Are Liberals Nihilistically Tolerant?
~ by Elia Isquire Sally Kohn has a piece in Friday’s Washington Post that makes the argument that, yes, they are: [T]olerant Democrats are not only capitulating to negotiations over how much to starve...
Monthly Archive: April 2011
Why wealth inequality is not unjust, but power inequality is
In a previous post, I explained that one of the underlying sources of disagreement about basic economic policy is that first world economies are both theoretically and practically complex, and thus may be quite...
A sidebar post for Christopher Carr
I have any number of questions for Christopher Carr, our OG in Japan, about the last month or so and I’m pretty sure that more than just me has a question or seven for him....
Battle of Marathon Casualty List
A piece of the (Classical) historical record of which I had never heard, here (with a h/t good summary of the background here). Worth your time, if you’re interested in that sort of thing.
Tits! Swords! Edginess!
(Editor’s note: Erik’s praise for “Game of Thrones” drew me out of semi-retirement. Bear with me) One of the problems with easing constraints on a creative medium is that creators are inevitably tempted to...
Another Local Currency
This time it’s for the Internet. I’m skeptical, for many of the same reasons I was skeptical of the BNote. Timothy B. Lee explains. I agree with him. Reluctantly, if you can believe it.
TV Review: A Game of Thrones (HBO)
I have television in my house once again – for a little while. This is because it was cheaper to hook up television service when we were hooking up cable internet than to pay...
Then there were five
Please allow me to introduce our fifth hosted blog, Blinded Trials by Russell Saunders. Russell will be writing about healthcare issues for the most part. His intro post is here. Please join me in...
Societal Constructs Often Result In Sub-Optimal Leisure Options
In the Mindless Diversions blog, one of the regular features is the Saturday! feature in which I put various classic commercials for various products. Now, the intention is to show commercials that you may...
Weekend Jukebox and Open Thread
The weekend is upon us which means that it is the perfect time for an upbeat job-related song. (As delightful as I find the song/video, I found myself conflicted over the whole “male gaze”...
American Decline!
I don’t normally take the time to point out that I find foreign policy statements at Commentary patently wrong, because, well, that’s just to be assumed by now. But this opening salvo from Max...
Pop Quiz
In how many different ways is Arizona’s “Birther” bill potentially or likely unconstitutional? At first glance, I count at least four, but I may be missing some: The Full Faith and Credit Clause The...
The Return to Normalcy Budget
Here’s a budget idea. No, it’s not perfectly aligned with my theoretical commitments. Is anything out there so aligned with yours? (Didn’t think so!) My claims here are only (a) it would work (b)...
Muslims and PR: A response to comments
Because of the large number of comments to my last post, I hope it is acceptable that I respond to them en masse below. First, perhaps I didn’t clearly set out the nature of...
Contra Tu Quoque, Or, Avoiding The Fourth Response
There are some areas of inquiry and discussion that are inherently difficult because you can’t say anything at all without inviting a whole series of emotional responses to them. Those emotional responses, in turn,...
The Title of This Blog Post Is Only Slightly Inflammatory
This first paragraph sounds reasonable, containing only minor distortions and untruths. In the second paragraph, the first paragraph will remind me of something some other guy, known for bigger distortions and half-truths said once:...
Occasional Notes: Excesses and Deficiencies
Leitmotif: Any custom is better than no custom.—Nietzsche Goodreads: Yesterday an acquaintance asked me to link to him on Goodreads. Yikes! I hadn’t updated my Goodreads profile in almost two years. It would appear...
Muslims Don’t Need Better PR, Americans Need More Tolerance
The last time I checked, most Muslims in the United States were not blowing themselves up in suicide attacks against their fellow Americans. They were not issuing fatwas against Harry Potter or converting your...
Muslims and the need for reform or, at least, better PR
Two weeks ago, the Orange County Federalist Society, of which I am honored to serve as vice-president, hosted Andrew McCarthy to talk about the King Hearings on the question of radical Islam. A few...
Foote’s Historia
There’s something to be said for attempting to read Foote’s Civil War at the same time as Proust. I don’t know that I would have otherwise noticed quirks of structure in Foote’s work that,...
