October 28, 2010 – 4:46 pm
Here’s an amusing distraction: someone has noticed, in a clip from Charlie Chaplin’s 1928 movie The Circus, what appears to be a woman talking on a cell phone. Less amusing, for those of us of a certain age: that the newswoman relating the story seems not to know who “Charlie Chapman” is. Here.
October 28, 2010 – 9:07 am
Bill Vallicella, the Maverick Philosopher, wrote a sharp little post a couple of days ago about the divergent philosophical assumptions that inspirit the political struggle between liberals and conservatives. The problem, he argues, can be represented as an aporetic tetrad: In illustration of my thesis, consider the the values of individual liberty and material (as […]
October 27, 2010 – 8:06 pm
We’ve been hearing for quite some time now that the stupendous haymaker awaiting the Democrats next week has nothing to do with amply justified outrage over their policies, tactics, and sneering unconcern for public opinion and the consent of the governed, but is simply the unfortunate result of how difficult it has been for them […]
October 26, 2010 – 11:00 pm
To define the word “chutzpah”, the example usually given is that of a teen who murders his parents, and then insists that the court take mercy on an orphan. And then there’s this. (P.S. During the several seconds I spent diligently researching this story, I also came across this feisty little website, which tickled me […]
October 25, 2010 – 10:19 pm
Things have been getting hot in France, and are now doing so as well in Britain, as their social-welfare economies begin to collapse under their own weight. The latest update comes from London, where firefighters have decided to go on strike on Friday, November 5th. For those of you who don’t know, the fifth of […]
October 24, 2010 – 8:56 pm
Not much to comment on tonight. The top story appears to be that Tony Blair’s sister-in-law, in what must surely be an irritating development for the former P.M., has made an ostentatious conversion to Islam. (This woman, whose name is Lauren Booth, has been a burr under Mr. Blair’s saddle for some time now. Meanwhile, […]
October 22, 2010 – 4:10 pm
A while back we took a look at physicist Craig Hogan’s curious idea that the Universe might actually be a kind of hologram. (For an explanation, and a very strange comment, have a look at the original post.) Now Dr. Hogan is getting closer to putting his theory to the test. Learn more here, and […]
October 21, 2010 – 10:35 pm
Everybody’s talking about the Juan Williams firing. For those of you who have spent the past day or two under anesthesia, or held at gunpoint in an al-Qaeda safe-house, Juan Williams is the National Public Radio “on-air personality” who publicly spoke forbidden truths, and was immediately sacked and disfellowshipped for his heresy. Here’s what happened, […]
October 20, 2010 – 9:55 pm
I’ve long argued that we ought to legalize marijuana — for several very good reasons, each of which would, I think, be compelling in its own right. First of all, legalization would be a heavy, if not mortal, blow to the black-market economy that supports the drug gangs that have made Mexico an earthly hell […]
October 19, 2010 – 10:59 pm
Ah, the many blessings of Diversity. What were they again? It seems lately that all over the liberal Western world, native peoples are developing a nasty case of buyer’s remorse: it is finally dawning on them that the natural friction between dissimilar human groups in too-close proximity is, almost without exception always and everywhere, a […]
October 18, 2010 – 10:02 pm
We’ve just got back to Gotham from a delightful weekend in Cape Cod — including a brief hop, courtesy of a friend with a a small plane, over to Martha’s Vineyard (where the lovely Nina and I first met, 35 summers ago). During the drive back to the city, we listened in on a “debate” […]
October 16, 2010 – 3:15 pm
Well, the shouting is over, the dust has settled, the press have dashed off to file their dispatches, and there is a new champion speller here in Wellfleet: a fellow named Robert something, an amiable fellow who has finished in the top two or three for years. It came down to the two of us […]
October 15, 2010 – 10:48 pm
We’re in Wellfleet for the weekend. It’s time once again for the Oysterfest, our little town’s annual celebration of its succulent and highly prized indigenous bivalve. (A local oysterman told me today that the festival, which is in its tenth year, is now the fourth-largest town fair in the country, though as we go to […]
October 13, 2010 – 10:04 pm
It’s a very busy week, and there will be scant opportunity for writing for the next day or two, so it’s Shameless Filler time once again. This cheeky item certainly qualifies, I think. What? You sophisticates are in no mood for such lowbrow japery? Well then, waste your time instead with the hosts of my […]
October 12, 2010 – 9:57 pm
Satoshi Kanazawa, writing at Psychology Today, discusses an interesting scientific finding, namely that intelligent people drink more alcohol. Over at Mangan’s today there is an engaging discussion about his essay. Dennis’s commenter Pat Hannagan takes issue with Kanazawa’s assumption about the correct order of precedence as regards beer-making and agriculture: Kanazawa says: The production of […]
October 10, 2010 – 10:53 pm
In Thursday’s post I took the measure of the river of data that my plugged-in life brings my way, and noted that, as much as I like having access to it all, I’m finding it almost impossible to keep up with its ever-increasing volume. (“Drinking from a fire-hose”, we used to say at PubSub.) The […]
October 8, 2010 – 3:07 pm
Might this fall’s impending conservative landslide actually help Barack Obama’s chances for re-election? Victor Davis Hanson, in an essay over at NRO, makes the case that the Transformer-In-Chief might be in a position to benefit from the economic lift that a conservative Congress would provide, while telling his progressive base he’s still true to his […]
October 7, 2010 – 11:03 pm
As much as I love the Internet — I’m a keen consumer of information, and I don’t know how I spent the first four decades of my life without it — it sure is getting hard to keep up. I have a personal email account, and a work account. In order that I don’t miss […]
October 6, 2010 – 4:58 pm
If the Tea Party is, as I’ve suggested, an American Salafist movement, then it seems natural enough for it to quote the Prophet in justification of its own existence. (Of course the Tea Party’s “Prophet” is not one man, but many: namely, the Founding Fathers, peace be upon them.) To that end, here’s a piquant […]
October 5, 2010 – 11:38 pm
As a generally conservative sort of blogger, I write a lot about how important it is to defend our traditional American culture against its many foes, foreign and domestic. But in case you’ve forgotten just what it is we’re fighting for, have a look at this inspiring clip, courtesy of the indefatigable JK.
