  • If you're not going to add any new information, why say anything? You may as well have said "NO U WRONG".

  • Actually, Canada is the first country in the Commonwealth which gave Jews the same rights as any citizens (in 1831). 25 years earlier than England

  • Ron Paul Blowback

  • No people just had petty for them.....

  • Future Unintended Consequences:

    Higher taxes to get all the free money being handed out back to the government and pay back the astronomical lone to China.

    More businesses thinking "If I screw up and fail, big brother will bail me out, SWEET!"

    More people wanting hand outs. As if we need more career well-fairer.

    Further inflated dollar that's worth even less so prices go up, even more.

    That's what I call change!?

  • These people in government are not stupid. Austrian Economics has been around for a century, explaining booms and busts. Ron Paul on the House floor seemingly every day, Peter Schiff on the TV.

    I just don't see these consequences as "unintended" any more. They're not that stupid.

    So what's left? INTENDED consequences, for everyone else, after they've gotten their money and power.

  • Public works projects are the unintended consequences of de-regulation.

  • Outliers was an incredible book!

  • Interesting, Penn I didn't know that either. Thank you.

  • I don't think that thing about the Jews not being allowed to buy land is true. Alot of Jewish stereotypes about Jews loving money and such come from the Middle Ages when Jews were hired to run banks and collect the kings taxes because in Christianity such activity is seen as sinful were as the Jewish religion is non-specific.

  • "Unintended Consequences"

    Well put Penn.

    We libertarians speak often of The Law of Unintended Consequences.

    Liberal do-gooders and conservative moralists often set a trap for themselves with their good intentions that turn into unintended consequences.

    Its going to be fun (in a schadenfreude kind of way) to watch the liberals and the conservatives join forces to "bail out" the free market.

    ROFL!

    Bail out the free market.

    ROFL!

    What dumbasses!

  • Good Video again... I also did not know they (the Jewish people) were not allowed to own land. I guess the ridiculousness of it all shows how absurd everything is currently!

  • Success or failure is part of your cosmic destiny, of course i can't prove this. I believe everyone would succeed in life if they were rewarded at the same level successful people were rewarded in their lives.Failures in life fail or give up because they know deep down they will never achieve no matter how hard they try.Conversely successful people are always in the right place at the right time. This is important in NEVER JUDGE anyone good or bad based on superficial success /failure

  • Is that a Klingon necklace he's wearing? Nerd pride Mr. Jillette?

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  • In regards to all these bailouts and stimulus packages...I don't think they'll amount to much of anything that will really help American people. The American people shouldn't be relying on the Government to just give away anything. History shows they don't like doing that to anyone but the super rich, and the military industrial complex. The people need to rise up and DEMAND what they need. The government gives nothing...IT MUST BE TAKEN!

  • i like penn but i also like that i'm of Irish descent and German descent.

  • Im irish and german and indian, and i could really careless about my desecnt i dont understand why ur proud of it. i could careless about my home city i grew up in or the country if i was african, or anything. but to each is own. i just dont get it

  • That kind of thing bugs me here in Puerto Rico, in every Merenge or Bachata song I hear I always hear the words "Puerto Rico" and "Lo mejor" or "The best" and it just bugs me. It doesn't matter where your from what matters is what you DO.

  • Malcolm Gladwell is my new favorite author, all three of his books are incredible.

  • Another amazing video Mr. Jillette [:

  • So Penn, do you advocate for ridding the world of professional sport teams in order to vitiate against the tribalism that sport engenders?

  • I DO have a question.

    Why are there so many jews in the media?

  • completely agree Penn. Why be proud of something you had no say in?

  • Even though I'm certainly not a proponent of tribalism, I think the Black Liberation Theology movement (the movement which Jeremiah Wright belongs to) is the perfect example of what is being said about 'unintended consequences of law'. Segregation created massive urban conglomerations of black people because they weren't allowed to live anywhere else, so they got together and said, "Your skin is not a burden, your skin is a gift!" We forget how close segregation to us in history.

  • Penn, I hope you realize (perhaps after finishing Outliers) that the book essentially undermines the basic assumptions of your political philosophy - libertarianism... Gladwell's argument is that success stories are about environment and chance, not about individual hard work and talent. If that's mostly true (and I think it is), you have a lot of work to do in explaining why libertarianism is viable. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this when you finish! Best regards man.

  • I think you've missed the point. From my perspective he was saying that where they ended up was a matter of chance, not their success. There are PLENTY of unsuccessful jews.

    I'm of Irish decent, and my dad and brothers all do embrace the "hard work" mentality. The challenge of the task. But that doesn't mean we can't be successful. You can apply that niche and be just as successful as a Hollywood Jew. It's not our race or chance that defines us, it is definitely our will.

  • Sure, your environment plays a role in determining who you become as a working person, and many opportunities that come in your life come by in a purely random manner. But what do you want the government to do about it? By the way, even if Penn thought the book was interesting, it doesn't mean he agreed with it or thought it was any good. Not that it was even the point of the video.

  • wow.

    that totally blew my mind.

    thanks.

  • One thing that I like about Bullshit is the fact that it is anti-tribal. Race, religion, nationalism are all subjective illusions. I would quite like to live in a world that had none of these. I would like for there to be one global language, though that is probably the least likely of all. I am in favor of taxing millionaries and up (I suppose that would include Penn) large corporations, and churches. Everyone else should be exempt.

    Perhaps I am being a bit utopian.

    Either way, great video.