Marginal Revolution

Markets in everything: convert the atheist, on Turkish TV

From The Guardian, via Effect Measure:

It sounds like the beginning of a joke: what do you get when you put a Muslim imam, a Greek Orthodox priest, a rabbi, a Buddhist monk and 10 atheists in the same room?

Viewers of Turkish television will soon get the punchline when a new game show begins that offers a prize arguably greater than that offered by Who Wants to be a Millionaire?

Contestants will ponder whether to believe or not to believe when they pit their godless convictions against the possibilities of a new relationship with the almighty on Penitents Compete (Tovbekarlar Yarisiyor in Turkish), to be broadcast by the Kanal T station. Four spiritual guides from the different religions will seek to convert at least one of the 10 atheists in each programme to their faith.

Those persuaded will be rewarded with a pilgrimage to the spiritual home of their newly chosen creed – Mecca for Muslims, Jerusalem for Christians and Jews, and Tibet for Buddhists.

The real prize, of course, is the conversion itself.  But if you are faking it just to win the trip, I believe Islam is at a disadvantage.  By the way, they do "verify" that you are an atheist in the first place, using a panel of eight theologians (are they so hard to fool?), plus they monitor your behavior afterwards to see you truly have become a believer.

The value of personal experience

It's rare that I read something about Barack Obama which I had not already seen:

Barack Obama's last visit to Russia, as a senator in 2005, did not end so well. He was detained by the security services at an airport near Siberia for three hours, locked in a lounge, his passport confiscated, like a scene from a John le Carré novel.

The Russians later called it a “misunderstanding.”

Mobile, Alabama bleg

I'll be there soon and I'll have a free day -- maybe even a day and a half -- and I'm wondering what to do.  For all the talk about markets in everything, I can't find a good guide book on Alabama.  This worries me only a little.  There is Alabama Off the Beaten Path but first I would like to know the path.  Your suggestions are very much welcome and since they are coming in an intellectual vacuum they will have even more influence than usual.  (Imagine handing Road to Serfdom to a thirteen-year-old.)  What and where does one eat?  I'll also be driving on to a talk in Biloxi, in case you know of anything interesting, or any good food, on the Mobile-Biloxi route.

I am, in fact, very excited to be visiting Mobile for the first time.

What I've been Reading

1. Zhivago's Children: The Last Russian Intelligentsia, by Vladislav Zubok.  This excellent Belknap book focuses on the question of how the Soviets had much of an intelligentsia at all.  More fun and more readable than expected and consistently interesting throughout.  Soon this book will be put through the occasionally idiosyncratic "Natasha test."

2. Economics Does Not Lie: A Defense of the Free Market in a Time of Crisis, by Guy Sorman.  He is a French classical liberal, defending a market-oriented point of view.

3. Bring Me My Machine Gun: The Battle for the Soul of South Africa from Mandela to Zuma, by Alec Russell.  An excellent book which shows how messed up this country is likely to remain.  Zuma in particular is a nasty piece of work.

4.

The East, the West, and Sex: A History of Erotic Encounters, by Richard Bernstein.  When I first saw this book I swore I wouldn't read it or buy it.  Then the excellent reviews started piling up.  Eventually I broke down.  It turns out the writing is superb and it has plenty of informative content.  But you know what, it is still a bad book and it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.  The always-excellent Laura Miller reviews it.

5. The Book of Psalms, translated by Robert Alter (my favorite Biblical translator).  Recommended.