A poem for Wednesday
The Old Fools by Philip Larkin What do they think has happened, the old fools, To make them like this? Do they somehow suppose It’s more grown-up when your mouth hangs open and drools,...
Author: Erik Kain
Nihilism is painless
So the story of Mitchell Heisman’s suicide is bizarre in a way that most suicides are not in that it was premeditated for several years before it was finally undertaken. Heisman took his life,...
Proof of God, continued
If God cannot prove His omnipotence (or infinity) to human beings because they are neither omnipotent or omniscient or infinite, couldn’t God simply make all human beings into omniscient, omnipotent, and infinite beings? If...
Attack of the Village Voice
A blogger at the Village Voice who goes by the name ‘Roy Edroso’ (call me crazy but that name sounds contrived to me…) has called me out on my Obion County Fire post. First...
Andrew Sullivan Ten Years Later
So the roasting and toasting of Andrew Sullivan and the Daily Dish is well underway. I’ll add my two cents. First of all, we here at The League and myself in particular owe Andrew...
Proof of God
Ned Resnikoff poses a pretty intriguing question at his blog: How could a Deity prove its omnipotence? This, of course, assumes that a Deity is omnipotent to begin with. I’m not sure a Deity...
Obion County Blues
I’ve enjoyed both of Mark’s posts (part one and part two) on the Obion Fire Controversy a great deal. He’s absolutely correct to heap scorn on the various misinformation campaigns out there regarding this...
False dichotomies: Foragers vs. Farmers edition
Robin Hanson’s post on “Type A and Type B” people (or foragers vs. farmers) is like a weird cousin of the novel, Ishmael. And like every other pundit’s false dichotomy, it fails to deliver...
A Purposeful Education
I enjoyed both Jason’s and William’s takes on the cruelty of high school (of course, any grade can be a cruel one – my fifth grade in Catholic school in Canada was fairly cruel,...
Competition in the healthcare industry
John Hood, writing at The Corner, grumbles about the shuttering of Principal Financial’s health insurance division. This is understandable since Principal Financial provides Mr. Hood with his own insurance. Here’s the New York Times:...
Treason is a crime
Kevin Williamson speaks truth to power. Or to Andy McArthy. Either way, it’s awesome: Whatever kind of conservatism is arguing that we should invest the president with sole, secret, unreviewable authority to order the...
Homogenization and the State
“In some ways, the ‘night watchman’ state — the state that enables civil society to develop and function without distortions imposed by roving bandits, local notables, and its own functionaries, but that also is...
That’s me in the corner, choosing my religion
Jamelle Bouie’s take on the recent Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life poll is the best I’ve read (the Pew servers seem to be under some strain today, so you may not make...
Compassion & Knowledge
Good grief, but this is some extraordinary writing from Ta-Nehisi Coates: For an African-American like me, the upshot of all this gorgeous writing is bracing–one is forced to behold beauty in those who saw...
Virtually crime free
I was discussing Kevin Drum’s post on falling crime rates in America and the old Freakonomics argument came up – that the only possible explanation for this phenomenon is the after-effects of Roe v....
Neoliberalism & Culture
Will is absolutely correct to note that the success of the Anglophone and Northern European governance models (and their Asian counterparts who have emulated and innovated with these models successfully) rest a great deal...
Best anti-penny rant of all time?
This is quite brilliant (via): Besides, for the people who do inexplicably love pennies, think how much more their penny collections will be worth in a world that no longer mints them?
Preschool bleg
So we’re looking at preschool for our daughter – and realizing that it may be too late to enroll her in a number of programs – but I am having trouble deciding on exactly...
‘A post-ideological index of good governance’
This post on good-governance countries by Scott Sumner is fascinating (via Reihan Salam). People on the left and the right may disagree with many of the particulars, but I think the overall thrust of...
Immigration and the economy
This data from the Pew Research Center illustrates just how connected the influx of illegal immigration into the United States is tied to the soundness of the American and global economy: The annual inflow...