October 4, 2010 – 9:59 pm
We’ve been just about completely mum on the clash-of-civilizations front for the past couple of months, so here’s an update. The blasphemy trial of Geert Wilders resumed in Holland today. No sooner had it got under way than the presiding magistrate, Jan Moors, made a snarky comment about the defendant, prompting Mr. Wilders’s attorney to […]
October 3, 2010 – 9:08 pm
Sam Harris is about to release a new book, called The Moral Landscape. Dr. Harris has been working for a while now to try to put morality on an objective footing (something I think can’t be done). His premise, if I may sum it up with extreme brevity, is that there are some moral systems […]
October 2, 2010 – 10:38 pm
It’s been a busy couple of days, and I haven’t had much of the solitary time that brooding and writing requires. Today, for example, we spent gallivanting around the city, and at one point we found ourselves harborside in the out-of-the way Brooklyn neighborhood known as Red Hook. The weather was splendid, and we took […]
September 30, 2010 – 10:22 pm
Here’s an item that I am trying to get my head around: According to Raphael Bousso at the University of California, there are physical constraints that make an eternally expanding universe impermissible. Cosmologists have been bickering over the fate of the universe since its expansion was confirmed by Edwin Hubble back in 1929. On the […]
September 29, 2010 – 11:26 pm
In a recent column, David Brooks had this to say about the scope of government nowadays: The heart of any moral system is the connection between action and consequences. Today’s public anger rises from the belief that this connection has been severed in one realm after another. Financiers send the world into recession and don’t […]
September 28, 2010 – 10:49 pm
Yesterday’s paper had an item about a computer virus, Stuxnet by name, that has found its way into industrial networks around the world, most particularly in Iran. So sophisticated was the virus that it seemed to all that it was probably the work of a government agency — and the likely suspect, given the apparent […]
September 27, 2010 – 11:16 pm
Poking around in the news this evening, I saw that UFOlogist Robert Hastings had held a news conference today with a number of retired Air Force servicemen. The panel claimed, in no uncertain terms, that they had had first-hand close encounters with strange flying machines at various nuclear-weapons sites, that they had been ordered to […]
September 26, 2010 – 8:20 pm
Readers will know that we genuflect to a pantheon of drum gods here at waka waka waka. I’ve mentioned my current fave, Gavin Harrison, on several occasions, and readers have also sent along, from time to time, video clips of some formidable subordinate deities. But judging by what I’ve just seen, Olympus may soon be […]
September 25, 2010 – 11:58 pm
We’ve been off the air for a couple of days, due to workplace emergencies and, last night, a concert by the British prog-rock band Porcupine Tree at Radio City Music Hall. The concert was fabulous: the band were in mid-season form, and Gavin Harrison’s mind-boggling performance was worth the price of admission all by itself. […]
September 22, 2010 – 10:04 pm
Following on yesterday’s item about the death of the great Richie Hayward, the Washington Post’s Gene Weingarten gives us another decedent to mourn: the English language. Cause of death: email, texting, bloggers, and the decline of large-scale, professionally edited journalism. We read: The language’s demise took few by surprise. Signs of its failing health had […]
September 21, 2010 – 10:18 am
Here’s a sad item that I missed while I was disconnected last month: drummer Richie Hayward, who since 1969 was the rhythmic anchor of the incomparable rock/blues/funk band Little Feat, died on August 14th of liver cancer and pneumonia. I was a huge fan of both Hayward and the band, and I am very sorry […]
September 20, 2010 – 10:56 pm
Tired of watching things go to hell here in America? Well, a change is as good as a rest, they say, and instead of brooding about our declining fortunes here at home, it might be refreshing to focus for a minute on how very badly things are going overseas. Our indefatigable sources have sent along […]
September 19, 2010 – 3:24 pm
Writing a novel? I’m certainly not, but if you are, you might be interested to read a brief outline, by the Canadian author Margaret Atwood, of the scope of available plot-lines. (Thanks to my daughter ChloÁ« for providing me with the link.) You can read Ms. Atwood’s exposition here, if you like, but I’ve also […]
September 18, 2010 – 2:20 pm
As readers may be aware, the nation’s economy has languished in dark depression for some time now. What can be done? Trillion-dollar Keynsian stimulus packages? A moratorium on government expansion, along with tax relief for the productive? Opinions vary. Branding consultant Richard Smith thinks he may have the answer: redesign the dollar. Here.
