Question for the Day
Can someone explain to me why people dress their small children up in animal costumes (not on Halloween, throughout the year) and dress their pet animals up like people? What is up with this...
Monthly Archive: May 2009
Master of Divinity
Yours truly now owns the ludicrous (and actually idolatrous) title of a Master of Divinity. MDiv. for short. Got to wear the silly robe and everything to prove it. In other ludicrous news, I...
the campaign finance law we have sucks only a little more than the alternative
John Schwenkler, via Rodney Balko, approves of this video from the Cato Institute. Two separate but important points: one, the law in question is lousy and patently unconstitutional; two, this video is incomplete, and...
Bike to Work Week
Well it’s bike to work week and due to the fact that it is also ridiculously nice here – I mean upper 70’s which is almost hot – I thought it would be a...
Silly Arguments Against Hate Crimes Legislation
No, we probably shouldn’t be in the business of creating special protections for homeless victims, but this latest bout of legislative idiocy has provoked some uncommonly silly responses. Obviously, intent matters. If someone is...
The Amish versus the recession
A heartbreaking story from Forbes. Here’s the money quote: “Most people say they’re tightening their belts. Well, we don’t use belts, so I guess we can say we’re tightening up our suspenders and rolling...
Hate Crimes and the homeless
I’m not sold one way or the other on the hate crime debates. Sullivan takes issue with the idea of the homeless being protected under such laws:
File this one under “things I don’t usually admit to”
John Podhoretz’s Star Trek review is pretty darn good.
torture and terror
“The worst thing in the world is to try to sleep and not to.” ~F. Scott Fitzgerald Sleep deprivation, as Andrew notes, “can sound deceptively banal” compared to other torture techniques. Of course, keeping...
a quote for the morning
“Megalomania is a hard drug to kick.” ~ Josh Marshall, pondering Dick Cheney
defense spending: still spending
One thing to bear in mind about the free riders on the United States and its defense capabilities is to me the salient aspect of America’s defense budget in general: we could reduce our...
US Religious Landscape
ABC News posts this piece introducing the latest Pew Forum Research Survey (the premier forum for this work) on US religious identity in America. Robert Putnam (he of social capital fame) shared some of...
Sunday Poem Series
The Wood Pile by Robert Frost Out walking in the frozen swamp one gray day I paused and said, ‘I will turn back from here. No, I will go on farther- and we shall...
Comedian-in-Chief
I may not always agree with his politics, but you have to give the guy credit for style. This is not your grandfather’s president. When they talk about him being the first postmodern president...
Holiday in Cambodia
Well, not quite. But an old friend of mine has an excellent summary of recent developments regarding Cambodia’s genocide tribunals.
Joe, the GI
So before Star Trek last night– which is great, by the way– they showed the preview for the upcoming GI Joe movie. This is an old riff of mine, but it’s worth blogging. The...
Friday Night Jukebox
The first time I heard Elliot Smith was watching the Oscars – or rather, when I watched Good Will Hunting, but I didn’t pay much attention then. When I saw this performance though I...
Small Schools are Beautiful
“We must create an apocalyptic sense of urgency about Education in this country and then take drastic measures.” ~ Shafeen Charania So as John put it recently, since it “appears to be Say Controversial...
Quote of the Day
Br. Salam speaks the truth: Some of you are thinking, “Oh man, hipster twee. Spoon my brain out, please.” Well, you’re a bozo. You’re not necessarily a bozo. But seriously, don’t let your “contrarian”...
The Salad Bowl
Jonah Goldberg makes an odd claim in his latest column: The mainstream perception that conservatives are close-minded and dogmatic while liberals are open-minded and free-thinking has it almost exactly backward. Liberal dogma is settled:...
