Fun with Azathoth
You all know that I’m not a religious believer. But you might ask: What fills the God-shaped hole? Something has to, right? It’s a fair question, but my answer is pretty weird. I don’t...
Daily Archive: February 29, 2012
Kludges, Adaptations, and Evolution, Part 2
(Part 1 here.) From Kevin Kelley’s Technium, March 4, 2008: A creator, such as an artist, musician, photographer, craftsperson, performer, animator, designer, videomaker, or author – in other words, anyone producing works of art...
What Is Welfare For?
Writing over at The New Inquiry, Ned Resnikoff asks the Left to think a little more concretely about what it means to fetishize, as most have during the Great Recession, jobs qua jobs. Using...
Sympathy with the Kabbalists
I once wrote a short story for workshop that involved, I believe, the narrator dismissing any approach to grief informed by the Kabbalah as guilty of a kind of heretical dualism. It wasn’t this-worldly...
What Exactly is Overrated Here?
Matt Yglesias thinks empirical evidence is overrated. I am struggling not to say something incredibly snarky here. It seems to me that what’s actually overrated in policy debates is our ability to use an Econ...
Sock Puppets: Not Just for Kids Anymore
[Updated below] Dear Readers: We have uncovered overwhelming evidence of no fewer than 8 sockpuppets operated by a single individual, each with its own persona. In the process, we have also determined that our...
Intellectual Property, Abstract v. Natural Right, Part III
The third post in a series. In post I, we outlined a 10,000 – okay, 100,000 – foot view of the legal history of intellectual property in law. In post II, we covered some...
At the Gun Show
This past weekend I went to the gun show. This is the big annual show at the Kentucky Fairgrounds that brings in hundreds of dealers. In that one building there was probably over a...
Sheer Folly
Roger Cohen gets it horribly wrong when he advocates arming Syria’s rebels. The money quote is: In short, Syria is dangerous. But that not a reason for passivity or incoherence. As the Bosnian war showed,...
Surreal
Sometimes, the nuttiness of the world goes from making me shake my head to making me shake my head until I stop and then… channeling my inner teenager, I muse… “Hey, that’s actually kind...
Leaguefest: Let’s Talk About What’s Really Important
A reminder: Leaguefest 2012 will be at the LVH Hotel (formerly the Las Vegas Hilton) on Memorial Day weekend, May 25-28, 2012. To make your reservations, call (800) 635-7711 and advise that you are registering...
Religious Freedom
Just so people know, I think that this is a good example of why we need religious freedom: Deep in grief, Barbara Johnson stood first in the line for Communion at her mother’s funeral...
