Monthly Archive: January 2012

It’s went pretty much unnoticed because of the rise of Mordor Gingrich, but on Saturday Herman Cain briefly reentered the Republican primary spotlight. It was certainly as much of a farce as his actual...

If you do, be sure to step out tonight, preferably in an area clear of bright city lights or other light pollution. The Earth has been hit with a large coronal mass ejection for...

Noting that, for the first time in a generation, inequality will be a major theme of a US Presidential election, Michael Cohen writes how the result in November may establish a new conventional wisdom...

Once upon a time I drove a Honda Civic CX and I felt like a patriot.

We spent 5 hours running beagles all over the hills of Green County yesterday.  The 12 gauge Ithaca I traded for last spring felt good in my hands and I was glad to have...

In his voyage account from the 13th century, Marco Polo tells of “the old man of the mountain” (Book I: Ch. 21), or Ala’u-‘d-Din Muhammad, one of the last rulers of the Nizari Ismailis, a...

I’d like to draw your attention to the latest TWO sub-blogs to go live at The League. Jonathan McLeod is writing “The 49th” – a Canadian politics blog with an eye toward American audiences....

Today dear reader, we set sail back to March 25, 1807 when the British Parliament passed the Slave Trade Act of 1807. What seems a piece of historical trivia is also the start of an...

From the Pacific Voyagers website. Emphasis mine: The vakas are financed with micro-lending and built, maintained and operated by the local community. Taking pride in ownership, creates a commitment to better their villages and neighbouring islands.  Whether they take...

On Wednesdays on the Mindless Diversion blog, I’m quite regularly pleased to play one of my favorite songs or one of my previous favorites or something that just gets stuck in my head… and,...

Rhetoric can reveal an unconscious trope moving — or maybe just stirring itself awake — within a society without attributing conscious malice to the individual speaker.  Thus the key line in Adam Kirsch’s consideration,...

Under SOPA, Justin Bieber would have been in jail! What a waste!

About that watch, my father e-mails: Au contraire. It was purchased in 1956-7 from the PX on our base near Gotemba at the base of Mount Fuji, selected from an array of Rolexes, the...

Reason to hate Canada: And a reason to love them: Whether or not you forgive me just consider this an open thread:

Yesterday I asked if anyone would be willing to assist me in a journey to see how I might reconcile my lack of belief with my desire for belief. Over the next few months...

As I’ve discussed in greater detail here, I am a non-believer that has always been drawn toward the idea of faith.  As I get longer in the tooth I find it harder and harder...

It’s been over twenty-four hours since I wrote about Newt Gingrich, so I’ll complete my trilogy of observations about his insurgency here. I’d be less interested in Gingrich if it didn’t look for all...