September 18, 2010 – 1:02 pm
Making the rounds yesterday was a video clip of some of the most astonishing flying I’ve ever seen. I didn’t even know things like this were possible. The accompanying email offered the following information: This is all real and there is no trick photography. Not only is the airplane unbelievable but the pilot is also […]
September 16, 2010 – 11:32 pm
We’ve just had some very violent weather here in Brooklyn and other parts of Gotham. It all happened in the space of a few minutes, late this afternoon. It was like nothing I’ve ever seen. Many, many trees are down, cars smashed, etc., and I believe at least one person was killed. There are photographs […]
September 15, 2010 – 11:31 pm
Tea Party candidates made a strong showing in primary elections yesterday, and as a conservative sort myself I can’t say I was sorry to see it happen. The American people are roused to righteous anger, and by all indications, there are going to be an awful lot of wigs on the green come November. Of […]
September 14, 2010 – 10:43 am
Back in July we looked at the details of an onerous provision hidden deep inside the recent health-care bill. It was a little booby-trap requiring that businesses file 1099-MISC forms for all purchases over $600 — mandating an enormous compliance burden on small businesses, in an effort to bleed enough private-sector money into the public […]
September 13, 2010 – 11:19 pm
Some longer posts still being under construction, all I can offer tonight is a link or two from the Shameless Filler grab-bag. First, I’ll bet all of you who frittered away the Cold War years in our nation’s amusement arcades did so secure in the knowledge that Our Side must ultimately triumph, due to our […]
September 12, 2010 – 11:51 am
Thanks to Kevin Kim for pointing out an HTML problem with last night’s post: the WordPress engine didn’t like some empty ‘div’ tags I had sprinkled in to add space at the bottom, and had completely mangled the website. I had published the post, taken only the most cursory glance, switched off the computer, and […]
September 10, 2010 – 10:16 pm
An enduring, and endearing, marvel of our species is how hard we are willing to work to produce something truly ghastly. Example here.
September 10, 2010 – 9:38 pm
You may have heard about the recent rescue of the Magellan Star from pirates in the waters off Yemen. Here, if you’re interested, are the details, by way of Information Dissemination and our indefatigable sources.
September 9, 2010 – 10:39 pm
Tonight a cold front has moved through the Northeast, and suddenly it feels like fall outside, which is always just fine with me. If there’s one thing I detest (and longtime readers will know that’s something of a lowball estimate), it’s a hot September. But right now there’s a cool, crisp breeze coming through the […]
September 9, 2010 – 10:20 pm
With a hat-tip to reader JK, here’s my favorite campaign video of the season.
September 8, 2010 – 11:20 pm
It’s always rather a jolt getting back to Gotham after a long absence. Autumn is, as the old song reminds us, a fine time to be in New York, but I must say the adjustment was especially jarring this time around, and today the place seemed noisier, dirtier, and more chaotic than ever. Sirens wailed. […]
September 7, 2010 – 10:23 pm
We’re back from our August break, and after some catching-up, should be getting back to normal operations around here. (Gotham, I must say, seems a very crowded and messy place. I just can’t wait to ride the subway tomorrow morning; I’ve hardly even worn shoes for almost a month.) Speaking of shoes: some time ago […]
September 4, 2010 – 12:19 pm
Well, we made it. Having dropped four-and-a-half inches of rain into the lobster pot I left out on the deck, Earl, hurtling northeast into oblivion, is now watering the meadows and forests of the Canadian Maritimes. In its wake, the weather today in the Outer Cape is splendid: clear, dry, breezy and cool, and everyone […]
September 3, 2010 – 12:04 pm
The Outer Cape is battening the hatches in anticipation of Hurricane Earl, which will be passing by here later today. We’re already getting bands of heavy rain, and the wind is picking up. The tide will be high as Earl approaches, and the heavy seas are expected to do a lot of damage to the […]
August 30, 2010 – 12:29 pm
We are still “off the grid” on the Outer Cape, paying the least possible attention to events in the news, and switching on our electronic gadgets as infrequently as possible. (If Hurricane Earl pays us a visit this weekend, we likely won’t be switching them on at all.) It all comes to an end sometime […]