Other

I’m usually too unsocial to participate in blogging memes, but the idea of listing the ten books I’ve been most influenced by caught my attention. In a carping world we should express gratitude now and then, and if you want people to read your stuff it seems civil to offer a little background on where … More ...

I got a note from an editor of Contemporary Authors, a reference work that lists 130,000 people who managed to get something published. They want to include me. Among other things the note asked some questions that were supposed to add up to a statement about why, how, and what I write. Here’s my … More ...

At the ISI Conference I spoke at in November a student asked me whether reliance on tradition will continue to make sense if genetic engineering makes human nature more malleable.

My reply was that at this point the potential of genetic engineering is probably overstated. No doubt it will be possible to fix specific defects, … More ...

My book, The Tyranny of Liberalism: Understanding and Overcoming Administered Freedom, Inquisitorial Tolerance, and Equality by Command, is now available in paperback at Amazon. I suppose the hardcover version should be available soon as well. I’ve seen an advance copy of the Booklist review, and it’s very positive and even gives the … More ...

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I thought I’d mention this, even though it’s irrelevant to this weblog, because you gotta know about it: in Utah 15 years ago they detected a cosmic ray—a fast-moving proton—that hit the earth or rather upper atmosphere with a kinetic energy equal to that of a well-thrown baseball. To pack that kind of wallop … More ...

We dropped by a market this evening to pick up some milk, and my wife noticed a blurb on boxes of Diet Coke:

Who knew soft drinks could be hydrating?

Who knew that “hydration” was supposed to be so special? Or that “self-involved airhead” is now a major market demographic?

My publisher tells me they want my book to be a bit more coherent and a little less vague, so I’m busily unscrambling arguments, tightening up prose, and adding examples and such. As a result, posting is likely to be sporadic for a while.

In the meantime, I was inspired by Michael Blowhard’s link to … More ...

Worth a look:

• John Ray’s got a good review, with links and instances, of the hatred that dares not (or at least does not) speak its name, leftist hatred. Diogenes continues the theme with a discussion of the Edwards bloggers. The analysis isn’t perfect, but as usual he does say some useful things. To