thoughts in and out of season
James Kalb There are a couple of interesting entries here and here at the Touchstone weblog about the importance of scientific “descent”—who is descended from whom by apprenticeship or similarly intimate professional connection. It turns out to be very important indeed. It appears, for example, that all significant chemists are professionally descended from a small number of … More ...
The logic of discrimination theory never quits. If there’s a group of people with problems, then the problems are caused by irrational and unjust social discrimination, and comprehensive forcible action is called for to root out and compensate for the discrimination. No other view of the situation is conceivable. A recent example: the British government’s … More ...
From the standpoint of the liberal public philosophy now generally accepted, the question of homosexuality has an obvious answer—treat it on a par with any configuration of sexual habit and impulse, as something people say they find rewarding and in any case are very reluctant to give up.
The opinion to the contrary that has … More ...
Because of the Internet, things I’ve written get picked up on occasion and republished one place or another. I never dreamed, though, that two early twentieth century political scientists, Raymond Garfield Gettel and William Archibald Dunning, would return from the dead—in India, of all places—to include three of my pieces in a book of essential … More ...
“Inclusiveness” is a basic principle of present-day liberalism and its most important engine of power. It searches the whole of social life to extirpate everything inconsistent with the absolute universal domination of liberal institutions.
Social institutions exist through differentiation, the assignment of power, position and authority among persons. Inclusiveness insists on the eradication of differentiations … More ...
Speaking of cynical propaganda, has anyone noticed how bizarre and effective the BP logo is? When you go by one of their gas stations you really are convinced that what they do is Green, Solar, Euro, and in fact Beyond Petroleum—totally different from what those gross American gas companies do. What does it mean that … More ...
Here’s a rather frightening article on Stalin at the movies. One interesting detail is that Soviet agents may well have been told to assassinate John Wayne. Another is that cynical propagandists end up believing what they see on the screen, just like other people. When Stalin saw a movie about an admiral of Catherine … More ...
The Washington Post deserves credit for publishing this article. The article reveals that researchers all say it’s extremely unlikely that stem cells will ever do anything for Alzheimer’s—they just don’t say it very loudly. It’s worth keeping stories like this in mind. People want to be able to trust experts. They resist thinking of … More ...
Brigitte Bardot and her publisher have been fined 5,000 Euros each for being on the wrong side of current social issues. The immediate basis of the fines was publication of a book some people found objectionable on acccount of its comments on immigrants, in-your-face homosexuals, and whatnot. Judging by excerpts, the book was no less … More ...
When assigning responsibility for the misconduct at Abu Ghraib prison it’s odd to have to choose between Lynndie England and Donald Rumsfeld. I thought the normal thing when something goes very wrong in a military unit was to hold the officer in charge responsible. In this case that would be Janis Karpinski, who was in … More ...